Parklife - 10th February 2023

After a bit of a break - Parklife is back by popular demand!

It's hard to believe we are half way through the academic year already, time has flown by since coming back to school in September.

Yr6 Open Evening in October was our busiest yet with some fantastic comments and feedback received about our school and recent Good Ofsted report. We can't wait for National Offer Day on 1st March!

In November we welcomed ex-student, turned successful podcaster, JaackMaate back to Sewell Park for our Prize-giving Evening. The event was extremely well attended with barely a seat free! Huge thanks to Jack Dean for giving some inspirational words of advice to current students and our 'Class of 2022' leavers and handing out the awards. And thank you to the many families that came along to watch their young people receiving awards and to join us for a small celebration afterwards. It was great to receive such positive feedback and planning for this year's event is already underway.

We also hosted another special guest in November. The Lord Mayor of Norwich came back for a second visit, this time to get a taste of the school in action and meet with the staff and students. Thank you Lord Mayor, you are welcome at Sewell Park Academy anytime.

The Autumn term finished with a Christmas Special of 'SPA's Got Talent'. The whole school was in attendance and treated to a wonderful array of festive songs and performances from some seriously talented fellow students and staff. We can't wait for the next one!

Coming back in the New Year and our Year 7s are now well settled into life at SPA. Many of them went on the recent art trip, alongside their Year 8 peers, and had a busy few days exploring the arts and culture that Manchester has to offer. Isabelle Yr7 said

"I was excited because I've never been to Manchester before. The trip was really fun and we got to see some really cool art in the museums and galleries we went to, it was a good experience".

In addition to receiving your feedback via events mentioned above, we've been asking you to share your thoughts via Parent Survey. Thanks for your responses so far, as always your feedback and views are very important to us and hear how we can improve going forwards. Please see the bottom of the page for a summary of the latest surveys. We'll open the next one to you in the next half term.

Students have also been telling us how we are doing and what would make life at SPA better for them, you can read their ideas here

At the end of Children's Mental Health Week, and on breaking up for half term, we just want to remind you - if your child has any worries over the holidays there are lots of organisations on hand to offer support, you can find details of many of these on our wellbeing page https://www.sewellparkacademy.co.uk/mentalhealthandwellbeing

Here's a taste of just a few things planned for next term...

We have Yr11 PPEs taking place in the first two weeks after half term, followed by Yr11 Parents evening on Tuesday 21st March. This will be a face to face event and we'll send invites after half term.

There's a geography trip to Kew Gardens for some of our Year 7 students and a STEM event for the Year 9 STEM students. We look forward to sharing some stories and pics from these in future editions.

Many of our Year 10's will have a few days out on work experience, having secured themselves placements in businesses within the local community. This is a really valuable opportunity for them to get an insight into the world of work and make good local connections. #NR3istheplacetobe

There are further regional and national strike days planned, the first of these being Wednesday 1st March. We will keep you updated on plans for these when we return to school.

PTFA Easter raffle tickets will go on sale mid-term. Any donations of Easter eggs or Easter themed gifts will be warmly received.

Have a great half term break and we'll see students back in school on Monday 20th February!