Holy Trinity Catholic School

A partner in the St Teresa of Calcutta MAC

Learn to Love. Love to Learn.

 Dream. Believe. Achieve.

Update for parents and carers: Friday 24^th November 2023 – Thursday 1^st February 2024

At Holy Trinity we remain committed to the fulfilment of our school’s Mission Statement:

‘Holy Trinity Catholic School serves the local community; Christ is at the centre of our school and our greatest example. Our school is a place where uniqueness and diversity is celebrated and respected because we know and believe that we are united as children of God and created in His image. Through acts of love and learning, we grow in knowledge and spirituality, we are inspired to become successful citizens and are understanding, compassionate and loving to all of humanity’.

We continue to pray for peace in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa and all around our world.

Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi (Prayer for Peace)

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life

Amen

The first Sunday of Advent is on 3^rd December:

On Sunday 3^rd December, we begin the Holy Season of Advent. This is a special time of spiritual preparation and great anticipation as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas.  In Jesus, hearts are changed and forming a relationship with him is the path to building peace on earth. The path of peace, is what Jesus put us on when he came to us as a baby in a stable in Bethlehem. Advent is a time for us to contemplate how we can contribute to peace on earth through the love of neighbour and of all human beings. Advent is a time to celebrate that Jesus is coming again to save our world with his perfect love and justice.  We wish all of our school community a very blessed Advent season.

Ofsted Inspection Update:

We remain immensely proud of our recent Ofsted inspection outcome. Amongst many pleasing statements in the final published report, the following words bring a very special joy:

 ‘Pupils experienced a truly inclusive and holistic education at Holy Trinity. They have exceptional opportunities to develop their interests and talents’. Pupils express great appreciation for the opportunities which help them grow into caring and responsible people’.

At Holy Trinity, we aim to educate the ‘whole’ child believing that true personal development comes in a variety of forms including through the spiritual, social, emotional, moral, physical, cultural and academic progress of all young people. Our suggested target for future development is both reasonable and achievable. We aspire to be an elite school that achieves ‘exceptional’ examination outcomes for all groups of learners on a ‘consistent’ basis. A reminder that paper copies of the report are available upon request at reception. Thank you once again for your support throughout this very successful process.

Curriculum Update: Mrs Henvey

Introduction of Further Maths:

A group of high achieving mathematicians from Year 9 and Year 10 have been selected to cover the AQA Level 2 Further Maths Certificate with Ms McCarthy and Mr Shaw. This is a fantastic opportunity for these students to not only further their mathematical knowledge into brand new topics, but also test and consolidate the skills they are learning at KS3 and GCSE (for Year 10).The sessions are run before school on Tuesdays and Thursdays and after school on Tuesday. Year 10 students will hopefully be sitting their exam for this additional qualification at the end of the year. Year 9 students will be sitting the exam a year later. Pupil attendance so far has been exceptional. Pupils are turning up consistently on time and putting in maximum effort on new and more challenging concepts. The intention is that every year the highest achieving maths students will be invited to these sessions as they enter Year 9 to nurture this positive culture of high achievement.

Holy Trinity is committed to developing high levels of pupil literacy and oracy:

• Please access the following document from the ‘Reading’ tab on this website: ‘Guide for parents to support students with reading at home’.School expectations for reading and suggested reading lists for KS3 are included within this document.
• There is a MAC ‘Secondary Debate Competition’ against Archbishop Ilsley scheduled for this last week in November. 10 Holy Trinity pupils from years 7-11 are competing and aiming to return triumphant!

• ‘Secret Book Saint’: all students in Year 7 will be leaving for their Christmas break with a book present, thanks to generous donations from staff and friends of the school.
• January will be a ‘Reading Focus Month’ in school. Pupils should be encouraged to read at home to support this. There will be special events and competitions throughout the month to encourage an even greater love of reading. The parent guide on our website has tips on how this can be nurtured and encouraged in the home.

Year 9 Options Process:

Holy Trinity will be offering 16 different option subjects to Year 9 pupils this year alongside Maths, English Literature, English Language, RE and Science. All pupils will also study discreet PSD and Core PE. Pupils will follow one of four guided pathways based on their areas of interest and personal strengths. All pupils will have at least one free choice and will receive extensive guidance. Some pupils will be encouraged to take Spanish and either History or Geography to ensure that they have an opportunity to leave school with the EBACC qualification. All decisions about pathways are continually reviewed. Current Year 10 pupils are making strong progress in their options with the vast majority following the pathway they were originally assigned. More details will be available in the new year when we have an exciting ‘Options Week’ followed by Year 9 Parents Evening.

Extra-curricular and enrichment provision:

What a term we have had so far in terms of extra-curricular and enrichment opportunities both in and out of school! In addition to a wide range of sports clubs both during and after school, there are many additional clubs including Ethics, Active Citizenship, KS3 Science, Debating, Chess, History, Computer Aided Design and Musical band group. We are also looking forward to a visiting group coming into school in February to deliver some Drama workshops to Years 7, 8 and 9. This is in response to feedback from our wonderful pupils and a desire for school to reinstate Performing Arts / Drama to its already extensive Creative Arts curriculum offer.

Year 10 and 11 were visited by Rohan from ‘Positively You’ who delivered motivational workshops and sessions looking at study skills. In addition, Miss Hancock returned as a vocal coach to work with our wonderful choir and we hosted sporting events for Birmingham Primary Schools. In terms of trips, Year 10 tried some canoeing at the Ackers, some of our Year 10 girls visited Collins Aerospace, Year 7 and 8 boys visited Birmingham University for a sporting event, our Year 11 Citizenship group visited the Houses of Parliament, Year 7 attended a city wide Maths Challenge at St Edmund Campion and we had a group of boys attending a Boys Transition Festival at Nechells Wellbeing Centre.

We have had multiple rewards trips to the cinema and another for our established Family Learning group. Year 9 visited HSBC in the city centre to look at all of the careers on offer and our Year 10 Engineers visited MAKE UK leaving with aspirations of becoming Engineers. These wonderful events have run alongside our existing and successful Forward Thinking and Envision programmes. We have lots more events on the horizon including a Year 7 and Year 8 spiritual retreat and a Year 9 trip to Barcelona!  Please check the website and the latest news tab for regular updates and photos from these super events.

Year 9 ‘Envision’ programme:

A big shout out to the following pupils who are taking part in the Envision programme: Dominic Araba, Inaya Khan, Hanna Bashir, Abbigail Bucur, Abir Rahman, Kiera O’Dell, Kenneth Takyi Kofi, Morgan Hodan, Iyaz Shahzad, Zaamin Ali, Gamal Yafai Clarke and Rehaan Khan. Pupils have shown commitment and dedication to their chosen cause which is to celebrate diversity. Pupils meet weekly with their mentor and attend regular sessions with AtkinsRealis a top engineering company based in the City Centre. We will look forward to pupil presentations in January.

Sports Update:

It has been a very busy and successful start to this academic years sporting fixtures.

Girls Netball

Year 9: beat Yardley’s 10-1

Year 8: beat Yardley’s 5-0 and achieved 1^st place in the Central Birmingham Partnership Competition

Girls football

• Year 7/8: beat St Albans 3-1
• Year 7/8: achieved 3^rd  place in Eden Tournament
• Year 7/8: achieved 2^nd  place in St Albans tournament
• Year 7/8: achieved 2^nd  place in U13s Utilita Cup at Birmingham City Football Club

Boys Football

• Year 9: achieved 2^ndplace at Central Birmingham 7 a side tournament.
• Year 8: have enjoyed a very positive start to their football season playing 3 games and winning all of them beating Small Heath 3-1, Waverley 2-0 and Yardley’s 2-0.

Boys Badminton

KS3: achieved 1^st place in Central Birmingham Partnership Badminton tournament.

Boys Basketball:

Year 10: beat Yardley’s 26-20

Holy Trinity organises its latest ‘Primary School Games’ event:

On Tuesday 14^th November, Holy Trinity hosted its first Primary school event of this academic year. Year 6 students from Holy Souls, St Anne’s, St Vincent’s, St Joseph’s and The Rosary competed in a Basketball competition to become winners of the ‘Holy Trinity Cup’!  A huge well done to all involved and to our winners St Vincent’s! Year 9 and Year 10 Holy Trinity Sports Leaders also showed excellent officiating and scoring skills throughout the afternoon and helped make the afternoon a big success! A very well-done to all involved!

All of our pupils deserve access to a full, balanced and exciting curriculum and we believe that all youngsters are getting this at Holy Trinity. Recent Ofsted inspection validated Personal Development and Careers provision at Holy Trinity as ‘Outstanding’. Thank you for your continued support and encouragement of our extensive extra-curricular and enrichment

Year 11 update:

It has been a great start to the external tutoring programme with My Tutor. We have 109 pupils in Year 11 taking part in this National Tutoring Programme, which equates to over 1700 additional lessons across 10 weeks. This is a Department for Education (DFE) regulated programme, with highly trained tutors who deliver superb one to one sessions to the pupils. Attendance to extra sessions has been excellent, with some very good feedback so far. There will be further opportunities for additional tutoring as the academic year progresses, with a 6 week Year 11 ‘booster’ before the exam period, and other programmes commencing in Year 9 and 10 in the new year. Internal extra tuition in Year 11 will start in school from Monday 29^th January, following the mock exams, with intervention from teachers in their specialist subjects. We will also have study support workshops to support revision before the mocks begin in January. Alongside high quality classroom teaching, this work will support our intention to consistently achieve ‘exceptional outcomes’ for ‘all groups of learners’.

Well-done to the following recently elected Year 11 Senior Prefect Team:

Head Boy: Nathan James

Head Girl: Fatima Jamil

Deputy Head Boy: Esa Sharrock

Deputy Head Girls: Kyah Rosser and Maisha Hussain

Assistant Head Girls: Bella Sandhar, Saima Mahmud and Tayyba Talat.

Senior Prefects: Pranav Bharathi, Aleena Khan and Tanjia Ahmed

Prefect team: Vy Chim, Zayne Amin, Haameem Ahmed, Zahra Imran, Sebastian Tatu, Zoya Adil, Zahra Akhtar, Ibrahim Fazeel, Hamzah Khan, Jarin Begum, Samya Stephens, Tiona Crossfield & Zaheen Bhuniya.

Safeguarding update from Mrs Daw (Deputy Headteacher):

Promoting positive mental health and wellbeing:

At Holy Trinity, we strive to promote good mental health and wellbeing for our whole community: students, staff, parents and carers. We aim to develop protective factors by being a community in which all are respected, have a sense of belonging and feel safe, are able to talk openly with trusted adults and see good mental health as something to be valued and nurtured. If parents and carers are worried about their child’s mental health and wellbeing, we would always suggest a discussion with the family GP. School also hosts a weekly visit from our school nurse and parents and students can seek support by contacting the Medical lead – Mrs Donnelly.  Additional information is available for parents and carers via the school website where useful signposting to support agencies (such as Kooth, School Nurse virtual drop in, Pause) can be found.  For further information click on the following link.  https://holytrc.com/parents/exam-anxiety/

Developing and understanding risks of the online world:

We would like to remind parents and carers of the importance of monitoring the digital usage of their children. This includes use of the internet and social media usage. Whilst there are many advantages to the internet, there are many clear dangers with social media and the unregulated use of a number of apps and websites, including gaming sites which are in existence and are not safe for young people, leaving children at risk of communicating with strangers, being exploited and or groomed online. The school curriculum focusses carefully on teaching children about online safety and the importance of ‘digital civility’ and appropriate and safe behaviours. Complemented with close parental monitoring and supervision, this supports safe social media and internet usage outside of school.  On our school website, there are several resources to support parents and carers with understanding how they can keep their children safe in this digital age. School regularly hosts both online and face-to-face sessions for parents and carers and we would urge all parents to sign up to these. Feedback from parents about their learning from these sessions (see the school website) is extremely positive. Additional info is available at the following link. https://holytrc.com/esafety/

Food bank and support with food parcels:

School is fortunate to have sourced regular donations of food and toiletries delivered via an external company. If you would benefit from support in this area, please contact your child’s Head of Year in the first instance. School is also able to offer signposting and referrals into to Early Help and Support as part of Birmingham Children’s Trust. Please contact your child’s Head of year in the first instance.

A reminder of a key safety message during darker nights:

Due to the increased risks posed by the darker mornings and evenings, we are strongly advising that pupils do not hang around at local shops or parks and come into school straight away in the morning and go straight home at the end of the school day. Parental support in reinforcing this key message is very important. We thank you in advance for your support with this.

A request for parents and carers to park and drop off with care and the start and the end of the school day. We are working with the local community and West Midlands police to ensure that our children and staff can enter and exit the premises safely and request that parents park with courtesy and continue to be patient and understanding of this situation as we all endeavour to support one another as best as possible.

Holy Trinity is a ‘Safe School’:

All children have the right to be safe inside and outside of school. At the heart of our school ethos are the core values of ‘Respect’, ‘Tolerance’ and ‘Equality’. Being made in God’s image we should ‘Learn to love and love to learn’ in order to be the best we can be and to affect positively the lives of others and society in general. We are creating the next generation of pupils who are leaders, who know right from wrong and are able to develop a clear sense of responsibility and morale purpose in their decisions and actions- those who can be the voice and hand of good and the voice of the voiceless. We remind our parents and carers that if they have any concerns around the safety of their children in school to please contact either your child’s Head of Year or a member of the Designated Safeguarding Team (DSL team).

Inclusion update from Mrs Sian (Assistant Headteacher):

The Drexel Centre is now in its second year of opening and has remained a busy and positive provision for our students. We continue to welcome the services of our outside agencies for their outstanding support and training provided to our staff. We enjoyed our first coffee morning with all our external agencies, a great morning of meeting parents and sharing information. We are always striving to improve the provision, which we provide at Holy Trinity Catholic School and have now extended our provision by providing some Art Therapy for a number of children in the school; this will continue into the New Year. We are also hoping to welcome another specialist into the school to work with some of our Autistic Learners.

Family Learning continues to thrive and we have been excited to welcome some new parents into the group. Thank you to the staff of Drexel and Mrs Teager for all their work in planning wonderful activities for the parents and children.

A reminder of our High Standards and Expectations:

• Pupils are reminded of our ‘no hands’ policy which is in place to protect the safety of all.
• Pupils must have a blazer, tie and shirts to be tucked in at all times.
• Pupils must wear plain black footwear without any coloured logos/laces.
• Pupils will no longer be permitted to arrive to school in their PE Kits, they will have access to specialist Sports Hall facilities for changing.
• Pupils must have a planner/day planner and at least an appropriate pencil case containing essential items such as:
• black/blue pen
• green pen
• pencil
• ruler
• rubber
• Punctuality to form time and lessons must be excellent.
• PE kit must be in line with our Uniform policy, there should be no branding on kits as they must be plain.
• Hoodies are not permitted to be worn, all coats/jackets must be worn on top of blazers.
• Jackets/coats must be plain with no large branding, denim jackets and gilets are not permitted to be worn in School.
• One small set of plain metal stud earrings are acceptable for all pupils but all other piercings and jewellery must be removed. (This follows consultation with Pupil Voice Team. This change to be reviewed in December 2023).
• Hairstyles should be practical, clean and safe. Tramlines, or patterns shaved into hair or eyebrows is not permitted. Extreme hair colours are not permitted.
• During the winter, it is essential that your child wears a suitable waterproof coat for school. As stated, Hoodies are not permitted and should not be worn in place of a suitable outdoor coat. Balaclavas, ski masks, snoods and comparable items of clothing are not permitted. Items will be confiscated if they are seen in school.
• Pupils must be highly organised ensuring homework and other tasks are completed on time when set by their teachers.
• In line with our annual practice, this existing Uniform Policy, is to be reviewed with school stakeholders during the summer term in anticipation of next Academic Year. Please access the full school uniform policy from the front page of this website.
• At Holy Trinity, we are committed to maintaining high standards and are open to changes that may support your child’s positive progress in school.

Attendance and Punctuality Update from Ms Hodson (Assistant Headteacher, Personal Development):

Attendance

We have had a great start to the academic year. Attendance continues to improve with many of our pupils making excellent progress from last year. Year 10 continue to be our best attending year group – well done! Every week we see several form achieving BFLs for attending well- keep up the good work. All pupils are encouraged to maintain high expectations around attendance and aim for 100%. It is never too late to improve! Those who attend school, achieve well and leave with the best GCSE results.  We currently have 70 pupils who are expecting to achieve their bronze attendance award as part of our ‘Going for Gold’ initiative. Fantastic! Those who miss out this time can aim for the 100% in the spring term. As part of our continued work on character education, we expect pupils to be punctual and arrive to school and lessons on time. Parents are reminded that pupils must be in form by 8.30am or they are late. We appreciate your continued support with this, especially as we approach the colder mornings.

A key reminder regarding the impact to learning through absence:

It is a statistical fact at Holy Trinity that our most successful pupils at the end of Year 11 are the pupils who have the very best attendance to school and don’t miss out on specialist teaching. Our intention is for each and every pupil to be in school and achieving a very high quality of education.

‘My Child At School’

We invite you to regularly log into ‘My Child at School’ to monitor how your child is getting on at school. You will find out whether your child is completing homework, receiving any consequences or being awarded positive behaviour points. Pupil timetables, the school calendar and attendance records are also available. Please visit www.mychildatschool.com. The school ID is 11389. The school does not have access to your password information. You can request a new invitation code from home or if you have added an email address to the account you can click ‘forgotten login details’ and follow instructions that will email you the details.

Parental Governor Update: Election / Re-election of Staff Governor:

 Mr Meb Hussain has been a dedicated and committed Parent Governor during these past 3 years and has made a significant contribution to the overall governance of the school being evaluated as ‘exceptional’. In his time of service, Mr Hussain has been a link governor with responsibility to support our schools expansion project and more recently, has been involved with school staff in creating Holy Trinity’s new digital strategy to meet DFE requirements by 2030. Mr Hussain has given up countless hours in service to our school community and has been prepared for this work to take up his evenings, weekends and holidays when important matters have arisen. This role is of course voluntary and unpaid. Mr Hussain’s term of office has come to an end and school is obligated to hold an election process for a candidate to fulfil a new term of 3 years in this position. Mr Hussain is of course eligible to put himself forwards once again should he wish. If any parent would like to nominate themselves for this very privileged position, please return a formal ‘expression of Interest’ by close of play on Friday 15^th December. Expressions of interests to either be returned to reception in envelope addressed to Geraldine McLeish or sent in via email to gmcleish@holytrc.bham.sch.uk

An expression of interest should outline the following:

• A clear commitment to upholding the Catholic ethos and distinct mission of Holy Trinity Catholic School
• A clear commitment to dedicating lots of personal time to prepare for and attend scheduled meetings and having the flexibility to support when matters arise and are unscheduled
• A clear commitment to acting with the upmost professional integrity and with the sole purpose to serve the parent body in its mission to provide the very best education outcomes for all learners
• Any previous experience in being part of governance in a school, another education setting or religious or charitable organisation
• Relevant personal skills and professional experience that can be added to an already ‘exceptional’ governance. Local Governors will welcome expertise from both inside or outside of the education sector.
• Anything else that you feel is applicable in terms of what you can offer this position in what is an exciting post Ofsted journey of continued school improvement for our school

If you would like some additional information please contact Geraldine McLeish using the details identified above. Geraldine can facilitate you having a discussion with the current Chair of Governors if required to support with your decision making. Thank you,

Parent Association Update:

Parent Association organised ‘Food Bank’ to take place in school on Tuesday 12^th December (9.15 – 11.00am). If you are an existing member of our parent association or somebody new who would like to be involved in this important charity work, please email enquiry@holytrc.bham.sch.uk to express an interest and confirm your availability. Thank you.

A regular reminder regarding car parking:

In a regular reminder, it is important to remember, that driving and parking near our Oakley Road entrance / exit point, continues to be highly problematic at drop off and collection times. This is something that we continue to work on with local residents to improve. I encourage parents to continue being patient and understanding of this situation as we all endeavour to support one another as best as possible. Thank you.

Some key dates / up and coming events:

The continued strong partnership between school and home, is at the foundation of the successes that we continue to celebrate. If for whatever reason you have any issues or concerns, please contact your child’s Form Tutor / Head of Year in the first instance. If at any point you require further support in resolving a particular situation, please escalate your concerns to a member of the Senior Leadership Team. As Headteacher, I always welcome dialogue with parents informally on the school gate, through a conversation on the telephone, an email dialogue or more formally in a request to meet with me in person. Please contact school reception if you wish to speak with me. If at any point you are not satisfied with our school’s response, there are further channels available to parents in order to raise concerns.  Please contact school reception if you require any additional information and clarity regarding the processes for raising formal complaints.

‘At Holy Trinity, we want all pupils to be able to leave with a world of opportunities at their feet; for them to reach their fullest of potentials; to believe in themselves, and to achieve their wildest dreams’.

Thank you for your continued support.

Paper copies of this document are available from reception upon request.

Mr Crehan

Headteacher: Holy Trinity Catholic School

Friday 24th November 2023