Parent Bulletin

Dear parents and carers,

It was a pleasure to welcome students back last week after the Easter break. The students have returned very positively to school and I have especially enjoyed talking to students as part of the year group assemblies, which focussed on expectations and opportunities. As ever, I would encourage students to become involved in the extracurricular activities available to them and really make the most of their time in school. 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 11 and 13 students working hard to make sure that they are fully prepared for their written examinations which start in just three weeks. The majority of students have impressed so far with their mature attitude and positive work ethic, all students will need to continue to work hard in lessons and to spend time fully preparing for these examinations outside of school. We also have the GCSE MFL speaking tests, GCSE PE moderation and the GCSE Art and Textiles exams taking place this week. As a reminder, we have invited Year 11 students and their families into school on Wednesday evening (5:00pm- 7:00pm) to offer further support for revision ahead of the examination season. We look forward to seeing those families during the evening, which is always a very positive and helpful event.

This week is a little more disrupted due to the planned Industrial Action taking place on Thursday 27 April, the details for which can be found below:

The school will only be open for Vulnerable and EHCP students, and for those students in Year 11 and Year 13. Year 12 students will be at home accessing live lessons via Google Classroom. Year 7, 8, 9 and 10 students will be at home and will have work to complete on Google Classroom. Further detailed information for each year group is provided below:

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 which will be staffed by the Senior Leadership Team:

• English revision
• History revision
• Geography revision
• 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.

Year 13 students
Year 13 students will follow their timetable as normal, this includes arriving promptly for morning registration. 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 industrial action they will be given the option to carry out independent revision in the Sixth Form library or the Sixth Form study area. Students have also the option to leave site during these times as long as they follow the normal signing in/out procedures.

It is important that students in Year 13 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
Students in Year 12 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 in Years 7-10
Students in Years 7-10 will work from home and 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 in Years 7-10 will follow the lesson timings for their usual school day.

Additional information
Please note, these arrangements are the same for the industrial action taking place on Thursday 27 April and Tuesday 2 May.

Children in receipt of free school meals who will not be in school on Thursday 27 April will be able to collect a packed lunch at the end of the day on Wednesday. Packed lunch will be available in school on Tuesday 2 May for collection. 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.

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:
For those students posing the most concern regarding meeting future Post-18 plans and meeting potential, we will be arranging parental meetings to discuss support plans in the lead up to stand-down.

Y13 Support:
Please continue to support us in encouraging students to attend P6 in the final weeks to stand-down.

REMINDER Y13 Leavers’ Key Dates:

• Leavers’ Celebration Service – Thursday 11th May (6:30-7:30pm in the Main Hall)
• A Level Stand-down – Friday 12th May
• Prom – Friday 23rd June Hilton, York

A message from the Year 11 pastoral team

It was lovely to see the Y11s rested and energised after the Easter break – they have made an excellent return. This week we started with an assembly in the hall on the importance of exam conduct, revision and standards. As previously reiterated, we are now in the final stretch before the students sit their GCSE exams, which commence on the week beginning 15th May. Every minute counts, therefore attendance and hard work is key. We’ve also had some excellent BTEC results that came through this week, and are proud of every student who has worked hard and achieved the grade that they deserve.

To further support your child with their revision, we are delighted to invite you to our revision skills evening on Wednesday 26th April, 5:00pm- 7:00pm. There will be information for parents and students about support with the summer exams. Featuring: Revision strategies and advice Effective time management, Wellbeing ideas and support, Healthy eating, sleep and exercise during exams, Presentations about the English, Maths and Science exams, Exam resources and revision resources. There will also be stalls for History, Geography, RE, French, German, Spanish. We hope to see you there!

Additionally, P6 and study rooms are running as normal this half term, please see the table to find out the subjects and days for the P6 sessions. All students are welcome at these sessions, and we had an excellent turn out last week. As previously mentioned, every minute counts and any extra input is invaluable for success in the Summer.

In addition to our P6 sessions, it is just as vital that students complete revision at home. In order to support your child further, you may wish to assist them with finding past papers, purchasing a revision guide or looking at what general revision materials are available for that subject. Please find in the table the exam board for each subject:

The link below provides you access to each exam board specification and useful revision resources.
https://me-qr.com/mobile/pdf/11911640

Last but not least, we are busy preparing to make Prom a wonderful experience and the Prom committee have made a decision on the theme ‘Under the Night Stars’. As a reminder, Prom will be taking place on Friday 30th June at York Racecourse. Students have indicated whether they will be attending or not and we will be making the final arrangements in the coming weeks. All year 11s will be given a free ‘Leaver’s Book’ and those who have ordered a ‘Leavers Hoodie’, will be receiving it in the next couple of weeks. Thank you for keeping up with the payments on ParentPay and if you need support, contact our Finance Team (swillsden@ahs.pmat.academy).

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to get in touch with the Y11 Team.

A message from the Year 10 pastoral team

I am delighted to be able to begin by saying that Year 10 has had a fantastic week coming back after the Easter break. It’s been brilliant going into class rooms and witnessing high quality learning taking place due to students raising their own standards. Well done Year 10!

Well done to 10Di for the highest attendance for last week
Our top 5 forms for merits for last week:
1st – 10KGn – 313
2nd – 10ABt – 281
3rd – 10Ha – 256
4th – 10Di – 229
5th – 10EWr – 203

Our top 5 students for merits for last week:
1st – Harry Speak (10ABt) – 27
1st – Michael Wong (10KGn) – 27
1st – Phin Whitehead (10ABt) – 27
2nd – Bailey Sargent (10ABt) – 23
2nd – Milli Hood (10KGn) – 23
2nd – Rapha Martin-Smith (10Ha) – 23
2nd – Michael Ellison (10Ha) -23

The pupils who have won the Head of Year Award this week are Miles Hall and Brooklyn Baker for their amazing return to school! Congratulations to both of you!

Correct uniform is becoming a key focus this term. I would like to thank all the students and families who adhere to the uniform policy and also thank the students and families who are working with us to help rectify any issues. It is much appreciated! I would like to highlight a few things to provide some clarity in this area:

• All students should have the AHS blue jumper every day. They may remove it if they choose to.
• Skirts should be plain black, knee length skirts. Skinny, bodycon or elasticated material skirts are not allowed. Tights should be black or natural in colour.
• Heavy make up is not allowed.
• Nail varnish is not allowed. Gel, acrylic and false nails are also not allowed.
• False eyelashes are not allowed.

If you need any help with this or require further information, please contact the year team.

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

It has been absolutely fantastic to see all of our Year 9’s back at school after what was a hopefully restful Easter break. Whilst this might be the final term of the year, there is also lots to look forward to, the final cultural trip to either the Media and Science museum in Bradford, the Royal Armouries in Leeds, or the Yorkshire sculpture park in Wakefield. There will also be assessment week and revision leading up to it to be navigated, and as always, the fantastic day that is Sports Day.

We are having a big focus on students being in the correct school uniform, challenging those who are not. A reminder that from this half term, AHS hoodies will not be able to be worn in lessons, and we expect every student to have a school jumper with them, every day, even if it is not being worn and is kept in their school bag. We also expect students to be wearing a tie and correct school shoes. This is also a useful time to remind you that long false nail and painted nails are not part of our uniform policy and students will be supported to remove these if they arrive to school with them We will continue to remind students of this, and we once again, very much appreciate the support we have had from parents with uniform as a whole. If you have any questions or concerns about uniform, please do not hesitate to get in touch with one of the Year 9 team and we will be happy to help.

As a reminder attendance and punctuality will be a big focus for the rest of this year and we are hoping to build on the strong attendance shown by the year group throughout the year so far (We are currently the year group with the second best attendance in school). We have been doing well this year so far, but it would be nice to see an increase of attendance as a whole across the year group and of course we expect students to be on time to lessons as much as possible.
We would like to say thankyou to students for an excellent start back to school life after their Easter holidays and we hope that the standards that they have set for themselves will continue throughout the rest of the year.

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

A message from the Year 8 pastoral team

Last week has been a fantastic one with Year 8 as we welcomed them back from the Easter holiday – they have exceeded all of our expectations in their return to Assembly, lessons and social times. It is clear many students have benefitted from a long break and we hope all of our families enjoyed a safe and restful holiday.

We are thrilled to have Mrs Reeder (Assistant Head of Year) back with us full time from the start of this term whose exemplary pastoral care makes a difference to so many individuals in our year group. A huge thank you to Mrs Calvert who did a fantastic job of supporting Year 8 in the interim; she is returning to her duties as a specialist Support Assistant, but will remain a friendly and familiar face to students around school.

The Summer term for us is often one of the best and we are already enjoying the warmer weather and more ‘settled’ feeling that being two terms in brings with it. This half term should be a good one as we also look forward to our Year 8 Rewards disco – this will be held on Thursday 25th May from 5pm-6:30pm in school. A letter with more details will follow this week and, at present, all Year 8s are warmly invited. Our students have been fundraising throughout the year for this through in-school activities and have managed to raise a respectable £276 which will help go towards pizza, snacks and potentially a DJ for the event.

After May half term, things become even more exciting for Year 8 with Sports Day, Enrichment Week, Flamingo Land and/or the Year 8 Languages Trips all to look forward to.

Following the Easter holiday, we have turned our attention back to resetting expectations around uniform/equipment. The vast majority of our Year 8 students meet all school expectations perfectly and it is important we support those who don’t to ensure they are prepared for the school day. Our school uniform is important to create an inclusive environment for all students, and dressing professionally in uniform also has a tangible correlation with students’ attitude towards learning. As such, we appreciate your support in ensuring your child in Year 8 is wearing appropriate trousers, shoes and a tie. Students should not wear jewellery except for a single set of plain gold/silver, studded earrings and a single nose stud. We also ask that every student has a school jumper with them in school. Students need a school bag every day to contain their books, pencil case with pen/pencil/ruler, a reading book and their planner to record homework. Thank you very much for your help in ensuring your child is dressed and equipped for school.
As the weather warms up, we would also advise students have a water bottle with them at all times. There are multiple stations around school where students can fill this up at break and lunch time.

Thank you for your continued support. The Year 8 team are on hand throughout the school day to support students and address any concerns. We try to encourage students to seek us out before school, break, lunch or after school if they have an issue they would like to discuss. If you have any queries or concerns about your child in Year 8, please call 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 lovely first week back with Year 7. They have settled back into routine really well and there has been some great work in lessons. We have a very exciting and busy half term coming up. Year 7 will have their assessment week between the 8th May and 12th May. They will receive a booklet which outlines how this will work next week.

This week we also spoke about our School Community and the different responsibilities this involves. We had a reminder about our five fundamental rules that we should always follow.

1. We come to school fully prepared, dressed in the correct uniform with our bag and equipment
2. We arrive on time to school each day and go directly to each and every lesson
3. We speak kindly and appropriately to everyone, following reasonable instructions from all members of staff – we do not say no, why or walk away
4. We engage and try our best in all our lessons
5. We care for our school and the people in it, following the hands off policy at all times

We have had a particular focus in form times on our first rule. Students need their tie and jumper with them every day. Please let the year 7 team know if you have any issues or need any support with this.

Well done to our Students of the Week
7ASu – Archie Grant-Pipes – for always being polite and cheery and managing your sore legs on a morning very well!
7CMm – Adam Fowler- For a really positive return to school after some time off. Good to have you back!
7Pi – Molly I’Anson – always contributing positively in form time. Keep it up!
7Hv – Roshna Mustafa – For your superb commitment to extra curricular football
7MPe – Charlie Dixon – For consistently working hard and being a superb member of 7MPe
7CSt – Frieda Smee-Brown- For always being polite and smiley in form and always getting involved in form time discussions. Well done Frieda!
7MLn – Sam Godson – For always being polite, kind and hard-working. Well done for a another brilliant start of term!
7JHe – Lucy Stimson – for being endlessly polite!
7Bl – Kai Belder- for an excellent spring term. I hope the summer term is just as good. Keep working hard.
7ZBl – Jake Robinson – for a fantastic start to the summer term – well done!
7Cy – Alice Merrit for always living out the school values. You have had a fantastic year so far well done.

Word of the week

The word of the week for week commencing 24 April is:

fluctuate
verb: rise and fall irregularly in number or amount
“Trade with other countries tends to fluctuate from year to year.”

Collective Worship

Theme
Our form tutor collective worship this week is entitled Make a Connection. It encourages us to consider how technology can both enable us to stay connected, but can also be a barrier to true and meaningful interaction as well. Our daily quotes are on the theme of the power of Words.

Quotes
Monday – “I promise you that on the day of judgement, everyone will have to account for every careless word they have spoken.” – Jesus Christ, Quoted in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 12 verse 36

Tuesday – “Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs.” – Pearl Strachan, 1930’s British politician

Wednesday – “Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.” – Plato, Philosopher and mathematician, in 1st century BC Greece

Thursday – “May the words of our mouths and the thoughts of our hearts be now and always acceptable in the sight of God.” – The Bible, from Psalm 19, Old Testament

Friday – “Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.” – Buddha, Born Prince Siddhārtha Gautama in 563BC. Founder of the Buddhist religion.