Parent Bulletin

Dear parents and carers,

It was a pleasure to welcome students back last week after the Christmas break. Students have returned well to school and I have especially enjoyed talking to students as part of my Chapel, which has a focus on new beginnings. As ever, I would encourage students to become involved in the extracurricular activities available to them. To see the full range of opportunities that are available to students please click here.

We have another busy week ahead of us which includes our Year 12 students working hard in and out of lessons to make sure that they are fully prepared for their subject assessments next week. Our students in Year 10-13 who study vocational qualifications have real BTEC examinations starting this week. Letters have been sent home to the families of these students to inform parents and carers. Students will need to continue to work hard in lessons and to spend time fully preparing for these examinations outside of school.

On Tuesday, families of children attending the Austria ski trip are invited into school in the evening to find out key information linked to the trip, whilst on Friday, every child in Year 9 will take part in one of three cultural trips linked to the Arts Award. Over the course of the year, every student will get the chance to visit the Media Museum in Bradford, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefield and the Royal Armouries in Leeds. We look forward to updating you on these trips next week.

As a reminder, this half term is especially important for students in Year 13 and Year 11 who are working towards being exam ready ahead of the summer examination season. Students in both of these year groups should be encouraged to attend the additional after school taught P6 revision sessions run by subject teachers. Year 11 will have their mock assembly on Monday 16th January in which they will receive the grades for the mock examinations that they sat prior to the Christmas break. This is a key opportunity for students to reflect on their progress and celebrate their achievements. As part of this reflection students will identify areas that they wish to develop. These will be then discussed in the Year 11 Progress Evening in which colleagues will talk through how working collectively we can help to support every child achieve their aspirations.

Our Year 9 students will continue through the GCSE Pathway process which culminates in them selecting a number of courses to supplement their core GCSE qualifications. A timeline for key events linked to this process can be found below:

Tuesday 17th January: Year 9 Taster Day. Students have already chosen the subjects they will sample on this day. They will have an alternative timetable for half of the day where they will have the opportunity to attend different lessons, as selected in the Taster Day assembly. This provides an opportunity to understand what some of the new subjects entail.

Friday 20th January: Students are provided with a Pathway booklet and accompanying letter that provides details about courses and the process for students during a further Pathway Process assembly.

Thursday 26th January: Pathway Evening for students and parents. Further details for the timings of this evening, specific to your child, will be sent out next week. During this evening, there will be a presentation from the Deputy Head: Curriculum about the process and pathways; the opportunity to speak to Heads of Departments and the opportunity to discuss your child’s individual needs with a member of the senior team if needed.

Monday 30th January: Year 9 full reports are sent home. Reports will give parents/carers and students an indication of the subjects which are strengths.

Wednesday 1st February: Year 9 Parents Evening Parents and carers meet each of the teachers for their child and discuss their progress and sound out the potential to take the subject to GCSE standard.

Wednesday 8th February: Year 9 Pathway Options form deadline. All option applications must be given to Mr Williams by this date.

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

GCSE Maths and English Resit Results
GCSE resit results will be distributed on Thursday 12th January between 8-8:40 in the Sixth Form Foyer. Please do get in touch if you wish for any further information regarding their results once they have been received.

Year 13 Competitive Admissions Success
We are delighted to congratulate so many of our competitive admissions applicants on their invitations to interview and their efforts in preparing for interviews prior to Christmas. It is extremely competitive to get onto such academic and demanding courses and certainly at Oxford and Cambridge, we are so proud of all of their efforts in the application process. We eagerly await further communication regarding offers.

REMINDER: Year 12 Mock Exams
These will take place wc16th January for our A Level students. It is a rigorous process but one which will work to establish what support is needed and to commend the hard work that has been demonstrated over the Winter term. When results are released they will be followed by parents evening in March (further information to follow).

REMINDER: BTEC January External Assessments
These take place for our Year 13 students and some of our Year 12 students across January. Students have examinations at 9am and 1pm each day.

A message from the Year 11 pastoral team

The first week in January is always tough, especially with the dark mornings and Christmas holidays seeming like a distant memory. However I have to say Year 11 have been in good spirits this week, continuing the excellent start they have made to the spring term.

This week SLT have been completing regular ‘learning walks’ into different lessons, and I have been pleased with the positive feedback on the conduct of Year 11. I will continue to promote this in Acts of Collective Worship, and how ‘every minute matters’ between now and the summer exams.

Just a reminder to parents that students in Year 11 will be receiving their Year 11 mock results on Monday 16th January in a special assembly period 1. This will be followed up with a parents’ evening on the 18th January, which will give parents the opportunity to speak to teachers regarding their child’s progress and how to continue this before the exams in the summer. The year 11 team will be there to answer any questions you may have, as well as members of the senior leadership team. I look forward to seeing you all there.

As you will be aware through the letter we sent home prior to the Christmas break, students in Year 11 who study BTEC qualifications will be undertaking real exams this half term, which will go toward their final GCSE grade in the summer. This will begin with the OCR Sport exam and English functional skills exam on Tuesday 10th January. If your child is due to take part in these exams, you will have received a text message with a reminder about it. I know the students have been working hard in preparation for these exams, and the Year 11 team will be on hand to support them every step of the way on Tuesday.

On Wednesday 11th January students in Year 11 studying GCSE music will be undertaking their performance examination. I wish them all the best of luck with this, and the team will be focussing on supporting the students who are undertaking this exam.

As always, the Year 11 pastoral team are here to support parents and students. Should you have any concerns or queries, please feel free to contact us and we will be happy to help in any way we can.

A message from the Year 10 pastoral team

I am so pleased to be able to say that this week has been hugely successful for our brilliant Year 10 students! I’ve had the pleasure of seeing lots of lessons with students hard at work and showing progress, this is fantastic as our students slid seemingly effortlessly back into excellent habits and routines following the Christmas break.

Students will have noticed that Mrs. Robinson has joined the year team and will be working closely with them and their families. We would like to welcome her into our amazing school community and are really excited to have her join the team!

Our Act of Collective Worship this week was led by our school captains. I hope that the school captains will be seen as role models by year ten students who may already aspire to be a school captain when they are in year 12. As I get to know individuals in the year group better, I see so many candidates who would be outstanding in the role.

As we continue to report on merits every week in the bulletin I would like to remind parents that you can look at l merits on the ClassCharts app – if you haven’t downloaded this please let us know and we can help you to do so.

Our pupils with the most merits this week were:

1. Poppy Heard
2. Alex Fowler
3. Alice Dixon
4. Freya Curzon
5. Alyana Veldhuizen & Abigail Perring

It is really exciting for the year team to see so many positives coming through on ClassCharts and as always we want pupils to bug members of staff to celebrate achievements by adding merits to ClassCharts.

Our Head of Year awards this week have gone to:

Lewis Armatige (10Pl) – Showing excellent resilience and making a great start to the new year. Well done Lewis!
Josh Eaton (10Di)- For an amazing start to the new year, taking responsibility of leaning and being a positive influence around school. Well done Josh!

I would also like to take a moment to remind families to help us to maintain high standards with regards to footwear, jewellery, nails, appropriate trousers and skirts, and that students should always be wearing an Archbishop Holgate’s School tie, including at break and lunchtime. We very much want to work with families to make sure that students meet the basic uniform expectations of the school so please get in touch if you have any concerns.

Finally, a massive well done to year ten for coming back into lessons and making an excellent start to the year! I hope this continues for the rest of the half term!

If you have any queries regarding your young person in Year 10, then please do get in touch by emailing myself (cmcpaul@ahs.pmat.academy), Miss Deacon (mdeacon@ahs.pmat.academy) and/or Mrs Robinson (jrobinson@ahs.pmat.academy) or calling main school reception and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Thank you – Mr McPaul

A message from the Year 9 pastoral team

What an absolutely fantastic first week back from Year 9. It has been an absolute pleasure to see everyone back in after Christmas, we hope that they are all rested and ready for the next six weeks of school.

There is a lot packed into this Spring half term, starting with the first of our cultural visits. On Friday 13th January, all of Year 9 will be out of school taking part in the first round of the series of Cultural Visits. Students will be going on these trips as they are linked to the arts award that they have begun studying for this year. Each student will get the chance to visit the Media Museum in Bradford, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefield and the Royal Armouries in Leeds.

• Students will be wearing school uniform, but you can wear trainers/comfortable footwear
• They need to bring a packed lunch with you – lunch will be provided for students who are Free School Meals)
• Please remember a PEN as students will be expected to complete tasks throughout the day.
• Remember to bring any medication/inhalers with you on the day
• Students will arrive to school at the normal time, and go to AM Reg as normal
• After AM Reg (8:55am), students will head to the Main Hall and sit down in a designated area depending on which trip you’re on.

Friday will see 9Ap, 9CBe and 9ECe visit the Royal Armouries. 9Cr, 9DBs 9Ev and 9JDl will be visiting the Media Museum, and 9Lp, 9KCe, 9NTh and 9WNo will be visiting the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. The bus lists have been shared with students and we are expecting students to be back in school by 3pm to be able to make their normal way home.

As mentioned before, GCSE taster day will be happening on Tuesday 17th January. Students have already hopefully made the four choices of what they would like to try during these taster sessions. This is a day for students to be able to get a taste of a subject they may not have studied before to further guide them in choosing what they would like to study for GCSEs.

This will then be followed by the options parent evening on Thursday 26th January. This is an opportunity to be able to talk to teachers more about the subjects that your child might be interested in to further inform any decisions going forward.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact the Year 9 team with any questions.

A message from the Year 8 pastoral team

Thank you for your support through what has been a hugely successful first week back in school. It has been lovely to welcome our Year 8 students back to settle into their school routine following the excitement of the Christmas period.

In our opening Assembly last week, we reviewed all that had been achieved so far and reminded ourselves of school expectations for another successful term. This began by celebrating the strengths of our year group: the enthusiasm and engagement we see in Year 8 lessons; the acts of compassion that define us as a year group; and the willingness of our students to join in with extra-curricular and leadership roles outside of the classroom. This has involved students joining clubs in and out of school, developing sport and music interests, leading in the Year 8 Student council, forms leading Acts of Collective Worship, attending external trips and events, and students acting as buddies or meeting with Year 12 mentors. It is these Opportunities that are helping to shape our young people and build the life skills and experiences they will take through their Year 8 Journey and beyond.

An important part of coming back to school has also been to reset expectations. On Tuesday, all students were reminded of their rights in school: the right to excellent, high quality lessons, a broad extra-curricular programme, a safe, welcoming environment, individual care and opportunities for next steps. Students were also reminded of their responsibilities which include arriving on time to school and lessons, being kind to other staff and students, wearing the correct uniform and showing excellent behaviour in lessons. We have also reminded students of the importance of our Hands Off policy: play-fighting and hands on games are not appropriate behaviours in a secondary environment. Students continue to have access to footballs, cricket equipment (in dry weather) and the climbing wall to stay active at break and lunch.

It has been pleasing to see students respond so well to our renewed expectations and we are thankful for the steps that have clearly been undertaken by parents over Christmas to ensure students are arriving at school on time in the correct uniform. We appreciate the vast majority who always meet these responsibilities.

Thank you for your continued support. 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

It has been lovely to welcome our Year 7s back to school this week. We spoke in assembly this week about how impressed we have been with Year 7’s first term at AHS. Students have managed excellently with the Five Fundamentals and the uniform focus. Remember our Five fundamentals are:

1. We turn up to school and to every lesson
2. We speak kindly and appropriately to people
3. We wear the correct uniform
4. We work hard to meet the deadlines we are given
5. We care for our school and the people in it

Uniform standards in Year 7 have been really excellent. Just a reminder that our students need to bring their jumpers with them everyday. They might not need to wear them in every lesson but they should have them.

Please remember if you have any questions or problems you can contact the y7 team by calling main reception or via email: Miss Cooper (acooper2@ahs.pmat.academy), Miss Powell (hpowell@ahs.pmat.academy) and Ms Halifax (jhalifax@ahs.pmat.academy).

Well done to our Students of the Week:
7ASU – Amelia Hanks – for presenting The News so well!
7CMM – Lillymae Hardcastle- for her excellent contributions and reading in form!
7PI – Ala Cheung – You had an amazing first term, keep up all your hard work.
7HV – Seth Stewart- For contributing to form time discussions and being a polite and delightful member of the form.
7MPE – Emma Kemp – You had an amazing first term, keep up all your hard work. You are a fantastic member of 7MPe. Well done.
7CST – Scarlett Sunter- You have settled in really well the first term and have worked really hard. Well done Scarlett!
7MLN – Josh Blades – for living the school values in all he does.
7JHE – Morgan Smith – for an amazing start back after Christmas
7BL – Joshua Calpin – Showing improvement in arriving on time for form and taking part in class discussions in a mature way.
7ZBL – Edward Watkins – for making a fantastic start to 2023 and getting stuck in!
7CY – William Johnson for always trying your best and being super organised so that you are ready for the day ahead.

Well Done to our Head of Year Award this Week!
Sofia Boudjema 7Hv – for helping another student feel welcome in our school community. Thank you and Well Done!

Word of the week
The word of the week for week commencing 9 January is:

Momentum

Noun: The driving force gained by the development of a process or course

The students’ progress gained momentum in the spring term

Collective Worship

Theme
Our form tutor collective worship this week is entitled The Doorway to the Year. It encourages us to think about how January is a doorway; one through which we can both look backwards and forwards. It also uses doors as an inspiration for reflecting on our lives.

Quotes
Monday – “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” – Jesus in the gospel of Matthew, ch 7: v 7
Tuesday – “Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open.” – Alexander Graham Bell, 19th C. Scottish-born scientist, inventor & engineer
Wednesday – “When one door is closed, don’t you know, another is open.” – Bob Marley, 20th C. Jamaican singer-songwriter
Thursday – “God has made many doors opening into truth which He opens to all who knock upon them with hands of faith.” – Kahlil Gibran, 19th C. Lebanese-American writer, poet & visual artist
Friday – “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.” – Jesus in the book of Revelation, ch 3: v 20