TAHS Weekly Newsletter.
School Walk 2022
On Friday 15th July over 500 students and staff took part in our school walk.
We started in Dove Dale, walked to Mill Dale, Berresfordale, Wetton Mill and then Hulme End.
It was great to see so many students taking part and enjoying being out in the countryside.
Some comments from our students:
‘It was a fun day with friends’
‘It was good to chat with friends – no phones/no signal’
‘Lovely views, lovely day’
‘Lots of marshals so we couldn’t get lost and they gave us lots of encouragement’
‘Really enjoyed being out of school’
Year 12 FUTURE INTENTIONS WEEK
Last week, all our Year 12 students were off timetable to discover a range of opportunities available to them after they leave Thomas Alleyne’s in order for them to make informed post-18 decisions.
Students had access to information about universities, apprenticeships and the world of work. Sessions were run by Amazing Apprenticeships; by local universities including Staffordshire, Keele, Derby and Nottingham Trent; by companies from the engineering, health, business and sports sectors; as well as sessions around healthy relationships, wellbeing, fire safety, driver safety, student cookery, budgeting, fundraising and interview techniques.
Both students and parents had the opportunity to learn about Student Finance for those considering the UCAS route. All students began their UCAS applications and personal statements having received advice and guidance beforehand.
Form group 12E won the sports day.
Now in its 13th year, we are proud to hold Future Intentions week as an integral part of the support given to our Sixth Form
Year 12 Parent Unifrog login
Year 12 parents login for Unifrog is as follows:
Please can you enter the following code:
ALDUPARENTS
Visit www.unifrog.org/code to get signed up.
Year 11 and Year 13 results days
Thursday 18th August – KS5 / Year 13. Results will be available from 8.00am to be collected from the theatre. Sixth Form team and careers advisor will be on hand to offer support and guidance if required.
Thursday 25th August – KS4/ Year 11. Results will be available from 9.00am to be collected from the theatre. Sixth Form team and careers advisor will be on hand to offer support and guidance if required.
Additional support days will be offered, information regarding this will be sent out to Year 11 and Year 13 families.
Reports
Reports are now available on Talaxy for years 9, 10 and 12
PE News
House Rounders
There was a large turnout for the House Rounders competition in the glorious sunshine on Wednesday after school.
Attendance at rounders club has been fantastic this term and new players, have learnt the rules and tactics quickly so some excellent games were played.
1st Whitmore
2nd Torrance
3rd Elkes
4th Orme
House Tennis
On Thursday after school the House Tennis competition took place. The semi finals were Whitmore v Torrance. With Jake C playing Joel M in an all Whitmore final. Jake won the final in an exciting and evenly fought contest. George R took third place with victory over Torrance team mate Tom R.
Leicester Tigers Gifted & Talented Rugby Coaching
On Thursday 15 Year 9 rugby players had the opportunity of a coaching session from Leicester Tigers academy coaches. The session focussed on decision making and catch and pass. The boys showed great potential and made good progress. Well done to all.
Athletics
A hurdles masterclass was delivered by Mr Barrow last week to students in Year 9 and 10 in their athletics lessons. Students made great progress during the lesson and the majority were able to complete a competitive 75m race by the end of the lesson
English News
English Department Student of the Week
The English department would like to congratulate the following students for being awarded student of their week this week. They are:
Y 9 Jack A, Ellie C, Rowan S, Matthew J, Bethany S, Grace A, Erin G
Y 10 Amelia R, Quincy F, Macie C, Poppy B, Catherine M, Harry D
Y 12 Elizabeth S
Jubilee Writing Competition
It is our great pleasure to celebrate the winners of the Jubilee Writing Competition. The winners received a certificate and prize at the Junior Prize Giving event in school this week.
Y9-11 Winner
Victoria S (9)
Y9-11 Runners Up
Rowan S (9)
Isabella M (11)
Year 12-13 Winners
Jacob B
Tess S
Y12-13 Runner Up
Lucy L
Pictured are our 2 Y9 writers, Victoria and Rowan.
Congratulations to you all! Be sure to look out for more opportunities next school year.
Work of the week
Miss Beevor’s 9HB have been finding ways to creatively share their work on narratives. They’ve planned, structured and drafted their original narratives, then these are the book covers they designed for them – in 3D!
We also have some brilliant revision work from Miss Brooks’ year 10s. Here are their explorations of individual characters from Romeo and Juliet:
Carnegie Award
Our Shadowers have finished their projects this week. We spent a highly enjoyable lunchtime looking at the work each team has done, and discussing the books we’ve read. Some of their work is already displayed outside of Room 21, and the books are available to loan. Simply ask your English teacher.
Book recommendation
Our book recommendations this week come from the Carnegie students. We looked at each others’ work before voting on the book that interested us the most. The winner was “Tsunami Girl” by Julian Sedgewick. Millie, who read it for us, said it she really liked the way it mixed manga (a style of Japanese cartoon storytelling) with ‘traditional’ storytelling, and how it showed the effects of real life events on people.
We’re also recommending the Carnegie winner: “October October” by Katya Balen. Victoria and Billie read it for us. They described it as a really interesting read, but quite challenging. The author makes some interesting stylistic decisions for speech which take some getting used to!
Summer Reading
There are few things better for an English teacher than getting time to read for pleasure during our Summer Holidays… We’ll be reading (or re-reading) Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas (Mrs Hunt); Orangeboy by Patrice Lawrence (Mrs Beevor and Mrs Bowler); Normal People by Sally Rooney and The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates (Mrs Rudge); The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (Mrs Bell).
If you’re looking for other ideas, check out https://schoolreadinglist.co.uk/category/secondary-ks3-ks4-reading-lists/.
English Taster Days – Keele @ Staffs
Anyone in current Y11 or Y12, who is considering one of the Englishes at Uni is encouraged to sign up for one of Keele’s taster sessions. They’re running on Tuesday 19th July, and will include sessions on English generally; creative writing, film and media. If you’re interested, the webpage is https://www.keele.ac.uk/study/opendays/tasterdays/
Literature Set Texts / Book Orders
Books purchased through ParentPay have been delivered to classes this week. If you were absent or have not received a book you ordered, pop up to room 21 and see Mrs Hunt. If you’re sourcing your own over Summer, a gentle reminder of the texts students need is below. They do not have to be ‘clean’ copies – preloved is just as good.
Current Y9 students – should have a copy of “Romeo and Juliet” for September, and “An Inspector Calls” for later in Year 10.
Current Y10 students – should have a copy of “A Christmas Carol” for September.
Music News
The Music Department finished the academic year with two hugely successful events, the House Music Competition on Friday 8th July and the Music Summer Concert on Wednesday 13th July.
We welcomed back the return of the competition with the last being held in 2019. The performances were outstanding and our invited judges of Sarah McBride, Ben Johnson and Eve Abram found it an almost impossible task to place the competitors. Well done to all who took part with every year group represented, led by their superb House Captains Kathryn W, Josh F, Oliver H-P and Logan C. They worked incredibly hard to arrange the musical performances and the commitment was evident on the day. Our judges placed Torrance and Whitmore joint second and Elks and Orme joint first.
On Wednesday we were treated to stunning performances by our super talented pupils. Eve Abram returned to us after graduating from Birmingham Conservatoire to delight us with a multi instrumentalist performance entitled ‘Disco Nap’. Other groups and soloists had the audience on their feet singing and dancing and it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening. We said our farewells to Year 11 and 13 pupils and I would like to formally thank them for their huge amount of hard work and dedication to the music department and wish them the very best for their futures. I hope to see them return to future concerts and extend a warm welcome back to any of our musical leavers.
New Medical Journal Library in Social & Health Studies Department
Thanks to the kindness of our local community, we now have a Professional Library of journals in the Social & Health Studies Department. Currently we have :-
The Nursing Times
Nursing Standard
British Medical Journal
OT News (Occupational Therapy)
The Psychologist
Coming shortly – Midwifery Journal
These journals are an excellent source of information and articles to support UCAS applications to medical degrees or apprenticeships or other future intentions. Please see Mrs Varga or Mrs George to borrow these.
idea.org.uk
All of year 9 have started the idea.org.uk Bronze Award in their final ICT lesson of the year. This is a nationally recognised certificate in digital literacy and is well worth continuing with. Once complete students can download their certificate from the site and keep this for college, 6th form and apprenticeship applications.
Science News
This week our Year 12 Biology students visited Formby Beach, situated on Merseyside, as part of their A Level Biology course. The dramatic sand dunes provided the ideal opportunity to study the plants growing along the coastline.
The students investigated the growing conditions of marram grass found along the dunes. The grass is a pioneer plant with an extensive rhizome root system, which ultimately enables other plant species to colonise the harsh environmental conditions. The marram grass also stabilises the sand dunes helping to prevent coastal erosion.
The students also visited the adjacent pine forest; studying the effect of light intensity on lichen distribution and abundance. The students concluded that the most favourable growing conditions were on the north facing tree trunks away from direct sunlight.
The students will soon be back in the lab to analyse their data and present their findings!
This week’s Science Students of the Week
Mr Crum would like to nominate Skye G (9E2), Andrea W (9W2), Spencer W (9E1), Calum H (9T3) and Emily P (9T3) in 9U2 for excellent effort in physics.
Also, Morgan H (10W1), Aileen L (10O1), Georgie S (10T2), Dexter C (10E1), Poppy B (10W3), Will B (10W3), Isabella G (10E2), Lucas W-S (10T1), Dylan H (10T2) and Vicky N (10T1) in 10H2 for meeting or beating their target grade in the chemistry mock exam.
Also, Dominica R (10O1), Ella H (10W1), Jack M (10W3), Amelia R (10T1), Libbie L (10E1), Imogen E (10W2), Ellie B (10T1) and Abbie C (10W1) in 10U3 for excellent effort in their mock exam.
And also, Carley D (10T2), Caitlyn D (10T2), Ben N (10E1), Maddy T (10W2) and Garard W (10E1) in 10U4 for excellent effort in their mock exam.
Mrs Simpson would like to nominate Charlie G, Tashi T, Joel M, Marth B, Laura M and Layla M in 10H1, for demonstrating great progress with their mock exam results in Chemistry.
And also, Aimee Sm, Aimee Sh and James E (10H4) for strong mock exam performances across the sciences.
Miss Thorley would like to nominate Aimee S and Jake B for exceeding targets in their mocks.
And also, Ethan D and Maddy T for strong mock performance in Physics.
Well done!
This week’s Animal Care Students of the Week selected by Mrs North are:
Victoria H, Joe N, Aimee S and Leon O for fantastic animal care course work.
Well done!
Harassment
On 6th July we were delighted to be able to deliver our first face to face transition evening at Thomas Alleyne’s since 2019. This event was an opportunity for the pastoral team to introduce themselves and highlight the valuable support all our students receive during their time at TAHS.
During this evening, we highlighted to parents a quote from OFSTED about the pastoral support provided to our students, “Pupils feel entirely safe in school and the parents…. agree. Incidents of bullying are rare, and staff deal with them effectively when they arise.”
We wanted to communicate with parents and carers in this edition of ‘Round Up’ as we have recently had the regrettable situation where a very small minority of students have taken it upon themselves to act on a situation that the school was already responding to in an appropriate and proportional manner. The actions of these students have proved harmful and detrimental to the social and emotional well being of other students and the school wants to emphasise to parents, carers, students and the community that we will not tolerate any form of harassment towards other children and their families.
As the quote states above, TAHS will always act on incidents that involve behaviours that need addressing and will make reasoned judgements on appropriate sanctions. Where these behaviours are of a serious nature we will also liaise with outside agencies such as the police if required. We therefore ask that all our stakeholders trust the school in investigating and resolving incidents and do not take matters into their own hands.
Job of the week
This week’s job of the week is a Secretary. The Mypath video on youtube tells you about this as a role:
JOB OF THE WEEK EPISODE #043 – SECRETARY – YouTube
If you would like to find out more information and how to get into this role then click via this link:
Secretary/administrator job profile | Prospects.ac.uk
Virtual Work Experience.
Now that mock exams are complete it is an opportune time for students in Years 10 and 12 to be considering their future intentions and in particular taking advantage of the numerous Virtual Work Experience opportunities that are available. Virtual Work Experience is a valuable opportunity for all students which provides a great insight into the world of work so that you can discover what specific jobs entail, gain valuable skills and meet employers.
There are a wide range of Virtual Work Experience opportunities available on the links below:
Virtual Work Experience Search (springpod.com) – includes a range of talks and programmes in the week we break up from school
Work Experience | Speakers for Schools
Free Virtual Work Experience Programs from Top Companies – Forage (theforage.com)
Halliday Fraser Munro – Work Experience Zone (hfm.co.uk) – for students who are interested in architecture and design. This programme includes the opportunity to design a house for a celebrity.
Thomas Alleyne's high school 