8 may 2015

All Hallows Catholic College Newsletter Whitsun Term

Friday 8 May 2015

COLLEGE PRAYER

SPECIALISM OF SUCCESS

Year 6 pupils in our in partner primary schools are writing poems in French and Spanish, for the “Mother Tongue- Other Tongue “Competition. They have produced highly creative and imaginative poems demonstrating risk-taking skills and great resilience, which will stand them in very good stead for their future language learning.

YEAR 5 PARENT OPEN MORNING

PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING Lord Jesus, through the gift of your Holy Spirit fill us with a spirit of praise and joy which no earthly trial can hold back. Fill us with your resurrection joy and help us to live a life of praise and thanksgiving for your glory. May we witness to those around us the joy of the gospel and the reality of your resurrection. Amen.

Exam Results

Year 10 mock results Saturday 16th May 2015 9:00am DINNER MONEY FOR LEAVERS

It’s that time of year again! As students prepare to leave All Hallows, we are mindful that many of them will have balances on their school meal accounts. Please be aware that any balances below £5.00 will not be refunded. With this in mind, can you ask your children to run down their account balance as they get towards the end of the school year? Any balances over £5.00 can either be refunded or transferred to another sibling staying at All Hallows. Unfortunately, no money can be transferred to trips as the school meals money goes directly to our outside caterer. If you have any questions, please contact the Finance Office finance@allhallows.org.uk or 01625 426138.

Thank you for your continued support.

PARENTS AS PARTNERS—PARENTAL BOOKINGS

As the Year 8 and 10 Parent Consultation Day is fast approaching all parents should make bookings using the online Parental Gateway. If you have lost or forgotten your username and password please call 01625 426138 and ask to be put through to IT support. All bookings are now to be done online and we must insist that there are only 8 bookings per student. Please also note that some teachers have more than one class and availability is limited. Thank you for your support in this matter

Wednesday 13 May 2015 ARRANGEMENTS FOR CONSULATON DAY MAY 13 2015 Year 7

Attend College - Activity Day (Students to wear full PE kit)

Year 8

CONSULTATION DAY - Reading Blog at home when not in for appointment

Year 9

Work Related Learning - Reading Blog from home (Careers Theme)

Year 10

CONSULTATION DAY - Reading Blog at home when not in for appointment

Year 11

Home Study—Science Revision Study in College/ Exams (ICT/RE)

Sixth Form

Revision Day/ Private Study - In College or at home

FORMER STUDENT BECOMES HOPEFUL ON AUSTRALIAN MASTER CHEF

Former student Stephen Rooney is currently competing in one of the worlds most popular TV shows Australian Master Chef. Follow the link to watch his take on the British roast dinner and to follow his story. From everyone at All Hallows we wish him the very best of luck in the competition! https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=u88elkHNMzs

Friday 8 May 2015

COLLEGE EXAMS / ASSESSMENTS

Year Group

Dates

Type

7,8,9

Monday 15 June 2015—Friday 19 June 2015

End of Year Exam

10

Monday 15 June 2015—Friday 26 June 2015

Assessment

EXAM COUNTDOWN

THE YEAR 11, 12 AND 13 SUMMER EXAMINATIONS HAVE NOW STARTED. GOOD LUCK TO ALL STUDENTS RE REVISION CLASSES

RE revision morning for all Year 11 students on Saturday 09 May from 10:00 a.m -12.00 p.m. This will be a final push before both exams the following week. Please encourage your son/daughter to attend PARENTS AND PARTNERS— EXAMS ON PARENT CONSULATION DAY MAY 13 2015 Parents, please be advised that Y11, 12 & 13 students are expected in college, as usual, if they are taking any of the following exams on Wednesday 13th May: Morning (9:00 am start) A-Level Mathematics: MFP3 and MPC1 GCSE ICT Unit 1

Afternoon (1:00 pm start) GCSE Religious Studies Unit 8 A-Level History: HIS1M

Failure to attend will result in students being unable to receive a final grade from the Exam Boards. All students are expected to wear full school uniform / business dress. School buses will run as normal.

YEAR 12 EXAMINATIONS

Year 12 have now commenced their study leave until the 8 June. Subject teachers will be available throughout this time should students wish to come in to College for extra support, and arrangements have been made for all BTEC students. Students are expected to check the website to confirm examination venues and start times; they should also arrive promptly to all examinations in full Business Dress, with all appropriate equipment (including a black ball point pen). We wish Year 12 the best of luck in their forthcoming examinations.

SUPPORTING YOUR CHILD IN EXAMS

Supporting your child through their GCSE's can be difficult. One top tip is how to cope when your child falls behind with work. The solution would be to help them prioritise their work load and create a plan that helps get the balance right with college work and social time. To help with this all Year 11 students have been given a revision pack, that includes a revision timetable, which students are completing this week. Please ask to see the revision timetable your child will bring home and have a conversation around it. Future Link Publishing have also produced a useful guide for parents that contains 101 top tips to help. This can be accessed using the following link: http://www.futurelinkpublishing.co.uk/publish/publications/GCSE.html.

STUDENT TIMETABLES

All students have now been provided with a paper copy of their timetables for the forthcoming GCE A Levels and GCSE exams.

Parents can view their child's timetable via the Parental Gateway under the "Assessments" heading.

EXAM TIPS



Can you revise on the morning of the exam? - Non-stressful revision of something already well-revised can help, but don’t change your routine to wake unusually early. Give yourself plenty of time to get ready—it take 60 minutes after waking for your brain to be working at its peak level.



How can you prevent answering the wrong number of questions? - Carefully read all of the questions you are going to do. As you start each question, double check the instructions to make sure you are doing the right thing. Better to spend 5 seconds checking, than 5 minutes working on the wrong question



Students should make sure that they have eaten well (don’t skip meals) and drink water before their exams EXAM EQUIPMENT

Please ensure that your child has the appropriate equipment for their exams: Clear plastic pencil case, black ink pen, pencil, ruler, eraser, protractor, compass and a calculator (for Maths, Science& Business exams) RESULT DAY DATES

FITNESS SUITE Students are now able to use our fantastic new Fitness Suite.

Those students who have completed a Fitness Suite. Induction and wish to use the facilities must sign up on the day using the sign up sheet on the notice board in the Sports Hall. Places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis, up to a maximum of 28 students for each session.

The following sessions are available: Monday - Y7/8 (mixed) until 4.30p.m.

The Fitness Suite is also open at lunch (second Tuesday - Y7/8 (girls only) until 4.30p.m. break).

Wednesday - Y9/10/11 (girls only) until 4.00p.m.

Any queries please contact Mr Lawson or a Thursday - Y11/Sixth form (mixed) until 4.30p.m. member of the PE staff for more information.

Friday - Y9/10 (mixed) until 4.30p.m.

TO ALL PARENTS Please make sure students are bringing appropriate clothing to their PE lessons if they are on an outdoor lesson. Also, a reminder that all girls should now own football boots/astro-turf trainers for use on the new 3G Astro-turf pitch.

STAFF VS SIXTH FORM FOOTBALL Thank you very much to everyone who helped last night, be it 'playing', 'managing', selling sweets, tickets, or spectating. it was a hugely enjoyable evening with an excellent turnout Sixth form student 5 Staff 3

UPCOMING SPORTING FIXTURES

NEW LACROSSE CLUB Year 7 Minor Cricket

Year 7

Wednesday 27 May

Away

SUMMER EXTRA-CURRICULAR PE TIMETABLE

Friday 8 May 2015 DROP IN SESSIONS KS4/5 students 3:30p.m.- 4:30p.m.

DAY

SUBJECT

Monday

Tuesday

Science/History/Languages/ Hospitality

Maths

Thursday

Music/Geography

Other

ICT any break/lunch Business – by arrangement Art – by arrangement

TRIPS AND UPCOMING EVENTS Italy Trip Saturday 23 May - 28 May 2015 History trip - London Sunday 7 June – 8 June 2015 Normandy Trip Friday 12 June - 15 June 2015 Rome Trip Sunday 5 July - 8 July 2015 College Production Wednesday 1 July 2015

PRINCIPAL’S SURGERIES Parents / Carers are invited to attend a Principal's Surgery to discuss any concerns or ask questions, on the following dates Wednesday 13 May '15, 9am - 10am Tuesday 19 May '15, 3.45pm - 4.45pm

DUKE OF EDINBURGH’S AWARD

There is no appointment system so please be prepared to wait

Congratulations to those students who have made a commitment to work towards their Duke of Edinburgh award. Currently we have 35 students working on their bronze award, 21 on silver and 5 on gold.

Thank you to those who attended the drop in last week with Steve Wilson and Nicky Young who are supporting the College with DofE. If any students are unsure, need help or want more detail please see Mrs Connor.

Well done to all those who are uploading their evidence for each of the areas on eDofE. If you have not started to do this yet can you please have a go.You will need to have completed two of the three sections before the expedition. Again if you need help with this come and see Mrs Connor Thursday 14 May 1:15pm - 2:00pm - DofE drop in, in Mrs Connor Office DUKE OF EDINBURGH FUTURE IMPORTANT DATES 

Silver DoE practice expedition Friday 26 to Sunday 28 June 2015



Silver DoE assessed expedition Friday 10 to Sunday 12 July 2015



Bronze DoE practice expedition Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September 2015



Bronze DoE assessed expedition Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October 2015



Gold DoE practice expedition Thursday 24 to Monday 28 September 2015



Gold DoE assessed expedition Thursday 22 to Monday 26 October 2015

Good luck and well done so far.

Friday 8 May 2015 COLLEGE TERM DATES Term

College Opens to Students

College Closes to Students

Whitsun

Monday 20 April 2015

Thursday 21 May 2015

Trinity

Monday 1 June 2015

Tuesday 21 July 2015

The following are the remaining dates for training days in 2014-15. Students are not required to attend on Friday 22 May 2015 unless taking an external exam.

Please click on the link for Term dates 2015/16.

ATTENDANCE MATTERS

Over the last week of College attendance was as follows:

Year 7 - 95.8% (down 0.4% from last week) Year 8 - 94.8% (down 0.4%) Year 9 - 96.4% (down 0.3%) Year 10 - 93.3% (down 0.3%) Year 11 - 94.7% (down 0.5%) Year 12 - 93.1% (down 0.1%)

98.00% 96.00% 94.00% 92.00% 90.00% 88.00% YEAR YEAR YEAR YEAR YEAR YEAR YEAR 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Last week was a second consecutive poor week for attendance with all year groups showing another fall.

Attendance between Year 7 and Year 11 last week was 95.0% (a decrease from 95.4% during the previous week and 0.4% down on the same week last year). Our overall attendance since 2 September is still at 95.1%.We aim for 97%.

Last week GIRLS attendance (Years 7-11) was 94.6% (down 0.2% on the previous week), BOYS attendance(Year 7-11) was 95.4% (down 0.7%).The overall girls attendance since 2 September is 94.7% whilst boys is 95.5%.

HOLIDAY ABSENCE FROM COLLEGE

Holidays have not been authorised since 1st September 2013 under new legislation on all English schools. Requests for holidays must still be made in writing to the appropriate Key Stage leader (Mrs Garvey KS5, Mr Blades KS4/KS3), but in the vast majority of cases they will be unauthorised. A Fixed Penalty Notice may be issued of £60 per parent / carer per student, to be paid within 21 days, otherwise the penalty will rise to £120 per parent / carer to be paid within 28 days. If the penalty remains unpaid then the matter will proceed to the Magistrates Court where you will receive a criminal record if you are found guilty. Please can all holiday requests be made well in advance of the holiday being taken if not before the holiday is booked.

MEDICAL ABSENCE FROM COLLEGE Whilst the College requires parents to contact us on each day of absence , school policy now requires that any student who accumulates 7 or more days of absence during the course of the academic year will be asked to provide medical confirmation of the need to be absent before any further absences are authorised for medical reasons. This is a necessary measure as we closely monitor absence due to illness / medical reasons in order that we can ensure students are supported where needed. For your information medical confirmation does not have to be a doctor's note but can also take the form of a medical appointment card, a copy of a relevant dated prescription or evidence of medication being taken If no medical evidence is provided then the absence will be coded as unauthorised. Ten or more unauthorised absences may result in you receiving a Fixed Penalty Notice. This incurs a penalty of £60 per parent / carer to be paid within 21 days, otherwise the penalty will rise to £120 per parent / carer to be paid within 28 days. If the penalty remains unpaid then the matter will proceed to the Magistrates Court where you will receive a criminal record if you are found guilty.

The link between attendance and achievement is well researched and documented and students should be aiming for an attendance rate of no less than 97% over the year. Thank you for your continued support with this importance issue.

Friday 8 May 2015

STUDENT SUPPORT ACROSS THE COLLEGE NAME

JOB

MON

Mrs J Pilling

Careers Advisor

Student Support Office

Mrs L Nolan

Visyon Counsellor

Student Support Office

Mrs J Jones

College Nurse

Student Support Office

Mrs P Shatwell

Family Support

Office next to rooms A9 and A10 Pastoral Office (ground floor of Fisher Building)

Education Welfare bullying@allhallowslearning.org.uk beingme@allhallowslearning.org.uk esafety@allhallowslearning.org.uk

TUES

WED

THUR

FRI

Mrs J Beard and Mrs P Prince

VENUE

emails will be read by a Senior Teacher

= Staff Present CAREERS ADVICE FOR STUDENTS

If any parent would like their son or daughter to have a careers interview with Mrs Pilling, our Careers Advisor, this year then please notify the relevant Year Learning Leader who can ensure names are added to the list. .

Priority is now with small groups of Year 11 and 12 students (any remaining Year 10 students will be seen shortly) . Students in Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9 are welcome to attend her lunch time drop in. She uses the Student Support Office based next door to Music.

MEDICAL APPOINTMENTS DURING THE COLLEGE DAY

Students must sign out at the Attendance Office before leaving College to attend a medical appointment.

When they return to College the student must sign back in. This ensures registers will be accurate and we know the student is off site should we have a fire alarm. The Attendance Office is located in the office along the RE corridor. We thank parents for making medical appointments, where possible, that do not take up a whole day of schooling. This often allows a student to have their legal registration mark for both morning and afternoon sessions and so their overall attendance does not fall.

BEING PUNCTUAL AT ALL HALLOWS

Most students appreciate the importance of being in College on time. Children who are regularly late do miss out on their education and form bad habits that will not be tolerated in the workplace.

As a result of the change to the College day we need to inform parents that students must be in the registration form class for the register to be taken at 8.45a.m. This means students should arrive 5-10 minutes earlier in College to be on time.

Any student who arrives after 8.45a.m. will receive a L code. Two L codes within a week will result in a whole college detention (which started on Thursday 6 November). This is a recent change in procedures and moves the detention away from the form tutor and it will now be seen as a whole college issue.

Any student who arrives after 9.05a.m. will receive a U code. This means they will be classed as absent for the whole morning and this may have consequences for overall attendance.

We are aware that College buses are sometimes late and we can confirm these students are not negatively marked in the register when this happens.

Thank you for your co-operation in this matter.

From 20 April - gates will be manned and students names will be taken if they are late.

YEAR LEARNING LEADER “DROP IN SURGERIES” Year 7: held on 3 June (11.00a.m. – 11.45a.m.)

Year 8: held on 20 May (10.45p.m. – 11.45 a.m – NEW TIME) and 8 July (1.15p.m. – 2.15p.m.)

Year 9: held on 1 June (9.00a.m. – 9.45a.m.) and 13 July (9.00a.m. – 9.45a.m.)

Year 10: held on 22 May (1.15p.m. – 2.00p.m) and 17 July (1.15p.m. – 2.00p.m) These are for parents who would like to discuss any concerns relating to their child. No appointment is necessary but please be prepared to wait. Please contact our Pastoral Assistant (Pastoral@allhallows.org.uk 01625 410285 x215), should you require an appointment with a Year Learning Leader at any other time.

Friday 8 May 2015

LIBRARY NEWS BOOK AMNESTY

A big thank you to all those students who have returned their overdue books. A polite request for you to continue to search for any school library books and return them - no questions asked. The library catalogue is slowly being updated but we still have a lot of missing stock that readers want to borrow.

If you want to view our catalogue click on the Library Search tab under the For Students tab on the AHCC website. That takes you to the Eclipse homepage and then click on the Search icon.

TEEN BOOK CLUB

Teen Bookclub is back!

Deadline for orders is Friday May 16th so that books can be delivered and collected in time for the half term holiday. All books are discounted and there is a huge range of popular titles to suit all reading tastes.

Log onto: http://schools.scholastic.co.uk/all-hallows-catholic to order discount books securely.

For every £10 order we will receive 20% back in commission to buy books for the library. Please contact the library: library@allhallows.org.uk if you have any questions about ordering.

Thank you in advance for your support!

CARNEGIE/GREENAWAY BOOK AWARDS

It is definitely book award season at the moment and we are following (shadowing) the judging process for the most prestigious children's award. Log onto: http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/carnegie/ current_shortlist.php Students (and staff) can read the shortlisted titles and post reviews on our group page : http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/shadowingsite/index.php To find our page, click on Reading Groups and the AHCC group, A New Chapter, is under A.. The shadowing group will be meeting weekly in the Library, Tuesdays break 2. All are welcome.

We also have a large and varied selection of previous Carnegie winners from across the decade if students want to see what was considered 'outstanding' in past years!

We also have a number of students reading and reviewing the shortlisted books for The Greenaway Awards this is for the most outstanding picture book. Log onto the site to find out more.

OUR PICK OF THE WEEK IS CUCKOO SONG BY FRANCIS HARDINGE

When Triss wakes up after an accident, she knows that something is very wrong. She is insatiably hungry; her sister seems scared of her and her parents whisper behind closed doors. She looks through her diary to try to remember, but the pages have been ripped out. Soon Triss discovers that what happened to her is more strange and terrible than she could ever have imagined, and that she is quite literally not herself. In a quest find the truth she must travel into the terrifying Underbelly of the city to meet a twisted architect who has dark designs on her family – before it's too late…

(Review taken from Frances Hardinge's website) Ms Sinclair says: ' I found this book gripping from beginning to end. It was strange, sinister and very well written. I loved the quirky twists and turns, all the varied characters and unusual and beautifully described settings. Read it now!'

Check out Frances' website for more information: http://www.franceshardinge.com/ We also have several other novels by Frances Hardinge - all very interesting reads.