Lateral Flow Testing in January
The DfE has advised that asymptomatic twice weekly at-home testing, using Lateral Flow Devices (LFDs), should continue in the new year, to help reduce transmission of COVID-19 and identify cases early. We strongly encourage students to continue regular LFD testing and to report their results please.
Head of Year 11
Mrs Parr, our wonderful Head of Year 11, has secured a new job and we are sorry to inform you that she will be leaving Millthorpe School at Christmas. Mrs Parr has been at Millthorpe for 16 years and during that time has held, and indeed excelled in, a number of roles: teacher of RE, PSHCE, Personal Development, Child Development, Music, Drama (there may be more!), Head of PSHCE, Director of Achievement for Roman House, then Viking House and most recently, Head of Year 11. We are really sorry to be losing Mrs Parr but she is moving to a new job working for Diversity Role Models, an LGBT+ charity which delivers anti-bullying and discrimination workshops in schools. This is a role that she is made for and we know that she will be outstanding!
Thank you to Mrs Parr for her years of service, her passion for education, her outstanding pastoral care, for being “that teacher” to so many students, and for being a valued colleague. We will miss you.
We are delighted to announce that Miss Forrester will be the new Head of Year 11 from January. Miss Forrester has always taken a keen interest in the pastoral side of education, going above and beyond to support her tutees and all the students she works with. She knows the vast majority of Year 11 students already, having a Year 11 Form and teaching more than half of the year group. She will quickly get to know those students who she knows less well in January. We are really pleased to welcome her to the Pastoral Team!
Assembly: casual racism
At Millthorpe School, we are committed to making our community a welcoming and anti-racist space. This week’s assembly, carefully and professionally produced by our Student Diversity Group, teaches the terms Microaggression, Casual Racism, and Cultural Appropriation. It’s important we learn these words so we can accurately describe the events we might experience or witness. Whilst we’d all be comfortable identifying violent and outrageous acts of racism, it can be harder to name the discomfort and indignity of less overt acts of racism. Through Ms Ramadhan and Ms Garner Steel, the Student Diversity Group very bravely shared their experiences and invited the rest of the school to join their group.
The assembly content was put together by Ben Cason, Asma Al Gharawy, Hani Sannuga and Olly Garner-Steel who together, founded the Student Diversity Group.
They said: “We are a group of Year 11 students. We started this group because we thought that our school didn’t always express the minority voices. We are passionate to make all voices heard in the school. We want our school to celebrate our different backgrounds and be welcoming to everyone. Join us if you want to help stop racism in our school. We will work on projects throughout the year. Anyone is welcome if you want to make a difference.”
You can see the assembly here and if you would like to find out more, please contact Ms Garner Steel.
Christmas Charity appeal update
It was great to see everyone in their Christmas jumpers on Wednesday this week! The festive non-uniform day has so far raised an amazing £904 which will be shared between a number of local charities. We would love to see the total hit £1000 if we can, so if parents/carers would still like to donate, you can do so on ParentPay.
Face coverings
Please can we remind you to check that your child/ren has a mask/face covering with them each day, preferably a reusable one. We have gone through thousands of disposable masks since the half-term break which is not only costly, but is very bad for the environment.
TikTok door kicking trend
Parents/carers should be aware of an emerging TikTok trend, in which young people film one another kicking random front doors and running away. Such behaviour is clearly antisocial and could be very intimidating, especially for vulnerable residents, and puts young people at risk of legal repercussions. Social media crazes of this kind are always best met with a calm and proportionate response but it is a timely prompt to encourage your child/ren to act thoughtfully and responsibly both online and in the ‘real’ world and to be alert to any inappropriate social media activity they may be involved in.
Wake Up Wednesday
This week’s #WakeUpWednesday from National Online Safety is a video of two teachers who have re-written the lyrics to a popular Christmas song to encourage us all to spend time with family and friends this holiday season, and put our devices down. Unfortunately, we cannot share the video with you as it requires a subscription log in, but you can follow this link to the lyrics for you to read and share with your child/ren. We are sure you will be able to work out the tune!
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