Headteacher’s Blog - February 2016

This half-term has flown by with a tremendous number of achievements to celebrate which tells the story of what has been a short, but highly rewarding and exciting half term. I hope you enjoyed reading about our successes, on the website and through our Twitter feed, as much as we did creating it!

The next half-term, before we break for Easter on the 24^th March is even shorter, but it will be just as hectic and jam packed with good news stories! Once again, our Year 11 leavers have purchased a specially designed leavers’ hoodie. The hoodie is allowed to be worn in place of their blazer. An additional feature of the 2016 hoodie is that each student has their initials embroidered on the front.

Hot on the heels of our students’ recent success at the North Yorkshire Schools’ Student Conference, I am delighted to announce that the school is one of only 41 nationally that has been awarded a Discovering Democracy Award. The school will be presented with the award, by John Penrose MP, at a special ceremony in London immediately after half-term.

Congratulations to all the participants in this year’s Talent Show. Once again the standard was incredibly high, which made it an extremely hard decision for the judges. The Lower School winner was Kate Hinken with Talia Firth as the Upper School, and overall winner.

The targets we have set our Year 9 & 11 students in respect of this summer’s GCSE results, whilst challenging, are achievable given the level of support that is available here at school and at home from yourselves. Please encourage your child (ren) to undertake some revision/on-line learning and any required catch-up work during the half-term break. It is essential that students realise the level of commitment that is now required from them at this stage of their school career. Those students in their last year at Selby High School, that is Year 11 students, should be undertaking a minimum of twelve hours’ home study per week and beginning to make the social sacrifices which are necessary for success and which in turn will provide choices and chances!

This commitment should also be extended to ensure that they turn up for scheduled booster and intervention sessions that are taking place both after school and during the supported study programme from now until the end of June, some of which takes place at weekends and in the school holidays.

Remember, there is no substitute for hard work and, without doubt, it is the key to success!

As we proceed through the amalgamation consultation, it is obviously necessary to plan for either of the two possible outcomes. Mrs Carter-Mills has, therefore, assumed the role of Acting Headteacher, for the foreseeable future, in order to allow me to undertake work for the joint Governors’ Steering Group. I know that you will give her the same level of support that you have afforded me. In addition, Mr D Block will be assuming some additional responsibilities as Acting Associate Assistant Headteacher, supporting the work of the behaviour and safeguarding team.

Given that we have experienced some sub-zero temperatures of late, may I remind you that either in the event of adverse weather conditions or indeed any other emergency a decision as to whether or not to open the school will be made, at the latest, by 6.40am. If closure is necessary, an announcement will then be made on BBC Radio York & Minster FM. The school’s website will be updated about any school closure, together with utilising Twitter and SMS messaging services.

Important Future Dates

Monday 22^nd February                        School re-opens
Tuesday 23^rd – Thursday 25^th   
February                                               Years 9 & 10 school meningitis injections

Friday 26^th February                            More Able visit to Cambridge University

Monday 29^th February                       Young Voices at Manchester Arena

Wednesday 2^nd March                        Years 9 & 10 meningitis injections

Tuesday 8^th March                              Year 8 Enterprise Day

Thursday 10^th March                           Year 9 Parents/Carers/Guardians Consultation Evening

Monday 14^th March                            Year 7 Camp Information Evening

Wednesday 16^th March                       ‘The 39 Steps’ Theatre visit

Tuesday 22^nd March                            Year 10 Parents/Carers/Guardians Consultation Evening

Thursday 24^th March                           Year 11 mock results assembly

Thursday 24^th March                           School closes for holidays

Headteacher’s Staffing Blog – Jan 2016

Dear Parents, Carers and Guardians

Our new D&T Technician and Premises Officer, Andrew Watson, will be taking up his post within the next 10 days. David Cooke, our new General Student Support Mentor (GSSM) & Literacy Student Support Mentor (SSM), Claire Dugher (GSSM) and Caroline Coates (GSSM, two terms temporary initially) took up their posts on 4^th January 2016. In addition, Sarah Carmichael (GSSM) takes up her post, on the 18^th January 2016, on the same arrangement, until September 2016 as maternity leave cover for Miss Amy Ridley. Miss Sarah Tasker-Lynch is becoming a full-time Advanced Student Support Mentor (ASSM).

As you will be aware, on 16^th December 2015 the Local Authority (LA) announced that they would be consulting on the closure of Brayton High School and the enlargement of Selby High School. At the same time the LA asked myself and the Governors if we could provide some interim support for Brayton High School, because the Headteacher has been absent since October and the Deputy Headteacher has just secured another deputy headteacher’s post at Temple Moor High School in Leeds. As a result of that request, Mr Lewis and Mrs Lumb will be seconded to Brayton, for the foreseeable future, in order to lead and manage the school. In turn, we have made the following acting internal promotions to cover for those secondments:

Mr Cousins and Mr Sinclair will become acting Deputy Headteachers with Miss Gorton and Miss Smith becoming acting Assistant Headteachers.  Mrs Wardell and Miss Johnson will continue in their substantive roles of Associate Assistant Headteachers. 

In addition, Miss Crawford will be undertaking the National Award for SEN Coordination (NASENCO) and Mrs Thornton will become an ASSM, following Mrs Cawkwell’s secondment to the Personalised Student Support Mentoring team.

We have re-engaged the services of Miss Holt (PE and dance teacher, who was due to leave us as a result of the return of Miss Johnson from maternity leave) both on a full-time basis and over and above our normal staffing requirement. This enhanced staffing will enable some staff taking on additional responsibilities to be afforded varying amounts of additional non-contact time (NCT). This is so they can support both students, including in option subjects, staff and the work being undertaken at Brayton High School.

Other ‘staffing and ‘operational changes’ may be required as situations develop and unfold. I will obviously keep you up to date with any changes as and when they become necessary.

I am sure you would like to join me in sending your best wishes to all those staff who are taking on new challenges, roles and responsibilities.

With kind regards.

P.M.Eckersley

Paul Eckersley

Headteacher

Headteacher's Blog - December 2015

Dear Parents, Carers & Guardians,

It has been another exciting and spectacular half-term in respect of students excelling in the arts, science, sport, community service and charity fundraising. The news stories on the website and Twitter feeds are a testimony to our continued success.

Please encourage your child(ren) to undertake some on-line learning, revision (mock examinations for students in Year 11, start straight after Christmas on Monday 4^th January 2016), together with any required catch-up work during the Christmas holidays, so that everyone can hit the ground running in January. Remember, there is no substitute for hard work!

Talking about hard work, our independent learning and effort rewards system ‘Selby Keys’ continues to go from strength to strength, thereby helping our students to rapidly develop the skills necessary to be a successful learner in today’s educational climate.

Your co-operation in helping to maintain the now established high standards of uniform, together with attendance and punctuality, from the outset of the Spring Term in January will be much appreciated. In this respect it is worth remembering that students should wear their blazers at all times, in addition to any school jumper or cardigan, unless instructed to do otherwise by a member of staff.  We will also be continuing our campaign, during 2016, to educate everyone connected with the school what bullying is and what it isn’t, together with convincing all concerned of the virtues of being a ‘telling school’.   

At the end of this term we will be saying goodbye to Miss Donna Brown (GSSM) who is taking up a similar post, nearer home, at the Snaith School; Mr Peter Griffin (English teacher) who is moving to Cheshire and has secured a new post at a school in St Helens and Mr Paul Austin-Clarke (D&T Technician) who will be retiring after seven and half years’ service at the school. Miss Amy Ridley (ASSM) and Mrs Naomi Sellars (mathematics teacher) will be starting maternity leave. Mrs Cadence Knights (mathematics HLTA) started her maternity leave at the end of November, together with Miss Cant (CAL for Music). We are pleased to have secured the services of two mathematics teachers, Mr Chris Powell and Mr Chris Johnson, to cover the required time in mathematics and Miss Anne Todd to teach music. In addition, our new School Social Worker, Miss Jane Holman took up her post on 23^rd November 2015. Mr Heath Lanzillotti (CAL for music technology) will take on the additional CAL role for music as a whole.

In January, we will be welcoming Mrs Helen Metcalfe to the school as our new KS3 English Progress Co-ordinator and Miss Hannah Gibson the new combined CAL for PSHEE&C and RE.  

I should like to take this opportunity to remind you, that in the advent of adverse weather conditions, a decision as to whether or not to open the school will be made, at the latest, by 6.30am. If closure is necessary an announcement will then be made on BBC Radio York & Minster FM. The school’s website will also carry information about any school closure and we will tweet and SMS message you with information. Once the school is open it will remain open until the end of the day unless it becomes clear that students risk becoming stranded, because of any worsening conditions. If the school has to close we will make a decision, whenever possible, by the end of the day in question, about the prospects for the following day.

Finally, I appreciate that Leeds Road is extremely busy. I would however, ask you to be mindful of the fact that we are situated in a residential area, and to be considerate to our neighbours when parking, especially if you find yourself blocking their driveway.

As we say at Selby High School, and as we look forward to 2016, it is more important that we are more successful tomorrow than perhaps we have been today! So we are looking forward to an excellent and outstanding 2016.

On that note I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the staff and governors to wish you a very Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year! 

 

Paul Eckersley

Headteacher

P.S. I am looking forward to seeing all the parents, carers’ and guardians of students in Years 7, 8, 9 and 10 at the Consultation Day on Monday 14^th December 2015.

Important Dates for Your Diary

Monday 4^th January                        School re-opens

Monday 4^th January –                     Year 11 mock examinations

Friday 15^th January

Wednesday 20^th January               Year 7 & 8 Theatre-in-Education (pm)

Thursday 21^st January                     Year 7 Faraday Challenge day

Thursday 4^th February –                Year 11 Astronomy trip to Kielder

Friday 5^th February

Tuesday 9^th February                      Year 11 Targeted Evening

Thursday 11^th February                  Final of the Inter-House Music Competition

Thursday 11^th February                  School closes for holidays

Friday 12^th February                        Training Day – school closed to students

Headteacher's Blog - October 2015

Dear Parents/Carers/Guardians

Welcome to my first blog of this academic year and what an exciting start to the new school year it has been!

I have attached a copy of our 2014-2015 Highlights booklet  and we are already planning for 2015-2016 to be another year to remember. The 2015 Governors’ 100% Attendance Awards and Governor’s Awards Evening, which were held on the 13th & 14th October 2015, respectively, were truly glittering occasions and wonderful showcases for everything we hold dear at Selby High School. As you will have seen from the news feed on the school’s website our students are, once again, doing some great things, so the 2016 Governors’ Awards are set to be amazing and spectacular occasions!

We are all delighted to see how well Selby High School has done in the DfE published unvalidated provisional attainment data, in respect of the grades achieved as a result of the first entry* for a particular subject and not those achieved after sitting the examination more than once. The government believes that early publication of this data will support parental choices before the   31st October 2015 deadline for secondary school selection.  

Our results are commendable in comparison to national and local data, even though we are still awaiting a number of remarks and clerical checks on examination papers taken by our students in the summer.  Everyone at the school is proud of the achievements in the summer and extremely pleased that these results have enabled our students to successfully move to the next stage of their lives:

61% of students achieved 5 A*-C GCSEs including English and mathematics.

We are very conscious that the national figures will be adjusted in the spring, ready for the final performance table publication, however, from our current projections, using this unvalidated data, the school’s results, once again, demonstrates another robust year of students’ performance.

We hope you find the data useful and the following link will take you to the performance table for 2015.  Results from previous years can also be found on the DfE performance tables’ website Department of Education – Performance Tables.

*First entry grades are the ones used by the DfE to highlight the comparative performance of different schools.

I would like to thank you for your support in getting the new school year off to such a fantastic start. The uniform standards have been truly excellent and students have, therefore, avoided unnecessary punishments, which deflect us from our main purpose of everyone securing top class results and achieving their full potential. Thank you for your support in ensuring your child(ren) are properly turned out for school, together with being ‘keen to treat others just like they would wish to be treated themselves’; a simple phrase, but such an important one for Selby High School. Moreover, students’ behaviour for learning needs to be such that it allows both them and their fellow students to make the maximum progress possible.

We send a large number of emails and letters, including numbered ones, out to parents, carers and guardians, but any communication system will only work well if people regularly check their messages. In this regard I should be grateful if you would check your emails at least twice a week, together with following us on Twitter@selbyhigh. The hyperlink to the school’s website is:

www.selbyhigh.co.uk

Top class home/school communications are critical so why not write a note to your child’s Form Tutor or Head of House to let us know what is going well or areas of concern that you may have. In addition, please use the Student Planner to provide a written explanation of any absences, but please also telephone the school on the first day of absence to let us know:

Telephone Number: 01757-703327 and select the option for reporting a student absence

Consultation Day for Parents’/Carers’/Guardians’ will take place on Monday 14th December 2015. Don’t forget to book your appointment between 9.36am and 7.36pm, when the slips are issued. The length of appointments will be twelve minutes. 

As you will be aware we hold parents’, carers’ and guardians’ support evenings each academic year and 2015-2016 will be no different. To date we have hosted very successful literacy and numeracy evenings and the annual CEOP evening, with regard to staying safe on-line, will take place on Tuesday 10th November 2015.

Mr Peter Griffin (English teacher), will be leaving the school’s employment at the end of this term,
because he is relocating to Cheshire. I am sure you would wish to join me in thanking him for his hard work and commitment during the last three years. In addition, Miss Freya Kirk (mathematics teacher) & Miss Naomi Sellars (mathematics teacher) will both be taking maternity leave to have their second children.

Dr Mark Smith (science teacher) is joining the staff on a permanent basis from January 2016 and from December 2015 Miss Jane Holman will be taking up the role of School Social Worker. In January 2016, Mrs Helen Metcalfe and Miss Hannah Gibson will be joining the staff to undertake the respective roles of KS3 English Progress Co-ordinator and the Curriculum Area Leader for RE & PSHEE & C. I am looking forward to witnessing them achieve great things with our young people, at the school.

I am really looking forward to seeing you all at our latest musical extravaganza ‘We Will Rock You”, which will take place at the school, 8^th-10^th December 2015. Tickets go on sale soon, book early to avoid disappointment. If the preview performance is anything to go by, you are in for a great evening’s entertainment!

Important dates for your diary.

Monday 2nd November                                 Training Day – School closed to students
Tuesday 3rd November                                 School re-opens
Monday 9th November 7pm                          Holocaust Survivor evening – Years 9, 10 & 11
Tuesday 10th November 7.30pm                   Year 7 ICT Internet Safety evening
Wednesday 11th November –
Tuesday 17th November                                Book Fair in LRC
Thursday 12th November                              Year 7 Horrible Histories trip
Tuesday 17th November                                Year 7 Enterprise Day
Wednesday 25th November                           Year 7 More Able App Development morning
                                                                        Shakespeare Schools Performance
Friday 4th December                                       Clothes Show trip
Tuesday 8th – Thursday 10th December       School Production ‘We Will Rock You’
Friday 11th December                                   Tracker 1 issued
Monday 14th December                                Consultation Day
Tuesday 15th December                                Speed Dating with Industry
Wednesday 16th December                           Lego League competition
Thursday 17th December                               Year 7 trip to West Yorkshire Playhouse to see ‘Chitty                                                                                           Chitty Bang Bang’
Friday 18th December                                     School closes for holidays