Senior Leadership Team Update
This week many of our students attended the DRET Spring Cup on Tuesday and were excellent ambassadors for CRA in hockey and rugby - showing real CRA Resilience and Courage in their matches and achieving some great results! Year 8 Honey was a star in goal for hockey and even saving some penalties! Well done to all! Back in the academy, our Year 11 Drama students completed their live GCSE exam on Monday and showed CRA Confidence performing in front of their peers and most importantly, the examiner!
Science Department
In science we have some exciting news to share, we now have a DRET Secondary science SharePoint. This fantastic recourse is designed to be used to help students in preparation for science assessments and has already been shared with year 11 students who should be using this to help revise for GCSE exams.
Students who are in year 7 and year 8 also have pages dedicated to there next KPI assessment to allow them to maximise there potential. This breaks down exactly they will be assessed on, provides revision resources and links to Seneca assignments that have been set by the trust wide subject lead to prepare students right up until there assessment in June.
Please encourage all students to be checking this frequently as it is going to continue to grow and include other year groups over time.
Year 11 Focus
This year's first whole-cohort GCSE examination begins on 10th May, however for Travel and Tourism (3rd May) and Drama (9th May) students they begin slightly earlier as outlined. Students should be well underway with revision by now. Course content has been completed for most subjects and students are undertaking revision sessions in school. As we approach this critical time in your child's educational journey, I am writing to ask for your continued support with their studies by ensuring they are completing regular revision from home.
It can be difficult for students to keep motivated with their revision, please speak to them regularly about this and the importance of it in the build up to their exams. If you can create a quiet space for them to work where you can monitor them that would be really helpful for them. The students that revised consistently for their February mock exams made great jumps in progress which highlighted to them just how vital their preparation is. All students have received a copy of their GCSE exam timetable now.
Each week we will be sending out the following weeks timetable so that you can keep track of what is upcoming and what needs to be revised for.
Year 11 Leavers Hoodies
We are offering an opportunity for all year 11 students to purchase a leavers hoodie. Previous correspondence has been sent via MCAS. If your child would like one, please make payment of £20 through your MCAS app. Please note that the deadline for payment to be made is 3rd May 2024. Unfortunately, we ae unable to accept any orders after that date .
Why We Do What We Do
Accelerated Reader
Students who have a strong reading habit, reading at least a little and often, show improved achievement across all subjects at GCSE, in turn leading to greater potential earnings throughout life. Reading for pleasure has been associated not only with increases in reading attainment but also with writing ability, text comprehension, grammar, breadth of vocabulary, attitudes, self-confidence, general knowledge, a better understanding of other cultures, community participation, a greater insight into human nature and higher aptitude in decision-making.
We support our Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9 students to access this path of development by giving them curriculum time to read every day. This power of this opportunity can be amplified by parents and carers who encourage their child to also read at home, ensure that they have appropriate reading material and track their progress through books by discussing them. The Library is open every day at break and lunchtime for students to change their books.
CRA Character
At CRA we believe that the ultimate aim of education is to support students to flourish. Furthermore, that the flourishing of individuals is inseparable from the flourishing of our community. Flourishing is about much more than getting good grades. The CRA values represent the core of what students, staff and we hope parents believe make people and communities of good character They capture the sort of behaviours that will support students to:
- make wise decisions informed by a strong ethical foundation
- hold themselves to high standards, be reflective in their approaches to their work and to manage their emotions to maintain motivation when challenged
- be ready to play an active and positive role in a democratic society
The CRA values are at the foundation of everything we do. Like a stick of rock, wherever you look within our academy you should find the CRA values at the centre.
Word of the week.
Medi, midi: middle (Latin word root)
- Median situated in the middle, especially of the body.
- Meditate focus one's mind for a period of time, in silence or with the aid of chanting, for religious or spiritual purposes or as a method of relaxation.
- Medieval resembling or likened to the Middle Ages, especially in being cruel, uncivilized, or primitive.
Table talk
Often trying to engage our teenagers in a conversation can prove very difficult. They seem to have enthusiasm for all sorts of things like friends, on line games, phones and social media, and far less time for us as parents; and trying to get them to express their feelings can be impossible.
Part of Raising Resilience in teenagers is teaching them how to openly communicate and express their feelings. Having open conversations regularly helps teenagers learn that it’s normal and OK to talk about everything, including any and all feelings.
Try using these prompts to get the conversation started around the dinner table.
Conversation starters for teenagers about feelings and emotions
- How are you feeling right now?
- Has your mood changed throughout the day?
- What do you feel excited about?
- What’s one thing you feel grateful for?
- What’s a time you felt sad?
- How did you cope (or make yourself feel better)?
- What makes you feel better when you’re upset?
- What’s something that makes you feel nervous?
- How do you manage it? What are you scared of?
- How do you overcome that fear?
- Prompts to talk to your child about their day
- What was the best part of your day?
- What was the hardest part of your day?
- How did you navigate it?
- What are you looking forward to?
- What’s the funniest thing that happened today?
- What’s something that makes you laugh?
- What’s something that’s hard for you?
- How do you work through it?
- What’s one way you helped someone today?
- Who can you talk to when you need help?
- What are two things you’re good at?
- What’s one thing you’d like to work on?
- What’s something nice someone has done for you?
- What’s something nice you’ve done for someone else?
Times Tables
At the end of all lessons students stand behind their chairs in silence to prepare for themselves for the next lesson. From September, on a weekly rota, Years 7 and 8 will be reciting their timetables to help embed them in their long term memory.
Week commencing 29th April 2024 - 11
Accelerated Reading
Week commencing 29th April 2024 - Period 5
Attendance...
Attendance – Term 5, Week 2
Year 8 have achieved 1st place again with a top attendance score beating all the other year groups, well done Year 8, great effort. Year 9 are in 5th place as the lowest attending year group.
The girls have had another great week beating the boys to 1st place by a very respectable 3.5%.
Caeli have finished first with the highest overall attendance this week, beating Terra by 1.2%, well-done Caeli! Special mention for Caeli 10 who have achieved 96.6%, excellent effort.
Monday has seen our highest percentage of absence again this week. Missing just one day can have an impact on students learning experiences and outcomes.
Well done to the following students how have shown great resilience with their attendance:
If your child is absent from school, please ensure you contact school daily either by email/MCAS or by telephoning the attendance line 01476 550333 ext 502. It is vital we are notified everyday of any absence for safeguarding reasons, unless previously authorised. A reason for illness will always be requested, this is to observe attendance patterns and outbreaks of illness amongst students.
Please do not hesitate to contact myself kcoleman@charlesreadacademy.co.uk on 01476 550333 ext 515 or tsandison@charlesreadacademy.co.uk ext 502 to discuss ways to support your child's attendance.
CRA - Lets work together to make every day count!
Mrs Coleman - Attendance Manager
House News
CRA House Summer Games Underway
The CRA House Summer Games officially got underway this week with house teams going head-to-head in Handball. The first round of matches involved year 7s and year 8s with Aqua boys and Caeli girls coming out on top of their respective competitions. Year 9 and 10s take to the field this afternoon to complete their handball matches.
Throughout Term 5 and Term 6 students and staff will have the opportunity to take part in a series of 12 different sports, building up to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris this Summer.
Over 1250 house points and 200 gold medals will be available throughout the competition.
The next competition is Boccia, taking place next week.
House Photography RESULTS
Last terms house community competition was photography. Restricted to five photos per person, all students, staff and wider families were tasked to capture the theme ‘nature’.
The competition was really popular this year with over 80 entries received throughout the term and Easter holidays, including photos from as far and wide as Canada, Australia, Netherlands and Turkey.
Judging was extremely difficult due to the high standard of entries, and we could only select one winner. This year’s winner went to Lexi (Aqua 8) entries with her ‘Woodland Floor’ photo. Michelle Speck (Caeli), one of our parents finished runner up with her ‘ladybird’ photo and 3rd place was awarded to Miss Robinson (Terra) with her ‘Flooded Field’ photo.
Well done and thank you to everyone who entered. They were all fantastic!
Term 5 Competitions
In addition to the House Summer games there will also be a host of house competitions running as normal. House teams this terms will take each other on in Bottle Rockets, Now Music Quiz, the rescheduled Wii Sports and a throwback to one of our lockdown competition favourites; Recreating a famous painting! All of which offering a further 2,000+ house points.
The Sporting Post
Table Tennis News
Congratulations to Tudor who won the Ormsby U19 Junior 1* last weekend, this his third 1* win In recent times
Ella Pashley takes Silver medal at Table Tennis England Junior National Cup - Top 10 for Under 19s
Ella, seeded 6th for this competition, played some amazing table tennis and with 7 wins out of 9 managed to win a silver medal. To read more about the competition and to see the final results, click on the link below:
Green and Yu take top honours at Junior National Cup - Table Tennis England
Well done to Isaac, who competed in this competition and came 5th out of 10 competitors.
Prithvi Menon - Northampton Closed
Last weekend Prithvi played in the Northamptonshire Closed competition and had an extremely successful weekend winning the following events:
- U13, 15, 19 singles
- U13, 15, 19 doubles
- Band 1
Please can all students be collected from the BACK of the school when being picked up from after school clubs and fixtures.
Sports Kit
Please can any borrowed sports kit be returned as soon as possible. We have trainers, hoodies, netball dresses and football kit (shirts, shorts and socks) that have not been returned. This means that students are unable to also borrow these items for fixtures and limits teams when wanting to wear a full, matching kit.
Term Dates
Please see the latest term dates for 2022-23.
A list of diary events can also be found on the CRA Website by clicking here