Dera Parent/Carer,
We have come to the end of this first and very busy term. I’d like to start this newsletter by thanking all parents for their support during the ongoing difficulties that schools are facing in these unprecedented times. I am so proud of how our students, staff and wider community have rallied around and shown resilience in such challenging circumstances. Please accept our good wishes and I hope that you can all have a restful and enjoyable festive season.
Testing in January
As confirmed in our letter last week, students will be tested once at our Asymptomatic Testing Site in school before they return. This means that we will be having a staggered start to the year. Please see the details below:
Tuesday 4th January
- Students in Years 10 and 11 will attend school for testing only
- Students in Years 7, 8 and 9 will complete online learning at home
Wednesday 5th January
- Students in Years 10 and 11 will attend school for normal lessons
- Students in Years 7, 8 and 9 will attend school for testing only
Thursday 6th January
- Students in all year groups will attend school for normal lessons
On the day that your child comes in to school for testing, they will return straight home after the test to continue with online learning, which will be set through Frog or Hegarty Maths. The time slots for students to attend for their covid test are:
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Tuesday 4th January
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Reg Group
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Time
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11EF
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09:30
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11GS
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09:45
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11HW
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10:00
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11LO
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10:15
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11JG
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10:30
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10RA
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10:45
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10SL
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11:00
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10DF
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11:15
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10SG
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11:30
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Wednesday 5th January
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|
Reg Group
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Time
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9AB
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08:30
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9CH
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08:45
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9DW
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09:00
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9EM
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09:15
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9PW
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09:30
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8AH
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09:45
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8EB
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10:00
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8TW
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10:15
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8CK
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10:30
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8KS
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10:45
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7JH
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11:00
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7AA
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11:15
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7GM
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11:30
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7NJ
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11:45
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7JD+7AC
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12:00
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Following their initial test at the test site in school, we request that all students continue to test twice weekly at home and we will continue to provide test kits for this. We also request that students continue to test at home over the Christmas break and another batch of test kits has been handed out this week.
Pastoral Changes
Today we said goodbye to both Miss Ritchie and Miss Walledge as they leave North Gosforth Academy for pastures new. The whole school community thanks both members of staff for their commitment to their roles with the pastoral team. We wish them all the best in their new ventures.
In January we will welcome two new members to our pastoral team, they are Mrs Holmes and Miss Windscheffel. Mrs Holmes will take up the post of Head of Year 7. Miss Windscheffel will take up the post of Head of Year 9. They both bring a wide range of expertise to the pastoral team.
A Virtual Carol Concert
We are so proud of the musical performances that Mr Wilson and our students produce and it is a real shame that we cannot have our fantastic Carol Concert this year. However, Mr Wilson has spent time over the last few weeks recording a number of wonderful songs from our students. Please click here to hear the songs from our talented students:
……………………………………………………………………
'It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas' by Emily Alderson
'We Three Kings' by Phoebe Jefferson
'One for me' by AJ Cunningham
'Easy on me' by Ruby Thompson
'When We Were Young' by Demi Kean
'Little Miss Perfect' by Emily Cranston
Student news
We have had various events this term and would like to celebrate and share our students’ successes with you.
Chess Tournament
On the 24th November 6 of our students competed in an under 19 chess tournament. Playing against some older players, they managed to finish 3rd, winning 3 games, and drawing in a thriller against Ponteland.
A huge well done to Taylor Knight, Theo Little, Freddy Lazzari, Jack Armstrong, Joshua Wrightson and Alex Close, they were fantastic and a credit to the school.
Reading Proud
On Wednesday 14th December, we organised our third special Proud event aimed at celebrating student achievement, work and success. We have enjoyed such an enormous drive on reading across the academy that we felt it fitting to finish with a reading flourish! Students were invited to come down to our fantastic library at morning break and show off a brilliant book, article or even their favourite read of all time to Mr Fox, Mr Fryer, Mrs Pike and Mr Clark. We were delighted to be absolutely swamped by enthusiastic and confident young people who are passionate about reading. We all felt so proud of every single student who came down to visit us and left with a festive treat as well as a special stamp!
Reading Stars reward trip
Mrs Coverdale and Mr Fryer led a special assembly on Wednesday 14th December to reward this term's 'Reading Superstars'. Awards were handed out for 'most words read', 'most quizzes completed' as well as a very special 'Librarian's superstar' award for Mrs Pike's star readers of the term for each form group. It was then revealed that these students were being whisked off the next day on a surprise visit to Waterstone's in Newcastle where, after browsing the shelves the school would buy them a book of their choice too! Students enjoyed browsing the bookshop and, once they'd made their choices, they relaxed with a hot chocolate in the café and chatted about their new books.
It was amazing to be able to do this. We are so impressed with the attitude to reading amongst all our Year 7 students this year, but these students deserved a special reward. We plan to run this rewards trip again later in the year as an extra incentive for students to keep developing their love of reading - so remember to read plenty over the Christmas holidays!
RICH Success
On Thursday afternoon it was a pleasure to sit down to have hot chocolate and biscuits with 8 randomly selected winners as a reward for their RICH behaviour. Well done to Kieron Todd, Alex Liddle, Fay Riddell, Charlie-John Stephenson, Mia Fairbairn, Romy Harkness, Jamila Jooste and Abi Mitchell.
Sports Bulletin
We have some fantastic sports stars at North Gosforth Academy and here are just some of their achievements so far this year:
- U14 Girls played brilliantly in the North Tyneside football CVL. Further games to follow after Christmas;
- U13 Girls played in their first netball CVL and were fantastic. Further games to follow after Christmas;
- Y9 boys made it to the third round of the ESFA National Cup. They competed bravely and were unlucky to be knocked out by The Lakes School 2-1;
- Y8 boys are in the third round of the ESFA National Cup and will play Highfield in the next round. They won their last game 5-4 on penalties with Logan McDonald winning Man of the Match;
- Alfie Coulthard, Logan McDonald and Charlie Stephenson have all earned a place in the U13 North Tyneside Boys Football team;
- Elliot Smith captained the North Tyneside U14 boys’ football team with maturity and poise in their last game.
Attendance Incentive
Congratulations to Alex Whitaker (Year 7) and Jonny Priestley (Year 10) who are the winners of our iPad attendance incentive. There will be a new incentive announced next term. We will be sending parents a letter about our attendance procedures before students return in January.
Well done to all of you, keep up the good work!
Take care and have a lovely Christmas,
Pete Fox
Principal