Principal's Update - 21 June 2024

Dear families

I hope that you have had a good week, particularly to those who were celebrating Eid earlier in the week. This will be reaching you on Friday afternoon which means by now we will have had our Eid themed community celebration - I hope that those of you who attended you enjoyed this!

I said last week that I would share some feedback from our visitors this week. It is safe to say that both Luke Sparkes, our CEO, and Clare Skelding, our Executive Director were incredibly impressed with our students at DUA. Students spoke positively about the academy, lessons and the opportunities beyond the curriculum that we provide. Students clearly articulated that they enjoy school, they are happy and they are safe. This makes me incredibly proud. This week we have also had our Duke of Edinburgh Silver expedition - thank you to Mr Rose and Ms Carr for their support of this fantastic opportunity.

In the next few weeks we are going to have a focus on student voice, ensuring that students know who the student council are and also ensuring there are opportunities for wider voices to be heard. We’ll also be reminding students of how to report concerns. For your clarity, students can speak to any member of staff. Their form tutor, the year team and the safeguarding team are often the best port of call for students to alert to arising issues.

Next week we have a number of sporting events where we are both competing and supporting as sports leaders, our Duke of Edinburgh bronze expedition and our Year 11 prom. I am also hoping to speak to our local MP and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves about some of the funding challenges we face, in the lead up to the general election.

With the general election in mind, our mock election is gathering pace with candidates having released their promotional videos and students having prepared questions to grill the candidates on. The mock election will take place on the same day as the national general election.

As always thank you for your support. I hope you have a fantastic weekend.

Mr A Jacobs