News

The Academy had an important visitor recently which produced a lot of excitement for staff and students alike:

On Wednesday 27th March, the Academy community was honoured to welcome the Archbishop of Canterbury during his Holy Week mission to Maidstone. This was such an honour for the academy, and one that will stay with our students and staff for a lifetime.

To start our morning there was a visit to the chapel, where a beautiful new cross, made by Mr Freed, was blessed by the Archbishop in a ceremony attended by student representatives from each year group. What an amazing way to honour our special chapel, and what a memory for our students!

Then it was off to the hall. Mrs James led the students in a beautiful assembly where the Archbishop shared stories about his childhood, the King’s coronation and how he came to wear a cross made out nails around his neck before taking questions from our youngsters. It was fantastic to see how excited our students were to get to speak to the Archbishop!

After the assembly, the Archbishop received a little thank you from SAA. This was by way of a scrapbook of work KS3 had produced all about the Archbishop, he was so happy to receive it and said ‘…I will have good read of it as I travel around Maidstone visiting different places this week!’

Thank you to Mrs James for all her hard work and organisation in making this happen, and a sincere thank you to the Archbishop and his team for an unforgettable visit.