Weekly email – 25 April 2025

A message from Mrs Rothenburg

Also, next week, we can’t wait to meet Status Quo’s former drummer, Jeff Rich. Jeff will host a workshop for 200 of our students who will learn about the drum-kit, hear about life as a musician and get to experience a massed playing opportunity. Jeff promises to have everyone playing together at some points and brings a lorry full of percussion equipment with him! We can’t wait!

Finally, congratulations to those students who came along to Principal’s Breakfast this morning, including Molly, Josephine, Florence and Reece. I loved hearing about their holidays and their thoughts on school.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and we’ll see everyone back in school on Monday for an ‘A’ Week.

Kavina Rothenburg
Acting Principal

Join Mrs Rothenburg for coffee and a tour

I am delighted to invite families to join me for a coffee, a chat, and a tour of our wonderful school. This is a great opportunity to share your experiences of Millthorpe and provide valuable feedback that helps us to continually review and improve. These informal sessions will also allow you to see our school in action and witness the fantastic work happening in our classrooms.

Upcoming dates:

• Wednesday 30 April – 10:15-11:15am
• Thursday 1 May – 10:15-11:15am
• Friday 2 May – 11:35am-12:35pm

More dates will be available in the future, but I would love for you to attend one of these sessions. If you’re interested, please email h.mackley@millthorpe.elt.org.uk to reserve your place.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Mrs Rothenburg
Acting Principal

What is my child learning at the moment?

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

Year 7 – Performance
Conversation starters

• Drama: Students are preparing for their upcoming Physical Theatre assessments – please ask them to share their ideas with you, they are very creative!
• Music: Students are developing keyboard playing skills and as always, this is centred on creativity. Students are currently learning how to play chord shapes and are writing their own songs. Every lesson starts with general musical skills that involve listening and singing – ask them to sing Bella Mamma for you.
• PE: Students have started their summer block of activities with the majority of students on athletics and one group of students on tennis. This week students have taken part in the 100m, javelin and long jump developing their skills ahead of sports day.

Year 8 – Creative
Conversation starters

• Fine Art: Year 8 have made an impressive start to their Art & Science/Insect Art project. Illustrator Eric Carle (The Very Hungry Caterpillar) is a key inspiration for endangered Red List Insects from the UK providing starting points for observational studies. Students will start to explore mixed media to create their own collage materials before creating a personal response. Finding out about the importance of insects to our ecosystems and how environmental changes are impacting on insects would support your child’s learning. Finding out about illustrators would broaden your child’s understanding of art-related careers.
• Design Technology: Students are coming to the end of their current rotation, finishing off projects and furthering their learning about cultures. Students begin their final discipline for Year 8 on Monday 5 May.

Year 9 – English
Conversation starters
Year 9 will be embarking on a mini three-week scheme focusing on spoken language skills in preparation for Year 10, when they will have to deliver a speech to their peers and answer questions relating to it. Dennis Kelly’s thought-provoking play, DNA, will be the creative stimulus for this new scheme, which will also give children the opportunity to explore modern plays within an English context. Ask your child how the opening scene manages to hook its audiences!

Year 10 – Maths
Conversation starters
Describe how to create a right angle using a compass and straightedge. What other angles can you create in this way? Research different geometric patterns that you can create using compasses.

Year 11 – Science
Conversation starters
Year 11 have continued their preparation for their upcoming GCSEs. We have been looking through their Year 11 PPEs and focusing on areas of improvement and really digging into the mark schemes and exam techniques. We have given each student a personalised feedback sheet based on question-by-question analysis of their papers. Over the coming weeks we will be continuing with a programme of revision before the GCSEs commence. All Year 11 Science lessons for both Triple and Combined Science are uploaded to the respective Google Classrooms.

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.

School day timings

From Monday 28 April 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:

• 8.30am: School gates open
• 8.40am: Students need to be through the gates/over the blue line
• 8.45-9.10am: Form time/assemblies
• 9.10-9.15 am: Movement time
• 9.15-10.10am: Period 1
• 10.10-10.15am: Movement time
• 10.15-11.15am: Period 2
• 11.15-11.30am: Break
• 11.30-11.35am: Movement time
• 11.35am-12.35pm: Period 3
• 12.35-1.15pm: Lunch
• 1.15- 2.10pm: Period 4
• 2.10-2.15pm: Movement time
• 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.

Recognition assemblies

On the last Friday of last term, we held a recognition assembly for our Year 7 students which capped off a whole week of recognition assemblies where students received awards for their efforts during the spring term.

Due to our newsletter deadlines, we were unable to bring you the Year 7 photo at the end of last term, so as promised, here it is below:

Huge congratulations again to the following Year 7 students:

English: Bea S
Maths: Abigail C
Science: Owen M
Humanities: Lucy O
Computing: Iaroslav S
MFL: Elsie H
Creative: Saskia E
Performance: Mason E
Year Team: Megan R
Form: 7KBE
Principal’s Award: Darcey C
Top 3 students over the Spring Term: Abigail C, Noah S, Isabelle H
Power Play Star: Joshua H

Planner artwork competition

We are excited to launch a competition for all students currently in Years 7-10, and available to our new students joining us in Year 7 in September.

From September, the student planner will feature artwork designed by a student in each year group. There will be a new, streamlined planner each term, so there will be three winning entries per year group.

In Personal Development lessons, students have learned (or will learn) more about this exciting project and begun to draft their own entry.

They are then asked to complete a final version, using colour if they wish, and hand this in to their Form Tutor or email an electronic copy to planners2025@millthorpe.elt.org.uk

The deadline for entries is Friday 23 May.

We would be very grateful if you could encourage your child to participate in this competition and submit an entry by the deadline. We will look to use a variety of entries as a display in school, in addition to the winning entries having pride of place on the front of the student planner next year. There will be prizes for the winners too.

Thank you for your support.

Year 11 Prom – final reminder re payment

A final reminder to parents of students in Year 11 that the deposit for Prom needs to be paid by the end of today please as we need to confirm final numbers to the venue early next week. Thank you.

Sparx Learning domain change

Sparx learning is used by the English, Maths and Science Faculties to set homework.

On Thursday 3 April Sparx Learning changed the domain of all Sparx systems (Maths, Reader & Science). Sparx systems will continue working as usual, and everyone will be automatically redirected to the new domain. However, if students use Sparx usernames and passwords to log in it is likely they will no longer be pre-populated by a password manager or browser after this change.

We want to avoid any confusion so urge students to log in to Sparx at their earliest convenience and to speak to us if they are having any issues logging in.

Lego Club wins Best Innovation Award at Lego League Challenge

Before Easter our Lego Club competed in the Lego League Challenge. This involves programming a Lego robot to complete tasks and an innovation project where the students presented a solution to plastics in the ocean. We’re really proud that the Millthorpe team won the Best Innovation Award!

Well done to all those who took part.

Sports practices – summer term 2025

The following sports practices are taking place next term:

All are welcome to attend (unless the programme asks for a specific year or gender), no experience is necessary! The aim is to have fun and enjoy being active and moving.

Normal PE/games kit is required. For the AGP you will always need the correct footwear. Some football practices may be on grass not on the AGP.

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.

Office at home

We have updated our free offering of Office at home to use the new school email addresses. If you are using Office with your previous email address, you will need to change and sign in with your new ‘@millthorpe.elt.org.uk’ address. You don’t need to reinstall Office, just change the email address you use to log in with.

Year 11 Leavers Assembly

A reminder that Year 11 parents/carers should have received a letter from Mr Baybutt asking for your help with our Year 11 Leavers Assembly. Here’s a summary below:

As your child closes in on the end of their time at Millthorpe School, plans are well underway to give them the send off that they all deserve. The planning for the Prom continues in earnest, and we now want to invite you to help us with their Leavers Assembly.

During the assembly, each students’ Year 7 photograph will be displayed and we would like to invite you to send us up to four other photographs that you (and importantly they!) are happy to be shown. It could be a baby/toddler photo, a primary school picture, their first day at Millthorpe, a picture from any trips that they have been on, a photo of them with their friends enjoying themselves inside or outside of school – anything really.

Please remember to check with your child before sending them as we don’t want anyone being upset.

Please send your photos/videos to: y11leavers@millthorpe.elt.org.uk making sure you have included the name of your child, by Friday 2 May.

A date/time for the leavers assembly will be announced in due course.

Job of the Week – Yoga Instructor

Yoga is a form of exercise that helps increase flexibility, fitness and overall mental wellbeing and in this role you are key to delivering and teaching yoga to individuals or groups. You would create a lesson plan, teach the breathing techniques, teach and correct the yoga positions and assess your class on how well they are doing. You usually need to have two years experience of practising yoga before being able to teach it and you can take a diploma in yoga teaching.

Watch this video for more information about becoming a Yoga Instructor.

Speakers for Schools – inspirational talks

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, they also regularly broadcast live inspirational talks which are recorded and then hosted on their website.

Each week, as part of our careers and aspiration-raising programme, we will feature one of their talks.

This week, we are featuring a talk by Bobby Seagull, Author, FT Columnist, Podcaster, TV Broadcaster and Schools Maths Teacher called ‘The Magic of Numbers: Unlocking opportunities through dedication.’

In this inspiring and entertaining careers talk, Bobby speaks about trading on the stock market, competing on University Challenge, winning Celebrity Hunted and becoming a teacher. Bobby’s journey proves that maths can take you in all sorts of directions. He shares how his love of numbers led him to a career in education and why teaching is one of the most rewarding jobs out there. If you’ve ever considered becoming a teacher – or just want to know where maths could take you – this is the talk for you!

Just click the image below to view.

Apprenticeship vacancies

York College is currently advertising a number of apprenticeship vacancies which can be seen on the attached pdf. Each vacancy has a hyperlink to the Apprenticeship Service website, where you will find full job details and where you can submit your application.

Also attached are Hair and Beauty and Construction vacancies, which require an email or phone call directly to the employer.

A note on closing dates: vacancies often close earlier than the stated date, so if you are interested, please make sure you apply as soon as you can.

You can also read the attached guidance on how to write a strong application to ensure the best chance of success.

Other apprenticeships are available and can be accessed through the Careers section of your child’s Google Classroom.

Motor Trades 2025 – Event at York College

York College is holding its Motor Trades Event on Thursday 8 May 2025 from 5.30-9.00pm.

The event is for students in Years 9-13 who are interested in a career in the motor industry. They can discover how the industry is developing, speak to motor vehicle specialists and find out about training opportunities.

Further information can be found here.

#WakeUpWednesday – A Guide to ZEPETO

ZEPETO is a popular app where young people create 3D avatars and explore virtual worlds, but its lack of parental controls and the potential for anonymous chat means adults need to stay switched on. There is an age restriction of 14 on this app.

This week’s #WakeUpWednesday guide explains the risks young users might face on ZEPETO – from chatting with strangers and encountering inappropriate content, to in-game spending and the pressure of daily rewards. There are also top tips to help parents and carers support safer screen time. Please take a look.

#WakeUpWednesday – A guide to making friends online

Making friends online can open doors to exciting new experiences, but it can also expose children to serious risks. Around 19% of children aged 10-15 in England and Wales have chatted online with someone they’ve never met face to face. This National College’s #WakeUpWednesday guide explores how young people form connections online and what trusted adults should know.

With expert advice on encouraging safer habits, spotting red flags and keeping communication open, this week’s free guide offers valuable guidance for parents/carers and educators alike. It’s all about helping children navigate online friendships happily, confidently and most importantly, safely. Please take a look and discuss with your child(ren) where appropriate.

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 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.