Welcome to
Harris Academy South Norwood
Sam Hainey - Principal
Dear all,
Sam Hainey - Principal
As we move towards the end of this term, we have a huge number of successes and achievements to celebrate. It is a privilege to be the Principal of Harris Academy South Norwood and to lead such a dedicated team of staff and students. Some personal moments for me this term include:
- Hearing the new HASN anthem which was the output of the creative talents of Mr Perry and the students who chose this as 3 –day project during Innovation week. Listening to the words of the anthem and seeing the students sing it at staff briefing, made me very proud. It will be launched formally at our Christmas concert
- Walking around the Academy on the Friday of Innovation Week and seeing a pond built (for Science projects), seeing students racing the own cars that they built, seeing a superb living mural in Art and listening to the positive feedback from students as they left the Academy
- Our Year 7s coming in first place during the Federation Mathematics Challenge, the first time we have won it
- Seeing Rutendo in Year 13 hosting the HASN fashion show and closing the event with an amazing singing performance
- Watching HASN’s version of “So you think you have talent?” and seeing just how much talent our students have – congratulations to the overall winner, Taahirah in Year 8
- Seeing the student basketball team absolutely trounce the staff basketball team 52-37 during what was supposed to be a competitive match!
We have launched three new initiatives this term: a new student centred model for Academic Target Setting day, Innovation Week and our independent learning projects at KS3. Feedback from the Parent Council showed that that these have been very successful and we should continue with these initiatives. We plan to build on the feedback so we can improve even further.
At the end of the target setting meeting, parents/carers completed our survey about their perceptions of the Academy, some of which I would share as follows:
- 98% strongly agreed/agreed that the target setting day was beneficial
- 96% strongly agreed/agreed that their child makes good progress at the Academy
- 98.5% strongly agreed/agreed that their child was well looked after
- 97.6% strongly agreed/agreed that the Academy makes sure students are well behaved
- 97.6% strongly agreed/agreed that the Academy is well led and managed
Our Year 11 students have already sat their GCSE Mathematics examinations (results in January) and they sit their English examination on January 10th. I wish all the Year 11 and Post-16 students who are sitting public examinations in January all the very best of luck. Parents/carers need to ensure a lot of revision is carried out over the holidays! As ever, many thanks for the support of all our parents/carers in ensuring students are in perfect uniform and well prepared for learning. I hope you enjoy reading this latest edition of Insight – I am sure you will agree that there is much to celebrate.
Sam Hainey - Principal
