Newsletter May 2007

This issue

Welcome to the May 2007 edition of Saint Paul's Academy's newsletter!

In this issue:

• Building programme
• Success leads to space problem
• Welcoming visitors
• Impressive progress
• Widening the curriculum
• Free online Health Management programme
• Parents and carers positive feed back
• Important dates
• Gaelic football
• Sport
  

Dear Parents and Guardians

“This term has been a very busy one as far as sport is concerned, with many students enjoying the excitement of taking part and winning matches. Well done to you all.”

Patrick Winston, Principal

Building programme

As I write this newsletter, I have unfortunately no news to give you about the building programme but I wish to assure you that we are putting constant pressure on the DfES, reiterating the problems that we face on a daily basis on our current site and emphasising our urgent need for a new building. We will keep you informed of any progress.

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Success leads to space problem

As always this has been an extremely busy half term. Although we have only been in school for five weeks, many activities have taken place including, of course, public examinations. This year the GCSE examinations have started much earlier than usual with the first RS exam being on the 17th May. This examination involved not only the vast majority of Year 11 but also 60 students in Year 10 and obviously, although I am delighted that students are now being entered for examinations when they are ready rather simply entering everyone for everything at the end of Year 11, this has once again made us realise how cramped and inadequate our accommodation is. The majority of written GCSE papers will take place at Charlton Athletic but this is a costly inconvenience. We also face the added problem of those students who are entitled to additional time or support in examinations. There is nowhere in school where we can guarantee a sustained period of quiet and therefore this year these students will sit their examinations in Saint Benet's Church Hall.

We have faced the same situation with the Key Stage 3 SATs, which as you will now be well aware, have been taken by some students in Year 9 and some in Year 8. Again this is a situation which reflects the Academy's philosophy very clearly but again, it is a situation which shows how our existing buildings hinder learning; in order to adhere to the examination guidelines for SATs we had to ask students taking examinations to either come in late or leave early. This is very far from ideal as it goes against our commitment to having our facilities available to students before and after school but the circumstances have left us no choice.

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Welcoming visitors

However, in spite of these difficulties, Saint Paul's Academy remains an extremely positive institution, a fact that is commented upon by many visitors. As always we have welcomed different groups of people to our school this half term including Pricewaterhouse Coopers who are in their third and final year of evaluating the Academies programme nationwide. The team spent a day talking to staff, students and members of the wider community, and as in the past two years, they felt very welcome at Saint Paul's and commented on the generosity of time and spirit that is so evident in all members of the community.

We were also pleased to welcome Susan Bowles HMI, who was reviewing the government's Teach First programme. Teachers who come to us through this scheme undertake their initial teacher training with us and we see this as a very important aspect of school life; many inner city schools find it impossible to recruit high quality teachers but we have avoided this situation because of our commitment to teacher training. Many trainee teachers who undertake a teaching practice with us, stay with us for their first teaching post and this collaboration with the Initial Teacher Training providers is one which we are determined to continue.

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Impressive progress

As part of the Academies project we continue to have visits from consultants from the Specialist Schools and Academies' Trust and from the DfES who monitor the progress we are making as a new school. Without exception, these consultants continue to be extremely impressed by the progress we are making as an institution in spite of the physical restrictions of the building.

One particular development which has been seen as adding diversity and a more flexible approach to education is the introduction of a second pathway, Pathway B to the Year 8 option choices. Pathway A is the traditional GCSE route at Key Stage 4 while Pathway B offers a more vocational route to Key Stage 5 (Post - 16) via BTEC qualifications. BTEC courses are available at three levels making it an option for students of all abilities and the courses we will be offering next year are Travel and Tourism, Sport and Leisure and Art and Design. We see this as a very exciting venture which will help us to provide each student with a curriculum suited to their individual needs.

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Widening the curriculum

Another feature of the Academy which is often commented on, is commitment to enrichment whether it be through after school activities, day trips or residential visits. During the Easter holiday, a very successful ski trip to Italy took place and at half term we have a Gaelic Football Tour to Ireland. Our Enrichment Days, when the timetable is suspended to allow students to take part in a range of different activities, are proving to be extremely popular and the only problem which faces us is that there is such a wide range of activities on offer in our area!

These opportunities include art days, theatre trips, environmental and conservation days, activities which promote health issues and life skills such as financial management and education in human relationships. Because of the nature of Enrichment Days, all activities are delivered by experts and our students are able to work in other venues and with other adults and accompanied by their teachers.

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Free online Health Management programme

On the subject of health, I am delighted to be able to offer all parents and carers free membership to Online Personal Health Management System (OPHMS) run by a company called Revitalised. This is a unique, confidential online tool that offers you a number of benefits including: a personal training programme to improve all aspects of your fitness; a weight management programme which is personalised to your goals; a ten minute wellness plan which is updated monthly and general information and support from the Advice Centre. In order to take advantage of this offer all you have to do is email enquiries@revitalised.co.uk; in your email simply state your full name and the school's name and your free membership will be arranged.

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Parents and carers positive feed back

The views of parents and carers are obviously very important to us and I have been delighted with the feed back we have had from recent Consultative Evenings. At the end of last year, we started asking parents and carers for written comments on these events so that we can improve them if at all possible. In general what you have had to say has been extremely positive with many of you remarking on the how well staff know your sons and daughters and on the very good relationships which exist within the school. The most frequent negative comment is about the congestion in the hall on Consultative Evenings and although this obviously goes back to the issue of space, we are looking at different ways of easing this problem. Your views also provide us with valuable evidence for our Self Evaluation Form which is the document we present to inspectors, in particular Ofsted, to enable them to form initial judgements about the school.

Since Ofsted no longer run parents' evenings during an inspection, collecting the views of stakeholders is now the school's responsibility and during the next Academic year we hope to ask your opinions on other aspects of the school through a questionnaire which will be posted to you. I look forward to your responses.

Finally, I would like to wish all our Year 11 students every success in the future; we celebrated the end of their five years at Saint Paul's with a Leavers' Service, at which they remembered the highlights of their school careers, and with our traditional Leavers' Banquet. This year there were over eighty students in attendance and nearly as many members of staff. Once again, we were made very welcome at Charlton and it was lovely to see the huge effort our young people had made to dress so well for the occasion and the the way they were able to mix so confidently and maturely with adults. I am sure their examination results will do them justice and we look forward to hearing of their future successes.

I wish you all a restful half term.

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Important dates

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Gaelic football

Our Gaelic Football links with Dulwich Harps continue to flourish. Many students from Years 7 – 9 have been involved in training sessions and taking part in fixtures. During the half term break, a party of 21 students will travel to Ireland for a seven-day tour. They will play fixtures in Armagh, Cavan, Fermanagh and Roscommon. The party will also attend the Ulster Championship fixture between Armagh and Donegal in Ballybofey. This fixture is already a 25,000 ticket sell out.

The complete set of results to date is:

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Sport

As usual, this has been a very busy term as far as sport is concerned. At the moment we are looking forward to the start of the athletics season and hopefully, like last year, some of our students will represent London in the Youth Games and County Championships. The basketball season got of to a great start with all year groups competing in the Greenwich League. We have been able to use Plumstead Sports Centre as a home venue and this has been a fantastic bonus. The season will continue into July and club days are Monday, Tuesday and Friday.

Rounders has always been played at Saint Paul's but this year we are taking things a little bit further as, under the guidance of Miss Branagan, students are being prepared for borough fixtures. Training is on Friday and everyone is welcome whether they want to compete or just play for fun. Gaelic football continues to go from strength to strength with training being from 9:30 to 11:15 every Saturday on Winns Common and again all are welcome.

Since sport became one of the Academy's specialisms, we have put a great deal of energy into creating and maintaining partnerships with external agencies. Mr Bradley in particular has worked with the wider community to share our expertise, for example in local primary schools, and to use that of others. We now have links with organisations which include The Globe Rowing Club, The Dartford Judo Club, The Greenwich Dance Agency and The Cambridge Harriers all of which provide great opportunities for our students. We also have two very good gymnasts in Year 7 who have been invited to the National Sports Arena in Crystal Palace in order to take part in the trials for diving. Although this may sound strange, there are in fact many transferable skills between the two and we look forward to hearing of future successes in this discipline.

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