TAHS Weekly Newsletter. 

Sixth Form Finance:

The school has been allocated a Discretional Bursary Fund (DBF) which students are able bid into throughout the academic year providing they meet the financial criteria set by the school and outlined in our DBF policy.

For the academic year 2021-2022 students are eligible for funding of up to £400 if their parental income is below £27,000 (proof required) or if they were designated as pupil premium. If a student is a looked after child (LAC) they may be entitled to up to £1,200 of financial support. Students must use this funding to support their Post-16 education.  For example, Sixth Form uniform, transport costs to and from school, textbooks, revision guides, course materials, IT equipment (up to £150), educational visits, UCAS application Fee, University entrance tests etc.

More detailed information will be available in the DBF booklet which students can be obtain from Mrs Walton in the Sixth Form office or by emailing sixthform@tahs.org.uk

TUTOR TIME ACTIVITIES W/C 21^st March 2022

Year 12

Create, update or refine your CV.  Using Unifrog and this advice from Barclays Life Skills,

start to create your CV.  Continue in your study periods and enrichment time. 

Year 13

Revision time.

Year 13 Leavers Information

Hoodies:

Now is the time to order your Leavers Hoodie.  Deadline for this is 9.00am Wednesday 27th April.

A Year 13 Leavers group has been created on Teams, here you will find the link that will take you to the order form.

Year 13 Prom dietary requirements

A link has been added to the Year 13 Leavers group on Teams for you to complete the form for any specific dietary requirements you may have for the Yr 13 Prom.

Any questions, please see a Senior Prefect.

Year 12 students GCSE certificates

Year 12 students can collect their GCSE certificates from the Sixth Form office.  Please collect them at break and lunch time only.

Signing in and out

Students need to be on site from 8.40-3.05pm and if they leave site briefly for food etc they MUST sign out and back in. This is both a legal and safeguarding requirement. No one should leave site to go to the gym or similar during the school day.

Virtual work experience  Evidence your employability skills and build up your CV
Virtual work experience for state school students
Student webinar – Sharing Science: Chasing chimps, digging dinosaurs and asking Attenborough Wednesday 23 March, 15.35 – 16.35 Why do so many people feel scared of science? When is it okay to let small kids handle eyeballs when eating muffins? How can we channel our ‘Inner Attenborough’? Ben Garrod is Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Science Engagement at UEA. After living across Africa and Asia and working alongside wild chimpanzees and orangutans, he completed a PhD and got ready for a career of research, but instead followed a passion to share science with as many people as possible. Now, as a successful author and award-winning BBC presenter, Ben believes that science belongs to us all and that, more than ever, the public need to feel confident in engaging with science. In this talk, Ben shares his adventures about excavating mammoths, being chatted up by a robot, and why there’s a whole career in sharing science with others. Virtual Work Experience

Details and Booking

LPN Summer School 2022

21st-24th August 2022

The LPN Summer School is a two-year long programme for students who live in areas where few young people enter higher education, and takes place in the summer holidays. You can find the information about this programme, subjects, eligibility criteria and how to apply below. We strongly recommend reading this page carefully before making an application!

This year’s summer school will take place from Sunday 21st August to Wednesday 24th August, in Cambridge. Students will stay at either Christ’s College or Sidney Sussex College (both are very close to each other!).

The LPN Summer School is designed to encourage academically able students from areas of the country where students are less likely to enter higher education to consider making applications to top universities, including the University of Cambridge. The programme consists of visits in both the summers of Year 11 and Year 12 (only students who attended a Year 11 event can then attend the Year 12 component). Therefore, we strongly encourage any eligible Year 11 students to make an application, as they will receive support and guidance for their studies and university in the summer and beyond.

What does the summer school involve?

The summer school takes place for a few days in August just after you have taken your GCSE or National 5 (Scotland) exams, with meals and accommodation provided for you in one of the Cambridge Colleges. The summer school will be taking place in person in August 2022.

The programme includes a variety of masterclasses given by Cambridge University researchers, an opportunity to get to know Cambridge, information about making an application to Cambridge, and a chance to meet current Cambridge students and staff. There will also be a variety of social events throughout the stay! The aim of this summer school is to find out more about Cambridge and university more generally, and to give you a taste of university study and the wide variety of subjects available to study at post-18.

After the summer school, the Colleges provide continuing support during Year 12 and there is a follow-up summer school at the end of Year 12 (S5 Scotland, Year 13 in Northern Ireland) to which you are automatically invited. This will include free accommodation and meals, as well as social activities to give you a taste of student life and get to know others on the programme! This summer school typically focuses on specifics of the application process, and involves a one-night stay at Murray Edwards College.

What does the summer school cost?

The whole summer school is free of charge, including meals and accommodation but excluding travel.

If you feel that you may require travel expenses to be able to attend please get in touch, as some limited support may be available.

Subject strands

As part of the summer school programme, students have the opportunity to attend a series of seminars that will introduce them to the study of a particular subject at university level.

The following subject strands will be available for the 2022 summer school:

• Medicine
• Biological Sciences
• Physical Sciences
• Mathematics
• English
• History
• Law
• Social Sciences

The application form will ask for your first and – if you have one – second preference strand.

In addition to a set of academic sessions in the selected strand, those who are selected for a place on the event will also have the opportunity to try something new in subject/s not explicitly covered in the above strands. These have previously included Computer Science, Economics, Languages and Archaeology, among many others.

Choosing your strand

A similar number of places is available on each subject strand, so please choose the subject that interests you the most. Priority for a place on a strand will be given to those who have selected it as their first choice, and students cannot be considered for strands other than those they have selected as their first or second choice.

The above strands also encompass other subjects, and below is some further advice on particular strands which might seem less clear, or if you aren’t sure which one is right for you:

• Biological Sciences – for those interested in Biology and Chemistry
• Physical Sciences – for those interested in Physics and Chemistry, or Engineering
• Mathematics – also recommended for students interested in Economics or Computer Science, as these are courses with high mathematical content at university
• Social Sciences – this will cover areas such as Sociology and Politics (in line with the Human, Social and Political Sciences course that Cambridge teaches).

We encourage students to consider their choice of strand carefully and to think about subject areas that might be something you’ve not thought about before. Many subjects are interdisciplinary – they overlap with one another quite a bit – so for example, those interested in pursuing modern languages may therefore find any of English, History or the Social Sciences strands as interesting and relevant.

You can find out about all the different courses we offer at Cambridge here, and more about what they involve (there are over 30 courses covering 65 different subjects!).

Eligibility to apply

Students must meet all of the following criteria to be eligible to apply for a place on the LPN summer school:

1. You are currently in Year 11 (England and Wales), or Year 12 in Northern Ireland or S4 (Scotland), and would have been about to take your GCSEs or National 5s at a UK school that does not charge fees (to anyone) in summer 2021.
2. You are going on to study academic qualifications for Sixth Form, at a school or college that does not charge fees (to anyone).
   1. academic qualifications are A-Levels, the International Baccalaureate or Highers/Advanced Highers.

• You live in an area of low participation in higher education (you must check your postcode before applying!)
  • To explain this a bit further, we use the POLAR classification and we only accept applications from students who live in quintile 1 or 2 areas. We encourage students to check if they are eligible to apply using this online postcode checker tool. When you put your postcode into the tool, check the ‘POLAR4 quintile‘. We have made a short guide to help you do so here: Checking your postcode.
    • This is for your HOME postcode, not your school postcode.
• You are on target to receive a majority of 9-7/A*-A grades at GCSE (or equivalent e.g. A grades in National 5s)
  • We encourage applications from those who may be the first in their family to go to university (parents/carers did not attend university), a young carer, a refugee, from a BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) background, eligible for free school meals currently or in the past, have spent any time in care, or who are estranged from their family (i.e. you no longer have contact with your parents and may be living with another family member).
  • Students applying for the Medicine strand as their first choice should expect to achieve a majority 8/9/A* grades at GCSE, due to the competitive nature of this strand
  • It may be helpful to note that over the last three years (2018-20) most students who have been successful in obtaining a place on the LPN Summer School are usually expected to achieve 8/9/A* grades in GCSE subjects relevant to the strand applied for.
  • Selection will be primarily on the basis of academic merit, though other widening participation factors as outlined above will also be taken into consideration when deciding.
• You can provide the name and email address of a teacher who can support your application. You should discuss applying with a teacher before applying, and get their permission to provide their details to us.

How and when do I apply?

Applications for the 2022 summer school are OPEN NOW!!

Students must complete an online application form, and a nominated teacher will need to complete a separate form in support of their application.

Teachers will automatically receive a link to provide a reference (again via online form) once the student’s application has been successfully submitted. It is important teachers check their spam/junk inbox as school firewalls may prevent an email from reaching them. Students are encouraged to check that their referee has received the email.

The deadline for students to make an application is midnight on 25 April 2022. Teachers will have until 2 May to complete their references. Late or incomplete applications and applications without a reference will not be considered for a place.

You can apply via this form: https://cambridge.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3ymxaWpWeQOIsce

All applicants will receive an email regarding the outcome of their application by the end of May 2022. All applications received by the 25 April deadline will be given equal consideration, but we recommend doing it as soon as you can so your teacher has plenty of time to do your reference!

Where can I get more information? Please get in touch with us at access@christs.cam.ac.uk if you have any questions about this residential.

Easter Revision

Please see below for the Easter revision schedule, if there are any problems or questions please email Mrs North on north@tahs.org.uk

English

Mrs Hunt would like to remind pupils to collect any texts that they have ordered for English from her in Room 21.

This week’s GCSE Revision session will be with Mr Hulme in Room 13 on Wednesday 23rd March.  The subject will be GCSE English Language Paper 1, Question 2 (structure).

Our  Book of the Week is from Imogen, in Year 13, and she recommends JRR Tolkien’s great fantasy novel “The Lord of the Rings”.

This week’s work of the week, by one of our brilliant Year 9 pupils, (attached) is the most incredible piece of artwork inspired by Wilfred Owne’s First World War poem, “Exposure”

This week’s Science News

This week’s Science Students of the Week

Mrs Simpson would like to nominate Isabella MacQ and George L (11U1) for fantastic work ethic and revision leading to outstanding progress in their Chemistry mock exam.

Miss Thorley would like to nominate Zac A (9U2) for fantastic contributions in lessons.

Aimee S (10H4) for thorough calculations, and Zac C (10H5) for impeccable practical skills.

This week’s Animal Care Students of the Week selected by Mrs North are: Joe N, Krishan K and Aimee S for outstanding effort in their coursework on Bearded Dragon vivariums.

Well done!

Non Uniform

Friday 1^st April is a non-uniform day. Students can come to school in their own clothes, for a donation of £2. Please give money to your form tutor during registration or through parent pay.

All money raised will go to the school fund to provide opportunities for all students. Facilities around school, celebration day, school walk, extracurricular events etc. 

News from PE

Under 15 Cricket

Today we played the ECB Girls U15 Schools Indoor Cricket Tournament. We played four games. The first game we played was against Painsley, we batted first and put a respectable total of 70 on the board but Painsley replied with a total of 110. Our player of the game was Beth S for her ball that sent the off stump flying across the pitch. Game two was against Abbotsholme and they set us a target of 104. We replied with a total 62, our bowling improved from the first game and player of the game was Izzy G for two catches including a bowl and catch. Match 3 proved to be a much closer game as it came down to the last over but unfortunately we lost 74-78 even with the exceptional performance from Lexi C who ended up batting by herself and scoring a huge 45 runs. It was then all to play for in Match 4. We played against Blythe Bridge and put up a score of 79, our highest score of the day. Our superb fielding, especially from Susie Catterall and Skye Whitfield didn’t prove enough as Blythe got 101. 

Our squad have had a great day and it’s been brilliant to be out playing sport again. Special thanks to Liberty C for umpiring the games. 

Squad: Louie R, Martha B, Izzy G, Susie C, Lexi C, Holly T, Beth S, Erin G, Dora E and Skye W 

Year 9 Staffordshire Moorlands Rugby Championship

Thomas Alleyne’s 57 – Westwood 0

On Thursday afternoon the top 2 rugby sides in the Staffordshire Moorlands came head to head at Thomas Alleyne’s. With the grass freshly cut the fast playing surface suited Alleyne’s running style of play. With our usual scrum half unavailable to play, Corey moved to the base of the scrum and had a fantastic game providing good service and a constant threat with his running and kicking game.  Up front our scrum proved too powerful With Henry and Tom winning ball against the head. Adam at hooker had an amazing game and carried the ball with ferocity. 2nd row’s Ben and Toby are forming a formidable partnership out rucking their opponents and linking with their backs.  In the back row Oscar, Adam and Matthew ran and tackled with vigour constantly putting us on the the front foot.  Ollie playing his first game at fly half coped with the added responsibility well and was rewarded with a good try just on half time.  Centre’s Jonte and Rory defended well and created space excellently for their wingers Lewis and Sam. At the back Max is beginning to show real class with his reading of the game and kick returns.  In the 2nd half Rhys, Jae and Charlie all played well and maintained our intensity. Try of the match was scored by Tom. Overall a great performance.

Y9 Netball Tournament

The Year 9 team played in a well represented district tournament on Tuesday with eight fixtures. The team has improved so much through having the opportunity to play regularly. They were able to win their fixtures against Paulet, De Ferrers, Pingle,, Paget and John Taylor Free School. They drew with John Port and lost to Robert Sutton and John Taylor

Team – Louie, Amy, Erin, Izzy, Chloe, Emily and Lily

U15 Girls Rugby County Tournament

The tournament was hosted by Stafford Rugby Club. Thomas Alleyne’s proudly brought the biggest squad out of the teams who entered, which highlights both the enthusiasm and commitment from our students to the training sessions which have been run by Mark Tolley. First we played Robert Sutton and the team were able to organise themselves into a solid formation and our runners were able to exploit the gaps and score three tries to take victory. 

Next up were Walton who were also well organised and had a bit more game awareness at certain stages of the match. The game was very close and physical with Walton taking the victory by one try to zero. The final game was against a combined team from the Hart School and Blessed William Howard. All the teams had won one fixture going into the final game so it was everything to play for. TAHS controlled the game and ran in four tries and conceded none. The team finished runners up in the tournament on tries scored.

It was a fantastic experience for all of the players and hopefully another fixture before the season ends. Well played all. 

Thanks to Mrs Chafer for assisting with driving. 

Squad – Lexie, Chloe Elsie, Hannah, Heather, Keeley, Aimee, Martha, Lizzie, Susie, Mille, Calli and Fearne

Music News

Year 11 music students have their music performance and composition recordings the week beginning 28th March. This is a very important week for them as the exam recordings will form 60% of their GCSE Music Grade. Good luck to all in their preparation. 

There will be 2 very special choir rehearsals on Tuesday 29th March and Tuesday 5th April after school in the music room, where we will be recording a song for Ukraine. This is open to all that want to be involved and is in the music room from 3.15 until 4.15.

Settled Status

At Citizen’s Advice Mid Mercia, we are working alongside the Home Office to reach out to families to support them with their EU Settled Status. 

The Home Office has recognised that not all families have applied for their status by the deadline set of June 30th, 2021. Those who have not been able to apply for various reasons may require added support completing the paperwork for late applications. 

If families do not apply for either their Pre-Settled Status or Settled Status, they will lose the right to live, work, education for their children, rent their homes, access our fabulous NHS, or claim benefits and state pension. 

As you can see, the importance of informing families is paramount.  

The support we provide involves helping make new applications. We help those who need to apply to change from pre settled to settled status. We help those who have requests from the Home Office for further evidence to support their applications. We can claim Share Codes: for those waiting for their decisions to help prove their rights to work, rent or claim benefits. We also help contact the Home Office with any questions the families might have while waiting for their decisions.

The aim of our project is to raise awareness of the scheme, empower individuals to access the scheme and assist the most vulnerable in society applying to the scheme. 

If you could forward the attached poster to any families that you feel would benefit, I would be very grateful. Many parents have assumed that because their child was born in the UK, the child will have been granted British citizenship, however, this is only correct if one of the parents is a British Citizen.  

If you have any clients that need this service, I am working at various outreach placements where I can see clients face-to-face to complete their applications on their behalf. I also have Language line to support those who may have a language barrier.  

It is my hope that by working together, we can reach out to the most vulnerable people in society to ensure that they will be able to continue to enjoy the same rights as you and I.  

If you need anything else from me, please do not hesitate to call me.  

Apply to the EU Settlement Scheme (settled and pre-settled status): Apply to the EU Settlement Scheme – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Job of the week 

This weeks job of the week is a drama therapist! The Mypath video on youtube tells you about this as a role: JOB OF THE WEEK – EPISODE #029 DRAMATHERAPIST – Youtube

 If you would like to find out more information and how to get into this role then click via this link: Dramatherapist job profile | Prospects.ac.uk

School Website

School Shop