Opening our second site!

After the successes of our summer mentoring program in the 6-week break, we had little time to ruminate.

We were quickly back to work with the opening of our second site, our new staffing recruits, and an influx of children from across Greater Manchester.

During this period of development, a quote I once heard has remained at the forefront of my thoughts. ‘If we are growing, we’re always going to be out of our comfort zone’. And with more teething problems than a toddler, we expectedly faced some challenges.

Fortunately, as I look back on these challenges, they are overshadowed by a 7-week term packed with progress and enjoyment.

The paramount highlight being how quickly our new students have settled in and bought into our values at Ace. Each one of them has made considerable progress academically and personally. From our KS4 students who are preparing for their GCSE exams and completing their coursework to our KS3 students who are continuously working towards their personal targets.

This term, I have been privileged to witness our students improve in English, particularly with the use of their growing vocabulary and competency in writing. I have also seen them evolve as citizens when taking part in work around consent, knife crime, and human rights in Personal Development.

The kudos for this progress lies with our new teaching and support staff. Their hard work, adaptiveness, and dedication to building relationships with our students have seen them become invaluable members of our community.

As the run-up to Christmas approaches, we look forward to sharing more insights in to the journey our students take with us. Finally, I would like to welcome to the team, Aimee, Rachel, Natasha, Waqas, Callum, and Danielle.