Open Evening Success

Message from our Principal

I wanted to start with a huge thank you to all students who helped out at our Year 6 Open Evening last night. All the students I spoke to were enthusiastic, knowledgeable about the school and so polite and friendly to all of visitors. There was some lovely feedback from Year 6 families, and the conduct of current students featured heavily. Please say well done to them. 

I would like to give a particular shout out to the four Year 7 pupils, and 2 Year 12 students who spoke with me as part of my Principal’s presentation; it is nerve wracking for anyone to speak to three hundred strangers, but particularly so for young people! A huge well done, and a personal thank you from me to them. 

I’m also delighted to announce that we have been awarded a certificate by FFT (Fisher Family Trust, an educational organisation) for our attendance. In the summer term we were in the top 25% of schools nationally for attendance, and importantly, the top 25% of schools in similar contexts. Attendance is the thing that will make a difference to a child’s education. While we do talk about attendance in terms of percentages, what might seem like a high number to achieve in a  test, actually represents a high number of days of missed learning. Well done to those students who are still in the draw for our ‘attendane streak’ before half term, winners will be drawn in morning welcome on Thursday morning!

I’m also delighted to announce that our Summer 2026 data has been posted on the Department for Education website, and I’m delighted to announce that our Attainment 8 score is 51.3, and our percentage of pupils achieving 5+ in English and Maths is 57%. These scores are our best in a decade, and place us above local and national averages. 

These scores also place us top of all schools in Huntingdonshire, and first in Astrea for our English and Maths scores. (We were very narrowly pipped to number one for Attainment 8 in Astrea by one of our sister schools in Cambridgeshire.) We are so proud of how our Year 11 pupils have worked last year, and we are delighted to have retained over 80 of them into our Year 12 at St Ivo Sixth Form. 

Have a lovely weekend. 

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Post-16 Provider Event

St Ivo Sixth Form on Monday 19 October, from 5.30–7.00pm. Parents/carers and Year 11 students are invited to join us here where there will be a range of providers available to meet, ask questions and find out more about the opportunities and courses available. 

Providers attending are St Ivo Sixth Form, Stageworks, Ramsey Gatehouse, Long Road , MPCT Military College, College of West Anglia, Northstowe, Impington Sixth Form, Hills Road, Hinchingbrooke, Cambridge Regional College, Cambridge Maths School, Cambridge Academy of Science and Technology and College of Animal Welfare 

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Open Evening Success

Thank you to the more than 600 families who attended our Open Evening. We hope you had an enjoyable and informative evening and that you were able to experience the welcoming atmosphere, outstanding opportunities and vibrant community that make St Ivo Academy such a special place to learn and grow.

It was a pleasure to meet so many prospective students and their families, and we hope you enjoyed exploring our facilities, taking part in departmental activities and speaking with our staff and students. We are incredibly proud of our academy, and it was wonderful to share it with you.

We had Year 7 Drama students dressed up, pizza tasters being made from our new food rooms, full canteen taster sessions, dance performances, scavenger hunts, making your own guitar pick and so much more!

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New Student Food Rooms

We’re delighted to reveal our newly refurbished Food & Nutrition rooms at St Ivo Academy!

Thanks to funding from Astrea Academy Trust and the Savoy Education Trust, we’ve transformed two teaching kitchens with brand-new ovens, workstations, equipment and learning technology.

A huge thank you to:

Cambridge Sign Company for the fantastic wall vinyl wrap

Octavius Infrastructure for donating aprons and pasta machines

HBC Kitchens And Bathrooms for supplying and fitting the kitchens

Our amazing site team for supporting with fitting, painting, plumbing and so much more!

We’re also incredibly proud of our students and families, whose fundraising efforts will help us purchase even more equipment chosen by the students themselves.

We can’t wait to see the amazing creations and skills developed in these fantastic new facilities!

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Year 7 Live Broadcast from British Museum

For the 960^th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, our wonderful Y7s participated in the online live broadcast from the British Museum about the Bayeux Tapestry. The tapestry is on loan to the British Museum in commemoration of the anniversary, and this event allowed us to bring this wonderful artefact to our students in the comfort of our own school! All students participated wonderfully, and asked fantastic questions. 

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Dance Trip to the Theatre

Last week our Dance students went to watch Sylvia the musical. Sylvia is an Olivier Award-winning hip-hop, funk, and soul musical that tells the story of suffragist Sylvia Pankhurst and her split from her family’s militant campaign for women’s votes to fight for working-class women. Students also got to meet St Ivo alumna Collette Guitart who played Clementine Churchill in show.

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American Pen Pals

Exciting opportunity for students to exchange letters with American students as pen pals! Students will need to write letters (not emails or Snapchats!) and will get letters in return in a pen pal programme we are hopefully going to run. Students from all years are welcome to join in, from Year 7 to Year 13! Please get in touch with email Miss Purton at hannah.purton@astreaststivo.org if you’re interested or want to learn more.