Parent Bulletin

Dear parents and carers,

We have had another fantastic week in school culminating in our Year 9 students attending cultural trips to the Media Museum in Bradford, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefield and the Royal Armouries in Leeds. Alongside this, some of our Year 8 and 9 students took part in the Roots to Success trip on Wednesday. Roots to Success is a collaborative project between University of York, University of York St. John, York College and Askham Bryan College. It is designed to inform students of their potential next steps and it provides lots of opportunities to engage with visits to Universities and colleges, talks about student life and student finances and support for study skills and learning.

On Thursday, a large number of our staff took part in World Book Day by dressing up as their favourite character from literature. It was a fantastic day which sparked much conversation amongst students and staff about their favourite characters and books. Photos are a little further below!

Meanwhile students in Year 10 have been working hard as part of their controlled assessments in their vocational studies. Our Year 11 students who study Food have been cooking their coursework dishes as part of their final GCSE grade. Whilst all of Year 11 and Year 13 are working with diligence to ensure that they are fully prepared for their summer examinations.

Further to the parent bulletin last week, I would like to highlight that the current trend on social media of students protesting in schools and filming it continues nationally. We would appreciate your continued support in taking time to speak to your child about this fad and how it is important to work together to ensure that school remains a place where all children can flourish. If your child or yourself have any concerns linked to school we would welcome the opportunity to discuss and address them.

As a reminder, student concerns can be raised in the following ways:

• Talking to their form tutor
• Talking to a member of the pastoral year team
• Talking to a member of the senior leadership team
• Asking for a meeting with either Mr Green-Harding or Mr Daly
• Through the student council

For parents and carers, the quickest and easiest way to contact school is to either ring (01904 411341) or email the school reception team (reception@ahs.pmat.academy ) so that they can put the most appropriate colleague to speak to you about the concern that you would like to raise. We also have the school feedback tab available should you wish to use this (Feedback – Archbishop Holgate’s School (archbishopholgates.academy).

We would greatly appreciate your support with this. If you have any questions or concerns then please do not hesitate to contact your child’s Head of Year.

In terms of this week, our Year 10 and Year 11 students take part in the careers fair in which they can talk to employers and colleagues from a range of organisations about career opportunities and prospects. Students in Year 7 have the opportunity to visit the Theatre Royal as part of our extracurricular activities. Year 12 families are invited into school on Wednesday 8 March are part of the Progress Evening. This is a key evening for these students to celebrate their achievements to date and to talk about their academic next steps. Finally, toward the end of the week some of our Sixth Form students embark on an expedition as part of their Protective Service qualification.

World Book Day

World Book Day was a fantastic event in school. Over 50 staff members dressed up in costumes ranging from Fantastic Mr Fox to Lady Macbeth. This created an exciting buzz around school as students chatted to staff about their characters and favourite books.

I’d also like to thank parents for their excellent contributions. We have had hundreds of books donated to the school which will really help both our school libraries, students within school and local charities. Please feel free to continue donating books to the school!

Students completed a range of activities throughout the week in the libraries. We look forward to sharing the Book Cover winners with you in next week’s newsletter. Students also enjoyed completing the “Story in a jar” competition in both libraries. Some of the entries were really tricky!

It was also a great day to come together as a school community and during form time, all forms in Year 7-13 read the same short story and submitted their reviews to the rest of the school. Students loved the unexpected twist in this short but shocking little story!

Students were given a World Book Day voucher but this can also be downloaded as a digital voucher here.

The atmosphere in school was excellent and it was a lovely reminder of the importance place books and reading has in school and all our lives.

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

Y13 A Level Mock Exams:
Timetable below. Those with clashes of requiring extra time have been issued separate time slots.

REMINDER: BTEC External Assessment Results
These will be issued on Thursday 23rd March. Each Year 13 student will receive a 1-2-1 on results day to discuss current position, likely end point and second sitting requirements. Year 12 students will be spoken to in departments about the same information but over the following week.

REMINDER: Year 12 Parents Evening
This week sees parents evening on Wednesday 8th March (amended data due to strike action). These appointments will provide opportunity to discuss Full Report data issued Monday 6th March as well as next steps to aid progress moving towards the summer assessments. The Sixth Form team are currently meeting some students with their families to implement intervention plans following their mock exam results.

A message from the Year 11 pastoral team

Another fantastic week from Year 11! I have particularly been impressed with how much drive and resilience they have shown this week. Walking around classrooms, Year 11s are much more focused and curious about their learning. Many are taking initiative towards their progress, which is great to see. Additionally, on behalf of the year team, we want to say a massive well done to all that attended school last Tuesday during the industrial strike action.

On Monday, we had an assembly from our very own Mrs De Lashley, who spoke to students regarding Sixth Form. Following this, some students had a letter to take home about option blocks. This is just a friendly reminder to get the completed forms returned to Sixth Form reception.

As this half term progresses, and we get closer and closer to the real exams, it is even more important to get a plan together for extra personal revision. Last week we launched the updated Period 6 timetable – all sessions are up and running between now and Easter. Please see below for subjects and roomings.

We have also created some quiet space for students to go and revise at lunchtimes if they choose to. All rooms are equipped with computers for access to the internet and Google Classroom. As always, MA8 is open for ‘mindful’ revision on Thursdays till 5pm.

Quiet Lunchtime Study Rooms

Finally just advanced warning of the second Progress Evening for Year 11 students will take place on the 29th March. This will be the last opportunity for parents and students to receive key messages before the exams begin in May.

As always please feel free to contact the year team with any concerns or questions you may have.

A message from the Year 10 pastoral team

Another week has flown by for Year 10 and so many students are working hard, it is great to see. I know students are preparing hard for their English speaking exams and it is great to hear all the different topics that have been chosen.

Something that I want to flag is period 5 on Tuesday all Year 10 students will be attending a careers fair in the hall, this is where a range of companies and industries come in and students can meet with them and discuss career options, it is a great opportunity for students to meet contacts as well as discuss their options for the future. I’ve also just been informed that parents are also welcome to attend from 3:35pm – 4:30pm so feel free to come along, however it is not expected but you are more than welcome to attend!

I just wanted to highlight to parents some of our focuses for this half term. We are conducting a number of late reports for students who are consistently not on time and this has had a positive impact within the whole year group which is great to see. Thank you to all those students who are consistently on time all the time, so many lead by example.

Furthermore, I am arranging attendance panel meetings with the attendance team for any students whose attendance I am concerned about. We are aiming for a minimum of 96% in the year group and unfortunately we are not currently on target. Attendance is crucial for students to be successful in their GCSEs. Again, it is important to mention we have a large range of students who are reaching that 96% or over which is fantastic and are consistently in school, working hard, thank you to your ongoing support. If you would like to discuss your young person’s attendance please do not hesitate to get in touch.

As usual our top merits are below:
Our top 5 forms for merits for last week:
1st – 10RDn – 447
2nd – 10KGn – 404
3rd – 10ABt – 379
4th – 10SLa – 322
5th – 10EWh – 244

Our top 5 students for merits for last week:
1st – Dylan Parsons – 10RDn 41
2nd – Lucas Brannan – 10RDn 39
3rd – Adam Knowles – 10SLa 37
4th – Sharanyo Mazumdar – 10RDn 35
5th – Jess Colman – 10RDn 31

Well done to these forms and students, in particular RDn, I love to see these every week!

Finally, the work experience deadline has now well and truly passed so please can you check with your young person it is sorted and loaded on the work experience website (GroFar) where they have had their login details emailed to their school email.

If you have any queries regarding your young person in Year 10, then please do get in touch by emailing myself (mdeacon@ahs.pmat.academy), Mr McPaul (cmcpaul@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 – Miss Deacon

A message from the Year 9 pastoral team

Once again a fantastic week in Year 9, Students have conducted themselves well throughout the whole week and it is a pleasure to be part of the year group.

On Wednesday nine students attended York St John University for the Roots to Success workshop. Students spent the day learning about the different pathways available to them after studying GCSEs and how University courses can be accessed in many different ways, at any stage in life studying almost anything. Students also had a tour around the University campus from Student ambassadors allowing them to ask questions about University life.

Friday saw the second of three Cultural Visits taking place 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 throughout the course of the year.

The conduct of students was excellent and they represented the school superbly. Miss Dugdale was particularly impressed, emailing to tell the year team “We wanted to email straight away to let you all know how INCREDIBLE our students were today on the Sculpture Park trip.
They were an absolute credit to AHS and themselves. They were polite, respectful, engaged with the art and were an absolute pleasure to take around the park.”

9Cr, 9DBs, 9Ev and 9JD visited the Royal Armouries. Whilst there they had the chance to visit all four areas of the museum. Students learnt about various periods of warfare, weapons and armour through history, from historical warfare such as Vikings, Anglo Saxons through to the mediaeval period, the weapons used in hunting, oriental weapons and armour, and the armour and weapons used in jousting tournaments,

9Lp, 9KCe, 9NTh and 9WNo visited the National Science and Media Museum. Whilst there students were able to think like a Scientist in Wonderlab, learn about the history of photography in the Kodiak gallery and learn about animation. Students also had a chance to experience the 60 ft tall IMAX cinema learning about the importance of water to African wildlife.

9Ap, 9CBe and 9ECe visited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park where they, against all the elements, had a chance to experience works by Damien Hirst, Robert Indiana, Alex Clegg and Annie Montgomerie amongst many others.

As always, if there are any questions please do not hesitate to contact the year team.

A message from the Year 8 pastoral team

Already, two weeks have flown by since the start of term and we are seeing students much more settled into routines following the half term break.

Mrs Calvert (who Miss Chambers introduced you to in last week’s bulletin) has completed her first week within the team. She will be working with students to ensure our high standards of hard work, behaviour and promoting good wellbeing. A special thanks goes to Mr Deamer who was seconded to us from the year 11 team for the interim period.

Thank you to parents and carers for their continued support with ensuring students are in the correct uniform. Any issues should have been resolved this week but please do get in touch if you are struggling to source anything and we will do our best to help. Please keep checking in with your child to make sure they are attending school in the correct uniform each day.

Students will have completed their swimming fundraiser challenge either at the end of last term or start of this term. Merits will be awarded for each width or length that students completed beyond their target set. We are really proud of how the students have approached this challenge and come together as a year group to do this. This fundraiser is raising money for an extra reward for our year group alone which will be coming around Easter time. We are really looking forward to getting the details for this finalised and letting you know of them in due course.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns please do get in touch with us.

A message from the Year 7 pastoral team

We have had a great week in year 7. Students continue to work hard and engage in their lessons. We have loved seeing their volcano creations in geography, they have all made such a fantastic effort. Thank you to all parents who supported making these. Our Twitter is used regularly and we continue to post lots of updates here so please do follow us at @AHS_Year7.

Students also enjoyed World Book Day on Thursday, we had additional reading time and students completed a treasure hunt for 2 books in their form room.

Bikeability has continued and students have represented the school brilliantly. If you are still waiting to hear when your slot is please keep an eye on your emails, the council will alert you.

A few polite reminders, all shoes should be non-branded in year 7 and leggings are not suitable school uniform. All detentions are logged on ClassCharts, if you need help downloading or using this App please do not hesitate to get in touch. Students will need to attend all detentions set. The year team are available to support you either by phoning school or on email at acooper2@ahs.pmat.academy (Miss Cooper), hpowell@ahs.pmat.academy (Miss Powell) and jhalifax@ahs.pmat.academy (Mrs Halifax).

Well Done to our Students of the Week:
7ASU – Safi Lalowski-Cumberland – for presenting the news brilliantly. Well Done!
7CMM – Isla Hudson- for being such a caring and compassionate member of our form, always looking out for others.
7PI – Ebony Ruddock – for some really thoughtful comments when we were discussing masculinity
7HV – Qays Nouh – For always trying hard and being a lovely member of the form
7MPE – Henry Ekers – For always getting involved in our form time discussions.
7CST – Masal Altun – For always being polite and smiley everyday. You are a great member of 7CST. Well Done!
7MLN – Elise Atkins – For contributing to group discussions during the news this week, well done!
7JHE – Zach Dunne for being a great friend!
7BL – Paige Outterson – a delightful member of the form who is always organised with getting her planner signed. Well done, keep it up.
7ZBl – Delphi Cashdan – for living our school values all of the time. Well Done!
7CY – Will Nelson for showing compassion to another student

Well Done to our Head of Year Awards!
William Roelofs 7ZBL – for working hard at home and at school, Well Done!
Rebecca Ulliott 7BL – For living the school values every day and working hard all of the time. Well Done!

Word of the week

The word of the week for week commencing 6 March is:

Consolidate

Verb: Combine (a number of things) into a single more effective or coherent whole

“The students knowledge was consolidated during their revision”

Collective Worship
Theme
During the weeks before Easter we are exploring how we can Look IN and Look OUT this Lent. This week our Form Tutor Collective Worship focusses on Friends.

Quotes
Monday – “Everybody can be great…because everybody can serve. You don’t have to be highly educated to serve.” – DrMonday – “A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.” – St Basil
Tuesday – “Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Others stay awhile, make footprints on our hearts and we are never, ever the same.” – Anonymous
Wednesday – “Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow; Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead; Walk beside me, and just be my friend.” – Albert Camus
Thursday – “A loyal friend laughs at your jokes when they’re not so good, and sympathizes with your problems when they’re not so bad.” – Arnold Glasgow
Friday – “Sometimes the measure of friendship isn’t your ability to not harm but your capacity to forgive the things done to you and ask forgiveness for your own mistakes.” – Randy K Milholland