WEEKLY EMAIL Friday 12 February 2021

A message from the Head of School

As we break for the half term holiday, I would like to take the opportunity to thank you once again for all your support. This has to have been one of the toughest starts to a new year that many of us have ever faced and it is without doubt that there is still a great deal of uncertainty. However, with the numbers of people receiving their vaccinations increasing every day and the number of Covid cases decreasing, it does feel as if there is light at the end of the tunnel.

We do not yet know when the majority of students will return to school, but we do hope it will be soon. In the meantime, please encourage your children to take some time out from school work (and their screens!) and I hope you all have the opportunity to enjoy some rest and relaxation. We look forward to seeing/hearing everyone back in lessons on Monday 22 February.

With best wishes

Gemma Greenhalgh

Remote assembly

This week’s assembly is delivered by Ms Greenhalgh, Head of School.

You can view it here.

Free school meal vouchers

City of York Council is funding the provision of free school meal vouchers for the half term break next week. Vouchers will be distributed on Monday 15 February.

Social media use

Many of our students use various social media platforms and, when used appropriately, they can be really useful ways for young people to stay in contact with one another during this difficult lockdown period.

Recently, there have been a number of high profile cases where famous people have been subjected to abhorrent abuse on social media and this has prompted us to ask you to discuss your child’s social media usage with them and remind them to ensure that they are using it appropriately.

Please can you take the time to have a conversation with your child about how they use social media? Are they willing to show you their social media profiles? If they are reluctant, why is that? Are they clear about “digital footprints” or “digital tattoos” and that once something is posted online, even if it is later deleted, there is a trail of it? Do they know that future education providers or employers may check their social media for inappropriate or unacceptable content? And also, that any form of abuse online can be reported to the police?

Whilst we hope, and are confident that the vast majority of our students use social media appropriately, we felt that this might be a good time for you to re-instigate this conversation with them in light of the recent high profile cases in the media.

Parents’ Forum

In pursuit of ever better education provision, Millthorpe School would like to invite interested parents/carers to join an online forum.

Discussion will cover a range of topics and be focused on positive and sustainable school improvement. You’ll be aware that we have asked parents to complete a number of surveys so that we can fine tune our practice. Whilst these surveys give us valuable insight, even the open-ended questions only provide parents a limited opportunity to share qualitative feedback. The forum will allow us to enter into more meaningful two-way communication and strengthen links between parents and the school.

If you would like to take part, please click here to complete the Google Form to register your interest.

We’re hoping there will be high levels of interest and you’ll understand that we may need to limit numbers to allow for effective and productive discussion. We would also like the group to broadly represent our student body, so we will aim to have representation across different year groups, for example. Other than that, admission will be on a first come, first served basis. We apologise in advance if there are any interested parents we are not able to accommodate at this time: we hope to be able to invite you to participate at a later date as part of a new group.

Parent Governor Elections

Each of our families should have received an email this evening inviting you to take part in the election of two parent governors via an online ballot. You can cast your votes up until Wednesday 24 February.

Any questions, please email a.collins@millthorpe.southbank.academy. Please bear in mind response times may be longer than usual during the half term holiday.

Year 11 Leavers’ Hoodies

Year 11 Leavers’ hoodies are now available to order directly from Keal Teamwear. Please click here to place your order before the deadline of Friday 26 March 2021.

For any queries please contact Keal Teamwear at enquiries@keal-teamwear.com

“I’m a celebrity, get me out of here” PE fitness challenge – the results!

A big thank you and well done to all the girls that have taken part in the ‘I’m a celebrity’ fitness challenge this week. The challenge has ramped up this week with the girls completing two sets of seven exercises to earn stars for their class and house. In total, the girls have achieved 6,719 stars, which is fantastic!

The winning classes and house can be seen below – well done once again Saxons!

Well done to everyone who took part. The next fitness challenge will start after half term.

Apprenticeship vacancies

Specialist engineering firm, Tadweld, is looking to recruit two apprentices to join its Tadcaster team after a record year of growth. Further information can be found here.

Toilet Roll Challenge 2021

And finally for a fun toilet roll challenge from Mr Randall.

This is a city and North Yorkshire wide challenge which runs until 1 March to give all pupils the chance to take part before, during and after half term. To see what your challenge is, click here or watch the video.

To record your results, simply go to this website and log in using the details below:

School: Millthorpe School
Username: Millthorpe8
Password: e7f2657bb7e1

You can also check how you are doing in comparison with others, by clicking here.

Best of luck!

Safeguarding

If you have significant concerns for the welfare of a child, in addition to being able to contact Sophie Johnson during school hours, 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.

For further information please see the safeguarding link on our school website.