Dixons Unity Academy

Lights, camera, action! 🎬🌟

Today, our students had the privilege of attending the Rethink Food Foundation launch at Cineworld, White Rose, where their fantastic music video production highlighting the important issue of food poverty was showcased on the big screen.

We are incredibly proud of the creativity, confidence and maturity our students demonstrated. They were an absolute credit to the school and represented us brilliantly throughout not only this afternoon but also during the filming of the video.

A huge well done to everyone involved in such a meaningful project! 👏💚

Our Year 10 students had a fantastic time at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Julius Caesar! Lilly H was lucky enough to be selected for the important role of holding a prop for the cast.

What a fantastic opportunity for our students to see Shakespeare’s work performed by some of the best actors. The mood was high on the bus back to school!

Good attendance pays!

If your child has perfect attendance until the last day of term, then they'll be entered into a prize draw to win a £50 voucher! There's one per year group, plus one for Connect, so make sure your child is showing resilience and attending every day to be in with a chance!

📣 SAVE THE DATE!

🎄 Dixons Unity Academy Winter Fayre
📅 Saturday 28 November 2026
⏰ 11:00am - 2:00pm
📍 Whingate Road, LS12 3DS
💷 £1 entry

Expect festive fun for all the family, including:
🎅 Santa's Grotto
🎨 Christmas crafts
🎟️ Raffle
🛍️ Stalls
☕ Hot chocolate
🥪 Christmas sandwiches
🏰 Bouncy castle

🍫 FREE Christmas chocolate bar for the first 100 children!

Everyone is welcome - we look forward to celebrating the festive season with you. 🎄✨

Dear families,

As we move into the colder months, I am sure many students and families will be pleased to hear that students will be permitted to wear coats outdoors on school grounds. This includes the piazza and MUGA areas. We will implement this change after we return from the October half-term break. To ensure a smooth start to every lesson, students must remove their coats before entering the building, including during lineup, so that they are ready to begin learning as quickly as possible when they arrive in class.
We were delighted by the exceptional turnout at our Year 11 Revision Evening on Thursday. Thank you to all the families who attended. We greatly appreciate the support you are providing as your children enter this crucial final stage of their journey at Dixons Unity. By working together, we can help ensure every student secures the qualifications they need to access the next step in their education and future career. A link to the presentations, along with a QR code for feedback at the end of the presentation, can be found below.

https://www.dixonsua.com/news/principals-update-2-october-2026

We continue to maintain a strong focus on excellent attendance. We cannot stress enough how important it is for students to attend school every day. Every lesson matters and missing just a small amount of school can have a significant impact on learning and achievement. Please continue to encourage your child to attend every day unless they are genuinely unwell. Remember, 90% attendance equates to approximately 19 days of missed learning across the school year, while even 97% attendance means around 6 days have been missed. Last year, the average Year 11 student with 100% attendance achieved around two grades higher in each subject than a student with 80% attendance. Attendance truly matters and gives students the very best chance of success. Whole school attendance continues to improve. At the same point last year it was 91.1% this year it is 92.4%. Thank you for supporting us with this.

I would also like to highlight the fantastic range of enrichment opportunities available at Dixons Unity. Although the formal school day ends at 3.00pm, students are encouraged to stay and participate in a variety of clubs and activities. These opportunities help develop cultural capital, build valuable skills, nurture talents and, just as importantly, allow students to enjoy spending time with their friends. Students have been provided with a timetable showing the full range of activities on offer, and I hope to see as many students as possible taking advantage of these opportunities.

Building self-determination amongst all stakeholders is central to our vision for excellence at Dixons Unity. We want our students, staff, families and wider community to develop the confidence, motivation and ownership needed to make positive choices and continually improve. By fostering self-determination, we encourage students to take responsibility for their learning, behaviour and future aspirations, while strengthening the partnerships between home and school that are so important to success. Through shared responsibility, high expectations and a culture of mutual respect, we aim to create an environment where everyone is empowered to contribute, thrive and drive excellence across our academy community.

Please continue to encourage your child to embrace our core drivers:
Mastery – The drive to get better at something that matters.
Autonomy – The drive to direct our own lives.
Purpose – The drive to contribute to something larger than ourselves.
If anybody has any brilliant ideas of how we can embed our drivers more securely, please contact Miss Paddy.

James Inman
Principal

Dixons Unity Academy | Principal's update - 2 October 2026 We feel privileged to be serving the community and are fully committed to improve the outcomes for our children.

Year 7 are making a great start to their textiles lessons, working hard to make sure they fully understand health and safety before they start working with tools!

🌟 A huge thank you to our Year 11 families! 🌟

What a fantastic turnout for our Year 11 Revision Evening tonight! It was wonderful to see such a full room, with so many of our young people and their families coming together to support learning and preparation for the important months ahead. 📚✨

As our Year 11 students look towards their upcoming exams, the partnership between students, families and school makes such a difference. Thank you for giving up your evening, for asking questions, and most importantly, for showing our young people just how much we are all behind them. 💚

📝 We’d love to hear from you!
If you haven’t already, please take a few minutes to complete our post-event feedback form:
👉 https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/dPZxT6Q9A4

Your feedback is really important to us and will help us continue to plan events and provide information and support that genuinely helps our students and families.

Thank you for your continued support – and well done, Year 11! The hard work starts now, and we’re with you every step of the way. 🙌📚

📢 Calling all Year 7 parents!

We only have 7 places left on our Newby Wiske Residential in February!

Don't miss out - secure your child's place today via ParentPay.

Missed our open evening? Want to check out Dixons Unity and find out if it's for you?

Contact our reception on 0113 5125530 or [email protected] to arrange a tour!

📚 FREE GCSE REVISION SUPPORT – OPEN TO ALL STUDENTS! 📚

We’re pleased to share a fantastic FREE revision opportunity available to all students who would benefit from some extra support with their GCSE studies.

TeamDaniel Armley Revision Hub is back from Wednesday 30 September, offering a supportive and relaxed environment where students can build confidence, strengthen their revision and prepare for their exams.

📅 Every Wednesday�⏰ 6:30pm – 8:00pm�📍 Christ Church, Armley, LS12 3LN

Students can access:
✅ FREE group revision sessions�📚 FREE revision materials�🎯 Exam support�👩‍🏫 Support from a qualified tutor�☕ Snacks plus hot and cold drinks

This is a great opportunity for students to get some additional revision and exam preparation outside of school – completely free of charge.

We strongly encourage students to make the most of opportunities like this as they work towards their GCSEs. Every extra bit of revision counts! 🌟

Please see the poster for further details and share with any families who may benefit.