QKA recently welcomed Peterborough’s new Member of Parliament, Fiona Onasanya to the Academy to meet with staff and students.

Ms Onasanya was elected as the city’s MP in June 2017 and has been visiting city schools and business leaders since being elected. On her visit she was given a tour of the school, discussed the benefits of collaboration between schools, particularly the role of the new Thomas Deacon Education Trust, and answered questions from the student leadership team and head boy and girl.

Ms Onasanya explained to the students that she refers to herself as ‘MP Fi’ – an acronym for ‘making people feel inspired’ – and made clear that where people start in life has no limits on where they can go.

Fiona said: “I am a firm believer that location says nothing about destination because where you start in life has no bearing on who you can become and what you can achieve. It was great to see how our young people here felt that they not only belong, but were happy to challenge and contribute. I look forward to working closely with the school and see this continue.

 “I was particularly impressed by the engaging lessons that I saw. My memories of school lessons were full of a teacher standing at the front of the class writing and reading from text books – the modern lesson has moved on a long way from this and teachers have real passion and creativity in the way they talk about their subjects and encourage learning. This is much more engaging and stimulating for our young people and gives them ‘real-life’ applications to the ideas they are learning about.

“Peterborough schools do need to improve the attainment outcomes for pupils and I am keen to work with the city’s education leaders to improve collaboration and ensure every student receives the best education experience and opportunities in life.”

Fiona also commented that she was impressed by the environment and ethos that has been created by our new leadership team and Trust.  She expressed it was evident that providing the right opportunities, knowledge and guidance is given, much can be done.  All agreed that significant improvements have already taken place and the students are mature and responsible young adults

Scott Hudson, Principal of Queen Katharine Academy said: “It has been our pleasure to welcome Fiona to Queen Katharine Academy for the first time to see the school in action and get a real feel for environment we have created for our children. Queen Katharine Academy is rapidly improving its outcomes for pupils, and we consistently achieve some of the highest Post-16 results in the city.

“As she lives locally Fiona really is part of the community and it has been great that we have been able to extend our welcome to her coming to visit for the morning. We look forward to future events and collaborations with Fiona in the future.”