Principal's update 12 January 2024

I hope you all had a good break over Christmas. It was lovely to welcome students back to school on Monday and we have had a very positive first week. Year 9 found out more about the Options process in a series of assemblies, with more to follow. Year 11 began small group revision and intervention sessions on Thursday morning, whilst Year 10 have been preparing for their mock exams which begin next week.

I wrote to parents and carers of students in Years 7-11 earlier this week, regarding attendance. Our communication with you regarding your young person’s attendance is intended to be supportive, so that we may work together with families to understand barriers to attendance and find solutions where possible. Thank you for your continued support to ensure that students attend school every day.

We would like to remind you of our procedures in the event of adverse weather conditions being forecast or experienced across our local area. We aim to open as usual every school day, however in the event of adverse weather we will follow our school procedures.

 Please be aware that: 

• weather conditions are monitored on an ongoing basis and the site is checked regularly to take account of changing conditions.
• we will use the school website, Derbyshire County Council website, emails and text message alerts to parents and relevant social media platforms to communicate any changes in our usual arrangements.

Please do not ring school to enquire regarding status – it is open unless the website, school social media channels and email alerts say it is not.  In the event of school being closed, or an early closure, we will use email and text message to send notifications and to communicate with parents and our website and social medial channels will be updated. In the event of a school closure during the day, students will leave site using their normal means of transport and will be signed out. We politely ask parents not to contact their young person directly as this can cause confusion.

In making any decision regarding change to our usual arrangements, we are mindful of the health and safety of all concerned as well as understanding of the difficulties families may have in terms of planning in advance, finding childcare etc.  We will do our very best to make sure that any decisions are the right ones given the information available to us at the time and that they are communicated to you as soon as practically possible.  We are sure that you will also have contingency plans in place – let’s hope that we don’t have to use them!

Parents need to make their own judgement regarding the safety of their young person’s journey to and from school. Thank you for your support and cooperation.

What’s going on in school:

• Our Christmas Bazaar raised a fantastic £622 for our chosen charities. Well done to all involved – a great effort!

• Our fantastic programme of extra-curricular activities has been updated for this term. Please share this with your young person and encourage them to speak to the member of staff organising the activity if they would like to get involved.
• Year 11 began small group revision and intervention sessions on Thursday morning. These will continue each week. If you have any questions regarding these sessions, please contact Mr Beeden.
• Rehearsals continue for our production of We Will Rock you. Tickets will go on sale in the next couple of weeks, so watch this space!

• Our Sports Leaders helped to run another fantastic Primary Event for our local schools. The children thoroughly enjoyed the basketball tournament and the Sports Leaders were excellent - such great role models and a credit to the school. They did particularly well with refereeing, scoring and setting up the tournament. 

• Y9 drama students have started to learn about John Godber and his iconic style of theatre. This group particularly enjoyed the physical theatre aspect and playing around with the audience perspective to create this illusion. Well done 9E for an excellent lesson. 

• Sergey (Y10) has achieved his first adult belt in Jiu Jitsu at the age of 14!! As Sergey was presented with the belt, the Master said, “He works very hard and is very skilled. It is a pleasure to have him with us.” Sergey has also been asked to help tutor less advanced members – most of whom are twice his age. A fantastic achievement!

• Following our donations to the Chesterfield Foodbank, organised by our Young Hope Leaders, we received the following letter of thanks:

Y10 Mock Exams The Y10 mock exams begin on Monday 15 January and will run until Friday 26 January.  Students have been handed their statement of entry this week which details when and where their exams will be held.  If required, exam pencil cases can be purchased for £2.30 via ParentPay and collected from Reception. The mock exam timetable can be accessed using the following link: Exams - Hope Valley College (hopevalley-chorustrust.org) Y10 English Literature assessment Y10 have their English Literature assessment on A Christmas Carol at 9am on Monday morning. Please use GCSEPod and the revision materials on Teams to support them in their revision.  Y9 options This is the start of an important period for our Year 9 students as they start to think about the courses they will study in Year 10 and 11, and their future education and career paths after they leave Hope Valley College.  This is the ‘options’ process and over the next few months we will be working with Year 9 students to help them to make the right subject choices for their future. We have started the process this week with a launch assembly that will be followed by a series of assemblies outlining the different courses that we offer to our students.  An email has been sent out separately with more information, including a questionnaire for students and details about the 'Options Evening' on Thursday 25 January. ATL reports Next week students will be given a paper copy of their Attitude to Learning report (ATL).  This report will also be available on the ‘Arbor Parent’ app. We have sent out details about how to log into the app earlier this term, please contact the school if you require any further support. Information about ATL can be found on our website here: Attitude to Learning - Hope Valley College (hopevalley-chorustrust.org)  PE this Term As part of our Fitness unit in PE this term, all fitness lessons next week will be cross-country running. This will be run as an inter-house event, which means it will have a competitive element. However, it will also be organised as an inclusive, fun, challenge event too. For boys PE this will be their first lesson of the week, for girls PE this will be the second lesson of the week.  Students should bring the following: trainers for muddy, wet conditions (football boots, spikes or fell running trainers are ideal) plastic bag to carry their wet/muddy kit after the lesson towel if students want to wash their feet in the showers warm outdoor PE kit (HVC Rugby top or plain black top - possible gloves if cold weather continues) KS4 only - students can use headphones if they take full responsibility for them during the run Students without the correct kit will be issued with a negative or detention accordingly. WWRY Rehearsals This is the WWRY Rehearsal schedule for this week. The whole term schedule will be sent home at early next week.   Lunch Rehearsal  Location Who After school  Location Timing Who 15/01/2024 Mon A Who wants to live forever  Drama Galileo and Scaramouche Act 1 Scene 6 Drama 3:30-5:00 Scaramouche, Galileo, Brit and Oz 16/01/2024 Tuesd A               17/01/2024 Weds A Dance rehearsals Drama Dancers NO REHEARSAL NO REHEARSAL NO REHEARSAL NO REHEARSAL 18/01/2024 Thurs A 12:50pm:  Bohemian Rhapsody Music  Whole cast         19/01/2024 FriA Act 2 Scene 6 Drama Galileo, Scaramouche, Buddy Ensemble scenes - Act 1 scene 7 and 2 Scene 6 Drama 3:30-5:00 All cast  PTFA meeting – Tuesday 16 January The PTFA will be holding a general meeting on Tuesday 16 January at the Old Hall tearooms in Hope from 8-9pm. They plan to go over fundraising events for this year. All welcome. 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