21st November 2024

Dear parents and carers,

I would like to start by saying thank you for your ongoing support in what has been a busy year so far.  We have been very impressed with how the majority of our students have started the academic year and we have many successes to celebrate.  Our Student Leadership Team, made up of our Head Students and representatives from each tutor group, has been meeting regularly with staff to help to shape our programme for rewards, consequences and house activities, as well as our wider curriculum and enrichment programme.  It is a pleasure to hear these students talk about our school with such enthusiasm.  In addition, we have seen successes in a number of sporting activities and fundraising events.  Each of our Eight Houses now has a House Charity, serving our local community.  Please do ensure that you follow us on X (Twitter) @HavelockAcademy and on Facebook to see regular updates about this excellent work.  

We were delighted to feature on ITV Calendar just before half term, looking at our programme for raising aspirations, led by our new Assistant Principal for Aspirations and Enrichment, Mrs Lauren Johnson.  Mrs Johnson is working closely with our Head of PSHE, Mrs Selby, to ensure all students have the best possible offer in terms of personal, social and health education, including a strong focus on aspirations, careers and being ready for next steps.  There is also a strong focus on helping students to develop positive and healthy relationships and where they can turn to for help if anything does go wrong.  If you would like to be involved in our Parent Collaboration Group, to influence developments in our PSHE curriculum moving forwards then please get in touch with Mrs Selby directly by emailing her at: bselby@havelockacademy.co.uk . 

We have experienced some undesirable behaviour from some of our students, including some instances of anti-social behaviour in the community and we would like to encourage families to support us with this, reminding all students of the importance of "The Havelock Way" in and out of the academy.  We do not apologise for our high expectations in the academy and I will be issuing sanctions that may appear somewhat harsh where necessary, where we are seeing repeat behaviours that have a negative impact on the learning and wellbeing of others.  I wrote to you last year to share our "Red Lines" - those behaviours that are unacceptable and result in a suspension.  As a reminder, I am sharing them again here:

• Physical assault
• Swearing directly at a member of staff
• Repeated refusal to follow instructions
• Seriously disrupting the learning of a full group
• Making a false allegation about a member of staff.

I am keen to stress that the majority of our students behave well in and out of lessons every day and we are incredibly proud of them.  However, I feel it is important to share this information with all parents/carers so that you can support with discussions with your children around our expectations as appropriate.  These “red line” areas ensure that all students and staff can come to school in the knowledge that they will be in a calm, safe, disruption-free environment, where the focus is on learning and wider enrichment.

Thank you for your support with this.

Kind regards,

 Emma Marshall
Principal