Parent Bulletin

Dear parents and carers,

Last week, our Year 10 and Year 11 students took part in the careers fair where they spoke to employers and colleagues from a range of organisations about career opportunities and prospects. The students were superb and enjoyed the experience, asking lots of good questions and engaging really well. Meanwhile, students in Year 7 had the opportunity to visit the Theatre Royal as part of our extracurricular activities programme. The Year 12 Progress Evening on Wednesday was a positive evening, it was great to welcome families into school to have productive conversations about achievements so far, as well as discussing the necessary next step for pupils.

This week is a little more disrupted due to the planned Industrial Action taking place on Wednesday 15 and Thursday 16 March, the details for which can be found below:

The school will be open for Vulnerable and students with an EHCP, alongside the following:

Wednesday 15 March – Year 7 students only
Thursday 16 March – Year 11 students only

Year 12 and 13 students will be at home accessing live lessons via Google Classroom. All other students will be at home and will have work to complete on Google Classroom. Further detailed information for each year group is provided below:

Wednesday 15 March – Year 7 students only
Year 7 students will follow their timetable as normal, this includes arriving promptly for morning registration in full school uniform. Lessons unaffected by the industrial action will be taught by the student’s usual teacher and where possible in their normal timetabled room. In the case that a student’s teacher is absent due to the industrial action they will take part in one or more of the following sessions:

• English
• Maths
• Science
• Re
• History

Food and refreshments will be available to purchase in the main hall at break and lunchtimes.

Thursday 16 March – Year 11 students
Year 11 students will follow their timetable as normal, this includes arriving promptly for morning registration in full school uniform. Lessons unaffected by the industrial action will be taught by the student’s usual teacher and where possible in their normal timetabled room. In the case that a student’s teacher is absent due to the industrial action they will take part in one or more of the following sessions:

• English revision
• RE revision (all students will need to bring their RE revision materials)
• Independent revision (all students will need to bring revision materials)

It is important that students in Year 11 bring private revision resources with them to school.

Food and refreshments will be available to purchase in the main hall at break and lunchtimes.

Vulnerable and EHCP students on site
Vulnerable and EHCP students who are accessing education on site should arrive promptly for morning registration in full school uniform. On arrival, they will be guided into the main hall for morning registration. After students have been registered they will be taken to computer rooms to access their online learning. Students meeting this criteria will be contacted by school in advance of the industrial action.

Food and refreshments will be available to purchase in the Main hall at break and lunchtimes.

Students in Year 12 and 13
Students in Year 12 and 13 will work from home, but will follow the lesson timings for their normal timetable. At the start of each lesson they should log into their subject Google Classroom to access ‘live’ teaching from their teachers who are not taking part in the industrial action. If their teacher is not present then they will need to complete independent work or work that has been set in advance by their teachers.

Students working from home
Students working from home will have access to resources through their Google Classroom. Students should first log in to their subject Google Classroom. If their teacher is not on strike there will be work posted and their teacher will be there to support them with completion. If there is no work in a student’s subject Google Classroom, they can log into their year group classroom which will contain resources students may wish to access. Students will follow the lesson timings for their usual school day.

On Wednesday, Year 11 students will also access their work through their Google Classroom. Again, students should first log in to their subject Google Classroom. If their teacher is not on strike there will be work posted and their teacher will be available to support them at the start of the lesson through a Google meeting.

Additional information
Please note, these arrangements are for the industrial action taking place on Wednesday 15 and Thursday 16 March only.

Children who receive free school meals will be able to collect a packed lunch at the end of the day. We will contact families by text message to ask if lunch is required. Please respond to this message if you would like a lunch to be made for your child.

Buses will run as normal.

Whilst we have worked closely with our members of staff and union representatives to put these plans in place, they may be subject to change at short notice. We will inform parents and carers as soon as possible if there are any changes to the arrangements outlined above.

National Careers Week 2023 and the AHS Careers Fair
Last week saw the commencement of National Careers Week at AHS, where students are encouraged to think about their futures and also given the opportunity to hear from and speak to people from local education and employment providers.

The highlight of this week was certainly the two AHS Careers Fairs on Tuesday and Thursday last week, for Year 10 (on Tuesday) and Year 11 (on Thursday), with parents of both year groups and members of our Sixth Form Community being invited to attend the fair at the end of the school day.

The guests at the event were broad and diverse and included (to name but a few!) the NHS, Hiscox, KPMG, the Ministry of Defence, the University of Hull, York Archaeology, Jet2, Askham Bryan College, the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, AKS Apprenticeships, The Railway Museum, The Grand York, the British Heart Foundation, and many more! We also had a stand with some of our AHS Staff talking about previous roles they have been in before they joined our AHS community.

Our visitors were very complimentary of our students, and I wish to echo that sentiment here – students across both events were actively engaged in discussions with our visitors and it was certainly valuable for our students to find out more regarding the diverse routes they may wish to take when the time comes for them to leave AHS and go out into the world of work and/or further education.

I wish to finally take this opportunity to say a big thank you to Miss Robinson (our Careers Coordinator) for her meticulous planning of the events, along with the Site Team and anyone else who supported these events to make them the great successes they were.

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 Results:
Results will be issued as they have been marked and any necessary intervention will be communicated home. Students worked incredibly hard last week and we look forward to seeing the results of their labour. It should place them in a strong and confident position as they approach the summer exam series.

Year 12 Parents Evening:
If you were unable to attend last week’s parents evening and have any queries regarding your son/daughters progress then please do not hesitate to get in touch.

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.

A message from the Year 11 pastoral team

This week has been really successful for our Year 11 students. The week began with an excellent assembly from Askham Bryan, who spoke to the students about some brilliant post 16 options. The students were shown that their qualifications go beyond agriculture, with the College even offering a qualification in motorsport engineering. This follows on from the talk Mrs De Lashley gave last week on post 16 opportunities at AHS, and we hope to get more providers in to speak to the students before the end of the year.

I have been delighted to see an increase in the number of students attending Period 6 last week, with over 100 on Monday, Tuesday and Friday opting to accept additional support. These additional opportunities are an important supplement to students’ revision at home, and I look forward to seeing increasing numbers take advantage of this provision as we move closer to the summer exams. I am also pleased to see some of our students making use of the new ‘quiet room’ at lunchtime, this gives students a place to go and study over their lunch break should they wish to do so.
This week saw the launch of the Y11 rewards package, which allows the students to qualify for rewards based on their Period 6 attendance and lunch-time study. This ranges from stationary packs toward their exams to £10 high street vouchers. I hope the students use this additional incentive to keep up their excellent attendance at period 6.

Finally, I would like to remind parents of the important parents evening on the 29th March. This will allow you and your child to receive some key final messages from teachers, as well as information about additional revision opportunities before the exams in the summer. If you have any questions about this, please feel free to get in touch with the Y11 team.

A message from the Year 10 pastoral team

Another week of Year 10 has flown by at Archies! I’ve been so impressed with the commitment to study that I have seen this week. Further to this, it has been amazing to hold conversations with pupils this week about their talents outside of school. I have spoken with pupils about their individual and group achievements in football, rugby, music and theatre to name but a few. It’s excellent to hear about these talents and being able to celebrate achievement.

The Careers Fair took place this week in the main hall on Tuesday and Wednesday. This gave our fantastic year 10 pupils the opportunity to see what the world of work might have in store for them! They were able to talk to potential future employers and ask questions. The most popular stalls were the York College and the apprenticeships stall. It was fantastic to wander around with pupils and see them considering different careers and educational pathways after they achieve their GCSE results at the end of year 11!

Well done to 10KMd for the highest attendance for last week
Our top 5 forms for merits for last week:
1st – 10KGn – 529
2nd – 10ABt – 504
3rd – 10MHe – 370
4th – 10RDn – 359
5th – 10JLi – 332

Our top 5 students for merits for last week:
1st – Neve Bell (10KGn) – 49
2nd – George Horner (10MHe) – 35
3rd – Ronnie Thompson (10KGn) – 33
4th – Caitlan Taylor (10JLi) – 31
4th – Mili Hood(10KGn) – 31

Congratulations to our pupils who have won the HoY award:

Lily-Mae Carrington – 10Di – Outstanding commitment to H&S Controlled Assessment
Harry Speak – 10ABt – Fantastic sporting results outside of school!

Strike action will take place on Wednesday 15th March and Thursday 16th March. I would just like to remind parents that work will be set on Google Classroom. No sanctions will be placed for students who miss any work, however any encouragement to complete work would be appreciated.

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

Once again another fantastic week for Year 9, despite the cold winter weather the whole year group has been excellent. Seeing the year group in lessons and form time has been a pleasure and there has been a real buzz around the learning they have been undertaking. This week in form students have been talking about looking out for friends during Lent. This ties in well with our year group focus of giving back to others, as it is about not money, but time, friendship and appreciation of your friends.This follows on from last week where a similar message was talked about except for your family.

We would once again like to say just how proud we are of the year group as a whole for their conduct on all three cultural visits last week. Every single trip leader has commented on the excellent behaviour and interest of the year group during the three trips, how they were a pleasure to take out and how they are looking forward to the final trip rotation in the coming months.

The act of collective worship this week focussed on women’s rights in light of it being international women’s day this week. The history of women’s rights and the present day situation, including issues like the pay gap and some shocking statistics were investigated. There was particular attention paid to the situation in Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen.

Our focus for the rest of the term will be about attendance and being on time to lessons. Attendance has been improving since Christmas and that is excellent to see. However there has been a tardiness creeping into movement between lessons. We would like to encourage our students that being on time to lessons is just as important as good attendance, as being in lessons is the place where learning actually happens, not just from being in school. Every minute of the lesson is valuable and we would like students to arrive as quickly as possible to every lesson.

As always, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the year team.

A message from the Year 8 pastoral team

As we reach the halfway point of half term, we are now fully in the swing of our schemes of work in lessons and Year 8 have been working very hard indeed. As always, it has been lovely to see all the different activities going on in lessons and the personal progress being made by individuals in their subjects.

For our Assembly last Tuesday, we had an external speaker: a nurse from the NHS who is involved in school immunisations. Year 8 were spoken to about some of the immunisations children are recommended to have in the UK and the different ages they may expect to have these. The nurse then explained what the HPV virus is and outlined the 2 immunisations students will receive in school (with parental permission) to vaccinate against this. The immunisations will take place around May time, with parental correspondence to follow. Students engaged well with this and asked some insightful questions.

This week, our Act of Collective Worship will involve another external speaker who works for a local Christian charity – Restore – supporting housing for the homeless. This sits in line with a play some classes are reading in their English Literacy lessons – Stone Cold – for which the protagonist is a homeless teen living in London. This will hopefully provide an enriching opportunity for the year group to hear from a different, informed perspective on the matter of homelessness and hold a compassionate dialogue.

Whilst the majority of our year group continues to be impeccably behaved and a source of pride for our year team, unfortunately a small number of individuals have been a little silly with some of the lunch footballs and cricket equipment this week, causing some of this to be lost or damaged. As this equipment is there for everyone to enjoy – and also represents a substantial investment from the school after prior accidental losses – we have reminded students that this does need to be well looked after if they wish to continue using it. Thank you for reiterating the importance of respectful behaviour towards equipment (and towards the lunch staff on duty) at home.

As a year team, we would appreciate parents and carers support in ensuring that students attained after-school detentions. Missed detentions can become more prevalent at the midway point of the year, as students grow in confidence and begin to test barriers. We would really appreciate your support at home in reiterating the importance of completing homework and arriving on time to avoid detentions – but also in ensuring your child accepts these consequences first-time when they arise.

Following on from this, if you or your child feels a detention is unfair, the year team are here to resolve these issues and ensure the sanctions are implemented justly. The Year 8 team will speak to students about any issues they perceive before school, after school, or at breaks and lunchtimes. Students having this dialogue with us is also an important part of developing their independence and resilience with problem solving – though hopefully these instances will be rare!

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.

We have had a great week in year 7, students have represented the school at netball, rugby and football fixtures. They have attended lots of clubs and have truly lived John 10:10.

Bikeability has continued to run and students continue to represent the school brilliantly. If your child’s Bikeability is cancelled due to snow, please keep an eye out for an email of when it will be rearranged. Some of our students also enjoyed a trip to the theatre on Wednesday, this was a great opportunity for our students and we are delighted they had a great time.

Next week we are delighted Year 7 students will be invited into school as normal on Wednesday for one strike day. School will however be closed to Year 7 on Thursday. Work for students who are at home on Thursday will be on Google Classroom, it was great that so many students engaged with this work on the last 2 strike days but please remember that there is no sanction for those who do not complete it.

As we are experiencing some colder weather please ensure your child has a coat with them each day (and gloves if they are doing Bikeability)! If you need any support please do not hesitate to contact the year team.

Well Done to our Students of the Week:
7ASU – Martin Schiller – for being a sensible presenter and giving everyone the chance to speak. Well done!
7CMM – Constance Moore- deserves recognition for the positive year you’ve had so far. Well done and keep it up.
7PI – Lorna Smith – a continued calming presence in form. Well done Lorna
7HV – Maisie Wreglesworth- For always being polite, trying hard and being a lovely member of the form
7MPE – Noah Bennett – For ‘joining in’ loads of clubs this year. You are fully embracing John 10:10. Well done.
7CST – Edward Brewer- For always bringing humour to form time! You have made a great start to year 7. Well Done!
7MLN – Edward Wilson – For always demonstrating our school values and being such a valuable form member, well done!
7JHE – Charlie Summers – for showing resilience and independence
7BL – George Routledge – For growing in confidence and participating in class. Well done and keep it up.
7ZBL – Lexi Adkins – for having a totally positive week! Well done.
7CY – Poppy Simpson for being such a lovely friend to other people

Well Done to our Head of Year Awards!
Qays Nouh 7Hv – For living our school values and working really hard! You always join in and have gained lots of merits. Well Done!
Harry Lynn 7ASU – For living our school values all of the time and always working hard. Well Done!

Word of the week

The word of the week for week commencing 13 March is:

Turbulent

Adjective: characterised by conflict, disorder or confusion; not stable or calm.

“Moving unsteadily or violently: the turbulent sea”

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 focuses on the context of School.

Quotes
Monday – “You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” – John Bunyan, 17th century English writer and Baptist preacher, author of The Pilgrim’s Progress

Tuesday – “Worry weighs a person down; an encouraging word cheers a person up”. – Proverbs ch 12 v25. The Bible

Wednesday – “Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them” Ephesians ch4 v29. The Bible

Thursday – “Let all that you do be done in love” – 1 Corinthians ch16:v14. The Bible

Friday – “It is in the shelter of each other that the people live.” Irish proverb