Parent Bulletin

Dear parents and carers,

We had a very busy and productive time in school last week. Our Year 11 students started their mock examinations, we are really proud of their conduct, attendance and excellent attitude shown to these assessments. On Monday we hosted a visit from the Bishop of Selby, as part of this visit the Bishop met students and staff and delivered an Act of Collective Worship to our students. It was a superb way to start off the week and students thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to speak with Bishop John.

Alongside this, Manny Duku and Max Kouogun from York City football club visited AHS on Thursday. Manny and Max spoke to our Year 7 students and delivered a fantastic Collective Worship to them.

Finally, we rounded the week off with a brilliant Christmas Fayre which was open to the wider community. I’d like to offer a huge thank you to all who helped make the event such a success. It was fantastic to see staff, students, parents and the wider community coming together as part of this event.

In terms of this week, our Year 11 students continue their mock examinations and the BBC are back in school working with our Year 10 students as part of our careers provision.

We also extend a very warm invitation to everyone connected with our school community to join us for the school’s Carol Service in York Minster on Wednesday 7 December.

On Thursday, we have our annual Christmas lunch happening for students across our school community.

Then finally, as we get closer to the Christmas holidays I would like to remind families that Friday 16 December is our final day of term. School will close at 12:15pm on this day. We then look forward to welcoming students back to our school community on Tuesday 3rd January.

Christmas Roller Skating Reward
As we have done in previous years, students will have a whole-school reward for all of their hard work in the last week of term. This year, it will be a Christmas themed Roller Disco in the Sport Hall!

Students will need parental consent in order to participate. If you child would like to participate, please CLICK HERE and follow the link to the Google Form to consent for your child. Please try and do this before Wednesday 7th December. If you are unable to use the link to consent, we will accept a note in your child’s planner as consent on the day of the event. Thank you!

Year 10 and 12 work experience
For those of you who couldn’t join our Yr10 and Yr12 work experience evening please click here to watch the presentation.

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
Sleep Rough
Our Sixth Formers braved the cold on Friday night and slept outside on site to raise money for Carecent, a homeless charity. It was particularly cold but they remained in high spirits and had a sober experience together. A huge well done and thank you to them.

Year 13 Parents Evening
On Wednesday 14th December we will be holding our Year 13 Parents Evening to discuss next steps in supporting students to meet their progression goals following the Year 13 mock exams and in advance of the BTEC January external assessments. Letters will be distributed this week and so that students can start to make their appointments. For those students that we are the most concerned about following their recent mock exams, we will be holding parental meetings prior to parents evening so that Parents Evening can remain a subject specific focus.

Year 12 Mock Exams
These will take place wc 16th January for our A Level students. For the first two week’s back after the Christmas break their will be on class guided revision but students are expected to commence their independent revision over the Christmas break.

BTEC January External Assessments
These take place for our Year 13 students and some of our Year 12 students in the first two weeks after the Christmas break. Mock exams have taken place and feedback issued.

REMINDER Year 11 Sixth Form Applications:
Thank you to all those that have applied to date. Late applications are welcome. Receiving applications this early means that we can gauge subject numbers. It does not mean that applicants are obligated to take up their place if they are still undecided and applicants can change their subject choices if, and when they wish.

A message from the Year 11 pastoral team
This week has seen Year 11 undertake their first week of mock exams. This has been a challenging and tiring week for the students, but they have conducted themselves very well and shown resilience to the demanding exam timetable. It’s been lovely to see so many students come in early to have a cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate in the morning before their exams. I know many have been grateful for the time with their friends, or to get some last-minute revision done. I am pleased having spoken with them that many of the students have not found the exams to be as gruelling as they had thought, and many seem to have taken confidence from their experience in this first week. I know they will build on this excellent foundation in the second week of exams and continue to access the support where needed.

I am delighted to announce that as a very well-deserved end of term treat, Year 11 will have the opportunity to take part in roller-disco! I know that many of them enjoyed this experience last year, and I hope the students get as much enjoyment out of it this year. This will take place in the final week of term before the Christmas break, and consent forms have been sent home to parents via google link. Should you have any trouble accessing this then please contact school as your child will not be able to take part without the required consent.

As I am sure you are aware, there is now opportunity to pay for your child’s end of Year Hoodie and Prom ticket via parent pay online. We have launched this early to give opportunity for the cost to be spread over a long period of time to try and ease the burden of it. We will also be providing each of the students with a year book at the end of the academic year, with pictures of their journey through school and some messages from students, teachers and even the headteacher! We are determined the cost of these events will not stop students from attending, and therefore should there be an issue with paying for these events then please contact the school finance team and we will look to help in any way we can.

As always, 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
We are now on the final countdown to Christmas – two weeks to go until we are a third of the way through the year already! It was so lovely to see so many Year 10 students participating in the schools Christmas Fair on Friday both in the Orchestra and Choir. I always get a real sense of pride to see our young people engaging in these activities, so a big well done to them! Furthermore, I love seeing our students every week in the Duke of Edinburgh Award sessions, there is some really good engagement going on and students seem to be taking the challenge in their strides, so a further big well done to them also!

I am going to start adding into our parental bulletin the top 5 students who got the most merits in the previous week, the year group know I always try to push the positive aspects with our young people, so I think it is really important to celebrate our achievements please see our top 5 students from last week below:

Caitlin Casey 10MHe
Toby Hassall 10MHe
Callum Patterson 10SLa
Mishi Vida 10SLa
Ruby Watson 10Ha

A massive congratulations to these students. They are clearly living the school values into being every single day which is great to see! Well done! I will also add to the bulletin next week the top 10 students from the half term.

This weeks Act of Collective Worship is around work experience as we’ve mentioned in previous bulletins please can you have conversations at home about work experience we encourage all young people to start organising their placements now so they get something they are happy with, information is here on the school website: https://archbishopholgates.academy/curriculum/careers-education/work-experience/
Work experience is week commencing Monday 15th May and will run until Friday 19th May. Any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch with myself or Mr Arthur (who is organising the work experience).

As I have done in this bulletin previously, I 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. If you have any concerns around your young person’s attendance or how we can support them in school to get them in please do not hesitate to contact any of us in the year team.

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 (Head of Year) at mdeacon@ahs.pmat.academy, Mr Deamer (Assistant Head of Year) at rdeamer@ahs.pmat.academy, and/or Mr McPaul (Assistant Head of Year) 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
In the run up to Christmas we are hoping as many students as possible can continue to attend school to fully enjoy the activities that will be happening in and around school over the next two weeks. As always, the health and wellbeing of our students is our top priority, so if a student does come in and is not feeling 100% then there are multiple ways that we can support them to help them through the day. Well done to 9JDl and 9Ap for another excellent week of attendance.

Friday saw an excellent turnout for the AHS Christmas Fayre. It was lovely to see such support for this after its suspension because of COVID. Thankyou for all donations towards this event and it was lovely to see such support from Year 9 there.

If homework is becoming an issue because of broken/malfunctioning computers, it is possible to buy a Chromebook from school to help with this. There is an option of buying them outright for £190, or to pay £10 per month towards the value of them until they are paid off. If you would like more information about this please get in contact with the year team.

The Minster service will be held on Wednesday 7th December at 7:30pm. I am delighted to extend an invitation to attend the Archbishop Holgate’s School Carol Service in York Minster. Our carol service is a very important occasion in the school year giving students, staff, and their friends and families, the opportunity to celebrate Christmas together. This is an important expression of our Christian distinctiveness and commitment to Christian values of our community.

The year 9 rewards event of Roller disco is fast approaching. Each form group will be off timetable for one lesson during the day on Thursday 15th December for half an hour of Roller Disco, and half an hour of hot chocolate. A consent form has been sent out in the newsletter, so please could we ask for the return of these ASAP so we can finalise the details for the event.

As always please don’t hesitate to contact the Year team if you have any questions.

A message from the Year 8 pastoral team
Firstly, we would like to thank all parents who came to parents’ evening on Wednesday evening. It was lovely to see all of you and I hope the conversations you had were beneficial. Overall, we are very proud and pleased with our year 8 students and parents’ evening is always a lovely opportunity to praise those that are doing well, as well as it being a time to discuss ways we can all work together to support your child better. Please continue to discuss any issues with behaviour and effort that cropped up in your child’s appointments to ensure both home and school are reiterating the same messages.

Thank you also to everyone who came to the Christmas Fayre on Friday evening. The evening was a wonderful success and has certainly got us in the Christmas spirit! A special thanks goes to our amazing team of form tutors who have worked with their forms to create either games, stalls or items to sell at the fayre. The fayre overall raises money for the Unity Fund, some of which will help our disadvantaged students access the year 8 Easter reward day we are planning. Thanks again to our student council who have demonstrated the school values of compassion and trust in their efforts towards the fayre.

We have our Christmas term reward taking place in the final week of term. Once again, the roller disco is back. Last year this was a lovely way to end the term and reward the students for their hard work and good behaviour this term. A reminder that this reward will therefore not take place for any students whose behaviour or effort is not good in these final weeks of term. You should have had an email detailing this reward with a link to a consent form. We have had a few parents and students speak to us about this link not working; if it is not then please just write a note in your child’s planner for them to show to their form tutor. No consent either via the link or a note in the planner means they will unfortunately not be able to take part. We are really looking forward to spending time with our year group during the roller disco.

A polite reminder that students must come to school in sensible shoes and outerwear. We have a number of students coming in trainers that do not align with our school policy (they are allowed plain black Nike Air Forces for this year) and are not waterproof. There are also still a number of students walking around school in just a hoodie or even just their school shirts and we have had some pretty chilly days recently! They must have something warm and waterproof to protect them at breaks and lunchtimes. If you are struggling to source something, please let us know and we will do our best to help.

Finally, we have the Christmas carol concert taking place at York Minster next Wednesday night. The service begins at 7.30pm but it is advised you get there at 7pm to ensure a good seat! You do not need to book a ticket; just come along. The Minster service is always fantastic and showcases the talented students we have in the school. Well done to any year 8s who have taken up the opportunity to take part. We look forward to seeing you there!

A message from the Year 7 pastoral team
It has been another fantastic week in year 7, we are now well and truly in the countdown to Christmas and the end of Year 7’s first term at Archbishop Holgate’s School. The year group has shown resilience, courage and determination throughout the term and we are very proud of everything they have achieved so far. World Cup fever has also hit the year group, with high hopes for football to come home before Christmas.

This week, we had two exciting visitors in school. On Monday, The Bishop of Selby, John Thomson, spoke to the year group about the meaning of Advent and God’s involvement in our world. Students engaged brilliantly, answering questions and discussing how they can “wake up to God” during the Christmas period. On Thursday, Manny Duku and Max Kouogun, two York City Football players, visited us in assembly and caused great excitement amongst the year group, particularly our football enthusiasts! They spoke with us about their faith and journey in football and handed out some books to our lucky prize winners!

The year group’s musical talents have been shining brightly this week in preparations for our Advent Service. This will take place on the 7th December in York Minster, doors open at 7pm. It is truly a wonderful event and we warmly invite all of you to attend. Well done to all of those in the year who are participating in any way.

Our end of term treat, the Roller Skating disco will take place on the 13th December. Please can you ensure that you have consented to your child participating in this by filling out the Google Form. If you are having problems with this please write a note in your child’s planner or email the year team to give your consent.

Please remember all detentions are logged on ClassCharts app, if you need support with the app please contact school.

Thank you for all of your support, if you need anything please do not hesitate to contact the year 7 team by emailing reception@ahs.pmat.academy.

Well Done to our Head of Year Awards this week:
Lillymae Hardcastle 7CMM – for living our school values every day and for making such a great start to AHS. Well done!
Georgia Ross 7JHE – for living our school values every day and for making such a great start to AHS. Well done!

Well done to our Students of The Week:
7ASU – Arlo Gane – for setting up the World Cup sweepstake and making sure everyone is involved.
7CMM – Harley Thompson – for working hard in his lessons, and really pushing himself in Maths. Well done!
7PI – Lily Croft – always polite and helpful in form time
7HV – Arjun Vellanki – Excellent and thoughtful contributions during form discussions, well done!
7MPE – Evie Glaves & Molly Mahon – For winning the year 7 cross country competition by such a massive lead.
7CST – Aaishah Surve – For always being polite and smiley in form, and always engaging in form time activities. Well done Aaishah!
7MLN – Harvey Bennett – For always being positive, helpful and polite. Well done Harvey!
7JHE – Ellisiya Dickson – for being a good friend to others
7BL – Daisy Bradley – taking part in the Unity Choir for The Christmas Service at York Minster. Well done.
7ZBL – Delphi Cashdan – for being brave and auditioning for the ‘Once in Royal David City’ solo which would be performed in front of 2000 people!
7CY – Oliver Gray – for supporting a new student joining our form this week.

Word of the week
The word of the week for week commencing 5 December is:

Lucid
Adjective: Expressed clearly; easy to understand.
The student’s essay provided a lucid account.

Collective Worship
Theme
Our form tutor collective worship this week uses material produced by the Archbishops’ Young Leaders Award to be used in the Advent journey to Christmas. This third week is called an Invitation to Follow. Our quotes are about Following God.

Quotes
Monday – “To trust God in the light is nothing, but to trust him in the dark, that is faith.” – Charles Spurgeon; 19th C. English Baptist preacher
Tuesday – “Great moves of God are usually preceded by simple acts of obedience.” – Steven Furtick; American pastor
Wednesday – “Follow your heart, listen to your inner voice, stop caring about what others think.” – Roy Bennett, African politician
Thursday – “God changes caterpillars into butterflies, sand into pearls and coal into diamonds using time and pressure. He’s working on you too.” – Rick Warren; American Christian pastor and author
Friday – “If you follow the will of God, you know that in spite of all the terrible things that happen to you, you will never lose a final refuge. You may go on, trusting in the One that loves you.” – Pope Benedict XVI; former head of the Catholic Church