Parent Bulletin

Dear parents and carers,

I thought it important to begin this parent bulletin with a ‘thank you’ to all of the students in our school community who helped at Open Evening last Thursday.  It was brilliant to see so many students supporting the school in a range of different ways including acting as guides for families, supporting in subject classrooms, singing as part of the choir, playing in the band or even speaking in front of 600 prospective parents and students! The students helped to show the school in the best possible light and we are grateful for their time, enthusiasm and support. The evening itself was brilliant, it’s one of my favourite events when the whole school community comes together to welcome prospective families. 

In terms of this week there is lots happening. On Monday Year 7 families can join us to find out more about the Accelerated Reader programme and on Tuesday we also have the Bewerley Park information evening for Year 7 families. For parents of Year 10 students there is the option to join in on the Arts Award celebration evening that takes place on Thursday. If you would like to come to this event please make sure that your child returns their reply slip. Finally, on Friday the Year 8 and 9 students get a chance to have their delayed rewards trip to Flaminogland. Alongside this, the Year 11 students will be off timetable taking part in a range of Post-16 lessons. This day feeds into part of a much wider information and guidance plan for Year 11 students as we support them with their intended next steps after Year 11. On Friday sixth form students have a day working from home. All students will be given work to complete on this day. Finally, we finish the week by hosting our second ever SEND coffee morning on Saturday.

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

SEND coffee morning: 10am-12pm on Saturday 15th October

We are delighted to invite our SEND parents to our second ever SEND coffee morning, for parents/carers to be held in our brand-new Library and Resource Centre on Saturday 15th October from 10am-12.00pm.

During the morning, you will get a chance to:

• Meet with many of the staff who are part of our inclusion and intervention team.
• Chat with other parents of SEND students
• Access important resources about our SEND offer at AHS and find out how you can support students outside of school too
• Enjoy refreshments
• Ask any questions you might have about SEND at AHS

We would love to see as many of you there as possible!

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 14 th 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 but they will have work set to continue their study. Year 11 will receive their individual timetables on Wednesday 12 th October. Year 11 should come to school in their own clothes and bring cash to use the vending machines if they wish. They will have lunch at the earlier sitting of 12:15 and they will be able to have a plated meal or food on the go as usual. Please do not hesitate to contact the
Sixth Form with any questions swalton1@ahs.pmat.academy

Year 12 Student Leaders
We have received 51 applications to be Student Leader and will meet them this week to talk about next steps. Of those 51 applicants we have received 31 expressions of interest to be School Captain. The recruitment process will be rolled out this week with interviews taking place week commencing 17th October. A very exciting time and a fantastic field.

Year 12 Target Grades
Year 12 will receive their target grades this week. These grades are grades that teaching staff will use to inform progression tracking and support. These are not a prediction or a ceiling but a strong indicator of potential.

Year 13 Mock Weeks
Year 13 will have A Level mock exams wc 7 th November and BTEC exams wc 14 th November. For the two weeks prior to these exams students will have guided revision in class and as homework. Results will be shared wc 12 th December and Parents Evening will take place that week (Wednesday 14th December).

Year 12 Form Tutor Evening
We will be hosting an evening on Weds 16th November for families of Year 12 to meet their son/daughter’s form tutor by appointment. Interim data will be shared alongside behaviour and attendance. We hope this will be an informative evening in advance of the January A Level mock exams and formal external BTEC assessments. Letters will be sent home in due course.

REMINDER: Upcoming Key Dates
Y11 IAG Day (no school for Sixth Form) Fri 14 th October
Post-16 Open Evening Tues 8 th November
Y12 Form Tutor Evening Weds 16 th November

A message from the Year 11 pastoral team

As this is the first time I am writing to many of you, I would firstly like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Mr Deamer and I am Assistant Head of Year 11. I work in the Year 11 pastoral team alongside Mr Avery, Miss Johnstone and Miss Stocks. I have worked in a pastoral role for the past six years at AHS and am incredibly proud to join Year 11 for their final year of mainstream school. I am very much enjoying getting to know the students in the year group and look forward to supporting them on their Next Steps in their AHS journey.

I am writing this the day after our latest Open Evening. It was fantastic to see the school at its very best last night. The evening was very successful in showcasing what makes our school so special. A particular highlight for me were the food rooms! In addition it was an absolute joy to see so many of our Year 11 students helping on the night. I saw so many familiar faces from Year 11 showing families around, helping staff and being welcoming. It shows a great commitment and has most definitely been recognised!

I would like to remind students that next Friday (14th) is IAG day. This is the Sixth Form taster day, where students will have the opportunity to experience some A-level lessons and ask questions regarding the different courses. Students should have already made their choices in regards to what course they would like to try. If your young person for whatever reason has yet to make their choices they will need to do so as soon as possible. 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 HAS. Further information will be sent out nearer the time regarding this event.

Lastly, I am very excited to say that the Year 11 team are making plans for Hoodies, Yearbooks and the Prom. We are currently still discussing these and will release further information after half-term. If you have any concerns or questions please do not hesitate to contact one of the Year 11 team.

A message from the Year 10 pastoral team

I am really pleased to be writing my first bulletin as Assistant Head of Year 10! I am the non-teaching assistant Head of Year within the team. After supporting the Year group and getting to know them before the Summer, I am now thrilled to be working alongside Miss Deacon and Mr McPaul in supporting the year group in Year 10 and helping them prepare for Work experience and their GCSEs. Year 10 have transitioned exceptionally well during this first half-term and when popping in and seeing them in the classrooms, are all working extremely hard within their subjects. Well done!
I want to speak about how this week in the Act of Collect Worship Mr McPaul spoke about Black History Month. He highlighted to the students how Black History Month became recognised in 1987 in the United Kingdom but the celebration began in 1926 in America. Mr McPaul spoke about Notting Hill Carnival and how it is an annual Caribbean carnival event that has taken place in London since 1966 on the streets of the Notting Hill area of Kensington. In 2006, the UK public voted it onto a list of icons of England. This was linked back to our British values as a school of compassion and trust and how this links to our school Journey and community.

As Year 10 processes through their own Journey, I want to make you aware of our Positivity plan within the year group. Every week I send an email to form tutors who nominate two students from their form for students of the week. This can be for any reason. They then receive certificates to highlight how well they have done that week. Miss Deacon has also been speaking to form groups and the year team about engaging them in a small competition of who has the most positive merits (well done to ABt this week) and will receive a small tub of sweets. Form tutors also hand out food tokens to the students with most improved attendance and Head of Year awards are nominated weekly by the year team who are then given a £5 Amazon gift voucher to use of their own choice! We think it is super important as a Year team to promote positivity and highlight to the students their own success and so far, they have been having a very successful Year 10!

I just want to give you a reminder for the geography field trip to Maybeck on Tuesday 18th and Wednesday 19th October, so please return and give permission on ParentPay, we are really looking forward to taking our Geographers to a river to experience their GCSE topic UK Physical Landscapes in action.
Thanks for taking the time to read this parental bulleting and if you have any questions or queries about your child in Year 10, the please do get in touch by emailing myself at sclark1@ahs.pmat.academy, Miss Deacon (Head of Year) mdeacon@ahs.pmat.academy and/or Mr McPaul (Assistant Head of Year) cmcpaul@ahs.pmat.academy or please do call main reception and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Many thanks- Miss Clark

A message from the Year 9 pastoral team

We have always been proud as a year group of having the best attendance in school. We are aware there are many bugs going around at this time of year, so it is important to look after your health and make sure you are well enough to come into school. We would of course love to see as many students in as possible, but we do understand that at times the most sensible thing is to recover fully from any illness. We spend time in form highlighting things that can help this. Well done to 9Lp for having a fantastic attendance last week. Keep up the good work.

As a year group as a whole it has been a pleasure to drop into lessons and see some fantastic work being completed and some excellent behaviour from all on show. We are coming towards the end of a long first half term, and students are becoming tired. Seeing the dedication shown in lessons has been great to see, with only two more weeks until we can all have a rest, it would be excellent to see this continue.

The Year 9 guides and helpers on Open Evening were a credit to both the year group and the school. It was wonderful to see so many students giving up their own time to represent the school in such a positive way. This ties in excellently with the year groups aim this year of giving back. The students who were involved can all be proud of themselves.

Just a final reminder about Flamingo land on the 14th. All the information students will need for the day will be presented to them in form time over the coming week. If there are any queries, please get in contact with the year team and we will do our best to help.

As always, if you require any assistance about anything, please get in contact with us and we will resolve any problems that you may have.

A message from the Year 8 pastoral team

As the weeks go by, we continue to be impressed by the efforts of our fantastic year group. A particular thank you to all of our Year 8 students who supported Open Evening last Thursday; they did a superb job during the evening and we very much appreciate their meaningful and significant contribution to our school community – well done Year 8!

As we continue to progress into half term, many of our students have started to amass lots of positive feedback and merits from their teachers, which is wonderful to see. We would like to politely remind parents that much of our correspondence home now comes through ClassCharts, which you can access online or by downloading the app onto your mobile device. We find this is a very helpful and supportive tool to give you insight into what your child is getting up to in their lessons, both positive and negative, so that you can continue to have an informed dialogue with your child about their time in school. If you are unsure how to access ClassCharts or have forgotten your login details, please do let us know via phone, email or a note in your child’s planner and we would be happy to help you with this.

This week, the key event will be Flamingo Land taking place on Friday 14th October. This was the Year 7 Rewards trip postponed from the final week of the summer due to the heatwave. On Friday, students should arrive in school at the normal time for an 8:45am departure and coaches will be due back in school at 4:00pm. Students attending the trip will need to dress in appropriate, warm clothing (non-uniform) and sensible shoes as the day will likely include lots of walking around outdoors. Students will also require a packed lunch or some money to buy food (£5-10), as well as a water bottle that they can ideally carry with them.

For the day of Flamingo Land, students will be assigned to coaches to travel to and from the theme park; this is important so that we are able to register and keep track of students. Once we have arrived safely, students will then be issued with an entrance ticket and free to meet up with any of their friends from the other coaches. Students will be asked to stick to groups of 3+ as they freely make their way around the park and enjoy their day. We have a large number of staff on the trip who will be distributed throughout the park, as well as a staff base at the entrance café meeting point to support any issues. Each student will carry an information card with them containing a school phone number, a reminder of timings for the day and details of the meeting point. All of these details and coach arrangements will be shared with students in our Assembly this week.

Students should be reminded that, whilst at Flamingo Land, they are ambassadors for Archbishop Holgate’s School and we will have the highest expectations of their conduct towards their surroundings and other members of the public; poor behaviour, littering and bad manners will not be tolerated on the trip. Flamingo Land is always a fantastic day for both staff and students alike; we are really looking forward to it and hope that everyone makes the most of this excellent enrichment opportunity.

For students remaining in school on Friday, they will be given a bespoke timetable to follow with their teachers planning some fun enrichment lessons in some of their subject areas. Students will arrive and leave at the normal time.

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

We have been so proud of our Year 7 students this week and all the fantastic ways that they have been joining in with our School community. We had over 100 Year 7s volunteer to help out with Open Evening. They assisted teachers in classrooms and answered questions that the Year 6 students and their families had. We have had multiple teachers speak to us about how brilliant the Year 7 pupils were at representing our School.

The Year 7 girls football team attended a football tournament at Bootham School on Wednesday and won the tournament after a tense penalty shootout.

Nathaniel in Year 7 has also been given the St John’s ambulance award. He showed outstanding commitment and compassion.

Please continue to keep the Year 7 team informed with all of your family’s fantastic achievements.

Well done to our Students of the week:
7ASu – Arlo Gane – for leading some very thought-provoking discussions.
7CMm – Rebeca Sirbu- for her perfect attendance so far this year, and for engaging so well in our discussion about the Qatar World Cup
7Pi – Molly I’Anson – for always contributing thoughtfully in form discussions
7Hv – Advadinka Marfindya – Excellent contributions during form discussions, well done!
7MPe – Josh Connolly – For having a positive outlook everyday and being a great member of 7MPe
7CSt – Chantelle Dear- For settling in really well and being super supportive of others and always contributing in form time discussions with good answers. Well done!
7MLn – Jude Kennedy – For always giving a hand in form and for your thoughtful contributions to form discussions.
7JHe – Florence Michallat – amazing contribution to Open Evening and making sure all the stationary is in top working order!
7Bl – William Horner – for volunteering to help out at opening evening. You were a great ambassador.
7ZBl – Esther Button – for ‘joining in’ and giving 100% in everything she does!

Word of the week

The word of the week for week commencing 10 October is:

Capacity
Noun: the maximum amount that something can contain.
The room was filled to capacity.

Collective Worship

Theme
Our form tutor collective worship this week is inspired by thinking about how we might practice the Art of Contentment. Our quotes are also on the theme of contentment.

Quotes
Monday – “He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.” – Socrates
Tuesday – “Health is the most precious gain and contentment, the greatest wealth.” – The Buddha
Wednesday – “If we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.” 1 Timothy 6.8
Thursday – “To be content doesn’t mean you don’t desire more, it means you’re thankful for what you have and patient for what’s to come.” – Tony Gaskins
Friday – “A harvest of peace is produced from a seed of contentment.” – Kashmiri Proverb