18th October 2021
Dear Parents and Carers,
It has been a good half term at Broadway. I have been delighted with our return to normality. A measure of our success is student attendance which sits at 95.9%. This is approximately 6% above the national average. During the pandemic we were achieving 96% attendance to remote lessons – this is exceptional. An awful lot can be read into great attendance – in many ways it shows that our curriculum is outstanding and that our students love Broadway. They enjoy their learning, they love the range of extra-curricular activities and they feel a deep sense of care for the Academy. Without exception, visitors to the school speak of a calm, ordered atmosphere where students are well behaved and engaged with their learning. A visiting headteacher wrote to me last week saying:
‘Thank you and your staff for allowing us to visit your amazing school yesterday. Your staff and governor were incredibly welcoming and generous with their time; your students were polite and hard-working, and overall we were left with the sense of a school that is proud of its achievements and always seeking to improve.’
We are delighted that Jack Cockayne, Head of Geography, won the Prince’s Teaching Institute national competition – the Bernice McCabe Award – for the exceptional work in developing a brilliant Geography curriculum for Broadway students. The following press statement was released by the Prince’s Teaching Institute:
We want to make sure students are safe, happy and love learning. We encourage all students to develop their character throughout their time at Broadway. This is achieved by encouraging students to live out and practice the Academy values of Integrity, Respect, Optimism, Responsibility, Appreciation, Aspiration, Generosity and Inclusivity. Our curriculum is tailored to the community and designed to enable all students maximise their academic potential so that they can flourish, whilst at school and throughout their lives, as proactive British Citizens. We have an unswerving bias towards the students who come from poor families and also SEND students. We provide a safe, caring and inspirational learning environment based on excellent learning, exceptional pastoral support and a stunning co-curricular programme. We have created a special ethos at Broadway that visitors often notice when they visit. Our school motto is “Our Children, Our Community, Believe it can be done”
The aims of Broadway Academy 2021/22 are:
1. To support staff to further refine and continue to deliver an exceptional curriculum experience (which includes a rich and varied extra-curricular programme with a particular emphasis on outdoor education at Island Pool, Top Barn, Worcestershire) in each subject area, grounded in the Broadway values and development of character and outdoor education with a focus on community (3Cs), across all key stages and for all students. There will be a continued focus on outcomes for SEN, Pupil Premium and the More Able.
2. Leaders continue to aim to support teachers to deliver excellent lessons, each day, with an emphasis on Knowledge, Recall and Application (KRA). Homework continues to be a priority across the Academy. We aim for all students to receive an Exceptional, Educational, Experience (3Es) with a focus on literacy.
3. To maintain a hopeful and optimistic culture in the school. To continue to develop the leadership capacity and the wellbeing of all staff across the Academy through the delivery of high-quality training and coaching by Line Managers and a tailored programme of CPD, for all staff, which is supported by Performance Management.
4. To continue to support all staff to manage students’ behaviour, through appropriate training and CPD, to further reduce any low-level disruption in lessons. To empower students to go beyond compliance, to take further responsibility for their own behaviour. To ensure safeguarding continues to be highly effective across all areas of the Academy. To ensure that all 9 aspects of the Equality Act are embedded across the Academy.
I look forward to working with you this academic year to ensure your child’s reaches their God, given potential.
ParentPay
In an attempt to remove all cash and cheques from school, we are asking all parents to only use our e-payment method to pay for school dinners. This can be done online using a very secure website called ParentPay or in cash at local stores where you see the PayPoint logo.
Already have a Parentpay account?
If you already have a ParentPay account, either with our school or another ParentPay school, you can simply login to that account and add your other children via the Add a child tab on your home page.
Please visit www.parentpay.com and activate your account via the Account login area on the home page of the site.
ParentPay holds an electronic record of your payments to view at a later date. Once you have activated your account you can make online payments straight away. School meals cost approximately £2.50 per day (a week’s worth would be £12.50).
Those parents wishing to pay cash should take this letter to their local PayPoint store each time they make a payment. The minimum payment is £10.00.
ParentPay is a free service for you to use and provides the school with up-to-date contact details for emergencies and future communications. Even if you do not plan to pay by ParentPay, please visit www.parentpay.com and activate your account for future use and communications from Broadway Academy.
Please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Kender in the admin office if you need assistance. Your support in using ParentPay will help the Academy enormously.
NB: please allow up to 48 hours for your payment to be credited via the PayPoint network.
Half term
All students will break up for the October half term holiday on Friday 22nd October.
I would like to wish you a happy and safe half term and I look forward to seeing all students back in school on Monday 1st November.
Yours faithfully
Mr R Skelton
Headteacher and CEO