Headteacher Update

Dear parents and carers,

It is hard to believe that it is October already and we are over half way through this first half term. This has been one of the smoothest starts to an academic year that I can remember. Young people have returned to school keen and happy to see their friends, eager to learn and looking to make the most of the extra curricular and enrichment opportunities available to them as part of the AHS Journey.
I am also extremely proud of the way students supported the school last Tuesday at Open Evening. As the first school in the city to have their event this year, and needing to make some changes to ensure compliance with our Covid control measures, we were more reliant than ever on our students showing maturity and independence to help make the evening a success. I am delighted to inform parents that this was exactly what they did, I have received numerous emails from prospective parents commenting on the excellent impression that students made and the positive way they spoke about our school community. Thank you.

As ever please find attached the latest Wellbeing Newsletter, edition 27 this week.

Music Extra-curricular

The latest timetable from Mrs Morrison and the team is attached below. Please also find attached a link to a new Google form for requesting instrumental and vocal lessons. I’m delighted to say that we now have a team of 14 tutors working in school each week.

Instrumental & Vocal Lesson Request Form

Mrs Morrison (in partnership with the Arts Council and York Music Hub) has been working extremely hard to put in place as many new and exciting extra-curricular opportunities as possible to support both the return to school and effective transition. This is on top of all the usual activities that the entire music department delivers each week. Details are included below:

6 week Music Technology Course on Mondays starting 11th October from 5-7pm in the Music Department in the 6th Form block.

Spaces are limited so early booking is essential and there are free Bursary places available – please contact Mrs Morrison for more information: cmorrison@ahs.pmat.academyH

Head of Year Awards
Please find below our latest recipients of the Head of Year Awards.

Head of Year Updates

Year 7 – Miss Kincell, Miss Powell and Miss Cooper

We have been so impressed with how Year 7 have started to take up the extra-curriculars this week. It is such a joy to see them crowd to the timetables and see what they can enjoy next. The extra-curricular programme is a fundamental way to join in in Year 7 and supports so many students in making new friends and fully ‘Joining In’. The clubs vary significantly with a variety of sports clubs such as football and badminton, to subject based clubs such as beginners languages and science club to just interest clubs such as feminist club or Warhammer club. Clubs take place at both lunch time and after school and it is compulsory for Year 7 students to attend at least one club per week.

We hope you have noticed we are starting to really enjoy our online presence and communicating with parents via Twitter, we are spending time each week to post lots of the positive events and student achievements on Twitter. Please make sure you are following us: @AHS_Year7Kl to see everything the students are getting up to.

As always we are really proud of our students who have achieved the Head of Year Awards this week, congratulations to:
Alice Firth – for great confidence on open evening and being an excellent representative for the school.
Ellie Kirkham – for always being so polite and smiley, and making a great start to her AHS journey.

And Congratulations and well done to the students who have stood out to their form tutors:
7ANN Reggie Midgley – excellent contribution in form time and being kind and caring to others.
7ASU Adam Said – for making excellent contributions to class discussions and being a great example to the rest of the form.
7BL Oliver Temple – Reading the prayer beautifully in Form Collective Worship.
7CY Maryam Syeda – for keeping your planner organised and up to date
7GR Ryan Walker – For really getting stuck in this term, thank you.
7HF Hugo Mander – for great contributions in form!
7HV Ellis Beard – Improved organisation and focus
7MLN Samuel Perry – making a great start to AHS! Well Done
7MPE Millie Thompson – For contributing to form discussions and being pleasant and chatty during drift in.
7MR Layla Wright for being a conscientious and hard working student
7SMF Eddie Hardy – Contributing lots to form discussions, being very friendly and welcoming all in form.

Library Newsletter

National Poetry Day – It is National Poetry Day on Thursday and I am delighted that it gives us good reason to showcase some of the fantastic poetry books that we have available. Sometimes poetry gets ‘bad press’ and can be seen as dull and boring. Wrong! Lot’s of poems are really funny and we will have some on display all week in the library for you to read and/or take to your form to read out if you dare. With titles such as ‘The Spot on my Bum’ and ‘Nicknames’ you can imagine that they will be a good read. If you would like to see someone annotating the poem The Spot on my Bum you can do so by clicking on the link below. It makes us realise that the poem isn’t just funny but also really well written. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZwHOnHWFCQ

HOW TO WRITE A HAIKU – A simple poem of three lines, the first must contain five syllables, the second seven syllables, finishing with a third of five syllables. See my attempts below, I’m sure you can all do better!

The first line has five.   (5)                                      Starting a new school (5)
The second is the longest.   (7)                              The rules to remember are (7)
Last line ends with five.         (5)                             Make friends, learn. ENJOY! (5)

Have a go at writing a haiku and bring them to me to read and display please. We will be holding a poetry competition this week on the theme of New School.

Ask in the library and look on the notice board in your form room for details. We will supply some writing frames and have lots of words that rhyme with school, so make sure you call into the library on Tuesday and Wednesday and take part in poetry workshops. A copy of the poster can be seen at the end of this newsletter.

Thursday will of course be the Lunchtime of Calm. I ordered some more fairy lights that arrived today, so our Thursday lunchtime will be ‘twinkling’ even more than usual.

New Books – Thank you for recommending new books to purchase for the library. This week I bought the series of ‘Murder Most Unladylike’. There are ten in the series and the first one is simply called Murder Most Unladylike, written by Robin Stevens. (Quiz 230928. Level 5. Green. Mystery)

When Hazel discovers Science Mistress Miss Bell lying dead in the Gym, she thinks it must have been a terrible accident – but when she and Daisy return a few moments later, the body has completely disappeared. The girls realise a murder must have taken place, and soon discover that there’s more than one person at Deepdean with a motive. Determined to get to the bottom of the crime, Hazel and Daisy put their detective skills to the test – but can they uncover the truth before the killer strikes again?

You can read the first couple of chapters by clicking on the link below.

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Murder_Most_Unladylike/Gbp1CwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

Book Reviews – Thank you for your book reviews this week. Please keep them coming…

Malachy Bennett read Creep from the Deep “The book was scary but it also has some comedy. There is an amazing plot twist.”
Amira Bonchour read The Demon Headmaster and the Prime Minister’s Brain. “I was hooked in from the first paragraph. It is a brilliant read.
Emily Brown read The Demon Headmaster Strikes Again. “It was adventurous but wasn’t my style so I didn’t enjoy it. I think some other people would like it though.”

Library Monitors – I’ve had lots of excellent applications for the role of library monitor. The deadline has now past and I will get back to you all as quickly as possible. Luckily for me a lot of you have been really helpful in the library already so won’t need much training. Also, a big thank you from me on behalf of our sixth form volunteers that started volunteering in the library this week. You have all been amazing, patient and welcoming to those who are learning a new role.

Book Returns – Don’t forget that if you borrowed a book in the first week of this term it will be overdue due now. If you haven’t finished your book, no problem, just call in to either library and we will extend the loan time for you. We have had lots of books borrowed and returned, so thank you for that. Keep up the good work everyone!

Poetry Competition – Write a poem on the theme of ‘New School’. It can be a simple acrostic poem, or we have lots of rhyming words available if you want to write something longer. There will be prizes for all those on display. Entries by Tuesday 12^th October please.

We hope Year 7 have another fantastic week, if you have any concern please contact main reception and ask to speak with a member of the Year 7 Team.

Year 8 – Mrs Avey, Mrs Mennall and Mr Handley

Having volunteered to help members of staff at Open Evening last Tuesday and having done themselves, their year group and their school proud with their reliability, friendliness, helpfulness and sense of responsibility, it feels that the year 8’s are now settled into their new position within the school. They are confident in the timings, expectations and routines of the school day. 

 It is a difficult time for us all, as immune systems are less robust, and the attendance of the year group has consequently  fallen recently. Mr Handley did therefore, last Friday,  an ACW ( Act of Collective Worship) with a positive tone, on the reminder of the  importance of attendance at school whenever feasible.

Week 5 already and we have more weeks of this half term behind us than are in front of us. Still plenty of time to join extra curricular  clubs and activities. It is fabulous to see so many attending sports clubs after school. This Friday, the year 8’s, along with the other members of our school community, will be updating their school photo. Our students will take responsibility for being in full school uniform, in alphabetical order and for bringing their best smiles.

Year 9 – Mr Arthur, Mr Deamer and Mrs Deacon

Greetings to you all – I hope this Year 9 Newsletter Item finds you all safe and well. It gives the Year 9 Pastoral Team great pleasure to update you on some of the key things pertinent to the year group as we reach the half-way point of this first half-term back at AHS.

September 2021 sees students in Year 9 embark on the Silver Arts Award qualification. This is a particular point of pride for the AHS curriculum, as we endeavour to ensure that students at AHS do not have to sacrifice enjoyable subjects they love despite having made their GCSE Options choices. Last year, in very trying and difficult circumstances, a staggering 242 students achieved their Silver Arts Award qualification, and had a breadth of enriching experiences along the way. With the lifting of COVID restrictions within schools and out in the wider community, this will significantly enhance the experience students in Year 9 will have of the Arts Award. Students will be embarking on three Cultural Experience Trips throughout the year, where they will visit Arts Exhibitions across the county and review them. This is something we were unable to offer last year due to COVID restrictions, but we are very excited for the first outing on Thursday 2nd of December, and more information will be following shortly.

I thought it would be a good opportunity to let you know about the kinds of projects students in Year 9 are undertaking as they work towards their Silver Arts Award Qualification…

• In Music, students are composing gaming and electronic music using music technology software. Students are also developing sequencing and composing skills as well as getting familiar with online music technology software such as Beepbox.
• In MFL, students are producing a Spanish learner’s podcast on the theme of directions around town. They begin by learning the phrases and how to make conversations out of them, and then through the making of the podcast they will develop media production skills. They will also be writing scripts, recording, editing and then publishing their podcasts to a very high quality.
• In Food, students in Year 9 are practicing presentation techniques including: strawberry carving, tomato roses, julienne fried potatoes and concasse. They then take several of these techniques and apply them to a finished dish to make it look restaurant quality.
• In DT, students are designing a model shop front and a logo for a bakery, developing a range of skills including marbling, and practical manufacturing skills using paper and cardboard.
• Finally, in Art, students are creating portraits through a range of media. They begin by developing skills using paint, ink, wire sculpturing and monoprinting, and then they complete the project by developing their own portrait from a range of inspiration figures in British Culture.

We are very proud of the Silver Arts Award provision we have in Year 9, and we very much hope that students find this an enriching experience in this transition year towards their GCSE studies.

As we reach the half-way point of the first half-term, I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight the issue of attendance. It goes without saying that attendance at school is crucial to the success of students. In order to give students the best chance of success, it is imperative that students try to miss little to no school days throughout the course of a year. 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. Whilst students in Year 9 are a couple of years away from actually sitting their GCSE exams, this ‘transition year’ they are currently undertaking is imperative for building the foundations in subjects that will allow students to reach their full potential in the Summer of 2024. In one recent study, 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. We as a school will do what we can to support the excellent attendance of students, and whilst some absence is genuinely unavoidable, we ask that any routine appointments are made outside of school hours, and that students are encouraged to come into school if they feel under the weather. We have the protocols and facilities to support students in school if they are feeling unwell, including the addition of a school nurse to the AHS team. If there is any way we can support your child in maintaining the highest possible standards of attendance, please get in touch via the email addresses at the foot of this Newsletter item.

Our Acts of Collective Worship so far this year have seen a range of topics including how to deal with emotions such as anger and the AHS Journey Year 9 are going on in school. This week’s Act of Collective Worship focus is on punctuality and the importance of being on time. School is preparing our young people for the wider world and one key aspect of that is being on time. Being on time does not just show respect but also helps our young people show they are trustworthy, dependable, prepared and makes sure they don’t miss out on any opportunities currently within school that will contribute towards their future. In order to make sure our students are successful it is crucial they are on time to school and lessons; if a student was 15 minutes late every day this would account to missing two weeks of school a year, valuable time for study and developing life skills. This also links to our British Value focus for this half term on Mutual Respect – being on time highlights respect to employees for example, furthermore enabling trust to be built, as well as showing compassion to understanding the place of work. As Proverbs 12:27 says“Whoever is slothful will not roast his game, but the diligent man will get precious wealth.” Showing that being diligent and punctual has many benefits – being late does not deliver rewards. If there is any way we can support your child in punctuality, please get in touch with the pastoral team. 

It has been lovely to see Year 9 in their new school uniforms and on the whole the uniform has been excellent. Please can we politely remind parents that trainers aren’t allowed, along with only one stud piercing is allowed in each ear, nose piercings aren’t accepted and students mustn’t come with these into school. Furthermore as the seasons start to change it is crucial students wear their school jumpers to school, coats are of course allowed but don’t include hoodies and they aren’t to be worn in lessons. If you have any questions or concerns please contact us by the emails at the bottom of the newsletter, we want to make sure we work with families to ensure a successful year and ensure students are following the uniform policy. 

This year at AHS, we will be placing a big emphasis on Student Voice. This has become much easier for students to access now that we have the routine use of Google Classroom and GMail across school. Student voice surveys will be released each week, and will cover a variety of different issues ranging from…

• Extra-curricular activities
• School catering
• The schools Christian Values
• Bullying
• Safeguarding issues
• British Values
• The list could go on…

The Student Voice surveys can be accessed by students in a number of ways…

• On their Year Group’s Google Classroom page
• Sent to students via their school GMail account
• Added to the Student Hub, which they can access via Google Chrome

Please do encourage your child in Year 9 to have their say and complete the Student Voice Survey each week – Student feedback provides us with an invaluable insight that has already had a significant impact across the school; for instance, our Extra-curricular provision now contains a variety of activities that were initially suggest via a Student Voice survey in the last summer term!

Thank you for taking the time to read this Newsletter item. If you have any issues regarding your child in Year 9, then please do get in touch by emailing aarthur@ahs.pmat.academy (Head of Year), mdeacon@ahs.pmat.academy (Assistant Head of Year) and/or rdeamer@ahs.pmat.academy (Pastoral Support Worker); or alternatively, you can call Main School Reception and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Best wishes.

Year 10 – Mr Avery, Miss Johnstone and Miss Montagu

We have enjoyed another very positive week with our Yr 10 students. A highlight was to see so many of them helping out on open evening. They were a credit to the school as they either gave tours to prospective parents or met them in classrooms to talk about their favourite subjects. Several parents told us how impressed they were and how much they had appreciated it. Many thanks to all who took part and we are proud of them.

In ACW this week we looked at a young person who has set an inspiring example: Emma Raducanu. She has shown great resilience in her career. After having to withdraw from her fourth round match at Wimbledon due to breathing problems, she went on to win her first Grand Slam at the US Open in New York. Talk about bouncing back! Resilience is a key element in our students’ Yr 10 journey. They can show it by maintaining excellent attendance and by keeping on in their studies when it’s hard. And why not try some new sport or activity as well?

Finally, we look forward to welcoming parents to ‘Work Experience’ night on Monday 4th October. This is a valuable opportunity for you to learn how you can help your child through this important fortnight. We hope you will be able to join us.

Year 11 – Miss Turvey, Mrs Reeder and Miss Chambers 

We have enjoyed another productive week in Year 11 where our students continue to do us proud with their hard work in lessons. We feel especially proud of our year group this week after so many of them did a fantastic job in representing the school at Open Evening on Tuesday. This evening saw over 70 students from Year 11 volunteering to act as guides and departmental helpers, proving themselves to be excellent role models and playing an integral part in making the evening a great success. A huge well done to 11RMr who had 12 members of their form acting as guides, closely followed by 11Wa and 11By with 11 guides. It was truly humbling to receive so much positive feedback from prospective parents – well done Year 11!

This week’s assembly was slightly different to our usual Act of Collective Worship. Led by Ms De Lashley, our Director of Sixth Form, students were given an outline of IAG day, our Sixth form taster day which will take place on Friday 15th October. All students will be off-timetable and may wear non-school uniform on this day as they sample a range of Sixth form subjects of their choice. To select their subject choices, students should access their Year Group Google Classroom and complete the Google form. These choices are by no means binding and do not have to reflect the final choices students make for KS5, they are there to provide a taster to help students to make more informed choices.

IAG day will be followed by Sixth Form Open Evening on Tuesday 2nd November, where students and parents will be welcome to tour the Sixth form, speak to KS5 subject leaders and sample the facilities we have to offer. As a school, we are very proud of our Sixth form which is in the top 2% nationally for student progress. All families are welcome and encouraged to explore AHS Sixth form as an option: not only do we offer traditional A Level courses (with well-honed support for those applying to Oxbridge or studying Medicine and Veterinary Science), but there is also an array of vocational BTEC courses that will equip students to access various apprenticeships. Of course, we will equally be encouraging students to explore other options and open evenings available to them across the city; it is vital their next steps are as informed as possible.

For the upcoming week, we will be having a real focus on homework quality and completion. Students are welcome to attend homework club which runs every weekday evening from 3:10-4:00 in a staffed computer room in the Sixth Form block (L32). In addition to this, students can access the Library and Resource Centre in the new Maths block every lunchtime if they would like a quiet working space during the day. To help with managing time at home, we strongly encourage students to create their own homework timetable to help to spread the workload and avoid leaving multiple pieces of homework until the night before. We continue to ask that students write their homework into their planners so that parents can be a part of this dialogue and support their children to manage their time and workload from home.

Thank you for your continued support. If you have any issues regarding your child in Year 11, please do contact school reception to get in touch with Miss Turvey (Head of Year 11), Miss Chambers (Assistant Head of Year 11) or Mrs Reeder (Year 11 Pastoral Support Worker).

Post 16 – Mrs De Lashley, Mrs Walton, Miss Balmer and Miss Cox

Open Evening Support

A huge thank you to the Sixth Formers that supported our Open Evening on Tuesday. They were phenomenal and we have been inundated with praise for their conduct, enthusiasm and maturity. They will be rewarded in due course.  We really do rely on the support of our students to make nights such as those a success and we are extremely grateful for those students that take the time to support and give back. A great demonstration of good citizenship and modelling our School Values.

School Closures

Please be reminded that school is closed to Sixth Form students Friday 15th October. They will not participate in live lessons but will be set homework to be completed in their own time. 

Employment opportunities in school

With a growing school and a focus on developing responsibility amongst our students we have a number of paid opportunities coming up for Sixth Form students to support their future Post-18 applications and develop responsibility, commitment and independence. Students will apply for roles as they become available, be interviewed and complete training. They will be paid in-line with the living wage and be DBS checked. We have a small cohort that have applied to support the library during break and lunch and they will complete the process prior to commencing their roles.  

Year 11 Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) Day

Year 11 will be joining the Sixth Form for a day on Friday 15^th October. They will attend five Sixth Form lessons of their choice and enjoy lunch provided. They should wear their own clothes. Students were sent a link on Friday to complete their subject choices. They are selecting five. They should choose subjects that they want to find out more about, it is not a commitment to study them next year and we cannot guarantee a subject advertised will run as they are subject to demand. Some of our subjects do have entry requirements and these will be discussed with students in individual meetings taking place in November, the requirements are advertised on our website and in the prospectus released later this month. For now students should select what they are interested in. Any questions, please do get in touch fde.lashley@ahs.pmat.academy

Sixth Form Girls Netball Team

Congratulations to our Netball team who came second in their first tournament last weekend. They played exceptionally and we are delighted with their success!

• Aimee Reed
• Eleanor Bulmer
• Hannah O’Connor
• Holly Allison
• Dev Wijeratne 
• Mia Rank
• Sophia Mackender
• Liv Goldsmith 
• Sophie Watkins 
• Mia Haendlmayer 
• Gabby Moore

Shout outs

Collective Worship
This week our Form Tutor Collective Worship looks at the fuel supply crisis we are currently facing; its causes and solutions. And uses this issue to explore Jesus’ teaching that as One Body we all have immense value.

“Two are better off than one, because together they can work more effectively. If one of them falls down, the other can help him up.” – The book of Ecclesiastes ch 4: v9, The Bible

“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” – Ryunosuke Satoro, 20thC Japanese writer

“Oh, how wonderful, how pleasing it is when God’s people all come together as one!” – Psalm 133 v1, The Bible

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Adams Keller, Blind American author, political activist, and lecturer

“None of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.” – Mother Teresa, Catholic nun and aid worker

Music Tech Autumn 2021

Extra-curricular Music timetable 2021-22

Wellbeing Newsletter 27