I hope all our families are keeping well and safe. Thank you for your continued support.
On behalf of all our staff at DHSB I would like to convey how proud we are of our students who are working hard, trying their best and upholding the values of the school.
We are currently working through the DfE guidance published for the return to school in September and we will update parents soon about this.
Put it Down!
Thank you to everyone who has voted for the DHSB team in the Nesta Challenge People's Award.
A reminder that today is the deadline for voting. Every vote counts so please click on the link and give the team your support!
Our app is called Put it Down!
Thank you.
Excellent Work Food Technology
Mrs Boon has sent me a mini mock NEA task completed by Ben Wonncott 10P to a very high standard.
Ben made all the elements for lasagne from scratch and worked really hard on both the practical and theory parts. Well done Ben!
Excellent Work Art and Design
Our examples of Excellent Work from the Art Department have been submitted by Mrs Burdon.
She explained that Year 7 students have been working on a Digital Art project; an artistic work or practice that uses digital technology as part of the creative process. Students have been looking at the work of contemporary digital artists to draw inspiration for their own digital art and, after experimenting with pixel art techniques, they were asked to recreate a famous painting with amazing results.
The Scream by Edvard Munch - Otto Malm 7S
The Son of Man by Magritte - Alex Deeming 7S
Lilacs In A Window by Mary Cassatt - Oliver Blewett 7N
The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai - Morgan Martin 7N
Sports Newsletter
I'm sure, like me, you will have missed our regular sports updates in the Head's Blog each week.
Therefore I'm delighted to share with you our recent sports newsletter. Many thanks to the PE Department and Mrs Needham for bringing us the latest news.
New Careers and PSHEE Website
Ms Moreton, with great support from Ms Buckler, has been working on a new Careers and PSHEE area of the school website.
The school website now has a dedicated Careers page which links to Ms Moreton’s own website which has pages for parents, students and employers.
Also available are details of our current programme, relevant policies, 1 : 1 support and an area for measuring success regarding destinations, alumni and other testimonials.
This site will be reviewed regularly especially as legislation changes so rapidly in this area of our curriculum, so please get in touch if there is anything else you would like to see included.
Ms Moreton
PSHEE Activities
The Year 7 lesson this week is on Road Safety; specifically being aware of dangers as a pedestrian and cyclist, and thinking about potential improvements. As the traffic builds back up to pre-Covid levels we all need to stay alert.
Year 8 students are focussing on Healthy Eating - hopefully you are not one of the majority who have gained weight during lockdown but thinking about the different food groups and proportions we consume can only be good for all of us!
We then extend the concept to designing new dishes or menus for your favourite fast food restaurant. Hopefully it won't be long before we can all go out again, for a cheeky Nando's or whatever else is your preference!
The Year 9 lesson has been planned this week by Ms Davidson, Assistant Head Post-16, to replace her usual talk at this point in the term about Sixth Form and higher education studies. Students will also hear some sensible advice from one of our current Year 13 students who has been offered a place to study at Oxford.
Year 10 students (and those in Year 11 who are still with us) have a lesson on the importance of sleep, and how to improve sleep quality if necessary. Like healthy eating and exercise this can have major repercussions in improving our mental health.
eSafety Advice
At DHSB our students are introduced to digital skills from Year 7 and this paid huge dividends for us when we moved our teaching online. Recent research shows that digital skills have become as important in getting a job and being part of society as English and Maths. An estimated 90% of all jobs in the next 20 years will require some form of digital knowledge, but one in five adults lack these digital skills.
The importance of digital skills are one of the many reasons why we have opted for G Suite for Education and I wanted to use today to just highlight some of the amazing features that they offer for you and our students, remember all of the g-suite features are available through chrome browser and not only if you have a chromebook and anyone can set up a gmail account for free.
Get Organised
Gmail uses AI to optimize your email, you can take advantage of features such as Priority Inbox, Snooze, Filters and learn how to archive your emails for zero inbox - here
Google Calendar not only helps schedule your day but can also set helpful reminders and remind you to complete task lists.
With Google Keep you can save notes, images, drawings, audio recordings and access them across all your devices - it allows you to create lists and set reminders that appear at a time or place of your choosing and with google side panel you can quickly access all of these without actually leaving what you are doing. More info here
Google Training
Google offers a whole range of digital skills training for both students and adult learners, free of charge - you just need a G Suite email. These are set out in project form and explore using digital skills across all of the curriculum.
Why not give one a try? - Google Applied Digital Skills
Ms Buckler