Academic Update – 12th October 2018

Dear Parents / Carers,   Welcome to the first ‘Academic Update’ of the year 2018-19. It has been reported already in many different ways, but I have to start by once again congratulating our previous Year 10-13 students on their superb performance in the summer exams. For me, the particular highlights were Year 10 achieving record RE results (78% 4+ and 72% 5+ grades), 91% of Year 11 gaining a 4+ in English and 77% of students gaining a 4+ in both English and Maths. One of our proudest moments since opening was undoubtedly Year 13 achieving results that put Chelsea Academy in the top 5% of schools nationally for value added with a score of 0.33.   Key Stage…

Dear Parents / Carers,

 

Welcome to the first ‘Academic Update’ of the year 2018-19. It has been reported already in many different ways, but I have to start by once again congratulating our previous Year 10-13 students on their superb performance in the summer exams. For me, the particular highlights were Year 10 achieving record RE results (78% 4+ and 72% 5+ grades), 91% of Year 11 gaining a 4+ in English and 77% of students gaining a 4+ in both English and Maths. One of our proudest moments since opening was undoubtedly Year 13 achieving results that put Chelsea Academy in the top 5% of schools nationally for value added with a score of 0.33.

 

Key Stage 3

A reminder that we refer to our Key Stage 3 curriculum as the ‘3Cert’, courses that have been planned to lead onto GCSEs. Students are assessed on an on-going basis, as teachers decide if they are ‘emerging’, ‘developing’ or ‘mastering’ in each terms’ ‘I can’ statements. All statements are openly available for every subject on the Academy website:

https://chelsea-academy.org/teaching-learning/key-stage-3/

 

Students’ progress in the ‘I can statements’ leads to the award of certificates when they reach certain thresholds at the end of each term. Carbon is the lowest and diamond is the highest and represents a very high level of challenge. Certificates are awarded in the following order: carbon, bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond.

 

Key Stage 4

As nearly all subjects are now new and reformed 9-1 GCSE courses, there are some key points we would like to reiterate:

 

  • Doing on-going revision, i.e. students spending short bursts of time going back over what they did one week ago, one month ago or one term ago, is going to be hugely beneficial. The vast majority of courses will be assessed solely through exams at the end of Year 11 (or in the case of RE, Year 10), so students will have to retain large volumes of information. Constant recapping of work and students’ diagnosis of their strengths and weaknesses will therefore help them to achieve their goals.
  • Completing all Independent Learning to the best of their ability. It goes without saying that this is vitally important. Remember that in Key Stage 4, students should be receiving at least 60-90 minutes per subject per week.  

 

GCSEPOD

To provide additional support for students we launched a product called GCSEPOD last year and over the course of the year we streamed over 19,000 pods! This year we have started strongly again and over 2000 pods have been streamed in the first month. Each pod is a bite-sized lesson across most of our GCSE courses available for students not only to listen to, but also to download onto their laptops or mobile phones. They are an excellent way to catch up, prepare or simply revise.

 

SAM Learning

As many of you will already know, we subscribe to a product called SAM Learning, where students can access a whole range of activities for their subjects in both Key Stages 3 and 4. SAM Learning usage goes from strength to strength, and we have already seen a mind-boggling 1591 learner hours completed so far this year! SAM Learning is a brilliant revision / catch-up tool that studies show improve grades at all levels when students use it consistently. The main ingredient in its recipe for success is that when students make mistakes on tasks, they look carefully at where they went wrong, then re-try the exercise.

 

Here is a reminder about how to log on:

www.samlearning.com

Centre ID: SW1CA

User ID: Your child’s date of birth, followed by their 2 initials in capital letters

Password: the same as their User ID

Example – Charlotte Church, whose date of birth is 23rd March 2005 – 230305CC

 

SMARTHOMEWORK

As most of you know, we have moved to smarthomework which is a new product at the Academy. It enables staff to set independent learning (IL) digitally like previously but also enables students to submit work electronically unlike before. Students can access smarthomework by visiting their online CALC login via the website. Furthermore, as parents you can set up a smartparent account to monitor the IL set for your Child by following the steps below. If you have had trouble accessing smartparent, you can access the public Independent Learning Calendar by visiting this link:

 

https://homework-calendar.realsmart.co.uk/3729

 

SMARTPARENT

Smartparent now enables you as parents to view your child’s IL, timetables, linked documents and achievement points as well as the Academy’s parent calendar. Details on how to do this are below. The website address is  

 

https://parents.realsmart.co.uk/smartparent/login

Once you have registered a username and password (using letters and numbers and at least one capital letter) with contact details, you will be taken to this screen where you will be able to ‘Add Association’.

 

Here you will be required to add your child’s username, pin and school and this will take you to their IL information.

 

IMPORTANT PARENT EVENTS 2018/2019

 

Please see below the important events coming up this year. Learning Coach Consultation Days will give you a 20 minute opportunity to discuss targets and progress across subjects and Parents Consultation Evenings give you the opportunity to talk to all the teachers of your child to ensure that you are fully aware how much progress they are making in each subject area. These events are extremely important and not only help you understand how your child is performing but also, help improve your child’s exam results.

 

Remember, students will receive their progress checks in the second week back after every term (or every half term in year 11 and the 6th form).

 

Event Date
Inset Days INSET 4 (from 12pm onwards) Fri 30 Nov 18
INSET 5 Mon 7 Jan 19
INSET 6 Tues 23 April
Learning Coach Consultation Days Learning Coach Consultation Day 2 Thurs 24 and Fri 25 Jan 19
Learning Coach Consultation Day 3 Thurs 2 and Fri 3 May
Parents Consultation Evenings Yr 7 Parents Consultation Evening Thurs 7 Feb 19
Yr 8 Parents Consultation Evening Thurs 7 Mar 19
Yr 9 Parents Consultation Evening Thurs 29 Nov 18
Yr 10 Parents Consultation Evening Thurs 14 Mar 19
Yr 11 Parents Consultation Evening Thurs 17 Jan 19
6th Form Parents Consultation Evening Thurs 14 Feb 19
Expectations Evenings Yr 10 Expectations Evening Jan 19 – tbc
Yr 11 Expectations Evening Wed 26 Sep 18
Open Evenings Sixth Form External Open Evening Thurs 15 Nov 18
Other Important Dates Future Pathways Day Fri 5 April 19
Awards Evening Mon 8 July 19
Year 6 Transition day and Parents’ Information Evening Tues 3 July 19
Production Week Wed 20 – Fri 22 Mar 19
Sports Day tbc

 

Exam weeks
We would like to remind you that the assessment fortnight for Years 7-10 and 12-13 will run from Monday 10th to Friday 21st December, during which time Year 11 will also have their full mock exams. Assessments will be based around the contents of the whole term’s work, so it is worth students’ while beginning their revision well in advance. Revision materials will be provided for all students by their teachers in advance of these key assessments.

 

Exam weeks for all students take place two weeks prior to the end of each end full term (December, March/April and July). In addition, year 11 and the 6th form have additional assessment fortnights before the end of each half term. These are located on the calendar on the Academy Website.

The extended curriculum
There are already a large number of students taking part in the 83 clubs we have on offer this term. The extended curriculum activities take place before, during and after school. Please see our full range of activities on the Academy website by selecting: Academy Life > Extended Curriculum > What’s On This Term or follow this link…

 

https://chelsea-academy.org/academy-life/enrichment/whats-on-this-term/

We would ideally like all students to get involved with the extended curriculum, so please do look through what is on offer and encourage your child to get involved either with something they know they enjoy or something they have never tried before.

Many thanks,

 

Mr Ainsworth
Acting Vice Principal – Curriculum