We are looking forward to hosting our next virtual Parents Evening for Year 8 families tomorrow evening. We also appreciate the positive feedback about the range of resources available on the website about the Year 8 Pathway process. If you haven’t had a chance to look at these they are available via the link below:
https://archbishopholgates.academy/curriculum/year-8-pathways/
Year 9 is an important part of the AHS Journey, this transition year before GCSE studies begin an opportunity to both try new subjects but also through the Arts Award continue to experience a full range of creative subjects. This breadth of experience is really important and during Year 9 students will have the opportunities to change their chosen subjects if they feel the need to do so.
Safer Internet Day 2021
February 9th is ‘Safer Internet Day’ a day with even more relevance this year with the amount that everyone is using the Internet at the moment. We have collected together a range of excellent resources which we hope will be helpful for parents:
National Online Safety Guides
National Online Safety Guides have produced a vast library of online safety guides/posters for parents, educators and children, providing you with top tips on keeping your children safe on the latest games, apps, devices and platforms.
https://nationalonlinesafety.com/guides
These are really good and very accessible.
National Online Safety App
National Online Safety have created a FREE app that you can download it’s packed with insightful courses, explainer videos, webinars and guides on topics that will help you protect the kids you care about when they’re online.
Apple – https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/national-online-safety/id1530342372
Google Play – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.nationaleducationgroup.nos
Online Safety courses for parents/Carers
- Children aged 11-14: This short course provides you with an important insight into how children aged 11 to 14 are typically engaging with the online world. It will highlight the common areas where pre-teens and early-teens now focus their attention online as they get to grips with increased independence, and what steps parents should consider around setting filters, discussing content online and encouraging healthy device usage.
- Children aged 14 to 18: This short course provides you with an important insight into how children aged 14 to 18 are typically engaging with the online world. It will highlight the common areas where teenagers start crafting their online identity, creating their digital footprint and consuming online information, and what steps parents should consider around maintaining openness with their teen about their internet us.
The Full Picture
The Full Picture is a short film exploring how young people use social media to connect and share. The film highlights the influences and pressures young people face online and encourages them to see the full picture. Social media helps us share our lives but it does not tell the whole story. The campaign encourages young people to be mindful of what influences them and how they respond to pressures online.
https://www.webwise.ie/thefullpicture/#
Digital Wellbeing
This resource aims to help young people aged 11+ learn about their wellbeing and how the online world can affect it, understand their feelings and behaviour, and help them manage/improve their own wellbeing.
It is intended to be used by young people with the support of an adult – a parent/ carer, a teacher, a youth worker and so on. Find out more:
https://swgfl.org.uk/resources/digital-wellbeing/
Covid 19: Online Safety Advice for Parents
While all families have their own unique circumstances, many parents have similar concerns when it comes to their child’s use of technology. How can parents strike the right balance between online and offline activities, and help their kids have a positive relationship with technology, and the internet? This resource provides some simple steps for parents to manage online safety in the home.
https://www.webwise.ie/parents/covid19-online-safety-advice-for-parents/
Student Wellbeing – Thought-Provoking Tuesday
Head of Year Awards
The following have been nominated for the Head of Year Award this week. Amazon gift cards can either be posted home, or saved until students return into school
| Name | Form | Reason | |
| Year 7 | Thomas Bate | 7Gr | Well done for passing his Grade 7 Associated Board Classical Guitar. This is an incredible achievement considering the exams only go up to Grade 8 and we would normally expect Year 13 to be on Grade 7/8 by the time they finish their A level music exam! Excellent- keep up the good work! Miss Kincell |
| Tom Cain | 7Bl | Well done for your outstanding commitment to making the most out of lockdown alongside your brilliant home learning- including an excellent science egg shell experiment, you have been taking part in walks, extra-curricular PE in a morning and extra-curricular music! Keep up the positivity! Miss Kincell | |
| Year 8 | Brad Binnington-Winn | 8MHe | For working really well recently showing great resilience in their online learning. Well done! Mr Arthur |
| Caitlin Casey | 8MHe | For working really well recently showing great resilience in their online learning. Well done! Mr Arthur | |
| Year 9 | Alisha Langhorn | 9CAl | For a wonderful attitude toward her work. Alisha has worked hard in school every day and had a happy positive attitude. Well done! Mr Avery |
| Summer Langhorn | 9SMr | Summer has been a joy to have in school, always polite and hardworking. Well done! Mr Avery | |
| Year 10 | Grace Wilson | 10Wa | For living the schools values into being with her support of other students in google meets. Well done! Miss Turvey |
| Summer Dixon | 10MPe | For her focus on and contribution to online learning. Well done! Miss Turvey | |
| Year 11 | Leah Wright | 11ZDa | Leah has been working consistently well across her subjects, working hard and making terrific progress. Well done Leah – Mrs Avey |
| Elliot Luck | 11 Ob | Elliot continues to work consistently well across all his subjects and is always courteous, polite and friendly. Well done Elliot. Mrs Avey | |
| Year 12 | Gabby Moore | 12HGa | Excellent effort and engagement with home learning, I’m hearing great things form all of your teachers. Well done! Miss Cox |
| Chloe Harwood | 12Hv | Excellent effort and engagement across the board and it was a pleasure to hear your ideas in your SL interview. Miss Cox | |
| Year 13 | Mia-Mae Deighton | 13Ha | For consistently producing work of a high standard throughout lockdown. Mr Charlton |
| Tyler Anthony | 13Ala | Fantastic effort and engagement with her home learning, I’m hearing superb things form your teachers. Well done! Mr Charlton |
Head of Year updates – Mr Arthur and Year 8..
This penultimate week of the half term saw Year 8 conduct some of their lessons Live via Google Meet. Thank you to the History and Geography departments for getting the ball rolling on this. As a History teacher of a Year 8 class myself, I have to say the engagement of students on the Live Lessons has been wonderful to see. It certainly has brightened up my week, and I very much hope you have seen the benefits for your children also. Being able to engage with their subjects in this way, and interact with teachers and friends they may not have seen in a while will provide some much needed respite in what are certainly gloomy times. Further to this, I very much hope students in Year 8 are taking the opportunity to engage with the PM Registration activities, as well as the Form Time Google Meets. If there are any issues with this, please be sure to message myself, Mr Deamer or your Form Tutor.
In this week’s Act of Collective Worship, we considered the use of homophobic, biphobic and transphobic language, and the reason why it is so important to stamp this out in our society. Based on data from the LGBTQ+ charity ‘Stonewall’ we have certainly come a long way in recent years. In 2007, 65% of LGBTQ+ students reported being bullied, which fell to 55% in 2012, and 45% in a recent study. However, there is still a long way to go, and we explored how the use of this language can have such a damaging affect on young people within this community. As it says in John 13:34, “I give a new commandment to you now. Love each other as much as I love you.” It is important that students at AHS follow this message and be the change they want to see. They must ensure there are #nobystanders and that we all stand up to prejudice when we see it both in our school community as well as in wider society.
As a reminder to students, we have also begun to adapt our systems with regards to monitoring the learning of Year 8 students. Here are some of the key points regarding this…
- This week, we will be introducing more Live Lessons to the Year 8 curriculum offer after an excellent start in subjects like History and Geography. This will be offered at the beginning of lessons to answer any questions students might have. If you have any questions regarding this, please do get in touch. Some key documents have been added to the Year 8 Google Classroom which can be found by clicking HERE and logging into your child’s Google Classroom account. This includes a parent’s guide on Google Meets, and a copy of the Google Meets Protocols.
- We are still encouraging students to work as closely to their normal timetable as possible from home – this should become easier as we move more and more to live lessons. This is because student’s teachers are available on Google Classroom to message and support your child with their work during this period of time. As a result, each lesson will have a register posted with it that will appear around the time of the start of the lesson. This register works essentially the same as the morning register on the Year Group Google Classroom. Please encourage your child to register at the start of each lesson. I, as Head of Year, will be monitoring the registers and contacting if a pattern emerges of a student consistently not registering at the start of their lessons.
- When students complete their work, they must ensure that they click the ‘Turn in’ button on Google Classroom when they have finished. This will allow the teacher to look at their work and provide recognition that they have seen it. If a students is completing work on paper, a guide has been uploaded onto the year group Google Classroom explaining how to upload a picture of their paper work before they turn it in. If your child is having to work on paper due to not having access to a device that allows them to complete the work directly on Google Classroom, please do get in touch and we will see what we can do about getting a Chromebook to you. Teachers will be in touch either by phone or email if work is not being completed or submitted.
I hope this all continues to make sense – as always, if there are any questions please contact us via the email addresses at the bottom of this bulletin.
A just to finish, this week sees two more recipients 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…
- Brad Binnington-Winn (8MHe) – For working really well recently showing great resilience in their online learning. Well done! Mr Arthur
- Caitlin Casey (8MHe) – For working really well recently showing great resilience in their online learning. Well done! Mr Arthur
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!
As usual, I wish to end with a positive quote during these challenging times…
“My goal is not to be better than anyone else, but better than I used to be!”
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.
Mr Arthur and Mr Deamer
English Home Learning Certificates
The following students have all received an English HL certificate this week:
– Amy McGrath
– Callum Hall
– Elsa Green
– Ben Bell
– John Monk
– Leah Strickland
– Olivia Perry
– Theo Barnard
– Tommy MacDonald
– William Leonard
– Ila Bhattacharye
– Joseph Yoward
– Liam Sharpe Oates
Collective Worship
Over the next 6 weeks our Collective Worship is based on material from the Archbishop of York Youth Trust. Called Pilgrim Pathways it will take pupils on a pilgrimage journey through Lent, looking at items that are important on a walking pilgrimage. Each item symbolises ideas that can help them when facing challenges in their personal life journey. The first item is a lamp.
Tuesday – “The unfolding of God’s words gives light; it gives understanding to the foolish.” – The Bible, book of Psalms 119:130