Welcome to our new parents and carers newsletter, which we are going to be sending out fortnightly during the school closure. There is lots of information and updates coming out, and we thought an email round up might be helpful for families to make sure you don’t miss any news, especially if you’re not on social media. If you have any feedback or suggestions for this newsletter, please feel free to email publish@rvhschool.co.uk.
If you only take away one message from today’s newsletter it’s this one: you’re doing great! We’ve all been thrown into a very new and strange situation, one which none of us asked to be in and for which we all had very little time to prepare. We are so proud of our families and for the huge effort you have made to adapt to the school closure whilst dealing with different and often difficult circumstances.
We’re all in the same storm, but we understand that we are not all in the same boat, and there are many extra challenges facing some of our community - work, financial, health issues, and just the different ways we as individuals are coping with the crisis. Whatever you’re dealing with, whether you are thriving or surviving, please be reassured that it’s ok.
We have asked our Form Tutors and pastoral team to check in personally with every family at Ryburn over the next couple of weeks just to see how you are getting on and whether you need any support. If you get a phone call, please don’t feel we are ‘checking up’ on you or that we have any cause for concern - we just want to keep in touch and make sure our students are doing ok.
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Assembly @ Home
We’re really missing that face to face content with our students, and I’m sure they are too. Our Heads of Year have each recorded a short video message to their year groups - a kind of mini-assembly. If our students like these, we’ll do this again in a couple of weeks time.
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Home Learning
A big thank you to all the students for all their hard work on their home learning over the last few weeks since our school closed. Thank you to our parents and carers for supporting our students and encouraging them to complete the work set. We recognise that this looks different for all of you, the amount of time and resources you have to support home study, and the different learning styles or levels of motivation amongst your children.
Our Home Learning materials are designed to keep students’ brains active and occupied, and provide structure and focus to your days, and keep you in touch with teachers. We’re super impressed by the work you are putting in, but we also wanted to acknowledge that it’s hard for some of you for various reasons. Please don’t stress about getting it *all* done if it feels too much, but try to regularly spend *some* time on it, as it will really help you.
We suggest 2-3 hours per day if you can, along with plenty of self-care, fun and daily exercise. We have built in a catch-up / extension / well-being week into week 5 to break up the half-term and try to help our students keep up with the pace given their other demands. If your child is struggling, then please email their Head of Year or Head of Department and they will let staff know and contact you to discuss any additional support. Click here for a list of key staff emails.
A big thank you to our staff who have been working hard setting and assessing work, and those in school on our rota for key worker and vulnerable students. Teachers are also available by email to support any student who is having difficulty completing the work set.
Students' tech projects (BBQ, Candle holders) & self-directed ones (Stone-painting and Table-making) Nice work everyone!
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Ryburn Help From Home
A group of students led by our school Ambassador and Radio Ryburn podcast host Will Turner, have launched #RyburnHelpFromHome, an online fundraiser, raising money for the NHS Charities and the Trussell Trust food banks. They managed to persuade our teachers to go on camera doing some very silly things, as a reward for reaching donation targets.
Would you like to see Ms Bozzo try the #stupidsmoothie challenge? We just need to raise another £20 to hit that goal. You can donate here: www.justgiving.com/team/ryburn
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Doddle
Look out for an email this week about our new online resource “Doddle”. Some of our Departments will be setting work using this site so all students need to ensure they can log on and access the resources. Maths will set a small task in Week 5 so students can practice logging on and ensure the site is working. Parents and carers can set up a parental account to monitor progress and access additional resources. See the email for instructions and tech help.
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Year 11 – Ryburn Sixth Update
We are sorry that your guidance meeting with a Senior Member of Staff had to be postponed in March. However, despite these difficulties, we were very happy to be able to offer large numbers of you a conditional place at Ryburn Sixth for September 2020. Any offer is subject to you achieving our general entry requirements of five GCSE passes at Grade 4 or above, including English Language or Mathematics. Please note that some Post-16 subjects also have additional entry requirements, and entry into Ryburn Sixth will be dependent on a positive character reference from Mrs Clements.
If you would like to make a late application to Ryburn Sixth, this can still be done at: www.ryburnsixth.co.uk. If you made an application but have ultimately made a different choice, please let us know.
Ryburn Sixth is a high achieving and extremely successful Sixth Form, with students achieving places on some of the most competitive university courses in the country. We spend a significant amount of time ensuring that your courses are the very best choice for you. For those who are unsure of their final subject choices, we hope to be able to hold our deferred guidance meetings as soon as school reopens.
We are forecast to have record numbers joining us in September of both Ryburn and external students, and we are planning expansion of both our social and study facilities over the summer. Students are choosing to come to Ryburn Sixth because of the support we provide our students pastorally and academically, as well as our proven strong results and convenient location. We're looking forward to welcoming so many of you back to Ryburn soon!
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Home Learning for Year 11
In the meantime, in the Home Learning resources on our website, you will find plenty of transition work designed to help with your preparation for A-levels and BTECS. In addition you may want to take part in a MOOC, for example www.futurelearn.com has some interesting courses available.
If you have any questions about Ryburn Sixth before school reopens, please don't hesitate to contact Mrs Brenchley at R.Brenchley@rvhschool.co.uk
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Ramadan At Home
Ramadan Mubarak! We’re thinking of all our students and staff who are observing Ramadan at the moment.
Well done to Ahmad Ali in Year 10 who, along with a friend, has pledged to run 100km to raise money for charity during Ramadan. They are fundraising for Islamic Help, a charity that helps some of the poorest people around the world, and in the UK. If anyone would like to donate, you can do so here. There's some extra challenges to observing Ramadan at the moment whilst staying safe at home. There is some excellent advice here on how to adapt your Ramadan, including studying at home and virtual iftars, and some advice from Young Minds here on looking after your mental health during Ramadan this year.
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Additional Support Available
There’s no shame in struggling. It is an extremely challenging time for most of us at the moment and we all may need help and support at times. The Coronavirus pandemic will impact each of us in a different way.
Here’s some tips from an educational psychologist that might help. You can also check out the tips and links on our Wellbeing page.
Students may be feeling anxious and uncertain because of not seeing their friends, peers and teachers and due to the loss of routine.
Routines and structure can help, for example with getting up, mealtimes etc. It helps them if they do the same thing at the same time each day.
They need a healthy balance between learning, down time, connecting with friends, exercise and may benefit from buddying up on school work (peer group learning).
Bear in mind they are suffering the loss of their usual way of life so be flexible as well - if they need time away from the structure this is OK too!
Connection is what matters most, the most powerful therapy is human love.
Please don’t be embarrassed to contact your child’s Head of Year if you or your child needs any pastoral support now or in the future.
Healthy Futures Calderdale have produced a great resource listing all sorts of places to get support, including wellbeing, health, bereavement and more.
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Creative Writing Competition
Could you uplift someone – with your words?
We are taking part in a Calderdale schools writing competition, with prizes of up to £100. Open to all students, the competition asks for creative writing, either prose or poetry of 25, 250 or 750 words. Your writing may have any theme; it can be scary, sad, funny, inspirational or anything you want but it must have a ‘happy ending’ and/or positive message.
RYBURN DEADLINE: 11AM WEDNESDAY 6 MAY 2020
EMAIL YOUR ENTRIES TO: PUBLISH@RVHSCHOOL.CO.UK
Read more about it and some tips and ideas here.
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Ryburn “Acts of Kindness” Season
On school social media we have been celebrating the work of students and they have been keeping us informed on how they have been spending their time during lockdown. It is wonderful to see how they have been demonstrating acts of kindness by raising money for the NHS, sending homemade cards to neighbours and donating their pocket money to Captain Tom Moore’s fundraising campaign.
Zack shares his food tech afternoon tea with neighbours, PPE for the valley made in school by Mr Hirst and his sons
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Home Learning Stars
We’ve received so many great pieces of work that our students have been working on at home. Here's just a handful. Keep up the great work!
Credits: Grace Normanton-Aldridge and Thomas Brandon's French, George Gradon and Ben Nuttall's RS, Maisie Hibbert's History, Phoebe Wright's IMedia, Madeleine G's Science, Macbeth texts in English
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We hope you found this newsletter useful. Look out for another update in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, keep an eye on our social media channels to keep in touch. You can find us on social media. Many of our departments are on Facebook too - type 'RVHS' into the search bar on Facebook to find them.