Year 8

Welcome from Head of Year 8, Ms Matthews

My Vision:

As a pastoral leader, I want to ensure that every child is given a nurturing and supportive environment where they are building resilience and determination to be successful in all facets of not only school, but wider life. From entry we should be showing them clear boundaries as well as a team within the year group who clearly want to get the very best from them.

My name is Ms Matthews, I am the Head of Year 8 at HASU and a teacher of English. In my role here, I have been able to work with the students to introduce them to Secondary School life, challenge them to engage with a range of subjects, support them with building and maintaining new friendships, stepping outside of their comfort zone and becoming a confident and successful part of the school’s ethos and community.

 I originally joined the school in 2019 as an English teacher and was a tutor to the second cohort of students who started with us. I have been a teacher in schools since 2015 and here at Harris Academy Sutton, the role of the tutor clearly is seen as a prominent part in supporting the wellbeing of the child and ignited a passion in me to be more directly involved in the pastoral support and development of our students. In 2020 I became Head of Year to our third cohort which has been one of the most challenging but also rewarding opportunities in my teaching career.

As a core value of mine, looking after the mental as well as physical wellbeing are equally as significant. I went on a Mental Health First Aid course last year to ensure that I was well equipped to have conversations with students in the year group about mental health and also promote values of talking about how we feel and expressing it, rather than bottling up which can lead to further issues. In my assemblies I want to build an ethos even more of optimism and positivity, as a way to build more resilience and have a year group who use appropriate and mature channels to deal with adversity.

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What is it like to be a Year 8 at HASU?

In Year 8 students will now have much more of a handle over Secondary School and its challenges. They can begin to look out for the year 7s and guiding them through becoming more organised, navigating the school building and looking out for them on the playground. Their studies will become more detailed, building on the foundations started in year 7 and allowing students to challenge themselves. At this point year 8 are given more trust and responsibilities around the school and we encourage students to get involved in being an active student as much as possible.

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What are the events and occasions we can expect during Year 8?