Principal’s Weekly Post – Week 25

It has been another busy and successful week at York High School.

This week we’ve had a bumper week of students celebrating their Excellence Everyday Awards. The Excellence Every Day Award is only given out to students by a member of staff once per week and marks a moment in the week where something really special has taken place in the classroom. Students then bring their Excellence Every Day Award to me on Wednesday to discuss this special moment and celebrate this with a reward of their choice. The Excellence Every Day Awards have grown massively as the year has progressed and it is wonderful to see so many of our amazing students wanting to celebrate their academic success.

We ended the week with our ‘Battle of the Butts’ event today to raise money for Comic Relief 2025. This year students wore something red to support this great cause and also took part in an event where every member of the school community sat on 100 seats during the day. The aim was to sit on over 90,000 seats to match the capacity of Wembley Stadium – I’m pleased to say we achieved our goal! This was a great effort and York High School certainly did something funny for money to celebrate Comic Relief 2025. Thank you to Mr Walker for organising this. 

Finally, we sent out our second parent survey of the year yesterday. Thank you to those that have already submitted their responses. If you have not yet done so, I would be grateful if you could please take a few minutes to complete this before Friday 28 March. Your views are vital to our continued improvement and you can access the survey HERE.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Gavin Kumar
Principal

Red Nose Day – Battle of the Butts!

Well done to all York High School staff and students in completing our latest Comic Relief challenge… Today we sat on 90,000+ seats!

Look out next Friday for the Week 26 update when we’ll share some photographs with you, and once counted, the total amount of money we have raised for Comic Relief!

Excellence Every Day

It’s another bumper rewards week! Well done to Lewis, Thomas, Evan, Callie, Maisie, Sophie, Louise, Kian, Freddie, Olly, Jayden, Chacse, Mason, Archie, Terry, Daisy, Kate, Mercy, April, Olivia, Lucy, Riley, Freddie, Demi and Halkat!

Year 7 girls make rugby league debut

Today our Year 7 girls travelled to Castleford Panthers to make their rugby league debut in the Yorkshire Schools Cup.

They played several games against schools from all over Yorkshire, with Skyler and Cara scoring some impressive tries, whilst Elizabeth, Else and Alexis worked hard in defence. The girls saved their best performance for their final game against Archbishop Sentamu Academy, who went on to win the tournament. Well done team!

We look forward to several more games in the coming months, culminating in a national tournament in Warrington on 19 June.

Oddballs Talk

On Thursday this week, we welcomed Olly from Oddballs to our assembly for Year 10 pupils. Oddballs is a charity dedicated to spreading awareness about testicular cancer. This links directly to an upcoming RAS lesson looking at self-examinations.

Inaugural Excel Staff Recognition Awards

Next term, Excel Learning Trust will hold its Inaugural Staff Recognition Awards 2025 celebrating the incredible individuals who make the Trust community thrive.

These awards provide a way for the Trust to express its gratitude for the tireless effort, hard work, dedication and passion that members of its community bring to the table. There will be awards for support staff, teaching staff, leaders and volunteers, who will be recognised for the amazing impact they make and for ensuring that our children experience educational excellence every day.

One very special award is the ‘Excelling Through Parent or Community Recognition’. Awarded for those who build strong relationships outside of the Trust and for making sure that our school is not just a place for children but a hub of support and connection, this is parent or community nominated. We’ve already received a large number of nominations in this category, but if you’d like to nominate someone from Millthorpe or any of the other Trust schools, just complete this short nomination form by Monday 14 April 2025. 

The award winners will be announced at a celebratory event on 10 July 2025.

Students get a taste of the future at Aviva HQ

On Friday last week, 15 Year 7s and 15 Year 8s visited the Aviva headquarters in York for an exciting day! We got to know a huge range of staff, as well as touring the building – it completely changed the students’ minds as to what a modern office space looks like.

Students also tested out some employability workshop activities, which will be coming to all Year 7 and 8 pupils next academic year. We then had a well-deserved Domino’s pizza break, which was very well received, before embarking on a quest to design and release our own savings app where three groups took joint first place.

Thank you so much to The Place and Aviva for organising such a fantastic day – we’re excited to bring these opportunities to all students at York High in the coming months. One student was overheard saying that they wish the day could have been longer!

Destinations Festival

Destinations Festival is a one-off event hosted by Inspiring Choices in collaboration with Askham Bryan University Centre, CU Scarborough, University of York and York St John University.

The event which will take place on Wednesday 9 April at York St John University is aimed at young people in Year 9 and above from any background who have an interest in attending university and would like to know more.

On the day there will be professionals from a variety of careers sharing their advice at our drop-in sessions, talks on student life and how to apply to university, guidance and support for certain groups including students eligible for DSA (disabled students’ allowance), and taster sessions where you could be solving a mystery in the crime scene house!

For further information and to register, please click here.

Community Cupboard

Our school is committed to helping those in need through our community cupboard, ensuring that every student and family has access to essential food/household items. Donations are always welcome and greatly appreciated, as they help us continue to support the local community.

If you or someone you know needs any support, please contact Aimee a.stewart@yorkhigh.elt.org.uk or Emma e.masterman@yorkhigh.elt.org.uk, or pop into main reception.

All requests will be handled with care and confidentiality.

The YHS Way

Next week’s focus: Routines and Habits – Uniform