A reminder that the school will close at 2pm on Monday 27th January 2020 to allow teachers collaborative planning and research time from 2.00pm to 4.00pm. Full details on our professional learning afternoons, their dates and intended impact can be seen here. Please note from January we have amended the structure of the professional learning day to the following: Period 1 8:30 9:20 Period 2 9:20 10:10 Break 10:10 10:25 Period 3 10:25 11:15 Period 4 11:15 12:05 Lunch or Tutor 12:05 12:35 Tutor Lunch 12:35 13:05 Period 5 13:05 13:55   Thank you for your support.      

14th January 2020 Ms Gair has submitted her resignation, as Principal of Orchard Mead. The Trust would like to take this opportunity to thank Ms Gair  for all her hard work, dedication and drive as Principal at Orchard Mead Academy. Ms Hindocha, (Director of Secondary Education at TMET  and formerly Principal at Rushey Mead Academy), will take up the full time role of Executive Principal,  and Mr Oldman, our new Trust Director of Inclusion, will work alongside Ms Hindocha. We would like to reassure parents and carers that there will be continuity during this transition, as Ms Hindocha in particular, has been working in the school for a long period of time. She is also a very experienced, highly successful and nationally recognised school leader. Mr Oldman, (recent winner of Headteacher of the Year)  will bring many new ideas and energy to the school. As always, we  count on your…

Orchard Mead Academy is proposing a change to its policy for admissions arrangements for the 2021/22 academic year and subsequent years. The proposed policy is presented here. The change is to reduce the school’s Planned Admissions Number (PAN) from 240 to 210. This will take effect for Year 7 starting in 2021 and for subsequent years.   Rationale for change Orchard Mead Academy does not reach its PAN at the start of each academic year. The PAN reduction will enable the school to operate closer to full capacity from the start of each year, so reducing the turbulence in the student population over the year. Greater stability in the student population will support the school improvement work being carried out at Orchard Mead Academy.   We have discussed the number of secondary school places forecast to be required over the coming years in Leicester City with the Local Authority and…

Dear Parents / Carers, We are aware that an increasing number of our students are travelling from the Syston and Thurmaston area, and as there is not an accessible public transport route from these areas to the academy we have been trying to engage with private bus companies to provide a school service to cover the journey. Unfortunately, we have been unsuccessful in securing a private service as the companies do not feel we are able to offer enough customers to make the service viable.  We would therefore like to collect data to show that this is not the case and have created a parent survey to obtain this information. If you feel your child would benefit from a private service, we would greatly appreciate your time in completing the short survey, which will take no more than a couple of minutes. The link to the survey is here The route…

As usual, the Academy will be supporting Children in Need on Friday 15th November 2019. On this day students will be able to wear non-school uniform or fancy dress in exchange for donating £1 to this worthy cause. Please may we remind you that, for reasons of health and safety, the following are not allowed to be worn: Caps or hats Nightwear – pyjamas, nighties, dressing gowns, slippers, for example Revealing clothes of any kind Clothing which features offensive language or logos During the day students will also have the opportunity to take part in the ‘Pudsey’s Big BBC Quiz’, a fundraising activity and fun inter-house competition. We hope that students will enjoy this day and enjoy supporting such a worthy cause. If pupils do not wish to participate in this event there is no obligation on them to do so and they can, of course, wear their full school…

We are very proud of our improved GCSE results in August 2019. Please see details of our GCSE results here. You can also read about our improvement journey in the Leicester Mercury here.  

Lockers are still available for students to purchase and are available to students for £22 per year. Information on how to purchase a locker for your child can be found here. The provider of our lockers can be contacted by calling 01582 488885 or via their website www.ilsschools.co.uk. 

Please be advised that the Community Immunisation Service (Part of the NHS) will be carrying out the first dose of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccinations for year 8 students in school on Tuesday 1st October 2019. To give consent for your child to receive this vaccination this please use the following link and code:- www.leicsandrutlandimms.co.uk Code LE144629 Should you experience any difficulties please telephone 0300 300 0007 and speak with a member of the Immunisation Team. Information on the vaccination can be found here: HPV Letter to Parents – Sept 19  

If you live more than 3 miles away from Orchard Mead Academy and your child is entitled to free school meals you may be eligible for assistance with a school bus pass from the Leicester City Council. Information on how to apply for a school bus pass can be found by visiting the council website here. Thank you.

We are pleased to share our timetable for our extra-curricular activities; these include morning, lunch and after school clubs. A copy of the Term 1 timetable can be found here.  We hope many students will partake in our clubs, all of which are provided free of charge and will help students develop their physical and emotional well-being – whilst also having fun and making friends. And not forgetting the 60:30 homework rule this year; we would like every student to complete 30 minutes of exercise each day, so joining a club also means you’ve completed your homework for the day!