Headteacher Update

Dear parents and carers,

We are looking forward to a busy last two weeks of the half term. On Tuesday we will receive additional information from the government in terms of the summer examinations. As soon as we have interrogated this update we will pass on the key information to students, staff and families. In the meantime please be reassured that both Y11 and Y13 continue to work hard and make strong progress in terms of their academic studies. As families are aware the final week of term will also see additional mock examinations for Y11 in Maths, English and Science. In addition to this we look forward to welcoming families to the Year 8 Parents Evening on Wednesday and to the second Year 9 Cultural visit (free for the entire year group) in the final week of the half term. Indeed Mr Williams was pleased to speak to all of Year 8 during their Collective Worship on Friday. This was an important opportunity to reiterate the changes to option processes for the current Year 8 and highlight all the excellent opportunities students in this year group currently have in both this year and when they reach Year 9. As highlighted in the letter sent out at the start of the term, Year 9 will remain a vital year in our AHS Journey, where students are encouraged to understand themselves and others at all stages. As part of this, students will continue to study the following subjects in Year 9:

• English and drama
• Maths
• Science
• RE & PSHE
• MFL (French, German or Spanish)
• History
• Geography
• Music
• Art
• DT
• Textiles
• Food
• IT
• PE

This curriculum will allow students to explore a broad range of subjects whilst helping them make the best choices for future subjects. It will also allow all students to complete the Trinity Silvery Arts Award, which is an essential part of our Year 9 curriculum.

Head of Year Awards

Head of year Updates
Year 7 – Miss Kincell, Miss Powell and Miss Cooper
Students have shown lots of reflection and respect this week whilst we have remembered The Holocaust, we spent assemblies understanding what The Holocaust was and listening to the experience of a survivor. We were really impressed by the way Year 7 listened with respect and gave this event the appropriate gravitas. Over the next two weeks year 7 will spend time in our chapel at an Anne Frank exhibition to learn more. This is always an experience students remember throughout their time at school.

A disappointing update, our STEM Day Monday 14th February has had to be postponed due to many of the businesses who usually support with the event are still experiencing the impact of covid on staffing. We are hopeful that we will be able to rearrange this for later in the year.

Our Students of the Week:
ANn: Lily Jackson – for representing the school at the recent year 7 football match. Well done Lily!
ASU: Karthikeya Pulakanam – for putting loads of effort into the school musical!
Bl: Leo Deighton – always contributing to form time discussions
Cy: Sam Bastow having a fantastic attitude every day and living out the school values.
Gr: Tommy Bettany – Thank you for your great efforts in rehearsals for Matilda, well done
Hf: Laurie Fisher – Excellent knowledge of world issues and a fantastic student.
Hv: Poppy Cooper – A fabulous member of 7Hv, always polite and excellent contributions to form discussions
MLn: Dexter Dowson – For always being organised, kind and hard-working!
MPe: Calum Lister – For being a fantastic member of MPe and always being positive and polite
Mr: Alfie Sawdon for being a conscientious and hard working young man
SMf: Payton Donnelly – For always being pleasant, personable and hard-working! A staple character in the form.

Our Head of Year Awards:
Bryan Biji 7MPe – for living our school values, getting involved in our extra curricular activities and contributing in form time. Well Done!
Valerie Chan 7Hf – for living our school values and being an outstanding member of the AHS community. Well Done!

Library Newsletter
It was Holocaust Memorial Day at the weekend. I know some of you have been talking about this in your history lessons. What you might not realise is that we have books in the Y7 library in the historical fiction section that are based on the truth about the holocaust, but written in the form of a novel. If you would like to learn more then why not try reading one of them.

Once by Morris Gleitzman (Quiz 212034. Level 4.1. Colour purple) is dedicated to ‘All the children whose stories have never been told.’ It is a story that was imagined by the author but was inspired by real events, one of which was the story of Janusz Korczak who helped run an orphanage for 200 Jewish children. The book tells the story of Felix who was placed in an orphanage for his own protection, but he knows that his mum and dad are out there somewhere.

Once I escaped from an orphanage to find mum and dad.

Once I saved a girl called Zelda from a burning house.

Once I made a Nazi with a toothache laugh.

You can not only read chapter one by clicking on the link, but also listen to the author reading it. You may want to listen to the voice of Morris Gleitzman and read along with him. https://www.morrisgleitzman.com/once-chapter-1.htm

If you would rather try a true story then try either Hana’s Suitcase. Hana’s Suitcase by Karen Levine (Quiz 207171. Level 5. Colour Green) is the true story of Hana Brady. An empty battered suitcase arrives in a small Holocaust museum in Japan, winter 2000, from Auschwitz. Its discovery sparks an incredible journey to trace the truth about what happened to the young Hana and her family. You can read an extract and see photographs of the family by clicking on the link. https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Hana_s_Suitcase/qjFJE0thaDYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

York Book Awards
A big thanks to those of you who have been redesigning the book covers for the six books on the short list for the York Book Awards. Thanks also to those of you who have written a review. All your work will be presented to the author of your chosen book. I’m sure they will be delighted. We also started to read the opening chapters of these books as part of National Storytelling Week, so we could vote for our favourite.

Competition Corner
Why not have a go at writing a story and you could win £100 worth of book vouchers. The theme is friendship where in an apocalyptic world, you are allowed to save one friend. It must include the sentence ‘It had been such a long time since I’d had this much fun with my friends.’ After opening the link, click on KS3 to find out more. The word count is 1,500 and the closing date is Monday 28th February. https://readfoundation.org.uk/write-for-read/

Year 8 – Mrs Avey, Mrs Mennell and Mr Handley
We would like to start by thanking parents and carers for their support with ensuring children are making their appointments for Parents Evening which is this week in school on 9th February. If you have any questions and need any help with Parents Evening please do get in touch with one of the team. Year 8 have had an excellent year up to this point and we are very much looking forward to what will be a really positive and supportive evening.

In our whole year group Act of Collective Worship this week we had our Deputy Head Teacher speak to the Year 8 students about the school transitioning back to a three-year KS3 and what this will mean about GCSE choices for Year 8s. Our students will make their GCSE choices in Year 9 in order to allow them to receive the full range of the schools KS3 curriculum offer, which has otherwise been disrupted due to the effects of COVID. As a school we are immensely proud of our diverse KS3 curriculum and this is something that was highlighted in our recent Ofsted inspection. As with Parents evening, if you have any questions about this please do get in touch with someone from the Year Team.

This week North Yorkshire’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner has been in touch with the school offering students the opportunity to get more involved in their local community by joining the local Youth Commission. This has been in the notices this week and has generated a lot of interest with Year 8 students and would be an excellent project for any young person to take part in.

“The Youth Commission allows young people to get involved and have their say about policing, fire and crime where they live. The North Yorkshire Youth Commission enables young people to support, challenge and inform the work of the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, North Yorkshire Police and North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service. This is a very important role, because it helps the Commissioner, police and fire service to make better decisions to meet the needs of young people.”

To find out more and to sign up, please follow the link below.

https://www.northyorkshire-pfcc.gov.uk/for-you/young-people/youth/youth-commission-seeks-new-members/

Next week many Year 8 students will be representing their houses and taking part in the Year 8 swimming gala. This is an important event for the PE department and we are hopeful that as many Year 8s as possible take part in it. This will be taking place during PE lessons on Monday P1 and Tuesday P5. Good luck to anyone taking part. In other sports news, the Year 8 netball team performed valiantly at a recent competition, they did not win but it was a team put together on very short notice and they did an excellent job of representing the school. Those involved should be proud of themselves.

Additionally next week in school there will be a form quiz organized by some of the school’s Sixth Form Student Leaders to promote wellbeing. They will also be running a cake sale to raise money for wellbeing-based projects. This will take place in the Year 8 social area on Wednesday. Any student who wishes to buy cake will need to have a small amount of cash as this will not use the school usual cashless service.

Bike ability letters now handed out in form so we will look to get this sorted asap. There seems to be a lot of interest across Year 8 students in this so please do encourage your child to take a letter from their form tutor if you know they would be interested. The link to find out more is below.

https://www.bikeability.org.uk/

As ever, thank you for your continued support. If you have any issues regarding your child in Year 8, please do contact school reception to get in touch with Mrs Avey (Head of Year 8), Mr Handley (Assistant Head of Year 8) or Mrs Mennell (Year 8 Pastoral Support Worker).

Year 9 – Mr Arthur, Mr Deamer and Mrs Deacon
We are nearly at half term and with that it marks half way through the year! What a successful year so far Year 9 are currently having, some of the highlights for myself include the roller disco, the cultural experiences and getting to know the year group, we have a wide range of lovely young people and I am proud to be their Assistant Head of Year, showing they are well on their journey to understanding themselves and others. In addition this point also marks half way through their schooling careers to the end of Year 11 for Year 9, which I cannot quite believe! Year 10 focuses on responsibility and resilience and Year 11 on next steps which is why we are focusing on elements such as the five fundamentals to make sure our students are prepared for the next stages in their schooling careers as well as for life outside of school.

Please let me also take this opportunity to remind you again about the upcoming second round of the Year 9 Cultural Experiences Visits. As I have mentioned previously, Year 9 is an important transition year within school and we firmly believe it is important that every child has the opportunity to explore their personal development and deepen their cultural experiences.

The locations for these three trips are…

• Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield
• The National Science and Media Museum, Bradford
• The Royal Armouries, Leeds

The second rotation of these trips will take place on Thursday 17th February. As before, all students in Year 9 will be out of school for the day. This is a mandatory visit as part of the student’s Silver Arts Award Qualification. The visits are therefore paid for by the school, and students will need to wear their school uniform. Students will arrive at school as normal on the morning of their trip, and we will ensure that students return to AHS in time for the end of the school day so they can continue their usual arrangements for getting home.

Letters were posted out to you last week. Please ensure your child returns the medical form attached to this letter to main school reception ASAP. If you have any questions, please do contact us.

Finally, let me take this opportunity to congratulate the winners of the Head of Year Award last week. They are…

• Oscar Rosen for living the school values, and spreading positivity through music at lunchtimes!
• Sophie Willits for showing great resilience, we are proud of how she has been in school this week.

Both of them have earned a £5 Amazon gift card, well done!

Thank you for taking the time to read this parent bulletin. 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. Thank you – Miss Deacon

Year 10 – Mr Avery, Miss Johstone and Miss Montagu
We are all enjoying the lighter mornings and it is good to see so many of the Yr 10s outside during their break times making the most of the sunshine when it is there. They are working hard too!

Holocaust Memorial Day – January 27th

We focused on this special day in our Act of Collective Worship this week. As well as remembering the Nazi genocide in the 1930’s and 1940’s, we were reminded of other genocides that have taken place since, in Cambodia, Rwanda and elsewhere.

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust says:
“It’s a time for us to stop to remember the millions of people who have been killed or whose lives have been changed as a result of genocides. We also think about those who survived to make sure that we learn from their experiences, when it comes to the decisions we make today.

“We’re fortunate here in the UK that we are not at risk of genocide. However, discrimination has not ended. Holocaust Memorial Day is a day to remember how important it is not to spread messages of hate, or to exclude people because things like the colour of their skin or the religious beliefs they hold. It is a day to work together to create a safer, better future.”

We were reminded of our British and school values of tolerance and compassion. It is not enough that we avoid discriminating ourselves; rather we must actively work to stamp out racism and discrimination wherever we find it.

Anne Frank exhibition
As we mentioned two weeks ago, the Anne Frank Exhibition will be coming into school very shortly. Her diary is a precious source which helps us to understand the Holocaust through the words of a person who lived through it and perished in it. We look forward to this opportunity to learn more about her.

HoY Awards
Congratulations to our two award winners this week: Rory Ekers and Sophia Matravers for their excellent reports and consistent hard work.

Should you have any concerns please feel free to contact the Yr 10 team.

Year 11 – Miss Turvey, Miss Reeder and Miss Chambers
We hope this bulletin finds you well. Another busy and productive week in Year 11 has passed, and as we enter the penultimate week of term our focus continues to be on upholding high standards in lessons and around school.

For a detailed overview of all things Year 11 (including key dates, examinations and achievements), please see this week’s school Newsletter. However, a few important headlines are included below:

• Please do not book end-of-year holidays involving your child in Year 11 before Thursday 30th June, the National GCSE exam contingency date.
• Your child should speak to their teachers for information on Period 6s currently running. The full Period 6 program for Y11 will resume after half term.
• We have external examinations running through February:

ou should also be aware that Year 11 will be off-timetable for 1 lesson during Period 5 on Thursday 17th February to take part in a ‘Fun Run’ on the back field, for which they are encouraged to donate £1. This will have a dual purpose of raising awareness of mental health through being outdoors, exercising and socialising with their friends after the mock week as well as being a fundraiser for the Prom. All students in the year group will be present on the back field (registered and supervised by their Period 5 teachers), even if they do not choose to run. We are very much lookimg forward to this, and keeping our fingers crossed for good weather!

A key focus in Year 11 for the remainder of half term (and until the end of the year) is ensuring students are on time to every lesson, and benefitting from the outstanding teaching and learning that occurs in every lesson. This is the single greatest way we can secure your child’s success. Last week, we saw too many instances of Year 11 students arriving late to lessons for a variety of reasons, including trying to resolve social issues or seek out members of staff. We know that, of course, there are times when students need our support navigating life events that create barriers to learning. However, we are urging Year 11 to see their lessons as ‘sacrosanct’, including Form time as our ‘sixth lesson of the day’. Students should raise any issues with their Form tutors in AM or PM Registration, speak to pastoral staff on duty outside the Y11 office before and after school, or find Mrs Reeder in their social area at break and lunchtime. These points in the day mark six opportunities to seek support at an appropriate time. If an issue does arise in a lesson, students should tell the teacher, who will be able to inform the Y11 team if needed. Your support in reinforcing this with your child at home is very much appreciated.

Hopefully, you have now received a letter regarding School Prom, Hoodies and Yearbooks. The Hoodie will cost £20 payable on ordering and the Year Book will also cost £20; however, the Prom is free to those students who have achieved 300 merits or 90% attendance and a good behaviour record. Students who do not achieve this are still very welcome at the Prom but will need to pay £40.

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 Mr Charlton
Y12 Mock Results – Results will be issued to students by their class teachers this week, they will not be sent home as a specific communication as students will be receiving full reports shortly. Class teachers will go through papers with students in class to identify reasons for lost marks. We will hold 1-2-1 meetings with parents and students for those requiring support to make expected progress. Parents Evening is on Wednesday 16th March.

All Things Y13 – Thank you for your continued support with attendance and punctuality, it is important we make the most of our curriculum time in the final stretch to the summer exams. Exam timetables will be released shortly following the news released this week, as well as information on our stand-down arrangements. Prom has been booked for Friday 24th June following the proposed final exam. We will be issuing letters to students this week about Prom, Hoodies, and other leavers celebrations.

Shoutouts

Collective Worship
This week the theme of our Form Tutor Collective Worship is Growing as a Team. It links to this year’s Children’s Mental Health Week theme of Growing Together. Growing Together is about growing emotionally and finding ways to help each other grow. Working as a Team can enable us to grow. Our daily quotes are all on theme of Growing as a Team.

Monday – “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” – Henry Ford, American car manufacturer
Tuesday – “Teamwork is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” – Andrew Carnegie, 19th century Scottish-American industrialist
Wednesday – “When you’re part of a team, you stand up for your teammates. Your loyalty is to them. You protect them through good and bad, because they’d do the same for you.” – ‘Yogi’ Berra, American Major League Baseball catcher
Thursday – “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.” – Michael Jordan, American former professional basketball player
Friday – “Build for your team a feeling of oneness, of dependence on one another and of strength to be derived by unity.” – Vince Lombardi, American football coach

The Wellbeing Newsletter Issue 42