Parent Bulletin

Dear parents and carers,

It was great to welcome the students back last week after their half term break. The students have returned well and they have quickly settled back into school life. Last week, our first group of Year 7 students took part in their trip to Bewerley Park which was fantastic. Year 7 also had a visit from Joe Thomas this week. Joe is a 97-year old World War Two veteran. Joe led an assembly and spoke about what it was like joining the Royal Navy at 18 before finishing with a question and answer session. We are delighted that Joe shared his experiences with us.

In other news, our catering team achieved a 5 star hygiene rating (the strongest possible) in our recent visit from the Environmental Health Officer, which is excellent. We would also like to thank all of our Year 12 students leaders who interviewed for the position of school captain last week. It was a pleasure and a privilege to spend time with our Year 12 students who are an absolute credit to the school. All of these students are excellent role models to all students within our school community and they will be brilliant student leaders. In addition to this, we would like to congratulate Ethan Clifford and Millie Cartmail who were both successful in becoming the school captains for this academic year. 

In terms of this week, our Year 7 visits to Bewerley Park continue, as more students take part in this trip which runs Wednesday to Friday.  We are looking forward to welcoming families to our Sixth Form Open Evening which runs 6-8pm on Tuesday 8 November. As part of our information, advice and guidance process for Year 11, all students will have an individual meeting with a senior colleague over the next few weeks to discuss their intended next steps and how best to support them achieve this.  Our Year 13 students are busy this week taking part in their mock A Level examinations – we wish them all the best for these assessments. Finally the school community will be taking part in a two minutes silence on Friday 11th November as part of Remembrance. 

Physical Wellbeing News

As part of our ongoing commitment to support student’s wellbeing across the school, we have developed a programme of activities that will contribute to their physical and social wellbeing. Over the course of the last two years, physical activity levels in teenagers have dropped more than expected. Children aged 5 – 18 should be taking part in at least 60 minutes of moderate exercise per day. Whether it is travelling to school, extra-curricular clubs or playing in the park, it all counts. It is important that students develop healthy habits at a young age to reduce their risks of chronic illnesses in the future. Students have also missed out on developing key social skills due to lockdowns, which are also an important part of building their confidence and how they interact with family and friends as well as future employers. To help combat this, by developing their social competence as well as increasing their activity levels during break and lunch times, we have invested in equipment that we feel will help them make the appropriate choices in order to lead a healthy and active lifestyle and maintain or improve their overall wellbeing.

There has been a great response from Year 9 & 10 to the addition of two table tennis tables on Black square. For those that prefer non-team games, this has been their opportunity to challenge others and tournaments are now a daily occurrence. There are also footballs, netballs, cricket sets and frisbees available to sign out at lunch times. We will also shortly have two basketball hoops fitted on Black Square for some 3v3 competitions or shooting practice.

This half term, Year 7 & 8’s will begin to have access to equipment on their field. They now have the brilliant Traverse walls that were fitted over half term for them to develop their upper body strength and coordination skills. They will also have footballs, cricket sets and frisbees to use on the field as well as skipping ropes, hoops and hop scotch on the concrete area.

Alongside their team building and leadership lessons in PE, we are aiming to build their confidence, improve their teamwork and develop their social skills as well as improving their health and fitness. We feel that it is essential that students have the opportunity to be active and have fun at break and lunch times to help them maintain their physical, social and mental wellbeing.

There will be more information in form time and the newsletter over the coming months about how we can all build healthy habits by staying active at home to maintain our health and wellbeing. Hopefully families will be able to have a go at some of the challenges together.

School Uniform

As a school we have high expectations regarding students attending school in the correct uniform every day. Currently we have been loaning ties to students if they arrive without one or if the tie is broken during the day. As part of this loan we ask for the tie to be returned at the end of the day. Unfortunately we have had a significant number of ties not returned. The school cannot continue to cover this cost and as such we are amending the process for the loan of this piece of school uniform.

In order to encourage students to return a borrowed tie at the end of the day, they will be issued a detention for the next night (3.15 to 4.00pm). However, if the tie is returned at the end of the school day today, the detention will be cancelled.

If the student does not return the tie at the end of the day, they must attend the detention that has been issued and return the tie during this detention. If they fail to do this, we will be charging £6.75 parents/carers via parent pay to cover the cost of the tie.

If you have any queries or comments around this change, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s Pastoral Team or email Mr Furniss at reception@ahs.pmat.academy.

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.

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

REMINDER Year 11 Sixth Form Open Evening
Sixth Form Open Evening is on Tuesday November 6-8pm. You will be welcomed by the Sixth Form subjects and their teachers where you can receive all the information you need to support an informed decision about post-16 options. Prospectuses will be distributed and there are three talks throughout the evening with the Director of Sixth Form and Head of school. We will be introducing our new T Level in Hair and Beauty that commences in September 2023. We look forward to seeing you there.

REMINDER Year 11 IAG Meetings
Each Year 11 student will be having a 1-2-1 meeting with a member of the Sixth Form/Senior leadership team across a three-week period starting Monday, in the run-up to their mock exams. This is an opportunity for Year 11 to discuss their aspirations and for us to ascertain best routes for these students. Appointments have been distributed.

Year 12 Student Captains
Mr Green-Harding and I had the pleasure of interviewing 14 confident, articulate, driven and aspirational students on Wednesday for the two positions of School Captain. It was of the highest calibre and a necessary reminder of what a privilege it is to work with our Sixth Form students. It was not an easy decision, but the two captains selected were nothing but exceptional. Millie Cartmail and Ethan Clifford will be fantastic role models and we look forward to seeing their leadership unfold.

Year 13 Mock Weeks (inc. Y12 BTEC)
Year 13 will have A Level mock exams this week followed by Year 12 and Year 13 BTEC mocks exams next week. Results for the A Level mocks will be shared wc 12th December and Parents Evening will take place that week (Wednesday 14th December). BTEC results will be shared by class teachers as they are marked to support intervention for the external January exams.

A Level mocks this week:

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 and appointments are being made.

REMINDER: Upcoming Key Dates

• Post-16 Open Evening Tues 8th November
• Y13 A Level Mock Week 7th Nov
• Y12 & 13 BTEC Mock Week 14th Nov
• Y12 Form Tutor Evening Weds 16th November

A message from the Year 11 pastoral team

It has been lovely to have the students back this week after a well deserved break. The year team have spent a lot of time walking around the year 11 classrooms this week, it has been fantastic to see them working hard in preparation for the busy half term ahead before the Christmas break.

This next half term will see the start of the Year 11 mocks, Mr Avery delivered an assembly to the year group at the start of the week introducing this year’s mocks and how they will go ahead. Students will also be receiving their mock timetable within the next week during form time for form tutors to go through with them, we will also be providing students with revision and exam materials to help support them in preparation for their exams.

As a reminder, these mocks are an opportunity for our students to put all their hard work this year to good use. The mocks this term will run between Monday 28th November to Friday 9th December.

• 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.

In preparation for mocks, we have now launched our Period 6 timetable for students to attend in the run up to mocks. Students have been encouraged to attend at least x3 P6 sessions over the next 3 weeks.

Period 6 sessions are put in place to help support students further with their learning and support them achieve the best possible grades in their exams. We have been running Period 6 sessions for a number of years and they have been proven to support students in achieving a higher grade.

Please see below the Period 6 mock timetable:

Again.. I’d quickly like to highlight attendance as we approach the first exam season. This week we finished on 93% attendance in Year 11. 

Please can you continue to reiterate the importance of attendance to your child, and challenge them to attend school even if they are not feeling a hundred percent. We have a dedicated pastoral team who can support students in school, and our qualified nurse on hand to assess them throughout the day if need be.

Lastly this week, I’d just like to remind you of our Year 11 celebration rewards.  You should have now received information about our upcoming Prom that will be taking place on 30th June 2023 at York Racecourse. As well as, Leavers books and Hoodies. Students will be receiving information on how to personalise these items during form time during this half term, please keep an eye on this going live in the coming weeks. Just to highlight, the payment system for this is now live on parentpay.  If you have any concerns or questions, please do not hesitate to contact a member of the Year 11 pastoral team and we will be happy to support.

A message from the Year 10 pastoral team

I can not believe we are in our second term already! It is so lovely to see the Year 10’s back in school and ready for another fantastic term. I am really pleased to say that the Year 10s have returned exceptionally well and settled back into their lessons.

Miss Deacon delivered our Act of Collective Worship this week and this was based on all thing’s homework! Miss Deacon highlighted to the Y10s the importance of homework and what the students can do to help manage it. We understand that sometimes homework can feel overwhelming for the students and at points for them to not bury their heads in the sand and to use some suggested techniques to help manage it. For example, for the students to set themselves a homework timetable, use a good working device to complete homework, ask for help if stuck via their teacher on google classrooms, if they are spending too long on homework let someone know about this and attend homework club where a member of staff will be there to support with homework. We understand that now the students are in Y10 homework is super important and research shows that homework helps to take information from their working memory to their long-term memory which results in better results! If your young person is struggling with their homework, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We run a homework club in BS1 from Monday to Thursday.

Now we are back from half term, I just want to briefly point out the expectations of uniform. Students are not allowed to wear false nails or nail polish for school. If they are, they will be asked to remove this. Only black leather shoes are allowed, not trainers. Students are only allowed to wear one plain nose stud in regards to jewellery, anything else they will be asked to hand over and to leave in reception ready to be collected at the end of the day. Students are not allowed to wear jeans/leggings, only black trousers. Hoodies are allowed but only on the way to school and leaving school. If you do have any questions or queries regarding this please do let us know and we are here to help and support.

In other news the students of Year 10 will have the opportunity to receive guidance from ‘The Big Talk’ on the 21st and 22nd of November, an organisation dedicated to educating students on healthy relationships. The Big Talk is an important part of the students ongoing statutory RSHE education, and allows them to experience lessons on the topic of healthy relationships from external experts. Operating in 135 schools across the country, their aim is to ensure as many children and young people as possible receive high quality Relationship, Health & Sex Education, to help keep them safe, healthy & happy.

The Monday session will run from P2-P5 and the Tuesday sessions will run from P1-P5. Students will be out in their form groups to take part in this.

Developing feelings – The young people will discuss changes in friendships and relationships as they may begin to develop emotional and romantic attachments. This covers all types of relationships and as with all of our programme, is fully inclusive. The workshop covers a range of themes that affect relationships and young people’s perception of what constitutes a healthy relationship. We address peer pressure, abusive relationships and gender stereotypes, as well as contemporary issues such as youth generated images (sexting), internet safety and the dangers of inappropriate websites which we demonstrate can warp a young persons’ view of social norms.

RSE: Show what you know – Covering consent, contraception and the responsibilities of young people, we once again highlight the ever present, potential risks of STIs and unplanned parenthood as well as what constitutes a healthy relationship.

We are really excited to be able to welcome The Big Talk into our school, and I feel the experience will be highly beneficial to our students in Year 10.

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 sclark1@ahs.pmat.academy, Miss Deacon (Head of Year) at mdeacon@ahs.pmat.academy and/or Mr McPaul (fellow Assistant Head of Year) mpaul@ahs.pmat.academy or main school reception and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Thank you – Miss Clark

A message from the Year 9 pastoral team

Welcome back to Year 9. We hope you have all had a restful half term and have come back with fully recharged batteries. With this being a new half term it is time for a fresh start, to think about the successes of the previous half term and how to sustain them, and to ponder the challenges that were faced and make a plan to overcome them in the next seven weeks.

Attendance again will be a big focus in the run up to Christmas. As we all know the more students are in school the better the outcomes they will have in their GCSE’s and A-levels, as some students are already starting some GCSE work in some subjects it makes it as important as ever that they can be in school as much as they possibly can. Well done to a good start to this half term with congratulations to 9Lp and 9JDl for an excellent form attendance for this week.

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, a letter has recently gone home outlining this, as well as the new policy about borrowing ties from school. 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. 

Miss Wheater again has some positive news from the sporting front, with the Y9/10 girls rugby team having a positive tournament. “Massive shout out to the Year 9 and 10 girls rugby team for their efforts in the tournament on Monday evening! They worked so well as a team and a well deserved win. Well done girls! Miss Wheater.”

Also on the extra curricular side of school many new clubs will be starting this half term, so please remember to check for details about any clubs that students may be interested in attending. Homework club is also running Monday to Thursday with Mr Stabler in BS2 as always.

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 

It’s been lovely to see our year 8s back in school this week ready to start a fresh new half-term; we hope students and parents alike had a good rest over the break. We are very much looking forward to the half-term ahead and have lots of exciting plans in the lead-up to Christmas.  

Year 8 students will have either received their attendance reports for last half-term in form time this week or will be receiving these next week. Please encourage your child to discuss this report with you. Well done to the students whose attendance has been high last half-term; we know that non-attendance is sometimes unavoidable but we do appreciate those who are in as much as they can. It is proven that the best place for students is in their lessons – it is good for their mental, academic and social skills. Thank you very much for supporting the school on this. 

As part of our school’s commitment to promote good physical and mental wellbeing with our students, PE teacher Mrs Beard has organised the provision of some new equipment to have out on the field for year 8’s break and lunchtimes. This includes footballs, cricket bats and posts and most excitingly, a new traverse wall where students can practice moving along a climbing frame. It’s been lovely for us to see when students have been using this equipment nicely and having fun with it.  

Finally, the half-term holidays saw the clocks going back an hour which can often disrupt our usual routines. It is recommended that children put their electronic devices away an hour before bed and they go to sleep at a reasonable hour. This is vital to ensuring they are well-rested and in the best frame of mind for learning. Furthermore, we are now seeing the nights getting darker even earlier. If your child cycles or walks to school, please remind them about road safety and having bike lights and a helmet if they are cycling. Please do get in touch if you need help sourcing a helmet or bike light for your child.

A message from the Year 7 pastoral team

Our first week back has consisted of our first trip to Bewerley Park. All of our students who went on the trip have shown fantastic resilience and teamwork.  They have lived out our School values and really made us proud!  Please make sure to check our twitter to see all of the adventures Year 7 have been getting up to on their residential.  

We also had a very exciting assembly this week.  We had a Q and A session with Joe who actually served in World War II, and saw action in the Royal Navy.  Joe really inspired our Year 7s with his stories and the courage he showed joining the Royal Navy at 18.

We look forward to members of 7MPe, 7MLn and 7CSt going to Bewerley Park this week.  We will aim to be back at School at around 2:45pm on Friday.  Please make sure you have arranged with your child how they will be getting home.

Well done to our students of the week!

7ASu Harry Lynn – joining in at Bewerley Park and showing great teamwork
7CMm Charlie Clarke – showing great resilience and support of others at Bewerley Park
7Pi Molly L’Anson – superb leadership, teamwork and positive attitude at Bewerley Park
7Hv Gusts Steinbergs – joining in with everything at Bewerley Park and showing great resilience and social skills
7MPe Eric Roman – For making a great return to school after some time off. Well done
7CSt Aurelia Smy- Aurelia has had a great start to the year and has settled in really well to form, she is a lovely girl that always has a smile on her face and always gets involved with form time activities. Well done Aurelia, you are a great part of our form!
7MLn – Della Collins – For always striving to do your best in form and in lessons, and for being a kind and thoughtful member of the form.
7JHe – Lilly Thompson – for resilience across the all lessons!
7Bl – Penny Adlam – getting involved in the Drama club and showing an interest in getting involved with the school production of Fame.
7ZBl – Mohamed Araba – for engaging with The News and asking lots of thoughtful questions
7Cy – Charlie Hobby for contributing to form time discussions during the news

Word of the week

The word of the week for week commencing 7 November is:

Controversy

Noun: A prolonged public disagreement or heated discussion. 

The design of the building has caused controversy.

Collective Worship

Theme

The theme for our form tutor collective worship this week is thinking about Remembrance Day and some of the poetry it has inspired. Our daily quotes are on the theme of peace.

Quotes

Monday – “They died for the future, for an ideal world that we could live in, an earth at peace. Now it is our turn to strive for peace on earth.” – Michael Davis
Tuesday – “There is no way to peace.  Peace is the way.” – A.J. Muste, Dutch-born American clergyman and political activist
Wednesday – “If we ourselves remain always angry and then sing about world peace, it has little meaning.” – The Dalai Lama, Monk and spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism
Thursday – “Be still and know that I am God.” – Psalm 46, The Bible
Friday – “God will settle arguments between distant and powerful nations. They will pound their swords and their spears into rakes and shovels; they will never again make war or attack one another.” – The Prophet Micah chapter 4, verse 3 – The Bible