As National Offer Day arrives, we are delighted to welcome Year 6 students offered a place by the Local Authority Admissions Team to Outwood Academy Normanby from September 2021. We would like to take the opportunity to wish parents and children a warm welcome to our school community. We understand that parents and carers want the very best for their children and we aim to build a close, friendly and effective relationship with families that will directly benefit their children’s education.
As you know, Outwood Academy Normanby opened on the 1 September 2019. Our school is on a rapid transformation journey, within the Outwood Grange Academies Trust (OGAT), and we are determined to raise standards and in turn transform the live chances of our young people. We are proud that every year since opening we have been oversubscribed for places in Year 7, and that this year we again received a record number of first choice applications, far exceeding those of the predecessor school.
At this stage, given the challenges of Covid, we are not yet in a position to confirm the format of Year 6 Transition days and parents’ evening that usually would take place in July in each year. It is intended that all Redcar & Cleveland secondary schools coordinate those dates once the situation regarding changes to lockdown arrangements and social distancing become apparent in the weeks and months ahead. We really do hope this can go ahead, where Year 6 students would spend time with their peers and VMG tutors and start to experience a typical Year 7 timetable at the school. The opportunity to help students get used to the routines of the school, and thus ensure they have established themselves with their new teachers and subjects before the summer holidays, always goes down well.
Likewise, we are not yet able to confirm the dates regarding the issuing of free academy uniform to our new Year 7 students. The fitting and measurements day would normally occur during one of the transition days in July, with uniform collection on a day in August during the school holidays.
During next few months, Ms Gibson (Associate Assistant Principal, Transition), Mrs Laverick (Learning Manager for Year 7), and Mrs Holliday (Inclusion Coordinator) will be visiting primary schools to meet Year 6 teachers to gather helpful transition information. Colleagues from several of our partner primary schools will also be working alongside Year 6 students at the Academy during the Transition Week in July, and beforehand as part of the Transition process.
*IMPORTANT: We have written to Year 6 parents of children offered a place to ask them to to complete a very short online form so we have a quicker means of communication with them moving forwards, rather than just by letter. It would also be very helpful if parents/carers could also confirm via the online form if their child will be taking their place at Outwood Academy Normanby, that we have the correct details and that parents are happy for us to text them in future when there is important information to pass on, including the transition and uniform arrangements.
The online form link is available within the letter posted home. If parents/carers have any issues completing the online form, they should email Ms Gibson via c.gibson@normanby.outwood.com
Parents will appreciate that we are completely full again in Year 7 for next academic year, and so any information about students not taking up a place will be really helpful in terms of managing the anticipated appeals for places.
Finally, on our website we will be updating our dedicated page for Year 6 parents and children here:
www.normanby.outwood.com/transition It has lots of information, and answers to common questions from last year’s transition. We hope you will find it useful, and there is a contact form to complete if you have a query that the answer to isn’t displayed on the page.
We all look forward to meeting our new students and parents in the summer.