Happy New Year
We hope you had a lovely break over the Christmas holidays and managed to stay safe and well.
As you will have no doubt heard in the news, regulations relating to the pandemic have changed again over the last week. Below is a summary of where we are currently regarding lateral flow testing, vaccinations and face coverings:
Lateral flow device (LFD) tests
Thank you for your ongoing support with lateral flow testing. We encourage your child(ren) to continue with twice-weekly testing, but from Tuesday 11 January, if the result of the LFD test is positive, a confirmatory PCR test will NOT be required. This will mean that anyone who receives a positive LFD test result will be required to self-isolate immediately.
Vaccinations
Young people aged 12 to 15 in England are now being offered a second dose of the vaccine, if it is at least 12 weeks since their first dose. Currently, vaccines can be booked via the NHS website, however over the next few weeks, the vaccination programme will be rolled out in schools. We are awaiting contact from the school age immunisation service (SAIS) regarding dates and will share details of what is happening at Millthorpe as soon as we can.
Face coverings
The advice on face coverings in classrooms will be in place until Wednesday 26 January, when Plan B regulations are currently scheduled to expire, at which point it will be reviewed. Please could you make sure that your child(ren) has a face covering with them every day as we are still giving out a large number of disposable masks.
Year 11 taster days – 11 and 13 January
Year 11 students may attend a college, sixth form or apprenticeship taster day on either Tuesday 11 January or Thursday 13 January or both. On either day, if they do not have a booked appointment at one of the sixth form providers, they should attend school as normal.
Pure Praise Assemblies
The assembly programme during the last week of term gave the Senior Leadership Team a lovely opportunity to celebrate students’ academic success and their wider contribution to the school community. All year groups engaged in an explanation of the research behind praise and how we are all hard-wired to respond well to positive feedback as the brain benefits from an injection of dopamine. We looked at how we should all endeavour to share praise more widely both at school and in our private lives. The start of the assembly was loosely based around research from Grant, Bohns and Epley who found that:
- people generally don’t realise that small amounts of praise have such a big impact.
- people significantly underestimate how happy the other person would be to hear the praise.
- people worry they wouldn’t articulate the compliment correctly, without striking the wrong tone.
The second half of the assembly recognised students’ achievements in the following areas:
- Golden Ticket Academic
- Golden Ticket Wider Contribution
- 100% Attendance (recognising that this number would have been a lot higher had COVID not been a factor)
- 3Rs Badge winners for being Respectful, Responsible and Ready
- Top form groups – combined reward score
- Friday 5 winners – individual students with the highest reward scores
- Average Learning Conduct score for each year group which ranged between 3.43 to 3.53
We hope that these ‘Purely Praise’ assemblies really show the students how much we appreciate their hard work, care and consideration for others and commitment to be the best they can be here at Millthorpe.
Job vacancies
Would you like to work at Millthorpe School? We currently have a few vacancies advertised, details of which can be found here. Current vacancies include:
- Science Technician
- Assistant Food Technician
- School Cleaner
Family Matters course – Handling Anger in the Family
The short courses offered by Family Matters York give parents the opportunity to meet other parents and find out that they are not alone; to think about what they are doing with their children; and, in the light of the course material and ideas from other parents, decide if they want to make any changes.
They have three Handling Anger courses starting the week commencing 17 January, one in person and two online.
To book a place or for further information please contact Helen Atkinson on 07393 147259 or email helenatkinson@fmy.org.uk. You can also find more information on the Family Matters website.
T Levels and open events at Bishop Burton College
Bishop Burton College is now offering a range of T Level courses in addition to a range of other post-16 qualifications. To find out more about T Levels, order a prospectus, attend a taster event or open event, please take a look at their latest e-newsletter.
#WakeUpWednesdays – two to share!
National Online Safety have sent us two handy guides for parents and carers since we last emailed you: one to help with setting up new devices that your child may have received for Christmas, and also another handy guide to the ever-popular Fortnite.
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