Well done to our Y11 students who completed their mock exams this week. They have all worked really hard and coped admirably. This is a great dry run for their actual exams next summer. As they plan for their future, they have been attending Open Evenings at local sixth forms and colleges.

Many thanks for all your donations today for Children in Need. We are still counting donations and will let you know how much we raised as soon as possible.

What’s going on in school:

• School council is back! This week in assemblies we have been encouraging our students to reflect on British Values, democracy and finding your voice. We discussed the power of having your say, and encouraged our students to take part in all aspects of school life, including our school council. More information will be available to students this week on how to join in and represent their tutor groups. 

• Daisy in Y8 has qualified for the World BMX Championships and will be representing Great Britain in this event in South Carolina in May 2024. Go Daisy!!

• Don't forget about the Scholastic Book Fair, which arrives this Friday and will be open for the sale of books, stationery and other goodies at lunchtimes next week. All takings earn us free books for the library, so your support is very much appreciated. Please contact Mrs Mummery if you have any specific book requests - we might be able to order titles in for you.

• This week in Drama, Y8 students have been exploring the topic of homelessness by learning about Ann Naysmith, The Car Lady of Chiswick. During the lesson, students reflected on her life and connected symbolic objects to points in her story. Miss Starbuck was really impressed with the creativity and maturity shown by Y8 this week. Well done!

• The Y11 Interhouse Table Tennis competition took place this week, with Losehill taking the title. The tournament was tightly battled with matches played in a lovely competitive atmosphere. Well done to all involved.

• To celebrate the multitude of languages that students and staff are learning, the MFL department are running a Duolingo competition with prizes at the end of term for both STAFF and STUDENTS.

What you need to do to enter: 1. See an MFL teacher in the next week and register your name and current streak and the language you are learning on Duolingo. We need to see your phone to check the number of days your streak is. 2. Come back and register your streak in the same language (with your phone) on Monday 18^th December. The person with the longest streak gets the prize! 

• We have lots of exciting upcoming events in our music department with lots of opportunities to get involved:

Arbor parent app email 

We are now using the Arbor management information system (MIS) which includes a parent portal.  This will enable parents to view reports, attendance information and the student calendar.  In addition, it will show information about your young person which you can view and edit if there are any errors.  You should have received a welcome email with instructions on how to access Arbor for the first time with links to help you.  The Arbor parent and guardian portal app can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play Store.  Please contact us if you require any further information. 

Year 9 Subject Evening

The Year 9 subject evening will take place in school on Thursday 23 November. This is an opportunity to talk to teachers about progress, attainment and attitudes to learning. Please use the following link to log into the SchoolCloud booking system to make appointments with the relevant teachers if you have not done so already: https://hopevalley.schoolcloud.co.uk/.  If staff are unavailable because all appointments have been booked, please contact the member of staff directly to arrange feedback.  The waiting list is to facilitate appointments should places in the evening become available.

275 Andrews Service from Bamford

The bus stop at Bamford Station turnaround will be closed from Monday for 2 weeks for maintenance. Temporary bus stops will be put in place outside Education Planning Books for the inward journey and another near the petrol station for the return. Derbyshire County Council are going to make sure bus operators are aware of this but students should signal to the driver as the bus approaches.

257 Hulley’s Service from Baslow – timetable change

The timetable for service 257 from Baslow to school will change by 5 minutes from Monday 4 December 2023. Please see the timetable below.

Service 025 (257)		Hulley's of Baslow
Baslow, opp Hulleys garage	0805	Returns from School at	1545
Calver, Bridge Inn	0810
Stoney Middleton	0812
Eyam, The Square	0817
Hope Valley College	0835

Lost Property

We are developing a collection of winter coats in our lost property. If your young person has misplaced their coat, please ask them to check at reception.

Job Vacancies

We are currently recruiting for Exams Invigilators (casual contract) and a Higher Level Teaching Assistant / Inclusion Manager - this is a maternity cover and would start in February 2024. For more information, please see our website: Vacancies - Hope Valley College (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