Headmistress' Introduction

Dear Parents and Carers

I hope this letter finds you all well.

Over the holiday, our students were away with the French Exchange, the German Exchange and the D of E Gold Award practice expedition to Wales. Thank you to our students, staff and parents for enabling these trips to take place.  This weekend is a D of E Bronze Award practice expedition, thank you again to all students, staff and parents for making this possible, and in particular Ms Sowah for leading.

This week we have had our first public exams/assessments with Art and Textiles GCSEs, Non Examination Assessments for Music and GCSE PE moderation.   As we approach the main external exam season, please can I impress upon our students and families the importance of balance.  Rest, time outside and time with friends and family really matters.  And, as ever, we are always here to support all in our community. Please do reach out at any time, via Form Tutors, Heads of Year or the School Office if you would like us to direct your query.  #AHScommunity

Year 11 last day arrangements - Friday 3rd May

Students will be in normal lessons from p1- p4. Lunch at 1.30pm will be spent in the Main Hall and Assembly will start at 14.15. Students will leave School at 15.30, as normal.

Year 13 last day arrangements - Wednesday  8 May - Details will follow next week. 

Cabinet 24-25

Whilst we will be sorry to say goodbye to the brilliant Cabinet of 23-24, we wish them very well on their next steps.  They have been an absolute pleasure to work with and I would like to thank them most sincerely for their extensive support for AHS over the last year.

Happily, we welcome our new Cabinet 24-25.  Having been through a rigorous selection period, we are delighted to welcome Misha-Mae B, Alice C Diya O, Emily O, Akshaya N Dara W and Caitlin W.  Dara is our new Head Girl, and we look forward to working with them all over the coming year. 

Sport this week

A fairly quiet week for our teams as we returned to School. Well done to all, and thank you, as ever, to all who support and make these events possible.

Basketball

Our Year 8 team played against Kingsbrook; AHS won 18-7.

Football

An U15 football tournament at John Colet; we came fourth.

The London Marathon - Good luck Mrs Carey!  

Best wishes to Mrs Carey who is running  the London Marathon on Sunday is aid of the Rennie Grove Hospice.  If you would like to donate to her fundraising, please click on the link https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Mandy-Carey

Art and Design 

GCSE students have been super busy this week as they conclude their GCSE in their 10 hour timed exam. They have done so well and the quality of work is once again outstanding. The theme for the exam this year was 'Power'. Students responded with highly imaginative ideas and created risk taking pieces of work. They have made the Art Department very proud. They are now busy putting their Summer Exhibition up and we will announce a date as soon as the external moderator has been in touch, watch this space. We hope you will all be able to come along to see the work.  In the meantime, please see our latest Art newsletter put together by Alice G and Niamh W in the Year 12 art class. 

Eid Celebration Drawings

Visiting Author

On Wednesday 27 March, we were delighted to host a visit from acclaimed author Elle McNicoll, who came to speak to some Year 7 students and introduce her latest book, Keedie. During her inspirational talk, Elle shared insights into neurodiversity and her own personal journey of living with autism. It was incredible to learn that only 0.005% of books have representation of neurodivergent characters. This statistic, as well as her own experiences, inspired her to incorporate neurodivergent main characters in her own books.

The Year 7 students were amazing throughout the talk - actively engaged and participating by answering questions and offering insights.  They were also given the unique opportunity to get her new book signed in person! Thank you for all your enthusiasm Year 7!

Claire Smith (KS3 English Coordinator)

Merits!

Congratulations to the forms below who have earned a pizza lunch for collecting the most merits

7M 8A 9A 10H   11A

Top merit earners last term

Congratulations to the following students for gaining the most merits in their year groups this term!

Food at AHS

We are continuing our interviews with Heads of Department to help parents get a flavour of our different subject areas.  Today the focus is on Food and we have a catch up with Sarah Saunders, the Head of Food.  Please also take this opportunity to look at the subject content summary for Food which can be found on our website.

Can you give us an overview of the Food curriculum at AHS?

We have two main strands - Skills and Knowledge both of which we develop and build upon from year 7 up to year 11. We believe in teaching ‘skills for life’ which all students will find useful wherever their life takes them. Along the way we like to enjoy what we do and make things fun.

Why do you think this curriculum suits students at AHS?

Our curriculum allows knowledge and skill building so we are always expanding on something we have learnt before and recipe adaptation to suit family tastes and likes or dislikes

What are the recent developments in your curriculum and how have you decided on any changes you have made?

We are always looking to improve our curriculum offering in line with current trends and input of students' views. The recent increases in the cost of living and popularity of plant based products are leading us to review or recipe banks to ensure that affordable food for all is being considered and also the inclusion of more plant based alternatives and vegan high skill dishes

How are students assessed in Food?

KS3 follows the WT/WA/WB assessment scheme which is found at the back of all the work booklets.  KS4 folders are formally assessed using GCSE sample grades at the end of each module along with a short module test.  

More informal verbal feedback and assessment is used throughout all practical lessons to help all students improve their skills.

How does the Food curriculum prepare our students for life beyond AHS?

Many of us remember lessons from our school days but who remembers how to chop an onion or make a swiss roll. Skills for Life is the term often banded around and that is what we aim to teach all our students

What are the features of the Food curriculum that you are most proud of?

We are most proud of the enjoyment experienced in so many students in our lessons. Whether it's year 7 peeling a potato for the first time, year 9 creating a swiss roll or year 11 completing their 3 hour GCSE practical exam.

How can parents help their daughter with Food work?

Preparation is key to all our lessons. With only an hour to prep, cook and wash up anything that saves time helps. Weighing out ingredients at home is a great example and also practising those key skills such as preparing the vegetables for a family meal. Using the oven independently and deciding if something is ‘done’ are good ways to get your daughters to make a batch of their favourite sweet treat.

What co-curricular opportunities does the Food department offer?

You will find students in the food room at lunchtimes almost every day of the week and that's not including Food Tech Club which has to run when possible, around other curriculum commitments. On a daily basis, students from p4 could be waiting for things to finish cooking whilst students ready for p5 are arriving ready to prep up and get started early. Sometimes it feels like year 11 from all 3 groups are in together, working around each other to achieve their practical goals. The one thing all these students have in common is that they want to be there.

What are you reading at the moment?

Freckled - A memoir of growing up in Hawaii - by TW Neal

What do our students say about studying Food at AHS?

Engineering Experience Programme

On Wednesday 27 March, 6 of our Year 12 students attended the final celebration day of the Engineering Experience Programme.  This was held at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Didcot. The teams were sponsored and mentored by Graduate apprentices from the Science and Technology Facilities Council. The group had weekly online team meetings with Mr Potkin and Mr Elcock. They have been working on a 'Descending Extra-terrestrial Atmospheric probe' or 'DEAP' for short.

This was not a competition but more of a way to present their final projects to industry experts and judges who were there to provide feedback.  The team presented their final project to not only the judges but to the other 11 schools who had all completed their EEP projects.  All of the teams had different project titles and mentors.  After their presentation, the group were confident in their answers to any questioning and received very positive feedback from the experts.

Each member of the team received a certificate from the Engineering Development trust 'EDT' and will also send the entry into the CREST awards to receive silver accreditation.

Well done for all of your hard work and dedication to the project.

Parents' Afternoon and Talk

Many thanks to all the parents who came into school on Wednesday to meet with us and to listen to our talk on supporting students through exams. For anyone who wasn't able to attend, please see the slides here. We'd also like to remind you all about a great resource called Kooth, which all of our students have access to, but may find of particular value if they need support with exam stress.  Kooth offers 24/7 instant access to anonymous and personalised mental health support. They have also put together this support guide for students on coping with exams. Additionally, next week they’re running KoothTalks webinars specifically to help parents support young people sitting exams. 

Mon 22 Apr. 1-2pm

Thu 25 Apr. 6-7pm

(Don’t worry if you can’t make these times - just fill in the short form and they’ll send you the recording to watch in your own time).

Filtering of internet 

As a school, we don't currently have the means to cherry-pick and block content on devices that are at home. Filtering takes place at school as all internet traffic enters and exits our network via our firewall. At home, students are monitored by our safeguarding service, which intercepts sites it deems to be harmful and forwards that information on to our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL). This is the current standard in regard to filtering. There are however, cloud-based filtering products emerging that will allow us to have this kind of control in future.

For now, we would suggest looking at a trusted focus and productivity app which you can install on the Chromebook. We recommend Forest.  This is an app which will allow you to add YouTube to a local blocklist.  Please click on the link below for further information.

(https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/forest-stay-focused-be-pr/kjacjjdnoddnpbbcjilcajfhhbdhkpgk). 

Please don't bring valuables into School

A reminder that no one should be bringing valuable items or money to school and if you do this is entirely at your own risk. On days that you have PE or Drama you should lock your mobile phone in your locker.  If you have to remove a watch for PE your teacher will collect it in for the duration of the lesson.  Please also name uniform and other items so that they are easy to identify. 

Teacher Training with Astra SCITT

Whether you or someone you know is a recent graduate or potential career switcher, teaching offers a rewarding, challenging and varied career. Aylesbury High School works in partnership with Astra School Centred Initial Teacher Training to provide training for new primary and secondary teachers. Astra works in partnership with over sixty local schools and all courses lead to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and most applicants also study for the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE). Do contact Astra (hello@astra-alliance.com) if you would like to know more, or contact Sarah Jeffreys at AHS: sjeffreys@ahs.bucks.sch.uk

We offer School Experience Days here at AHS and would love to welcome you and for you to find out more about life as a teacher!

Vacancies

Please click on our website to see our latest vacancies - https://www.ahs.bucks.sch.uk/about-the-school/staff-vacancies-2/

Cover Supervisor

Caretaker

Maths Teacher (Maternity Cover)

Wishing all well for a lovely weekend and thank you, as ever, for your support.

Marieke Forster