Headteacher Update

I hope everyone has had a safe, enjoyable and restful Easter break and are looking forward to the return to school on Monday morning. A reminder that the Training Day that was planned for Monday 12th April has now been moved to Friday 28th May so all students are expected in school as normal on Monday with arrival between 8.30am and 8.45am as part of our staggered start to the school day. All the key information for families about the start of the new term was shared before we broke up for Easter but the following should provide useful reminders:

Testing
A reminder that those students who are testing should continue to do so on a Monday and Thursday morning. In the unlikely event that the test is positive then please contact school immediately and we will offer support from this point. Obviously if the test is positive students must not come to school.

It is crucial that results are reported each time a test is taken whether that be negative, positive or invalid via https://www.gov.uk/report-covid19-result.

Students have enough test kits to complete two tests this week. Future deliveries of test kits are scheduled by the Government and so we hope to issue further kits on Thursday but this is dependent on the delivery arriving on time.

Monday: Form time and one-way system
On Monday we will have an extended form time to reinforce the students’ understanding of the new one-way system. This will include the following back to school message which importantly focuses on two key priorities for the summer term, continuing to stay safe and making the most of the increased opportunities on offer during the summer term. If students are engaged, involved and enjoying learning then we will have had a successful final term.

I hope everyone has had a safe, enjoyable and restful Easter break and are looking forward to the summer term as much as I am! As ever I’ll prepare the News each week to keep everyone up to date with what is going on both in our country and around the world. I know all the school staff have been extremely proud of the resilience and determination you have all shown over the last year, both in terms of completing online learning at home and the positive way that you returned to school in March after what we hope will be the last lockdown. Well done for your efforts so far! We have worked extremely hard to get to a position where we can allow you to safely move around school and have all your lessons in specialist classrooms, I know that this is something many of you have been looking forward to. To ensure that this goes well it is vital that:

• Everyone continues to wear face coverings around school and in classrooms
• Everyone follows the new one way system at all times

Both these things are important parts of our COVID control measures. I’m really hoping that this term will be more normal and my key message to you all is to enjoy your lessons, get involved in as many extra curricular opportunities as possible and make the most of whatever part of the AHS Journey you are currently on. Have a great first week back, Mr Daly.I

In terms of the start of the day it is really important that students enter via the correct door and go to their form rooms the correct way.  Please can parents/carers make sure their child knows the correct entrance and where to wash their hands by using the following link:

• https://archbishopholgates.academy/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Form-rooms-Sheet1.pdf

For those students who are concerned about the one-way system they can use the following link to watch the video again about how to move around the school.  This will however be covered again and all questions answered during the extended form time.

• https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vFNlEulSuq6iuFT0nWYurLjp9TRfAm0f/view?usp=sharing

Homework
A reminder that homework for all year groups will return to the usual arrangements upon our return from the Easter break.

Years 7 & 8: Students in Year 7 and Year 8 shall be set homework from English, Maths, Science and Modern Languages weekly, while other subjects shall set homework using a two-week timetable. This will allow students to plan their homework schedule more effectively, while giving them a little longer to complete the work that has been set.  Homework for Years 7 & 8 will continue to be set on paper, using the system of supporting documents to help students complete the work.

Years 9, 10, 11: Homework will be set in each subject once a week, using Google Classrooms.

In all instances, homework will provide an important opportunity for students to consolidate their learning, review key points from their lessons and prepare for following lessons, as always, we appreciate parents support with the completion of homework.

Beauty and the Beast
A HUGE well done to ALL of  the students who auditioned for a role in our forthcoming show Beauty and the Beast. It has been an extraordinary experience, over 60 students from Y7-13 submitted audition material and the standard was incredibly high. We were so impressed with the effort everyone went to. We had some very difficult decisions to make – compounded by the challenges that Covid has brought us. Huge congratulations to Joe Pipe and Maggie Wakeling who will be leading the cast in our forthcoming production.

The rehearsals will be beginning W/C 19th April in year group bubbles. There will also be some occasional weekend commitment required in order to accommodate some of the large scale filming. There is still time to get involved if you would like to be part of the ensemble cast. All details will be on the google classroom – code here: https://classroom.google.com/c/Mjk1MTY3NTk4ODUy?cjc=y65mb53

Massive congratulations again to all of the students who auditioned – we can’t wait to get started!

The Whispering House
It’s been great hearing from students about the amazing ideas so far for this unique and exciting local history project. Huge thanks to Oscar Rosen in Y8 for designing our logo.

Please keep posting on the google classroom if you’re planning on using the Ancestry account. There’s just over two weeks to get your submissions in. If you have any general questions about the project please email Mrs Newton: mnewton@ahs.pmat.academy

If you’ve got any creative questions please do ask Mr Stevens: tstevens@ahs.pmat.academy
If you’ve got any Historical questions please do ask Mr Beard or Mr Crawford.
tcrawford@ahs.pmat.academy
gbeard@ahs.pmat.academy

Are you eligible for support? Pupil Premium and FSM (Free School Meals)
Each half term, we like to remind parents about the support available if you are struggling as a family. People are often eligible for Free School Meals and don’t realise it:

Your child may be able to get free school meals if you get any of the following:

• Income Support
• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• the guaranteed element of Pension Credit
• Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
• Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
• Universal Credit – if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get)

Children who get paid these benefits directly, instead of through a parent or guardian, can also get free school meals.

Due to the current situation, your circumstances may have changed. Please apply for FSM through the council here: https://www.york.gov.uk/SchoolMeals

Accessing FSM will allow your child to receive a range of support, including meals and help with uniform. It is an extremely discreet process at Archbishop Holgate’s and no child can be identified as free school meals by any other children.

You may also be entitled to Pupil Premium and not realise it. This is money we use, within school, to support your child in a variety of ways. Your child is eligible for PP if you have any of the following:

• If you are currently FSM
• If you have received FSM at any point in the last 6 years.
• If a parent is serving in the forces or receives a pension from the Ministry of Defence.

Pupil premium allows us to support students with trips, revision opportunities, enrichment opportunities and additional academic intervention within school. Again, it really is worth taking up if you are eligible. You can find out more about PP here: https://archbishopholgates.academy/our-school/disadvantaged-students/

Are you struggling but not eligible for the above?
We actively try to remove all barriers and understand that people’s circumstances change all the time. If you are struggling, please talk to us. We can provide short term and long term support, whether with uniform, food or advice on external services. If you require more information, please contact either Mr Williams (Assistant Head) or your child’s Head of Year or Pastoral Support Worker (PSW) 

Head of Year Updates
Year 7 – Miss Kincell
We hope you have had a lovely Easter break, filled with sunshine, chocolate and hopefully not too much snow!

We are so excited to welcome Year 7 back and can’t wait for them to start exploring the school and to be taught in specialist classrooms. This half term is going to bring so much joy, as we are able to open up more and more opportunities of science experiments, cooking and building in technology rooms and hopefully very soon we will see more extra-curricular activities starting at lunch time. Please remember we have lots of extra-curricular afterschool too, remember to ask your child to check the timetable regularly. 

We know that Sunday night might present excitement, coupled with nerves. Here are some reassuring pointers, you may want to discuss with your child to help Monday morning start with smiles. 

– Just like always, myself and Miss Greenhalgh will be stood welcoming students at the front of school and can help with any worries.
– Just like always, students will go straight to their form room, but it will be their new form room, they should have visited this with their form tutor already.
– There will be an extended form time Monday morning to remind students of the changes, but also to ask any questions and form tutors will be on hand as well as myself and Miss Greenhalgh to address any concerns.
– Students should have visited all of their new classrooms and will have a general sense of where to go.
– All doors and buildings have very clear signs regarding whether doors are for ‘Entry’ or ‘No Entry’ and arrows showing the one way systems.
– Additional students have been trained as ‘Buddies’, and have looked at all areas of the school. They will be wearing orange lanyards, if students are unsure of where to go, these are the people to ask (they don’t need to be the buddies from your child’s form).
– ‘L’ codes for lateness to lesson will not be issued to Year 7 for the foreseeable future.
– We all know that the school is big, and takes some getting used to- please tell you child to always ask staff if they are unsure of where to go, we are ready and waiting to help them. 

We are so looking forward to welcoming you.

Year 8 – Mr Arthur
We are now embarking on the final term of Year 8. As the days get longer and the temperatures rise, there is certainly an air of hope on the horizon. As the weeks and months progress, more and more ‘opportunities’ will be open to Year 8 that they must take advantage of – as I have mentioned previously, this is the key focus for their stage of the AHS ‘Journey’, and one which they have the next few months to take full advantage of. There will be many clubs and Extra-curricular activities open up to students, and I very much hope to see as many Year 8s taking part as possible in the coming weeks and months.

As you will be aware, the start of this Summer term means the ‘De-zoning’ of the school. Whilst the year group will still be ‘bubbled’ in all their activities around school, lessons will take place in specialist classrooms once again. There is also a new ‘one-way system’ in place to limit the contact students have with one another throughout the school day. Before the end of the Spring Term, students were taken through the one-way system and the map of the school in their tutor groups. This will also be gone through in an extended form time from 8:45-9:20 on Monday morning. If your child has any questions regarding any of this, please do encourage them to speak to their form tutor or any other member of the pastoral team, and we will gladly help them as they become familiar with the new systems in school. Furthermore, if you yourself have any questions prior to the start of term, please do get in touch using the contact information at the bottom of this bulletin.

Finally, in this week’s collective worship, we will be building on the excellent work we have done recently regarding bullying in school. The theme surrounding this Collective Worship is around the concept of ‘Banter’ and at what point this becomes bullying. The message I have always used with students to simplify it for them is that ‘banter’ is a two-way dialogue between friends, and does not involve an imbalance of power as bullying does. It is vitally important that students accept responsibility for their actions when they hurt someone’s feelings, and do not try to disguise these behaviours as ‘banter’.

If you have any issues regarding your child in Year 8, please do get in contact with me at my new email address aarthur@ahs.pmat.academy, or Mr Deamer (Pastoral Support Worker for Year 8) at rdeamer@ahs.pmat.academy.

Year 9 – Mr Avery
I am really excited at the prospect of welcoming back Year 9 after the Easter Holidays, for what I hope will resemble the most ‘normality’ the students will have experienced since the beginning of the pandemic last year. I am delighted that the students will now be able to leave their ‘bubble’ and make the most of the specialist classrooms across the school. I know many in Year 9 have been looking forward to this, and often value the time between lessons travelling to another part of the school. The Arts Awards lessons the students have taken part in will now be able to become even more interactive and a return to the science labs means students will once again be able to experiment, something I know they have missed!  However, although the school will no longer be ‘zoned’ we will still be in year group bubbles. This will mean students will continue to have lessons, clubs, break and lunchtime with their year group. The students were informed of the new one way system around school prior to Easter, and following the recent government announcement, masks will continue to be worn both in corridors and lessons.

The focus for Year 9 this half term will be very much on a ‘spring clean’ and a chance for our students to reflect on their time in school. It’s hard to believe that the students are only 14 school weeks from becoming Y10 students – where the serious hard work begins for GCSEs! I would like the students to look at the summer term as a chance to reflect on the success of the year, but also as a chance to improve as we approach the end of the academic year. As the weather improves, I hope the students will take advantage of our extra curricular programme. It was really pleasing to see so many students getting involved in sport again after school and lunchtimes, and I hope this will continue in the summer term. 

I  hope everyone has had a restful and happy Easter, and I look forward to welcoming all our students back on Monday. If there are any questions regarding form rooms, timetables or any other concerns, please feel free to email me on navery@ahs.pmat.academy

Year 10 – Miss Turvey
I always look forward to the summer term of Y10 as a time when the adult your child will become manifests itself; the increased focus on the future, the acceptance of responsibility to the learning environment and the mature conversations all contribute to ensuring the next thirteen weeks are filled with exploration, decisions, sometimes frustrations and clearer ideas as to the next step on the journey through life. I am also saddened by the summer term of Y10 as it is the last summer your child will have in mainstream education and it flies by.

The Y10 reports are due out at the beginning of May and will be followed by a parents evening, in July there will be Y10 exams and given the year we have all been through I cannot underestimate the importance of these exams. All else remains the same. We have a uniform policy, a no jewellery policy, a no mobile phone policy and a behaviour policy. 

A reminder to those Y10 students who have a PE lesson timetabled p1 on Monday that this will not be happening due to the extended form time so please do not arrive at school in your PE kit. Remember your masks and see you Monday. Miss T. 

Year 11 – Mrs Avey
We hope that our Year 11 students have enjoyed time with their families over Easter and are returning to school ready for a ‘final push’ towards the summer.  We were delighted with the mature, sensible and positive way the students’ returned after our period of remote learning and we look forward to seeing more of the same from them over the coming months.

As parents and students will be aware, we continue to work towards the awarding of summer GCSE grades, including the May assessment period that parents received details of prior to Easter.  Hopefully, the revision materials provided in all subjects prior to Easter starting have been useful for students during the last two weeks, teaching staff will be looking forward to reviewing the work that has been completed by students during this period and will be starting revision for the May assessments over the course of the next few weeks.  

This period between now and summer is a vital one for our Year 11 students – the chance to succeed and achieve the grades that they want is fully in their hands.  As part of this, we would urge full attendance (wherever possible); stress the importance of punctuality, both at the start of the school day and to lessons, where the first five minutes is always spent doing vital recap work; highlight the need for all homework to be completed to a good standard and, finally, remind our Year 11s that they have done an an excellent job so far – this is now the final stretch and we look forward to seeing them work hard and achieve their significant potential.

Sixth Form Updates – Miss De Lashley
I hope you have all had a restful Easter break with opportunity to spend some well-deserved time together in the very brief yet beautiful sunshine. I am excited to join the Sixth Form again after my maternity leave and meet all the familiar and new faces. Despite the challenges the cohort have stood out as hard working and exemplary in their study and conduct and I look forward to working alongside them over the coming term. It is hard to believe we are entering the Summer Term, but a term of anticipation for what we hope to be a period of returning to elements of normality both at school and at home.

Year 12 Form Group Changes
Please be reminded that there have been changes made to the form group allocations in Year 12 to accommodate the size of the year group. These changes were notified prior to the break and not everyone will have changed. If there is any uncertainty as to which form group your son/daughter is now in, please direct them to Mrs Walton on Monday morning,

Year 12 Assessment Week
Please also be reminded that this week sees our Year 12 Assessment week where most of our subjects will be undergoing in-class assessments to measure progress and inform intervention required. Students should be prompt to class to enable assessments to commence in good time.

Year 12 Student Leaders
I have thoroughly enjoyed familiarising myself with the faces of the new Student Leadership Team and i look forward to working alongside them to guide the student body. They have already made quite the impression. Congratulations and thank you! 

Year 12 message from Miss Cox
We’re looking forward to welcoming the y12 students back on Monday. It’s an important week of assessments and we’re confident all of their hard work and preparation will have paid off.
The new enrichment rotation starts on Wednesday, with plenty of interesting options to choose from. Students should have made their selection on the G Form posted on the y12 Classroom, if not please remind them to do this by Monday.The Student Leaders are also ready to put their planning from before Easter into action. As always, we’ll be there to welcome students at the door with a big smile. Enjoy the rest of the break. Miss Cox 

Year 12 Shout-outs 

Year 13 Shout-outs

Year 13 message from Mr Charlton
I hope you have all had a restful Easter and have managed to stick to your revision plan in between devouring Easter Eggs. I’m looking forward to seeing you all back in Sixth Form on Monday as you begin your final term as an Archbishop Holgate’s School student and am excited to see you finalise your progression plans. We remain hopeful of arranging a Yr13 Leavers Prom for your and other events to celebrate coming to the end of your AHS Journey but there is still significant work to do in the remaining weeks. Please contact us if you have any questions or queries and we will endeavour to answer them as quickly as possible.

Sixth Form DEAR Time
This week sees the return of Sixth Form DEAR Time where an extract of text or audio is discussed each week. This week we are listening to a Ted Talk and discussing some of the issues raised. Feel free to have a listen.

Year 11 Sixth Form Subject Choices
If your son/daughter was spoken to prior to the Easter break regarding their Sixth Form subject choices, and there are any questions resulting from that, or a further discussion is required, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.Sixth Form DEAR Time

Collective Worship
Our first collective worship focuses on the meaning of Easter. As we start on this new term it is good to think more deeply about the holiday we have just enjoyed. A true story from WWII and a story told by Jesus will help us to do just that. Our daily quotes are all on the theme of Grace.

Monday
“Shame says that because I am flawed, I am unacceptable. Grace says that though I am flawed, I am cherished.” – Michelle Graham

Tuesday
“The more you see your own flaws and sins, the more precious, electrifying, and amazing God’s grace appears to you.” – Timothy Keller

Wednesday
“In the midst of ALL circumstances God’s grace, peace, and joy are there.” – Rev. Billy Graham

Thursday
“But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace.“ – The Bible, Galatians ch1, v15

Friday
“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.” – Jesus in the gospel of John, ch14 v1