Parent Bulletin

Dear parents and carers,

Last week was unusual for our students due to the disruption linked to the planned Industrial Action. That said, we still managed to have a busy and productive time in school. Whilst our Year 11 students continue to work hard in lessons and support sessions in the lead up to their summer examinations they also had a visit from Many Duku who is a York City footballer. Manu spoke about managing times of challenge and how success looks different for each individual. It was a fantastic assembly for our students to hear this important message.

Our students in Year 8 also had an important assembly from Shelter, who are a charity based in York. During this talk, our students found out about homelessness and how organisations can help to support those who are in need of help. Meanwhile our Year 9 girls rugby team took part in a tournament on Friday which was a brilliant way for them to finish the week off.

This week we look forward to our annual school show which takes place on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evening. We are all excited to see our students in ‘Fame’; a lot of hard work, commitment and energy has been put into this production from students and staff. Tickets are now available via ParentPay or can be purchased from main reception at break and lunchtimes or on the door at performances.

Performances are:

Wednesday 22 March, 7pm
Thursday 23 March, 5pm
Friday 24 March, 7pm

Prices: Adult £5; Child/OAP £3, Family (2 adults and 2 children) £15

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

TEFL: this goes ahead on Monday 3rd and Tuesday 4th April. A letter detailing the timings and location for the day will be issued this week to those signed up to complete the course.

REMINDER 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.

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

Another brilliant week from Year 11. We had an excellent assembly from a York City football player, Manny Duku, who spoke powerfully to our students about showing resilience in times of challenge and how success may look different to each person. Our year group engaged well with this assembly and some were even able to get a photograph with the football player! We would like to say a massive well done to all the students who recently sat their food exam. The time, effort and preparation that has gone into your GCSE is impeccable and the dishes looked truly delicious!

Period 6s are running again this week and we wish to encourage all our students to attend as many as possible. Attendance makes a great difference to the student’s knowledge, confidence and overall performance. We currently have the Y11 rewards package, which allows the students to qualify for rewards based on their Period 6 attendance. This ranges from stationary packs toward their exams to £10 high street vouchers.

In other news, our prom committee had their first meeting this week to discuss all things prom! This was very exciting, and after a unanimous vote, they decided on the theme of ‘Under the Stars’. I am very excited to work with the group of students to create a beautiful starry evening. As a gentle reminder, if your child wishes to attend prom, could you continue to make a contribution towards their ticket via ParentPay. If there are any problems or changes in circumstances, please let a member of the year team know.

To finish 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 last minute messages from teachers, as well as information about additional revision opportunities before the exams in the summer.

A message from the Year 10 pastoral team

This was an unusual week for Year 10, having two days out of school due to the industrial action, yet Year 10 rose to the challenge and dealt with this inconsistency very well! It has been fantastic to hear from parents, students and teachers about the work completed by pupils whilst at home. In school, Year 10 have had a really good week and are making progress in all areas!

Our Act of Collective Worship this week was delivered by Mr Arthur, the focus was on delayed gratification, he highlighted a study where young children had been left in a room with a marshmallow that if they didn’t eat it, they could have two later. This then ensues some hilarious images of these young children trying really hard not to eat the marshmallows! There was of course a range of responses, some children really struggled, others could wait, others could not! Mr Arthur went on to discuss that sometimes it is hard to see the rewards in a particular moment or situation, but actually if you look at the long term goal and focus on that the rewards are greater. He discussed that if our young people put the hard work in now it will pay off in the long term with GCSE results and career aspirations. This can be hard sometimes for our young people to see especially when we live in a world where we get instant likes and comments, therefore I would encourage families to discuss long term goals and careers with their young person to help them see the rewards in the future.

Well done to 10RDn for the highest attendance for last week
Our top 5 forms for merits for last week:

1st – 10ABt – 541
2nd – 10RDn – 422
3rd – 10KGn – 391
4th – 10MHe – 357
5th – 10Ha – 271

Our top 5 students for merits for last week:

1st – Peniel Njuabe (10JLi) – 28
2nd – Michael Wong (10KGn) – 27
2nd – Oliver Bell (10KGn) – 27
2nd – George Horner (10MHe) – 27
5th – Maks Makowski (10KGn) – 26
5th – Sarah Norman (10Di) – 26

The pupils who have won the Head of Year Award this week are Matthew Lilley and Bryn Wade for their amazing musical work out of school! Well done boys!

The year team and I are thrilled with the number of Year 10s who are in Fame. I absolutely love walking through the hall and seeing the rehearsals going on, it makes me so proud to see their great work. I have also been given a ticket by a student and I of course wouldn’t have dreamed of missing it and will be seeing it on the final night. I am sure a number of our Year 10s will be going along to support their fellow students, tickets are still available and I would encourage families to attend.

As well as being proud of our students in Fame we have had some fantastic sporting achievements in the year group. I also just wanted to recognise Dylan Parsons and Maks Makowski for their outstanding volleyball achievements and have reached the Under 16s National Final. We all wish them the best in the final and they have done fantastic to get to this point. Furthermore, Harry Speak has also done fantastic in British Cycling where he recently came 1st in the Under 16s Yorkshire series event at the Brownlee circuit in Leeds and he has a range of competitions coming up. We wish him all the best and I’m sure he will continue to achieve.

I just wanted to remind parents of some key dates for Year 10:

Next report home – the end of March
Year 10 Progress Evening – Wednesday 10 May
Year 10 mocks exams – start Monday 19 June
Final Year 10 report with mock results – sent home Monday 17 July

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

An unusually short version of the bulletin this week as there has been two days of industrial action. Hopefully there were no issues in finding enough work on Google Classroom to keep students occupied during the days they were not in school.

Well done to the Year 9 girls rugby team who had a day out on Friday at a tournament. They girls played really well and Miss Wheater made a special effort to let the team know after school on Friday how proud she was of how they played despite receiving a rough tackle or two.

Friday’s act of collective worship saw Mrs Avey explain the importance of STEM in school and beyond. STEM, science, technology, engineering and mathematics, is becoming more and more important in the workplace in whatever field you chose to work in. It was interesting to look at the stories of people such as Bill Gates and Marie Curie and how they have changed the world.

We would just like to take this opportunity to again talk about the importance of being on time to lessons. Whilst there will occasionally be times when being late is unavoidable, being on time is key to ensuring that students are making the most of the time they have in school and maximising the learning that can happen in lessons. This also translates into the workplace as we all know how important good time keeping skills are.

Thank you again for all your support and as always, if you have any concerns or questions please do not hesitate to get in contact with the year team.

A message from the Year 8 pastoral team

This week has felt like a bit of a strange one with year 8 students not in for two days due to the strikes! We hope that students come back after the weekend feeling refreshed and ready to knuckle down and work hard with only two weeks left until the Easter holidays. We once again politely ask that parents support their child by ensuring that they are equipped with the correct uniform, school shoes and books and pencil case to set themselves up with the tools they need to achieve during the school day.

The week began with a guest speaker coming into our Act of Collective Worship on Tuesday morning. This was very kindly organised by one of our English teachers Ms Brown and supported students with a text some of them are currently studying in English literacy lessons. The text is called ‘Stone Cold’ and is about someone who finds themselves homeless. Our guest speaker Amy was from Shelter – a charity based in York and the surrounding area supporting young people who have become homeless. Amy talked through how the charity helps these people and finds them new accommodation where they can be safe and have the best chance of succeeding. Overall, the talk was really useful and gave students a lot to think about and take back to their English lessons. We encourage you to ask your child about this assembly and hear their thoughts on it.

Preparations are still underway for our Easter reward which is a pizza and disco party. The date of this has been slightly pushed back and will now take place just after the Easter holidays – more information to follow. It has been fantastic to see students throwing themselves into the challenge of the swimming fundraiser – any monetary contributions towards this are much appreciated and of course, go towards our final pizza and disco party.

Like many parents, the year team is looking forward to seeing some of our year group in the school show this week. We know the students have worked really hard on this and made the most of the opportunity. Break a leg to all those involved – we can’t wait to see you in it!

As always, if you have any questions or queries, please do get in touch with the school reception who will pass on a message to us.

A message from the Year 7 pastoral team

This week there is the opportunity to see our school show, ‘Fame’ and the Year 7 team are so excited to watch it. There are lots of year 7s involved and they have been working so hard in the rehearsals. At AHS there is a school show every year so students in year 7 will still have lots of chances to be involved if they are interested!

A reminder that all students are part of the ‘Bright Sparks’ group on google classroom and so have the opportunity to submit an entry if they would like to. Students can choose up to 3 challenges to complete and winners get a £10 voucher as well as breakfast with Mr Green-Harding. Some of the challenges this half term include ‘who is better, Messi or Ronaldo?’ and ‘what would life be like without plastic?’.. This can be done in any format. Some ideas could be to write an essay, make a poster, build a model or write a song. We cannot wait to see all the fantastic entries that our students put forward! Please remember this is an optional activity which y7 can choose to take part in if they wish.

As always if you have any questions or concerns please phone reception and ask for the y7 team or email us: Miss Cooper – acooper2@ahs.pmat.academy, Ms Halifax – jhalifax@ahs.pmat.academy and Miss Powell – hpowell@ahs.pmat.academy

Well done to our Students of the Week
7ASu – Amelia Hanks – for reading to the class so well at very short notice!
7CMm – Thomas Allen- for being an absolute star for our school’s bronze and silver coin collection!
7Pi – Riley Castle – a fantastic week. Well done
7Hv – Monia Katesh- For living our school values and for always being a polite and delightful member of the form.
7MPe – Zach Garratt – For always being positive and pleasant on a morning
7CSt – Abdoulie Fofana Ceesay- Fantastic reading in form. Well done!
7MLn – Oliver Duffil for always trying hard
7JHe – Dora Escombe – for continued effort in all areas of school
7Bl – Rebecca Wood – being a polite and caring member of the form who is always organised in every way. Keep it up.
7ZBl – Ruby Smith for working hard all the time
7Cy – Holly Williams for excellent participation and confidence in the DEAR time reading.

Word of the week

The word of the week for week commencing 20 March is:

Lucid

Adjective: expressed clearly; easy to understand.

Write in a clear and lucid style.

Collective Worship

Theme
During the weeks before Easter we will explore how we can Look IN and Look OUT this Lent. This week our Form Tutor Collective Worship focuses on the Local Community.

Quotes
Monday – “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” – Mother Teresa: 20th C. Roman Catholic nun and missionary to India

Tuesday – “Never look down on anybody unless you are helping him up.” – Rev. Jesse Jackson: American political activist, Baptist minister, and politician

Wednesday – “If you have much, give of your wealth; if you have little, give of your heart.” – An Arabian Proverb

Thursday – “Sometimes the only thing you could do for people was to be there.” – Terry Pratchett: 20th C. English author of fantasy novels

Friday – “We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.” – Ronald Reagan: 40th president of the United States