Dear parents/carers
I am writing with an update of key activities with which students in Year 12 will soon be engaged.
Work Experience
Year 12 students attended a special assembly on Friday 13th January, in which they learned about the value of work experience and the government directive introduced from September 2022 that all students undertake meaningful work experience during their Post-16 education. You can ask them to show you the assembly slides, as they were posted for students in the Attenborough College Google Classroom that day.
To accommodate this requirement, our Year 12 students will end their timetabled lessons on Friday 7th July, so that they can complete their week of work experience from either Monday 10th July or Monday 17th July. They have plenty of time to secure a work experience placement but you can help them by asking them questions about their intentions for the future and assisting them with matching their work experience placement with those intentions, in order to make the work experience meaningful.
If you have any questions about work experience, please contact either/or:
- Mr Mike Williams: michael.williams@leighacademy.org.uk
- Mrs Kim Mace-Baker: kim.mace-baker@leighacademy.org.uk
Futures Programme
As another part of supporting Year 12 students with decision making about their futures, we operate a programme throughout Module 5 assemblies and tutor times to explain all four possible destinations for students at the end of Year 13 (gap year, employment, apprenticeship or university). We will invite parents and carers to attend an evening Post-18 Options Parents Briefing from 6.00pm till 7.30pm on Thursday 25th May, so that you, too, can hear what we have shared with your children and ask any questions you have. As a parent or carer, it can feel daunting to help our children with such important decision making, so we hope that as many of you as possible will want to join us that evening, so that you feel knowledgeable about all the options now available to 18 year old school leavers.
In Module 6, students will use tutor time to explore their preferred option for the end of Year 13, so that they can attend university open days in the summer, write their personal statements and be ready to apply for their chosen options from September onward. To support this, we will be taking all Year 12 students on a trip to the campus of The University of Kent to visit a futures fair, where students will be able to engage directly with hundreds of employers, apprenticeship providers and universities. The trip will be free and will take place on Wednesday 26th April. Mrs Ramic will send a letter to you nearer the time, with a consent form for you to complete.
Punctuality Drive
We aim to ensure that every student who completes their Post-16 education with us is ready for the adult world, which is why we hold them to account against our PARADE Standards (Punctuality, Attendance, Role-modelling, Attitude to Learning, Dress Code and Equality).
Unfortunately, some Attenborough students fell into a pattern of arriving late to the academy in Module 1, so we introduced a trial system in Module 2 to more closely monitor punctuality and issue warnings to students when a pattern of lateness began to emerge. As this trial was so successful, we have made this system part of our everyday practice from this module. The system works as follows:
- When a student arrives late (after the start of tutor time at 8.30am if they have a 9.00am lesson or after the start of period 3 at 11.30am if they do not have lessons beforehand) 3 times in a module, I send them a warning email and ask them to correct their lateness
- If a student is then late a 4th time in the same module, I send them a second warning email but copy parents in to remind them of the consequence for being late a 5th time
- If a student is then late a 5th time in the same module, I send an email to the student and their parents to inform them that we have added a compulsory 2-hour Directed Study session to their timetable, requiring them to work in the Attenborough Study Room and register with Miss Maxwell
This system is designed to remind students of employer expectations when they enter the world of work, as no employer would allow continued lateness to carry on without a sanction being imposed. So far, the system has been very effective in helping students to recognise patterns of lateness into which they have fallen and most students take corrective action to prevent any change in their timetable. Student lateness is reset to zero at the end of each module and, if students do not flag up on the punctuality tracker by the end of the next module, the Directed Study sessions will be removed at the end of that module.
If you have any questions about this system, please contact the Coordinator of Post-16 for Year 12, Mrs Ermina Ramic: ermina.ramic@leighacademy.org.uk
As always, we are grateful for all the support you provide to ensure our students continue to perform with the excellence we expect. If you ever need to, please contact me by email or by phone: lee.forcellaburton@leighacademy.org.uk & 01322-620521.
Mr Lee Forcella-Burton
Director of Post-16, leading Attenborough College
