A message from Ms Greenhalgh
It’s been a bit of an unusual week this week, with many students not being in school for a couple of days due to the industrial action, but nevertheless we’ve managed to pack a lot in! We all enjoyed a wonderful Spring Concert on Tuesday evening, featuring fifty of our talented students who joined together to put on a fabulous showcase of music and dance. Thank you to all our performers, staff and everyone who came to support the event.
Our Science team have been celebrating British Science Week with their KS3 classes, exploring this year’s theme of ‘Connections’ and learning about the skills and creativity scientists need. The lessons also looked at tackling stereotypes by celebrating the diverse people and careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.
Thank you to everyone who provided cakes and bakes for our Bake Sale today, and to those who bought some of the delicious treats! We’re still counting up the cash, but all funds raised will go to the York Carers Centre.
It was lovely to chat with seven students earlier today who have been nominated by their Faculty to enjoy a hot chocolate and sweet treat with me. It was great to hear what they have been up to and hear their thoughts about the school. Well done to Louise, Lukas, Oisin, Lucas, Poppy, Jet, and Maggie.
And finally, a reminder that we are holding an Open Event next Thursday, for those who would like to find out more about the school and our plans, priorities and aspirations. Full details are in the email sent out on 15 March, but please do contact us if you have any questions.
We’re back on Monday for an ‘A’ Week. I hope you have a great weekend.
Kind regards
Gemma Greenhalgh
Headteacher
Learning conduct celebrations
As we near the end of the second term of the year, we are delighted to see some fantastic improvements in our students’ learning conduct grades since last term. Our Year group averages are something to be celebrated: Year 7: 3.64, Year 8: 3.47, Year 9: 3.5, Year 10: 3.47 and Year 11: 3.42.
As a reminder, a 3 is awarded where students are meeting all expectations and are working hard in lessons, completing all of their work and homework, responding to challenge and seeking to improve most of the time, whilst a 4 is awarded when students surpass all of these expectations all of the time. It is wonderful to see so many of our students attaining such high levels of learning conduct.
Other highlights to mention include:
In Year 7 in November, only two students achieved a 4 in every subject. This has now risen to 19 students (8%). Similarly, in November, only 6% of Year 7 (14 students) scored a 4 in every subject apart from one, which was a 3. This has now risen to 32 students (14%).
In Year 8, 10% of students scored a 4 in every subject (up from 5.8% in November) whilst 9% of students scored a 4 in every subject apart from one, which was a 3. This is up from 1.9% in November.
Sixteen Year 9 students (8%) scored a 4 in every subject which is up from 2.4% in November, whilst 19 students (9%) scored a 4 in every subject apart from one, which was a 3. This is up from 5.2% in November.
In Year 10, 15% (31 students) scored a 4 in every subject. This is a huge increase since December when 5.3% of Year 10 (11 students) scored a 4 in every subject. 11.4% of Year 10 (24 students) scored a 4 in every subject apart from one, which was a 3. This is up from 9% (19 students) in December.
Year 11 have maintained a very high average throughout this important academic year. They are tracked every four weeks and at every round, approximately 90% of students have an average Learning Conduct of 3 or above. As they approached their PPEs, 63% of Year 11 had an average of 3.5 or above!
Well done to everyone – keep up the good work!
Celebrating our students successes and achievements
As you will know, each half-term we produce our Millthorpe Messenger enewsletter which celebrates the successes and achievements of our students and school community. In addition we also love to share good news on our social media channels, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
If your child(ren) has done something you, or they, are proud of, perhaps raised money for charity, achieved sporting success, starred in a show, shown kindness to others or something else, please let us know. Just email news@millthorpe.southbank.academy with a few details and ideally a photo or two, and we can do the rest!
We are very proud of our students and would love to celebrate their achievements and good deeds with our wider community. We look forward to hearing from you.
Spring Concert success
This week’s Spring Concert was a wonderful success and our cast of performers were all warmly received by a packed main hall. The audience were treated to a diverse mix of musical and dance performances including Jazz Band, two choirs, Junior Band, dancer spotlights and a few soloists. Fifty students took part, and for many it was their very first Millthorpe concert. The audience truly appreciated the hard work and talent on display.
Dominik Trory in Year 11 performed his GCSE composition on the piano to great acclaim. The final number of the evening combined singers and our fabulous Jazz Band with Arthur Kay soloing in Runaway Baby by Bruno Mars. Many of the performers opted to wear sunglasses for this number, to make sure they achieved the right level of cool!
Thank you to everyone who came along. It was wonderful to see so many people there and although admission was free, we raised almost £230 through the very kind donations made on the evening.
And a final thank you to our wonderful performance staff who have worked so hard with our students to stage the event. Great job everyone!
Ramadan 2023
In order to support our Muslim students who may be observing Ramadan, please complete this short Google Form to let us know how we can support them during this holy month.
Lost property – shoes
We have a collection of shoes in school which have been separated from their owners! If your child is missing a pair of shoes, please ask them to speak to the team in the School Office before the end of term. Any shoes not collected by then will be donated to the Eco Laundry or to charity.
Netball Youth Camp
England Netball will host the first North Yorkshire Netball Youth Camp (NYC) of the year, on 5 April at Energise Leisure Centre. These camps provide junior netballers the opportunity to take to the courts with top quality coaching, fun games and match play, it’s the ultimate day for junior netball lovers!
Any questions, please contact harriet.minor@englandnetball.co.uk
Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme
The Holidays Activity and Food programme provides free activities and a meal to children and young people, who are eligible for Free School Meals in York and are aged 4-16 years old.
The HAF programme will be available throughout the Easter holidays – full details can be found here.
Startup Sherpas ‘SUPERSQUAD’
Students in Years 8 to 11 are invited to take part in the Startup Sherpas ‘SUPERSQUAD’ starting on 27 March. This is a paid, virtual work experience opportunity, working with the LNER rail organisation. Students will earn approximately £150 over seven weeks, working no more than four hours per week.
Students who sign up for the programme will work from home, utilising a laptop, computer, tablet or smart device to access a series of missions to complete. This will be work completed at home, outside of normal school hours.
The programme is beginning soon (27 March) and there are only 150 places nationwide on the scheme. Here is a short video explaining more about the opportunity.
You can sign up to the programme here.
A parent and carer guide to safe and healthy online habits
This week’s #WakeUpWednesday from National Online Safety is an excellent guide to help young people to build safe and healthy online habits. Building digital resilience, making positive lifestyle choices, putting safety first, how to reach out for support and much more is included. Please take a look with your child(ren).
Safeguarding
If you have significant concerns for the welfare of a child, in addition to being able to contact Mrs Cole or Ms Simpson during school hours by emailing safeguarding@millthorpe.southbank.academy, you may wish to make direct contact with the York MASH (Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub) on T: 01904 551900, option 3. They operate an out-of-hours service so concerns can be raised with them at any time.
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