Letter from Miss Thorrington
Dear students, parents and carers,
We are now into our second full week of the new year, and I want to take this opportunity to congratulate all students on the fantastic start that has been made. They have been incredibly focused in their lessons and are working very hard to minimise the disruption that school closures caused to their learning.
I would like to thank parents and carers for your continued support in getting all students back into school safely over the past month. All of us are committed to providing the best education possible for your child, while securing the health and safety of our whole school community. Thank you for continuing to follow public health guidelines and encouraging your children to do the same. We take into consideration suggestions and have made some very small changes to the running of the school in light of feedback. We have had a lot of questions regarding the wearing of masks during the school day. Currently, students and staff can wear masks if they wish and their use remains optional. If there are any changes to the Government guidance, and we in turn update our guidance, you will be communicated with immediately.
To ensure we maximise ventilation around the academy, we do currently have all windows and internal doors open to promote air flow. Our aim is to continue this, there may therefore be instances in the near further where we allow students to wear jumpers and coats in their lessons.
As previously discussed, I am pleased to announce that we will be opening up the SYSZ from Monday 21st September for year 11 students to do independent study. The SYSZ will be open daily from 7.30am-8.45am before school, and after school 3.00pm-4.30pm. Students will be expected to be completing work once they arrive, the SYSZ is not an area for social gathering. We are currently looking at ways in which we can open the study hub safely for year 7-10 students and will communicate with you further on this in due course.
Over the course of the last week, all year 7 students have completed numeracy and literacy tests in order to gauge a baseline of their overall ability. I would like to say a big well done to every student on the way in which they conducted themselves during the tests.. We are now in the process of allocating students to class sets to ensure that lessons are appropriately challenging for thierability level. Your child’s new grouping will take effect from Monday 21st September There will be no changes to the base group that students are currently in.
Attached to this letter is further information around a breakfast opportunity for all students, as well as details on our updated invacuation procedure. As a matter of course, we will be carrying out drills for our invacuation procedure this half term.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the school.
Thank you again for your continued support.
Yours faithfully
Abbie Thorrington
Principal
Breakfast support
We are pleased to inform you that Ipswich Academy has joined the government’s National School Breakfast Programme (NSBP), which is being delivered by the charities Family Action and Magic Breakfast.
As an NSBP school, we are pleased to offer nutritious breakfast packs for students to take home. These breakfast packs are available to all year groups, so all students can benefit. From Thursday 17th September, students will be able to collect breakfast packs from their respective ‘bubble’ areas of the school listed below once their school day has finished:
Year 7- red canteen
Year 8- main hall
Year 9- blue canteen
Year 10- grey canteen
Year 11- SYSZ
Each pack should last two weeks at which point students can collect their next pack. Students will be notified of this arrangement through year group assemblies.
Initially we will have limited packs available for each year group as we need to get an idea of the number of students that will take up this offer. If the need is there, we will then increase our order with NBSP and ensure that we have sufficient numbers of breakfast packs to meet demand.
This is an opportunity to ensure students have a nutritious breakfast before coming to school so that they are ready for their learning. We hope that students take advantage of this.
If you would like any further information then please do not hesitate to contact Maled Akhlak.
Invacuation procedures
At Ipswich Academy, we take safeguarding and safety very seriously. It is important that we continue to review all our procedures, taking into account even those events that are very unlikely to occur. As part of this process, we have introduced a new procedure called “invacuation”.
I am writing to inform you that we will be practising this procedure this half term.
An invacuation procedure is a standard health and safety procedure, similar to a fire drill. Our invacuation procedure would be used when there is a threat to the safety of pupils, staff and others outside the school, and when it is safer for everyone to remain in school than evacuate. The aim is to keep people safe by confining them to a secure place.
Presently the threat of these are low. However, it is low threat not ‘no threat’ and therefore schools should have a contingency plan and procedures in place to deal with it similar to fire procedures.
Unlike fire procedures, which in most cases mean evacuating to an external assembly area, this will most likely require ‘invacuation’ to a safe area(s). These are places that are safer than staying where you are and safer than immediately evacuating.
Prior to our drill, staff will take time to talk to pupils about lockdown procedures and explain why they are important. They will reassure pupils after the drill that they are safe, and will emphasise that practising procedures like this will make sure the school remains a safe place to learn.
I must stress again this is simply a practice, so that in the unlikely event of such a situation, our pupils and staff are fully prepared.
If you or your child have any further concerns or questions, please do not hesitate to contact Samual Fox.