Headteacher Update

Dear parents and carers,

I hope you are having an enjoyable and safe summer break. As we begin the final week of the holiday I thought families would appreciate some key updates linked to the start of term.

We are very much looking forward to welcoming back all our students, including those joining us for the first time in Year 7 and Year 12. Our arrangements for the start of term are very straightforward with all students returning on Tuesday 6 September following the staff training day on Monday 5 September. However, students who are not in Year 7 and Post 16 will arrive slightly later to allow staff to welcome students new to the school. The details are below:

• Year 7 arrive for 8.45am and go straight to the main hall
• Year 12 and Year 13 arrive for 8.45am and and go to their form room (information for this is provided below)
• Year 8, Year 9, Year 10, Year 11 arrive for 10.05am and go to their form room (information is provided below)

The morning will consist of form time activities (for example issuing planners, timetables and discussing expectations) and a short assembly with myself and Mr Green-Harding, before subject lessons start for all students at 11.15am. School will finish at 3.15pm for all students.

We ask that all parents/carers ensure their child knows their form room. This can be found on the attached document below ‘Pastoral Team 2022 to 2023’.

Pastoral Team 2022 to 2023

We hope that this is a helpful document and one that illustrates our ongoing commitment to pastoral care of the highest quality. It includes:

• Information about each year group (Head of Year, Assistant Heads of Year and Form Tutors) as well as some of what students can expect from the AHS Journey in each year group.
• Information about our wider pastoral team that is in place to support students.
• Information about who to contact if you have a concern you would like to discuss.

The document also outlines some of the key things that underpin effective partnership working. We are extremely grateful for the excellent support we receive from families which is essential to our ongoing success. I would reiterate the importance of these conversations being courteous and respectful at all times. On Tuesday 6 September every student will be issued with a copy of the ‘School Agreement’ and we ask that parents/carers discuss this with their child and that the last page is signed by both student and parents/carers and returned to school ASAP.

A copy of the school day is included below. It is slightly amended from last year with all students finishing school at 3.15pm.

The School Day 2022-23

I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate all students who received their examination results over the last two weeks. Students approached these examinations with dedication and determination and should be extremely proud of what they have achieved as individuals. We very much appreciate the support from families over the last two years. We have spent the last two weeks, and will continue to do so this week, ensuring that all students are able to make the appropriate next steps after Year 11, 12 and 13. Whilst collectively students have achieved extremely well, we are also in a position where we can guarantee that any student in Year 11 who wants to stay at AHS can do so and will be supported onto the most appropriate courses for their progression.

Whilst results days are first and foremost about individual young people and their achievements I am delighted to say that the overall results for the school remain outstanding and I would like to thank all our staff for the part they have played in this. Results at both Post 16 and GCSE are higher than results prior to COVID, well above national averages, with students at AHS continuing to excel. A particular achievement at Post 16 was the 43.7% of all A Level grades either A or A* and almost 80% of all A Level grades at A* to B. At GCSE our indicative progress score suggests that we will surpass the figure in 2019 which placed our results in the top 4% nationally. As we reflect on these individual and collective achievements it is clear that these would not have been possible without the entire school community working together to overcome the challenges presented over the last two years. Thank you.

As we look forward to the start of term I would remind families of our uniform expectations and thank you in advance for your ongoing support in this area. We wrote to all families prior to the summer break explaining both our commitment to poverty proofing our uniform and also our high expectations for all students to wear the appropriate uniform. Details around school uniform can be found via the link below:

https://archbishopholgates.academy/parents/school-life/school-uniform/

A reminder to parents about both our pre-loved uniform shop and the school Unity Fund. The pre-loved uniform shop can be accessed via the link below and if families require support from the Unity Fund please email either gstainsby@ahs.pmat.academy or krobinson@ahs.pmat.academy for more information:

https://app.uniformd.co.uk/items/172

Finally, I would like to remind families about the additional leadership capacity we have in place for September 2022. I wrote before summer to explain that Mr Green-Harding will take on the new Head of School role to support me with the day-to-day running of the school. Whilst I will retain the overall leadership of the school, Mr Green-Harding is likely to be the first point of contact for day-to-day matters relating to the student experience. I am pleased to say that families will hear from both of us each week with Mr Green-Harding producing the parent bulletin for the start of the week and I will continue to have responsibility for the weekly Newsletter which is usually sent on a Thursday. In a school of over 1800 young people this additional capacity will ensure that we continue to support all families and provide all our students with the excellent education they deserve.

Dear parents and carers,

Last week was a challenging one in school and I appreciate the patience, support and constructive feedback from families. It is this partnership working that allows us to both celebrate our successes as a school community and where necessary reflect and put in place plans that will support the process of continuous improvement. Thank you. We are disappointed about having to postpone the plans for Enrichment Week on Monday and Tuesday as we know students were looking forward to both the Flamingo Land trips and activities in school. However the unprecedented hot weather and red warning are things that we must take very seriously with the wellbeing of students and staff our number one priority. The Reward trips will be rescheduled for the Autumn term and we hope that we will be able to move forward with our plans for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

In terms of arrangements for Monday and Tuesday

• Children are welcome to wear either their school uniform without tie or their PE kit to school on these days
• All children must bring their own water bottle and hat – Bottles should be refilled throughout the day to avoid dehydration
• We recommend that all children apply sunscreen before arriving at school and bring extra suncream with them to apply throughout the day
• The use of an umbrella as a parasol if children are walking to and from school

In addition to the above:

• As the temperature is due to get warmer throughout the day no child will be participating in outdoor physical activity. PE have amended their lessons to made sure there is a combination of lessons in the swimming pool, gym, sports hall, studio and fitness suite
• We have placed additional water bottle filling stations around the school to allow children to refill at breaks and lunches
• Sunscreen will be available for children to apply themselves but we recommend children bring their own
• We have where possible re-roomed the classrooms that are likely to be the warmest and into where possible rooms with air conditioning
• We are not planning to stop students going outside for break times but there are places inside and with shelter if they prefer
• We would encourage your child to go home straight after school to avoid spending any more time than necessary in the heat. We are not planning on closing school early but should anything change we will be in touch.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact school via reception.

Families will have received a letter on Friday reflecting on the past year and looking forward to September 2022 and beyond. We are excited to have the additional leadership capacity to help support families and the student experience. The Newsletter this week will also provide additional information about how we have strengthened our pastoral provision for next year.

Pre-loved uniform shop
As we approach summer a reminder about both our pre-loved uniform shop and the school Unity Fund. The pre loved uniform shop can be accessed via the link below and if your family requires support from the Unity Fund please email either gstainsby@ahs.pmat.academy or krobinson@ahs.pmat.academy for more information: https://app.uniformd.co.uk/items/172

I’d like to wish families a safe and happy summer break. We will send a Parent Bulletin at the end of Week 5 of the summer holidays with a reminder about the start of term arrangements and then again before we return in September.

Head of Year Awards
Please find below the final Head of Year Awards list for the year.

Head of Year Updates
Year 7 – Miss Kincell, Miss Powell and Miss Cooper
It is quite an unusual thing to be writing my final ever parent bulletin, I have to say this cohort
have been wonderful and I am so honoured that they were my final Year 7 group at AHS. I have loved this role and this year group has been a huge part of why. This couldn’t have been better illustrated than through today’s Sports Day. I have truly never seen the values be lived so fully, students cheered and celebrated for each other as well as consoled and cajoled each other. Thank you to parents and families also for supporting the school this year, we are so happy to have you all as a part of our community.

Key reminders for next week:
Students must bring: a water bottle, apply suncream before school and bring more with them and a hat. Students may wear their PE kit on Monday and Tuesday to be more comfortable.
Monday and Tuesday will be students’ normal timetable, they should bring their usual resources with them.

ANn: Riley Atkinson – For being an excellent member of 7ANn. Thank you for all of your fantastic contributions to discussion this week.
ASU: Adam Said – for being brilliantly organised and helping me with Sports Day!
Bl: Leo Deighton – always engaging in form time discussions in a mature and sensible manner. A delight to have in 7Bl.
Cy: Bethel Ogbemudia – for an excellent first year at school and always being a pleasure to have in form time
Gr: Flear, Harriet – For a great first year and always being supportive and kind. Thank you.
Hf: Joe Molloy – for always being kind and friendly to everyone in the form, and for an excellent year 7.
Hv: Poppy Cooper – For representing the school for athletics , well done!
MLn: Daisy Jordan – For a fantastic start at AHS and with our form, well done!
MPe: Paige Saye – For being a consistently fantastic member of 7MPe for the entire year. You have never had an off day. Well done!
Mr: Lincoln Nicholson for his much improved time keeping
SMf: Hetty Doney – For her fantastic contributions on our PSHE Wellbeing morning and being a real glue that holds our form together. Her commitment to our journey is tremendous! Well done.

Well done to our Head of Year Awards:
Emily Brown – for overcoming significant barriers and making a fantastic start to her AHS Journey. Well Done, we are very proud of you!
Seth Clements – Well done for a year of determination, hard work and living the school values. Well Done!

The Library Newsletter:
Well, that’s it. We’ve now completed our final week of lessons. Lots to look forward to next week, from trips out to enjoying your hand-picked activities. I can’t believe where this year has gone. Although, we have managed to pack in a whole host of library activities. Starting with bookmark making and finishing with thank you cards.

Lots of things get left behind in the library. I always hang on to things for a couple of days hoping you will come and collect them. However, I have taken a number of things to the lost property boxes in reception. Don’t forget to have a look there before we break up for any lost items.

A huge thank you for all the help you have given me in the library this year. It makes my job so much easier knowing that the desk is in good hands, enabling me to spend time with students in the main body of the library. Lots of you have already told me that you wish to continue in your role when you move up to Y8. This has delighted me no end that our library community will continue to thrive next year.

We asked for all library books to be returned by Friday this week as we are having a stock take next week in both libraries. However, if you know that you are still in receipt of a book, please feel free to pop in and drop it off. Thank you in advance. Also, if you feel the urge to have a clear out over the summer, please could we have any of your unwanted books. We take anything from age nine upwards. I have been known to purchase our library books back from the charity shop!

Recommendations:
Jackdaw Summer by David Almond (Quiz 214116. Level 3.3 Colour Black) tells of Liam’s summer. On the day he follows a jackdaw, his life changes forever.

There is a tiny sound somewhere in Rook Hall. We can’t turn away. We can’t run. We pick our way over the rubble and sheep droppings towards the sound of crying. And there it is, on a pile of broken stones. It’s a baby, wrapped in a brown blanket, in a basket. There’s a scribbled note pinned to the basket. PLESE LOOK AFTER HER RITE. THIS IS A CHILDE OF GOD. And there’s a jam jar filled with notes and coins at her side.

You can read the first couple of chapters by opening the link. (Please be aware that there are swear words in this excerpt.) https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Jackdaw_Summer/-d-HAgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

Holiday Heartbreak by Rachel Renee Russell (Quiz 225947. Level 4.5. Colour Purple) is part of the Dork Diaries series and has all the usual teenage embarrassing moments.

This morning I had these fluttery butterflies in my stomach that were making me feel super nauseous. But in a really good way. I felt so insanely happy I could just vomit, sunshine, rainbows, confetti, glitter and those yummy little Skittles thingies!

You can read the first 50 pages by clicking on the link https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Dork_Diaries_6/s4Q74buBQ9EC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

Year 8 – Mrs Avey, Mrs Mennell and Mr Handley
With just the final week of term to go we’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate our Year 8 students on an excellent year. They are a fantastic year group and we are proud of what they have achieved this year. The students are in a great position to push on in Year 9. We hope that all the students heading off to Europe have a brilliant time and make good memories, we will stay in regular contact with families. We want to thank parents and carers of Year 8 students for their support this year and we wish all families connected to our Year group have an enjoyable summer.

This week saw the Trading Game and Sports Day. We were very impressed with the Year 8s on both of these days. During the Trading Game students took part in a stock market simulation game and the way they engaged in the activity and they way they behaved was excellent. The organisers, Mr Avery and Miss Overton have expressed to the Year 8 team how impressed they were with the year group. Sports Day was another big success for our Year 8s. They were really well behaved, very supportive of one another and showed what an excellent year group they are.

Next week brings Enrichment week which is something we have been looking forward to. We are really sorry about having to cancel the plans for Monday and Tuesday as we know students were looking forward to their Theatre Day and Flamingo Land trip. We’d like to thank Miss Barrett for all the hard work she put into organising the enrichment activities for the Monday. The unprecedented hot weather we will be seeing is something we have to take very seriously and the safety and wellbeing of students is the number one priority. Please do check the communication from the head teacher that confirms what the school will be doing to mitigate the hot weather and safeguard all people in the school on these days. The community coffee morning on Wednesday and the day of sport on Thursday are still expected to go ahead as normal as are the three activities chosen by the students on the final day.

We’d also like to congratulate the following students on their success at the York and District Athletics. These students should be really proud of their achievements:

75m Hurdles – Lucy Gilbertson – 1st
200m – Hannah Birkenshaw – 5th
100m – Jessie King – 5th
100m – Otto Kearns – 5th
200m – Sam Skelton 4th
High Jump – Loic Clegg and Sam Skelton – 4th
Long Jump – Jessie King – 5th
High Jump – Lucy Gilbertson – 6th
Shot Put – Ebony Maude – 4th

As ever, thank you for your continued support. If you have any issues regarding your child in Year 8, please do contact school reception to get in touch with Mrs Avey (Head of Year 8), Mr Handley (Assistant Head of Year 8) or Mrs Mennell (Year 8 Pastoral Support Worker).

Year 9 – Mr Arthur, Mr Deamer and Mrs Deacon
Not only is this the last parent bulletin for Year 9, it is also my (Mr Arthur’s) last ever as Head of Year. Year 9 have certainly had challenges thrown their way during their time at AHS, predominantly centered around two lockdowns interrupting their end to Year 7, and the middle part of Year 8. However, they have come out of the other side stronger and have really hit their stride as we approach the end of Year 9.

In my final address to the year group recently, I told them about a podcast I have been listening to called ‘Diary of a CEO’ with Stephen Bartlett, where he interviews successful business people and celebrities about their lives and how they became successful. Recently he interviewed Bear Grylls, and he said something that really resonated with me and was something I wanted to share with the Year Group. He said that when he was at school, he was frustrated that everything his school seemed to value, he wasn’t. He wasn’t academic or clever, he wasn’t sporty, and he wasn’t very popular. But he said the one thing he always prided himself on; the thing that he tried to be above anything else, was being kind. The happiest people in life are always those that are kindest to others. This was my parting message to Year 9 – Yes, get the best grades you can, excel in sports if you’re sporty and build close and meaningful friendships with as many people as you can – but if you are anything in life, be kind.

Myself and Mr Deamer (who is also leaving the year group) have thoroughly enjoyed working with Year 9 these past two years. There are so many wonderful children in this year group with bags of talent and potential, and whilst we may not be in their pastoral team from September, we will keep a close eye on their progress with great interest and we are still around if they ever want to say “hello!”

Just a couple of reminders before I go – this week is Enrichment Week. As you may have already seen, Monday and Tuesday will be students following their normal timetables due to the red weather warning for heat, and students can wear their PE kit in school. Currently, the plans for the Year 9 trip to Flamingo Land on Wednesday will be going ahead as the weather will be significantly cooler – students will need to bring sun cream, plenty of water and a packed lunch. Thursday is Industry Day organised by Mr Hunt, and should be an excellent day for the students – Year 9 have always thrived on days such as this, like the Trading Game they did at the same time last year. I am very much looking forward to Thursday! Finally, the last day is their Enrichment Activities they have signed up for, so they need to follow the instructions in the booklet and make sure they are dressed appropriately for whatever activity it is they might be doing.

And finally, congratulations to the following for winning the final Head of Year Award of the year…

Dear parents and Carers,

I hope families have enjoyed the weekend and made the most of the sunshine. I know that both the Geography field trip on Friday and Duke of Edinburgh expedition over the weekend benefited from these pleasant conditions. The penultimate week of term is another busy one, with four days of ‘normal’ lessons before we reach Sports Day and then Enrichment Week. The decision four years ago to introduce Enrichment Week for the final week of the school year has proven to be a really good one, meaning that all students benefit from a week full of bespoke activities and enrichment rather than the more traditional end of a school year. I very much hope that students enjoy what we have planned and we will include further details in this bulletin next week.

This week is also Healthy Week in school, with a variety of activities planned by Mrs Beard and the PE team. This week also sees the Year 9 London trip, Year 8 taking part in the Trading Game as part of their Careers provision as well as a very busy week for Year 12 with their own enrichment activities including the UCAS evening on Tuesday. We are also looking forward to welcoming Year 10 families on Wednesday evening for their ‘introduction to Sixth Form’ event which will begin the process of supporting Year 10 to consider their ‘next steps’ which is the key part of their Year 11 AHS Journey.

Head of Year Awards

Dear parents and carers,

Dear Parents and Carers,

It seems hard to believe that we are approaching the final four weeks of the academic year! Last week saw both the Year 11 and Year 13 Proms with students (and staff) having the opportunity to come together and celebrate all that they have achieved during their time at Archbishop’s. On Thursday evening I had the privilege of watching Year 11 students arrive for their prom and it was really heartening to see both how happy they seemed and how proud all the family members in attendance were. After the difficulties of recent years this was especially pleasing. We look forward to supporting students in the summer when results arrive and working with families to make sure that next step transitions are successful for all young people in Year 11 and Year 13.

We have another busy week ahead, highlighted by Year 7 Parents Evening on Wednesday evening. We are looking forward to seeing families and sharing all the positive things that students have achieved this year. Young people across the year group have certainly been successful in ‘Joining in’ and can be rightly proud of their first year at Archbishop’s.

Year 6 Induction
On Monday 4th July we will be holding our Induction Evening for our new students and their families. In September we will have young people joining us from some 45 different primary schools and are very much looking forward to welcoming them into our school community. This evening is then followed on Wednesday 6th July with our Induction Day where our new students will spend the whole day in school. We have written to all families explaining the timings and the plan for each event. If you are the parent or carer of a Year 6 student who is coming to Archbishop’s in September and have not received a letter, please do contact reception on 01904 411341 or email reception@ahs.pmat.academy in order for us to be able to help you. Please also remember that there is a wealth of useful transition information available on our school website and via our transition twitter account.

Head of Year Awards

Head of Year Updates
Year 7 – Miss Kincell, Miss Powell and Miss Cooper
We have have had a lovely week of sunshine in Year 7, it is feeling very much like Summer! As such, we have some key reminders and dates.

1. Please remember students should have hats, sun cream and water bottles.
2. Next Wednesday 29th is Parents Evening, if you have any concerns about appointments please call us as soon as possible.
3. 30th June, 1st and 4th July are our Geography Trips to Flamborough Head, if you have any questions or concerns about this, please do get in touch.
4. W/C 18th July- All things Enrichment. Monday is Flamingoland, please complete consent forms and payment via ParentPay. Students must have selected what they are doing for their Friday activities as soon as possible. These are all in their Enrichment week Booklets.

ANn: DJ Ford – Excellent presentation of the news last week and for always being engaged and enthusiastic in form time.
ASU: Kaiyrah Holdsworth – for being an extremely kind and compassionate member of the form. Well done!
Bl: Poppy George – a lovely member of the form who always follows the school values.
Cy: Scarlett Wheatland – for always following expectations in form time
Gr: Jacob Godson – Well done Jacob for being considerate and working well with others, thank you.
Hf: Jemima Drant for being compassionate to others and super organised.
Hv: Freddie-Jae Nicholas-Excellent contributions during thought for the day
MLn: Olive Edwards – For being a fantastic buddy and for showing compassion and empathy.
MPe: Faith Long – For improved attendance and for making the msot of her time in school
Mr: Malachy Bennet for being a kind and compassionate member of the form.
SMf: Amelie Hetherton – For being so incredibly personable, compassionate and helpful for so many members of our form. Amelie has shown great character, motivation and creativity in all lessons.

Well done to our Head of Year Award
Tilly-May Hope 7Hv – for collecting litter and looking after our school community! Well Done!
Fraser Currie 7ANN – for consistently living our school values. Well Done!

Library Newsletter
This weekend it is Armed Forces Day in Scarborough. It is a huge event that lasts all day. The highlights for me will be seeing the Red Arrows, and a typhoon fighter jet. All eyes will be on the skies, marveling at the showmanship of the red arrows. We will all be in awe at not only the sight, but also the sound of the fighter jet. It must have been a very scary flying one, and even more scary hearing one above you. Lots of our soldiers and cadets, old and new will gather on the seafront and are always happy to have a chat.

There are lots of books in the library in the historical fiction section that contain more than a grain of truth about past wars. The majority are based on real events. Why not give one or two a try.

Under a War-Torn Sky by L.M Elliot (Quiz 211735. Level 4.8. Colour Purple) Tells the story of Henry, a 19-year-old bomber pilot, who was shot down, and didn’t know if he was in Switzerland or Germany. Henry is alone in a treacherous land. Desperate to get back to his family and the girl he loves. He is forced to rely on the kindness of strangers to survive this deadly journey. You can read the first five chapters by clicking on the link. https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Under_a_War_Torn_Sky/5DGVBgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

You can listen to the author talking about her book by opening the following link. She starts reading from the book at about six minutes into the clip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYwxWyBuEtw

Carrie’s War by Nina Bawden (Quiz 202734. Level 5.3. Colour Purple) tells the story of Carrie and her little brother Nick who are evacuated to Wales. Carrie and Nick are taken in by a cross old man Mr Evans. Their friend Albert is staying with My Johnny who tells them wonderful stories. Just as they are settling in Carrie does the worst thing she has evet done in her life… You can read the first two chapters by opening the link https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Carrie_s_War/_uJzDQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

You can listen to the whole book by opening the link below. Be prepared to settle down as the reading is over four hours long! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjQvn3nwKR4

Library Monitors
A huge thanks to all of those who helped out in the library in this past school year. Some of you came and went, others dipped in and out, and of course there are those who join us every day. I’m thinking already about September! So, those of you in Y7 who have enjoyed working in the library, please let me know if you would like to continue to do so when you move up to Y8. We can start thinking about a rota, although I won’t finalise anything until the lunchtime clubs list comes out. I don’t want you missing out on an activity or sport that interests you.

Refugee Week
Unfortunately, our Refugee week event was cut short due to factors beyond our control. However, Allen Alex who went to school in The United Arab Emirates, Daffa who went to school in Indonesia, Aiden who went to School in Hong Kong and Samuel who attended school in Canada, had time to tell us about their experiences attending school in a different country. I was very proud of them, and very proud of the audience who listened in fascination and asked loads of splendid questions. We will hold this event again on Thursday 30th June, Y7 library at lunchtime.

Newsletter
We are hoping to do a stocktake of both our libraries before the summer holiday. So, it is really important that you return your overdue books as a matter of urgency. Also, if you have a clear out at home, please could we have any books that you no longer want. They can be anything from age nine and above. Last summer I bought some of our library books back from a charity shop in York! We really appreciate donations of books.

Year 8 – Mrs Avey, Mrs Mennell and Mr Handley
Attendance last week was below what we’d like to see. Even during these last few weeks of the school time spent in school and in lessons is helping to set students up to make a positive start in Year 9. As ever we are grateful for your support in ensuring students are attending school and making the most of the opportunities on offer to them.

This week our whole year act of collective worship was taken by 8LWs. This was about the Summer Solstice, the day with the longest period of daylight each year (21st June). Information was presented about the history and traditions from different parts of the world and the different beliefs and traditions caused by the Solstice. We really enjoy seeing forms take the act of collective worship and value the effort and work they put into it. This was excellent again this week and all those involved in 8LWs should be proud, there were some brilliant contributions.

Thank you for sending students into school with return slips needed for the Trading Game (on Thursday 14th July). This is an event before Enrichment week and involves all of Year 8. Please continue to send reply slips back for this. It will be a really positive experience for Year 8 students. If you need another letter about this please get in touch or ask your child to speak to the year team or their form tutors.

We have also had lots of returns now for students attending the Flamingo Land Trip (Tuesday 19th July) which is great. There are a few instances where students have paid for the trip but not returned the reply slips with emergency contact information. It is really important that all students return the reply slip so we have up to date emergency contact details and medical information. If you have not returned the reply slip and need to, please get in touch and we can get a paper or electronic one sent to you to return. We are not able to take any student who has not provided appropriate contact and medical information.

As part of Enrichment week students are taking part in a community coffee morning which will contribute towards the Young Leaders Award. We’d like to give a bit more information about what this is:

• Students will be completing the final section of their Young Leaders Award by contributing to our Jubilee High Tea for the local community.
• Students will be involved in a mixture of activities from creating decorations. organising games, decorating cakes to serve the local community.
• Students will be working both on their own but also as a team practicing their creative skills as well as organisational and for some their presenting/performing skills.
• Students will also have the opportunity to perform live music or a talent of their choice if they want to.

The day will start and end at the usual time and will involve break and lunch as normal. Students will also need to be in their school uniforms as normal. As part of the day there will be a raffle and Year 8 students have been asked, if they are able to, to bring in small prizes suitable for a school raffle. Any donations will be very helpful and we’d be really grateful. More information about this will be given to students in their PSHCE lessons soon.

We are really pleased to see that a selection of Year 8 students have been continuing their amazing leadership work with Miss Wheater and the P.E. Department. The following students have been leading sports events at local primary schools and hosting events here at AHS too. All of these students should be really proud for all their hard work that has gone into preparing for and delivering these sessions:

• Elisabetta Micheli
• Poppy Sullivan
• Aela More
• Jessie King
• Sophie Beard
• Hannah Birkinshaw
• Cailitin Moffatt
• Ruby Holland
• Lilly Jo Hemmings
• Tamara Alahendrage
• Anna Roberts
• Ava Gane

We’d also like to congratulate one of our Year 8 students, Ryan Thompson for qualifying for the Yorkshire Under 13s cricket squad. This is a great achievement and we are really proud of Ryan.

We’d like to remind again of the importance of students keeping hydrated with the hot weather we are having. Dehydration can really impact a student’s concentration and ability to focus and can lead to feeling unwell. It is important however that students make sure they use break and lunch times to fill up their bottles so they can help to stay hydrated throughout the day.

As ever, thank you for your continued support. If you have any issues regarding your child in Year 8, please do contact school reception to get in touch with Mrs Avey (Head of Year 8), Mr Handley (Assistant Head of Year 8), Mrs Mennell (Year 8 Pastoral Support Worker) or Miss Clarke (Year 8 Pastoral Support Worker on Friday).

Year 9 – Mr Arthur, Mr Deamer and Mrs Deacon
We are over the halfway mark for the final half term of this school year and it seems to be disappearing very quickly (like the rest of the year!). Year 9 has been excellent and I’m reflecting on the progress they have all made.

Year 9 should be very proud of themselves for completing a successful End of Year Assessment week, I know students are starting to get feedback on these in lessons and it is great to see so many success stories in the year group, well done Year 9! It is a great opportunity for students to get detailed feedback on what they are doing well and where they can improve in Year 10. I know I often tell the students that learning comes from when we challenge ourselves to try our best and review on how to improve and it is great to see our students doing this in preparation for next year.

Just a reminder, enrichment week is fast approaching (last week of school) and please can you return Flamingo Land trip letters back as soon as possible if not already, I know the students are already excitedly talking about enrichment week including the range of activities offered on the last day of school. Furthermore, they also need to make sure they’ve selected and returned their activity options for that last day to their form tutors or reception if they haven’t done so already.

Other activities that are fast approaching in this final half term is the London trip that Mr Stevens is running (please feel free to get in touch with him if you have any questions) as well as sports day in the second to last week where students will partake in a range of sports including athletics, cricket and rounders which I loved last year due to the support the students gave each other, I know I look forward to seeing them all cheer each other on, I know the Year team certainly will be!

Just a reminder with the weather getting warmer uniform standards still need to be high as always, please make sure your young person is coming in the correct uniform this includes making sure they have their ties on appropriately as well as the correct shoes and trousers, jumpers need to be with them even if it warm, especially because the weather can change quickly. Any issues please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

A big congratulations to 9SLa which is the first form to have all parents/carers signed up to ClassCharts, I am currently running an inter-form competition to see if all parents can be signed up and there are still prizes for 2nd & 3rd. I would encourage you if you haven’t already to make sure you’ve downloaded the ClassCharts app and also encourage your young person to download one too, there is one for parents/carers and one for students. This helps encourage students to take ownership for their progress which is a great life skill and we’ve also seen ClassCharts facilitating a range of positive conversations at home. If you have any issues downloading the app and getting logged in please get in touch with the year team and we can resolve this, additionally we’ve helped students get sorted with the app also, please just ask them to come and see us if they are unable to logon.

Also well done to our Head of Year award winners this week as below a £5 Amazon voucher will be winging its way to both of you!

We have also started doing form tutor awards every week where two students in each form will get a certificate and it has got off to a really positive start, well done to all students who have got one so far.

Thank you for taking the time to read this parent bulletin. If you have any issues regarding your child in Year 9, then please do get in touch by emailing Mr Arthur aarthur@ahs.pmat.academy (Head of Year), myself (Miss Deacon); mdeacon@ahs.pmat.academy (Assistant Head of Year) and/or Mr Deamer rdeamer@ahs.pmat.academy (Pastoral Support Worker) and/or Miss Clark sclark@ahs.pmat.academy (Pastoral Support Worker); or alternatively, you can call Main School Reception and we will get back to you as soon as we can, thank you – Miss Deacon.

Year 10 – Mr Avery, Miss Johstone and Miss Montagu
We wish all our students good success in their mocks this week. Just a reminder that we are providing breakfast for students who would like to come in early and sit and chat with their friends before heading over to the exam. Although Mocks are important, we most definitely do not want students to become stressed and anxious. This is an opportunity to see how they are doing and to prepare the way for Yr 11. It is an experience to learn from and build on – and, we hope, to be encouraged by progress made.

Our trip to Alton Towers is on Thursday 21st July. If you have not already done so, please complete the form on Parent Pay. If you would like a paper copy, please come and speak to anyone in the Yr 10 team who will happily help.

Looking ahead to the summer holidays, York Explore Libraries have both a Summer Reading Challenge and opportunities for students aged 14 and above to help with children’s events and other activities. A great way to help and to learn at the same time. Contact ‘York Explore’ or Miss Murphy in the library.

Congratulations to Oisin Maloy and Cassie Staines. The way they have helped new students settle in to AHS has been much appreciated. They receive our Head of Year awards this week.

Should you have any concerns please feel free to contact the Yr 10 team.

Post 16 – Mrs De Lashley, Mrs Walton, Miss Balmer and Mr Charlton
Year 13 Prom – What a night! The students looked incredible and had such a good time. It was full speed right up until the doors were being closed. Please be reminded that if you have any queries about results day on Thursday 18th August from 9am then do get in touch. If your son/daughter is unable to attend but you/they have not yet informed us, then please let us know.

Year 12 Mock Exams – Year 12 will sit their mock exams wc 4th July. In lessons and for homework students will continue to receive guided revision for a final week. Your son/daughter should be busy at home preparing for these with the exception of BTEC subjects that sat a summer external examinations.

GCSE Results Day and Sixth Form Enrolment – Invitations to results day on Thursday 25th August will be distributed this week detailing what to do to collect result and how to enrol in the Sixth Form. All applicants to AHS Sixth Form will be issued an appointment for a progression meeting with a member of the Sixth Form Team and SLT to finalise subject choices. These meetings will take place once results have been received.

REMINDER of upcoming events:

• Y12 Progression Days Monday 11th and Tuesday 12th July
• Y12 Introduction to UCAS Evening Tuesday 12th July
• Y10 Introduction to Sixth Form Evening Wednesday 13th July
• Y12 Work Experience wc 18th July
• Y13 and Y12 Results Day Thursday 18th August
• GCSE Results Day Thursday 25th August

Sixth Form Rewards

Collective Worship
This week our form tutor collective worship is on the concept of ‘Value’. We will consider how we value things, how we value ourselves and others, and how God values us. Our daily quotes continue this theme.

Quotes
Monday – “Our value to God is more than anything else this world can offer.” Crystal McDowell, Christian Author, Editor and Blogger
Tuesday – “God sees us with the eyes of a Father. He sees our defects, errors and blemishes. But He also sees our value.” Max Lucado, Christian author and church minister
Wednesday – “Too many people overvalue what they are not, and undervalue what they are.” Malcolm Forbes, American businessman
Thursday – “You are valuable because you exist. Not because of what you do or what you have done – but simply because you are.” Anonymous
Friday – “Man does not see what God sees, for people see what is visible, but God sees the heart.” The Bible, the 1st book of Samuel ch16:v7

Dear Parents and Carers,

As we progress through this extremely busy final half term I would like to thank parents for their ongoing support. I know that this really does make all the difference to our staff who continue to do their very best to support all the children in our care.

Last week students brought home information about our annual Enrichment Week at the end of term. We are really excited this year to be able to put on the whole range of activities that have been partially restricted over the past two years. Please take a moment to look through the Enrichment Week booklet with your children and encourage them to return their replies to the optional last day activities as soon as possible.

Last week saw the information evening for the Year 9 London trip and this week we have evening meetings for the Paris, Barcelona and Germany trips. We look forward to seeing families at these events. I am also pleased to say that following unprecedented demand for next year’s Ski trip we have been able to arrange a second trip for the Easter break. Many thanks to Mr Goldsmith and Miss Powell for offering to do this.

We are looking forward to celebrating with students at the Year 11 and Year 13 Proms this week. A reminder that we have a large selection of dresses and suits at school for anyone who may still need one. If this is the case please contact the Year 11 or Year 13 pastoral teams. We would like to thank all students for their outstanding commitment throughout the summer examinations.

I would like to draw your attention to a letter that will come home at the start of next week about our uniform expectations for next year. Families will remember that we wrote home in January to give early notice of what this will look like in line with our commitment to ‘Poverty Proof’ our school. We are also very aware of the current cost of living crisis and will look to support families in any way we can at this difficult time.

Families joining us from Hong Kong
Migration Yorkshire have created a Hong Kong Hub www.migrationyorkshire.org.uk/hongkonghub, which is a virtual Hub with information for people from Hong Kong who are settling in our region and for the services supporting them. They also run online drop-in sessions for new arrivals and have a directory of organisations providing further support for this group. For more information, you can also ring this number or the email below:

Direct line: 0113 37 89017 www.migrantinfohub.org.uk

Head of Year Awards

Head of Year Updates
Year 7 – Miss Kincell, Miss Powell and Miss Cooper
We have had a really exciting week with all of our Year 7s joining in with an enrichment day which was focussed on sustainability. We worked out our current carbon footprint number and came up with lots of really good ideas on how to be more sustainable in our everyday lives. It was wonderful to see everyone getting involved with creating their own sustainable brand and the judges from the University of York were so impressed with all of the pitches that Year 7 put forward. Our runners up came up with a brand that would produce affordable jewellery made from recycled plastics collected from the beach. The winners called ‘The Packaging Beesness’ thought about making fruit packaging from bee’s wax and sustainable cotton. Year 7 were all fantastic and the external visitors were very impressed with how polite and enthusiastic they were.

We are excited to see you all at our Parent’s evening on Wednesday 29th June. Year 7 have already started to make appointments with their teachers. If you have any concerns or questions about the evening then please get in touch with the Year 7 team.

Well done to our Head of Year Awards:
Maisie Bone 7Bl – for collecting litter and looking after our school environment! Well Done!
Isabel Weyman 7MPe – for collecting litter and looking after our school environment! Well Done!

The Library Newsletter:
How exciting to have a visit from Y7 Nurture disguised as the royal family! I was delighted to see them, not only because of their fantastic face masks, but because each of them entered the Jubilee Poetry Competition.

We managed to write an epic called Our Rainbow Queen, thinking about what the queen does depending on what colour she’s wearing. We came up with gorgeous rhymes such as indigo/bingo, blue/Zoo and violet/place a bet. So, as you can imagine we had the queen doing all manor of activities. However, I thought it was only fair to enter the poems that hadn’t had any input from me into the competition. I made the hard decision to select a really lovely simple acrostic poem using the word jubilee, by Sid Smith. (Sid who also wrote a poem in the shape of a diamond using four nouns in the same line which were palace, posh, pearls and corgi which really made me smile.)

Our Queen Is…
Joyful as a summer party
Unbelievably like a summers day
Believable
Intelligent
Loyal
Elegant lady
Excellent elder

Recommendations:
Bad Dad by David Walliams (Quiz 233062. Level 4.2. Colour Purple)
Dads come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. There are fat ones and thin ones, tall ones and short ones. There are silly ones and serious ones, loud ones and quiet ones. Of course there are good dads. And then there are bad dads…

I’m delighted to have found the whole audio book that you can listen to for free! You can listen by opening the link below. Although, I wasn’t very happy at the start of chapter six when we meet Auntie Flip. ‘The lady had the smell of old books about her. That was probably because she’s a librarian. Listening to her poetry was torture…’ I hope that she doesn’t remind you of anyone! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJm9_sVIhOE

Rescuing Dad by Pete Johnson (Quiz 211248. Level 4.3. Purple)
In a bid to get their parents back together, brother and sister Joe and Clare try to transform their dad from being scruffy and useless round the house, into a super husband. What will happen when mum starts seeing creepy Roger before the transformation is complete?

You can read the first two chapters by opening the link. https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Rescuing_Dad/kbAxiET9iL0C?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

Uncle Gobb and the Dread Shed (Quiz 229866. Level 5. Colour Green)
Uncle Gobb stared at Malcolm and said, “Listen here you disrespectful little weasel. If you don’t do more homework I’ll put you in the Dread Shed!” A long time ago when street lamps were lit by gas, a lady called Elizabeth Fear went to the prime minister to ask that great sheds should be built to house naughty children. However, some while later dread sheds were abolished, terminated, finished. However, no-one seems to have told Uncle Gobb…

You can read the first five chapters by opening the following link. https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Uncle_Gobb_and_the_Dread_Shed/aFOxBwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

Library Event
To celebrate Refugee Week, we are having an event on Thursday 23rd June at lunchtime. Some of our students who attend AHS arrived from their home country leaving behind their friends, school and home. They came to school and are now taught lessons in their second language. We are lucky enough to hear first hand from some of these students, about how their old school compares to an English school, and how they manage to fit in and make new friends.

Well done to the 50 of you who returned your very overdue books. If you are one of those people, please tell your friends that we were very happy to see both you and the book, and that you weren’t in trouble for bringing back a late return. It is really important that we get as many books back as possible. We are looking to purchase new books for September, but will have to spend some of our book budget on replacements (especially if they are part of a series) rather than new titles.

Year 8 – Mrs Avey, Mrs Mennell and Mr Handley
Attendance last week was a little below what we would like to see. Year 8 still has the best overall attendance in the main school which is excellent. As ever we are grateful for your support in ensuring students are attending school and making the most of the opportunities on offer to them.

This week in our whole year act of collective worship this week was about hidden conditions such as Autism. Students were taught about what life is like for a person with Autism and how their surroundings can affect them. As we have an act of collective worship previously in the year about hidden disabilities students have been reminded about the importance of being compassionate and caring to others at all times as you may not know what another person may be going through or having to deal with or about hidden disabilities or conditions.

We have had a few questions about Enrichment week so have added a day by day break down of Enrichment week for Year 8 including some whole group activities the week before as well:

With the hot weather we have had this week we’d like to stress the importance of students keeping hydrated. Dehydration can really impact concentration and the ability to focus. It is important however that students make sure they use break and lunch times to fill up their bottles so they can help to stay hydrated throughout the day. It is really pleasing that so many of our students are using reusable bottles instead of single use plastic.

The year group section on week’s school Newsletter is Year 8 and we would encourage parents/carers to read this as it has lots of additional information relevant for Year 8. It also includes messages from Year 8 teachers to their classes.

As ever, thank you for your continued support. If you have any issues regarding your child in Year 8, please do contact school reception to get in touch with Mrs Avey (Head of Year 8), Mr Handley (Assistant Head of Year 8), Mrs Mennell (Year 8 Pastoral Support Worker) or Miss Clarke (Year 8 Pastoral Support Worker on Friday).

Year 9 – Mr Arthur, Mr Deamer and Mrs Deacon
As we approach the final stage of the year, there are lots of things for Year 9 to look forward to. As a school, we passionately believe in the words of John 10:10 “I have come so that they may have life, and have it to the full.” We want Year 9’s experience on their AHS Journey to be as rich and fulfilling as possible.

The final week of the year is ‘Enrichment Week’, and whilst students in Year 9 will have experienced a ‘watered-down’ version last year with some lingering elements of COVID restrictions, students across the school will get to experience Enrichment Week to its fullest extent (which will be for the first time for Students in Year 9!) Students have been provided with a booklet to have a look through, that explains what Year 9s will be doing on each day, what they need to be wearing, and what they need to bring with them into school. On the final day, staff have organised a wide selection of activities for students to participate in. They just need to make sure they fill in their choices, and hand them into their form tutor, or into Reception ASAP, as these are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Furthermore, we have the Flamingo Land trip on the final Wednesday of the year. As you may well have already seen, the school is footing the bill for the transportation to the theme park. We have asked if families can pay for the cost of the ticket to the park. However, if this will be a struggle, please do get in touch via the email addresses at the bottom of this bulletin.

Finally, as the year draws to a close, I want to raise an important issue that will only increase in importance over time: attendance. Attendance at school is crucial to the success of students. Recent studies have shown that absence from school has a significant impact on the success of students, and can have a long-term impact through to their GCSEs. In one of these studies, it has shown that of those students that have 100% attendance, 79% of them achieve 5+ good GCSEs. At 95%, this figure falls to 69%. At 90%, this falls even further to 53%, and by 85% attendance, this figure for success becomes 36%. When considering that 5% attendance is around 7 days absence, it really is crucial that students are in school every single day. To put this into further context, if your child has lower than 95% attendance, this means that they are attending school less than the average child across the country. Whilst COVID has impacted on general attendance over the past two years, this factor is increasingly diminishing. Most employers are taking a similar stance with staff absence in their organisations, and 95% will continue to be the minimum expectation in terms of good attendance to school.

As a school, we fully understand that there are appointments that cannot be moved, or emergencies that mean a child may have to take some time off school. However, wherever possible, please can non-emergency appointments be made outside of school time, or ensure that students return to school in the afternoon if their appointment is in the morning (or vice versa). With regards to illness, the message that has been given to students is that if they are feeling unwell, the question they should be asking themselves is not “Do I want to come into school?” Of course, if you’re feeling unwell the answer will be no! However, what they should be asking is, “Can I be in school?” In this instance, the answer is almost always “Yes”. We do have the School Nurse and the Intervention Room for students that are feeling unwell, but we would very much appreciate your support in ensuring your child is in school as much as possible to give them the best chance of success in the future.

Further to this, punctuality is also a key contributor to the success of students. It is important that students are sat in their form rooms ready to start the day before 8:45. This means that students must ensure they arrive on school site well before then – form rooms will be open from 8:35 for them to ‘drift in’ on a morning, and there are wellbeing resources available for when they arrive. This will also ensure that any important messages that are shared with students during morning Tutor Time are given to all of the students. Furthermore, it is also vitally important that students arrive to lessons on time. Studies have shown that re-capping on old content through low-stakes testing is crucial to consolidating their learning. The first few minutes of a lesson is where most recaps take place. It is therefore vitally important that students arrive to lessons promptly and ready to learn to ensure they maximise the input that is given to them by teachers across all subjects. We also strongly advise parents to download the ClassCharts app and sign in using the unique login for your child. This way, you will be able to monitor your child’s attendance and punctuality over time. If you are missing any of this information, please do get in touch via the contact information at the bottom of this bulletin, and we will see what we can do to support.

Thank you for taking the time to read this parent bulletin. If you have any issues regarding your child in Year 9, then please do get in touch by emailing aarthur@ahs.pmat.academy (Head of Year), mdeacon@ahs.pmat.academy (Assistant Head of Year) and/or rdeamer@ahs.pmat.academy (Pastoral Support Worker); or alternatively, you can call Main School Reception and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Thank you!

Year 10 – Mr Avery, Miss Johstone and Miss Montagu
Another great week for Yr 10 with all of us enjoying the wonderful weather. I don’t recall ever seeing so many different football games going on at lunch times!

This week our main focus has been on preparing students for the upcoming Mock Exams. We had an extended form assembly to explain the structure of the week and how we can support them. From now on, both lessons and homework will target the content that will be covered in the exams. We are also using form time for revision.

In addition, we have created a dedicated revision space for students to use. It is being held in Hi6 from Monday-Thursday for 2 hours after school and has proved popular so far. Students can come and go as they please; there is no obligation to stay for the full time.

Mocks will begin on June 27th and last for the full week. During the week, the Yr 10 team will be providing breakfast for students who would like to come in early and sit and chat with their friends before heading over to the exam. We will be glad to welcome them, so please don’t hesitate to come!

When Mocks are over, we have the trip to Alton Towers to look forward to. Please complete the form on Parent Pay. If you would like a paper copy, please come and speak to anyone in the Yr 10 team who will happily help.

Sport: congratulations to Y10 girls cricket – Lottie Langan, Fran Lawson, Esme Pounder, Amy Hall, Lily Davies, Lottie Hardy, Rosie Davies and Anna Tarn – for a great performance against St Peters on Wednesday. It was a very close game with some strong batting and bowling from both sides. St Peters won with three overs to spare, but it was an extremely good effort from AHS and a performance that the girls can build on. Esme Pounder got ‘Player of the Match’ for her batting.

Congratulations to Dan Clarke and Arda Timur for stepping in and supporting others when they need it most. They have been awarded our Head of Year awards this week. Well done!

Should you have any concerns please feel free to contact the Yr 10 team.

Year 11 – Miss Turvey, Miss Reeder and Miss Chambers
As we enter into the final week of Year 11, we are feeling bittersweet about the end in sight. Our strongest feeling in the Year 11 team is one of immense pride. We couldn’t be more thrilled with the way our Year 11s have conducted themselves during the exams over the past few weeks. After the extended period of hard work and commitment, students now deserve to reap what they have sown and we hope they thoroughly enjoy the reward of the long summer ahead. Our Year 11s this year have overcome so many hurdles during their AHS Journey – not just the usual trials and tribulations of navigating teenage life and working through their GCSEs – but also bouncing back from a national pandemic that will shape their generation. The resilience of students during this time has been truly inspirational. All of our students are a credit to their parents for growing into the compassionate, interesting and well-rounded individuals they have become. We now want to wish students the very best that life can bring for their futures, which are looking very bright indeed. A huge well done to Year 11 – we will miss you, keep you in our memories and look forward to hearing about your next chapters. Thank you for all of the highlights!

The main notices left for this week’s bulletin involve arrangements for the final day on Thursday 23rd June:

On Thursday 23rd June, all students will have their final exam (GCSE Physics) commencing at 9am. After students have finished the exam, we would like to encourage all of them to come to the front field during Period 3 for a final celebration and send off. We have hired an ice-cream van to provide free ice-cream and students will be welcome to sign shirts and yearbooks. All Form tutors are off timetable for this hour and usually teachers of Year 11 who are free come along to say their goodbyes too. Students do not need to stay for the full hour; they will be welcome to leave as soon as they feel finished with their goodbyes. All students will leave the site by 12:10pm.

On the evening of Thursday 23rd June, the Year 11 Prom will be taking place. The Prom will be held at York Racecourse and will be taking place in the Voltigeur Suite, accessed via the Marble entrance. Students will be welcome to arrive from 6:30pm for a 7pm start. The evening will begin with arrival photos and a chance to get some (non-alcoholic) drinks, followed by an Awards ceremony, a hot/cold buffet dinner and Dj and dancing. The evening will end at 10:30pm. A professional photographer will be on hand to take shots at the start of the evening and there will also be a professional photo booth. The Little Balloon company has kindly put together decorative arrangements for the venue. We will also have the use of a large outdoor balcony overlooking the Racecourse, so our fingers will be crossed for sunny weather… All members of the Year 11 team and all Year 11 Form tutors will be in attendance in addition to many other teachers who are coming to wish students well on the night. This is always a memorable celebration and we are very much looking forward to it!

To ensure the smooth running of the Prom for everyone, parents should be aware of some important safeguarding policies we have in place. Students will not be permitted to drink or bring along alcohol to the Prom. If any student arrives intoxicated or is caught with alcohol on their person, parents will be contacted and students will be asked to leave. This is not only a school rule but the policy of the venue for under-18s. Students and parents should also be aware that York Racecourse is a large venue with other buildings in the complex being used for other functions. From 7pm, we will politely ask that students remain in our building (and enclosed balcony) so we can keep them safe and supervised. Once students have chosen to leave the Prom and have gone away from our building they will not be able to return. We will let parents know if students leave part-way through the event. Thank you for your support and understanding with this.

Please find this week’s timetable overview below. As the key headlines, all students need to be in school for their Science exams on Monday and Thursday morning:

Thank you for your continued support. If you have any issues regarding your child in Year 11, please contact school reception who will alert the Year 11 team: Miss Turvey (Head of Year 11), Miss Chambers (Assistant Head of Year 11) Mrs Reeder (Year 11 Pastoral Support Worker) or Miss Short (SLT). Thank you.

Post 16 – Mrs De Lashley, Mrs Walton, Miss Balmer and Miss Cox
Year 13 – Year 13 finish their A Level examinations this week. It has been a gruelling few weeks for them but they have been very positive and maintained stamina. We are really proud of them and look forward to celebrating with them this summer. The Prom is on Friday at Hilton, York from 7pm. A reminder of details will be emailed this coming week. If you have any queries about results day on Thursday 18th August from 9am then do get in touch. If your son/daughter is unable to attend but you/they have not yet informed us, then please let us know.

Year 12 Mock Exams – Year 12 will sit their mock exams wc 4th July. In lessons and for homework students will be revising for the next two weeks. Your son/daughter should be busy at home preparing for these with the exception of BTEC subjects that sat a summer external examination.

Year 12 HE Visit – The year group visit Hull this week to attend an Open Day to see first-hand the benefit of visiting their chosen institutions. If you have not yet sent consent for this trip, please do so before the end of Monday.

REMINDER reply slips:
Please return reply slips for the events below if you have not done so already:

• Y12 Admissions Test tuition for BMAT, MAT, UCAT
• Y12 HE Visit Tuesday 21st June
• Y12 Introduction to UCAS Evening Tuesday 12th July

Final week of A Level Exams

Sixth Form Rewards

Collective Worship
This week our Form Tutor Collective Worship is inspired by Socrates’ thoughts on Knowledge and Ignorance. We also consider the impact that our schools’ Christian Values might have in this area. Our daily quotes are all on the theme of Knowledge.

Quotes
Monday – “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.” Confucius; 6th C. BC Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
Tuesday – “The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.” Bertrand Russell; 20th C. British philosopher, mathematician and historian
Wednesday – “People with understanding want more knowledge, but fools just want more foolishness.” The Bible, Proverbs 15:14
Thursday – “If you have knowledge, you have something more valuable than gold or jewels.” The Bible, Proverbs 20: 15
Friday – “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Nelson Mandela, first democratically elected South African president

The Wellbeing Newsletter Issue 56

Dear Parents and Carers,

As we begin another busy week at school I would like to take a moment to congratulate all those students who were either completing or preparing for examinations/assessments last week. Their mature and dedicated approach has been really good to see, ranging from students in Year 8 completing their assessments to some young people in Year 11 who had no fewer than three GCSE examinations on Friday. Well done to everyone and we look forward to more of the same this week.

Pre-loved uniform shop
We have been really encouraged by the response to both our new ‘UNIFORMD’ store and the new Unity Fund Hub. A reminder that the pre loved uniform shop can be accessed via the link below and if your family requires support from the Unity Fund please email either gstainsby@ahs.pmat.academy or krobinson@ahs.pmat.academy for more information:

https://app.uniformd.co.uk/items/172

Wanted – Uniform donations
A reminder that the shop stocks a large range of good quality second hand items, starting from 50p, ranging from PE kit to School Bags to ties. To continue supporting as many children as possible we kindly ask that if families have uniform that children, particularly Year 11 leavers, no longer need that it be donated to school at reception. In the few short weeks of the shop being open we have already supplied a large number of families with shirts, school jumpers and trousers.

AHS SEND Coffee morning!
We are delighted to invite our SEND parents to our very first SEND coffee morning, for both parents/carers and students to be held in our brand-new Library and Resource Centre on Saturday 2nd July from 10am-12.00pm.

During the morning, you will get a chance to:

• Meet with many of the staff who are part of our inclusion and intervention team
• Network with other parents of SEND students
• Play games, explore the library and inclusion centre, do quizzes and have fun!
• Access important resources about our SEND offer at AHS and find out how you can support students outside of school too
• Enjoy refreshments
• Ask any questions you might have about SEND at AHS

We would love to see as many of you there as possible!

Y10 Mocks
Between Monday 13th June up to your mock exams on Monday 27th June, there will be the opportunity to revise after school in preparation for your mock exams. The ‘Revision Room’ will be in Hi6 and run between 3:10pm and 5pm Monday-Thursday. We hope that some students will find this helpful.

ClassCharts
Thank you to everyone who has signed up and who are using the ClassCharts App. If there is anyone who requires support in setting up the App and how to use it, please contact your childs Head of Year. Remember, ClassCharts allows parents to access the following via the App:

• Merits and certificates to celebrate the successes of your child
• Behaviours
• Detentions
• If your child is on report
• Attendance (including allowing you to report an absence)
• Your child’s timetable
• Your child’s classes
• Any ‘Announcements’ from the school (ie messages)

Please visit: https://archbishopholgates.academy/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/ClassCharts_-A-guide-for-parents_carers.pdf for a full guide on how to download and use the App.

Reporting Absences
Please report every absence to school via ether:

• The absence line 01904 411341 Option 1
• Send a message using the ClassCharts App
• Email reception@ahs.pmat.academy.

If an absence is not reported and is unexplained, parents/carers will be contacted, as it is our duty to Safeguard. We ask that school is kept up to date with changes to contact details.

Holidays
Please do not take holidays during term time. Any request from parents will be recorded as unauthorised unless in very exceptional circumstances (unfortunately previously cancelled holidays due to COVID is not an exceptional circumstance). All holidays taken during term time will be referred to City of York Council who will likely issue with a Fixed Penalty Notice to each parent. School is only 190 days a year, this leaves 175 non-school days a year to go on holiday in. We appreciate the ongoing support.

Head of Year Awards
Please find below the Head of Year Awards for the Parent Bulletin. Year 11 and 13 won’t now feature until September.

Head of Year Updates
Year 7 – Miss Kincell, Miss Powell and Miss Cooper
We have had a very exciting first week back this week- Year 7 have been introduced to what their first ever Enrichment Week will look like. We were lucky to have been visited in assembly by Mr Gladstone who talked us through all of the exciting activities in the last week of term. We want our last week to be a reward and celebration and will include everything from curriculum enrichment to a day out a flamingo land and a full day of one-off fun sessions with teachers. Soon students will receive a booklet with all of this key information and the different options for their Friday fun sessions. The sessions are a true variety with everything from Karaoke and war hammer to mindful colouring and nail art!

We are excited to see you all at our Parent’s evening on Wednesday 29th June. Please know, we appreciate that making appointments is new to Year 7, rest assured they will have lots of support from their teachers and be guided with their timings. If you have any concerns about this, please contact the Year 7 team and we will be more than happy to support.

Well done to our Students of the Week:
ANn: Oli Dilsworth – Fantastic first week back. Well done Oli!
ASU: Dylan Connolly – For being a fantastic presenter of the news this week and guiding thoughtful discussions.
Bl: Hannah Shaw – taking part in the cricket tournament at Ampleforth College.
Cy: Kaydee Roberts for her fantastic show and share this week
Gr: Bryanna Martyn- Thank you for all your hard work in lessons and during form time. You are a great role model.
Hf: Alexander Wilson for consistent excellence in form time discussions. Well done.
Hv: Amira Benchouir- A fantastic attitude to learning
MLn: Bobbie Taylor – For being such a great member of the form: polite, kind, helpful and compassionate!
MPe: Nicola Ciachla for living the school values and being a wonderful member of MPE.
Mr: Isla Hanlon for being such a positive role model
SMf: Will Godbold – Joining our form so late in the year but immediately becoming a part of our character and form journey. Well done on such an enthusiastic and open start.

Well done to our Head of Year Awards:
Ellie Murphy 7HF – for consistently living the school values. Well Done!
Finlay McIntyre 7HV – for consistently living the school values. Well Done!

The Library Newsletter
I hope you all had a lovely half term break. Y7 have had their end of year assessments and can now enjoy the final weeks of a full school year in secondary school. It goes very quickly, but no doubt you have all achieved great things. However, school is not all about lessons. School is a place where you make lifelong friends. Two of my best friends are people I met in Y7 over 45 years ago! This week is National Friendship Week, so why don’t you think about all the fantastic people you have met this term. If you would like to send your friends a card/post card to tell them how much you value their friendship, call into the library to make one and I will make sure they receive it.

Best Friends by Jacqueline Wilson (Quiz 207233. Level 4.5. Colour Purple) tells the tale of Gemma and Alice who have known each other all their lives, but when Gemma reads Alice’s diary at a sleepover, it eventually leads her to discover Alice is moving away. Because of their distance, will Gemma and Alice struggle to stay friends, when they have to make new friends. The story’s theme throughout the whole story is that true friends will be together until the end.

Alice and I are best friends. I’ve known her all my life. That is absolutely true. Our mums were in hospital at the same time when they were having us. At night time we were tucked up next to each other in weeny little cots. You can read over 20 pages by opening the link. https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Best_Friends/43EsiVMSbIMC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

About a Boy by Nick Hornby (Quiz 222622. Level 5.5. Colour Green) is about finding friendship in unlikely places. The book is both happy and sad, but a good friend can help make things better. He got to school early, went to form and sat at his desk. The kids who had given him a hard time yesterday were probably not the sort to arrive at school first thing. There were a couple of girls in the room, but they ignored him, unless the snort of laughter he heard had anything to do with him. You can read the first six chapters by opening the link. https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/About_a_Boy/vBtXDIPDQaUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

My friend Walter by Michael Morpurgo (Quiz 204087. Level 4.8. Colour Purple). Remember Sir Walter Raleigh who laid his cloak in a puddle so Queen Elizabeth 1 could walk across? Well, Bess meets his ghost and finds out that he is her ancestor! Living with a ghost has its difficulties, I discovered, even if he is your friend. If he appeared too long he would become hazy at the edges. Ghosts need time to recharge themselves. Listen to the beginning of the book by clicking on the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7Xud_jC2rY

Refugee Week
This week and next we will be writing messages to welcome refugees to York. Lots of people have left their friends in foreign lands and moved to York, so our messages will be written on paper and made into York Roses and hand cut-outs. We are hoping to have some visitors to the library during refugee week, who are currently studying at York College. More details to follow next week, but please come to the library to write a welcome message, the more the better…

Poetry Competition
The Jubilee poetry competition is still open. We have lists of rhyming words available in the library. I know some of you are coming to the library as part of your English lesson to finish off your poems and enter them into the competition. The one we wrote between is in the library is;

My mum worships the queen devotedly, and so to celebrate the jubilee,
she’s dressed me up like the queen, in pearls and a dress of velveteen.
At first I didn’t want to take part, but now the party is about to start,
by mum opening all the tinfoil, uncovering cakes fit for a royal.
I look at the food hungrily, and decide I like this jubilee!
I can’t wait to see what you have written.

Unfortunately, we now have over 500 overdue books. The cost of these books will be over £3,500, so as you can imagine we really would like these back. Strangely, books that are part of a series usually have book two missing. This is very frustrating for students who want to read a whole series in order. Please have a good root around at home to see what you can find. Please don’t worry about bringing back a late return.

Year 8 – Mrs Avey, Mrs Mennell and Mr Handley
We’d like to congratulate Year 8 for all the effort and hard work through Assessment Week. Although it has been busy, the Year 8 students have conducted themselves excellently this week and we have been really proud of them. Students will begin to get feedback on their assessments which will include a review lesson on what they have done well and how they can improve on areas they have found more challenging. This will give students a good idea on how to progress further moving forwards into Year 9. If any students were absent and missed an assessment their teachers will attempt to get them caught up this week. If you have any questions please get in touch with the year team.

Attendance last week was yet again the best in the main school but still below what we’d like to see. As ever we are grateful for your support in ensuring students are attending school and making the most of the opportunities on offer to them.

This week in our whole year Act of Collective Worship, the students were given more details about enrichment week (Monday-Friday 18-22nd July). There will be more to follow about this soon as students will be given a booklet of exactly what they will be doing and a more in-depth timetable will follow in this week’s Newsletter article for Year 8 – sent out on Thursday 16th June. Students will be doing a theatre themed activity day called ‘The Haunted House’, a trip to Flamingo Land, a day dedicated towards the Young Leaders Award and a day of sport and activities. Enrichment week takes place at the same time as the MFL trips to Spain, France and Germany which will be a really enriching experience for the students attending those.

The Flamingo Land Reward trip (Tuesday 19th July) is fast approaching and we’d like to encourage parents/carers to complete and return the electronic reply slips to the school reception (reception@ahs.pmat.academy). The cost of the trip covers entry to the theme park but the school is covering the cost of transport to and from. If you need another copy of the letter or are concerned about the cost please get in touch and we will be able to help. We appreciate students going on the MFL trips will not be taking part but they will be accessing rewarding activities on their trips abroad and there will be future reward theme park trips in Year 9 and 10.

On Friday 14th July all of Year 8 will be taking part in ‘The Trading Game’. This is an additional careers enrichment activity for all of Year 8 and letters should have already been received about this. We also need reply slips for this day returning to the school reception so please can these be returned as soon as possible to aid the organization of the day. If you need another letter about this please do get in touch and ask.

The year group section on week’s school Newsletter is Year 8 and there will be more detailed information about Enrichment Week and others Year 8 relevant topics so please do look out for that on Thursday.

As ever, thank you for your continued support. If you have any issues regarding your child in Year 8, please do contact school reception to get in touch with Mrs Avey (Head of Year 8), Mr Handley (Assistant Head of Year 8), Mrs Mennell (Year 8 Pastoral Support Worker) or Miss Clarke (Year 8 Pastoral Support Worker on Friday).

Year 9 – Mr Arthur, Mr Deamer and Mrs Deacon
Just like that we are already one week down in the final summer term with six weeks to go! It is great to see Year 9 keeping the standards high and I look forward to seeing this continuing over the last few weeks.

ClassCharts seems to be working really well in school and it is great to see that so many households and our young people are engaging with it. I would encourage you if you haven’t already to make sure you’ve downloaded the ClassCharts app and also encourage your young person to download one too, there is one for parents/carers and one for students. This helps encourage students to take ownership for their progress which is a great life skill and we’ve also seen ClassCharts facilitating a range of positive conversations at home. If you have any issues downloading the app and getting logged in please get in touch with the year team and we can resolve this, additionally we’ve helped students get sorted with the app also, please just ask them to come and see us if they are unable to logon.

End of Year Assessments are taking place this week in school across most subjects for Year 9. Students have been given revision guides in Maths for what they need to revise as well as completing revision in lessons. This is a great opportunity for our students to show off what they have learnt this year as well as prepare for their GCSE work in Year 10, any queries please get in touch, so far when talking to students they seemed prepared with positive attitudes which is great to see. Students will then get results and detailed feedback in lessons with their teachers.

For the last week of this half term (week commencing 18th July) it is enrichment week. Students received information on it in assembly this week and it was great to hear their excitement about activities which are as follows:

• Monday – sports activities (sports day is seperate).
• Tuesday – English activities around the play An Inspector Calls.
• Wednesday – Flamingo Land trip, please return permission as soon as possible. If your young person has lost their slip or you have not received it, please ask them to come and see us in the Year 9 office and we will give them another one.
• Thursday – Industry Day, external business experts come into school to work with students in teams to produce a range of things such as products. Students are asked to come into school in smart business wear to get them in the right frame of mind for the business world!
• Friday – Activity day, students will be given the opportunity in advance to choose a number of different activities to complete with students, these range from tag rugby, quiz of the year to bingo!

Any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch with the year team.

Thank you for taking the time to read this parent bulletin. If you have any issues regarding your child in Year 9, then please do get in touch by emailing Mr Arthur aarthur@ahs.pmat.academy (Head of Year), myself (Miss Deacon); mdeacon@ahs.pmat.academy (Assistant Head of Year) and/or Mr Deamer rdeamer@ahs.pmat.academy (Pastoral Support Worker) and/or Miss Clark sclark@ahs.pmat.academy (Pastoral Support Worker); or alternatively, you can call Main School Reception and we will get back to you as soon as we can, thank you – Miss Deacon.

Year 10 – Mr Avery, Miss Johstone and Miss Montagu
Well done to all our students who have jumped straight back into good habits of study. Everyone looks refreshed and ready to complete the final term before the summer holidays. Many Yr 10s have been outside trying to make the most of the sunshine when it’s there.

In our Act of Collective Worship this week we shared some exciting plans for ‘Enrichment Week’, the final week of term. Because of the pandemic, our Yr 10s will not have experienced this properly since Yr 7. We want this week to be a rewarding time after the completion of mock exams and something enjoyable to look forward to. The highlight will be a trip to Alton Towers on Thursday 21st July. During the week there will be fun sporting activities with two Olympian athletes to help, and other special events delivered by members of staff.

In form time this week we looked at the importance of not just standing by if we witness racism. We considered the story of Moses Ingram who is starring in the new Disney franchise, Obi-Wan Kanobi, and has faced online abuse for being a black actor. If we say nothing when we see or hear racist acts or speech, we are normalising it and letting the person responsible think it is OK. So it is really important that we STAND UP to racism – we should be sure to tell that person that it is not OK, and, if we are students, to speak to a trusted adult about what happened.

Finally, congratulations to Ruby Holland and Verity McDonald for excellence in upholding our school values and successful work experience placements. They receive our Head of Year awards this week. Well done! Should you have any concerns please feel free to contact the Yr 10 team.

Year 11 – Miss Turvey, Miss Reeder and Miss Chambers
A huge well done to Year 11 for a fantastic performance in their exams last week. Last week was the busiest section of the exam period with lots of high-profile exams taking place and Year 11 definitely rose to the challenge. We are so proud of the consistently excellent conduct we have seen so far – well done Year 11.

This week, Year 11 will be expected to be in school as normal on Monday and Tuesday due to the revision sessions taking place between exams on these days. This will also provide a final opportunity for students to check in with their teachers, friends and Year 11 team as well as being given important information about Prom and final farewells next week.

By Wednesday 15th June, students will have completed the majority of their full-cohort exams and, from the end of Period 2, we will recommend students go home to revise for their remaining exams. This date has been chosen as it marks the point where all students have completed the majority of their exams and their school timetable can no longer be tailored to the revision individuals most need. There are a small number of teacher-led revision sessions remaining as the exception to this which students will be informed about in advance. For the small number of students who are unable to revise at home, we will continue to provide a quiet working space for them (likely in the Resource Centre) for private revision.

We will continue to offer breakfast for Year 11 in the Courtyard Café on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week when full cohort exams are taking place. The Year 11 team will continue to be on hand at the start of each day from 8:15am and at the start and end of exams to offer support. Students will be able to find a member of the Y11 team in the Year 11 office from 8am each day until the exam period ends.

On Thursday 23rd June, there will be an ice-cream van and celebrations on the front field during Period 3 after the exam ends where students will be invited to sign shirts and say goodbye to their Form tutors and teachers. The Prom will take place on the same day at the York Racecourse, with students invited to arrive from 6:30pm for a 7pm start. The evening will end around 10:30pm. Thank you to parents and students for your support in returning medical forms for Prom. Please remind your child to return their photograph permission slip for the professional photographer if they haven’t already.

As a charitable endeavour in school, we have opened a “pre-loved” school uniform service for our remaining students to access. If your child in Year 11 would like to donate items of their school uniform, they should speak to their Form tutor and can bring this to school reception. Thank you for your support with this.

Please find this week’s timetable overview below. Where students are in “normal lessons”, these largely correlate to an upcoming exam:

Thank you for your continued support. If you have any issues regarding your child in Year 11, please contact school reception who will alert the Year 11 team: Miss Turvey (Head of Year 11), Miss Chambers (Assistant Head of Year 11) Mrs Reeder (Year 11 Pastoral Support Worker) or Miss Short (SLT). Thank you.

The Year 11 Team

Post 16 – Mrs De Lashley, Mrs Walton, Miss Balmer and Mr Charlton
Y12 Mock Exams – Year 12 will sit their mock exams wc 4th July. They have been issued timetables. There are some clashes between subjects which also happens in the real thing. Those students with a clash will sit their papers consecutively across the two exam sittings within the day and be supervised in-between. They will be told in which order they will sit the papers. There is a provisional visit to Cambridge that we are waiting to be confirmed due to covid restrictions. If the trips goes ahead for our potential Cambridge students, they will be issued a personalised timetable in due course. They should prepare to sit their exams in the days prior to the visit (the visit is anticipated to be the Tues and Thurs of mock week).

REMINDER reply slips:
Please return reply slips for the events below if you have not done so already:
– Y12 Admissions Test tuition for BMAT, MAT, UCAT
– Y12 HE Visit Tuesday 21st June
– Y12 Introduction to UCAS Evening Tuesday 12th July

Exams this week

Sixth Form Rewards

Collective Worship
This week our Form Tutor Collective Worship is inspired by events in the world of international football and looks at whether sport can make the world a fairer place. Our daily quotes are all on the theme of equality.

Monday – “I believe in unconditional love and equality. Jesus Christ exemplified these qualities.” – Jack Canfield, American author and motivational speaker
Tuesday – “We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back” – Malala Yousafzai, Nobel prize winner
Wednesday – “Happiness comes to those who are fair to others and are always just and good.” – The Bible, the books Psalms, 106:3
Thursday – “Human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights.” – Hilary Clinton, former US presidential candidate
Friday – “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, civil rights activist

The Wellbeing Newsletter Issue 55

Dear parents and carers,

I hope families have had a safe and enjoyable half term break. We are very much looking forward to welcoming all students back on Monday for the final seven week half term of this academic year. I would like to thank everyone for their ongoing support, this important partnership working remains incredibly helpful in ensuring that as a school community we can continue to provide the best possible care for all our students. Families are aware that as a school we work hard to prioritise additional capacity within our extended pastoral team and I am delighted to say that prior to half term we were able to appoint a second School Counsellor who will work alongside existing colleagues on a part time basis.

As we return from half term many students will continue to have important external examinations. Please do not hesitate to contact the Y11 or Post 16 team if you require any additional support. We hope that the timetabled programme of specific revision lessons will continue to prove beneficial in the weeks to come. To date we could not be more proud of the effort, conduct and determination of students.

Pre-loved uniform shop
We are really pleased to share that we now have an online shop for good condition second hand uniform which we hope will prove helpful for families. I would like to thank Mrs Robinson, Mrs Willsden and the team who make up the Unity Fund for their efforts in getting this endeavour up and running. Details of our ‘UNIFORMD’ store can be accessed via the link below:

https://app.uniformd.co.uk/items/172

All purchases through the shop will be available to collect from reception within a few days. Whilst we encourage all families to make use of this service, please note in the interest of fairness items will be limited to one per child in the first instance.

Unity Fund
Over the last few weeks we have been busy creating our new Unity Fund Hub where we keep the uniform for the new online shop along with a small food and toiletries bank. If we can help support you and your family please email either gstainsby@ahs.pmat.academy or krobinson@ahs.pmat.academy for more information.

Building work over half term
I would also like to take this opportunity to highlight the ongoing contributions to the school that Mr Stone and his team make in continually updating and maintaining the school environment. They work tirelessly to ensure that the school facilities are always there every best. Work over this half term has included:

• Installing a canopy over the Corner Cafe entrance
• Moving the bike racks from the side of the English block to the side of the front field in preparation for the installation of a new Geography block over the summer break
• Additional shelving to support new ‘Unity Hub Store’.
• Improvements to the schools allotment
• On going decoration of classrooms throughout school

This is on top of the usual deep clean that Mrs Smith and her team complete every holiday of the whole school. I look forward to sharing all our plans for summer improvements to the site in the weeks to come.

Head of Year Updates
Year 7 – Miss Kincell, Miss Powell and Miss Cooper
I hope you have had a restful break and enjoyed our final half term break. As we approach our final half term, we are so proud of the students and all of the positives we receive regarding this outstanding year group. An example of this was on the last Friday when three of our forms attended chapel and we received this message:

“I just wanted to send an email to say how impressed I was with the Year 7 forms in chapel this morning. Some of them were waiting a while, and waited in silence. They were focused and listening. Even when the form tutors had to leave, they still sat excellently listening. I told them I would email you to let you know I was impressed with them. They were a real credit”

Our focus as a year group at the moment is encouraging kindness and using kind words to one another. We focused in our assembly this week on protected characteristics with a focus on racism. It is really clear to students how they should speak to one another. We want to ensure everyone in our school community is treated with kindness.

Well done to our Students of the Week

7ANn – Lucas Allitt – For always being so polite and a wonderful member of the form.
7ASu – Riley Brooksbank – for always beating me at Noughts and Crosses!
7Bl – Jules Clarke – A delightful member of the form Always polite and considerate.
7Cy – Daffa Muhammad – For being the top merit scorer for the form so far
7Gr – Lilly Draper – Thank you Lilly for helping out other students and showing compassion!
7Hf – Hugo Mander – for being organised with planner signing and for excellent contributions to discussions.
7Hv – Gracjan Malecki- Always considerate and very helpful during form time
7MLn – Sewnaz Timur – For volunteering to read the prayer so often and for getting the most merits this half-term.
7MPe – Sonny Love – For being a fantastic member of 7MPe and living the school values through his actions
7Mr – Sid Smith for his incredible punctuality and politeness
7SMf – Allen Alex – Excellent extra-curricular commitment, brilliant effort in lessons and a very welcoming personality in form time. Well done.

Well done to our Head of Year Awards:
Tiffany Hardcastle 7BL – For much improved attendance! Well done, we are so proud of you!
Oscar Dawson 7MLn – Outstanding bravery performing his history song in class but also in front of an external visit. You represented us well, well done

Year 8 – Mrs Avey, Mrs Mennell and Mr Handley
The Year 8 team hope that our Year 8 students and their families have had an enjoyable half term break. With one more half term to go we are getting closer now to the end of the school year and to the exciting final week of term that will offer excellent enrichment opportunities to all students in Year 8.

Attendance has once again been good for Year 8 again in the last week and for the half term with an average of just below 95%. Year 8 have the best average attendance for the whole main school for the academic year so far. Thank you for all the support in ensuring that your children’s attendance is high – it does make a difference. You can use Classcharts to track attendance day by day as well as other positives/negatives. We’d also like to remind parents again that if you need any help getting logged on and using their ClassCharts account please do get in touch and we will be happy to help.

Assessment week and homework – although homework may have been set by subject teachers in the final week of last half term in preparation for assessment week, students will not be sanctioned if they have not completed it. This message was given to form tutors, teachers and students of Year 8 before the holiday. KS3 students are not normally set homework over holidays except the optional reading (DEAR) homework. Please get in touch if you have any questions about this.

In the final week of half term our Act of Collective Worship was delivered by 8Lp. Their theme was something they love as a form – football. They focused on several examples of acts of kindness of footballers and within the football community. This included many humbling stories of where football and footballers have helped their own communities or done something to give back. As a year team we really appreciated the strong links to our school values. The Act of Collective Worship was excellent and 8Lp should be really proud – each member of the form contributed in some way.

The next half term includes some important events for the whole year group and for the whole school. We wanted to update parents/carers on some of the key dates. More information (if needed) will be provided shortly for the following.

• Assessment Week (Monday-Friday 6-10th June) – all of year 8 students will be completing their end of year assessments across this week.
• The Trading Game (Thursday 14th July) – this is a day off timetable for all of Year 8 to take part in the trading game. The trading game is an exciting opportunity for the students of Year 8 to experience a fast paced, interactive game themed on the stock market and is part of the school’s careers enrichment.
• Sports Day (15th July) – This involves all students in school. It is a fantastic day in the school calendar and we look forward to seeing Year 8 students getting involved and trying their best.
• Trips to France/Germany/Spain (Monday-Friday 18-22nd July) – For the students going, these trips will offer an enriching cultural experience and a great opportunity to practice the language they have been learning in school. Students should have all the information they need for these trips but please do get in touch if you need anything additional. There are information evenings for two of these trips on the following dates at 5pm – Barcelona on 21st June and Paris on the 23rd June.

Year 9 – Mr Arthur, Mr Deamer and Mrs Deacon
And just like that, we are set to embark upon the final half term of the academic year. This has been an incredibly successful time for Year 9, and we hope the final seven weeks are as successful as the previous thirty-two!

It is important that standards in Year 9 remain as high throughout the final half term as they were in the first. I therefore want to take this opportunity to highlight the issue of uniform. It is vitally important that, as members of the AHS community, students are wearing the correct uniform each and every day they attend school. With this in mind, I have itemised some key points regarding uniform below…

• Students must be wearing an AHS tie when they come to school and throughout the day. Whilst we do have spare ties that we can lend to students if they lose their tie or the clasp breaks, an increasing number of students are borrowing ties and then not returning them. Please can you ensure your child comes to school with a tie, and returns their borrowed tie to Mrs Christian in the Inclusion Centre. Unfortunately, with the volume of ties that we are giving out that are not being returned, we will need to charge for ties that are not returned.
• Students should be wearing an AHS jumper to school each day. As we progress into the summer term and temperatures increase, we understand that students may not wish to wear their jumper throughout the entire school day. However, students must ensure they bring their jumper to school with them each day. This is particularly for if we have Act of Collective Worship or Chapel where students need to be wearing their jumpers. Further to this, students should not be wearing any other jumper or hoodie other than the AHS school jumper, and this includes the AHS hoodie which students are no longer permitted to wear in lessons. If a student is wearing a non-school jumper or hoodie around the building, they will be asked to remove it.
• In terms of jewellery, students are permitted to wear one plain stud earring in each ear, and a small plain studded nose piercing. If a member of staff sees a student wearing other earrings, nose studs or bracelets/rings, students will be asked to place these items in an envelope and then they will be taken to reception for students to collect at the end of the school day.
• Students must be wearing correct school shoes each day. If a student is not wearing correct school shoes, we have a stock of shoes in reception and they will be asked to change their shoes so they are complying with the school’s uniform policy. If a student needs to wear trainers for medical reasons, please send your child into school with a note explaining the situation. Alternatively, please email the Year 9 Pastoral Team – the email address’ have been added to the bottom of this letter.
• Students must be wearing correct school trousers. Like with school shoes, we have an extensive store of trousers and skirts in school for students to borrow if there are any issues. If a student is wearing incorrect school trousers (e.g. leggings) they will be asked to go to Intervention where they will be given some school trousers to wear.

Many thanks for your support – it is very much appreciated. As you will appreciate, we want to maintain the highest of standards when it comes to uniform and we hope this bulletin provides some clarity on how we wish to achieve this.

Thank you for taking the time to read this parent bulletin. If you have any issues regarding your child in Year 9, then please do get in touch by emailing aarthur@ahs.pmat.academy (Head of Year), mdeacon@ahs.pmat.academy (Assistant Head of Year) and/or rdeamer@ahs.pmat.academy (Pastoral Support Worker); or alternatively, you can call Main School Reception and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Thank you!

Year 10 – Mr Avery, Miss Johstone and Miss Montagu
I hope the students and families of Y10 have had a well earned rest over half term. The period between Easter and breaking up may have only been 5 weeks, but there has been so much packed into it I don’t blame any of our students for needing a rest!

This week we welcomed back the year 10 students from work experience. From speaking with themI am delighted that they took so much from their time in the world of work. Many have grown in confidence and self-esteem, and developed new skills they can use in the future. I am very proud of the resilience they have shown toward their new environments, with many students finding the early starts and long hours very tiresome – a nice reminder that school is not always that bad!

During the two week period of work experience, my colleagues and I enjoyed visiting the students in their place of work, and speaking with employers on the phone about how well the students were doing. I believe following the difficult two years we have had; the year group needs to be very proud of taking themselves out of their comfort zone and putting themselves into an environment of which they have no experience. As Martin Luther King once said “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just climb the first step”.

Over the two weeks I have received nothing but positive praise from employers, who stated how well the students represented themselves and the school impeccably. It would take me too long to single out all the students I received praise for, but I know many have secured part time jobs either now or in the future, and some students are being accepted back in the summer to complete internships that will look fantastic on student records. Even the very few students that did not enjoy their placements left with more clarity about the future, key work-related skills and a new appreciation for alternative opportunities that lay before them. I know how difficult many of our students found securing two weeks work experience and I hope the vast majority feel the effort was worth it in the end. On that note I would like to mention the students that joined us in school over the two weeks. For some, securing a full two weeks work experience was not an option, so they were in school following a collapsed timetable and being taught engaging one off lessons from a variety of teachers. They were hard working, cheery and a pleasure to have in school. This was not easy while some of their peers were out at work, so I am just as proud of their achievements.

I also want to commend our Year 10 students who took part in the recent Duke of Edinburgh expedition working toward their Bronze award qualification. Mr Goldsmith was quick to praise all who took part, showing a determined spirit and resilience toward aches, pains and getting lost along the way! I Know many came back to school proud of their own achievements, and it’s another important step on their own journey.

I hope all our parents received the letters home regarding the upcoming mock exams on the 27th June and the exam timetable for the week. These mock exams will last one week, with students completing at least one full paper (in each of their subjects) in exam conditions in the sports hall. This time is invaluable in getting students ready for the formal examinations they will be sitting in Year 11, and gently introduces them to what a week of exams feels like. The students will complete revision in lessons prior to the mock exams taking place, and will be given excellent revision resources to complete at home in order to give them the best opportunity for success. I will stress to all the students in the build up to mocks that there is no pressure on them, and all we require is for them to do their best. I will make it clear to them that the mocks allow us to assess where they currently are in terms of their progress, and put any necessary support in place in Year 11. The mock period will begin on Monday 27th June to Friday 1st July, and more detailed information will be sent to parents in the coming weeks, including any specific access arrangements your child is entitled to.

As always should you have any questions please feel free to contact a member of the Year 10 team.

Year 11 – Miss Turvey, Miss Reeder and Miss Chambers
We are very much looking forward to welcoming back Year 11 for their remaining weeks at school and hope everyone has managed to enjoy a well-earned break. We are so incredibly proud of our students after their outstanding conduct during the first part of the exam period. A huge well done and a big thank you to all of our students for acting as responsible role models and for all of their hard work. It has been pleasing to see students leaving their exams feeling resolved and confident and we are looking forward to a smooth three weeks ahead.

On Friday before half term, we were fortunate to spend Period 5 off-timetable in the sun as a “half-way there” celebration. This was organised as a pleasant surprise for students and we all felt fortunate to enjoy a blissful period outside playing games, eating ice-cream and socialising in the sun. It was a great reminder of how fantastic our Year 11 cohort is and we will truly miss them when it is time for them to leave. Thank you for a lovely afternoon, Year 11!

This week, we will continue to expect students to be in school at the usual times. In the next five days there are several high-profile exams and revision sessions taking place in school and we strongly advise that the best place for students to be is in their teacher-led sessions following the bespoke timetable tailored to their exams. As a school, we cannot give authorisation for students to go home after exams. This is in line with government guidance from the DofE and supported by an increasing body of research suggesting that year 11s who are given prolonged periods of study leave do not perform as well as those who are kept under the more formal tutorage of a school environment (DofE School Attendance guidelines, 2022; One Education, 2017). Students should remain vigilant to ensure they are in school on time every day, punctual to all of their exams and keeping mobile phones switched off in their bags. We request that, if your child has a valid reason to leave after their exam (e.g. a medical appointment), this is communicated via a signed note in your child’s planner or a phone call into school before 9am in the morning. We very much appreciate your support with this.

We will continue to offer breakfast for Year 11 in the Courtyard Café each morning where there will be a selection of breakfast pastries, fresh fruit, cereal bars, hot chocolate and fruit juices. Students may also look forward to a Friday bacon sandwich at the end of the week. The Year 11 team will continue to be on hand at the start of each day from 8:15am and at the start and end of exams to offer support. A huge thank you to our regular breakfast attendees for their ongoing camaraderie, politeness and positivity each morning.

By Wednesday 15th June, students will have completed the majority of their full-cohort exams and it is at this point that we will recommend students stay at home for private revision for their remaining exams (with the exception of a small number of teacher-led revision sessions left to take place in school). Students who choose to stay in school for private study will be able to access quiet spaces to do so. For the vast majority of students, their final exam will take place on Thursday 23rd June.

On Thursday 23rd June, there will be an ice-cream van and celebrations on the front field during Period 3 after the exam ends where students will be invited to sign shirts and say goodbye to their Form tutors and teachers. The Prom will take place on the same day at the York Racecourse, with students invited to arrive from 6:30pm for a 7pm start. The evening will end around 10:30pm.

The deadline for handing in medical forms and photograph permission for the Prom has now passed; if your child wishes to attend prom but hasn’t handed in their slips, they should hand these to their Form tutor and Year 11 team as a matter of urgency so we can inform the venue. Thank you for your support with this.

Please find this week’s timetable overview below. Please note: there are several important exams and bespoke revision sessions taking place this week, including full cohort, teacher-led English, Maths and Science revision:

Thank you for your continued support. If you have any issues regarding your child in Year 11, please contact school reception who will alert the Year 11 team: Miss Turvey (Head of Year 11), Miss Chambers (Assistant Head of Year 11) Mrs Reeder (Year 11 Pastoral Support Worker) or Miss Short (SLT). Thank you.

Post 16 – Mrs De Lashley, Mrs Walton, Miss Balmer and Mr Charlton
Welcome back! – A busy half-term ahead with the remainder of the summer exam series and the lead up to Year 12 mock exams wc 4th July. We will revise in class with Year 12 for the two weeks prior to the mocks to support their ongoing independent revision. Results will be issued in August alongside invites to 1-2-1 meetings with parents and students prior to the start of the Autumn term – letters detailing this will be issued shortly. Year 12 parents should have received a letter introducing them to the next steps in progression for Year 12 and an invite to our Parent Introduction to UCAS Evening being held Tuesday 12th July. Please do get in touch if you have any questions.

Exams this week – A Level exams

Exams this week – BTEC exams

Sixth Form Rewards

Collective Worship
This week our Form Tutor Collective Worship is inspired by the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, and what lessons we can learn from her life. Our daily quotes are her thoughts on God and faith.

Quotes
Monday – “I rely on my faith to guide me through the good times and the bad… I know that the only way to live my life is to try to do what is right… to give of my best in all that the day brings, and to put my trust in God!” – The Queen
Tuesday – “God sent into the world a unique person – neither a philosopher nor a general (important though they are) – but a Saviour, with the power to forgive.” – The Queen
Wednesday – “For me the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life. I have drawn great comfort in difficult times from Christ’s words and example.” – The Queen
Thursday – “The life of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, is an inspiration and an anchor in my life. A role-model of reconciliation and forgiveness, he stretched out his hands in love, acceptance and healing.” – The Queen
Friday – “Christ’s example has taught me to seek to respect and value all people of whatever faith or none… God’s love is for everyone. There is no one beyond its reach.” – The Queen

The Wellbeing Newsletter Issue 54

Dear parents and carers,

This half term has flown by with only one week remaining of what has been a very busy five weeks.

It was a real pleasure to welcome the Archbishop of York to our Year 13 Leavers Service on Thursday evening and to share in the celebrations of what students have achieved during their time at Archbishop’s. We wish Year 13 the very best of luck as they begin their A Level examinations on Monday and I feel certain that their hard work and determination will help them succeed in the weeks ahead.

As we reflect on the first week of GCSE examinations I would like to congratulate Year 11 on the mature way that they have approached these examinations both in terms of their preparation and conduct and the way in which they continue to make the most of the bespoke revision timetable that is in place each day. We look forward to more of the same this week.

We are also looking forward to welcoming Year 10 back to school on Monday after their two weeks of Work Experience, I know that Mr Avery and his team have been very pleased to hear lots of positive feedback about how students have conducted themselves during this time. A reminder that we expect Year 10 to return in full school uniform on Monday.

We hope that those students (and staff) involved in the Duke of Edinburgh expedition this weekend had a good time, I know a great deal of hard work has gone into preparing for this endeavour.

Weekly Update – ClassCharts Merits for Week 31
Another excellent (and record!) week for merits on ClassCharts – this seems to be working very well and we have had ‘buy-in’ from staff and students across the school which is brilliant. Merits have taken on a much greater value since we started issuing them on ClassCharts, and we very much hope that this will go to another level when all the rewards initiatives begin in September, including the AHS Rewards Store!

Here is the data from this week (Week 31)…

*This Year 9 total was helped by bonus merits added for a positive Interim Report!

Congratulations to all the students on this list of top performers this week. We may yet have another record week next week when we welcome Year 10 back from Work Experience!

Head of Year Awards

Head of Year Updates
Year 7 – Miss Kincell, Miss Powell and Miss Cooper
We are now approaching our final week of our penultimate half term, and it is incredible to think about the progress which has been made since we joined back after Easter.

We are having a big focus upon kindness at the moment and looking at how everyone in our school community should be treated. An element of this was our assembly this week based on Women’s Rights, a series which will develop over each year. We talked about Women’s Rights before 1800 and lots of our students were really surprised. Year 7 were really grateful for the development of Women’s rights.

7ANn – Layla Calvert – For being a supportive and reliable friend to others.
7ASu – Asir Alwafi – For consistently showing kindness to all around him.
7Bl – Tiffany Hardcastle – Improved attendance this half term
7Cy – Edith Hardy – For being more organised in form time at the start of the day
7Gr – Darcey Brown – Well done on working hard over this last term Darcey, you have been a great example to others.
7Hf – Joe Molloy – Always smiling, polite and friendly to all.
7Hv – Reuben O’Donovan – Great work in Textiles
7MLn – Isabella Baumann – Great contributions in form time, well done for following the news so well!
7MPe – Isabelle Wayman – For always contributing to class discussions not matter the topic.
7Mr – Ryan Walker for his great start in 7MR
7SMf – Simeon Dean – For being so welcoming to our guests, particularly Mr Inskip. You really embodied our school values!

Well done to our Head of Year Awards:
Oscar Duncan – Well done and thank you for taking your role supporting our guests in school so seriously.
Amie Shaw – Well done for consistently living the school alue of justice with integrity.

Library Newsletter:
Well, we are about to live through a historic event. The queen has reigned for 75 years. So, us, our parents and most of our grandparents will not remember a time when Queen Elizabeth wasn’t on the throne. I don’t think you have to be a royalist to get caught up in an historic event. I was in London when Charles and Diana got married. It was a scorching hot day and I jumped in the fountain in Trafalgar Square to cool down. Bad move, as I caught the coach back to York not long after, and sat like a wet dog all the way home.

We have been getting into the swing of things in the library, as this week we have been making bunting, crowns, bookmarks and having a go at crosswords and colouring pages. All with a jubilee theme.

We have lots of books about royals, in many different genres, from Historical Fiction and Young Adult Read through to Fantasy.

Recommendations
The Beast of Buckingham Palace – The Beast of Buckingham Palace by David Walliams (Quiz 237462. Level 4.3. Colour Purple) is one of many books you are currently enjoying. He is one of our most popular authors, and we can supply several titles as part of our ongoing Book Club. London is in ruins, the people are hungry, and darkness has fallen across the land. Prince Alfred, a poorly and bookish child, has never left the safety of Buckingham Palace. But now there are strange goings on inside the palace walls – and Alfred’s life is about to change forever.

In the dead of night something terrible stalks the corridors. When Alfred’s beloved mother the queen is dragged off to the Tower of London, the boy must summon all his courage to embark on an epic quest to save her… and the entire world. You can read about the characters and read up to chapter three by opening the following link and clicking on ‘open preview’. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/48735076-the-beast-of-buckingham-palace

The Red Queen – The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard (Quiz 230560. Level 5.2. Colour Green) is the first book in a series of four. The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite who have god-like superpowers. Mere, is a Red girl living in poverty who assumes that her life will never change. But Mare possesses a deadly talent of her own, one that could destroy the balance of power. The Silvers hide Mare in plain view, claiming she is a long-lost Silver princess. However, one false move could lead to her death.You can read the first five chapters by opening the following link. https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Red_Queen/EPO9BQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

Handwriting
It’s the time of year when you will be completing end of year assessments, and writing a lot more than usual. Do you think we should be handwriting in this digital age? Most phones now have an option to dictate a message/note/email, so some people don’t even type messages and emails any more. I think writing has its place. I know that I can remember things if I write them down, really enjoy sending and receiving handwritten notes, and leave myself post-it notes.

If you would like to improve your handwriting, we have some sheets in the library that can help you. You could also try writing out the sentence ‘The quick sly fox jumps over the lazy brown dog’. This sentence contains every letter of the alphabet and was used by secretaries to help them type faster. You can listen to a podcast titled ‘Does Hand Writing Have a Future?’ by opening the following link. https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/futuretense/does-handwriting-have-a-future/7574590

Year 8 – Mrs Avey, Mrs Mennell and Mr Handley
Although it has been a short half term we are really pleased with how Year 8 have been conducting themselves. We have seen lots of examples of students living the school values into being and are proud of them. With only one week to go before the half term break we’d like to wish families of our Year 8 students a peaceful and relaxing break when it comes.

Attendance has once again been really strong for Year 8 this week – well done. The year group has averaged just above 95% which is an improvement on the last couple of weeks. As we said last week, we’d love to see another form manage to get up to 100% for the whole week and earn a Pizza Party.

This coming week is the Year 8 revision week in preparation for the assessment week in the first week back after half term. All students should have received a revision booklet that includes for all their subjects, the topics that will be covered in their assessment as well as revision-based homework and strategies to help them revise. This will be a really helpful resource that students can use. We understand that the assessment week will be stressful for some but teachers will do all they can to support students in the buildup and during the week itself. If you have any questions please get in touch.

This week our Act of Collective Worship was about friendship and the role that students have in supporting their friends and vice versa. Students were asked to think about what it looks like to be a good friend and what they value in their friendships. Following on from this 8KCe have set themselves the challenge doing a random act of kindness for another person. The aim is to spread joy through little gestures. Some of the acts of kindness include paying someone a compliment, holding a door open or even just smiling at someone. Hopefully this will prove what a big difference small acts can make to another person.

We’d also like to give a special mention to Jonathon Middleton in 8KCe. Jonathon decided to forgo getting birthday gifts recently for his birthday instead opting to raise money for York’s Environmental Centre and Nature Reserve. This is a really selfless act that shows compassion and we wanted to recognise this in our Bulletin. Jonathon managed to raise over £300, a brilliant achievement and an ultimate act of kindness.

We’d also like to remind parents again about getting logged on and using their ClassCharts account. If you have any issues or need any support with using ClassCharts please do get in touch and we will be happy to help.

As ever, thank you for your continued support. If you have any issues regarding your child in Year 8, please do contact school reception to get in touch with Mrs Avey (Head of Year 8), Mr Handley (Assistant Head of Year 8), Mrs Mennell (Year 8 Pastoral Support Worker) or Miss Clarke (Year 8 Pastoral Support Worker on Friday).

Year 9 – Mr Arthur, Mr Deamer and Mrs Deacon
I cannot believe we are beginning the last week of the first summer half term, it really has flown by and I have been really proud of year 9s efforts, a lot of our young people are excellent exemplary students. I hope the lovely weather continues for their well deserved week off!

ClassCharts has had a really positive impact on the year group and it is great to hear the students debating how many merits they’ve got and when they tell me about the positive praise they receive at home due to the app. Please get in touch if you haven’t downloaded it already and if you are having any issues logging in and we can help resolve them. Form tutors are chatting with students to just check their access at home as well as for themselves. I’ve heard reports from a number of households that it’s encouraging positive conversations at home which is fantastic and some have even put their own rewards in place! Well done to 9RPr who got the most merits in one week in the whole school as well as year 9 with staggering 1518 merits between them! I know the other forms are on their heels though with the merits they are achieving also!

In Collective Worship this week Mr Williams will be talking to our young people about their end of year Assessments, more information will follow after half term but I wanted to make home aware they are coming up and it is a great opportunity for our students to show off what they have learnt this year as well as prepare for their GCSE work in Year 10, any queries please get in touch.

Furthermore after half term we will be talking to our students about enrichment week, the last week of the year, and I am excited for the opportunities available this year, more details to follow (which I’m finding hard to keep to myself!) with the amazing activities staff have planned.

Just a reminder on uniform as the weather is getting warmer and Year 9’s uniform has been excellent, and I really want to see this continue as we progress throughout the rest of the year, if you need any support in acquiring a uniform please let the pastoral team know and we are more than happy to help. School jumpers need to be worn in Collective Worship and Chapel, therefore students need to be bringing them with them everyday even if the weather is warm so they have them ready to go for our time together as a year group. Any queries please let me know.

Finally, a big congratulations to the students winning the Head of Year Award last week…

Thank you for taking the time to read this parent bulletin. If you have any issues regarding your child in Year 9, then please do get in touch by emailing Mr Arthur aarthur@ahs.pmat.academy (Head of Year), myself; mdeacon@ahs.pmat.academy (Assistant Head of Year) and/or Mr Deamer rdeamer@ahs.pmat.academy (Pastoral Support Worker) and/or Miss Clark sclark@ahs.pmat.academy (Pastoral Support Worker); or alternatively, you can call Main School Reception and we will get back to you as soon as we can, thank you – Miss Deacon.

Year 10 – Mr Avery, Mrs Johstone and Miss Montagu
This week we welcomed back the year 10 students from work experience. From speaking with them I am delighted that they took so much from their time in the world of work. Many have grown in confidence and self-esteem, and developed new skills they can use in the future. I am very proud of the resilience they have shown toward their new environments, with many students finding the early starts and long hours very tiresome – a nice reminder that school is not always that bad! During the two week period of work experience, my colleagues and I enjoyed visiting the students in their place of work, and speaking with employers on the phone about how well the students were doing. I believe following the difficult two years we have had; the year group should be very proud of taking themselves out of their comfort zone and putting themselves into an environment of which they have no experience. As Martin Luther King once said “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just climb the first step”.

Over the two weeks I have received nothing but positive praise from employers, who stated how well the students represented themselves and the school impeccably. It would take me too long to single out all the students I received praise for, but I know many have secured part time jobs either now or in the future, and some being accepted back in the summer to complete internships that will look fantastic on student records. Even the very few students that did not enjoy their placements left with more clarity about the future, key work-related skills and a new appreciation for alternative opportunities that lay before them. I know how difficult many of our students found securing two weeks work experience and I hope the vast majority feel the effort was worth it in the end. On that note I would like to mention the students that joined us in school over the two weeks. For some, securing a full two weeks work experience was not an option, so they were in school following a collapsed timetable and being taught engaging one off lessons from a variety of teachers. They were hard working, cheery and a pleasure to have in school. This was not easy while some of their peers were out at work, so I am just as proud of their achievements.

The recent parents evening we had was a really positive experience, and I hope parents found it both informative and useful. With Year 11 very close to completing their exams, I want to stress to year 10 that they now have become the main focus of the school with their exams only twelve months away. With this in mind over the next few weeks I will begin to address they very important mock exams that are approaching at the end of June. These mock exams will last one week, with students completing at least one full paper (in each of their subjects) in exam conditions in the sports hall. This time is invaluable in getting students ready for the formal examinations they will be sitting in Year 11, and gently introduces them to what a week of exams feels like. The students will complete revision in lessons prior to the mock exams taking place, and will be given excellent revision resources to complete at home in order to give them the best opportunity for success. I will stress to all the students in the build up to mocks that there is no pressure on them, and all we require is for them to do their best. I will make it clear to them that the mocks allow us to assess where they currently are in terms of their progress, and put any necessary support in place in Year 11. The mock period will begin on Monday 27th June to Friday 1st July, and more detailed information will be sent to parents in the coming weeks, including any specific access arrangements your child is entitled to. Should you have

As we welcome back students from Work experience, I wanted to remind parents and carers of the expectations around uniform. Our goal is simply that students should feel confident, look smart and be safe. With this in mind, we will continue to focus on the following areas:

• Trousers/Skirts: Jeans and Leggings will be a particular focus.
• Jewellery: two plain studs in each ear and a single plain nose stud are allowed, but nothing more.
• Makeup: any obvious signs of make up will be removed.
• Trainers: these will be swapped at reception for school shoes.
• Hoodies: no hoodies should be worn around school in the summer term, including AHS hoodies.
• Ties: these will be issued to students if necessary, but any that are not returned will be charged.

The improvement in uniform standards has been excellent, with the vast majority of our students being compliant toward this. Your support has been greatly appreciated and we thank you in advance for your continued support. Your help in this area is making our job very much easier!

I am delighted to see an uptake in attendance this half term, with many of our students attending school on a more regular basis. Prior to work experience, we are tracking attendance at an average of 93%, a significant increase from the winter and spring term. However, we still have some work to do if we are to reach the all important 95% mark I set as a minimum for our students. Studies have shown that attendance below this can significantly impact on student progress. With Year 11 just around the corner, I want to get all our students into good habits with attendance before the hard work starts next year.

Thank you for all the hard work you are doing at home to continue to support your child, this is having a very significant impact toward their success at school. The Year 10 pastoral team are always available to help with any questions or queries you may have.

Year 11 – Miss Turvey, Miss Reeder and Miss Chambers
Our first week of GCSE exams is now complete and we would like to say an enormous well done to our Year 11s for overcoming this hurdle. The conduct of Year 11 has been exemplary and we couldn’t be more impressed with the way in which students have approached their exams and revision sessions. It has been gratifying to see so many individuals coming out of exams feeling proud and confident of their performance after working so hard. Hopefully, everyone has been able to enjoy a well-deserved rest this weekend. Well done Year 11!

This week, students will continue to be in school at the usual times to follow their bespoke timetable of exams and revision sessions. Students should remain vigilant to ensure they are in school on time every day, punctual to all of their exams and keeping mobile phones switched off in their bags.

We understand that, following exams, students will be feeling tired and some may be tempted by the prospect of going home. As a school, we cannot authorise this and will continue to recommend that students remain in school. Given our outstanding exam results (best in the city and in the top 4% nationally in the last exam season) we feel confident the revision package we offer in school is the best option for your child. This approach is in line with Government guidance which states that ‘study leave should not be granted by default’ given that ‘some pupils do not have the skills, or are not inclined, to make the best use of unsupervised and unstructured revision time’ (DofE School Attendance guidelines, 2022). Increasingly, there are statistics to suggest that year 11s who are given prolonged periods of study leave do not perform as well as those who are kept under the more formal tutorage of a school environment (One Education, 2017). This is something that has been strongly advocated by the Government since 2004, when it was published that ‘study leave may be a very positive experience for some students but it can be lost time for others. Successful preparation for examinations needs to be a deliberate and carefully planned experience for students’. A case study was cited in support of this whereby Year 11s were 21% more likely to achieve 5+ A*-C grades when they did not go on study leave (Beyond Study Leave, DofE/SSAT, 2004). If you would like to hold a further discussion about this or the revision sessions in school, the Year 11 team would be happy to speak to you.

We will continue to offer breakfast in the Courtyard Café each morning where there will be a selection of breakfast pastries, fresh fruit, cereal bars, hot chocolate and fruit juices. Students may also look forward to a Friday bacon sandwich at the end of the week. The atmosphere in the café each morning has been really uplifting and once again has left us feeling very privileged to have such lovely and well-mannered individuals in our year group. The Year 11 team will continue to be on hand at the start of each day from 8:15am and at the start and end of exams to offer support.

Please find this week’s timetable overview below. Outside of exam time, Tuesday and Wednesday will be particularly important given the RE and English bespoke revision sessions taking place:

Thank you for your continued support. If you have any issues regarding your child in Year 11, please contact school reception who will alert the Year 11 team: Miss Turvey (Head of Year 11), Miss Chambers (Assistant Head of Year 11) Mrs Reeder (Year 11 Pastoral Support Worker) or Miss Short (SLT). Thank you.

Post 16 – Mrs De Lashley, Mrs Walton, Miss Balmer and Mr Charlton
Y13 Farewell – Last week was a lovely occasion to mark the journey and effort that Year 13 have put in over the last two years. The celebration evening was packed with happy faces and an engaging, moving, and thought-provoking sermon from the Archbishop of York. A true honour. We look forward to seeing them over the coming weeks taking exams and completing coursework.

Exams commence on Monday and students are required to be in black Square 20mins before the start time to ensure that they have time to check the seating plans in Black Square and get to their exam location in good time to prevent delayed starts.

Exams this week – A Level

Exams this week – BTEC exams

Sixth Form Rewards

Collective Worship
This week our Form Tutor Collective Worship is about the idea that how we treat creation reflects how we feel about the creator. Our daily quotes look at the theme of Creativity.

Quotes
Monday “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” – Albert Einstein, Nobel prize winning scientist
Tuesday “Creativity is hardwired into our DNA by God himself. All of us were made to be creative people.” – Stephen Altrogge, Christian writer and blogger
Wednesday “Creativity is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift to God.” – Bob Moawad, American author and motivational speaker
Thursday “Creativity is not simply a property of exceptional people but an exceptional property of all people.” – Ron Carter, Professor of Modern English Language at the University of Nottingham
Friday “The heavens are telling the glory of God; they are a marvelous display of his craftsmanship.” – The Bible – Psalm 19:1

The Wellbeing Newsletter Issue 54

Dear parents and carers,

I hope families had a safe and enjoyable weekend. Monday represents the beginning of the full GCSE examination season, followed by A Level next week. We are extremely proud of the dedication and resilience that students have shown over an extended period of time and wish them all the very best in the weeks ahead. As ever, our staff have also worked incredibly hard to help prepare students for the demands of these examinations and we will continue to do so over the coming weeks. If families feel that there is anything further that you need from us please do not hesitate to contact school.

Weekly Update – ClassCharts Merits for Week 30
It’s been another excellent week for merits on ClassCharts. 14,341 merits were awarded across the school last week in recognition of all the fantastic things, both big and small, that students are doing every day in school – we as a staff body are all very proud!

Here is an interesting breakdown of the average merits awarded to students in each year group, and the names of some exceptional performers…

Well done to Year 7 for achieving the highest average merit score last week, and a very well done to those individuals who achieved the highest number of merits in each year group!

Many more students have now crossed there 50+ merit marker, and you as parents should have received a message home through the ClassCharts up in recognition of this. If you are yet to download the ClassCharts app or require support in doing so, please contact your child’s pastoral team. When further thresholds are crossed in this final term of the year, parents will be receiving letters home from the school in recognition of these excellent achievements.

Just another reminder – in September we will be launching the Archbishop Holgate’s School ‘Rewards Store’, where students can exchange their merits for prizes, and even make charitable donations in their name if they so wish. We will also have a new systems of letters and certificates ranging from the ‘Bronze Award’ to a ‘Special Commendation’ based on how many merits students achieve. For this first term of Merits on Classcharts, you will receive a notification when your child crosses certain merit thresholds, as well as letters home as recognition for their achievements. Thank you!

Head of Year Awards
Please find the Head of Year Awards for Week 30…

Head of Year Updates
Year 7 – Miss Kincell, Miss Powell and Miss Cooper
We are so proud of Year 7 this week, their work ethos and resilience has been absolutely incredible. This linked very well to our assembly this week about soft employability skills and the importance of learning valuable skills such as reliability and punctuality.

This morning students engaged with their extended form time and took part in a PSHE lesson based on the importance of Diversity, Inclusion and Equality. We discussed how we can base this on our school values, justice, compassion, forgiveness and trust as well as what we can do better to ensure all are protected, respected and celebrated within our school community.

Well done to our Students of the Week:
7Ann – Lucy Norman – For helping others in the form and for being a fantastic partner for other students.
7ASu – Ben Buzasi – For showing great effort and resilience by presenting the News this week!
7Bl – Oliver Temple – always willing to read the prayer in form collective worship.
7Cy – Scarlett Wheatland for being compassionate by helping and guiding a new student
7Gr – Emily Graville – Always being conscientious and hardworking, it does not go unnoticed! Thank you
7Hf – Macie Allan – for an excellent start and learning new school routines. Well Done!
7Hv – Liam Shepherd- Great reading during thought for the day, well done!
7MLn – Emily Cundall – For your humour, your resilience and your positive attitude.
7MPe – Rocus Leung – for living the school values
7Mr – Caio Pereira for his much improved punctuality
7SMf – Lily Casey – Outstanding resilience, humour and intellect shown in all class conversations and Y7 Assessments.

Well done to our Head of Year Awards
Oliver Temple 7Bl – for outstanding resilience during assessment week
Ismay Ambler 7Hv – for living the school values and supporting other students

Mental Health Awareness Week
Mental Health Awareness week is an annual event which focuses on achieving better mental health across the UK. Taking place across 9-15 May, the theme this year is loneliness. Loneliness can affect many of us at one time or another and it has had a huge impact on our mental and physical health during the pandemic. You can feel lonely even when surrounded by others, but you feel disconnected and misunderstood. This week in the library we have been making cards and postcards with positive messages and thinking about who might like to receive one. Lovely cards have been sent to friends and family, others have been pushed through the door of a neighbour. Plus, don’t forget that most everyone enjoys being read to, so if you have a friend/relative that you don’t get to see very often, why not read them a chapter of your current book over Zoom. Even better, read them something you have written yourself.

Congratulations to Isabel Weyman 7Mpe who won the Odd Sock poetry competition. Isabel won a chocolate orange, and you can read her entry below.

Odd Socks by Isabel Weyman 7Mpe

I have odd socks, they are in a box,
‘cause my mum does say, (or rather shout)
You should throw them out.
I love odd socks and know mum does too,
‘cause all her yellow ones are paired with blue!
When someone has a pair, I can’t help but glare
at their feet as they walk down the street.
And, I always think, when my feet are at rest,
That odd socks really are the best.

Year 8 – Mrs Avey, Mrs Mennell and Mr Handley
Attendance has once again been really strong for Year 8 this week – well done. A couple of forms are getting closer to 100% – the reward for which is a Pizza Party.8Ob are the only form to have managed this so far – we’d love to see some of the other forms in Year 8 achieve this before the end of the school year.

This week in our Act of Collective Worship Mr Williams, the Deputy Head for Curriculum, delivered an assembly on the assessment week for Year 8 in the first week back in the next half term. The Assessment week is something all year groups will do and is an opportunity for students to show off what they have learned this year. Teachers will give feedback in the weeks after in a supportive capacity to help students in any area they have found challenging. We understand an assessment week will bring with it some stress for students. Teachers will be giving students plenty of revision beforehand and will support students in their preparation. If you have any questions, please do get in touch.

In form time this week students completed the extended PHSCE session for this half term. This session was about diversity, equality and inclusion. This follows on from our Act of Collective worship last week and is an important part of the education offered to developing students beyond the curriculum. Our school community is diverse and we are proud of this and proud of our students for being inclusive and accepting of others. This links to our school values of compassion and justice. As ever, the contributions made by students really showed their compassion and understanding of how equality plays a vital role in justice, one of our school values.

We have been asked to invite Year 8 students (as well as Year 7 and 9) to take part in a wellbeing survey being offered by the University of Cambridge. We will highlight this in form time to students but parental consent would be needed for students to take part. A flyer will be handed out in form time. Please do get in touch if you would like more information about this.

The Year 8 team would also like to recognise the hard work of some Year 8 students and of Miss Wheater in the PE department for a project they have completed on Leadership. The students involved on this have been working on this since February and are currently completing a presentation about their future aspirations. The work the students have completed has been excellent. Well done to the following (and a massive thanks to Miss Wheater):

• Elisabetta M
• Tamara A
• Aela M
• Sophie B
• Caitlin M
• Hannah B
• Jessie K
• Lilly-Jo H
• Ruby H
• Anna R
• Poppy S
• Ava G

We’d also like to remind parents again about getting logged on and using their ClassCharts account. If you have any issues or need any support with using ClassCharts please do get in touch and we will be happy to help.

Year 9 – Mr Arthur, Mr Deamer and Mrs Deacon
In the blink of an eye, we have reached past the halfway point of the half term! Yeah nine I’ve had an excellent half term so far, and long may it continue!

I wanted to take this opportunity to discuss the issue of bullying. In 2020, our Deputy Head Mr Furniss invited volunteers to contribute to a ‘working party’ on updating our approach towards the issue of bullying and make it more ‘student-friendly’ and easy to understand. The outcome has been extensive, and posters on the working group’s outcomes have been placed all around school. Students will certainly have noticed the rising profile of our approach to bullying, and we regularly address to students through how we can collectively tackle this issue during our weekly Act of Collective Worship. Every student at AHS has the right to feel safe and happy in school, and we are committed to tackling bullying in all its forms within the school community. First, students were taken through a carefully worded definition of ‘bullying’, which we have set out as…

“the repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power.”

This definition comes from the Anti-Bullying Alliance, and we made sure we took the students through this carefully. Key aspects of this to highlight include the deliberate and repetitive nature of the behaviour which happens over a period of time, and how it usually involves an imbalance of power between the perpetrators and the victim. Further to this, we discuss the reasons why people bully and how this is important to tackling the issue. Whilst these reasons do not excuse the behaviour, they certainly help us understand the behaviour in a productive way to help tackle the issue effectively. If we understand why people engage in these sorts of behaviours, it is much easier for us to address directly and prevent it from happening in the future. Finally, we often discuss the different roles that individuals have within instances of bullying, and this terminology is something we will continue to use when addressing these issues with students. There is the initial perpetrator who initiates these behaviours; referred to in this case as the ‘ringleader’. They are supported by the ‘assistant(s)’ who are also involved in perpetrating these unsavoury behaviours. Whilst these roles will be fulfilled by a very small minority of students in school, we also explained the importance of the role of ‘reinforcer(s)’ – these people will not stand up to bullying when they see it, and may even laugh or encourage people to continue their negative behaviour. It is important for students to realise that we need to work as a community to tackle these issues, and we ended with the quote to this effect from Archbishop Desmond Tutu…

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

It is vital that we have more students who perform the role of the ‘defender’ in these instances – someone who stands up for someone who is being bullied. This could be something as small as discouraging another student from engaging in this behaviour, or preferably telling an adult in school so the issue can be dealt with in a timely and productive fashion. If your child has been a victim of verbal, physical, emotional or social bullying, please do either get in touch yourself, or encourage your child to speak to an adult in school and we will work to get to the bottom of the issue.

I also want to take this opportunity to stress the importance of punctuality. Punctuality is also a key contributor to the success of students . It is important that students are sat in their form rooms ready to start the day before 8:45. This means that students must ensure they arrive on school site well before then – form rooms will be open from 8:30 for them to ‘drift in’ on a morning, and there are wellbeing resources available for when they arrive. This will also ensure that any important messages that are passed on to students during morning Tutor Time are given to all of the students. Furthermore, it is also vitally important that students arrive to lessons on time. Studies have shown that re-capping on old content through low-stakes testing is crucial to consolidating their learning. The first few minutes of a lesson is where most recaps take place. It is therefore vitally important that students arrive to lessons promptly and ready to learn to ensure they maximise the input that is given to them by teachers across all subjects. If students are persistently late to lessons, they will be placed in a lunch detention on ClassCharts.

Finally, a big congratulations to the students winning the Head of Year Award last week…

Thank you for taking the time to read this parent bulletin. If you have any issues regarding your child in Year 9, then please do get in touch by emailing aarthur@ahs.pmat.academy (head of Year), mdeacon@ahs.pmat.academy (Assistant Head of Year) and/or rdeamer@ahs.pmat.academy (Pastoral Support Worker); or alternatively, you can call Main School Reception and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Thank you!

Year 10 – Mr Avery, Miss Johstone and Miss Montagu
Year 10 are currently on Work Experience.

Year 11 – Miss Turvey, Miss Reeder and Miss Chambers
After all of the hard work and commitment our students have put in over the past few months, we have finally reached the start of full cohort GCSEs. As always, we are so proud of our Year 11s for how exceptionally well they have done this year and we want to wish them the best of luck for the exam period ahead. All of the groundwork is now in place and we know they are going to absolutely smash it!

A special shout out this week to students who went on the Boggle Hole trip this weekend. This was a roaring success with plenty of sun, some lovely memories made on the beach and lots of meaningful revision completed too. Our students made us immensely proud and Mr Avery has asserted it was “the best group of students he has ever taken” – well done Year 11!

This week, we will be doing all we can to support students for their GCSEs ahead. Students will be in school at the usual times following a bespoke timetable of exams and revision sessions. Students should continue to wear full school uniform as normal with the addition of their Leavers hoodies if desired. We will only ask students to remove their hoodies for the exams.

An overview of this week in Year 11 is attached below. The key message to students here is that they will be arriving in school and going to AM registration as normal every day this week. We feel this will be really valuable to allow students the opportunity to check in with their tutors, ensure they have the equipment they need for their exams and be reminded of what will happen on the day ahead. As these are external examinations, students must be vigilant to ensure they are in school on time every day, they are punctual to all of their exams, they turn their mobile phones off and leave them outside of the exam hall, and they demonstrate impeccable behaviour. If students do not arrive on time or breach the code of conduct for exams there is little we can do to intervene at a school level. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any concerns and we will do all we can to put in place preemptive support.

We are aware of how stressful the GCSE exams are for students and it is important to remind your child that it is normal to feel anxious and tired during this period. Getting a good night’s sleep each night at home, having plenty to eat and drink and having time and space to wind down will be important. In school, we will be providing breakfast every morning in the Courtyard Cafe from 8:15am. The Year 11 team will also be on hand here each morning to answer questions and offer support before AM registration begins. We will also be present at the start and end of each exam as well as break and lunchtime to offer support and resolve any arising issues. Students can also speak to their Form tutors during am and pm registration. If you feel your child is struggling during the exam period, please do let us know and, together, we can discuss a plan to mitigate this.

Once again, we wish your child the best of luck in their exams and hope they will undertake them with confidence and self-belief after all of their hard work this year.

If you have any issues regarding your child in Year 11, please contact school reception who will alert the Year 11 team: Miss Turvey (Head of Year 11), Miss Chambers (Assistant Head of Year 11) Mrs Reeder (Year 11 Pastoral Support Worker) or Miss Short (SLT). Thank you.

Post 16 – Mrs De Lashley, Mrs Walton, Miss Balmer and Mr Charlton
Exams this week

A Level Exams – Exams commence Monday 23rd May and students are required to be in Black Square 20 minutes before the start time to ensure that they have time to check the seating plans in Black Square and get to their exam location in good time to prevent delayed starts.

Y13 Stand-down – A reminder that Year 13 stand-down to commence their A Level exams this Friday. Friday is a full normal day following their celebrations the evening before. Following Friday students are not to attend school unless for exams with the exception of BTEC students that will remain in school until coursework is completed.

REMINDER: Y13 Leavers

• Y13 Leavers Celebration Thursday 19th May (Main Hall 7pm). The archbishop of York is joining us to host the initial part of the evening. Please join us to celebrate Year 13 completing a tough two year
• Prom Friday 24th June (Hilton, York)

Sixth Form Rewards – As we have transitioned to Class Charts we have moved with the rewards system and no longer collect student shoutouts. Below are this week’s rewards. These are positive acknowledgments from staff. When we have been using this a few more weeks we will establish an appropriate set of rewards suitable for our cohort. So far it has been used well and students are receiving lots of acknowledgement. If you have not yet signed up for Class Charts, please do. You can track these rewards live.

Collective Worship
This week our Form Tutor Collective Worship is all about our attitude towards the poor and whether it is one of genuine concern and care. Our daily quotes are all wisdom from Mother Teresa of Calcutta..

Monday – “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” – Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Tuesday – “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” – Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Wednesday – “Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.” – Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Thursday – “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” – Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Friday – “The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.” – Mother Teresa of Calcutta

The Wellbeing Newsletter Issue 53