Extra-curricular: Badminton club will be starting up again on Friday afterschool after half term and is open to all years 3.15-4pm. All students taking part require a PE kit and trainers.
Girls indoor football
Girls indoor football will be on every Wednesday in the sports hall. All years welcome. For more information, please see Miss Arrowsmith
Fitness Suite club
All year groups welcome. Friday evenings after school in our fitness suite – see Mr Scott to sign up.
Boys Football- all years
Flexible due to fixtures- see Mr Barrow
Boys Rugby- all years
Flexible due to fixtures- see Mr Barrow
Netball – all years
Thursday- see Miss Jones
School Newspaper
If you are interested in the school newspaper or would like to have your writing or art published, please come along to A6 on Friday lunchtimes. Feel free to bring your lunch.
Allies Club
Allies club is a place to come and explore issues around equality. If you are interested in making the school and wider community more inclusive and want to help celebrate our diverse communities, please come along to A6 on Tuesdays after school.
Mental Health
Mental health club
Our school Mental health club will now be running every Thursday until Christmas. For more information, please speak to Mrs Brooks.
Mental health course
Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing Course:
The NHS CAMHS (Child and Adult Mental Health Service) team will be in school on Thursday after school. This will run until Christmas. Sessions are held in Mrs Brooks’ English classroom (A11) from 15:05 -16:00 delivering a mental health and well-being course which will look fantastic on your CV and record of achievements. Once completed, you can deliver the course or use your training in school or the workplace to help others and yourself. Open to all students and staff. Refreshments provided.
Computing
Code club
We are in the motions of finalising plans for our very first code club on Monday lunchtimes. Open to all students and supported by some lovely year 12s with University Computer Science aspirations.
Why not come see what all the fuss is about?
*NEW* Science
IRIS project
Year 12 Science: IRIS project runs on Tuesdays in C3 between 3:05-4:00 pm
MFL
DUOLINGO CLUB
We will be running a Duolingo club for students who want to practice any foreign language.
Sessions will take place in C9.
Drama
Performing Arts Club
It was great to start performing arts club again this term and fantastic to see so many of you there. We performed some improv as well as choreographing a dance to ‘Tightrope’ from The Greatest Showman. All are welcome, Wednesdays 3.15-4.15pm
English
Y10 Reading Champions
Tuesday lunchtimes, A15
Staff and Sixth Form Reading Group
Once per half term. Please see English round up for more details
As we come to the end of another extraordinarily busy week, we would like to take a moment to reflect upon some of the successes and share them with you.
Tuesday evening we gratefully received the support of so many year 11 parents and carers in what was deemed to be another successful parents evening. Thank you for all your comments on the evening, please do keep them coming if you think there is anything we might have missed.
By Wednesday it was clear that students had started to really embrace the routines around the trial examinations. We are so proud of the attitudes of our students in these times. We know just how well these routines will support them in achieving their very best, when the time arrives for their final exams.
You’ll notice some slight changing we are trialing again with roundup. Posts should now be starting to appear more frequently, on social media platforms and with navigation to previous posts (see end of this post). Ideas for these changes have been coming mainly from different corners of our community. Please let us know what you think during this trial, your voice has impact.
Non uniform day for all year groups
Friday 9th December will be non-uniform day for all year groups. This is the date of the annual Dougie Mac Christmas jumper day so we would encourage students to wear their best festive jumper. However, this is not compulsory. Suggested donation is £2 with proceeds being split 50/50 between Dougie Mac and YESS. Parent Pay is open for donations and 6th formers will be collecting cash donations during registration on the day. PLEASE NOTE THERE ARE MOCKS ON THIS DAY SO REMEMBER TO PACK ALL YOUR NECESSARY EQUIPMENT.
Student Progress Reports
Please be advised that Y9,Y10 and Y12 reports are now available on Talaxy.
News from the last 7 days
Other round up news this week that you may have missed:
National Competition Success For Y13 DT student in the Tech Girl 2022 initiative Report by Competition Winner Gabby Strimaityte (Y13)
Tech Girl is a national competition where you have the chance to share your ideas for a sustainable technology change for schools that can be useful for students, teachers and the environment. The leaders of the competition had to select 5 winners from 30 different schools in the UK and invite the winners to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in London.
My 3 main ideas for a sustainable school were to invest in alternative energy sources, such as solar panels, wind turbines and a recycling machine for the school to reduce electricity/water costs and a result in less CO2 emissions, a cleaner environment and unlimited electricity. I then submitted my ideas through the Techgirl Hottopics website and eventually received an email telling me I had won and therefore was invited to London.
We arrived at the stadium where we were all given a tour, then escorted to the top floor into a conference room to meet CIO’s of Techgirl as well as the hosts of the competition. I met the other 4 winning girls and we were taken to a separate room to do a ‘confidence session’ before our interview later on. In the session we were taught by a professional speaker who had previously tutored politicians such as Boris Johnson how to talk, stand and sit confidently. This helped later on in the day. We did some role play in which we had to ask each other questions about our ideas as if we were in a real interview.
After this food was served and we had a moment to meet our mentors. Every girl had a separate mentor which discussed their ideas with them and how they can help schools. The ideas ranged from going paper free to hearing aids. I further discussed my ideas with my mentor as well as a journalist who joined us to also take notes of my ideas. Everyone was very friendly and I felt as if I was part of the team already.
Lastly, we were taken into an interview room full of cameras and lights, where we were fitted with microphones and greeted by the interviewer. We were handed the questions which we would be asked in the interview so we could revise what to say confidently. We then started filming and the interview lasted around 5-10 minutes.
After this we were applauded in the main conference room by all the gathered hosts and CIO’s then we were presented with trophies and had pictures taken with our mentors and the other winners, as well as being filmed throughout the whole day. My experience was amazing and an eye opening event, it is the first event they have held and will be continuing to do so in future years. After my experience I recommend that if you are interested in DT and sustainability that you apply next year.
Our Y10 Reading Champions – students who love reading and want to share their reading with each other and with the wider school – have just finished their first text: “The Honeys.” This is a brand new novel, written by Ryan La Sala, which explores the sinister goings-on at a prestigious Summer Camp in America.
Pictured are some of our Y10 Reading Champions with their recent read.
The students have rated this book 7/10, as it is a really engaging psychological thriller, with a lot of “I wasn’t expecting that!” moments. However, they felt the final section let the overall book down, as it seemed a little “rushed” and that the “resolutions weren’t fully resolved.” Despite this, they still recommend it for Y9-Y11, “especially if you like your fiction dystopian, and you’re not too determined to have a happy ending…” (no more spoilers please! – Mrs H).
They’re now designing a display to celebrate this book – watch this space.
Revision this week
Having just completed your Language Paper 2 mock, next week’s revision looks at common pitfalls and issues with Paper 2 Question 4 – the attitudes and perspectives question. If this is a question you found particularly challenging, come and spend some time with Miss Cann in A6, on Tuesday 29th after school, to see how you can do better next time.
Read… write
We’re starting to get entries for our Read… Write competition, and have been really impressed! If you want to be in with a chance of winning one of our fabulous prizes, see the task below and on Talaxy.
Bedrock Words
There are some really *vivid* language choices at the moment, which when put under *scrutiny* reveal our *blatant* attempts to increase our *lexicon (that’s a bonus word this week). To borrow the words of William Blake, we shall not *cease* in our lexical endeavours… Our fifth word is *subsidise*, because there’s always one I can’t fit in easily.
Bedrock Shout Outs
Shout outs this week to Esmee W, for completing the most topics in the last two weeks, and to George B and Isabelle E for having the most points in the last 7 days (behind Esmee).
Next week will be our November summary, so this is your last chance to boost your Bedrock and be in with a chance of claiming one of our monthly Bedrock treats.
Don’t forget, every student who completes their 20 points each week will receive an automatic entry into Bedrock’s competitions too, where the prizes are significantly more substantial!
Red Cross First Aid Session for BTEC Health & Social Care Students
Allison from the British Red Cross joined us on Wednesday to deliver an engaging and practical first aid course to our BTEC Extended Diploma Students as part of their Professional Skills sessions. We were taught about what to do when first encountering a casualty, how to conduct CPR on an unconscious patient, how to manage an obstructed airway and how to deal with bleeding from wounds. The course allowed the students to practice their own CPR skills and how to ensure an unconscious patient was in a safe position. All students received a certificate to add to their professional skills portfolio.
Well done to all students that have contributed to the form credit competition this week.
Winners for this week are:
Elkes 10E2 Orme 9O2 Torrance 9T1 Whitmore 9W1
Elkes – Mrs Brooks
Next week is National Grief Awareness Week 2022. While we wish no student would have to suffer this, we have many students and carers who do.The campaign is run by The Good Grief Trust (https://www.thegoodgrieftrust.org/) to help raise awareness of the impact of grief and to create a unified voice for all bereavement support services. It has become very clear that low-level bereavement support (i.e. being able to talk to people around us about our grief without feeling uncomfortable or judged) can help people process their grief. We also make referrals in school to the MHST (Mental Health in Schools Team), which hold sessions here mid-week. If anyone feels they need this please see their Head of House to ask for some support.
Extra-curricular: Badminton club will be starting up again on Friday afterschool after half term and is open to all years 3.15-4pm. All students taking part require a PE kit and trainers.
Girls indoor football
Girls indoor football will be on every Wednesday in the sports hall. All years welcome. For more information please see Miss Arrowsmith
Fitness Suite club
All year groups welcome. Friday evenings after school in our fitness suite – see Mr Scott to sign up.
Boys Football- all years
Flexible due to fixtures- see Mr Barrow
Boys Rugby- all years
Flexible due to fixtures- see Mr Barrow
Netball – all years
Thursday- see Miss Jones
School Newspaper
If you are interested in the school newspaper or would like to have your writing or art published, please come along to A6 on Friday lunchtimes. Feel free to bring your lunch.
Allies Club
Allies club is a place to come and explore issues around equality. If you are interested in making the school and wider community more inclusive and want to help celebrate our diverse communities, please come along to A6 on Tuesdays after school.
Mental Health
Mental health club
Our school Mental health club will now be running every Thursday until Christmas. For more information, please speak to Mrs Brooks.
Mental health course
Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing Course:
The NHS CAMHS (Child and Adult Mental Health Service) team will be in school on Thursday after school. This will run until Christmas. Sessions are held in Mrs Brooks’ English classroom (A11) from 15:05 -16:00 delivering a mental health and well-being course which will look fantastic on your CV and record of achievements. Once completed, you can deliver the course or use your training in school or the workplace to help others and yourself. Open to all students and staff. Refreshments provided.
Computing
Code club
We are in the motions of finalising plans for our very first code club on Monday lunchtimes. Open to all students and supported by some lovely year 12s with University Computer Science aspirations.
Why not come see what all the fuss is about?
MFL
DUOLINGO CLUB
We will be running a Duolingo club for students who want to practice any foreign language.
Sessions will take place in C9.
Drama
Performing Arts Club
It was great to start performing arts club again this term and fantastic to see so many of you there. We performed some improv as well as choreographing a dance to ‘Tightrope’ from The Greatest Showman. All are welcome, Wednesdays 3.15-4.15pm
English
Y10 Reading Champions
Tuesday lunchtimes, A15
Staff and Sixth Form Reading Group
Once per half term. Please see English round up for more details
Please see below information on apprenticeships, careers, courses and degrees.
Creative Industries
Are you a budding artist, with a keen interest in Animation, Video Game Art or Visual Effects?
At Escape Studios, we’re approved and endorsed internationally as an Unreal Engine Authorized Training Center, as well as both Rookies and Houdini certified schools.
Bookings are now open for our next undergraduate open day, taking place on Saturday 14th January 2023. Why not sign up and get your questions answered ahead of the UCAS deadline in late January!
You’ll gain an insight into our impressive range of industry partners and get to discover the details of our degrees by attending our online subject talks.
Can’t wait until January? Why not check out our on-demand open dayat a time that suits you for a variety of content about life at Escape Studios:
Hear from Vice Principal, Dr Ian Palmer
View showreels and award-winning student work
Listen to talks from our inspirational alumnit
Escape Studios showreel
Undergraduate prospectus
Check out our new showreel to see our students’ work, including projects such as Batman in London, Project Redacted and Post-Mortem.
Check out our digital prospectus to learn more about our degrees in 2D and 3D Animation, Game Art and VFX.
Do you want to be a video game producer, set up your own business or are you not sure what career might suit you in the future? If so, we’ve got the perfect days during National Careers Week. You can explore future career options by chatting to university experts, current students, employers and industry professionals such as the NHS, JCB and Teach First. Here’s a sneak peek of what to expect from the days.
We’re proud that our halls have just won two Global Student Living Awards!
The Global Student Living Index is the largest international survey on the quality of student accommodation and the results are 100% based on direct feedback from home and international students.
Head to our website to find out more information about our activities and workshops. If you require any further information, or wish to arrange an activity, please get in touch with the Schools and Colleges Liaison Team.
Support for aspiring nurses and midwives of the future – Midlands Region. As the NHS struggles with capacity shortages, growing the nursing & midwifery workforce is a massive national priority with huge potential for sustained employment growth in roles that span the worlds of science, technology, and innovation through to leadership, management, and collaboration.
NHS England have created an exciting project to entice more young people from across England into fulfilling NHS careers through an exclusive series of eye-opening, expert-led, insights & virtual work experiences. The programme – known as NHS NextGen Nurse is underway throughout this academic year and will continue annually, facilitated locally by our NHS Regional teams. It is freely available to any 14-19-year-old who attends a UK state secondary school or college. What will the sessions focus on? Ask most young people what a nurse does, and they will have a rough idea, but they will not necessarily appreciate the huge variety of roles available or the flexibility and opportunities for career progression that nursing allows. They may also harbour some unhelpful preconceptions around who can be a nurse. The NHS NextGen Nurse programme aims to address these gaps and/or misconceptions by providing educators with a selection of easy and accessible options:
1. Virtual Nursing Insight Days – Young people get the opportunity to hear from nurses working across a range of nursing fields, learn what key skills are needed in the workplace and find out how you can get started in a nursing career.
2. Pathways into Nursing – The full-day ‘Pathways into Nursing’ workshop for Year 12 or 13s provides students with accurate information about study nursing, informs them about how to make their application stand out and inspires them to study nursing.
3. Nurse Led Short Session. One of our ‘Nursing Ambassadors’ work with you toward a face to face or virtual session with young people interested in a Nursing career. The nurses give a genuine insight into the career and an opportunity to find out about what a nurse REALLY does.
4. Healthcare Community Sessions – We can organise for all elements of the healthcare community to come to you! Our healthcare community session model brings NHS educators (local universities) and NHS Providers seeking a future workforce (apprenticeships & post grad.) together to present the career pathway.
5. Virtual Work Experience – A longer virtual placement lasting 2-5 days that provide a deeper dive into the nursing profession where they can explore a wider variety of specialities. To make sure no one ever misses out, the various types of sessions are repeated at select intervals throughout the year.
Anyone in lower school who is interested, please speak to your form tutor. Anyone in Sixth Form who is interested, please speak to a member of the Sixth Form team.
Careers quiz of the month
Careers in sport
A new Careers quiz for students with an interest in sports
New to the Unifrog Resources library, this Careers quiz will get you thinking about whether a future in sport could be for you.
You’ll learn a couple of surprising facts about football careers…
Stress can be a normal part of job seeking, more often than not, it’s the result of over-thinking a situation. This article is full of advice on how to prepare for an interview:
Sixth Form entry September 2023 – online application
All Year 11 students have been given access to a Year 11 Sixth Form Applications Team. This is to support them in making their Post 16 choices. Access to the online application form for Sixth Form entry September 2023 is available in this team or by clicking the following link:
Year 13 Parents Evening – Thursday 1st December 4-7pm
Letter regarding the evening has been emailed to parents, bookings to be made via Talaxy. Any queries please contact sixthform@tahs.org.uk
Data Collection Sheet
Any students who haven’t returned their data collection sheet, please can you drop it into the Sixth form office.
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@tahs.org.uk
Thomas Alleyne's high school 