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03/12/23

A 6-2 victory for our U16 boys football team in the 2nd round of the Surrey Cup. After being down straight after the first whistle, the boys managed to pull it back and gain control of the game. Goals from Daejharn ⚽️ Jay-Jay ⚽️ and a hatrick from Jamal ⚽️⚽️⚽️MOTM - Jamal 👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/oW7L7ZLqgK

30/11/23

Year 11 are making the most of expert advice on effective revision this morning 📚 pic.twitter.com/EN92hGXsWF

29/11/23

Passing the torch of leadership: Year 11 prefects share insights as they mentor new hopefuls through the art of impactful election speeches! pic.twitter.com/3unSsb7XSk

26/11/23

🏆 YR 10/11 MERTON BOROUGH BASKETBALL CHAMPIONS 🏆 A smashing performance from our boys who were undefeated in the tournament. They will now proceed to represent Merton at the 🏀⛹🏽 pic.twitter.com/sX08tOL3UD

24/11/23

Year 10 Business and IT students at Skills London, the UK’s largest jobs and careers event for 14 – 24-year-olds! pic.twitter.com/snwt48j4QU

23/11/23

This week Yr 9 are baking chocolate brownies in Food Tech! pic.twitter.com/2AAY8Ov9iG

23/11/23

Prefects in action: Crafting the blueprint for an assembly that introduces the future leaders – a glimpse into the exciting journey of new prefect elections. pic.twitter.com/dwZekkDMXB

14/11/23

Our Year 10 boys football team played Forest Hill in the 2nd round of the London Cup today. A clinical performance with 4-1 victory puts them through to the next round🤞🏼🍀Goals from Daejharn ⚽️ Jamal ⚽️ and Zion ⚽️⚽️MOTM - Luis 👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/ZMcSMe1Bqn

14/11/23

Yr 10 GCSE Food Tech students are cooking rice dishes this week pic.twitter.com/Lu092UkMhr

10/11/23

School prefects honor the solemnity of Armistice Day, uniting in remembrance as they lay a wreath at the Merton Armistice Service to pay tribute to those who sacrificed for peace. pic.twitter.com/0VbSVBWrLD

07/11/23

Our Year 7 Netball team have arrived at their first Borough Netball competition. A warm up and quick team talk before they get started 🍀🏐🤞🏼 pic.twitter.com/fPU1ByeBLb

06/11/23

Year 9 are studying vegetarianism and making veggie curry in Food Tech this week! pic.twitter.com/91IQbBWaGW

14/10/23

🏆 U16 Merton Borough Table Tennis Champions 🏆A smashing performance today at the borough competition. The boys will now go through to the Final Best of 8 next month. A massive thanks to Coach Jag who has progressed these boys so much! pic.twitter.com/VvRFixsk5j

13/10/23

Prefects designing the food of the future focusing on sustainability. Options include: butterfly wing crisps, ant breakfast bars and cell cultured meat pic.twitter.com/H5Iu4DOH3u

11/10/23

Yesterday the Year 9 Netball team competed at the Borough tournament. Out of 10 teams they came 3rd with only losing 1 game against a very strong opposition 🥉 Thank you for hosting 🙌🏼POTM -Genesis 👏🏽 pic.twitter.com/IkWa7dwWFs

10/10/23

Yesterday some of our KS3 girls had an incredible day learning outside the Academy experiencing the wonders of Science at pic.twitter.com/FnzMr8hDJS

04/10/23

Two more stops on our trip! Firstly, Ypres Town to see the Menin Gate and then Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery. Great day, packed full of history had by all. pic.twitter.com/6k0F794Jtk

04/10/23

Second stop - students visited Sanctuary Wood where they saw weapons and used stereoviews to look at original images from the war. They then spent time in the trenches! pic.twitter.com/5dUrWlH4BS

04/10/23

The Passchendaele Museum has been the first stop in Belgium for our year 9 historians. Students walked through the dugouts and engaged with many different artefacts from the World War. pic.twitter.com/tsDS5W6vxn

03/10/23

Year 11 Geographers are collecting data this week in Battersea to support their investigation on regeneration and it’s impact on the community pic.twitter.com/tK7dAiSDl1

Harris Academies
All Academies in our Federation aim to transform the lives of the students they serve by bringing about rapid improvement in examination results, personal development and aspiration.

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    Literacy

    Literacy

    Reading, writing, vocabulary acquisition and oracy are the key priorities for literacy at Harris Academy Merton. For a piece of text to be fully understood, 95% of the words must be known to the reader. However, only around 2000 words make up 80% of our spoken language. We therefore explicitly teach key words to students across the curriculum and have a structured approach to talk in the classroom to develop students’ language through SPEAK.

    SPEAK

     

     

    Reading Ages

    All students are tested for their reading age (NGRT reading tests) when they join the Academy and subsequently twice a year. The current reading age of students are included in reports to parents. Students who are identified as needing extra support in Year 7 will take part in a Literacy intervention programme. This includes completing the lexia programme, taking part in paired reading with sixth formers or small group reading with the Librarian.

     

    Bedrock

    All students in Key Stage Three (Year 7-9) complete weekly English homework using the Bedrock online platform: https://bedrocklearning.org/. This explicitly teaches students new vocabulary. As a parent, you also have access to the work your child is doing on Bedrock. Using the access code provided by the school, you can access your child’s account to understand their progress. You can see the words they are learning each week and can weave them into family conversations to ensure even more language practise.

     

    DEAR time

    All students at Harris Academy Merton take part in weekly Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) during tutor time. Year 7 tutor groups read a set text as a tutor group. Texts read include Boy 87, Hacker, Sawbones, Liccle Bit, Windrush Child, October October and Ghost Boys. Students in Year 8-11 in vertical tutor groups read their own book from home or the school library.

     

    The Library

    The School library is open from 7.45am-3.45pm each day, and has over 11,000 books. Students can use the library before school, at break and lunch times and after school. All students in Year 7 and 8 have an English lesson in the Library weekly, taking part in the Accelerated Reader Programme. This matches students’ reading age to books which will accelerate their reading ability.

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    Free access to books online

    • Oxford Owl - expert advice, educational resources and free eBooks to support children's learning at home, from Oxford University Press.
    • Audible.com - Free trial of audible books for all ages. There are a range of categories to choose from and the texts on offer cover a range of ages. Audiobooks are becoming increasingly popular and are predicted to overtake the sales of ebooks in 2020 (National Literacy Trust). The research review found that audiobooks can improve children’s reading skills and enjoyment of reading, support children’s emotional and mental wellbeing, improve children’s reading comprehension and widen access to books.
    • Project Gutenberg - The Project Gutenberg website offers over 60, 000 free eBooks. Your daughter can choose to download this as a Kindle book or read online. This website is completely free to use and does not require any registration.  
    • Literacy Trust: The Book of Hopes. Completely free for all children and families, the extraordinary collection of short stories, poems, essays and pictures has contributions from more than 110 children’s writers and illustrators, including Lauren Child, Anthony Horowitz, Greg James and Chris Smith, Michael Morpurgo, Liz Pichon, Axel Scheffler, Francesca Simon and Jacqueline Wilson.
    • www.poetrystation.org.uk. This website focuses on providing recordings of poetry to help students engage in the auditory nature of poems and language.
    • The National Literacy Trust's Family Zone is a comprehensive web portal for parents and guardians. There are activities for all age groups which will engage children at home, whilst also benefiting their reading, writing and language development. Currently the Family Zone only provides resources for students up to the age of 12, however secondary school students as well. 
    • www.booktrust.org.uk - The Book Trust website offers a range of resources linked to children’s literature, as well as a resource for recommending books that your daughter might be interested in reading moving forward.
    • www.goodreads.com - The Good Reads website is free to join. On this website, your daughter can write reviews of books she has read, search through book lists and recommendations and take part in quizzes on novels.