1.DfE inspection visit
As a new academy, the DfE support our development through regular monitoring visits. Their visit this week confirmed that leaders at the academy are taking the right steps to improve outcomes at The Edge Academy.
They recognised the improvements we have made in Teaching & Learning and identified our safeguarding practice as good.
I am proud of the work of the staff in these improvements. Many parents say to me that they could never be a teacher but I assure you it is an incredibly rewarding job, even if at times it can be demanding and challenging! The students also did us proud and many articulated that they are pleased with the changes that are taking place.
We will continue to build on our improvements, particularly focusing around the recommendations that were made by the DfE that are our priorities within the Academy Improvement Plan.
- Pizza and Parents’ Evening November 15th
A reminder that a full letter went to all parents/ carers this week about our “Pizza and Parents’ Evening” which takes place on November 15th 4-6pm. This is online at:
It is important all parents/carers attend so that we can share the latest updates with you, the evening is for all year groups. We will be offering all families who attend free pizza from our professional chefs and as well as the normal meetings with staff, we will be running workshops on “How you can best support your child to achieve their potential at The Edge”.
3.Teaching and Learning
Improving the quality of our Teaching and Learning is our core purpose at The Edge and this week we dedicated every moment of our staff training time to staff development around classroom practice. Senior staff and our friend Amanda Thomas from REACH AP school in Kings Heath put on a series of practical workshops for staff- we can’t wait to put the ideas into practice and ensure that our lessons become more engaging still!
4. Friday Brunch Reward Event
This week saw another successful Friday Brunch reward event take place- responding to student voice, once more we allowed students to choose the food that was ordered. We awarded the usual variety of certificates and following feedback on last week’s event, will now be running an “Outstanding Performance in English” award every week! Well done Minister (pictured here) and Rebecca in Y10 who shared that award! Watch out for more subject-based awards coming soon!
5. Star of the Week
Well done to Essa in KS3 who won his third “Star of the Week” award of 2017/8 at this week’s Friday Brunch event. This means Essa now takes a clear lead at the top of the leaderboard for this academic year- a great achievement! Here he is pictured receiving his award from Mr. Price this week!
6. Attend to achieve
As well as the regular 100% attendance certificates and punctuality certificates we now give out at the Friday Brunch reward event, we are delighted to announce that we are currently in the middle of another “focus fortnight” on punctuality/100% attendance. All students in on time and with 100% attendance since the start of Half-Term 2 will be entered into two separate £50 JD Sports Voucher draws in Friday Brunch on November 10th. Students- make sure you “attend to achieve” and that you are all in on time to qualify for these draws!
We would also like to thank students for the improvements they have made in their punctuality over the past few weeks. This week saw the best punctuality we have had from students in 2017/8- keep up the good work all and keep improving!
7.Student voice
We take the voice of students seriously at The Edge and regularly complete student questionnaires and conduct meetings to listen to their feedback. The following changes have been introduced since March following student feedback:
- Lunch time activities
- More practical lessons
- Enrichment
- College visits
- Work placements
- Gender specific and unisex toilet availability
- School day timings
- Trips
- Rewards
- Menu changes
- Brunch changes
- End of Friday detentions (moved to other days to keep the end of the week positive)
The most recent feedback shows the impact of our work around our academy priorities:
- 100% of students value the push on rewards
- 75% enjoy lessons and feel they are making progress
- 92% of lessons begin with a starter activity
8.Training Day – school closure
Please note as previously advised that Monday 13th November is a training day and as such the academy will be closed to students. Training days are an important part of our improvement journey. This particular day will be delivered by external facilitators and focuses upon how we manage challenging behaviour. As many parents know, our students at times get into disputes at school and an important part of our behaviour management policy is the role of staff in de-escalating situations to avoid serious incidences. On very rare occasions it is necessary to restrain or use force if a student is going to injure themselves, other students/staff, or school property. This decision is never taken lightly but when this action is needed, we have strict guidelines to follow. This training day further supports our staff training on this important aspect.
9. Meet the staff: Donna Blythe
Donna is a member of the senior team and is responsible for English and Employability. This includes leading on work related learning. This aspect of our improvement journey is transforming the opportunities available to students and is fully preparing them for when they leave school.
10. Parent/Carer Communication
A further reminder that as well as handing letters, newsletters etc to students regarding academy news, we now put all letters on our website (www.theedgeacademy.co.uk) and text links to you each time this happens. We also post reminders on Twitter (address @edgenorthfield or go to website at www.twitter.com/edgenorthfield) and Facebook (address @edgeacademynorthfield or go to website at www.facebook.com/edgeacademynorthfield). Please follow/like our social media accounts as they provide exciting additional snapshots of academy life! Finally, we now also have a parent/carer electronic mailing list- if you have not already signed up for this, e-mail Vice Principal Andrew Wakefield at [email protected] and we will then e-mail all academy letters to you.