Today saw the beginning of ‘live lessons’ for Year 9 to complement the narrated and pre-recorded resources on offer. I know that Mr Avery and Miss Clarke are working really hard to support full engagement with these lessons. A reminder that the link to join a live lesson can be found at the top of the subject page as indicated below.
By now all families should have received a phone call from their form tutor which we hope has been helpful. Again if there have been any issues with this please contact the Head of Year in the first instance.
Whilst attendance to and engagement with lessons are both very good across school I would like to politely remind families that it is our expectation that all students will attend all lessons unless they are poorly or are having issues logging on to their Google Classroom. If you are having technical issues please do not hesitate to contact school and we will provide support.
PSHCE and Guidance work in Google Classrooms
There are set resources for students to now work on during their PSHCE/Guidance lessons, students can find this in their Year Group classroom in the classwork section and then all they need to do is click the link for the lesson and watch the videos, answer the questions and complete the quizzes. Year 8 have a series of lessons on being a citizen and Year 9 are looking at identity. If students haven’t accessed these resources yet then not worry as they can start on L1 and work through it weekly. If there are any questions about this then please send Kirsty Hollinger the Lead of PSHCE an email (khollinger@archbishopholgates.org).
Online AHS Spring Music Concert
As we would normally be preparing for our annual AHS Musical Show around this time, I thought it would be wonderful if we could put together a video of performances and compositions from students in years 7-13 performing at home during this second ‘lockdown’ period.
Please send Mrs Morrison an audio and video version (landscape is preferable) of the performance and an audio recording from a composition if your son or daughter would like to be involved. It can be any style (it doesn’t have to be a song from a musical – although it could be) and any instrument, including voice. It should be no more than 3 minutes long. We would also like to include some student artwork/images to accompany the video recording so if there are any AHS artists who would like to be involved in this project, please send those to Mrs Morrison as well.
‘We Transfer’ is the best way to send a recording and very easy. Select the free option and you just need to enter Mrs Morrison’s email and your own email and add the file.
Please contact Mrs Morrison for further information: Cmorrison@archbishopholgates.org
Online learning survey
If families haven’t had a chance to fill in the short survey below it would be much appreciated if you could find a couple of minutes to do so. Thank you.
Critical Workers
If you are a Critical Worker (CLICK HERE for who qualifies) and you NEED your child to attend school during Lockdown, we are asking that you inform us about when you need your child to be in school.
It would be very much appreciated if you can tell us:
- What you need until February half term as soon as you can
- If you need to change your requests at all
To inform us of what you require, please:
- Email- lashcroft@archbishopholgates.org
- Telephone: 01904 411341 (and ask to speak to Miss Ashcroft)
Coronavirus: information and advice for parents and carers
The Pathfinder website has lots of useful resources and links for home learning, online safety, mental health and wellbeing as well as the latest updates from the Trust. To take a look, visit: https://pathfinder.academy/coronavirus-covid-19-information-and-advice/
Head of Year Awards this week….
| Name | Form | Reason | |
| Year 7 | Jonathan Middleton | 7Hf | For his developed confidence and independence this week. Well done! Miss Kincell |
| Thomas Iddon | 7Cy | For going above and beyond the call of duty in all areas; he especially impressed in maths with the completion of Bright Sparks extension work in Maths, and for his DEAR entry. Well done! Miss Kincell | |
| Ava Gane | 7CAd | For her mathematical notes for correlation and an excellent poster for history. Well done! Miss Kincell. | |
| Year 8 | Thomas Leonard | 8MDn | For working exceptionally hard and engaging very positively with his remote learning. Really well done Tom! Mr Arthur |
| Ben Bell | 8Di | For showing excellent resilience and independence. Really well done Ben! Mr Arthur | |
| Year 9 | Meisha Dougherty | 9Wb | For a brillaint week, working hard at home and brillaint Maths performance. Well done – Mr Avery |
| Harrison Kershaw | 9BMo | For being brillaint in school, working hard and being a pleasure to have around! Well done – Mr Avery | |
| Year 10 | Alice Woolway | 10RMe | For working hard, always being on time to her GC lessons, and her polite positivity and courtesy. Well done! Miss Turvey |
| Jack Farrow | 10Wa | For Jack’s media work this week which is really excellent – well done! Miss Turvey | |
| Year 11 | Paige Oldershaw | 11Hm | For being fantastic in Maths live lessons, trying really hard and completing excellent work! Well done Paige – Mrs Avey |
| Ben Soulsby | 11Hm | For always saying hi/bye/thank you in the live lessons. It makes such a difference to teachers. Well done Ben – Mrs Avey | |
| Year 12 | Harry Knight | 12HGa | For supporting peers in Google Classroom. Well done! Miss Cox |
| Tom Ventress | 12GSw | For excellent contributions in Live Lessons and keeping us smiling! Well done! Miss Cox. | |
| Year 13 | Katy Weld | 13Yg | For your fantastic effort in terms of catching up with work following your operation. Well done! Mr Charlton |
| Amelie Mackender | 13Ha | For consistently excellent effort across all subject, but particularly in psychology and submitted model answers for EOT – Mr Charlton |
Wellbeing messages
Please find below the key messages for the first two days of the week
Reading update
Children are able to access books online for free during school closures through the link below.
https://library.thenational.academy/
Holocaust Memorial Day
On Holocaust Memorial Day (Wednesday 27th 2021) The Anne Frank Trust UK are running a live and free event for all secondary school students. You will have the chance to hear the amazing testimony of Holocaust Survivor Eva Clark BEM. Born on April 29th 1945 on a cart in the open without any assistance, Eva Clark was one of only three babies born in Mauthausen concentration camp who survived the Holocaust. If the camp’s gas chambers hadn’t been blown up on 28th April 1945 and the Americans hadn’t liberated Mauthausen just days after Eva’s birth, neither mother or child would have survived. If you are unable to join the live interview event please do still register and let them know and we will send you a copy of the recording.
The Eventbrite booking link is http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/136400873685 and once you’ve registered you’ll be sent joining instructions the day before the event.
Head of Year update – It’s Mr Arthur and Year 8 today…
May I start by saying a both a huge well done to the students for last week’s remote learning, and also a big thank you to you as parents for supporting them. Safe to say things are certainly not easy at the moment, but one thing is for sure is that Year 8 have settled in extremely well to working remotely. There is some excellent work being produced and staff from across the school are eager to keep me up to date with wonderful stores of the work being completed during this lockdown. Well done all, and keep it up!
So far, our main priority as a school is to make sure students have adequate access to their remote learning, and are registering every morning by 8:50am with the aim of making sure they get into a good working routine. As we move into the third week of remote learning, we want to develop this system to focus more on the quality and consistency of the work that is being produced. As a result, whilst we will be running the same systems as previously, it will be stressed to students in Year 8 that they must make sure they work is ‘handed in’ on Google Classroom at the end of each lesson. A record of this will be made by teachers and passed on to the Head of Year. Initially, individual subject teachers may contact you via phone or email to ask about any incomplete work. If incomplete work becomes an issue across the board, either myself as Head of Year or Mr Deamer as Pastoral Support will be contacting to see how we can better support students to complete their online learning. Staff will also continue to be available during the time when that lesson would have been taking place in school to offer help and support. If students are using a device where they cannot submit a digital copy of their work via Google Classroom for whatever reason, they can take a photo of their work on paper and upload it onto Google Classroom – this is also absolutely fine. Thank you for supporting our efforts to ensure students’ progress is affected as little as possible during this period of Remote Learning.
Further to this, last week saw the return of the Head of Year Award to recognise student’s achievements at this time. Congratulations to the following students in Year 8 for last week…
- Thomas Leonard (8MDn) – For working exceptionally hard and engaging very positively with his remote learning. Really well done Tom!
- Ben Bell (8Di) – For showing excellent resilience and independence. Really well done Ben!
Keep an eye out each week in the bulletin and the Form Time Act of Collective Worship to see who wins the Head of Year Award each week. On their return to school, students will receive their £5 Amazon Gift Card!
Let me finish with a quote that provides me with motivation during these times…
“Success is not final; Failure is not fatal; It is the courage to continue that really counts”
If you have any issues regarding your child in Year 8 that you wish for me to be aware of, particularly if there are any issues surrounding access to our online learning provision, please do get in contact with me at aarthur@archbishopholgates.org, or Mr Deamer (Pastoral Support Worker for Year 8) at rdeamer@archbishopholgates.org.
More positives from Science courtesy of Miss Gray
– Kirsty Harrison, Y11, is flying with the Waves topic, always positive and persevering to finish the lesson work after the “bell”. Dr Osman
– Thank you to Ruben Wood Hannah Commins, Emily-Sue Toye, Harley Robinson and Verity McDonald for working so consistently hard in Year 9 science – Miss Gray
– Well done to Josh Riddell, Year 11 – Consistently good answers and contributions to classwork. Mr Lever
– Well done to Charley Clark for putting a huge amount of effort in Engineering this week, and making excellent progress with his assignment work. Keep this up! Mr Limbert
– Well done to Lewis Godliman for making a belated appearance to our Year 11 Live lessons but taking an active part in our questions and working hard. Mr Williams
– Jess Taylor Year 10 Triple Science worked really hard this week in lessons. She is confident enough to ask the questions that other people won’t and as a result the class has really understood the work on oxidation and reduction.
– Well done to all in Year 10d1 Triple Science (Mr Williams’ class) for another really hard working week. I really look forward to our lessons online.
– Really pleased with the effort of Robert Wilkinson and Theo Beattie in 7WNo for their commitment to completing all their Science work online. Mr Williams and Mr Webb.
– Brilliant work on the Ecology topic from everyone in 11S1 but special mention this week to Adam Peters and Billy Hearld for some great answers and real diligence. It really could be any of you though as you have all been fab! Mr Williams
– Olivia Wilkinson Year 11 – First to the lesson and engaging with the classwork! A pleasure to teach online! Keep it up! Mr. Webb
– Isabel Collinson, 10d3, working really hard in Chemistry and producing some great work using some difficult concepts. Dr Osman
Collective Worship
This week our Form Tutor Collective Worship is entitled The Secret of Happiness and our daily quotes follow the same theme. We are going to consider how Denmark has yet again been ranked the second-happiest country in the World Happiness Report and how this might link to the concept of Hygge.
Tuesday – “Happiness is not in what we do, it is the gratitude and love in which we do it.” – Radhanath Swami; American author and spiritual teacher, born 1950