MAT Information

Following a successful period as a single academy trust since April 2011, the Governing Body of Hele’s School is considering converting to Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) status.  A Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) is where a group of schools formally join together and are governed through a single set of members and directors.

We are currently exploring the exciting possibility of forming a new MAT with a group of other local primary and secondary schools that share a commitment to improving the lives of young people in our local communities.

If we move beyond the exploration stage, we would begin a formal consultation process to gather the views of all stakeholders, and at that point we would very much welcome your views as parents.

We will, of course, keep you frequently updated with any developments, but at this time we would like to stress that we are only in the exploration stage and no final decisions have been made.

Full MAT Parent Letter
MAT Generic Information FAQs

Futsal Results

Alumni Community give students advice on planning their future

(Left to Right) Robert Farmer (Post 16 Pastoral Leader), Katherine Norley, Erin Black, Rebekah Sheasby, Jack Gavican and Nicole Woodhall.

On Monday 9^th January, five of Hele’s School’s alumni community helped to deliver an assembly to Year 12 students on planning their future. With a range of personal experiences to call on, such as under-graduate and graduate study, vocational pathways and employment, the five guests were well-placed to help guide the current generation of Post 16 learners. The alumni gave some excellent advice, which included encouraging students to put their own ambitions and desires first and to make the most of their time in the sixth form. Robert Farmer, Post 16 Pastoral Leader, said: “We are hugely grateful that our former students have volunteered to give up their time to help our current sixth formers. I know the Year 12’s found this morning’s session really useful in helping to plan their futures and they have a much clearer idea about the pathways open to them.”

Pay to Play Offers

Consultation on admission arrangements 2018/19

We will be consulting on our admission arrangements for 2018/19 through Plymouth City Council. The consultation will be live between 19 December 2016 and 29 January 2017. If you wish to find out about our policy or make any comment, please visit www.plymouth.gov.uk/admissionconsultation.

Accelerated Reader League Cup Competition

Sixteen classes, led by their English teachers, are competing to win the Accelerated Reader League Cup. The students in year 7 and Year 8 take part in daily Drop Everything And Read sessions and are required to take quizzes after reading a book. The class with the best combined scores on the book quizzes will win the AR League Cup; this round of the AR competition will finish at the end of this term. The current standings show Miss Norman’s Year 8 class in the lead with an average percentage correct score of 94.3%. The second placed class comes from year 7 and is taught by Ms Oram and Mr Fonseca with an impressive 89.7% score. The third placed class have a score of 82.9% correct; the bronze medal class are Year 8s led by Miss Hammond.

All in all, the 400 or so students have read an amazing 1,289 books, and a total of 43,433,482 words since the beginning of September. That’s a lot of reading and the classes are also managing to score very highly on their quizzes, showing that they understand the books they have chosen to read. The race to win the AR League Cup has just started however, so there is everything to play for and the teams at the top could well be challenged by students in the rest of the classes. Each quiz taken successfully will add valuable points to the class totals so everyone’s efforts count towards the outcome of the competition. We can expect to see a big rise in the numbers of books and words read by these committed readers!

Assessment & Reporting

Please click here for details on assessment & reporting as detailed in the letter sent home today.

Primary Challenge Day

The Hele’s School Primary Challenge Shield belongs to Plympton St Maurice Primary! This year’s Primary Challenge Day involved feeder primaries battling it out through a range of team tasks in food technology, P.E., maths, English and drama. Our student leaders were on hand to support the teams and showed great leadership through their enthusiasm, hard work and energy. The year 6 visitors commented on how fun the day was as well as being fiercely competitive! Well done Plympton St Maurice, who will try to steal their shield next year!?

UK Youth Parliament Debate

UKYP Plymouth are currently making plans for the Members of Youth Parliament’s visit to the House of Commons for the annual UK Youth Parliament debate on Friday 11th November. MYPs are the only group outside of sitting MPs who are allowed to debate in the Chamber, so it’s a fantastic opportunity for them.

Plymouth have asked Daniel Michaels of Hele’s School in Plympton to attend as a representative at the event, which takes place all day at The House of Commons on the 11th November.

Daniel has worked extremely hard on his campaign to support the bid for the new mental health services in secondary schools across Plymouth, which was launched this September. He has also been instrumental in supporting other local and national pieces of work such as Make your Mark, anti-racism campaigns and campaigns to challenge religious discrimination, to name a few.

Miss Mason, Principal of Hele’s School, said “I am both thrilled for Daniel and envious in equal measure with him having such a prestigious opportunity to debate in the House of Commons. Daniel has worked tirelessly in his role as an MYP for Plymouth and has been restless in his pursuit to ensure young people across our City have high quality, accessible, inclusive mental health care. He thoroughly deserves to have his efforts recognised and rewarded in such a public way, although I know that Daniel undertakes this work because he wants to make a real difference to the lives of young people in Plymouth, and not for any self-gratification.”

Mrs Smith, Head of Personal Development and Citizenship at Hele’s School, added to Miss Mason’s accolades for Daniel saying “We are incredibly proud of Daniel’s achievement. We work hard as a school community to instil in our students the importance of having a voice and of being an active citizen, and Daniel epitomises this. He is a superb role model for our students and staff and should take great pride in the fact that he continues to make a positive difference.”

Euroscola 2016

In October, a group of Heles students studying A level French in year 12 had the opportunity to take part in a Euroscola Day hosted by the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The day involved presentations and debates on issues relevant to Europe today and the students were among over 450 from schools across 20 European countries to attend. Mrs Earnshaw was delighted to accompany the group which included students studying foreign languages from 6 other schools across the city. Mrs Earnshaw comment “the students were amazing in the debate and the week, which included visits to Strasbourg centre and Paris, was a huge success with many students being so inspired by the opportunities were expressing a desire to study at University in Strasbourg, as they had loved the city and the experience so much!

Katie Best reported that ‘The whole experience was fantastic; it really opened our eyes countless possibilities and gave us the opportunity to not only practise speaking, but to practise listening to our target languages. It was so lovely to chat with students from other European countries as well.’