Dear Parents and carers

We are now proud to be 'The Freeston Academy' as the 7th secondary school in Wakefield to now have the freedoms and flexibilities of Academy status. We look forward to sharing best practice with other schools and bringing about even greater improvements in the future.

Academies form an integral part of the Government's education policy to raise attainment for all children. We will now be in a position to bid for additional funding to improve our buildings, and also negotiate the best possible value of services we require to run the academy.

As part of our launch we have had an academy breakfast for staff and students and we unveiled the new school mosaic which has taken two years to create. Students from every year group worked together under the direction of local mosaic artist Julie Hand in an after school club to produce the mosaic figures on a sporting theme. This is a tremendous achievement which has required skill, dedication and tenacity to complete in time for the launch on 1.11.11. To celebrate this, our Chairman of the Freeston Foundation Trustees, Mr Allan Blaza conducted the official opening, as the trustees originally commissioned the piece of work and provided the funding.

Students, staff, governors and community representatives have discussed what key themes are important to us, and we are in the process of launching a campaign over the coming weeks which demonstrates the new branding of the Freeston Academy. Each of our themes are linked to the successes achieved by our young people. This process was facilitated by outside expertise from Michael Dodd, the eminent broadcaster and media guru, David Taylor lifecoach, and Blackink, a local advertising agency. Students are looking forward to applying for the position of Academy Ambassadors, and we has been invited to attend the launch meeting of 'Business Class', where national companies pair up with Academies to provide internships and immersion placements for Freeston's high achieving students.

We know the school already makes a positive difference within the Altofts and Normanton district. We will continue to work in partnership with our family of schools, for all our students, to build brighter futures.

Dr Gill Metcalfe, Principal, The Freeston Academy.