And it´s certainly arrived at Hampton Academy. Maybe it´s the unusually seasonal weather, but we seem to have thrown ourselves into the festive season with particular enthusiasm this year. Our first ever Christmas Fair on Wednesday was a triumph; in keeping with the philosophy of our Academy it was instigated by students, run by students and well supported by students. Also in keeping was the response of staff who gave generously of both their time and their money to ensure that the occasion was a big success. It was great to welcome so many past and present parents, younger and older siblings and family and community members of all ages.Being Hampton Academy, there was of course an extra dimension provided by our Arts & Performance Team, who rose to the occasion in the form of dancing elves, Christmas carols played on the steel pans and Mr. Logue´s guitar, and some beautiful Christmas cards and pomanders made by Mrs. Tarry and Ms. Graham and their base group tutees. ‘Santa Beal´ in his purpose built grotto was a big hit with the nursery children and his little helpers met and greeted guests with true Christmas spirit.
Especial thanks go to Charlotte Butterell, who first wrote to me back in November to ask permission to hold a ‘mini´ (it turned out to be anything but!) Christmas Fair, the Year 10 Enterprise & Employability Group who did much of the organisation, and Mrs. Hollands, who brought the whole event to fruition. We have raised well over £600 for the Shooting Star Hospice. In a week where, regrettably, I have had to exclude one student for anti-social behaviour, it has been heartening to have this countered by so many acts of good citizenship by hundreds of others.
Please read also the news features on our Christmas card competition and our year 8 and 9 Drama Club Christmas Storytelling performance. This was highly enjoyable and made more so by the knowledge that the students had devised and rehearsed their playlets entirely in their own time after school.
Year 11 and to a lesser extent Year 10 have a different focus as the term draws to an end, which is of course their mock exams. We have now set the exam targets for the Class of 2012 with our sponsor company the LST and our new School Improvement Partner Nick Williams, Head of the Brit School in Croydon, and year 10 have been set the ambitious but attainable goal of 61% gaining 5 A*-C grades including English and maths.
Parents may have read in the press about the government´s new proposed target of the ‘English Baccalaureate´ comprising an A*- C GCSE pass in each of English, maths, dual science, a modern foreign language and either history or geography. Older readers may feel this sounds remarkably like the School Certificate which my parents took in the 1940s! First signs are that nationally the figure will be between 15-20% as of course schools had not been advised that this would be a performance indicator and therefore have not guided their students towards achieving it. Here at Hampton Academy we will be better placed than some thanks to the continued popularity of history and geography at GCSE and the fact that about half of our students already choose to take a modern language. Parents of students in years 7 to 9 will be watching with interest how the colleges and universities choose to make use of this new performance measure when offering places, and we will ensure that our Year 9 students are carefully advised on this matter during this year´s option choices process.
As the first term of our new academy draws to a close I have been reflecting on what the changes we have brought in, and on what has improved and what needs to improve. We have never been a complacent institution and there are always areas for development. Next term we will be conducting a full scale evaluation of our progress so far to which parents, students and staff will be asked to contribute. In the meantime I thank those parents who have already contacted us with feedback, both positive and negative, to help up improve our performance. Our text messaging service has been very well received, the students like the new dress code better than the old uniform, and the three college structure and the personal tutorial have elicited lots of favourable comments. Conversely we know that the layout of the logbook needs to improve, that the learning portal needs to be more accessible for many students and our marking and assessment systems for Year 7 need further clarification. We will be working on these next term.
The term ends for students at 1.15pm on Tuesday 21st December. Before then I hope to welcome many of you to our Christmas Celebration on Wednesday evening at 7pm, with refreshments to follow. This is always a lovely occasion with a strong emphasis on the spiritual meaning of Christmas. Do come and share it with your children and their teachers.
Sue Demont
