NewslettersNewsletter 12.02.26

This week is National Apprenticeships Week. On Thursday, the whole of year 12 participated in an apprenticeships workshop morning hosted by Deloitte, where they learnt more about what apprenticeships are, the different types of apprenticeships on offer, and what the application process is like. On Tuesday morning, year 10 participated in a careers drop-down morning where they learnt about the range of post-16 options, including apprenticeships and heard from apprenticeship providers and current apprentices. Two of the apprentices, Dylan Mahon and Rowan Adcock, were former students of All Saints’ – it was brilliant to get them speaking to students in classrooms and answering questions about what it’s like to follow this pathway.

If any year 11 or 13 students are looking to progress into apprenticeships when they leave us, now is the time to be searching for options and applying. Generally, apprenticeships are advertised via https://www.findapprenticeship.service.gov.uk/apprenticeshipsearch or Indeed. Some can be found directly on employers’ websites. If any student would like support applying for an apprenticeship or to prepare for an interview or assessment centre, they should come and find Mrs Farrow, who will be happy to help. 

The panel were hugely impressed with our Year 10 students’ idea to launch the ASA Sustainable Uniform Drop-in shop. Our Year 10 student Changemakers team have collected feedback from student voice and Pupil Premium statistics and shared that affording new uniform for ever-growing young people is a huge issue for many families across Cheltenham. The students decided that they wanted funding to set up and launch their Drop In shop to provide a more sustainable, pre-loved and repair system to help students across all year groups with their uniform. The project states that the Changemakers students will communicate with students, families and members of the community to ask for donations of any outgrown pieces of the Academy uniform to be dropped off in the drop-off box in reception. There would be a ‘drop off and donate’ phase at the end of each large term (December, April and July), where a week-long timeline will be provided for families to drop off and donate any outgrown pieces of uniform that students won’t use anymore. The Changemakers team will then use the funding that they have secured to repair and deep-clean all donated items, and then sort them into age groups, presenting them neatly as pre-loved but new items that students can come and collect for free during the ASA Sustainable Drop-In break times. Their application bid included costing for sewing machines, repairing materials, a donation storage box and the initial ‘pop up shop’ launch materials.
 
 More information will be shared on this soon, but we are so proud of our Academy students for identifying the need for change, for talking with the students to see how they could help out and for using their own initiative and strategic planning to launch what hopes to be a transformative sustainability project.

Written by student journalist Emily Moore.

Year 7 student Paddy recently competed in the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) championships in Belgrade, Serbia following his previous success in the world championship.

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is a full-contact combat sport, which combines a variety of fighting techniques and skills from other combat sports. Developing a passion for the sport at such a young age has enabled Paddy to travel and compete for his team and country in hopes of pursuing a career in the sport.

The IMMAF is a governing body of MMA and works on developing, regulating and promoting the sport. It focuses on safety, rules and coaching standards in hopes of one day achieving Olympic recognition.

A win and loss through unanimous decision saw Paddy take home bronze in the competition. He states that he found the overall experience enjoyable and despite his nerves, managed to stay calm and achieved taking home a medal following his successes.

Student success is something we recognise as an Academy, and we strive towards making sure students reach their full potential.

We congratulate Paddy and wish him the best in his future competitions.