Newsletter 04 04 2014

All Hallows Catholic College Newsletter Easter Term

PRAYER Lord Jesus, you freely showed your love by the gift of your body and blood. We pray that as we wait to celebrate your glorious resurrection, the glory that is Easter, we look for you Lord, the light of the world, in all the people we meet.

Amen.

EXAM TIP– DO YOU WANT TO UP YOUR MARKS BY 5% Then brush up on your spelling so that you don’t lose marks.

Ask an adult to check your class and revision notes for spelling mistakes and to write up a list of correct spelling mistakes and to write up a list of correct spellings. Learning and quiz yourself on 5-10 spellings each day.

GSCE AND A LEVEL COUNTDOWN 38 Days until Monday the 12th May 2014, the date of the first exams.

SPECIALISM SUCCESS Congratulations to George Tyldesley in year 9 who is top of the whole school leader board for Vocab Express with 16530 points. George is on line to exceed his target in French showing the difference learning vocabulary can make.

Friday 4th April 2014

EXAMS Friday 23/05/14 INSET DAY EXAMS Please be advised that the following GCE/GCSE exams will be taking place on the above date.

GCE (AS) CHEM1 @ 9.00 am GCE (AS) 6RS02 @13.00 pm (Ethics and Philosophy Paper 2) GCSE (Year 11) Drama Unit 3 @13.00 pm GCSE (Year 11) History Unit 2 @ 9.00 am Dates and times are set by the exam boards and cannot be re-arranged by the college. Students taking these courses are therefore expected to attend their exams on this date in school uniform or business dress. School buses will be arranged for students concerned. Parents/Guardians please complete transport requirements slips and return to Form Tutor/ Reception/Exams Office. Thank you.

Exam Results Days - August 2014 Thursday 14th August 2014 8:30am - 10:30am A2 Results (Year 13) 11:00am - 12:30am AS Results (Year 12) Thursday 21st August 2014 10:00am - 12:00 noon - GCSE Results (Y11 only)

YEAR LEADER "DROP IN SURGERIES” Year 10 Thursday 24 April 2014 between 12.00 and 1.00 pm with Mrs Remfry.

Year 9 Friday 25 April between 9.00 am and 10.00 am with Mrs Moulsdale 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. Future dates for other year groups will be confirmed shortly.

PRAISE FOR YEAR 7 FROM MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY Dr Rosa Archer, Team Leader for the Post Graduate teacher training course commented on the day the Year 7 students spent at the University: 'The day was a big success and I am writing to congratulate the children ( and their teachers ) for their impeccable behaviour. They all got stuck into the activities with enthusiasm and I feel they gained a lot from the day. It was refreshing to see how many potentially good mathematicians you have at All Hallows.' Thanks were also expressed to Mr Slobodian for 'organising such a big and impressive event.'

EASTER GRADE BOOSTER CLASSES , MARCH-MAY The College is open on the following dates in Spring to offer the following: 10am-2pm Monday 7 April - French AS/A2, Psychology AS, Chemistry AS/A2, French GCSE, Maths GCSE, English GCSE, Health and Social Care GCSE, Science BTEC, Drama GCSE, Further Maths, AS, BTEC YR12, Geography GCSE, German AS, German GCSE and Spanish AS Tuesday 8 April - French AS/A2, Psychology A2, German GCSE, Health and Social Care GCSE, Food Technology GCSE, Drama GCSE, Product Design GCSE, BTEC Yr12, Geography GSCE, French GCSE, French GCSE, German AS and Spanish AS Wednesday 9 April - English Catch Up Year 7, Product Design GCSE and BTEC Yr12 Tuesday 15 April - Maths Catch Up Year 7.

Saturday 10 May - RECC GCSE, History GCSE. Saturday 17 May - History GCSE. Please click here for the Grade Booster Timetable (Please note you must be logged into the College website for this link to work).

IS YOUR CHILD ADOPTED? CAN YOU HELP US SECURE ADDITIONAL FUNDING TO HELP OUR CHILDREN ACHIEVE THEIR FULL POTENTIAL? From April 2014, schools in England are entitled to receive a grant called the 'pupil premium for children adopted from care or who left care under a Special Guardianship Order (SGO) on or after 30 December 2005.' Schools can also claim the pupil premium for children who left care under a Residence Order (RO) on or after 14 October 1991. In order to claim this valuable grant, we would be grateful if adoptive parents could inform the college if their child is adopted and provide supporting evidence, for example, the Adoption (Court) Order. This information will be dealt with discretely and confidentially and the grants will be used to help this particular group of children achieve their potential in their education.

ALL HALLOWS IS AGAINST BULLYING We would like to remind students and parents that our website has links to an anti-bullying email service.bullying@allhallowslearning.org.uk is the email address that can be used to confidentially report incidents of bullying to a senior teacher. Students are also encouraged to report bullying to their form tutor and Year Leader.

Together we can stamp out all forms of bullying.

COMMUNITY MASS All Hallows Chapel every Friday 9am-9.45am Parents/Carers/Parishioners are all welcome

CAREERS ADVICE FOR STUDENTS Our new careers advisor, Mrs Jean Pilling, has now seen 132 students for impartial careers interviews since she started in mid-December. If any parents would like their son or daughter to have a careers interview this year then please notify the relevant Year Leader who can ensure names are added to the list. Priority will be given to Year 11, 12 and 13 students, but she will also see other students lower down the college for careers interviews. She has a drop in on Thursday lunchtime for students of any year.

ECO FACT For every user in your organisation based on current findings printing generates 1.34KG CO2 requiring 142KWH of energy to simply supply the paper.

PARENTS AS PARTNERS: E-SAFETY E-safety is in the news at the moment. That is, those activities we take part in on the Internet or by file-sharing. Chat rooms, Facebook, Twitter, the Internet generally and all aspects of electronic communication are vulnerable to abuse by unscrupulous individuals.

As a community, we have a responsibility to protect our young people from potential harm and also to help them to be responsible about Internet use. Please remember that mobile ‘phones are now part of this issue, as many are Internet capable and are essentially mobile computers. There is much material on the web that is inappropriate for school and young people.

All of us need to be vigilant about what our young people are viewing, storing and sharing on their computers and ‘phones. As a College, we would ask you to continue to monitor what your children are viewing, storing and sharing. In College, ‘phones discovered to have inappropriate material on them will be confiscated, and the student will be banned permanently from bringing the ‘phone to College, as well as the potential for more serious sanctions. Nevertheless, we must celebrate the many positive aspects of electronic communication, such as being able to contact our children easily, and appropriate use will help us all to preserve those benefits. Just reminder of College policy that ‘phones brought to College should be switched off and kept in the bag between 8:55am and 3:15pm.

Misuse of ‘phones during the College day will result in confiscation, and the ‘phone will have to be collected by parents.

ADVANCED NOTICE Languages Controlled Assessments 2013-2014

Please find below the list of dates for the languages controlled assessments. Each assessment can count for 15% of the final GCSE. Teachers will let your son/daughter know on which dates they will complete assessments. Please avoid time off both on the date and in the lessons preceding these dates. Please contact a.harrison@allhallows.org.uk with any queries.

Year 10 Writing 2

10y Tuesday 6 May 10g Thursday 8 May

Speaking 2

Thursday/Friday 3 /4 July

Year 9 Speaking

Tuesday/Wednesday 8/9 July

RECOMMENDED READS Evil star by Anthony Horowitz After his experiences at Raven's Gate, fourteen-year-old Matt Freeman thinks his days of battling evil are over. But he is pulled into another horrifying adventure when he discovers a second gate exists. Matt and his friend Richard travel to Peru and, assisted by a secret organization known as the Nexus, follow a series of clues to the gate's whereabouts.

But there is a traitor in the Nexus. Richard is kidnapped. Matt manages to escape with the help of Pablo, a local boy.

The pair travel to the Nazca desert and Matt realizes the horrifying truth: the Nazca lines are the second gate – it is about to

PARENT VIEW SURVEY FOR 2012-13

22 parent responses to the OfSTED Parent View Survey for 2013-14.

Each week we will be presenting a statistic from the 2012-13 survey and asking you a question or two about how we can continue to work together to do our very best for our young people. 130 parents responded last year and we’d like to reach a minimum of 200 this year!

As a Catholic college we pride ourselves on trying to address the needs of the whole child and this means our college needs to be well led and managed to fulfill this role effectively. 97% of parents strongly agree or agree that All Hallows is well led and managed. This figure is 99% if we assume that ‘don’t know’ means there is no issue. Our vision is that you should feel as close to the college and supported as hopefully you did when your child was in their smaller primary school. E mail contacts are available for all staff on the website and regular open surgeries are held by the Principal, the Leadership Team and Year Leaders if you just want to drop in. We can’t promise that we always get everything right but we will try our best. Email your views to parentview@allhallows.org.uk. Please also follow this link to complete the questionnaire this year - http://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk

ATTENDANCE MATTERS Over the last week of College attendance was as follows Year 7 - 97.2% (up 0.9% on the previous week, well done Year 7) Year 8 - 94.3% (up 1.7%, well done Year 8) Year 9 - 95.5% (up 0.4%, well done Year 9) Year 10 - 92.7% (down 1.8%, a poor week Year 10) Year 11 - 90.1% (down 3.3%, a very poor week Year 11 - two weeks ago you were at 95.7% and in February you were the best in the college!)

Year 12: 99.46% (up 4.53 % on previous week: great attendance for mock exams year 12) Year 13: 97.55% (up 1.88% on previous week)

102.00% 100.00%

98.00% 96.00% 94.00% 92.00% 90.00% 88.00% 86.00%

84.00% YEAR 7 YEAR 8 YEAR 9 YEAR 10

YEAR 11

YEAR 12

YEAR 13

This was a another disappointing week due to Year 10 and Year 11, but well done Years 7 to 9. The average for the week was 94.0% (down 0.5%). Since 3rd September attendance is down to 95.5% (down 0.1%). We aim for 97%.

Last week GIRLS attendance has decreased 1.7% to 92.9%, BOYS attendance has increased 1.0% to 95.2%. Since 3rd September boys are winning girls 96.1% to 95.0% and the gap has widened again by 0.1%.

Comparisons on the same week in the previous 2 years are 91.9% and 93.3% so once again we have made some improvements despite another disappointing week.

Parents are politely reminded to avoid absence unless it is absolutely necessary. Thank you for your on-going support regarding medical absence and holiday absence.

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 and Mr Diamond 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.

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

CALENDAR

Term

College Opens to Students

College Closes to Students

Easter

Wednesday 26 February 2014

Friday 4 April 2014

Whitsun

Wednesday 23 April 2014

Thursday 22 May 2014

Trinity

Monday 2 June 2014

Tuesday 22 July 2014

The following are the dates for training days in 2013-14. Students are not required to attend on these days. Unless taking an external exam.

Tuesday 22 April 2014 Friday 23 May 2014 Wednesday 23 July 2014

COMING SOON– OUR NEW ONLINE PAYMENT SERVICE We’re pleased to announce that we will be launching ParentPay as our preferred method of payment to school from 23 April 2014.

ParentPay offers you the freedom to make online payments whenever and wherever you like, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week - safe in the knowledge that the technology used is of the highest internet security available.

Parents will have a secure online account, activated using a unique username and password (these will be sent to you shortly); making a payment with your credit or debit card is straightforward and ParentPay holds an electronic record of your payments for you to view at a later date.

In addition to payments ParentPay also offers an integrated email/SMS reminders option ensuring you never need miss a payment and helping you keep your child’s school meal account in credit.

We look forward to your support in using ParentPay as it will help us further support teaching and learning by reducing the burden of income collection in the classroom and school office whilst improving school-home communication.