Leadership

The aims of the 'Reading for Enjoyment' project are to give all students a greater love of reading for enjoyment and to raise attainment in English and across the curriculum for all students.

In order to implement this, the school has appointed two ‘reading leaders’ whose focus is to ensure 80% of students read for 30 minutes a day. Other strategies include beginning a termly fifteen book challenge, where students have to read books and then complete book reviews. The best are displayed on the ‘Wall of Fame’. Every half term the school has writers in residence visits, where students whose reading age levels are one to two years below their chronological age levels or who do not read regularly enough are targeted to participate.

The project has had a strong impact, with the majority of students progressing in their reading ages over the twelve months in Years 7 and 8. 

Science

The '8/9 Fish Program in Science' is a project where teachers at the start of an academic year identify students who should attain an 8/9 in their Science course. These students are then combined into one group. The aim of this project is that students are guided to reach the 8/9 material in their course especially with the difficulty of the exams increasing.

This is achieved through one after school session a week and some Saturday schools throughout the year. In these sessions students are guided to understand the exam terminology and write 8/9 answers. After each assessment point throughout the academic year these students are set targets and if these targets are met they get rewarded. This project has had a great impact on the number of students attaining an 8/9 in their science exams. It has increased by 7% in one year. 

Music

Once again, another very successful year for Music with the PTI as they have achieved our mark for the 4th year running. The Associate Department project with the PTI is improving musical literacy through use of music technology. The department have been working with the Essex Music Hub and have managed to arrange free VIP access to Charanga for all pupils in the Academy. This is an award winning website that provides the software required for students to create their own beats in a variety of musical styles including hip hop, house and grime. It has extended the students experience of music outside of the classroom and has allowed them to be independent composers using the support guides and videos available to extend upon musical ideas introduced in the lesson.

Music will have a grime workshop towards the latter part of the year and have been offered a launch pad with enough full Ableton software licenses for a suite of computers. They will be attending a workshop to upskill staff to develop into the curriculum, and they are also looking at working with the an exam board to pilot a trial project as the desired outcome is to be able to offer more opportunities for students to use technology in GCSE music.

Thus far, the students feedback has been outstanding. They love the opportunity to engage with the current styles of music offered in this software and create fantastic recordings daily.