Weekly email – 28 November 2025

A message from Mrs Rothenburg

Kavina Rothenburg
Principal

Dates for your diary

• Tuesday 2 December: Christmas Concert
• Wednesday 10 December: Year 11 Progress Evening
• Thursday 18 December: Christmas Dinner
• Friday 19 December: School closes for Christmas break

2026

• Monday 5 January: Training Day (school closed to students)
• Tuesday 6 January: School reopens after Christmas break

What is my child learning at the moment?

Please see below to find out what your child has been learning about in recent lessons in order to have productive discussions about their education:

• French: We have been learning how to describe ourselves and others in French. Can your child describe a friend, and talk about their hair and eyes, and what their personality is like?
• Computing: Students have started editing and creating their own PowerPoint presentations.

• History: This half term we are looking at what was important to people living in 17th Century England. How did the Civil War affect the lives of Lady Brilliana and Anna Trapnel? What other national events affected the lives of individuals? What factors played an important part in affecting people’s lives and why? (eg war, luck, civil rights).
• Geography: Why are the cliffs at Flamborough white? What is the Rock Cycle? What is the difference between igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rock?
• RE: Students are learning about the five pillars of Islam. What are the foundational beliefs in your life?

• Drama: Students are working towards completing their unit of study on Devised Drama and Theatre in Education by completing a written theory test to review the knowledge they have gained over the course of this topic. They will perform their own group devised pieces of Theatre in Education, exploring the theme of homelessness and using non-naturalistic techniques for dramatic effect – please do ask them for a performance!
• Music: As we approach the end of the music and media project, students are learning to DAW projects to experience the music production software used by composers when writing for film and video games.
• PE: Students are well into their new activity blocks with the girls developing their skills in volleyball and cheerleading. The boys are developing their skills in football and rugby.

• AQA Art: In lessons Fine Art students are further developing their recording skills into printmaking (dry point etching). A trial plate featuring a moth by contemporary artist April Coppini will lead to a personal response which will form a larger mixed media study later this term. Students will also be refining their tonal shading skills for homework over the next fortnight with the option of extending artist links. Discussing the work of dry point etchings by the following artists would be a great way to support your child; Fauna/Animals by Henry Moore, Rembrandt Van Rijn, Katie Wilkins & Lucian Freud and Flora/Plants by Rory McEwan, Jim Dine, Michael Landy & Lucian Freud.
• Graphics: students have been busy working on their Letters and Numbers project, experiencing a wide range of graphical skills to produce their images. They will then be using Photoshop to digitally manipulate their work.
• 3D Product Design: students have finished their Grand Designs project and they have made fantastic models which they should be very proud of. They are now starting their second project which is based on animals, origami and working with aluminium.
• Food Preparation and Nutrition: students are now onto the topic of nutrition after completing the unit and assessments on Food Safety. Students will be learning about a wide range of nutrients and their functions in the body and how to achieve a healthy balanced diet.

We hope that you will find this information useful when talking to your child about their learning. Additionally, you might want to take a look at the curriculum section of our website which has lots more information about what your child will be learning over the academic year.

Millthorpe Christmas Charity Appeal 2025

This week in assembly and in our culture curriculum, the Student Leaders launched our annual Christmas Charity Appeal. Once again, we will be supporting four great local charities which help those in need and some of the most vulnerable people in our city: Carecent, The Collective Sharehouse, RAY (Refugee Action York), and SASH.

The Student Leaders did a fantastic job this week of highlighting the importance and benefits of donating and helping others and have challenged the school to try to beat last year’s generous donations total. You can see a list of all the items requested by the charities here.

Donations can be brought in over the next two weeks and placed under the Christmas tree in the foyer by the main office. The deadline for bringing items into school is Friday 12 December, when the Student Leaders will organise everything ready to be collected by the charities.

Millthorpe School further commits to supporting Young Carers

At Millthorpe, we are completely committed to supporting the young carers in our school. Last year, we received the Young Carers in Schools Award and this year, we have signed up to the Young Carers Covenant, to further demonstrate our commitment to supporting this cohort of wonderful students.

Whilst nationally it is estimated that two students in every classroom is a young carer, our identified numbers of young carers is much smaller than this. If you think your child may be a young carer, please reach out to us for support. This is so that we can ensure that your child is looked after in school, and we also facilitate support outside of school such as attendance at Youth Clubs, subsidised trips, discounted shopping vouchers, access to 1-1 emotional support and if required, CBT counselling.

There is no stigma attached to being a Young Carer. In fact, we think they are remarkable and do all that we can to help them.

If you would like more information, please see the Young Carers section on our website which includes details on how to get in touch with our Young Carers Lead, Mr Baybutt.

Year 7 ‘My Legacy’ statements

With our Year 11s working so hard in preparation for their GCSEs next summer it has made us think about their five-year journey to get to this point. Having thought about how they came to Millthorpe full of enthusiasm and future ambitions we are excited to run our ‘My Legacy’ project for a second year. The idea is to capture Year 7 students’ hopes and dreams in one or two short sentences. The whole year group will commit these legacy sentences to video leaving our IT team to create lovely tutor group recordings, time capsules if you like, of their 11- and 12-year-old aspirations.

These recordings will be put up on our website (students will be removed if they have withdrawn consent for image sharing), used during our Year 6 transition programme and maybe even played back to them in their Year 11 Leavers Assembly! Please take a look at the ‘My Legacy’ statements from the 24/25 Year 7 intake.

If parents/carers could please help their child think of one sentence that really sums up the legacy they want to leave behind. Please use the following examples as a guide:

• ‘She was a world class footballer who inspired a generation of young women both in sport and leadership.’
• ‘He was a passionate man who worked tirelessly to improve his local community’s green spaces for others to enjoy.’
• ‘She was a gymnast who inspired people to live an active lifestyle.’
• ‘They committed their life to creating and sharing art that challenged people’s thinking.’
• ‘He was a very kind and caring person who helped the homeless and tried to create a fairer society.’
• ‘He always worked hard in whatever he did, this meant that his life was full of opportunities and interesting experiences.’

Please remember we have to film around 200 students, so we need to stick to one or two sentences. Students will get the opportunity before the Christmas break to first write these legacy sentences down with their form tutor. Once the sentences have been checked we’ll get the camera rolling in the new year. Thank you for supporting this project, we are excited to see how high our students aim!

Attendance matters

The DfE released a report ‘Why Attendance Matters‘ in August 2025, at roughly the same time the Children’s Commissioner for England published her report ‘Why attendance remains my priority‘. Starting this week we thought we would share extracts from these research pieces so parents are aware of the national attendance picture.

One of Millthorpe’s key improvement targets for 2025/26 is to see more students in school everyday. Teachers love to look out across their teaching spaces to see a full room of eager learners. We rely heavily on parents’ support when it comes to attendance – when parents value the importance of attending every day, so do their children. Like the DfE, we recognise there is a very small number of students with complex needs that makes attending every day more challenging.

DFE extract 1: the alarming national picture

‘Since the pandemic, we’ve seen school absence rates rise. Before COVID-19, the overall absence rate was 4.7%. This jumped to 7.6% in 2021/22 before falling to 7.1% in 2023/24. Indicative figures from the daily data shows a further decrease to 6.9% in 2024/25.

Even more concerning is the rise in persistent absence – this means missing more than 10% of school days (Millthorpe insert – missing 1 day in every 10). The number of children who are persistently absent has nearly doubled since the pandemic, although it is falling, from 21.2% in 2022/23 to 20% in 2023/24. Indicative figures from the daily data shows it further decreased to 18.7% in 24/25. Severe absence – meaning missing more than half of school – has more than doubled from 0.8% to 2%.’

We’d love to work together so that your child can be in every day, absorbing every minute of education on offer each week. Please contact the Attendance Team if you want to discuss support around increasing your child’s attendance.

Active travel campaigns

In last week’s email we reported about a group of Year 9 students who have been working with Mrs Cooper, Year 9 Progress Leader and City of York Council on an initiative focused on active travel.

Evelyn, Lucy, Pixie, Ariana, Sonny, Harry, Elliot, Kurtis and Chloe came up with some fantastic ideas which they then presented to the Council team – they were so impressed that they hope to use some of the ideas in future campaigns.

Here’s a few photos of their work.

Millthorpe’s Night at the Musicals

A reminder that any student wishing to audition for ‘Millthorpe’s Night at the Musicals’ should book an audition, by completing this Google Form by the closing date of Friday 5 December.

Students from any year group are welcome to audition to be involved in the concert – those who wish to will need to select and prepare a song from a musical (one verse and chorus minimum, performed to a backing track on YouTube) that they will perform for staff involved in the production in a ‘closed’ audition on our designated ‘audition day’. Students may audition a specific song they would like to be considered to perform themselves in the concert or simply audition any song from a musical they like if they would like to just audition to be part of the larger ensemble songs.

PE activities

Next week, students will move on to their next block of PE activities.

• Boys – if they have been doing football, they will move on to rugby and if they’ve had rugby, they will move on to football.
• Girls – if they have had gymnastics or cheerleading, they will move on to basketball, and the basketballers will move on to gymnastics (Year 7 and 8) and cheerleading (Year 9).

Christmas Concert – Tuesday 2 December

A reminder that tickets are still available for our Christmas Concert on Tuesday 2 December. This celebratory occasion will feature performances from our regularly rehearsing ensembles including Millthorpe band, choir, various rock bands and small chamber ensembles. Our students are looking forward to showcasing the wonderful work they have been doing this term.

Tickets are priced at £5 for adults and £3 for under 16s. Tickets are available to purchase through ParentPay or payable by cash only on the night.

Group keyboard lessons for Year 7/8

Piano lessons at Millthorpe are hugely popular. We have three days of 1:1 piano teaching, but we are also aware that a lot of families who enquire about piano lessons find the price of a 1:1 lesson prohibitively expensive. One of our piano teachers is therefore offering small group lessons for beginners. This will take place in the Monday enrichment slot starting after Christmas. The price will be £6.50 per session. The fee purely covers the cost of the tuition and will be paid directly to the tutor. This opportunity is open to Year 7 and 8 beginners.

If this is something you would be interested in signing up for please email Miss Longbottom directly: a.longbottom@millthorpe.elt.org.uk

The jobs behind the panto

With December just around the corner and pantomimes taking to the stage across the country, this great video takes a look at the hidden jobs behind the shows. Oh yes it does!!!

Job of the Week – YouTuber

Do you relish the prospect of creating video content and publishing it online? You could be a YouTuber! The content YouTubers make is varied with some videos featuring themselves and others featuring many other types of content. Making money from YouTube is very competitive as lots of people like the idea of working in this kind of job. Whilst you do not need any specific qualifications, you do need videography and creative skills.

Watch this video for more information about becoming a YouTuber.

Futures for All – inspirational talks

Futures for All (previously Speakers for Schools) is an incredible social mobility charity which empowers state-educated young people by opening doors to life-changing opportunities. In addition to their work experience programme, Futures for All also regularly broadcast live inspirational talks which are recorded and then hosted on their website.

To link in with our first Assembly Shout Outs from our Modern Foreign Languages team, this week we are featuring the talk ‘Speaking Multiple Languages: Your Career Superpower’. Journalist and broadcaster, Misha Glenny who has a career that spans the globe, talks about how he’s witnessed firsthand the incredible opportunities and advantages that come with speaking multiple languages. In this broadcast, you will see that languages aren’t just a means of communication but also a gateway to endless possibilities.

Just click the image below to view.

Parent Carer Forum York

To find out more about events and support available from the Parent Carer Forum, please take a look at their latest newsletter here.

Fulford School Sixth Form – Talk & Tour

Following the clash of Sixth Form open evening dates with York College last week, Fulford School is hosting an additional event for those families who were unable to attend.

Fulford will hold a Talk & Tour on Tuesday 2 December, 6:00–7:00pm. Anyone wishing to attend should book using this form.

#WakeUpWednesday – A guide to TikTok

We know that lots of our students are regular users of TikTok and whilst this can be a positive experience, we also have to manage issues that arise due to misuse or when students access inappropriate material on the platform. This useful Wake Up Wednesday guide is a must read for parents and carers of students who are using TikTok. Please take a look.

Assembly Shout Outs

As announced in last week’s email, we have launched Assembly Shout Outs this week. At the end of assemblies, the Progress Leader read through the Shout Outs from one subject area (this week – Modern Foreign Languages) sharing with the students why they are being recognised and by which member of staff. These Shout Outs recognise individual students or groups and how they have demonstrated one of our core values. This week’s shout outs go to:

Miss Duke
Year 8:

• 8x/Fr1. Nearly all of you have been brilliant this week and have worked so hard on the past tense in French! Well done! 🙂
• Hector W and Noah W. You’ve worked really hard on the past tense in French and have put lots of effort in to get to grips with a difficult tense!

Year 9: 9x/Fr2 – you all showed resilience and determination when we were preparing for your speaking assessment. You’re going to be great!
Year 10: 10B/Fr1. You are working so well on difficult tenses and pushing yourselves to achieve excellence at Higher tier!

Miss Bell
Year 10: 10DDe1. Together you consistently work hard and show great determination tackling tricky grammatical concepts and show resilience in checking and re-checking, just in case, to make sure you’re right! Weiter so!
Year 11

• Isla C for showing excellent independent learning skills, particularly in your reading assessment – well done for creating your own personalised list of words to learn following the assessment! Bravo!
• Ida H-S for consistently striving to be better in German and tackling areas for improvement head on! Gut gemacht, weiter so!

Ms Gourdin
Year 9: 9yFr2 when as a class, you managed to prepare on your Mini White Boards the questions and answers of the difficult Role Play task of the French Speaking Exam.

Year 10: 10C Fr1. You impressed Ms Gourdin when as a group you were quickly brilliant at describing People, Location and Activity on Photocards taken from the French Speaking Exam.

Online support for students and parents

We wanted to remind you about our online support app called Padlet, which is a directory of support available for students and parents.

Padlet signposts the user to a range of websites and resources, providing support and advice relating to mental health, exam stress, online safety, self care, managing emotions, young carers, family support and more.

You can visit the Padlets by scanning the QR codes or clicking the links below.

Visit the Parent Padlet
Visit the Student Padlet

Safeguarding

If you have significant concerns for the welfare of a child, in addition to being able to contact Mr Beever, Miss Gater or your child’s Progress Leader during school hours by emailing safeguarding@millthorpe.elt.org.uk, you may wish to make direct contact with 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. In a mental health emergency, please call York CAMHS Crisis Team on 08000516171.