Welcome to our online admissions portal
I am delighted to welcome your son/daughter to The JCB Academy and I wish them the very best in their future studies with us.
We pride ourselves in not only the way that we develop the academic knowledge and technical skills of learners at The JCB Academy, but also the way that we develop the behaviours that will be expected of them in the place of work. We cannot attain our vision of developing engineers and business leaders of the future without fully preparing them in these behaviours. We know that employers value these behaviours as much as they do academic achievement and all our employer partners help and assist us in the development of these.
We are very clear on our intent and since the inception of The JCB Academy we have been highly successful in delivering learners into the engineering and business sectors. I therefore ask you to ensure that the reason you are sending your son/daughter to The JCB Academy is because they aspire to have a successful career in one of these sectors. If this is not the case and there are other reasons for choosing The JCB Academy, then I urge you to carefully consider whether this is the appropriate learning environment for them. If the answer is no, then please let us know so that their place can be offered to another learner on our waiting list.
Please be assured that we of course welcome learners regardless of ability or circumstance, but it is essential that they understand the expectations we have in terms of study and our high standards in terms of behaviour. Later on in the summer term you will be invited to a parents’ information evening where our curriculum and expectations will be explained in more detail.
You will be aware that we have two Saturday induction days scheduled over the coming months. The first of these is on 16 March 2024. This is our first opportunity to meet your son/daughter and we do believe that first impressions count. My staff and I will be ensuring that we make a positive first impression and I hope your son/daughter will also try their best to do this. We therefore ask that they dress in an appropriate way, i.e. smart attire, preferably their school uniform, but as a minimum smart trousers (no jeans) or skirt, shirts and shoes (no trainers).
We will open our gates at 9:00am so we ask that you drop your son/daughter off between 9:00am and 9:15am. The day is planned to end around 2:00pm. You are more than welcome to use our car park and wait for your son/daughter or you may wish to simply drop them off and collect them later.
During the day they will personally experience our standards and expectations. We really want the learners to understand exactly what our expectations are. We choose to do this so everyone is quite clear on what we expect and there are no surprises for anyone. Please be aware that if learners do not meet our expectations, we may ask you to collect them or try and meet you at the end of the day to discuss this further.
Of course, these days are not only about us reinforcing our expectations they are very important in helping to remove the anxiety about moving schools and allowing your son/daughter the opportunity to build relationships amongst their peers and my staff.
They may have to get used to things being very formal and organised, but we hope they also enjoy themselves and we make them feel more comfortable about the change they are about to make.
Over the course of the two induction days we will be running baseline assessments in reading and spelling for learners joining Y9 and in mathematics for those joining Y10. Your son/daughter will not need to prepare in advance for these assessments and they will be run online in a similar way to the cognitive ability test (CAT) which learners took as part of the admissions process. The outcomes of these assessments and the CAT results will help us gain a better understanding of each learner’s ability prior to joining us and will be used to ensure we can provide extra support if needed.
I will be writing to each learner to welcome them to The JCB Academy and to explain what to expect. In addition to the two induction days, your son/daughter will also be invited to come into the academy so that one of my senior team can meet them personally; you will be able to book this meeting as part of the acceptance process. In this meeting, which will just be between a member of my staff and the learner, we will simply be asking them questions so that we get to know a little bit about them, what their main anxieties are, how we can support them and what they hope to achieve at The JCB Academy. We do this with no other learners present so that they can express themselves honestly. There are no wrong answers and there is no pass or fail, so there is nothing for them to worry about. Recognising that it is probably at the end of a long day for parents/carers, the invitation is also extended to you and you will be able to wait in our restaurant where refreshments will be provided.
We are looking forward to working with you over the next few years in developing your son/daughter into a young person who has the intellectual horsepower, technical knowledge and behaviours to cope with the demands of their next destination. I am sure we share the very same intent of simply wanting the best for the young people who we are responsible for.
Yours sincerely
Mr J Bailey
Interim Principal
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