A message from Mrs Rothenburg
A very warm welcome to all our new students and their families, and welcome back to our returning students! I hope you have all had a lovely summer – we’ve loved hearing lots of stories from our students about their summer trips and activities.
It has been wonderful to see everyone in school this week and I am really impressed with how well our Year 7 students have settled in. They have all behaved beautifully and are adapting quickly to their new school life. Thanks also to our wonderful Student Leaders who have been on hand all week, giving directions, chatting to our new students and giving some great advice.
Our students have already reported that they really appreciate the movement time we have added to allow them time to move between lessons and be able to make a prompt start to learning once they arrive. They’ve also told us that they appreciate the new uniform and equipment services we now have at the gates as they can walk into the school building, confident that they are ready for the day. You can read more about these new services below.
We had a lovely day on GCSE results day in August when we welcomed our ex-Year 11 students into school. We celebrated some fantastic results which you can read more about here. If any of our previous Year 11s still need assistance with their next steps, we’re always here to help.
Well done to all those who entered our Summer Reading Challenge. We had some great entries, showing you really can read anywhere! If you want to take a look at the entries, just search #MillthorpeReads on X/Twitter.
For those who are new to the school, every Friday afternoon, we send a weekly email to all parents/carers which is full of news, updates, announcements and achievements. As you will see, today’s email is a bit of a long one, but there’s lots to say as we start the new term! If you ever miss a weekly email, you can catch up with past editions on our website and remember to let us know if your child has done something that you (and they!) are proud of. We love to celebrate our students’ success.
Dates for diaries:
- Thursday 12 September – Year 7 SEND Information Evening. Further information is available in our SEND update below.
- For those families with children in Year 6, we will be holding our annual open evening on the evening of Wednesday 2 October. Further information to follow.
- Applications for a secondary school place for September 2025 can be made from 12 September 2024. The application deadline is 31 October 2024. Further information can be found here.
I hope everyone has a lovely weekend. We’ll be back in school on Monday for an ‘A’ Week.
With best wishes,
Kavina Rothenburg
Acting Headteacher
What is my child learning at the moment?
We really want to encourage and facilitate conversations at home with your child about what they are learning in school. Whilst many children go home and tell their parents/carers everything that they have learned that day, we know that some students are a little more coy. To help you to have meaningful conversations, we will continue to include a section in the weekly email which tells you something about what your child has been learning recently. This has been well received since we introduced it in January and will begin again next week.
We would also encourage you to look at the Curriculum section of our website, which explains everything that your child will be learning this year in each subject. This can be accessed here.
Please also take a look at the curriculum subject reading lists for your child as they start a new year group. These books are all available in our school library and have been chosen by colleagues in each department as texts that will help to develop their love of reading and their subject knowledge. If your child would like more reading suggestions, please ask them to speak to their subject teachers.
If your child is a reluctant reader, please view our reading support information on the website, for help and advice to support your child with their reading both for pleasure and academic development. For parents and carers with children in Key Stage 4, the knowledge organisers with all of the key information for every topic are available here.
Class Charts
At the beginning of this academic year, Millthorpe School introduced a new behaviour and attitudes platform for teachers, parents and students. One of the main reasons for this new initiative, and following feedback from our parent surveys and forums, was to improve communication between home and school.
Class Charts gives parents/carers access to a live rewards stream, identifying the lesson, teacher and Gold Standard Learner criteria your child has met. This gives parents a glimpse into their child’s school experience, helping to celebrate their successes both at home and school.
We are proud of the positive learning environment teachers have created along with the wonderful student contributions that make Millthorpe such a special place. We hope parents enjoy watching those positive green notifications appear in their child’s activity feed!
In this first week of term, an impressive 98% of all entries on Class Charts were positive, with a total of 9,040 individual entries! This reflects the fantastic start our students have made this year. Your children have been focused, polite, and eager to learn, fully embracing the routines we’ve introduced to maximise their learning time.
Whilst we are very early in our Class Charts journey, it’s already clear that it will be an invaluable tool for recognising students’ hard work, dedication and kindness.
If you haven’t logged onto Class Charts yet, we encourage you to do so. Your unique access codes were emailed to you before the holidays (with the exception of our new Year 7 parents). If you have misplaced the email, please contact the School Office and we will be happy to help.
New services at the school gate this term
You may remember at the end of the summer term we announced that we have developed a system to ensure students are ‘Ready to Learn’ on entry to the school site each morning. These new arrangements, which focus on learning once the school day starts at 8.45am are now in place and available at the school gate:
Equipment shop
Most students usually arrive with the correct equipment (you can see a list of requirements at the bottom of this web page), but there is a small percentage of the school population who arrive without the required equipment. This means teachers have to stop delivering lessons to hand out the necessary equipment.
From this week, students have the opportunity to purchase equipment at the gate on a morning. We won’t be checking to see if students are correctly equipped, but students can voluntarily visit the equipment shop. As they are taking responsibility for their own learning, they won’t incur any detention or negative comment. In fact, the opposite is true as they are making sure they can start the day correctly, something to be applauded. The cost of any equipment purchased at the gate will be added to ParentPay.
If students don’t take up the opportunity to purchase equipment at the gate and arrive in lessons without the tools to participate in the learning, teachers will add a note to Class Charts. If a student receives three such notes, they will receive a lunchtime detention.
Uniform
We ask that all students are dressed in the correct uniform on entry onto the school site by 8.40am (please note the back gate running down to the Knavesmire will automatically close at 8.45am). Any trainers worn for a more comfortable walk to school will need to be changed at the gate.
We have a small amount of uniform to lend to students who don’t arrive correctly dressed. This will ensure students arrive at form time perfectly dressed and ready to learn so we begin our day of learning without any issues.
Students arriving at the gate wearing incorrect uniform will have a note added to Class Charts. If a student receives three such notes, they will receive a lunchtime detention.
If you have any questions, please just ask!
Arriving at school on time and managing morning delays
We kindly remind all parents that students should be through the school gates by 8.40am to allow Form Time to start promptly at 8.45am.
We understand that there are occasions when arriving late to school is beyond our students’ control, particularly if the main routes to school, such as Tadcaster Road, are busier than normal or if there are issues with buses. As routes like Tadcaster Road are always busy on a morning, we ask families to factor this into their travel plans by setting off a little earlier or looking for earlier buses if they are consistently late or full. However, if traffic congestion is abnormally high or your child experiences problems with the buses, please can parents contact the School Office to make us aware.
Please note that late detentions may occasionally be removed if we are made aware of any abnormal traffic issue.
Thank you for your cooperation in ensuring that all students arrive on time and ready to start the school day.
Communicating with school
To make sure we can deal with enquiries as effectively as possible, respond to urgent enquiries promptly and to make the best use of teaching colleagues’ time, we’re making some small but significant changes to the way we ask you to communicate with us.
If you have a non-urgent enquiry about anything in school, we ask that you do the following:
1. Check if the information can be found on the website. There’s a lot of information available here, including copies of previous letters and emails. We’ll also build up a bank of responses to FAQs.
2. Is this something your child can sort out, by speaking to their form tutor or the office for example? This is often the quickest and simplest way and helps students build resilience and confidence.
3. If you do need to contact the school with a general enquiry or something to do with subject teaching or form time, please use the admin@millthorpe.southbank.academy email address. This allows us to give a quick response or direct the enquiry to the most relevant person. Please don’t contact subject teachers direct, as this will only slow down the response.
Current arrangements for urgent issues such as safeguarding, pastoral and SEND issues will not change: please continue to contact the relevant teams for these issues.
We would also like to remind parents that we always aim to treat people with courtesy and respect and we expect parents and carers to do the same. We don’t tolerate abuse of any kind towards our staff.
Remember, you will receive regular updates on your child’s progress in reports, and now through the notifications on Class Charts. If you have any suggestions about communicating with families, we’d love to hear them.
SEND update
Year 7 SEND Information Evening – 12 September 2024
It has been great to see our new students with SEND settling into Millthorpe. We understand that the transition to secondary school can be a significant change for both students and parents/carers, particularly when the student has additional needs. We are committed to ensuring that every student receives the support they need to thrive at school and beyond.
To help you better understand how we support students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), we would like to invite you to our Year 7 SEND Information Evening. This event will take place on Thursday 12 September at 4.00- 5.00pm in the school library. (We will direct people from the hall, as it was previously mentioned as the event venue in our earlier communication with some parents.)
During the evening, we will provide an overview of how SEND support is structured at Millthorpe School. We will also explain the role of the student passport, a key document that outlines the strategies and approaches tailored to support your child’s individual needs.
There will be an opportunity to meet our SEND team, ask any questions you may have, and discuss your child’s student passport in more detail. We believe that working closely with parents is crucial in helping our students succeed, and this evening is an important step in building that partnership.
Please let us know if you can attend using this Google form.
Communication with our SEND Team
In the meantime, if you have any questions about your child’s SEND provision, please contact the SEND Team at send@millthorpe.southbank.academy. We will make sure your message gets to the right person.
Year 11 Aspirations Day
On Thursday 19 September we will be holding our Year 11 Aspirations Day. Every Year 11 student will have a ten-minute appointment with a member of the Senior Leadership Team to reflect on and review their PPE results and predictions and to set their long and short-term targets to ensure they are the best they can be.
We look forward to meeting with them to kick off their final year at Millthorpe.
Sports practices – autumn term 2024
The following sports practices are taking place this half-term:
All are welcome to attend, no experience is necessary! The aim is to have fun and enjoy being active and moving.
Normal PE/games kit is required and students must have appropriate footwear for their sport eg trainers or football boots. Lunch passes are available and are encouraged. Students should collect them from their teacher.
Please note that this rota may change due to matches after school and usually changes each half term.
If there is a sport you would like to do or you have some ideas for a club please speak to your PE teacher.
Eco Laundry news
The Eco Laundry sale we held in July was a great success! Lots of families came along to buy items of pre-loved uniform, helping the purse and the environment, raising a grand total of £785.
The proceeds go back into our Pupil Premium fund which helps to pay for equipment, trips etc for students from lower income households.
If anyone has had a clear out over the summer and has items of uniform or PE kit to donate, please drop them off to the School Office any time from 8.00am-3.30pm each weekday.
Good luck!
We’d like to wish Mr Cooper, Mr Thomas and former colleague Mr Hunt, the very best of luck as they take on the Great North Run this weekend. We’ll be looking out for you all!
Support for parents/carers from the Specialist Teaching Team for autism support
Please see the attached flyer for details of the support available to parents/carers in the autumn term through the City of York Council’s Specialist Teaching Team for autism support.
York Mind – New Parents’ Drop-In Service
YorChoice/York Mind offer a drop-in for young people aged 14-21 (up to 25 for those with SEND) where they can talk about their mental health and where they are supported, listened to and helped to navigate different services in York.
There will be a drop-in on Thursday 26 September from 5.30pm – 7.00pm specifically for parents of these young people, to aid their understanding of the services available. You don’t have to go for the full hour and a half but can just drop in to:
- Understand what the YorChoice service is.
- Ask questions about how they we will try to support your child with their mental health.
- See the space we offer for young people.
Questions can be directed to: Yorchoice@yorkmind.org.uk and further information can be found here.
There will also be a new young persons Creative Arts Group starting soon, as well as an LGBTQ+ group. Please keep an eye out on the York Mind website for start dates.
Athletics news
A group of Millthorpe students from Years 7 and 8 represented the City of York Athletics Club in the National Finals of the Youth Development League Athletics at Sport City Manchester last weekend.
York finished fifth out of seven teams, missing fourth place by just half a point. We’re very proud of them all – it’s lovely to see so many Millthorpians taking part!
Well done to the following students:
- Noah Stipetic (Year 7): 6th 800m U13 Boys A
- Esme Lee (Year 7): 4th 75m U13 Girls A; 4th 150m U13 Girls A
- Immie Brook (Year 8): 4th 75m U13 Girls B
- Marianne Lowson (Year 8): 8th 800m U13 Girls B
- Immie Bind (Year 8): 2nd 70m Hurdles U13 Girls A; 3rd Long Jump U13 Girls A; 2nd High Jump U13 Girls A
- Rosa Boxall (Year 8): 1st High Jump U13 Girls B
- Rosie Davis (Year 8): 7th 1200m U13 Girls
The City of York Athletics Club also qualified for the upper age group national final (U17 and U20 age groups).
Zoe Bind, in Year 11, represented the club winning a gold medal in the A team triple jump and a silver medal in the B team hammer throw. The York team finished third of six teams.
#WakeUpWednesday – 10 top tips for using and reviewing parental controls
In 2023, Ofcom found that over half of UK children aged between 8 and 11 reported having a smartphone, with the figure leaping to 96% for UK teens. However, a survey from the Children’s Commissioner also found that 45% of under-18s have encountered inappropriate content online. That’s a high number of children who could benefit from having parental controls on their devices to help safeguard them from such encounters in the future.
Due to the sheer volume of devices and apps available for purchase and download, it can be difficult to know where to start when implementing these safety measures. That’s why National Online Safety have put together this week’s free online safety guide, offering you expert advice on how to effectively use and review parental controls on young people’s devices in order to safeguard your child(ren) online.
FPL Club
Calling all fantasy footballers! The new Premier League season is well underway and the competition in the Millthorpe FPL league is hotting up. Come along on Friday lunchtimes to discuss tactics, transfers, tips and see if you are good enough to beat Mr Sloan.
Congratulations to Miles Dower who is Manager of the Month for August, scoring 255 points. Mr Ferguson is close behind in second place on 246 points.
If you would like to join our staff and students league, Millthorpe Masters, the code is: 1ewkhh
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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