It has been a brilliant start to the year on the Lower Site. Our record intake of just under 230 students means we have the biggest Year 7 cohort in the district and we are officially oversubscribed. Our Year 7s have settled really well after a smooth transition and there has been a lot of great work going on across the school.
Around the school we have been working hard to keep improving the school environment. Over the October half term we are having a wonderful outdoor learning environment installed in the garden area. This is a wooden sheltered space with seating for up to 30 students which will be open at break and lunch times for students to enjoy. The introduction of ‘The HUB’ this year has been a huge success. The HUB is an inviting and supportive space where SEN students receive their interventions but also a safe space for students to socialise during unstructured times.
After the success of the women’s England team this summer, Miss Ramos and Mr Arrowsmith offered a girl’s football club to our Year 7s and 8s. We have been amazed by the turn out we have had. This week we had 16 girls at our club. This has enabled us to put the Royal Harbour Academy into competitions and matches from Term 2. We are very excited by the talent that we have and cannot wait to share more updates on how our new girl’s team does.
Our Year 7 and 8 boy’s teams have enjoyed a number of great victories over our local rivals, including our Year 8’s achieving a 9-1 defeat of Ursuline College and our Year 7 team have beaten both Ursuline and Hartsdown and had a close game against King Ethelbert’s; we are looking forward to seeing how they do in the district schools tournament after half term.
Earlier this week the district cross country competition was held at Dane Court Grammar School. RHA were fully represented at each age group and there were some brilliant individual performances with Year 8, Mya finishing 3rd in the girl’s race and Year 7, Joseph finishing 4th for the boys.
At the Upper Site we have had a string of highly rewarding events, starting off with our Year 9 Curriculum Evening, where we showcased our student work and discussed the offer we have for our Year 9 students. Our Invictus launch event was attended by a large number of you and our Year 11 students, followed by our Power to Perform evening this week. It was a pleasure to watch our young people engage with their learning and develop new techniques and skills for their success.
On the Upper Site this term we have given out 16,638 achievement points, with Year 9 clinging to the top of the leaderboard! Well done Year 9! Our reward points are based around our IB learner profile characteristics; these points are awarded to students who show they are knowledgeable, caring, open-minded and risk takers, to name but a few. It is incredibly satisfying to know that our students are demonstrating these attributes every day.
Our Sixth Form students have started some of their public exams for the IBCP; they have shown themselves to be incredibly resilient, hard working and creative. We have also had a visit from the International Baccalaureate team, who were extremely complimentary of our students and their work ethic.
Our pride in the creative arts has extended into the local community this term. Student work is currently being exhibited at the Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate. The exhibition is called Fantastic Worlds and was a project we did with Project MotorHouse. The majority of the student work exhibited are from students in Year 9 and 10. You can see this exhibition at the gallery, which ends in January.
Our Year 11 students have continued their personal development education with 1-2-1 Careers meetings. These meetings are provided by our partners EBP and give our students the opportunity to talk about their progression plans. Each student in Year 11 and 13 receives a meeting with a trained careers guidance officer.
Our Year 10 students have settled into their GCSE courses this term and we have already seen a fantastic focus on learning and developing subject knowledge. We look forward to hosting a Year 10 curriculum evening next term, this is a great opportunity to see the work our young people have been doing.
We hope our students have a restful break and look forward to welcoming them back to school on Monday 31st October.