Principal's update 24 March 2023

Enormous thanks to everyone involved in our production of School of Rock! I am so proud of each and every one of our students. They are a credit to our school community. It was wonderful to welcome so many parents, carers, family, friends and members of our local community into school. Special thanks go to Mrs Machan and Miss Starbuck who have worked so hard to put the show together and make it such a success.

Following on from our email last week we have re-affirmed our expectations around mobile phone use in school.  We are increasingly concerned that young people are struggling to regulate their use and have reminded them that our rules are there to support them to have time away from their phones.  We will be asking students to switch off their phones for the time that they are in the building in order to help them develop good habits around mobile phone use.  As part of this, all students will be issued with a new paper copy of their timetable, although they can ask staff permission to check their timetable.  We would ask for your support in this as we have increasing feedback from parents/carers that they are concerned about the volume of their young person's mobile phone use. In order to support this, we would ask that you could keep communication via phone to a minimum during the school day so that students are not worried about missing messages or communications from home. Where students have phones out and they should not, we will store the phone on reception and students will be able to collect it at the end of the day. 

What’s going on in school:

• Year 8 students have all learned a poem off by heart as part of the national Poetry By Heart competition. Last week saw the Hope Valley College final of the competition which was organised by Mrs Hale. Students from all classes were brave enough to get up and perform their poem in front of a packed audience. Their recitations were funny, moving and though-provoking. The judges, Mrs Mummery and Ms Daniel, were extremely impressed by the high standards reached by our students. Now we look forward to finding out whether our winners will proceed to the national finals in London. 

 

• Thank you to all those who kindly donated to Comic Relief. As a school, we raised an impressive £379.81!

• Last Wednesday, thirteen of our Y10 students travelled down to Cambridge to visit Robinson College and the Cavendish Laboratory. They heard about the courses on offer at Cambridge, how the college system works and spoke with one of the philosophy undergraduates. During the afternoon, they carried out some experiments in the Cavendish Laboratory - home to an incredibly high number of Nobel prize winners! Having worked their way through some challenging physics and maths problems, they returned to HVC with a better idea of the opportunities open to them in a couple of years’ time.

 

• Well done to our Sports Leaders who assisted with the Rural Derbyshire Sports Pentathlon for Primary schools event last week. They did a great job! 

  

• Exciting plans are underway for Activities Week residential trips in July. The staff have had a great day checking out the fantastic facilities including the accommodation, the food and the huge range of activities on offer. Information regarding activities week has been sent to parents and carers of students in Years 7-9. We would be grateful if you could complete and return the consent form and any deposits as soon as possible. Thank you.

 

Lost Property

We currently have lots of lost property items in reception, particularly winter coats. If your young person is missing any items, please ask them to check at reception. Items that have been unclaimed since February will be donated to charity if not collected before the Easter holidays. It is helpful if all items can be named.

3G Pitch fundraising

We are holding a fundraising meeting for our 3G pitch bid on Monday 27^th March at 3pm in school. Thank you to those who have offered to help with this. If anyone else is able to offer any support with our fundraising, please reply to this email.

National Youth Orchestra Inspire Day – 2^nd April

Attached is information about The NYO Inspire Orchestra Day at Silverdale School on Sunday 2^nd April. This is a free programme open to young musicians who would like the opportunity to develop their orchestral playing.

Hope Valley Adventure Film Festival (HVAFF)

Taking place at Hope Valley College on Saturday 25 March 2023, the Hope Valley adventure Film Festival will see the best in adventure films, as well as a range of family-friendly activities. For tickets and more information, go to the website at www.hvaff.co.uk

All the money raised by the Hope Valley Adventure Film Festival goes to Hope Valley College, and the proceeds are spent on facilities and equipment for the students. If you would like to help out, we would love to hear from you - please email PTFAhv@hopevalley.chorustrust.org 

Job Vacancies

We currently have a vacancy for an Assistant Cook to join our friendly kitchen team. Hours are 7.30am – 2.15pm Monday to Friday. We are also recruiting for a Teacher of Maths and a Teacher of Humanities. For more information and to download an application form, please visit our website: Vacancies - Hope Valley College (hopevalley-chorustrust.org)

Thank you for reading our communication. Here are some helpful email addresses, should you need to contact us:   attendance@hopevalley.chorustrust.org to report a child’s absence enquiries@hopevalley.chorustrust.org for general enquiries pastoral@hopevalley.chorustrust.org for any issue with a child’s wellbeing principal@hopevalley.chorustrust.org to contact the Principal safeguarding@hopevalley.chorustrust.org to report safeguarding concerns. If a child or any young person is in imminent danger, then please report this to the police.   Kind regards Gaynor Jones Principal, Hope Valley College T: 01433 620555