A message from Ms Greenhalgh
It’s been a good, if slightly chilly, week at Millthorpe! Year 11s continue to work hard towards their forthcoming exams, lots of students are still making the most of extra-curricular activities and plans to welcome our new cohort of students in September are beginning to take shape.
In Careers activities this week, our Year 8 students enjoyed a fantastic Trading Game opportunity thanks to our friends at NYBEP. You can see some of the great photos and find out who won on our social media accounts. All students have also received a Careers newsletter packed with advice, opportunities, online resources and useful information. You can take a look here.
I hope you all a lovely Bank Holiday weekend with friends and family. School will reopen on Tuesday 2 May to students in Years 7 and 11 and vulnerable students only (please see below for information about the national strike action) and we will see all other students back in school on Wednesday 3 May for an ‘A’ Week
With best wishes,
Gemma Greenhalgh
Headteacher
National strike action
A reminder that further national strike action by the National Education Union (NEU) is planned for Tuesday 2 May, so we will only be able to open to vulnerable students and students in Year 7 and Year 11.
For full information, please see Ms Greenhalgh’s letter to parents/carers here.
Changes to the school day
From Tuesday 9 May, we will be making some small changes to the school day timings to cater for the Year 11 exams which require longer afternoon sessions.
The new school day timings are as follows:
- 8.45-8.55am: Morning registration/tutor time
- 8.55-9.55am: Period 1
- 9.55-10.55am: Period 2
- 10.55-11.10am: Break
- 11.10am-12.10pm: Period 3
- 12.10-12.55pm: Lunch
- 12.55-1.15pm: Afternoon registration/tutor time
- 1.15-2.15pm: Period 4
- 2.15-3.15pm: Period 5
Once exams are completed, we will let students and families know when the school day timings will return to normal.
Smashed Live – Alcohol education to empower a generation
We have recently been lucky enough to welcome the Smashed Project into school to deliver interactive and informative alcohol awareness sessions to students in Years 7-10.
Last week, Year 9 and 10 watched an interactive video and discussed the issues presented with Smashed Ambassador, David, and this week, Year 7 and 8 watched a live play performed by Harri, Mimi and Sam. The Smashed Project aims to provide “life-changing education tackling underage drinking with positive thinking when the world inevitably throws out choices.” They want young people to “make an informed choice”.
Both sessions were really well received by the students and the staff supervising felt that they were excellent in tackling this important issue and giving our students advice and guidance in an age-appropriate way. Miss Watts reported that it was “the best session of its kind that I’ve ever seen.”
An enormous thank you to the Smashed Project for providing such an amazing educational experience for our students.
Pictured: Year 7 students watching the performance on Wednesday.
Goodbye to Carina and Louise
We would like to say a huge thank-you to Carina and Louise, our two foreign language assistants, who leave us today – they have contributed a lot to our curriculum and have helped prepare Year 11 well for their speaking exams.
We wish them all the very best!
WANTED – Arty Year 10 volunteers!
On Thursday 13 July there is an exciting opportunity for Year 10 students to volunteer as assistants at South Bank Multi Academy Trust’s Art in a Day: Festival of the Arts at York Barbican.
You would ‘make your mark’ and support younger students to create an exhibition of large scale canvases on the theme of ‘Community’ taking inspiration from the figurative work of artist Liz Collier.
Places are limited so if you are interested, please see Mrs Cockburn in D7 asap for more information and to sign up!
Speedkix consent
Could Year 7 parents please give their consent for their child to take part in the Speedkix activities on Tuesday if they haven’t already done so. We wouldn’t want students to miss out!
Design a logo competition
Design a logo competitionThere’s still time to enter the competition to come up with a name and design a logo for the careers programme at Millthorpe. Entries should be emailed to studentleadership@millthorpe.southbank.academy by Wednesday 3 May.
Spotlight on supported internships – A webinar for parents and carers of young people preparing for adult life
Thursday 18 May, 10.30am – 12.00pm (on Teams)
Supported internships are study programmes for young people, aged 16 to 24, who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and want to move into employment, but need some extra support. They provide work experience for young people with disabilities so they can gain skills and develop in confidence. In brief, supported internships give young people an opportunity to take their first steps into the world of employment, build skills in the workplace, gain qualifications, and use these to potentially get a paid job.
The National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) are hosting a webinar to help you learn more about supported internships and how they can benefit your child. This online event is particularly designed for parents, carers, and representatives from Parent Carer Forums. During the webinar, you’ll hear personal experiences from past supported interns and employers, and see how they benefited. You’ll also hear from a government representative explaining how the government supports more young people with SEND into work.
For further information please visit the NDTi website and to book a place please go to the booking form here.
Art Summer School
Year 10 and 11 Art students and those Year 9 students who have opted for GCSE Art next year are invited to attend an exciting extra-curricular opportunity in July and August.
Internationally renowned contemporary artist Ian Murphy is leading two week-long Summer Schools at The Mount School. Please see the following links for more information re dates and cost:
You can book a place here.
NCS Virtual Information Evening
A reminder that NCS are inviting all Year 11 students and their parents/guardians to a Virtual Information Evening on 4 May, which will provide more insight about NCS and its programmes.
You can find full details in this letter.
#WakeUpWednesday
National Online Safety have produced an excellent guide to a concerning social networking app called Wizz.
NOS says “Recently rising in popularity among children and young people, Wizz is a social networking app that allows users to chat live with people from around the world. In similar fashion to a dating app, it facilitates conversations with people that users would not ordinarily meet – but of course, making connections to individuals online brings its own self-evident potential safety issues.
While Wizz makes use of face recognition technology to assess a user’s age and group them by age group – the software is far from perfect and is no guarantee that some individuals won’t attempt to exploit the app for sinister purposes. Our #WakeUpWednesday guide examines Wizz in detail, identifying pitfalls that parents and carers should be aware of.
In the guide you’ll find tips on a number of potential risks such as catfishing, explicit content and “sextortion”, and examines how trusted adults can take young people to avoid these possible threats.”
Safeguarding
If you have significant concerns for the welfare of a child, in addition to being able to contact Mrs Cole, Mrs Cooper or Mr Beever 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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