Key information

Welcome to the Key information Page. Here, you will find everything you need to support your child's journey at Gracewood Academy.

If you wish to contact us, please click here

School Day

School opens at 8.00 am and all students are expected to be on site no later than 8.25am*.

Breakfast Club	8.00am - 8.25am
Form time	8.30am - 9.00am
Period 1	9.00am - 9.50am
Period 2	9.50am - 10.40am
Break Time	10.40am - 11.00am
Period 3	11.00am - 11.50am
Period 4	11.50am - 12.40pm
Lunch Time	12.40pm - 1.20pm
Period 5	1.20pm - 2.10pm
Period 6	2.10pm - 3.00pm
15.00 onwards**	Detention - 30/50/120 minutes Enrichment Clubs Period 7/Study Hub for Year 11

* students should avoid arriving on-site before 08:15, where possible, because staff are not present to supervise students until this time. The morning gate closes at 08.25 in order to give students enough time to get to their form room.
**  the majority of students will be dismissed at 15:00 unless they have received a detention, are involved in extra-curricular activities or are attending an intervention class, in which case they will stay until the official end of the school day which is 16:00.

Please note that our phone lines are manned from 08.00 to 15.30, daily. 

Pastoral Care

At Gracewood Academy, we take pride in an environment that facilitates the highest expectations of behaviour, attendance, participation, and learning. We recognise that each student is an individual, and we endeavour to protect their welfare and provide the support they need to flourish and succeed. We are proud of our knowledge-rich curriculum, but we recognise that academic development is not the sole aim of school, and that without supportive networks and pastoral care systems in place, our students’ learning would be compromised. We therefore have the highest standards of behaviour, attendance, and participation for our students, because having such standards creates an environment in which students are ready and best able to learn.

Creating an environment where every student is valued, enabled to flourish, and given the confidence to know they can achieve is at the heart of Gracewood Academy. We believe care and support are fundamental to students achieving their best.  We are experts in understanding the challenges students face as they grow up. We understand their needs, their friendship dynamics, and their ambitions. Our pastoral system is devised to support and empower students to encourage confidence and self-esteem.

Driven by our principles and high standards of behaviour, attendance, and punctuality, we place an emphasis on respecting and valuing every individual. Our pastoral system also promotes student leadership, participation, community awareness and charity work through tutorials and assemblies, whilst being central to the home – school partnership. It is not just staff who care but all our students show great kindness and compassion for one another. This is what makes Gracewood Academy very special indeed.

Reporting a Safeguarding Concern

 

If you are concerned about a child or young person outside of school hours please contact Hertfordshire Council on 0300 123 4043 immediately.

• Ms Baaba Budu-Amoako - b.budu-amoako@gracewood.futureacademies.org

• Ms Geeta Patel - g.patel@gracewood.futureacademies.org
• Mrs Karen Lawrence - k.lawrence@futureacademies.org

SEND

At our academy, we believe in creating inclusive environments that aim to meet the needs of all students.

We want to ensure that our Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) provision offers appropriate support for those facing barriers to their learning.

We provide support within all four broad areas of SEND: 

• cognition and learning
• communication and interaction
• sensory and physical
• social, emotional and mental health

Our school SENDCO, Antonia Evans, leads on the provision for students with SEND and Anna-Maria O'Toole oversees provision for students with SEND across Future Academies, to ensure that it is of the highest standards.

If you would like more information about the Hertfordshire local offer, please click here.

Home Learning

We believe that home learning is an important part of students’ education, extending and reinforcing work done in school.

Home learning is any work or activity which students are required to do outside of lesson time and tasks can include reading, revising, researching, planning, designing and sketching in addition to written work.

We believe that home learning is important because it helps students:

• Learn how to plan and organise their work
• Learn how to work on their own
• Learn how to use time effectively and meet deadlines
• Practise what has been introduced in class, or undertake background work that will help enhance understanding
• Use resources other than those available in school
• Involve people outside school in their work.

We believe that parental support and encouragement in ensuring that home learning tasks are done conscientiously and without distraction is crucial to our students’ learning. Students are encouraged to seek advice from their teacher if they are having difficulty with their home learning, or are finding that it is taking a much longer time than expected.

Personal Development

All students at Gracewood Academy study Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE), which is delivered as part of the tutor programme and also during CRS lessons. The PSHE curriculum complements the programmes of study for all other subjects and aims to help our students develop key skills and acquire the knowledge, understanding and attributes they need to manage their lives now and in the future. It aims to introduce our students to the concept that they are part of a wider community as global citizens now and in their future roles within a global community.

Through our PSHE curriculum we aim to help build confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives and enjoy learning. We want our students to become responsible citizens who make positive contributions to society. Our PSHE curriculum is underpinned by British Values as well as Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) developments.

Our PSHE curriculum aims to help students:

• develop positive personal attributes such as resilience, self-confidence, self-esteem, and empathy
• develop skills and strategies to live healthy, safe, fulfilling, responsible and balanced lives
• form positive relationships
• explore, clarify and if necessary challenge, their own and others’ values, attitudes, beliefs, rights and responsibilities
• respond to challenge, making and acting upon informed decisions
• communicate effectively
• be an active partner in their own learning
• be active citizens within the local and wider community.

Reading

Gracewood Academy employs a multi-layered approach to promote a love of reading and to improve literacy levels amongst all our students. We understand the importance of a pupil being able to read well and its correlation with their success in life. Our approach evolves and develops pupils' reading skills, whilst ensuring they have exposure to a wide breadth of texts both in the classroom and when reading for pleasure.

We endeavour to ensure we close any gaps where a pupil's chronological age is higher than their reading age. We test pupils in term 1 and term 6 using the New Group Reading Tests and send the data home to parents to open conversations around the importance of reading. We have a robust intervention programme where pupils are selected to be put on to a range of targeted programmes to help close any gaps.

Reading strategies in place:

• Targeted interventions across KS3 and KS4 to close gaps
• Read aloud as a whole school teaching strategy
• Challenging reading-based curriculum (average reading age 17) but comprehension questions used to check understanding. Adapted to suit class needs 
• Competitions as incentive
• World Book Day- whole school focus
• English tutor for intervention work
• Reading posters on staff doors

Relationships & Sex Education

At Gracewood Academy we aim to provide a balanced sex and relationships education programme which combines the emotional, physical, moral, legal and social aspects of sex and relationships.

In addition to the National Curriculum requirements in both Science and Religion, Philosophy and Ethics’, we deliver sessions through the tutor programme as well as timetable drop down days. Material covered includes healthy relationships, sexually transmitted infections, contraception and pregnancy, and the safe use of social media.

We encourage the students to explore their own attitudes and values providing them with the skills to manage their relationships in a responsible and healthy manner. As we seek to prepare our students for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life, we regard sex and relationships education as an important part of their learning.

If for any reason you wish to excuse your child from receiving sex education at school please contact the relevant Head of Year.

Student Leadership

The Student Council represents the views of students from across the school.  It is led by the year 11 representatives and there are members from every year group who are elected on an annual basis.

The Student Council meets every two weeks and students discuss a wide variety of subjects suggested by both staff and the students themselves. The School Council plays an important role in the recruitment of new staff as they  to ask in-depth questions about elements of the role that they find important.  The role of Student Council representative enables students to develop valuable communication skills as they work with different members of our school community.

The Student Council members take great pride in their school and in their ability to play a significant role in its life and development.