Parent Bulletin

Dear parents and carers,

It was busy and successful week at Archbishop Holgate’s School, including the launch of the accelerated reader programme with parents, a visit from the BBC, the Year 8 and Year 9 reward trip to Flamingoland and the Year 11 Sixth Form IAG day on Friday. Finally, we rounded the week off with our SEND coffee morning on Saturday. There has been much to pack into our first half term and the final week before the break is no exception. On Monday, Year 8 students are involved in the off-timetable ‘Trading day’ and Year 10 Geography students are taking part in their field studies on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. We are also hosting our Year 7 tutor evening for families on Wednesday afterschool. It has been a brilliant start to the academic year and our students have been exceptional in embodying our school values and making the most of opportunities presented to them. I hope that they have a restful half term and I would like to wish families a fantastic break.

BBC 100: ‘Share Your Story’ Visit
On the morning of Tuesday 11th October, a team from the BBC came into school as part of their ‘BBC 100: ‘Share Your Story’ Tour’. This tour is part of the BBC’s centenary celebrations where they are visiting around 400 secondary schools across the UK, reaching approximately 400,000 students.

When they visit these schools on the tour, carefully selected BBC Ambassadors share their inspirational stories with students in a bid to inspire them through the power of storytelling. The speakers ranged from a man called Leo who had overcome a stammer to then begin working with the BBC, as well as a lady called Bek who overcame great tragedy in her teenage years to then return to education later in life and begin her career as a BBC Radio York presenter. Finally, students heard the story of a young, black Muslim woman who is breaking barriers and challenging stereotypes playing football for Brentford FC.

The talks were delivered to Year 8 during Period 1 and Year 9 during Period 3. The students were excellently behaved and engaged with the speakers very well. The questions the students asked (unprompted, I might add) were respectful, interesting and facilitated engaging responses. The BBC may also be returning in December as part of this tour to engage some of our KS4 students in Careers – so watch this space!

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

Sixth Form Open Evening
Following our Year 11 IAG Day on Friday we are gearing up for Open Evening on Tuesday 8th November where we welcome Year 11 families from AHS and across the city. Letters we sent last week with details of the timings for the evening. Please do not hesitate to get in touch should you have any questions prior to the event.

Year 12 Student Captains
We have the largest number of applicants for School Captain we have ever seen. We are currently taking votes from both staff and students to shortlist for interviews to take place shortly. A very exciting time and so humbling to read such passionate and inspiring letters of application.

Exams
We have admissions tests and GCSE resit exams starting this week. All students with exams have timetables. We wish them all luck.
Admission exams: Tuesday 18th October, Wednesday 19th October & Wednesday 2nd November
GCSE resit exams: Monday 31st October, Tuesday 1st November, Wednesday 2nd November, Thursday 3rd November & Monday 7th November

Year 13 Attendance
Attendance is always an ongoing focus within the Sixth Form as Post-16 is a short, fast-paced period. Every lesson is specifically planned in line with meeting assessment windows to support progress and thus Post-18 planning. Unfortunately, some of our students in Year 13 have made a poor start to the academic year with attendance and I hope to draw your attention to this and encourage good habits with your son/daughter. There are an increasing number of single but multiple days off for non-serious illness. We do understand that some absence due to illness is inevitable across a two-year period but we would not expect so much in a young and healthy cohort. It leaves both staff and students under pressure to close gaps which cannot be done in the same way that full attendance to lessons would allow. Please support us in our efforts to challenge poor attendance.

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

REMINDER: 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 have been sent home with details.

REMINDER: Upcoming Key Dates

• Post-16 Open Evening Tues 8th November
• Y12 Form Tutor Evening Weds 16th November

A message from the Year 11 pastoral team

It’s strange to think that we are already nearly at the end of the first half term, and that the first break will soon be upon us! I am pleased to say that the dark mornings and evenings that are creeping in don’t seem to have dampened the spirits of Year 11 too much, and the students continue to work hard in their lessons. I am really pleased to see students have begun to take up the opportunity for further support in their subjects over this half term. Coursework subjects such as Music, Drama and Art are running lunchtime and after school Period 6 to help the students get the best possible grade they can in their coursework and compositions. On my visits it was great to see so many students making the most of this. In the coming weeks, the more formal Period 6 timetable will be available to parents (including English Maths and Science) before the mock exams in November.

Speaking of Mock exams, the students will be sitting two weeks of formal examinations between Monday 28th November to Friday 9th December. The purpose of this period is:

• To allow students to re-cap and revise their knowledge from the beginning of Year 10.
• To allow our students to experience a more rigorous exam period than they had in Year 10, to prepare them for their exams in the summer.
• To assess the current progress the students are making in their subjects, and action any intervention needed following the mock examinations.

The students will be well prepared by revising key content in their lessons in the build up to the exams. The content they revise will be linked to what will appear on their papers during the exam period. Students will also be taught key revision skills during form time, in order to aid them with preparation for the exams. Finally, students will have the opportunity to access Period 6 in certain subjects, that will be welcomed additional time with a teacher to secure the best outcome possible. I will be sending more information to parents about the exams, revision resources and the period 6 timetable in the near future.

One thing that has been really fantastic to see, is the students of year 11 returning to extracurricular clubs and sports teams. I have been so pleased to see so many returning to music clubs such as choir, band and music technology club. Alongside this, I know how well the sports teams have been doing, with the boy’s rugby and football teams picking up where they left off last year with some excellent performances. I was also delighted to see a number of girls from year 11 taking part in a football tournament, with a glowing report from Mrs Amos about their level of skill and commitment. I am proud of all the students who represent our school, and I am very aware of the commitment they have shown to this over the years. I hope they continue to do so in the sixth form, as they are a brilliant role model for our younger students.

In the coming weeks it is more important than ever that attendance of the students is high. Please be aware that we have a large pastoral team and a qualified school nurse to aid any student who is feeling unwell while they are in school. Thank you for all the hard work you are doing at home to continue to support your child, this is having a very significant impact toward their success at school. The Year 11 pastoral team are always available to help with any questions or queries you may have.

A message from the Year 10 pastoral team

I cannot believe we are already at the halfway point of the first term and what a successful half term Year 10 have had, they all should be proud of their settled start to Year 10, just one week to go until a well deserved break of half term.

I am really looking forward to taking our Year 10 Geographers to Maybeck near Whitby this week on Tuesday and Wednesday, final call for any missing permission slips. It is a great day out where students can get out in the field seeing our recent topic of work on UK Physical Landscapes in action and is vital for them to collect data for their Paper 3 GCSE Geography exam. As well as developing research and investigation skills which are crucial in so many real life careers.

Miss Clark delivered our Act of Collective Worship this week focusing on building resilience as we are all on our own individual journeys. We showed the students a clip from Mark Zuckerberg talking about how he failed many times before creating Facebook and becoming successful and how he had to have resilience to keep on trying and actually this is the key to success. This links to our Year 10 journey of ‘Responsibility and Resilience’ where we want to encourage students that it is more than ok to find things challenging but having the attitude to give it a go, even if we don’t get it right is an excellent mindset to have. School is all about learning and with that it might not always go to plan but if we pick up that pen again, or try that line again, or that pass in PE again we will improve and eventually get to that success. With that success also brings a sense of achievement from the challenge and I can see our students doing that in lessons everyday.

Miss Clark also just reminded our Year 10s about the importance of attendance and how even being 5 minutes late every day equates to 3 days of school missed. Thank you for the ongoing commitment to good attendance. We are aiming for 96% as a year group. 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 young person 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.

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 myself 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. Thank you – Miss Deacon

A message from the Year 9 pastoral team

The penultimate week of term has been another good week for Year 9. There have been consistently high levels of effort and behaviour across all lessons, especially when they have been tired after a long half term. 9NTh led a fantastic act of collective worship on Friday 7th of October. It was excellent to see so many of the form being involved and having the confidence to speak in front of the whole year group.

It was nice to see a rise in the attendance figures of the year group this week after our slight dip. Last week saw 96% attendance which is excellent, especially coming towards the end of the term. Well done to 9NTh and 9CBe who both had excellent attendance figures for the week.

A special mention to both our girls Netball and Football teams who have been in action this week. Miss Wheater took the girls Netball team to a tournament on Saturday, and whilst they didn’t win she said that they were a credit to the school and played really well as a team. She also took a mixed Year8/9 football team to play The Mount. In the words of Miss Wheater they all played really well and supported each other throughout the game. Massive 10-1 win for the girls, ready for their cup game next week against Thirsk. Well played girls! Girl of the game: Caitlin Moffatt. Well done Caitlin.

Friday saw the rewards trip to Flamingo Land. We were lucky with the weather with some bright sunshine and Year 9 once again represented the school superbly, it was fantastic to see them all enjoying this reward trip and having fun on the rides and at the Zoo.

One more week of this half term to go. Year 9 have impressed us all with how hard they have worked, their general behaviour and effort across all lessons and the resilience they have shown when things have been difficult. Well done Year 9, keep it up.

A message from the Year 8 pastoral team

Today sees the end of another busy week for our super year 8s!

On Tuesday, year 8 students were lucky enough to have two guest speakers in school as part of the BBC’s ‘Share Your Story’ campaign which is celebrating 100 years of the BBC this year. Students listened to BBC researcher Leo Hussein and BBC Radio York’s Bek Homer share a bit about their lives, some hardships they have faced and how they’ve got to the points in their careers they have. Year 8 listened really well and asked some thoughtful and considerate questions at the end. I really hope they found the talk inspiring. Please do ask your child about this if they haven’t told you about it already.

The week has ended on a real high with our long-awaited trip to Flamingoland which was unfortunately cancelled in the summer term due to the heatwave. It has been lovely to see year 8 in a different setting today and for them to enjoy their reward for working so hard last year. We have been very proud of the way that our year 8s have conducted themselves today. They have been fantastic ambassadors of the school and were a pleasure to take out.

On Monday, our year 8s get another extra-curricular opportunity in the form of a ‘Trading Game’. This is a careers workshop run by North Yorkshire Business and Enterprise Partnership that gives students the opportunity to experience a fast-paced interactive game based on the Stock Market. Students will work in small teams to manage their stocks and try to make as much money as possible! We hope that they will get lots out of this and have a really enjoyable session doing this.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do get in touch with school reception who can direct you to a member of the team.

A message from the Year 7 pastoral team

We are now approaching our final week of our first half term at Archbishop Holgate’s School. It is so impressive to see all of our year 7’s adjusting to and enjoying their new routines and school life. They have taken all challenges in their stride and shown real resilience and independence. It was lovely to welcome so many of you into school this week, both for our Accelerated Reading Programme Evening and Bewerley Park Information Evening. We are also looking forward to seeing you all on Wednesday next week for our Year 7 Form Tutor Evening, this is a great opportunity for students and parents to receive feedback on how they have settled into year 7 and secondary school. If you have not yet made an appointment with your child’s form tutor please ensure you do this soon.

This week it was lovely to see our Year 7’s participate in our assembly and complete a languages spelling bee to celebrate the European day of languages. Well done to all of those who stood at the front and joined in, you were very brave!

Bewerley Park is creeping up on us and we are well under way with all of our preparations. Please remember to inform us if your child is not a confident swimmer or cannot ride a bike. You can do this by emailing main school reception at recpetion@ahs.pmat.academy.

Well done to our two head of year award winners this week:
Isaac Ashun 7CSt For an amazing start to AHS – you have made a great first impression and really lived our school values in everything you do! Well Done!
Selene Matusiak 7JHe – for outstanding bravery at the front of assembly completing the languages spelling bee. Well Done, you have made a great start to AHS!

Well done to those who have won student of the week for their form this week:
7ASU – Harry Lynn – for always being a polite and mature member of the form.
7CMM – Caden King – for being an extremely well-mannered, supportive, and reliable young man.
7PI – Riley Castle – always polite and smiling in form time
7HV – Byron Fearns – A thoughtful contribution during Restart a Heart week
7MPE – Lydia Stevens – for an amazing start to AHS. We are so impressed with how you have settled in – you are smashing it! Well Done!
7CST – Jude Harrison – Jude has settled in really well and is a really nice member of the form who contributes in form time activities and offers really good answers that show how thoughtful of others he is.
7MLN – Maisie Smart – For always striving to do your best in form and in lessons, and for being a kind and thoughtful member of the form.
7JHE – Georgia Ross – for quiet resilience throughout the school week
7BL – Eve Bate – a lovely member of the form who always volunteers answers during form time discussions. Keep it up!
7ZBL – Abudie Hajj Qassem – for working hard on getting to know new school routines and improving his punctuality. Well done!
7CY – Maple Hawkins – for having a really organised planner

Word of the week

The word of the week for week commencing 17 October is:

Word of the week:
Culminate
Verb: to reach a climax or point of highest development.

Weeks of exercise culminated in the team winning.

Collective Worship

Theme
The theme for our form tutor collective worship this week is Black History Month. We’ll consider what the bible has to say about issues of race and racism, and lessons we can learn from the life of Jesse Owens. Our daily quotes are from inspirational black athletes.

Quotes
Monday – “I hated every minute of training. But I said: ‘don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life a champion.”
Muhammad Ali; American professional boxer, activist, and philanthropist
Tuesday – “I am building a fire, and every day I train, I add more fuel.”
Mia Hamm; American professional soccer player and Olympic gold medalist
Wednesday – “I never lose. I either win or learn.”
Nelson Mandela; South African anti-apartheid activist and political leader
Thursday – “The only bond worth anything between human beings is their humanness.”
Jesse Owens; American track and field athlete and four-time Olympic gold medalist
Friday – “I don’t think limits”
Usain Bolt; Jamaican sprinter, world record holder and Olympic medalist