Dear Parent/Carer

Happy Easter from all at Stone Soup Academy. It is amazing to think that we are already at Easter and we only have 4 full school weeks until the first formal exam on the 17th of May (Music) on the 18th of May we will have our first large exam, English Language. How quickly this time has come. 

We will be putting in lots of support for our Year 11 students to help them get through the first formal examinations since 2019! We are also here to help you as parents/carers, in your support of your child. Please let your child’s personal coach know.

It has been a fantastic term seeing so much progress and positive outcomes for our young people. We put in place our first in person celebration evening for a long time and it was a real joy to see so many of our young people and their parents join us to celebrate their successes. The feedback from the evaluation questionnaire that you completed was amazing and recognised how much commitment and dedication is applied to making your child’s Stone Soup journey a success. It was truly humbling to see the value that you place on what we do. Thank you.

Our mock exams have also been so positive this term with students showing themselves to be mature and dedicated. The mocks have also been a great way to prepare our young people for what lies ahead.

This term we have been focusing upon literacy and in support of this push we have put in place a scheme to enable our SEND team to take PP students to Waterstones to purchase a book of their choosing to the value of £10. It has been great to give some of our students a  new experience. Literacy continues to be a priority for the academy and alongside the book initiative we are also focussing on the article of the week and the word of the week to increase student vocabulary. 

Our focus upon relationship and sex education continues this term and we have invested in new books that we have placed around the games room to educate and support our young people. 

Looking forward to next term we have lots of exciting things happening. On the 16th of May we will be taking a group of our young people to Aberdovey in Wales through Outward Bound. This is the second time that we have run this residential and the students involved 

are really excited about this opportunity. We intend to run even more residential trips to Derbyshire next year through the Youth Hostel Association so watch this space.

I hope that you are looking online at our new SSA Newspaper that is now being commercially produced. This edition is so full of the brilliant things that our students are achieving including winning the Alternative Provision football tournament. It was a truly brilliant experience and our students were outstanding.

We have a new system to connect with you as parents and it would be great if you would all register for this system. This will hopefully do away with the need for letters to be sent home, signed and returned to school as you will be able to sign on your smart phones and return to school. It should make things much easier for you. Please watch out for the information about how to register.

I hope that you all have a great break and your children return safe to school on Tuesday 19th of April.

Thank you as always for your support and hard work in supporting us. In partnership we are so much stronger and together we can achieve anything.

Kind regards

Kerrie Henton

Principal

Stone Soup Academy