My first term as Headteacher at North Kesteven Academy has been both very productive and extremely rewarding. I’ve taught here for 11 years and it really is a special and unique place to work and learn. We care very much about everyone within our academy and endeavour to support everyone to succeed. That much hasn’t changed. We have always been interested in individuals and their families, focussing on their strengths, recognising what they do well and encouraging them to be the best version of themselves. Since the beginning of September, we have focussed on establishing very high expectations for uniform and behaviour and a renewed vigour for even better progress within our classrooms and beyond.
We have revisited our values and established NK Cares, with a focus on Community, Aspiration, Respect, Endeavour and Safe. The year started with a focus on being safe and respectful within our own academy and within the community. We already have very robust systems in place in dealing with any negative student behaviours but I wanted to have a big spotlight on this from the start of September. Every member of our school community has signed a class charter and an anti-bullying pledge, which will be visibly displayed around the school shortly.
We have recently become the first and only secondary school in Lincoln to achieve the Caring 2 Learn Gold Award in the recognition of the caring, supportive and nurturing way in which we work with young people so they achieve better than expected progress in partnership with parents and carers.
I held my first parent drop-in and plan to do this every half term. There were many good points and suggestions made and I’ll feedback shortly on the progress we have made from this. We also held a parental engagement event for Year 11 parents to focus on revision and finding a good balance between working hard for school and staying healthy. The English, Maths and Science departments were able to show parents some of the online platforms we would encourage students to learn from now to support their revision.
We are putting the final touches to the medical conference being hosted at North Kesteven Academy on 17th October. We have worked with the Universities of Nottingham, Leicester and Lincoln and will host 100 students to learn about different jobs in the medical profession.
We are also working with Lincoln City Football Club to provide their post-16 academic curriculum. The apprentices are playing their games on our pitches, which is very exciting!
Coming very soon is the learning journey for the students from Year 7 to 13. This is designed to recognise and reward our students for taking part in lots of varied activities and opportunities such as being an ambassador at open evenings, leading an assembly, or taking part in extra-curricular activities. We’ll write to parents when it has been fully completed and explain how it will link to our new and improved rewards system.
If you have anything you would like to discuss with me or one of the team, please never hesitate to contact us.
Jo Tunnicliffe, Headteacher