Headteacher’s Message
It has been a very busy term at Royds and we are continuing to work
hard to improve the school and make it the best possible learning
experience for our students. We are delighted to introduce our first
newsletter, designed to keep students and parents informed of the
fantastic achievements and exciting opportunities that are happening
at Royds. With so much going on, it can only ever be a snapshot of our
school life, but the new website, Twitter feed and Facebook page will
help keep everyone up to date. I hope you enjoy finding out about
what makes Royds a special place to work and learn.
Alicia is off to Rio!
We had brilliant news in February when Royds student, Alica Blagg,
qualified for the summer Olympics in Rio. She will represent Team
GB with her partner Rebecca Gallantree in the 3m Syncro Diving.
They were in a strong position after winning gold in the 3m Syncro at
the English National Cup in January. Alicia also won silver in her
individual event. They finally qualified in February in an Olympic Test
Event. It’s testament to Alicia’s hard work and dedication and we’re
incredibly proud and excited to see her compete in the summer.
William Wins Young Archaeologist of the Year
William Fakes (Year 8) is a founding member of the Leeds Young
Archaeologists’ Club. He has overcome a number of personal difficulties to
pursue his love of archaeology. William's award, which was accompanied by
a cheque for £250, was part of the Marsh Awards for Community
Archaeology and is given to a young person (or group of young people) who
makes an outstanding contribution to community archaeology. Well done
William!
Football Tour to Holland
During February half term, 30 Year 9 and 10 students went on a
football tour to Holland. They played two games against Dutch
opposition, took in a tour of Amsterdam Arena, a day at a theme park
plus entertainment such as ten pin bowling and a Dutch league game.
Year 9 Players’ Player - Lewis Wood, Year 9 Coaches’ Player - Kayden
Henry, Year 10 Players’ Player - Harrison Jones, Year 10 Coaches’
Player - Sam Pears, Clubman of Tour - Frankie Houlgate, Golden Boot Jacob Bues and Jack Bratton (3 each).
Go, Go, Go Joseph!
Rock Challenge
“Joseph and the Amazing Technicoloured Dreamcoat” was performed on
Tuesday 9th, Wednesday 10th and Thursday 11th February, which
included a matinee performance to local primary schools. Students from
Year 7 to Year 13 participated in the production with lead roles being
played by Matthew Pearce as Joseph, Ben Pallister as Pharaoh and
Lauren Crawford, Abigail Morris and Zoe Lister as the Narrators. Students
had been rehearsing for “Joseph” since October and we’re all very proud
of them and the fantastic show they put on.
After the success of last year’s
ensemble reaching the Northern
finals, we are really excited about
this year’s event. This takes place
on Wednesday 27th April at
Magna, Science Museum,
Rotherham. Tickets are available
from the venue.
New Student Leaders
After a successful launch of the Student Executive last year and to provide a
forum for students to share and discuss their views about the school, a
Student Council has been established and recently expanded. We now have a
Head Boy, Ben Pallister, and Head Girl, Katie Lamond. They are supported by a
team of Post 16 Ambassadors who are attached to each year group. Each year
group has two Student Executive representatives who applied for their role
and were interviewed by Mr Faulkner and Mrs Vale. They are supported by
the Form Representatives who were elected by the forms and we look
forward to hearing their views and ideas on how we can continue to make the
school a better place to work and learn.
Student of the Week
We are very proud of everything our
students achieve and wanted to
celebrate when they exemplify the
school values; respect, resilience and
responsibility. Each form tutor
nominates a student every week. One
is selected for a £10 shopping
voucher. We’ll then draw one from all
the nominations to be student of the
term who will win £50 of shopping
vouchers.
29/01/16
Millie Ashman
05/02/16
Callum Grainger
12/02/16
Jake Ashcroft
26/02/16
Leoni Zanetti
04/03/16
Evie Longley
11/03/16
Sophie Nuttall
18/03/16
Joe Ambler
Royds Gets Reading
Our school library is a popular resource, used by all students with
3,600 books borrowed from the library in the past four months!
Students are encouraged to post a review on our Reading Cloud
and recommend books to others. We are also running our “16
before you're 16” challenge to encourage students to tackle
challenging literary greats before they leave school. Next term,
“Stop, Drop and Read” will return for Years 7, 8 and 9. Let's see if
we can hit 5,000 books by half term!
Summer Term Staff Changes
We’re sad to be saying goodbye to Mrs Bate, Mrs Hobbs, Mrs
Hodge and Mrs Rowbottom in April and would like to wish them
luck for their new roles. We will be joined by Mrs McGibbon as
Deputy Head of Maths, Miss Hamlyn in Drama and Miss Moffatt as
an English Intervention Leader. Mrs Robbins will join us in May as
Deputy Headteacher. It’s been a busy time recruiting and we’re
very excited by these appointments and the staff we’ve appointed
to join us in September.
Year 9 and 10 Interview Day
Our Guidance Professional, Mr Proctor, arranged interview
days for our Year 9 and 10 students. All students were able to
select from a list of “vacancies,” wrote an application for the
post, were interviewed and given feedback by real employers.
Thank you to parents, governors and the local employers who
gave up their time to give our students such an invaluable
opportunity and learning experience.
Safer Internet Day
Our safeguarding focus this term has been online safety. This has, amongst other things, seen us take part in
Safer Internet Day and our Network Manager and Safeguarding Team ran online safety sessions for parents. Our
Network Manager is now a CEOP accredited online safety ambassador. Students have been taught how to keep
themselves safe and to report anything that they are not comfortable with. There are two buttons on the top of
our website: one is CEOP and the other is our Tell Us button. CEOP will report concerns to the police and the Tell
Us button can be used to report anything that a student is worried about, confidentially, to school staff.
Year 10 Focus Day
We were joined by members of the local community to
inspire and motivate Year 10 in the run up to their exams
with their real life success stories. There were sessions on
study skills, stress management, getting back on track and
self-esteem. Lloyds Bank spoke about future planning and
Bradford College on preparing for higher education and
Premier League referee, Bobby Madley spoke about
resilience and motivation. Thank you to everyone who gave
their time to this special event.
Rotary Young Citizen
It was brilliant night for Royds at
the Rotary Young Citizen which
recognises young peoples’
outstanding contribution to their
community. Three of our students
were among the 28 winners. Well
done to Sophie Hague, Melissa
Hague and Sophie Christian!
Attendance
All students must aim to maintain an
attendance rate of a minimum of 95%.
Parents / carers can help by:
 ringing on the first morning of all
absences with the reason and
saying when the child will return;
 arranging dental and medical
appointments out of school hours
or during school breaks;
 sending a note explaining the
reason for absence on your child's
return to school after an illness;
 keeping us updated by telephone
or letter if your child has an
extended period of absence due to
illness;
 letting us know if there are issues
arising in school that you think are
affecting your child's attendance
Easter attendance challenge!
Every student who had 100%
attendance during the last two
weeks of term were given a
Creme Egg. In the end, we
ordered over 650 eggs so
congratulations to those who
achieved this!
This is the first of our attendance
challenges. Well done and thank
you to all of those who have
great attendance.
DfE research showed that only 3% of
students whose attendance is less than
50%, manage to achieve five or more
GCSEs at grades A* to C including Maths
and English. This compares to 73% of
students with over 95% attendance,
who achieve this standard.
Missing one or two days a week
may not seem like much but it
adds up…
98% attendance is missing fewer
than 4 days per year
95% attendance means missing
fewer than 10 days a year.
Missing one day a fortnight (90%)
means you actually miss:
20 days per year
4 weeks per year
½ a year of school between Y7-Y11
Missing one day a week (80%)
means you actually miss:
40 days per year
8 weeks per year
1 year of school between Y7-Y11
Missing two days a week (60%)
means you actually miss:
80 days per year
16 weeks per year
2 years of school between Y7-Y11
Missing three days a week (40%)
means you actually miss:
120 days per year
24 weeks per year
3 years of school between Y7-Y11
Food Bank Thank You
Coming Up
Before Christmas, we held a food bank drive linked to the Royds Values:
respect, resilience and responsibility. We were overwhelmed by your
generosity and we donated over half a ton of food to the Trussel Trust.
18th April: School opens
16th May: Public exams begin
27th May: Close for half term
6th June: Term starts
20th June: Mock exams Y7 and Y8
27th June: New timetable begins
27th June: Pre-public exams
30th June: Y11 Prom
1st July: Y10 Taster day
4th July: Mock exams Y9 and Y10
11th July: Summer Soiree
11th July: Art Exhibition
12th July: Sports day (14th reserve)
22nd July: End of term
New Website, Facebook and Twitter
We want to improve the way that we get information to
parents and so we have developed a new website. There is a
lot more information available and we will develop this
further over the coming months. We are also publishing
news, reminders and student success stories on Facebook
(search roydsschool) and on Twitter (@roydsschool) so please
follow us!