The David Ross Education Trust

David Ross Education Trust schools create a rich and exciting learning environment that inspires students to become their confident, academic best.

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Charles Read Academy

We seek to broaden the horizons of each and everyone of our students encouraging academic excellence and transferable life skills enabling all to become effective members of our 21st century society.

A Week in the Life of Charles Read Academy

House and Ethos news

Our new House system was fully launched in September.  The three houses are called Terra, Aqua and Caeli, land, water and air. Each House has a Tutor group from each year group, 7-11. This means now that the size of our Tutor groups has reduced and they are now 18 on average. We spent a lot of time building excitement for the new House System in the Summer term by revealing small fragments of information and by peaking the students’ interest when they saw the House Hub being painted and the House trophy arrive. We made a film, which introduced them to the idea of the House Championship, the range of competitions we had planned, shared the new House names, the house colours and introduced them to their new Heads of House. We showed it to the students as part of ‘The Big Reveal’. Students were spoken to about the ethos of competition, no booing the other houses only encouragement for all.

This week students were asked to put in applications to become part of the Student Leadership Team attached to each House.  This week’s House assembly was all about aspiration and resilience. House assemblies work on a rotation with week 1 being a focus on an academy value, week 2, being a focus on House Competitions and week 3 being a Character Assembly. All assemblies include a focus on ethos, attendance, behaviour, rewards and high aspirations.

We have introduced a reward system called Houseopoly which uses universities on the boards instead of London street names, and students and classes achieve cards to stick on the board with a view to making it round to the Tutor’s reward square, then the Assistant Principal’s reward square, the Principal’s reward square etc….

As part of the   Harvest Festival at Charles Read Academy our three houses have been busy donating a vast array of food and cosmetic items. To add some competition to the collecting, we decided to ask the students to bring in items in their house colours and they rose to the challenge! Blue, green and yellow packaging came flooding in and the boxes were overflowing within a week, with one student Oliver Mann in Year 7 bringing in a yellow bucket full of goodies! There was a real feeling of community spirit and a deeper understanding that even though we are 3 separate houses, we come together as one community. On Thursday 3rd October, Year 7 students enjoyed a wonderful Harvest festival service at Corby Glen Church. The students sang several songs themed around giving and harvest and Sally Godbold-Norman read from the gospel of St Luke, the parable of the rich man who had land which bore good crops. The Vicar, Reverend Buckman spoke to our students about the meaning behind harvest and thinking about giving back to those less fortunate. It was a wonderful service and the students really developed their comprehension of our CRA values of respect and courage. 

This week’s House activities also included the culmination of the Netball competition and the spectacular Deal or No Deal.

Heads of House and other staff were in the hot seat keen to end up with a good deal from the banker or a box with a high number of house points in it. There were some nail-biting moments but students cheered and celebrated the final results.

Aqua is currently in the lead with 365 points, Terra 295 and Caeli 290.

Teaching and Learning News

To further improve our approach to learning and the progress in the school we introduced TRAITS this week.

 

Lunchtime Activities

Students have been attending our many clubs and subject intervention activities during the school day. Some of lunchtime activities are shown below.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

• Art club
• Diversity club
• Debate club
• Choir
• Football
• Table Tennis

• Drama club
• Art club
• Photography club
• Eco club
• CRA Buddies
• Football
• Rowing

• Spanish club
• Craft club
• Art club
• Gardening club
• Football
• Netball

• Anti-bullying club
• Gardening club
• Art club
• Vocal Performance coaching
• Student Parliament
• Football
• Netball

• Drumming club: world music drums
• Young Carers
• Art Club
• Mindfulness club
• Football
• Dodgeball


We aim to deliver an exciting education with a relentless focus on high quality teaching and learning, a commitment to a broad and balanced curriculum and an absolute dedication to providing a wide range of opportunities that allow students to excel at what they are good at and enjoy as well as developing new talents, supported by excellent pastoral care.

We are ambitious for every child, no matter what their background, prior attainment or needs.   

Students gain transferrable life skills through the range of opportunities we offer and they know that they can positively shape their lives through choice not chance. As a school community we are energised and motivated by the prospect of changing lives, of raising community-wide aspiration and improving the life chances for all students. 

We have high expectations of our students and staff and hold high aspirations for and demonstrate complete belief in, all our students. 

We hope this has given you a brief insight into life at Charles Read Academy.