Week 17 – 13 January 2023
Upcoming Events
Monday 16th January – Year 9 Options Taster Day
Tuesday January – 17th GCSE Certificates
Despite this being a really busy week at YHS the atmosphere when I have walked around school has been so calm. Blustery conditions can often lead to blustery behaviour in schools but the students have been fantastic. Looking forward to seeing last year’s Year 11 when they come in on Tuesday to pick up their GCSE certificates.
Year 11 have been on aspire week and we have been sharing daily updates through the Facebook site but for those of you who do not access this here is a summary of the week.
Monday – Whole school careers fair
We had over 25 stalls, with representatives from local colleges, 6th form, the NHS, engineering, accountancy, apprenticeships, banking, cyber-crime, STEM, healthcare, fitness and a variety of universities.
Tuesday and Thursday – College taster days
Year 11 students were able to see what courses York college and other local colleges had to offer
Wednesday – Business challenge day
Y11 took part in a number of challenges; Drax gave them the “energy trilemma”, they were on the stock exchange with Aviva, scoping out a different way of attending university with CU Scarborough, “pumping it up” with CRODA science, and building earthquake proof structures with Sisk.
Friday – Employability Skills
Students have taken part in workshops practising interview skills, CV writing and knowing your skills and abilities.
Year 7 Fire Awareness
Today we welcomed the York Fire Service into school to discuss fire safety, deliberate fire setting and hoax calls with our Year 7 students. They investigated a fictional fire and found a whole host of causes, from overfilled plug sockets to oil spillages in the kitchen.
John even brought his kit for some students to try on!
We had a great day learning about the dangers of fire. Remember John’s advice – to check your fire alarm’s batteries work and that you don’t leave electronics charging on soft surfaces.
Year 11 Girls Football
Great game for our YHS girls football team today, 2-2 draw against Bootham. 2 fabulous goals from Alisha and some great assists from Jazz. Also, a great game from all of the girls with Kelsey captaining them and everyone putting in 100% effort. We hope to see all the girls playing in more games very soon, well done girls!
YEAR 11 Exam Preparation
Next week is the start of our round 2 intervention sessions. With only 14 school weeks until the first GCSE exams, attendance at these sessions is more important than ever. We know that these sessions can support pupils in making rapid progress, for example, students who attended all six of their science intervention sessions last term went up by an average of 4 grades! These sessions are all about improving marks and improving grades, so that our pupils go on to have the best possible future.
Letters have been sent home with pupils today as well as being emailed to parents. Please complete the reply slip over the weekend and make sure your child returns it on Monday.
Attendance message from Miss Burns
To improve our communication with you, from today we will be sending a message to parents/carers each Friday with your child’s percentage attendance to date. Where punctuality has been an issue, there will also be a message with the number of occasions late to school that week, and the length of time missed as a result. We hope that this information is helpful to you so that you can speak to your child at home and continue to support good attendance.
Finally, thank you for your continued support in contacting school before 8.30am if your child is going to be absent that day. If you ring 01904 806600 (option 1) you can leave a message or speak to one of my colleagues, who are in Reception from 8.00am.