I’m sure that everyone will have heard the headlines from the Prime Ministers announcement this evening and the plan for the gradual loosening of restrictions across society. It’s really good news that we will be able to welcome students back from Monday 8th March and everyone at Archbishop’s is looking forward to doing exactly this. Once we get further detail around what mass testing of students will look like we will be able to complete our planning to fulfil our twin goals of getting students back as quickly and safely as possible. As soon as we know more we will share it with families.

In the meantime I hope that the first day of the new half term went well. As ever please do not hesitate to contact school if you need any further support.

Extra-Curricular Music
All extra-curricular music sessions will be up and running again from Monday 22nd February. Students should email their music teacher if they would like to be involved in any of them. Once they are added to the relevant google classroom they will receive an invite. This will be where we will post information and resources. A reminder that we are currently offering:

Soul/Jazz Band – Monday
Orchestra – Wednesday
Boys Aloud singing group – Wednesday
Year 7 Choir – Thursday
Music Tech Club – Thursday
Unity Choir – Friday

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.

The deadline is Friday 5th March. Please contact Mrs Morrison for further information: Cmorrison@archbishopholgates.org

Music or singing lessons
If any student is interested in having instrumental or singing lessons, please contact Mrs Morrison for further information as most tutors are continuing to teach online: Cmorrison@archbishopholgates.org

AHS Wellbeing

This week’s newsletter provides videos to understand Anxiety and how to use humour as a coping strategy.  Plus a link to our Wellbeing survey, which we are asking all our students to complete and we will use the results of the survey to focus our Wellbeing work after half term.  Please use this link to read this weeks newsletter: https://sites.google.com/archbishopholgates.org/4steps2wellbeing/newsletters/newsletter-4

Please remember each week we will:

Below are the ‘Archbishop Holgate’s Schools 4 Steps to Wellbeing’.

Thought-Provoking Tuesday

Head of Year Update – Mr Arthur and Year 8…
Today sees the beginning of a brand new half-term – one that will hopefully spell the beginning of the end of this dreadful lockdown, and a one-way ticket back to some kind of normality! Year 8s efforts during half-term were excellent, and it certainly made me very proud to eb their Head of Year. In these remaining weeks of online learning (which, fingers crossed, will be limited!) we need to maintain the hard work that was building throughout the last half-term.

The final week of the half-term was a busy one for Year 8, with Parent’s Evening and the Options Form Deadline falling on the Wednesday and the Friday respectively. It was lovely to speak to parents and students regarding the children’s progress and the conversations that were sparked around aspirations for the future. I very much hope students have been inspired by these conversations, and that they are excited about the broad and rich curriculum that awaits them in Year 9. If you have any further questions regarding options or the progress of your child, please do get in touch via the email address at the bottom of this bulletin.

As previously mentioned, it is very important that in the remaining weeks of online learning, students maintain the good routines they were in before the half-term break. As well as ensure student’s continued academic progress, we all want to ensure a smooth transition when we do eventually return to school, and a solid home routine is perhaps the best way to achieve this. Students in Year 8  must continue to ensure they register each morning on the year group Google Classroom. They must also make sure they register for each lesson, and attend their Live Lessons if they have them. Certain subjects will continue to offer live input for at least one of their lessons per week. This includes…

  • English
  • Maths
  • Science
  • MFL
  • Geography
  • History
  • RE

Other subjects will still offer narrated resources to supplement lessons, and there will also continue to be optional activities for Core PE, Guidance and PSHCE.

As was the same last half-term, Form Tutors will also be offering Form Time Google Meets Tuesday-Friday each week. Your child should have been invited to a smaller group session between Tuesday and Thursday, and each form is invited to take part in the weekly Quiz on a Friday. Our online student voice survey highlighted the positive impact this is having on the wellbeing of students during this period of school closure, and we would encourage as many to attend during PM Reg time as possible. 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.

I am going to continue the trend I began before half-term and finish each week with a positive quote

“If people are doubting how far you can go, go so far that you can’t hear them anymore!”

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.

English Home Learning Certificates for the last week of last half term:

– Aden Smith
– Ash Lightfoot
– Conall Bruce
– Edward Shakeshaft
– Martha Shakeshaft
– Katie Haigh
– Harry Gibbins
– Tyler Egan
– Zane Mason
– Onila Weerasinghe

Collective Worship
During half-term it was the start of the Christian season of Lent and we are going to continue with our Pilgrim Pathways theme over the coming weeks, based on material from the Archbishop of York Youth Trust. When we set out on a journey, we make a plan. We might look at a map or set up the Satnav to guide us. The key item on our pilgrimage today is a map.

Tuesday – “I know that I’ve been guided by God. I am obedient. – Maya Angelou, 20th C. American poet, writer and civil rights activist.