Black History Month: Learning, Leading, and Celebrating Together

Black History Month: Learning, Leading, and Celebrating Together

October marks Black History Month in the UK – a time to honour the achievements, culture, and contributions of Black individuals throughout history and in our communities today. At our school, this month is a powerful opportunity to deepen our understanding, celebrate diversity, and continue building an inclusive learning environment for everyone. This week, our assemblies are being led by students, who have worked collaboratively with staff to create thoughtful and engaging presentations. Their work reflects the spirit of Black…

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Year 11 Results 2025

Year 11 Results 2025

Year 11 Results 2025 Congratulations to our Year 11 students, who have achieved some excellent Key Stage 4 results. The School is extremely proud of their achievements, and the endeavours and hard work of everyone involved have clearly paid off.  80% of students achieved a grade 4 or above in both English and Maths GCSE, whilst 56% of students achieved a grade 5 or above in both English and Maths. 73% of students were entered for the EBacc qualification. Seven…

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Year 13 Key Stage 5 Results

Year 13 Key Stage 5 Results

We are delighted to congratulate our Year 13 students on their excellent achievements in this year’s Key Stage 5 results. Their hard work, resilience, and commitment to excellence have truly paid off, and we are proud of their collective and individual successes. This year, our students have once again demonstrated the strength of our academic and vocational provision, with good outcomes across both A Level and BTEC qualifications. For those taking A level qualifications, four students achieved three or more…

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English Schools Athletics Cup

English Schools Athletics Cup

On Friday 16th May, Darrick Woods Junior (Year 7 & 8) Boys and Girls and Intermediate (Years 9 &10) Boys and Girls teams took part in the 1st round of the English Schools Athletics Cup.  The competition in our event was tough, but we knew it would help us raise our game to gain as many points as possible.  All the athletes taking part had to take part in a track and a field or relay, so for some taking…

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UKMT Junior Maths Challenge

UKMT Junior Maths Challenge

Well done to all 116 students from Years 7 and 8 who participated in the 2025 UKMT Junior Maths Challenge on 1st May. All of them demonstrated excellent effort and there were some fantastic results. Congratulations to the six students that achieved Gold Certificate standard, the 18 that achieved Silver Certificate standard and the 34 students that achieved Bronze Certificate standard. A special mention to Daniel and Stanley from Year 8 and Matty and Leila from Year 7 who have…

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Readathon 2025 Update

Readathon 2025 Update

Thank you to everyone who supported our Year 7, 8 and 9 students with sponsorship money and encouragement to read. We made an amazing £1,139 for the charity Read for Good which provides storytellers and books for children in hospital. Students spent time over the Readathon fortnight listening to teachers in the School reading books aloud, reading in Form or in the Reading Realm. It’s been proven that children who read for pleasure are more likely to be successful and…

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Step Around Event Success

Step Around Event Success

On Tuesday, 6th May, the KS3 and 4 Dance club performed at The Step Around Event at Townley Grammar School. The Step Around Town events are regional performance opportunities for groups on the Step into Dance programme. The event allowed our students to have the chance to mix with other like-minded dancers, be exposed to new dance styles and perform to their friends and families. From this performance, we are pleased to announce that our group has been selected to…

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Darrick Wood featured in Poetry By Heart’s newsletter

Darrick Wood featured in Poetry By Heart’s newsletter

Our English Department manages the School’s entries into the annual Poetry By Heart (PBH) National Competition which has featured in prior newsletters. The most recent PBH newsletter featured our Year 7 Portable Paradise Project, which tasked students with creating their own paradise in physical, not just poetic, form in response to a poem in our anthology. You can ‘jump to’ the Ideas and Inspiration section of the newsletter where you will find Darrick Wood featured. You can then click through…

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IRIS project – Visit to the Rutherford Appleton Laboratories (RAL), Oxford

IRIS project – Visit to the Rutherford Appleton Laboratories (RAL), Oxford

A small group of Year 12 students has been participating in a challenging research project called the Big Data: ATLAS. The ATLAS detector is used by physicists to observe the results of proton-proton collisions in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva, the largest collider of its type in the world. Big Data: ATLAS introduces students to the techniques used to analyse ATLAS data, giving them the chance to explore their own questions in particle physics. Students learn analytical…

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DWS Featured in the Poetry By Heart Newsletter

DWS Featured in the Poetry By Heart Newsletter

We are delighted that DWS has been featured in the latest Poetry By Heart newsletter. You can read the full article here: Poetry By Heart Poetry By Hearth wrote the following by means of introduction: “Back in our April 4th newsletter, we shared some creative writing ideas including an activity inspired by Roger Robinson’s ‘A Portable Paradise’. We were over the moon when, after reading the newsletter, the English Department from Darrick Wood School got in touch to share how…

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