I hope everyone received the letter I sent on Friday regarding our position on face coverings in light of the new government guidance. A reminder that the only thing that will change from Monday morning is that students do not now need to wear a face covering in lessons. However, staff are aware that that is a choice for each family and if young people wish to continue to wear their face coverings in lessons they can do so. Outside of lessons the rules around face coverings remain unchanged. At present we believe that a continued cautious approach remains the correct one. I thank all families for their continued understanding and support.
The latest wellbeing newsletter can be accessed via the link below: WB. 17th May Wellbeing Newsletter 14
I hope families have had a chance to have a look at the latest Newsletter, edition 397, which contains details around many of the exciting things currently going on in school as well as details of next year’s planned trips to Germany, France and Spain, the excellent addition extra curricular music opportunities that Mrs Morrison has secured in partnership with Arts Council England, full details of the further investment in pastoral capacity to support students and details of opportunities to join our Pathfinder Teacher Training programmes for September 2021.
Non-uniform day on Friday
This Friday is a non-uniform day to raise awareness of ‘York Mind’. York Mind are a local charity who promote recovery from mental ill-health, emotional well-being and independent living. They are currently providing our students with counselling, a telephone support line, online groups, Visual Art & Self-Esteem group, Emotional Wellbeing Toolkit group, Drama & Self-Expression group and telephone mentoring. We are therefore asking that students donate £1 on Friday in order to wear their own clothes. If you will struggle to donate £1, please either write a note in your child’s planner or contact the relevant Head of Year.
If you want to make a donation directly please visit: Donate to York Mind
If you want to find out more about the services York MInd offers, please visit: www.yorkmind.org.uk
Year 11 donations will be towards their Prom. This is because normally they are able to raise money for the ‘extras’ throughout the year, but due to COVID this has not been possible
School Uniform
Thank you very much for the ongoing support in ensuring that all students are wearing the correct school uniform. Full details of this can be found via the link below: https://archbishopholgates.academy/parents/school-life/school-uniform/.
We have worked very hard to keep the cost of school uniform to a minimum but please do contact school if you need any support with buying new uniform. We will always try to help families in this regard. At present we have a small number of students who are choosing not to wear the correct uniform and I would like to thank parents/carers for their support in advance when this occurs. It is really important that we continue to work together to provide clear guidance, boundaries and support as all students must attend school in full uniform. Thank you.
Head of Year Awards
| Finn Cullivan | 7CMp | Well done and thank you for the cultural capital your provided your form, articulately explaining your religion and life style. What an excellent way to support our school community. Keep it up, Miss Kincell. |
| Dexter Wright | 7CMp | Well done and thank you for the cultural capital your provided your form, articulately explaining your religion and life style. What an excellent way to support our school community. Keep it up, Miss Kincell. |
| Daniel Real | 8KMd | For always displaying a positive attitude, and being an absolute delight in form time! Well done! Mr Arthur |
| Corin Haywood | 8MHe | For always being kind, caring and compassionate towards others, and doing everything to the best of her ability. Well done! Mr Arthur |
| Caitlin Wright | 9CAl | For working very hard and displaying a really positive attitude. Well done! Mr Avery |
| Ben Blackburn | 9MSt | For working very hard and displaying a really positive attitude. Well done! Mr Avery |
| Kaitlyn Archer | 10BDu | For exceptional excellent work on her Health and Social Care assignment. Well done from Mrs Kitney. Miss Turvey |
| Charlie Derry | 10JLi | For his resilience and determination and success in his English speaking assessment. Well done from Mr Morrell. Miss Turvey |
| Will Leonard | 11SMf | Will has consistently displayed diligence, a superb attitude to work and extra curricular and is reliable and mature. Well done Will – Mrs Avey |
| Ila Bhattacharya | 11Hm | Ila has consistently displayed diligence, a superb attitude to work and reliable and mature behaviour. Well done Ila – Mrs Avey |
| Chloe Rowan | 12Os | It’s young women like you who are are complete asset to the sixth form. You was so kind,caring and compassionate and clearly a natural in mentoring. Miss Cox |
| Hannah Martindale | 12HGa | For being really supportive, proactive and responsible through mentoring. Miss Cox |
| Roong Saiyut | 13Yg/Gl | Has displayed a great attitude to her studies throughout sixth form, and excellent role model to other studies! Mr Charlton |
| Mia-Mae Deighton | 13Ha | For displaying a mature and considerate approach towards her studies and route required for her progression plans – well done! Mr Charlton |
Head of Year Updates
Miss Kincelll and Year 7
I just wanted to say, in these testing times, thank you all for your support of our school community. Year 7 are truly thriving, more and more teachers have commented on their success, please see an example from PE about the girls who have been long distance running:
‘They were full of positivity and energy! We were running the 800m. They weren’t all impressed to begin with… but they showed determination and finished with smiles! I was very proud of them’
This week we have been discussing the use of social media, the benefits and risks. We discussed the pros and cons of the main outlets used by students. We discussed how Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram all have a minimum age requirement of 13 and Whatsapp is 16 and how they needs to have support from their parents when using them. I have found a great website this week for parents, it explains how many of these apps work, how to support and monitor your child’s access, how to block any unwanted access or contact from strangers. It is run by the NSPCC and I have personally found it really useful to support my conversations with students to discuss how to be safe online. Please find it here: https://www.net-aware.org.uk/
Well done to our Students of the Week:
- 7Cm: Zaki Traboulsi
- 7Cy: Faisal Al-Sadeed
- 7CAd: Eleanor Jones
- 7Bl: Scarlett Shaw
- 7Hf: Emily Morrison
- 7Hv: Damien Sparkes
- 7Gr: Mya Southgate
- 7Cmp: Jess MacDonald
- 7Mr: Poppy Love
- 7Nth: George Chapman
- 7Wno: Mark Hazzard
A huge well done to our Gold Awards this week:
To both Finn Cullivan and Dexter Wright – Well done and thank you both for the cultural capital you provided your form, articulately explaining your religion and lifestyle. What an excellent way to support our school community. you should be really proud of yourselves.
As ever, if there is anything we can do to support your child, please do not hesitate to let us know.
Mr Arthur and Year 8
I hope this bulletin finds you all safe and well, and that you are excited for the new raft of ‘unlocking measures’ that come into being tomorrow (17th May) – it’s been a long and arduous road, but we really can see the light at the end of the tunnel now.
As we approach the final weeks of the first half-term of the summer, I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight the issue of attendance (as I did in the bulletin a couple of weeks ago). Attendance at school is crucial to the success of students. Recent studies have shown that absence from school has a significant impact on the success of students, and can have a long-term impact through to their GCSEs. In one of these studies, it has shown that of those students that have 100% attendance, 79% of them achieve 5+ good GCSEs. At 95%, this figure falls to 69%. At 90%, this falls even further to 53%, and by 85% attendance, this figure for success becomes 36%. When considering that 5% attendance is around 7 days absence, it really is crucial that students are in school every single day. To put this into further context, if your child has lower than 95% attendance, this means that they are attending school less than the average child across the country.
As a school, we fully understand that there are appointments that cannot be moved, or emergencies that mean a child may have to take some time off school. However, wherever possible, please can non-emergency appointments be made outside of school time, or ensure that students return to school in the afternoon if their appointment is in the morning (or vice versa). With regards to illness, the message that has been given to students is that if they are feeling unwell, the question they should be asking themselves is not “Do I want to come into school?” Of course, if you’re feeling unwell the answer will be no! However, what they should be asking is, “Can I be in school?” In this instance, the answer is almost always “Yes”. We do have the Intervention Room for students that are feeling unwell, but we would very much appreciate your support in ensure your child is in school as much as possible to give them the best chance of success in the future.
This week’s Act of Collective Worship focuses on the school value of Compassion, with particular focus on the importance of Kindness. Students are encouraged to consider how they interact with one another (almost like a ‘Kindness Audit’ on themselves) and think about times when they might have been more patient, more compassionate or kinder to the other person. We consider this through two pieces of scripture – the first coming from Proverbs 21:20 where it states “Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life, righteousness and honour”. Students are invited to consider the positive effects of kindness not only on other around them, but on themselves and their own wellbeing. One small, seemingly insignificant, act of kindness can have a huge impact on people around you by beginning a chain reaction of good deeds and kindness that has a huge benefit to the community around us. It can also make us feel good in ourselves that we were able to have a positive impact on someone else. Kindness is also a good way to get what we want (genuine kindness that is!) whereas confrontation and aggression and a sure way to push people away. We also consider the things we can do practically to try and spread kindness, compassion and positivity – through simply saying “thank you” to someone, holding a door open, offering a genuine, heart-felt compliment, or apologising when we get things wrong. This links into the second Bible verse we consider, from Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as Christ forgave you”. We all, as a school community, need to be the change we want to see and not expect that it is down to others to initiate.
Congratulations to the winners of the Head of Year Award this week – they are…
Daniel Real (8KMd) – For always displaying a positive attitude, and being an absolute delight in form time! Well done!
Corin Haywood (8MHe) – For always being kind, caring and compassionate towards others, and doing everything to the best of her ability. Well done!
Well done – a £5 Amazon Gift Card will be on its way as soon as possible!
Thank You for taking the time to read this bulletin. If you have any issues regarding your child in Year 8, please contact me on aarthur.ahs.pmat.academy, or Mr Deamer (PSW For Year 8) on rdeamer@ahs.pmat.academy
Mr Avery and Year 9
This has been an eventful week for year 9, but once again I am proud of the hard work and resilience the students have shown. I am delighted that the students who have needed to self isolate have now returned to school, and have been really impressed with the work they completed independently while at home. I hope now the shops, pubs and restaurants are beginning to re-open, the students are finding ways to enjoy time with their family and friends away from school. I am certainly seeing more happy faces around school and I am sure this due to some aspects of society returning to normal. Now we just need the nice weather! Linked to this, it has been excellent to see participation in the extra curricular sport increase over the last few weeks. It really is beginning to feel like a return to normality, and hopefully we will see more of this in the coming weeks.
This week it has been a real pleasure to see a select number of students in Year 9 begin the peer mentoring programme with students in the sixth form. The students have been really positive about this, with the aim to raise aspiration and support with emotional wellbeing. If this is something you feel your child might benefit from, please contact either myself or Miss Clark and we would be happy to discuss it further.
I would like to reiterate the expectations around masks from Monday, with a slight change to the government guidance. As the Headteacher has explained, the students will continue to wear masks in corridors, but now have the option to remove their mask in lesson. I know this will be welcomed by students in Year 9, who have done so well in playing their part at keeping our community safe during this difficult time. In the weekly Act of Collective worship, we looked at the pros and cons of social media. It was really interesting to receive the views of Year 9, with many agreeing that it has become a very important part of their lives. Whilst many understood the benefits of this excellent resource, I hope the students took a great deal from the message that overuse or inappropriate use of social media can lead to unhappiness or poor wellbeing.
This week the head of year award was given to Phoebe Clark (9Wb) and Eva Van Der Zee (9MSt) for their compassion, hard work and positive attitude. They are both a credit to our year group and school. Well done! As always please feel free to contact me on navery@ahs.pmat.academy to discuss any concerns or issues.
Mrs Avey and Year 11
Only two days of assessments left for this coming week and we are confident that they will run as smoothly as last week’s where the students were well prepared and largely came out pleased with their efforts. We were impressed with their positive attitude and commitment. Well done! Work undertaken in lessons this week will be especially tailored to continue to provide last opportunities which may contribute towards the final holistic Teacher Assessed grades. We are expecting the completed Leavers’ Book to arrive from the printers this week and a blank table plan will be posted for our students to sign up on giving their preference for whom they would like to sit next to at Prom. We can not guarantee their choices – and our students will need to have a mind to this- but we will do our best to accommodate where possible. Hoody and Jeans day will take place this Friday 21st May; money raised will go towards funding extras at the Prom, and the Just Giving page is now up and running, should anyone wish to contribute. This Friday will be the last core PE lesson for our students and the PE department would like to encourage any student who is willing to contribute their kit to the department to do so. Any will be gratefully received. They can even leave it at the end of the lesson if they so wished and it will be collected up and washed, ready for future use. Alternatively, we are happy to receive it at reception/HOY office at any time.
Miss De Lashley and Post 16
Y12 Assessments
Following the April assessments Miss Cox and I have met with numerous families and continue to do so to discuss progression plans. These have been constructive meetings and very positive. All families will have a 1-2-1 meeting following the summer assessments that will take place w/c 5th July. These are very important assessments that help us to establish UCAS predicted grades and the curriculum route for Y13 for your son daughter. It is important that students treat these as though they are real exams especially as they have missed out on real exam experience to-date. Students will be prepared in class and have two weeks of in-class revision in the weeks prior to the exam period. If you have any questions regarding these assessments or the ones that took place in April, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Y12 Next Steps
As we return from May half-term our attention will move to considering next steps for Year 12. We will be providing families with information on how to apply to Higher Education and talking you through what we will be doing to prepare your son/daughter. Although the vast majority of our students progress to Higher Education we also have an increasing number that decide to pursue apprenticeships and employment. We also support students through this process and will be explaining both options to the whole year group.
Y12 Attendance
Attendance is crucial in ensuring continued progression and we pride ourselves in having exemplary attendance in the Sixth Form, one of the reasons we feel students are successful. Please encourage your son/daughters to attend school unless they absolutely cannot. There has been so much missed school due to the pandemic and we are almost at the end of their first year of post-16. It is important that we have as much time to teach as possible. If your son/daughter cannot attend, please notify school at the start of the day.
Y13 Last day
Year 13 will have their official last day on the last day of this half-term, Thursday 27th May. They will be stood-down following their period 3 lesson at 12:10 to enjoy the afternoon. Those students that have not completed their BTEC coursework by that date will be invited in each until they have completed.
Year 13 Transition – last call
Please remind your son/daughter to sign-up for the Transition opportunities next half-term. They have a link on the Google Classroom. We will be closing the sign-up at the ned of next week so that we can arrange the provision. It is a valuable opportunity to gain work experience and important transition information.
| Option | Overview | When | |
| 1 | Y11 Transition Support | Support departments delivering Post-16 Transition Sessions to Y11 during their transition period. Sign-up for any duration | Mon 7th June – Fri 25th June |
| 2 | AHS Enrichment Week | Support staff/departments with the facilitation of Enrichment Week | w/c 19th July |
| 3 | AHS Sports Day | Support staff/departments with the facilitation of Sports Day | Fri 22nd July |
| 4 | Subject Support | Support classroom teachers in lessons Support departments with planning Sign-up for any duration | Mon 7th June – Fri 16th July |
| 5 | Peer Mentoring | Support students with pastoral and academic needs Sign-up for any duration | Mon 7th June – Fri 16th July |
| 6 | Staff Shadowing | Gain experience of specific job roles Pastoral, Curriculum, Operations, Office, Teaching School, MAT Primaries, Catering, Site Sign-up for any duration | Mon 7th June – Fri 23rd July |
| 7 | Operations Support | Gain work experience in-role Pastoral, Curriculum, Operations, Office, Teaching School, MAT Primaries, Catering, Site | Mon 7th June – Fri 23rd July |
| 8 | HE Prep Workshop | Information and support with expectations: Lectures, Seminars, Time Management, Long deadlines, Punctuality, Grading | TBC |
| 9 | Professionalism Workshop | Information and support with expectations: Office Dress, Office Conduct, WFH, Discipline, Working with Colleagues, Assertive Discussions | TBC |
| 10 | Independent Living Workshop | Money management Nutrition on a budget Upcycling your wardrobe Reduced storage solutions General SOS—re-wiring a plug, sewing on a button Staying safe and savvy | TBC |
| 11 | Careers Support | A scheduled careers appointment | Mon 7th June – Fri 23rd July |
| 12 | Creative Workshop | Creative liberty with a range of mediums across Art, Music and Drama | Mon 7th June – Fri 23rd July |
Y12 Shout Outs
| Who… | Where… | Why… | By… |
| Hannah Sivro-Williams | History | Excellent work recently in your mock and on your John Brown sources. You are really demonstrating a stronger effort and a more focused approach to your work. Well done. | Mr Knox |
| Ella Doyle | English Lit | Well done for consistent and impressive contribution to our lessons. | Ms Metcalf |
| Fin Tait | English Lit | Well done for contributing thoughtfully to class discussion and being consistently engaged. | Ms Metcalf |
| Jack Richardson | English Lit | Well done for being so engaged and involved in English lessons. | Ms Metcalf |
| Maddie Hatch | English Lit | Well done for making such a positive and thoughtful contribution to our lessons. | Ms Metcalf |
| Ben Wedge | English Lit | Well done for producing an excellent essay. | Ms Metcalf |
| Josh Robinson | English Lit | Well done for being consistently engaged and thoughtfully contributing in lessons. | Ms Metcalf |
| Myrddin Wardman | English Lit | Thank you for always being so engaged in our lessons – and for always saying thank you. | Ms Metcalf |
| Ellie Wilcox | English Lit | Thank you for your continued effort and enthusiasm for the subject! | Ms Metcalf |
| 12BEG1 – ALA | Engineering | Excellent work this week and last! Keep up the effort. Looking forward to practical work with you! | Miss Lawrenson |
| 13CEG1 – ALA | Engineering | Well done over the past weeks. You have worked hard in the Unit 3 for the course! Last push this week! | Miss Lawrenson |
| Yr 12 Enrichment, ‘Green Dragons,’ environmental action group | The most excellent green team… | Generally a big shout out and thanks for your work and just getting involved. Enthusiastic, helpful and keen to see a change, one step at a time – you are fabulous. | Miss Clarke |
| Chloe Rowan | Mentoring | Thank you so much for your efforts here! | Miss Cox |
| Lulian Nedelcu | Media | Lulian produced an outstanding, professional media product using Adobe InDesign. | Mr Shaw |
| Year 12 Physics | Physics | Thank you for working so hard on your mocks! | Miss Gray |
| Holly Allison, Izzy Lofthouse, Peter McFarlane and Oli Pugh | Physics | Well done for a superb mock result! | Miss Gray |
| Matthew Parsley | Sport enrichment | What a catch!!!!! | Mr Goldsmith |
| WedP5 Enrichment- sport | Enrichment | Fantastic game of long ball today. Top work all round. | Mr Goldsmith |
| All our paired readers | Library | Massive thank-you to all the ‘paired readers’ The younger students are really enjoying spending time with you, and I appreciate all your help. Well done everyone! | Miss Murphy |
| Eldho, Alice, Jess | Business (Double) | Fantastic work on Unit 5 Assignment 3 – well done! | Mr Charlton |
| Elin, Isaac, Jenny, Olivia, Grace, Daisy and Oliver | Business (Single) | Great Unit 1 Assignment 3 work – superb effort, keep it up! | Mr Charlton |
Y13 Shout Outs
| Who… | Where… | Why… | By… |
| Y13 Lit | English Literature | For throwing yourselves into enrichment literature discussions! | Miss Balmer |
| Eloise Reading | German | Danke Danke DANKE for your ongoing positivity and hard work in German! | Miss Dixon |
| Year 13 A level English Language | English Language | I would just like to say a huge well done to my wonderful language class. You have been an absolute pleasure to teach and have worked so hard. Thank you. | Mrs Edmondson |
| 13CEG1 – ALA | Engineering | Well done over the past weeks. You have worked hard in the Unit 3 for the course! Last push this week! | Miss Lawrenson |
| 13ALA form | Form time | Just wanted to say a massive well done and thank you to the form for the past couple of weeks! | Miss Lawrenson |
| Year 13 BTEC Sport Class | BTEC Sport | Outstanding effort from the whole class whilst completing their formal Interviews on Monday for their final assessment. | Mrs Beard |
| Single & Double Business | Business | Great effort to complete all coursework to such a high standard!! | Mr Charlton |
| 13D Ms Ramsay’s Geography class | Geography | I just want to say a big thanks for engaging so positively with the GIS trial at the moment. Your engagement and feedback is really helpful and I genuinely appreciate your positivity and help. Keep up the great work. | Ms Ramsay |
There you’ll find the latest weekly reflection. This explores the theme of what we might learn from birds; from a family of Oyster Catchers resident in school to Jesus’ teaching on birds:Archbishop Holgate’s School Chaplaincy YouTube channel
Archbishop Holgate’s School Chaplaincy YouTube channel has material connected to whole school worship and Collective Worship. There are also moments of Reflection from the school Chaplain and items reflecting our School Values. The address is:
- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC68i0uL4LZNIIVcu8B03iqw/about or you can search the name.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yax6x6nZNyo&t=18s
You will also find last week’s reflection about Justice in the bible and our lives, and the recent events where Judges in the Court of Appeal quashed the convictions of 39 former postmasters:
Collective Worship
This week our form tutor Act of Collective Worship looks at the festival of Pentecost. This is the Christian celebration of the gift of the Holy Spirit celebrated next Sunday, 50 days after Easter. This is God coming alongside us. Our daily quotes are on the theme of God being with us.
Quotes
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you.” The book of Isaiah ch41: v10, The Bible
“God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.” – Saint Augustine, 4th C. theologian, philosopher, and Bishop
“And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” – Jesus in the gospel of Matthew ch28 v20, The Bible
“The best of all is God with us.” – John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church
“I know the LORD is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.” – Psalm 16:8, The Bible