Progress Opportunity Individuality

Welcome -magic breakfast!

From Tuesday of next week, we will be opening to all students for breakfast from 8.15am. We are keen for students to come into school in the morning and base themselves in our school canteen together, rather than be in town.

All pupil premium students or free school meal students will be provided with a free breakfast if they are able to join us before 8.30am.

If your circumstances have changed recently, and you think you may be entitled to pupil premium funding please email office@tahs.org.uk for further details.

Attendance

We appreciate parental support with attendance.
This week, we will be holding attendance assemblies with students. These will be focused on the impact of below average attendance. Please see the graph below, which shows the progress of all students who attended less than 85% last year. Students below the line made less than average progress.

Talaxy Update

Notice to all parents – Talaxy Logins. (Our Homework portal)

We are pleased to announce that all pupil and parent Talaxy logins are now available. These will be used to view homework and to book parents evenings.

In order for your account to become live, you will need to associate it against your School registered email address. Please visit the school website http://www.thomasalleynes.uk/ and navigate to the page called ‘Talaxy Login Details (Parents)’ which can be found in the ‘Parents’ section of the website or click on this link http://www.thomasalleynes.uk/page/?title=Parents&pid=9

If you are experiencing any issues with registering on Talaxy please email ‘talaxy@tahs.org.uk‘. 

Data Collection Sheets

Data Collection Sheets will be sent out to parents via students next week (week beginning 3rd October). 

Please check the information on the sheet and add any amendments/changes clearly. In line with ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ we need at least two emergency contacts for your child. 

Please sign and return the sheet to school as soon as possible.

After school revision/support sessions for Year 11

Revision support

We are delighted that Inner Drive will be coming to school on 11th October to work with y11 and 13 students with a session titled ‘Studying with the Brain in mind’ Further details of the session attend is below. 

Extra-Curricular

Art Competitions available for all to enter – deadline for all entries 30th November.

Music updates

Please see the music noticeboard for instrumental and vocal lessons times.

Music Extra-Curricular Clubs

Tuesday lunch Year 9 Band 

Thursday lunch Choir 

Friday lunch Senior Band 

House Dance and Drama

A reminder please that rehearsals are Wednesday afternoons until 4.15pm and if students wish to rehearse at lunchtimes please contact Mrs Mood on TEAMS to arrange a time and location. Please bring clothes that you can move in to Wednesday rehearsals.

Opportunities in Sport

Rugby

Swimming Club

Good luck to our students who will be representing the school on Thursday at our first Swimming Gala of the year hosted by Newcastle Under-Lyme School.

Interested in becoming a lifeguard? Please see information below. This is a great opportunity to get involved and achieve a NPLQ qualification!

National Pool Lifeguard Course (NPLQ) with Emergency First Aid at Work (EFAW) and Automated External Defibrillator (AED)

When? 8th, 9th, 15th, 16th, 22nd & 23rd October 2022 (3 x weekends)
Where? Trentham Community Sports Centre, Trentham ST4 8PQ
Times? 8.00am- 5.30pm
Price? £250.00

Pre-requisites of course:
16 years of age on or before final day of course
Dive/jump into deep water
Swim 50 metres in less than 60 seconds
swim 200 continuously (100m front 100m back)
Tread water for 30 seconds
surface dive to floor of the pool (2m)
Climb out unaided

Interested? email: JILL.BRIDGWOOD.1@sky.com or call Jill 07966422238

Football

Boys Football

Boys football club will be on Wednesday this week. Hope to see you all there.

Girls Football

Girls football club will be on Wednesday this week. Hope to see you all there.

House Handball

Well done to all of our students that represented their house in House handball. Results will be shared next week.

Netball

Good Luck to our year 9 Netball team who are playing in a netball festival on Tuesday at Deferrers

This week netball club will be on Wednesday.

Fitness Club

Fitness club will be every Friday 3:05-4pm with Mr Scott in the new pavilion Gym. Please see Mr Scott for more details.

Mental Health

Mrs Brooks will be running a club to promote positive Mental Health and well-being . This will run from 3.15 -4.15 in Room A11. See you Wednesday.

Interested in becoming a MENTAL HEALTH AMBASSADOR?

Join us on WEDNESDAY EVENINGS in A11 3:15-4:15pm

The WHAM Plan is delivered by young people and anyone who has completed the full course is able to deliver the sessions to others, such as in a school or youth organisation.

There are a variety of different topics that we cover, including:

• What is emotional wellbeing?
• The food-mood connection
• Positive activities for wellbeing
• Healthy relationships
• Helping others
• Planning ahead for troubled times
• Mindfulness in nature

Department News

English

Work of the Week

Mrs Baldwin’s Y11 class have been working on the novel ‘A Christmas Carol’, exploring the Victorian context and author’s life for their AO3.  Here is some excellent work from Niamh T.

In Miss Beevor’s class, 10H1 have made storyboards and playlists for Romeo and Juliet showing their knowledge and understanding of the play as a whole and the key events.

• The English department is very much looking forward to the launch of Bookbuzz in Y9 lessons next week. In class, you will be introduced to seventeen different Bookbuzz books of different genres, from comedies and autobiographies to drama and sci-fi fiction. You will then decide which one you would like to take home to read and keep as an early Christmas present from the English department! 
• The department aims to foster a lifelong love of reading whilst also encouraging wider benefits.  Research has shown that reading has physical, mental, social and emotional benefits.  MRI scans have shown that reading involves a complex network of circuits and signals in the brain which get stronger and more sophisticated when we keep reading.  Reading increases our vocabulary, raises self-esteem, builds good communication skills and helps us with skills like prediction.  The Literacy Trust have also found that young people aged 11 to 14 who read daily in their free time are twice as likely to read above the level expected for their age!  Children and young people’s reading in 2019 | National Literacy Trust

Set Texts

Romeo & Juliet texts are available to purchase, as are our other key texts of A Christmas Carol and An Inspector Calls.  Please purchase via Parent Pay and collect from Mrs Hunt.

Revision

Memorise these useful connectives, conjunctions and discourse markers (and maybe add some more of your own):

whoever	whatever	similarly	meanwhile	moreover
nonetheless	for	while	differently	even so
therefore	however	so	interestingly	with
although	besides	because	since	consequently
furthermore	nevertheless	until	alternatively	whereas
unless	then	because	whenever	after
		yet

Book Recommendation

Mrs Bell can recommend Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series for those who like murder mysteries and comedy.

From the Back Cover (Amazon)

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders. But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Maths

Year 9 Maths Star Starters

Well done to the following Y9 students who have been nominated by their math’s teachers for making an excellent start to maths at Thomas Alleyne’s.

Abigail B/Leah K/Kieran L/Lewis M/Hayden B/Alfie P/Finn M/Amelia H/Kiera T/Kane P/Destiny J/Kieran B/Milly P/Illia K/William A/Macy C/Romily G/Jack S/Tyler H/Orla T/Tamsin R/Evelyn W/Jonty C/Isobelle G/Yvie H/Aaron O/Bradley B/Scarlett C/Molly M/Iris R/Kara Y/Daisy B/Heidi R/Maria P/Freddy T/Oliver M/Hope R/Jake S/Abi P/Jack N/Matilda HCaleb T

Year 11 GCSE Maths Revision Guide and Practice Papers

All Year 11 students have been given a letter about purchasing a GCSE maths revision guide (£4.99) and a pack of practice exam papers (£3.15).  Both of these are available now to buy via ParentPay.  These will be very useful for the upcoming mock exams as well as the final GCSE exams in the Summer.  The deadline for ordering these is Friday 7th October.

Social & Health Studies

Our departmental star students this week are those who did an amazing job on the open evening.  Alex and Megan did a great job of demonstrating bandages.  Milly, Keira and Kylah showed parents all the fabulous coursework produced by students in Child Development and Health & Social Care.  They all did a really super job!

Art

Year 12 Artists and Photographers went on a trip to Birmingham City Library, Museum and the Ikon Gallery on Friday 30th as part of their coursework development and location sketching / photography.  It was a great day, even with the cold and rain… Our students made some great work and represented the school and the department fantastically throughout the day.

BTEC Tech Award Sport Activity & Fitness

All Year 11 Need to be completing coursework on Technology in Sport. All details are on Teams

School Lottery

Thomas Alleyne’s PTA is a successful and friendly group of parents and staff. We help at school events by serving refreshments and using the proceeds of these events to donate money to departments across the school. This year we have donated to the Art, Music, PE and provided calculators to ensure all students have the access to equipment needed for exams. We have thoroughly enjoyed helping at the performance of Grease,  the Summer Concert and Junior Prize Giving. We would like to take this opportunity to let you know that our AGM is on Monday 26th September at 7.00pm at Thomas Alleyne’s.  We would like to recruit parents of students in Years 9-13 to come along and support the school. If you can’t attend the AGM but think that you could help at one or more of the events that the school hold throughout the year then please email Mrs Young at younge@tahs.net

Head of House updates

Whitmore – Miss Jones

I have been popping in and out of lessons all week to observe our fantastic form tutors delivering our Thomas Character Curriculum during form time. I was pleased to see just how many students were engaged in the content and contributing to the discussions taking place. Well done!

Elkes – Mrs Brooks

Mrs Brooks would like to thank all the Elkes students who helped in our Open Evening. One very brave year 9 stood up in front of a room full of parents and potential students to make a fantastic and confident speech.

As some year groups approach assessment week and mock exams, may I remind pupils that any concerns or anxieties can be shared about this in the Elkes office. Numerous strategies can be put in place to give you a helping hand and emotional support is always at hand.

Torrance – Miss Arrowsmith

I would like to say a massive thank you to all students that helped out with Open Evening this week. Well done to all Torrance students that took part and represented their house in Handball. your determination, enthusiasm and ability to play handball for over two hours was impressive to say the least.

As we approach our 5th week can I remind students to ensure their uniform is correct, you continue to conduct yourself around school in a professional manor and work hard in lessons.

I look forward to seeing you all in assembly on Wednesday.

Orme – Mr Brassington

Let me start this week by saying a huge thanks to all the students (whatever colour tie you wear)
who supported the school with open evening. It really was wonderful to see the excitement created
around the classrooms as you got involved and showed the very best of what we as a school
community offer. It would be remis of me however to not give special thanks to those students in
Orme who gave up their evening and made the event so successful.
This has led me to think of a new (potentially) weekly feature for Orme round up we shall call…

Orme star recognition will confer on you not just legendary status amongst the school body but also
a suitably impressive number of credits to go towards a greater chance at those end of term
rewards.
The Orme star for this week is David B for his organisation of a truly impressive An Inspector Calls
dining room scene, including interactive elements such as QR codes and military like organisation of
some other passionate English students to get into both character and costume and wow year 8
parents.
A special mention for 9O3, 3 people helped out Open Evening – science and PE. 5 students
volunteered to take part in the additional House Cross Country – the girls came in the top ten and 1
of the boys came 5th. Mrs Johnson reports that there have been some really impressive
contributions to our Thomas Character Curriculum work on mental health.
I look forward to seeing you all in assemblies next week as we discuss the importance of attendance.

Sixth Form updates

16-25 Railcard – Have you got yours? I represent Trainline and believe we’d be a great fit for your ‘Contact’ landing page at https://www.thomasalleynes.uk/page/?title=Contact+Us&pid=2 Given the current cost of living crisis, we’ve put together a guide to the 16-25 Railcard (also known as the Student Railcard or Young Persons Railcard) to help your students travel around UK and save money on train tickets. It would be great if you would consider linking to our page https://www.thetrainline.com/trains/great-britain/railcards/16-25-railcard

Year 12 Work Experience week – Monday 28^th November to Friday 2^nd December

All Year 12 students are to undertake a week’s work experience. You need to be actively looking for a placement. You will need to register your placement via your Unifrog account. Mrs Young will be going into more detail regarding this during a Year 12 assembly. If you are having trouble accessing your Unifrog account please contact Mrs Walton on walton@tahs.net

Sixth Form Open Evening – Thursday 6^th October, 2022

Post-16 Open Evening taking place Thursday 6^th October between 6.00-9.00pm. Year 11 students received a talk from Mrs Young on Thursday 29^th September about the evening and Sixth Form. Tickets for the subject talks and information talks are available by clicking on the link below for Eventbrite.

We look forward to welcoming you to our evening.

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 2022-2023 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@burrow11

TUTOR TIME ACTIVITIES W/C 3^rd October 2022

Year 12

Thomas Character: Ambition, Self Fulfilled, Tenacity

Monday:  

Degree Apprenticeships. Using this link, watch the ‘Higher And Degree Apprenticeships – Make Them Your Plan A’ film and the ‘First 100 Days’ film. If there is time, watch further films of your form group’s choice. https://amazingapprenticeships.com/resources/?films=1

Apprenticeship resources for schools, teachers, parents (amazingapprenticeships.com)

Thursday:

Tutors to check that students have sent off letters or made arrangements for their work experience. Watch some more apprenticeship films if there is time.

Year 13

Thomas Character – Ambition, Self Fulfilled, Tenacity

Monday:

Log onto the Future Learn website and explore their Moocs – academic or wider interests. Students should sign up for one and continue this during their 6th form 7 enrichment sessions or tutor time on Wednesdays. These will help personal statements to really stand out!

Wednesdays:

Continue with a mooc.

Thursday:

Fab four future intentions choices: improve their personal statements; plan open day visits; improve their CV or research live apprenticeships on Unifrog.

TERM DATES  ACADEMIC YEAR 2022 – 2023

Inset day: Friday 21^st October

Holiday: Monday 24 October – Friday 28 October

Term ends: Friday 16 December

Holiday: Monday 19 December – Monday 2 January

Spring Term 2023

Inset day: Tuesday 3 January

Inset day: Wednesday 4 January

Term starts: Thursday 5 January

Holiday: Monday 20 February – Friday 24 February

Term ends: Friday 31 March 

Holiday: Monday 3 April – Friday 14 April

Easter Sunday: Sunday 9 April

Summer Term 2023

Inset day: Monday 17^th April

Term starts: Tuesday 18 April

May Day: Monday 1 May

Holiday: Monday 29 May – Friday 2 June

Term ends: Tuesday 25 July

Holiday: Wednesday 26 July – Friday 1 September

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