Week 18 – 26 January 2024
Key Dates
- Year 10 Aviation Trip – Monday 29th January 2024
York High Visited by a Baroness!
We were delighted to welcome today House of Lords member Baroness Barran who was representing the Department for Education, and the Regional Schools Commissioner Alison Fisher to York High School, to share the good practice and improvements around attendance.
They were delighted to hear that we have reduced the number of persistent absentees (below 90%) by 77 (20% reduction) compared to this time last year.
It is always nice when the school, staff and parents are recognised for our hard work and achievements.
Wonderful week this week helping the Year 9 students to make their option choices.
All of the staff involved were bowled over by the careful consideration that the students had given to their choices.
It was great to hear so many different career choices such as Medicine, Law and Marine Biologist.
Big thank you to Mr Byrne (Asst Head) and Mrs Kitchen (SBMAT School Improvement Leader) for making the advice and guidance the best yet.
Small note of pride – Year 11 had their year group photo on Tuesday and the photographer said to me “Your kids are fantastic they have made our job so much easier compared to most schools”
Wonderlab
On Wednesday, 20 of our Year 7’s went to Wonderlab at the National Railway Museum to take part in filming the promotional material for the NRM and Wonderlab websites.
Students completed 4hrs of filming and also managed to play with lots of the challenges.
The stand out favourite was the air hockey, which turned quite competitive by the end of the day.
One of the highlights for Mrs Lancaster was watching our students interact with the public and help much smaller children play with and enjoy the exhibits.
They were incredibly caring and kind.
Special mention must go to Patryk and Harry who spent nearly all day perfecting their marble run. Great resilience!
Well done to all the students involved.
York Guildhall Orchestra
Partner event
Sunday, February 11th 2024, 3pm
York Music Hub and York Guildhall Orchestra are delighted to be working in partnership to provide up to 200 free tickets for school-aged children/young people and accompanying adults, to YGO’s upcoming concert at York Barbican on Sunday 11th February at 3pm.
The free ticket allocation per family works as follows:
- 1 child ticket + 1 accompanying adult ticket
- 2 or more child tickets + up to 2 accompanying adult tickets
This form needs to be completed by a parent/carer, and submitted by Sunday 28th January at the latest.
In order to avoid disappointment, don’t delay submitting the form, as tickets will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdBenaCKyo5xlP-6QbFr5vxzwL16DFi4P0W9JpGl4PozL3IyQ/viewform
Performing Arts
Congratulations to some of our Year 11 and Year 10 Music and Drama students who have successfully applied to a course run by the Grand Opera House.
They will get to see 2 shows (Woman in Black and Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) and have a meeting with the director afterwards.
Over half term, they are in the theatre for 3 days learning about all aspects of theatre life from front of house and marketing to scenery and props and sound and lighting.
Next week our behaviour curriculum focus – Strong finish to lessons
Have a great weekend especially if you are taking part in York Residents Festival
Rod Sims
