TAHS Weekly Newsletter.
TAHS Future Intentions Evening – our annual event – with a difference!
On the 28th January at 5pm we would like to invite you to our ‘Virtual Future Intentions evening’. Our annual event will be a little different this year, however we will still have a wide range of exhibitors who have kindly recorded an on-demand video for the evening, allowing you to watch at your own convenience.
The evening will launch with a presentation from Carole Dodd (Head of Sixth form and Careers Lead) Mr Mitchell our curriculum lead and Anna Featherstone (Teacher of Business and Careers Advisor) at 5pm, following which you will be invited to log on to our live portal where many of our exhibitors will be available to answer your questions about your child’s next transition stage. There will also be a range of videos regarding the option process at Thomas Alleyne’s High School and the Ebacc, so whether your child is choosing their GCSE options or considering their pathway post GCSE or A level, there will be something for everyone. All students will receive an invitation on their Team’s calendar before the evening, which will also contain information about how to register
The event is still under construction but you can register in preparation for the event on the following link:
https://learnliveuk.com/partner/thomas-alleynes-high-school/
SIXTH FORM TUTOR TIME ACTIVITIES
Tutor time activities will be put onto Teams and Insight every 2 weeks. Please remember that participation in these activities is part of your Sixth Form conduct agreement.
To begin, there are 6 weeks on a short course designed for post-16 students, provided by leaders in education, Pixl. Based on Matthew Syed’s new book, Dare To Be You, the project helps students build confidence, build identity, navigate change, understand difference, be kind and choose their own path.
You will be reminded to download 2 Power Points per fortnight. This time, your focus is on Sessions 1 and 2.
We will be proving workbooks within which you will complete these activities which will be added to your subject resources ready for collection from the school theatre on Wednesday the 27th of January as per parent news.
You can find these on Teams/Sixth Form 2021 (Year 12 or 13)/Y12 or Y13 Pastoral activities/TAP 2021/Change Makers and then find the sessions (Session 1: Why Change Makers and Session 2: The Doubts).
Y13 link:
Y12 link:
Year 13 – UCAS Applications:
Reminder the national UCAS deadline for applications is the 29th of January 2021 at 6pm. The Sixth Form team are presently working through the applications received and year 13 students will receive an alert from UCAS once their application has been sent off.
If there are any queries about individual applications, the Sixth Form team will email students directly, so it is important that applicants continue to check their emails regularly until they have received notification from UCAS that their application has been sent off.
If you have any questions about UCAS please email the sixth form sixthform@tahs.org.uk
Sixth Form applications September 2021 entry:
The application process for applying to the Sixth Form is online this year. Deadline for applications is Friday 29th January 2021. All Year 11 students have been added to the Year 11 Future Intentions team on Microsoft teams. All students were given a copy of the prospectus during their last skills session.
The information is as follows:
Online application
Year 11 Future Intentions
All students must complete this form even if you are undecided about applying for Sixth Form. This will help us to support you with your future intentions.
If you have any questions regarding the Sixth Form, please do not hesitate to contact one of the Sixth Form team on sixthform@tahs.org.uk
UCAS Discover Apprenticeships
A week of live sessions covering everything your students need to know about apprenticeships, sponsored by the National Apprenticeship Service!
This National Apprenticeship Week (Monday 8 February – Friday 12 February) we’re hosting a week of dedicated live sessions, information, and advice about everything to do with apprenticeships! Each day students will discover something new about what’s on offer and what’s involved in studying while working.
Remote Assessments – Y11
Below is a summary of the Remote Assessments that will be offered between 1-12th February. This will be updated over the coming weeks.
Please be aware that English and RS assessments may take place in either lesson. We have scaled these down but wanted to provide students with the opportunity to do a series of timed assessments as we know they have been working hard. It will also give them an opportunity to experience completing a series of assessments in different subjects. The assessments have a specific area of focus to ensure that students have been prepared for this title and to give them time to review this area of their curriculum.
Home Learning – Free MS Office
Do not forget that you all have up to 5 free downloads of Microsoft Office in you Office365 account. www.portal.office.com
Log in with your tahs.net email and password and you can download, top right of the home page. You can also work on online versions within this website.
This will work on both Windows and Apple devices, laptops and tablets & phones.
Need support with home learning the follow the below
School websitewww.thomasalleynes.uk
Top Menu: Teaching & Learning
Left Menu: Home Learning
A number of resources are located on this page including a set of videos regards Teams Office 365 Plus many other support information
If parents still require assistance please email : schoolitsupport@tahs.net
Year 9 Parents Evening
Year 9 Parenst evening will take place on Thursday 4th February via MS Teams. Full instructions on how to do this will be sent out in due course.
Books are opening today, Friday, via your parental insight account and year 9 parents will receive a sperate email with full details on the bookings system.
Pastoral Resources
Well done to all those students that have been accessing the ‘Pastoral Resources’ on Teams. If students have not yet accessed these they will remain available for students to work through during their core PE lessons or during their own time. Please ensure that students look out on Monday for this weeks uploads which will include:
Year 9 – Options and Career guidance (This will provide Year 9 students vital information regarding their option choices which they will submit in February)
Year 10 – Careers
Year 11 – Careers
PE Update
We hope you are keeping active- Please share your exercise plans on Teams. We are mindful that everyone enjoys different forms of exercise, but it is important you are keeping active and if possible getting fresh air each day. You can run, walk, bike or skate but try and get in a routine of being active each day.
Joe Wicks is running “PE with Joe” on Mon, Wed and Friday at 9am on YouTube – “The Body Coach TV” This is a simple way of getting your day off to a good routine. The sessions are available on demand if you have live lessons at 9am.
We also have a range of Fitness Challenges you can try on our Core PE Teams pages. We also have a number of healthy eating videos on Teams which you can try.
It is important you are trying to get 60 minutes of physical activity and eating healthily each day. Why not have a go at making your own fitness or healthy cooking video and send it in on Teams? For Ideas and inspiration have a look at files on the Core PE Team.
BTEC Sport
** We have purchased on line learning resources for BTEC Students in Yr10, 11, 12, 13. Please see Teams for Log In details and how to access the resources **
Year 10 – All students should have submitted Body Systems coursework before Christmas- If this hasn’t been uploaded to assignments on Teams or needs improving, homework time should be used for this. Year 10 students have been taking part in Live practical lessons as they start to design training plans.
Year 11- We have been really impressed with attendance at Live Lessons this week. As you know February exams have been cancelled. Students need to be working on Leadership Coursework (Component 3) All resources required are on Teams. Due to the nature of BTEC students need to complete all 3 Components to get a grade at the end of the course. We are waiting for information from the government about how students can improve their exam grade.
Year 12- All students took their Unit 1 exam on Friday! We have been really impressed with their dedication to revision lessons in what is a very difficult time. We now move onto Unit 3 next week with lessons and resources on Teams.
Year 13- Students have received an individual mark breakdown via email. It is important that they use this to access lessons and resources they require. With uncertainty around summer exams it is vital students are fully prepared for the units they are taking to give them the best chance of their highest grade.
RE Work
This week in RS Year 9s have been exploring whether animals should be used in experimentation, particularly in finding cures and vaccines for diseases. Year 10s have been considering when human life starts and if religion is a ‘virus of the mind’ as suggested by modern atheists. Some Y11s have been introduced to the ethical theory of Utilitarianism so that they can apply it to real contemporary situations. Year 12’s have considered the ethical implications of modern conflict and pacifism and Year 13s have evaluated the effectiveness of modern ethical theories – some fantastic work has been produced online and in discussion chat.
Well done!
Science News
Mrs Gwynne would like to nominated all of the students in 9U2 Biology for working so hard in their first live lesson, in particular Billy T, Jessie H, Holly T and Isabelle A for engaging so well.
Also, in Year 10 Biology, Xanthe S, Oliver MW, Alistair D and Harriet E for superb engagement.
Miss Thorley would like to nominate George P (10W2) – I have been very impressed with his mature attitude to his remote learning and fantastic effort shown in his assessment score this week!
Mrs Hughes would like to nominate Zita, Matilda, Emily G and Jack in Year 10 for excellent effort in lessons.
In Year 12 Mrs Gwynne would like to nominate Reuben H for always keeping his video on and answering questions – it’s so refreshing to see a face rather than lots of circles…thanks Reuben!
In Year 13 Mrs Gwynne would like to nominate Sophie B and Will B for unmuting and answering questions!
Well done!
English Students of the Week
There have been lots of nominations for some fantastic efforts in English this week. Our students of the week are:
Year 9 Jessie H, Holly T, Laura G, Amina K, Joshua F, Shanaii B, Jess C, Billy T, Will B
Year 10 Luke N, Jacob L, Zita M, Fletcher K, Anthony Y, Tim W, Charlie B, Liam A, Hannah C, Tom L, Henry A
Year 11 Millie Y, Katie L, Polly J, Isabelle R, Klaudia S, Freya S, Lucy C
Year 12 Eve B, Evie W, Darius B
Year 13 Maddie A, Lucy J, Emma K
Well done!
Geography
GCSE news:Y11 revision sessions are still being held on Tuesday’s after-school in the run up to your trial assessments. These are running on the Y11 Geography Teams from 3:30 to 4:15 on the topics that will be on the trial assessment. As always, these sessions are recorded and uploaded for you to go back and watch if you are unable to join them live.
The Y11 trial assessment is 1 hour in length and will be on the following topics:
- Urbanisation
- Coasts
- Living world
There are a number of revision resources available to you on the Y11 Geography Teams, as well as the screen cast lessons (from during last lockdown) on the Living World topic which you are able to rewatch to help with your revision.
A-Level news:The Y13 trial assessment will be made up of two papers (one for physical topics and one for human topics), with each being a total of 1 hour. The topics on these will be:
Physical geography trial assessment:
- Water
- Carbon
- Coasts
Human geography trial assessment:
- Globalisation
- Superpowers
- Human health and intervention
Drama Stars
Well done to Aminah in year 9 for her excellent set design for the opening scene of Blood Brothers.
Another well done to Taylor In year 10 GCSE Drama who met the ‘just a minute’ challenge for speaking on a given topic without stopping or repeating. His talk was very entertaining and imaginative.
Year 11 GCSE Drama have been analysing the National Theatre production of Peter Pan which is available to stream to all students on the drama online website for free. Please contact Mrs Mood if you would like the log in details to watch this magical production at home. Well done to Mollie in year 11 for her hard work and excellent contribution this week.
Advice on keeping safe on Instagram
Please click on the image below for advice on safety when using instagram.
Careers advice and guidance
We have now started working through the careers appointments. These will be done over the phone and your child will receive a message on teams notifying them of their appointment. We will also ask the best number to contact them on. It is really important that they answer the call, the interview will discuss their future intentions and support them with decision making. They will either be contact by myself (Mrs Featherstone), Mark Stubbs or Clare Atkinson from Entrust.
In the meantime if you are wanting to explore potential career options then these websites are really useful:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/careers
https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/
We will also be setting up further supportive workshops for our students who are applying for apprenticeships. If you have told us you are interested in an Apprenticeship you will be invited to this workshop.
Future Intentions – Student Resource Library.
All students have been added to a new group on Teams where they will be able to access information regarding anything to do with Future Intentions. If they cannot find the help they need then they can contact me – featherstone@tahs.net.
Career of the week
My inspiration for this week’s career of the week came from a Bitesize episode my son was watching! It wasn’t a job I knew much about so I thought I would share it.
| Job title: | Arboricultural officer – Arboricultural officers manage and maintain trees for local councils and arboricultural contractors. You could work in woodland, in an office, in parks and gardens or on the streets. Your working environment may be at height and outdoors in all weathers. You may need to wear safety clothing and use safety equipment. |
| Entry requirements: | University: You could do a foundation degree, higher national diploma or degree in a subject like: forestry arboriculture countryside management forest management woodland ecology and conservation Entry requirements You’ll usually need: 1 or 2 A levels, or equivalent, for a foundation degree or higher national diploma 2 to 3 A levels, or equivalent, for a degree College You could do a course at an agricultural college, which would teach you some of the skills and knowledge you need in this job. Relevant subjects include: Level 2 Certificate in Arboriculture Level 3 Diploma in Forestry and Arboriculture Entry requirements You’ll usually need: 2 or more GCSEs at grades 9 to 3 (A* to D), or equivalent, for a level 2 course 4 or 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, for a level 3 course= |
| What you’ll earn: | £20,000 – £40,000 |
| Day to day duties: | advising on tree protection and preservation orders in planning applications managing trees in parks, on housing estates and at the roadside organising tree planting schemes carrying out tree surveys and monitoring tree numbers, using technology supervising tree care and tree planting contracts on site giving demonstrations and talks on arboriculture and woodlands to schools and community groups assessing tree damage after storms training new staff and volunteers |
| What skills will I need? | knowledge of geography the ability to use your initiative to be thorough and pay attention to detail the ability to work well with others administration skills excellent verbal communication skills thinking and reasoning skills knowledge of maths to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently |
| Career path and progression: | With experience, you could manage a team of arboricultural officers, for example in a local authority, and co-ordinate work with outside contractors. You could also work as a consultant, advising organisations on tree management, conservation and safety. You may find opportunities with training providers who offer courses in arboriculture. |
Information sourced directly from www.nationalcareersservice.gov.uk
Current opportunities locally: https://www.findapprenticeship.service.gov.uk/apprenticeship/reference/1675844
If you have any suggestions for a career you would like to know more about then please email me at featherstone@tahs.net
Links
Thomas Alleyne's high school 