Thought for the Week
Dates for your diary
30th October INSET day school closed to pupils
19th October TAHS SEN parents evening
1st November Year 9 Tutor Evening
7th November Year 11 Tutor Evening
Headteacher blog:
Completing my student voice activity for this half term on Friday was an absolute pleasure as I met with a group of articulate, thoughtful year nine students.
Over the half term, I have met with 25 students in total and they have shared with me their views on how we can further develop the school. In general they seem satisfied with the replacement of the school planners with Insight homework portal .
They also shared with me the wide range of extra curricular activities they have been participating in. GCSE pod clearly remains a popular resource. Many students shared with me that they are planning to use it over half term for their revision.
We hope you all have a wonderful half term and look forward to seeing students back on Tuesday, 31 October.
Year 9 – Tutor Evening.
World Challenge Christmas Craft Fair
Luke Hardwick and Tom Barraclough invite you to their
World Challenge Christmas craft fair
3rd December Alton Village hall. 11 till 3.
Selected local craft stalls providing a great chance to do Christmas shopping for those unique gifts. We have a fully booked fair with a fantastic selection of seasonal and unique items.
Refreshments will be available serving cake and drinks but also soup and crusty bread for lunch. Put the date in your diary- See you there.
Online Safety
We are aware that snapchat has been used to create a TAHS story. This has been closed down and the police have been informed. All students must not load up images of staff or students in school uniform on to any social media site. We appreciate your support with this.
The impact of social media can be amazing – the promotion of events, the re-connection with friends from times past and the sharing of memories – are all fantastic ways of communicating.
Unfortunately social media is not always used in such a positive way.
Advice regarding uploading pictures:
Only upload pictures that you’d be happy for a parent to see (the internet is a public place). Don’t post pictures of you or your friends wearing school uniform (this lets people know where you will be). Tick the “no pic forwarding” option on your settings page – this will stop people forwarding your pictures to anyone without your consent. Who are you communicating with? Do you know? Do you really know?? Have you met them? If you know someone… who knows someone… who knows someone….. it doesn’t make them your friend.
Advice for students:
What you put on social media sites is there forever. Consider the information you share – you don’t know who your friend’s friends are… or your friend’s friends’ friends… Be aware that information on your profile could potentially be viewed by anyone. Consider you photo – what info does it give about you? Understand the meaning of ‘joint enterprise’ Be aware that university admissions and employers WILL check your internet activity.
Students/Parents & carers please visit https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/ for further information
Childline advice app for young people
Please encourage your child to download the childline app as a relevant source of help and advice for young people.
The link is – https://www.childline.org.uk/toolbox/for-me/
Further social media advice for students, parents and carers
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40382876
It is always surprising how quickly the end of term creeps up on us, this week we have been talking about celebrating the successes that we achieve. It could be handing in a piece of work that has been particularly difficult, and the sense of achievement that it can bring. It can also be achieving their highest score yet in a test or end of unit exam. Whatever it is, each student should reflect on how they feel when they have achieved and accomplished this, regardless of how other students have done. All our students in the Sixth Form are unique, and it is clear to us that as long as they work to achieve their goals then they are succeeding.
This week we were given the news that one of our Year 12 Students, Natasha Young. Tash Young and Ella Harrod have just been awarded a Distinction in their Grade 5 ballet exam. They both have lessons with Spotlight Academy. Tash has shown a great commitment to her dance as she has attended since the age of 3 and does all 4 types of dance with them: Ballet, Tap, Modern and Street. They both also dance with UtoD, which is also a very successful dance group. Well do ne to both of them.
As you are aware out Year 13 students are in the process of applying for University, looking at Higher Level Apprenticeships and looking at other pathways. We have had 13 students apply for competitive courses, which means they have to apply earlier than most other students do as they have interviews and exams in order to gain access on to these courses.
Josh Ball – Medicine
Ellie Emery – Dentistry
Oliver Roberts – Veterinary Medicine (Ex-Student left last year)
Laura Allen – Natural Sciences at Cambridge University (St Catherine’s College)
Trudy Yates – History at Cambridge University (Peterhouse College)
Laura Wilson – Mathematics at Cambridge University (St Johns College)
Michael Meakin – Philosophy and Theology at Oxford University (Jesus College)
Sarah Page – English Language and Literature at Oxford University (Worcester College)
Lucy Vickers – PPE at Oxford University (Balliol College)
Lowri Spear – English Language and Literature at Oxford University (Wadham College)
Anna Sykes – English Language and Literature at Oxford University (Mansfield College)
Harry Taylor – Physics at Oxford University (Queens College)
As well as this we have had a further 8 students complete their UCAS application early, well done to these students as they can now concentrate all their time towards their studies. We do recommend that all students complete their Personal Statements as soon as possible, so that they can arrange an appointment with their personal tutor to have it checked and sent. If you, as a parent, would like to know anything then please contact us at the following email address sixthform@tahs.org.uk.
All Year 12 and 13 students have been given a data collection sheet that needs to be completed and returned to school as soon as possible. This ensures that we have the correct contact details on our system, which does make home-school contact much more efficient.
We would like to share the Sixth Form application process with all parents of students in Year 11. If students or parents have any questions about the application process then we would like them to contact us and we will talk them through it.
Application Guidance
Sixth Form Application Guidance
Thomas Alleyne’s Sixth Form application can be downloaded from the school website – www.thomasalleynes.uk.
Subject Guidance
For example if a student wanted to study : Psychology as your 1st choice indicate this as choice 1, History 2nd choice as choice 2 etc.
Notes:
-They should choose a minimum of 3 subjects to study
-Some courses are full time and so cannot be combined with others.
Please refer to the 6th Form prospectus for further information.
We will endeavour to accommodate preferred subject choices whenever we can. We will update applicants on any change to their subject choices if and where necessary.
If you have any queries regarding subject choices or completion of your application, please speak to your Form Tutor or a member of the Sixth Form team. Alternatively you can email any questions to sixthform@tahs.org.uk
Once completed, your form needs to be returned to either your Form Tutor or to the School Office.
Personal Statement – Guidance
On the school website students can find a hyperlink to help with the application process. It is recommended that students keep a copy of their personal statement as this will form the basis of the discussion at their interview in March.
Students should cover 4 main areas in their statement:
– Describe themselves & their personal qualities
– Explain their work experience and any other courses they have completed and the skills gained from this
– Involvement in school and community life
– Future plans and ambitions
Linguist of the week
SEND Evening
Future Business Leaders?
Business leader Chris Windley talked to some of our y9 and y10 students about social media, personal branding and how to make an idea into a business. The talk was motivational and helped students think more about how to achieve in school and business. Two important tips were, “Be confident enough to have patience” and “You should be using your eyes and ears more than your mouth” in order to succeed.
Pastoral students of the week
Nominated by the House team, for a range of contributions to school life:
Science News
On Monday our students were amazed and intrigued by the appearance of the Sun in the morning sky.
The Sun appeared as a red disc and produced an eerie orange glow in the sky around the School. The cause of this unusual spectacle was ex-hurricane Ophelia which originated in the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean to the west of Portugal. As the hurricane moved north it dragged with it dust that had been drawn high into the atmosphere from the Sahara Desert in North Africa. The recent forest fires in Portugal and Spain also resulted in dust and debris rising into the atmosphere, which also contributed to the effect.
Mr Melland explained that the Sun’s visible light is part of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun. The visible light is made up of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet and these colours combine to make white light.
The red sun phenomenon was a result of the particles in the air causing shorter-wavelength blue light to scatter leaving longer-wavelength red light to shine through.
This week’s Science Students of the week selected by Mr Melland are:
Year 9
Amelia Hadgett for outstanding physics assessment results
Tom Johnson and Jimmy Wilson for excellent class contribution
Year 10
Jazmine Freeman for performing significantly above target in her physics assessment
Year 11
Emily Oliver for excellent contributions on Medical Physics
Georgia Morris for being well above target in her radiation assessment
Well done!
News from PE
Gregor Hayes, Charlie Cope, Alex Done, Ben Simon, James Seaman, Ben Seaman, Anton Davidson, Lewis Brown, Ed Fradley, Jenson Bosworth, Daniel Hensman, Will Bowyer, Euan Walsh, Lewie Thornton, Jack Nicholls, Charlie Martin, George Hill, Max Hunt, Owen Carrington, Tom Hollingsworth
The final coursework deadline is fast approaching. Students should have handed three copies of their completed coursework (with bibliography and footnotes) to Mrs Johnson by next Friday.
Literacy
Careers
Don’t forget to check out the new careers page on tahsroundup.wordpress.com
New this week information on an Aim Higher Evening at Newcastle College.
On The Farm
Students harvested the last of the produce from their vegetable plots this week. Some of the pumpkins were so big that they had to be transported around in a wheelbarrow and collected from school by car!! Congratulations to Haydn Hatton and Laura Simister who grew a staggering 18kg of potatoes. These were all weighed so that students could complete course work comparing the growth of potatoes using organic and inorganic fertilisers.
Our vet skills sessions are now in full swing with vets from Glenthornes practice coming in after school on Wednesday to provide extra support to our BTEC Animal Care students. They have already covered sessions on companion animals including guinea pigs and rabbits and this week did a very informative session on exotics. They made full use of the animals available on the farm including our corn snakes, bearded dragon, leopard gecko, terrapin and tarantula. All BTEC Animal Care students are welcome to attend, check the timetable attached for the sessions.
Year 11 Revision Evening
Tuesday 7th November 6pm-8pm
An opportunity to hear talks from the English, maths and science departments providing revision tips and information on how to prepare for these examinations. General revision advice to help parents support their son or daughter with revision will also be presented will also be presented.
Hope to see you there!
Join our team
- Inclusion Support Assistant
- Exam Invigilators
- Cleaners
See our website for further details.
Links
Follow the links to; School Website, Facebook, Twitter & our Online Shop
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