Parent Bulletin

Dear parents and carers,

The academic year is certainly well and truly underway, with students settling well into school life. It was a privilege to walk around the school visiting lessons, form times and the extracurricular activities last week. Students are full of enthusiasm and positivity towards all aspects of school.

Last Wednesday, we were fortunate enough to host a visit from the new Secretary of State for Education, Kit Malthouse, who spent time at Archbishop Holgate’s School as well as New Earswick Primary School, both of which are part of the Pathfinder Multi Academy Trust family of schools. It was a fantastic opportunity to share our school values and the AHS Journey, alongside discussing our commitment to the wider school community. Students within our school had the chance to talk to the Secretary of State, who was extremely impressed with all the young people in our school community.

Whilst this week sees a more regular school week, it is worth flagging up to families that Year 7 students will have their CATs testing taking place on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Details of this have been sent home.

Finally, I’d like to remind families that Thursday 6 October is a training day and as such the school will be closed to all students. We would however encourage students to join us as part of our Year 6 Open Evening that takes place later that evening. It would be fantastic if our students could help us to give prospective families a warm welcome to Archbishop Holgate’s School through acting as guides or helping out in subject areas. If your child is interested please encourage them to return the reply slip that was part of the associated letter that was sent home to parents/carers.

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.
Year 11 IAG Day
Please note that our Year 11 IAG Day is on Friday 14th October where Year 11 ‘taste’ 5 Sixth Form subjects for the day. This means there is no school for Year 12 and Year 13 on that day. Year 11 have made their subject choices and will receive their individual timetables week commencing 10th October.

Student Leaders
Year 12 have made an excellent start to the term and now we are ready to recruit the next team to lead the student body. Year 13 Student leader’s will move to focus on their progression planning and final important year and Year 12 will take over. Applications are to be submitted via the Year 12 Google Classroom with information regarding School Captain recruitment to follow.

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: 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
Another successful week for Year 11, with lots of hard work going on in lessons and excellent participation in extra curricular clubs. We have really enjoyed visiting some of our after school music clubs this week, and seeing the hard work that goes into some of their brilliant performances throughout the year. We are also proud of the boys football team that secured a very comprehensive 5-1 win earlier in the week. Hopefully they can continue this run of good form across the season.

Year 11 had a very informative assembly this week led by Mrs De Lashley, the Head of Sixth Form. The students were spoken to about the upcoming Sixth Form taster day, where students will have the opportunity to experience some A-level lessons and ask questions regarding the different courses. The students were informed of the different curriculum options they have in the Sixth Form, and further information about what the day will entail. During the talk Mrs De Lashley was keen to stress that students should not prioritise the subjects they are confident of taking at A-level, but those that they needed to find out more about, as this is often more useful on the taster day. The students were informed they need to select their choices for the day ASAP, via the google form they can access in the Year 11 google classroom. As parents, should you have any questions about the day or A-Level choices moving forward, please do not hesitate to contact a member of the Sixth form team (or the subject teacher) and we will be happy to help. There will also be an A-level open evening after October half term, which parents can attend to find out more about the Key Stage 5 provision at AHS. Further information will be sent out nearer the time regarding this event.

Friday this week was photo day for year 11, with the students very excited about having their last formal photograph taken in school. As they are in Year 11, we also enjoyed the opportunity to have a year group photo taken including all students and staff. As you can imagine getting 320 students and staff organised in height order for a photograph was challenging, but we got there in the end! The students were superb and very patient as we set up for the photograph and hopefully it will be a lovely momento for them to keep. More information will be coming out to parents about purchasing the individual and year group photographs in the coming weeks.

This week I have written to parents regarding the importance of attendance at school, and the impact having the odd day off across the year can have on a student’s education and outcomes at GCSE. We are delighted to say that the year group attendance was improved last week, but in case you missed the letter on the email I have outlined the key takeaways below:

Academic research carried out by the DFE, shows that attendance that drops below 95% can have a significant impact on a Year 11 students’ outcomes in their GCSE examinations. A student achieving 95% attendance will not miss more than 10 school days throughout the academic year.

Research carried out by the DFE in 2019 found the following:

• Pupils with higher attainment at Key Stage 4 had lower levels of absence over the key stage compared to those with lower attainment.
• Pupils who did not achieve grade 9 to 4 in English and Maths GCSEs in 2019 had an overall attendance rate of 91.2% or below over the key stage, compared with 94.8% among pupils who achieved a grade 4 and 96.3% among pupils who achieved grade 9 to 5 in both English and maths.
• Of students who were persistently absent, only 35.6% of pupils achieved a grade 9-4 in English and Maths.

As always, should you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact a member of the Year 11 team.

A message from the Year 10 pastoral team
We just want to send a fantastic well done to Year 10! The year group have done themselves so proud so far completing their first three weeks of the school year. They all know that we are the positive train with them and we truly feel they are doing themselves proud and we have so many excellent students who are working hard and consistently meet our expectations.

As we have done in this bulletin previously in Year 9, we wanted to take this opportunity to highlight attendance. 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. We would very much appreciate your support to ensure your child is in school as much as possible to give them the best chance of success in the future. We know that all the students in the year group have so much potential so anything we can do to ensure this we certainly strive towards.

We spoke to our Year 10s in our Act of Collective Worship this week about how it is ingrained in us as humans that we are social creatures and want to feel like we belong. We discussed how it is important to try and spend time with positive groups of people and make positive choices which isn’t always easy but we can turn to each other for support and try to encourage friends to make positive choices also. We discussed this with an example of a young man called Robert who had turned to knife crime but has now turned it around and spends time talking in schools about making positive choices which aren’t always easy.

Thank you for taking the time to read this parent bulletin. If you have any queries 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 would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Year 9 again for another great week. They have shown a consistently high standard of behaviour across all lessons and are a credit to the year group.

Attendance has once again been good at 95%, but this is a figure that we hope will improve over the coming weeks. As I mentioned last week, last year we had the best attendance of all year the groups in school last year, and this is again the target for this year. 9JDl lead the way last week with an attendance of 99.6%, which is fantastic, but have just unfortunately missed out on the 100% form prize, there is always next week.

This week Year 9 had an extended form time on Tuesday for PHSE, looking at healthy routines. During this session pupils looked at routines that will help keep themselves, our teeth, and our skin in good condition. Students were fully engaged in this session, and hopefully it has inspired some interesting discussion amongst them.

Another big day for the students this week was photograph day that took place on Thursday. Again, behaviour across the year group was fantastic and it was great to see students being proud of how smart they looked throughout the day.

We would like to remind you that we would be grateful for any responses for Flamingo Land. The day is to reward students for how well they represented themselves and the school last year. We require details for any students who were not on the trip in enrichment week last year who would like to go. As this is a rewards trip, we would like as many students as possible to be on the trip. Please contact us if you have any questions about the visit, either via form tutors or the year team directly.

As always, we, as a team, are here to resolve any problems so please feel free to contact us for any help.

A message from the Year 8 pastoral team
Thank you for your support over what has been a busy but really enjoyable first few weeks for us in school. It has been lovely getting to know students better each week and seeing the vast majority of individuals settling into their new lessons beautifully.

Please look out for our school Newsletter this week for the Year 8 feature; each of our Form tutors have provided a short introduction so you can begin to put some faces to their names.

To pull out some key strands, we would like to remind all parents and students that we have a wide array of enriching extra-curricular clubs on offer for students and we hope to see lots of Year 8 students making the most of these fantastic opportunities. Alongside this, the first meeting of the Year 8 Student Council (chaired by Mrs Reeder, Assistant Head of Year 8) will be held on Thursday 29th September in EN1. All students are invited to join so they can contribute to discussions and issues in their Year group and help to plan Year 8 trips and events. We are also recruiting Year 8 student helpers to take part in the school Open Evening on October 6th; the evening will run from 5pm-9pm and will give your child a great opportunity to engage with their favourite subject area and chat to prospective Year 6 students and parents.

Last week, we also had our first Form time PSHCE session on healthy routines for puberty which took place on Tuesday Period 1. This is in-keeping with national statutory guidance. The session provided an opportunity for students to spend an extended period with their Form tutors and engage in discussions on what good personal hygiene looks like, including learning about dental and skincare. I cannot stress enough how impressed we were with the excellent behaviour we saw in each Form this period; all students across the year group engaged with the material very maturely and benefited hugely from the learning opportunity.

After three busy weeks, understandably some of our students are becoming tired and we have seen more students complaining of minor illnesses and ailments. We all know how important excellent attendance is in school and that students who keep their school attendance above 90% are statistically far more likely to achieve well – but also to maintain better friendships too. We would encourage all students to persist in attending school if they are feeling a little under the weather; the year team, school reception and school nurse are all on hand to support if needed through the day. We have also noticed that, at break and lunchtimes, we are needing to remind a number of students to eat a substantial meal and have a drink. Your help and support in reiterating this at home and engaging in conversations with your child about what they had for lunch and making healthy choices is very much appreciated.

If you have any queries or concerns about your child in Year 8, please contact school reception to speak to someone in the Year 8 team, or you can email reception@ahs.pmat.academy.

A message from the Year 7 pastoral team
Our students have had another excellent week in their journey here at AHS. From outstanding attendance, to brilliant behaviour and organisation on the recent photography day; we are really proud of them in so many ways. They are now finding their way to lessons independently and are getting used to our routines and high expectations around school. It’s been a pleasure to watch them enjoying the September sunshine outside at lunch and break, making new friends and living life to the full.

Inevitably some students lose equipment as they move around school and we understand this can be worrying for them. All lost property is taken to reception and, if clearly named, is easier for students to find. Students can go to reception at break or lunchtimes to check the lost property boxes.

In assembly this week the students learned about the role of ambassadors from Mr Arthur and were encouraged to volunteer for our upcoming Open Evening as classroom helpers. You will have received a letter about this; if your child wants to help please fill in the slip and return or scan the QR code on the letter and complete a form online to give permission. We look forward to seeing lots of our fantastic Year 7’s joining in and representing our School.

A huge well done to our Head of Year Award students this week:
Jack Birkinshaw 7Bl – for an amazing start to year 7 and learning new routines so brilliantly. Well Done!
Maria Cardosa 7Bl – for helping in the community at weekends at St Nicks and Hull Road Park, picking up litter and planting flowers.

Well done to our Students of the Week this week:
Safi Lalowski-Cumberland 7ASu – for giving some very mature and thoughtful contributions to class discussions
Lucas Ripley 7CMm – For being such a bright and cheerful member of the form, and collecting loads of merits around his lessons as well!
Rosie Mellor 7Pi – for being so enthusiastic and polite every day
Ethan Day 7Hv – For contributing to form time discussions and being a polite and enthusiastic member of the form.
Alessandro Garofalo 7MPe – For reading the news so eloquently during form time and for making a great start to your time at AHS
Alex Rodgers 7CSt – Having a great start to the term and being really mature during the PSHE form time lesson. Well done Alex keep up the good behaviour and work.
Kai Chapman 7MLn – For your beautiful reading of the prayer during our collective worship and for your many thoughtful contributions to form discussions.
Nelith Perera Padukkage 7JHe – for quiet resilience and consistent high standards
Aleksander Kurt 7Bl – For making a good first impression in form time by engaging enthusiastically in class discussions.
Vinny Scoreby 7ZBl – For being the best version of himself by contributing thoughtfully and engaging in all areas of AHS life.
Harrison Southall 7Cy – For being so enthusiastic about joining in with the extra curricular activities.

Word of the week
The word of the week for week commencing 26 September is:

Accumulate
Verb: to gather together or acquire an increasing number or quantity .
Her goal was to accumulate a huge fortune.

Collective Worship
Theme
The theme for our form tutor collective worship this week is inspired by the Jewish New Year festival of Rosh Hashanah. We will use this to reflect on our lives and interactions with others. Our daily quotes are on hope.

Quotes
Monday – “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” Dale Carnegie
Tuesday – “For with God nothing shall be impossible.” The Bible, the Gospel of Luke 1:37
Wednesday – “Life with Christ is an endless hope, without Him a hopeless end.” Anonymous
Thursday – “Hope… is one of the ways in which what is merely future and potential is made vividly present and actual to us. Hope is the positive, as anxiety is the negative, mode of awaiting the future.” Emil Brunner
Friday – “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” Corrie Ten Boom