Click here to view Page 1 of our Newsletter

Click here to view Page 2 of our Newsletter



The students
The Academy’s pastoral care is to be built around the development of eight “Houses”. The students suggested these be named after trawlers from the Ross fishing fleet (Curlew, Eagle, Jaguar, Tiger, Illustrious, Fortune, Ramilles and Vanguard).

Each House will have a Non-Teaching Pastoral Head and a team of tutors, to create a programme of support for the young people. This will encompass activities as diverse as sports and health education initiatives.

The Academy will be rethinking the way in which the terms fit into the year and the length of the school day to allow adequate time for these initiatives. It is possible, following consultation with parents and others, that a six term model with longer days (and holidays!) will be followed in 2008/9. The Academy curriculum will be shaped by the adoption of the International Baccalaureate Middle Years’ Programme, on which the current Form 1 (Year 7) have already embarked.

The future
This is an exciting new way of thinking about learning and raising aspiration - there are five main aspects to this: approaches to learning, health and social education, community and service, environment and human ingenuity. Every opportunity afforded by the sponsor’s interest in “broadening horizons” will be embraced, with the chance to study abroad and engage with students based in other countries.

The academic curriculum areas are conventional but the way in which learning is approached is excitingly new - and for this more teachers are required. We shall be advertising vacancies for several subject areas soon. The ICT specialism of the Academy lends itself to innovative approaches. For example, the teaching of modern foreign languages - every student will leave the Academy with some experience of and expertise in a language they have chosen to study for themselves. The co-curricular interests of the Academy will incorporate ecological projects as diverse as running allotments, a community farm and perhaps a wildlife reserve, in due course.

Opportunities
The key to the development of the new Sixth Form will be the opportunities it offers for leadership within the House structure as a training for the life beyond. Sixth Form students would engage with peer education and mentoring responsibilities as well as having a top class preparation for the life after school. All Sixth Form students will have a role in developing community links and representing that community to the wider world. Our Sixth Form leavers - and we wish the majority of our students to progress in this way - should be masters of various aspects of living. They should be able to manage their own finances; they should be able to drive a car and maintain one; they should be able to cook for themselves (and their families!); they should be able to present themselves well in every setting, professionally and socially, but above all the Academy will equip them to take justifiable pride in their own achievements.