NEWSLETTER
SUMMER
Week 2
Welcome to your new school newsletter!
We're excited to introduce a new and improved design for our newsletter. With intuitive buttons, you can effortlessly navigate to your desired sections. We've also made sure to include links to supporting content on our websites to take up less space. We’ve also introduced formatting across different sized screens —
no more straining or zooming in.
We’ll be continuing to celebrate achievements and share updates from each year group in our school community, from fantastic attendance records, to mastery of maths skills, and exciting farmyard visits to mini-marathon races.
We hope you enjoy the read!
Dates for your diary
Take note of these upcoming events and visit the parent's calendar to see an overview for the term...
Remember:
- Year 1 - Year 6 Parents' Evening - Tuesday 30th April, 3-7pm
- Year 5 Isle of Wight residential - Wednesday 1st -3rd May
- Year 4 PGL residential - Tuesday 7th - 8th May
- Year 6 trip to Gurdwara - Tuesday 21st May
- Year 6 SATs, GCSEs, A-levels - Week commencing 13th May
- Year 6 'Let's Talk About Consent' - Monday 20th May, 3:30pm
- Nursery celebration event - 24th May, 10:45am or 2:45pm
Whole school spotlight on...
Attendance!
We have been so pleased with our students and families attendance effort throughout the term. Last week, we exceeded the goal of 96% attendance, reaching 98% in secondary. We believe attendance is so important for every child, and that every moment in school matters when pursuing a life of choice and opportunity. Let's keep it up!
Don't forget, for every class that achieves 100% attendance each week, there are exciting rewards to be won.
Jerome Barlow
Deputy Designated Safeguarding
and Attendance Lead
P.E spotlight on...
The mini-marathon!
We had an amazing day in central London on Saturday 20th April for the 2024 TCS-Mini-London marathon. We were thrilled to see 45 of our students, from across all year groups, take part in this amazing event and all of them displayed the Reach values throughout to complete their challenging races. Students started at the Horse Guards Parade, ran past Buckingham Palace and finished along The Mall to collect their medals.
We had the best day celebrating and cheering on our amazing athletes.
We can’t wait for next year!
Primary
Early Years - Key Stage 2
Primary spotlight on...
Reach's Got Talent!
It is that very exciting time of year for Reach’s Got Talent! We are so delighted to provide the opportunity for children from Year 1 to Year 6 to showcase their amazing musical talents and audition for Reach’s Got Talent!
We are asking children to prepare a 90 second performance. They can either sing or play a musical instrument, or do both and they can do a solo performance, or perform in a group.
The deadline for your child to sign up with their class teacher is Friday 3rd May.
The auditions will be held on 14th, 15th & 16th May.
If your child requires a backing track for their performance, please send me the link via email (jessica.laing@reachacademy.org.uk) by 10th May detailing:
- Your child’s name
- Your child’s year group
- The song and artist
This is to ensure we play the track in the audition that your child has been practising with at home.
We are so excited to see all of the amazing talent Reach has to offer!
Many thanks,
Jessica
Nursery
The Nursery topic this term is 'Growing'. We will learn how people, plants and animals grow! A mobile farm visit from ‘Farms2Ewe’ last week helped us understand more about farm animals. We had a chance to see, touch and learn first hand about animals such as ponies, goats, sheep, lambs, mice, guinea pigs, ducks and cows. We loved watching the lambs frolicking and hearing the guinea pigs squeaking! We were able to use our gentle hands when stroking the animals and quiet voices to ensure we didn’t startle the animals. We were very brave when we let the ducks feed off our hands!
Reminder: Please bring in a photo of your child as a baby to support our conversations about growing.
.jpg?width=313&height=500&name=Nursery%20Farm%20visit%20(1).jpg "Nursery Farm visit (1)")
.jpg?width=313&height=500&name=Nursery%20Farm%20(1).jpg "Nursery Farm (1)")
Reception
Habitats
This half term our topic is Habitats.
We have been learning that a Habitat is a place where animals and plants live. We have really enjoyed exploring which animals and plants are suited to different habitats and why these habitats are needed. The children have shared with each other their favourite animal and have drawn their favourite animal and the habitat that they live in.
.jpg?width=667&height=500&name=Reception%20Habitats%20(1).jpg "Reception Habitats (1)")
Literacy
In Literacy, we have been learning the story of The Gruffalo. During busy learning the children have extended their learning by acting out the story of The Gruffalo in the tuff tray. The children drew pictures of the Gruffalo and challenged themselves to describe the Gruffalo's appearance.
-1.jpg?width=380&height=506&name=Reception%20Literacy%20(1)-1.jpg "Reception Literacy (1)-1")
Maths
In Maths, we have been learning how to combine two quantities together to find the total. We have been using our 'part whole' model to work out the total amount. We have also been able to recognise which part has more and which part has less.
Practise at home: The children can show you their new learning by using objects around the home and adding the two quantities together to find the total.
A recommended read for Reception!
Five Minutes' Peace by Jill Murphy
A family picture book favourite, this is the story of Mrs Large the elephant - who just needs five minutes of peace and quiet in the midst of parenting her energetic children.
Year 1
Writing
This half-term we have been looking at the narrative Jabuti The Tortoise. Jabuti is a charming character with a passion for playing the flute. Students have been writing their own versions of the story. This week our grammar focus has been on expanded noun phrases which need two adjectives with a comma describing a noun. Pupils have been great at including these in their writing! At home you can ask your children to describe their toys using an expanded noun phrase.
Computing
In computing this week we have been looking at digital footprints. Pupils created their own digital footprints to represent what online websites they regularly visit.
Safety online: Just as a reminder pupils should be supervised when on apps like Youtube or a child lock can be added to ensure your child is only viewing age appropriate content.
Poetry
We are so proud of the Year 3 pupils because at the end of last term, they won the first ever Reach Academy poetry slam with the poem ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ by Roald Dahl! They won due to their use of prosody, facial expressions and storytelling and their ability to bring the poem to life. Please congratulate them on all of their hard work that resulted in an incredible performance!
Maths
This term in maths, we are learning all about angles and shapes. The children will be learning about acute angles, obtuse angles and right angles.
Practise at home: Please test them at home and show them some different shapes and ask them to identify the types of angles in that shape.
Biology
In science this term, the children are studying biology and the topic of plants. They have already learnt the key parts of a plant and what a plant needs to survive. They had fun planting their own cress seeds last lesson and will be testing different variables in future lessons to see how they affect a plant’s growth.
Sketch Maps
At the end of last term, instead of our usual essay writing morning, the children instead learnt how to draw a sketch map. We went into Reach Academy car park and drew a sketch map of the high street. The children learnt how to use a key and draw a compass on their maps. Please see some examples of their final sketch maps below.
Maths
The children have started a unit on money. We began by exploring the different value of coins in pennies, before looking at the value of different coins and notes in pounds (£). The children have learnt that £1 is equivalent to 100 pennies. The children have then applied this learning to create different values with a mixture of coins and notes, a really useful life skill!
Writing
Children have started writing their own narratives again based around the story ‘The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark’ by Jill Tomlinson. The story is about a young barn owl called Plop, who is frightened of the dark. Initially, he is nervous about the night but eventually learns something new about the dark: dark is exciting, dark is kind, dark is fun, dark is necessary, dark is fascinating, dark is wonderful and dark is beautiful. Plop is gradually persuaded that the dark has its advantages. The children are focusing particularly on using coordinating and subordinating conjunctions as well as onomatopoeias!
Science
In Science, the children began their unit on human lifestyles. We learnt that different parts of our bodies perform different roles. For example, our skeleton gives our body its shape and protects our organs.
Music
Our final unit is all about the musical genre of Country and Western. The children began to understand that this genre orginated in Nashville, Tennessee (USA) almost 100 years ago. They were also shocked to realise that artists still make Country music right now! The song that they will be learning this term is called ‘Be a Light’ by Thomas Rhett. ‘Be a Light’ is all about being kind and helpful to others. In the song, he sings about being there for people when they're feeling sad or lonely. He wants everyone to be a light in the darkness, shining bright and bringing warmth and happiness to others. Here is the first part of the song, please encourage your child to learn the song!
History
We have kick started our new unit all about Ancient Egyptians. Last week children learned how we know about Ancient Egyptians and what early Egyptian civilisation was like. Children were stunned to understand that all those years ago, Ancient Egyptians used one of the earliest writing systems called hieroglyphics, which comes from the Greek word meaning ‘sacred carving’.
Practise at home: Can you have a go at writing a full sentence in hieroglyphics together?
Year 4
Year 4 has had such a wonderful start to the term. To kick things off, we have been having so much fun placing Scully the Skeleton in lots of different places for the children to discover and explore as part of our Human Anatomy Unit in Biology this term. The children are so excited to be learning all about the main organs of our body and how our body functions and moves.
Additionally, the children have begun to bring in their independent projects for their team reach badge. This project is where the children try something new or fun, which involves creating or making something at home. Take a look at some of the amazing projects from 4 Birch below. A reminder that the independent projects are due by Friday 26th April.
Hridaan did an amazing independent project based on his science knowledge!
Toby created armour out of the scrap paper in our class recycling it into something reusable!
We are also so proud with how many of our swimmers have moved up to more difficult groups within the first term of swimming. They are super excited about another term of swimming and improving their skills!
Year 5
Isle of Wight residential!
In Year 5 we are really looking forward to going to the Isle of Wight for our residential! We will be travelling by coach and ferry on Wednesday and return on Friday.
Whilst we are there, we are going to be able to take part in lots of activities and sports and really get to enjoy some time outside in our teams. We will be in touch throughout the residential to send you all updates on the fun activities we are having.
Make sure you have all of the packing list ready to go first thing on Monday morning. You can find the packing list and information about the residential on Google Classroom.
Year 6
Sikhism
Excitingly, the children are learning about Sikhism this term. The religion began in an area of north India known as Punjab and was founded by Guru Nanak Dev. Why not ask your child what ‘Guru’ means? Ask your child if they can talk about the main events in Guru Nanak’s life. Here are some examples of the excellent work from year 6 so far...
Saturday revision sessions
There are 3 upcoming revision sessions which will be taking place at Reach Academy from 9am - 1pm on:
- Saturday 27th April
- Saturday 4th May
- Saturday 11th May
These sessions will be a valuable opportunity to do some last-minute revision to help your child achieve their full potential in the KS2 SATs. They are welcome to join one, two or all three of the sessions. On the morning of each session, please drop your child off at 8.55am at the Front Office where we will meet them. Ensure that your child has eaten breakfast, and please pack a snack and a water bottle for them as lunch will not be provided.
Upcoming dates
- Thursday 25th April: parents’ evening 3:00pm - 7:00pm
- Tuesday 30th April: parents’ evening 3pm - 7pm
- Monday 13th May - Thursday 16th May: KS2 SATs examinations week
- Y6 Parent Workshop: Let's talk about consent and relationships- Monday 20th May 3:30pm - 4:00pm
Secondary
Key stage 3 & 4
Year 7
Welcome back!
We would like to welcome back Year 7. We sincerely hope they have all had a well rested holiday and that our students are ready and eager to return to school this week. We just want to recognise the incredible #strongstart they have shown and have shown such high levels of individual achievement with independent learning.
Key dates
May Bank Holiday: Monday 6th May
Half Term: Monday 27th May - Friday 31st May
Y7 Assessment weeks: Monday 24th June - Friday 5th July
Y7 Residential: 15th-18th July - Hill End Oxfordshire
A recommended read for Year 7!
The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman
The Book of Dust is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman, which expands his trilogy His Dark Materials. The books further chronicle the adventures of Lyra Belacqua and her battle against the theocratic organisation known as the Magisterium, and shed more light on the mysterious substance called Dust
Shout outs!
- Chloe V- SO to Tyne again for such a brilliant lesson!! They are doing so amazing HOTR to Royce, Aaliyah and Max for amazing endeavour and bringing such a lovely culture of error encouraging others!
- Izzy- SO to team Don for their behaviour during an interview lesson. Particularly Ayaan, Waqas, Tasneem, Charlie, Zak for endeavour, and CD for show courage and perseverance
- Jonny- Exceptional week from Team Tyne in Maths: only dipped below 5 on the Reach Score once, 100% HWK hand-in and so many students showing top endeavour: George, Amir, Amelia, Amima, Royce etc.
- Tom P- Tyne were delightful today. Fantastic work from everyone with some great endeavour, especially from Amima, Hajerah, Royce, Jayden, George, and Amir
- Kit- SO to Team Don for some fantastic final Scratch projects- cannot wait to mark them! Extra SOs to Ayaan, Waqas, Kenzie, Qayam, Amelia B, and Tyerell whose projects looked great!
Excellent Endeavour
Congratulations to Hanan for having such a strong start to Cycle 3, producing some high level work in English.
Hanan embodies the values of Reach everyday. He is respected as a very hardworking student not just by his peers but by teachers also.
Well done Hanan!
Year 8
Year 8 has had an excellent start to Cycle 3! It has been great to see students focused and aspiring during lessons as well as engaging in joyful interactions with many members of staff across the school. Please read all of the lovely shout outs across Team Leam and Team Thames below.
Key Dates:
May Bank Holiday: Monday 6th May
Half Term: Monday 27th May - Friday 31st May
Y8 Assessment weeks: Monday 24th June - Friday 5th July
Y8 Residential (Rockley Point - Poole Harbour): Monday 15th July - Wednesday 17th July.
Trip to London University - Thursday 18th July
Shout Outs!
- Anna.V: HUGE shoutout to Thames - lots of independent thinking and wanting to improve their work - really really well done!
- Lily.B: Thames were stunning P1 as well - consistently giving 100%, and SO to Xavier for an amazing linking between Romeo and Juliet and the non-fiction article about gangs we were reading - superstar English scholar!
- Lily.B: SO to Anvita - HOTR today for an excellent What How Why paragraph 🥳
- Phoebe: SO to Team Thames - an absolute joy to teach today. They were fantastic! Special SO to Brandon, Daisy Sue and Calleigh whose endeavour was superb.
- Chloe.V: SO to Leam for such a great lesson! They were really focused, it was a real joy to teach them today!
- Izzy: SO to Leam for a great first lesson on the new topic. HOTR to David for powering through the work and being reflective.
- Izzy: Also SO to Thames for their enthusiasm and kindness greeting me as I was setting up for their lesson after lunch, such delightful humans.
- Chloe.S:SO to Thames for a fab first lesson back - wonderful vocab recall.
- Izzy: SO to Thames for such an excellent history lesson this morning, very few reminders needed and everyone endeavouring ⭐️ HOTR to Caytlnn for huge effort.
- Shiv: SO to Esther, Tyler, Catlynn, Calleigh and Bertie for showing excellent endeavour in Maths today!
- Lilly- Big SO to Thames for a lovely RS lesson back after the break. As always a pleasure to teach and some really insightful questions! Special SO to Avneet, Hannah, Tyler and Lorenzo.
- Lilly. H - SO to Thames for a lovely Geography lesson learning about where people live. Great knowledge and interest about the what the world is like. Special SO to Patryk and Esther for amazing writing and Ananya, Brandon and Austus for great endeavour.
Excellent Endeavour!
Shout Out to the Top 3 Year 8 students on Languagenut - they have been working hard to learn vocabulary, phonics and grammar for both French & Spanish!
1st: 44500 points - Eliza
2nd: 39000 points - Elias
3rd: 32000 points - Patryk
Year 9
THANK YOU!
We just wanted to start this Cycle with a huge thank you to you all for being such supportive parents. There was a great turnout to our Year 9 Options Evening and it is a testament to how engaged you are - thank you!
As part of Options Evening we held the First Give final, which was an absolute joy! All of the presenters were so brave presenting in front of over 100 people! Huge congratulations to our winners... Team Cam! Enjoy the pictures below.
Shout outs
Year 9 have had a super positive start to term, here are some shout outs from their teachers:
- Chloe S - Spanish - Massive SO to Ribble for a reflective and purposeful first lesson back post Options evening! 🤩
- Navjot - Cam Science - SO to Cam for a fantastic science lesson today! They all worked so so hard, I'm so proud of them ♥️
- Fran G - Ribble Science - S/O to Annastacia for a super lesson on forces today - she was on fire 🔥
- Jonny - Ribble Maths - I think one of my all time top lessons with 9 Ribble today: so many of them on fire with increasingly tricky factorising of quadratics - Ruby, Elias, Abdulhakeem, Daniya and more 🔥🔥
- Chloe V - French - Massive SO to Team Cam, they have worked so hard this week during French lessons. In particular Calvin, Duriel, Malak, Praise and Max who have shown great knowledge and endeavour ! C'est génial !
- Phoebe - French - Massive SO to Team Ribble - just such an amazing group to teach. They were all working incredibly hard. Special SO to divine whose thinking really carefully already about how she can prepare for success starting her French GCSE course next year!
- Elly - Cam Team Reach - S/o to Cam who were sooooo great in their Team Reach lesson today on the topic of consent, Lexie who was HOTR showed thoughtful, mature responses as did Soraya, Sahursh and Moses
- Kit - Computer Science and Cam form tutor - SO to avid computer scientists Nicole, Otto, Omar, Sonia, Rutuja, and Serena who were thinking deeply about how to solve the problem of litter at our school! Bonus shoutout to Eshan who was the most GCSE ready- already coming up with solutions for our litter problem! ⭐️
- Ryme - English - HUGE SO TO YEAR 9! We are reading the play Othello at the moment (woooo!) and the kiddos are the characters. It is such a joy to read Othello with them. The children reading the characters are giving it so much effort and sass its hilarious! Special shout out to Praise (Brabantio), Otto (Brabantio/Montano), Kai (Iago) and Mohammed D (Iago) ❤️
Year 10
Welcome back to all the Y10s who are having a productive start to C3. Many of them are finishing their Business BTEC coursework and have completed a portion of their Sport BTEC coursework. Additionally a small number of pupils are sitting language speaking GCSEs in Polish, Spanish and French. The students are finally starting to see the fruit of their labour and we are proud of their efforts and conduct around school.
Year 11
Y11 had an amazing time on their Holyport residential. It is so clear to all staff how hard they are working, and we are really proud of them!
We are in countdown mode now as the first exam takes place on Wednesday 8th May (Business) followed by the first whole cohort exam on Friday 10th May (Biology). We have shared all of the lovely shout outs from the last week below, but we are really in the final stretch now and need to continue to focus on looking after bodies and minds, whilst trying to ensure we work as hard as possible! Please encourage your child to prioritise getting enough sleep, and to try to take some time away from screens (ideally outdoors) in the next few weeks.
.png?width=1380&height=200&name=Feltham%20College%20-%20Primary%20Logo%20(Positive).png "Feltham College - Primary Logo (Positive)")
Feltham College
This week we took 18 pupils, who had signed up to the Career Ready programme, to J P Morgan offices in London. The Career Ready programme gives pupils a chance to visit a number of companies in London as well as providing each pupil with a mentor in industry. The day started with some opening addresses from some key figures within J P Morgan about how the bank started and how it is now the world’s largest bank. Pupils then did a round table networking session with various people that work within the company before joining in with a quiz. After this the pupils were taken on a tour of the building, which included a trip to the luxury 31st floor where the bank host and meet a number of their clients. The final part of the day involved a Q&A panel with some more staff before a networking lunch.
It is days like these that give the pupils a real insight into the working world as well as showing them what is achievable post Y13. All of the pupils were a credit to themselves and interacted with the staff and each other in such a professional way. One of the staff at J P Morgan who is responsible for the interview process said how impressed she was with the pupils in the networking session and how great it was that they looked so professional when they arrived.
We are also super excited that Year 13 are in the process of choosing their firm and insurance universities as well as submitting applications to student finance. With the countdown to exams well underway, it is super exciting to know that Year 13 are heading on to great opportunities!
