Parent Bulletin

Dear parents and carers,

It was a pleasure and a privilege to visit students in form time and lessons last week. It is clear that the students have returned with the enthusiasm and the commitment necessary to make this year the very best it can be. Last week, I wrote to encourage students to get involved in the wider aspects of school life through sharing the PE extra-curricular timetable. I’m delighted to now be able to share the wider extra-curricular activities timetable for half term one.

The copy of the extra-curricular timetable below highlights the wealth of different activities for students to choose from and we strongly encourage students to participate  as much as possible.  Not only are there merits on offer for attending, but going to extra-curricular clubs is a great way to live into being the words of John 10:10: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” The timetable is updated live on the school website by clicking on the ‘AHS Journey’ button on the top banner, then ‘Curriculum Opportunities’ and scrolling down to the bottom of the webpage.

This week begins with an extended form time on Tuesday morning as part of our PSHCE programme. Years 7, 8, and 9 are completing the Key Stage 3 lesson on Healthy Routines for Puberty; Years 10 and 11 are completing the Key Stage 4 lesson on Teenage Pregnancy and Years 12 and 13 are completing the Key Stage 5 lesson on Menopause. All topics covered are in line with the statutory DfE curriculum for Relationships, Sex and Health Education. 

As a reminder, we round off the week with school photographs on Tuesday and Friday. As ever, it is important that students attend in full school uniform.   If there are any concerns about school uniform, please do get in touch with the relevant pastoral year team.

In other news, I’d like to flag up that the postponed rewards trip to Flamingoland for Year 8 and Year 9 will now take place on 14 October. Further details will be provided to families about this visit.

Finally, as we start the week off remembering the life and legacy of Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II, I’d like to reinforce that if students are struggling with this, or anything else, they are welcome to speak to a member of their Year Team. This could be their Form Tutor, one of the two Assistant Heads of Year or their Head of Year.

In the remainder of the bulletin this week you will find information from: the wellbeing team, each Year team and the Chaplaincy team alongside other key messages to be aware of.

Wellbeing
Health and wellbeing is an important part of life at Archbishop Holgate’s School, in order to read the wellbeing newsletter for this week – please click here.

Library Newsletter
To access the most recent library newsletter which includes book recommendations and competitions to get involved in, please click here.

Head of Year Awards

Year team messages to parents and carers

Each week, the pastoral year teams will communicate any key messages, successes and upcoming dates to be aware of in this section of the parent bulletin.

A message from the Sixth Form pastoral team.

Punctuality:
Please be reminded that the school day starts at 08:45 which means that we expect students to be in their form bases ready to receive the notices and Thought for the Day as a collective, for that time. Students arriving on site at 08:45 are considered late. We welcome your support in encouraging students into habits that will enable them to avoid sanctions and a negative start to the day.

Year 13 UCAS support:
Following our UCAS launch and evening for Parents in July we are focused on supporting Year 13 to meet our UCAS deadline of October half-term. This ensures that we can process all applications prior to the Christmas break and encourage early offers. Students should be spending time at home working on drafts of their Personal Statements. They are submitting drafts weekly to their form tutors for corrections and have some time on afternoon registrations to work on them.

REMINDER: School Agreement
Please return your reply slips from the School Agreement your son/daughter received on Tuesday 6th September. Should you wish to speak to anyone concerning the content of the agreement please do get in touch with your son/daughters Head of Year. Martin Charlton Y13 mcharlton@ahs.pmat.academy Charlotte Williams Y12 cwilliams@ahs.pmat.academy

REMINDER: Year 12 Competitive Admissions
Those students that received 8x 8 or 9 GCSE grades will be targeted as Competitive Admissions applicants for September 2024. Competitive Admissions are those students applying for Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Science or any applications to Oxford or Cambridge. There will be students that do not meet the criteria stated that wish to apply for these areas, that is welcome, and they must make themselves known to Mr Charlton. Those that meet the criteria above have been spoken to flag their potential Post-18 options.

Reminder: Upcoming Key Dates

• Staff Training Day Thurs 6th October
• Y11 IAG Day (no school for Sixth Form) Fri 14th October
• Y12 Form Tutor Evening Weds 16th November

A message from the Year 11 pastoral team

It has been another brilliant week for Year 11. They have made an excellent start to the new academic year and have responded well to the transition from Year 10. Walking around the classrooms, it is a pleasure to see our students engaged within their lessons and taking responsibility for their learning.

Our focus this year lies closely with our stage in the AHS Journey – Next Steps. We wish to ensure that our students strive towards their potential and leave secondary education as happy, healthy and well-rounded individuals. We wish to draw your attention to the support network that we have within school. In addition to the Year 11 team, we have an experienced safeguarding team, a school counsellor, wellbeing worker and a highly trained nurse on site.

This year may feel difficult for some students in terms of personal expectations and expectations placed on them. It is important that our students are getting into good habits of attending school on time, focusing during lessons and completing work to a good standard. Setting healthy boundaries and getting into good routines, with homework and revision, can save time and energy; and allow pupils to still do the things that they enjoy. In school we have a homework club available Monday – Thursday after school, for personal study and revision.

As always, should you have any questions or concerns regarding your child, please feel free to contact a member of the Year 11 pastoral team y11team@ahs.pmat.academy and we will be happy to help in any way we can.

A message from the Year 10 pastoral team

It has been another successful week for Year 10 and it is clear across the year group they have all taken on the challenge of settling down to their GCSE work and are working hard in a range of subjects, it has been a pleasure to walk into so many classrooms where I can see great engagement from our students, keep it up Year 10!

This week in our Act of Collect Worship we discussed a number of elements including the amazing opportunities Year 10 have this year, the Duke of Edinburgh staff members came to talk to our students about what that entails including how they plan their own expedition as well as further options for volunteering. We have had the most interest in any year group, which makes me extremely proud that our students are committed to extending their portfolio of experiences. They are currently looking at if we can take all students as there is a limit on capacity so please be aware of this.

I also spoke to the students about work experience which more detail will follow later this year, due to it being later in the school year, where students get the opportunity to go and work in the real world of work for two weeks as well as the extra curricular opportunities in school which can be found on the school website.

Furthermore in our Act of Collective Worship we discussed having a positive attitude and a difference it can make, Year 10 is a fresh start for the full year group and they are all so capable of achieving, having a positive attitude can help get through those moments of challenge, whether that’s a difficult concept in English or a tough questions in Maths, if students try and push through the challenge with a positive attitude and support they will succeed. It is also ok for students to ask for support whether that is in the classroom or outside with us as a pastoral team. I just want to reiterate that message that growth often comes from challenges and helps to build resilience in our young people and I can see this happening in classrooms daily.

Just a polite reminder about jackets and coats we ask that the only hoodies worn in school are school hoodies – students shouldn’t be wearing other branded jumpers or hoodies but should bring a coat or jacket. Form tutors will be checking this especially with the weather getting colder. If you have any concerns about this or getting hold of a winter coat please don’t hesitate to contact us in the pastoral team.

Finally we’d also recommend making sure you are logged in/ have downloaded the ClassCharts app, this shows all students merits and I know a large number of families use it for positive conversations at home. If you need your login details again, please drop us an email or your young person can get it from their form tutor.

Thank you for taking the time to read this parent bulletin of the year – we as a pastoral team are very excited for the school year ahead, we know all our Year 10 students are fantastic young people and I cannot wait to see them on their journeys this year. If you have any issues regarding your child in Year 10, then please do get in touch by emailing Miss Deacon at mdeacon@ahs.pmat.academy, Miss Clark sclark@ahs.pmat.academy and/or Mr McPaul at cmcpaul@ahs.pmat.academy or calling main school reception and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

A message from the Year 9 pastoral team

We are pleased to be able to say Year 9 have had an overwhelmingly positive start to the school year, continuing the high standards that they set themselves as a year group last year. It has been a pleasure to drop into lessons and form time and see such high standards of behaviour, excellent uniform, and a great attitude to learning.

As a reminder attendance will be a big focus this year and we are hoping to build on the strong attendance shown by the year group last year. The Year group has had a good start this year, with 95% attendance, but we would like to see this increase through the year. We were regularly the highest attending Year group last year and we would like to retain that crown moving forward.

We will also continue to focus on correct uniform in school, challenging those who are not. One of the main issues we have faced is alternate jumpers and hoodies being worn instead of school jumpers in the school buildings. We will continue to remind students of this, and we once again, very much appreciate the support we have had from parents with uniform as a whole. If you have any questions or concerns about uniform, please do not hesitate to get in touch with one of the Year 9 team and we will be happy to help.

We would also like to collect in the student-home-school contract responses as soon as possible. 9Ap have led the way with this, being the first form to bring them all back into school. This is an important document that helps us to all work together.

It is with great pleasure that we can also say that the cancelled Flamingo Land rewards trip has been rearranged for the 14th of October. This was cancelled in enrichment week at the end of last year with the heat, so it is excellent news that we can celebrate the achievement of last year. It will also allow any students who were on a foreign trip to participate and not miss out. Further information will be sent home in a letter.

As always, if you have any issues you would like to discuss, please do not hesitate to contact the pastoral team.

A message from the Year 8 pastoral team

What a fantastic impression Year 8 have made on their new team! It has been so lovely to see so many smiley and positive faces as myself, Miss Chambers and Mrs Reeder have been walking round the school.

Firstly, I would like to say a big thank you to our student buddies who have helped the new year 7s navigate their way around the school for the last couple of weeks showing compassion and that they are trustworthy members of our school community. It is really pleasing to see members of our year group being role models for the younger students in the school.

Year 8 is all about opportunities so what better time for our students to take part in one (or more!) of the many extracurricular activities we have on offer here at AHS. The extracurricular timetable has been sent out in this week’s newsletter as well as paper copies being up around the school and on form room noticeboards so please do encourage your child to take a look and choose something they’d like to get involved in. There really is something for everyone whether it be a sporting activity, dance or drama, puzzles or mindful activities and is a great way for students to meet new people in their year or in other years in the school.

Next week will see the first of our half-termly PSHCE sessions led by form tutors. PSHCE covers a range of important topics such as how to manage friendships and other relationships as well as a recap on puberty and how to stay healthy both physically and mentally. Having one session per half term led by form tutors also allows our form tutors (most of whom are new to our year group and will remain with them until year 11) to get to know our students better. We encourage parents to ask their child about these sessions and continue these important conversations at home.

We have had many students asking us about the rearranged FlamingoLand trip which sadly did not go ahead last year due to the heatwave. We are pleased to say that a date has been set for 14th October. If your child was signed up for this in July there is nothing more for you to do; if your child was unable to attend last July or your child is new to the school, you will be receiving a letter next week with details on how to sign up. We are really looking forward to this trip (which is a reward for good behaviour and hard work in year 7) and hope that a fun day will be had by all.

Please remember if you have any issues or queries about your child in Year 8, please get in touch with us at Y8team@ahs.pmat.academy

A message from the Year 7 pastoral team

We are absolutely delighted with our second week with Year 7. Students have now experienced their full timetable, started to understand new routines, their way around school and are bonding as a year group.

Students have also started to show their independence around school and it has been a pleasure watching them make new friends and get involved in school life. We were delighted to see so many of them enjoying the year 7 library space, attending lots of sports clubs and completing their homework at homework club.

Our extensive extra-curricular programme is a very important part of the journey of making friends and joining. This week the full timetable will be released, it will include exciting clubs ranging from Science Club to MFL film club, as well as a variety of musical and sports clubs. We are so excited to visit these clubs and see more of our students excelling in their AHS journey.

We are also very excited to be making preparations for the year group trip to Bewerley Park and look forward to seeing you all at the information evening on the 11th October. If your child does not intend to attend to travel to Bewerley Park please let the year team know. Thank you.

Well done this week to our Head of Year award students
Poppy Simpson 7Cy – For an excellent start to Year 7, showing great resilience, independence and compassion to others. Well Done! Oliver Stewart-Stevens 7CMm – For being caring and kind to others in the year group, thank you and well done!

Well done to our Student’s of the Week
7ASu – Amelia Hanks – for being a polite and enthusiastic member of the form.
7CMm – Kester Revilious- Outstanding start to the year- real leader in form supporting others, and picking up loads of merits along the way.
7Pi – Lorna Smith – for always being proactive in asking for help
7Hv – Charlie Stringer – An excellent and well organised start to the year
7MPe – Amelie Rutherford – For making great first impressions and being polite and friendly.
7CSt – Finlay Price- For always being friendly and getting on with reading straight away and participating in form time activities. Well done Finlay good start to the year!
7JHe – Phoebe Beard for helping other children who had lost their belongings
7Bl – Imogen Hall – for making a good first impression in all areas of the curriculum.
7ZBl – Johann Morgenroth – for making a fantastic start in all areas and taking pride in his work.
7Cy – Juliette Ried – for getting lots of merits already this term. Well done
7MLN – Isaac Tyson – For being always prepared, polite and resilient, and for having the most merits in the form!

Word of the week

The word of the week for week commencing 19 September is:

Acquire
Noun: To buy or obtain something for oneself. Learn or develop a habit, quality or skill.

He was quick to acquire the knowledge needed for the test.

Collective Worship

Theme
The theme for our weekly Form Tutor Collective Worship is inspired by the Queen’s funeral and how in times of grief and loss we can have faith & hope. Our daily quotes are bible ones on hope.

Quotes
Monday – “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” The Bible, Romans ch15: v13
Tuesday – “Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.” The Bible, Psalm 31: v24
Wednesday – “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” – The Bible, Jeremiah ch 29: v11
Thursday – “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” – The Bible, Romans ch12: v12
Friday – “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” – The Bible, Isaiah ch40: v31