This week

Assemblies for Years 7, 8, 9 and 10 this week focused on World Book Day celebrations. World Book Day is a UNESCO event which is celebrated in over 100 countries around the world. Staff shared about the books that have had an impact on them, either recently or when they were younger. Some very compelling reasons for picking up and reading a book were also shared. These include:

• That there is a link between students that read for pleasure, even for just a few minutes a day, and the impact this has on vocabulary development. There is also an associated link with success in public examinations.

• Reading is also “neurologically challenging”. This means it is like a workout for your brain. Your brain benefits from this just like the rest of your body does when it is exercised.

• There has been research that shows that reading for pleasure can reduce stress.

This year parents/carers will be aware we opened the Reading Realm in our former library space. This is incredibly popular with students, especially at break and lunchtime. Throughout this week in the Reading Realm and more generally around school there have been World Book Day activities for students to take part in. All of Year 7, for example, on Monday listened to instalments of a story at the start of each lesson. Every time they moved lessons they heard the next part of the story. We hoped they enjoyed this. Other activities at lunchtime included:

Cooking Competition

Four Darrick Wood students – Ella, Vlad, Ava and Susy – last Saturday travelled to Canterbury to take part in the Rotary SE Finals for the Young Chef competition. They were all exceptionally successful in the previous round and we are delighted that Suzy won this final and Ella was the runner up. They now go on to the National final.

All four pupils were commended for their menus and the judges said that they found it difficult to separate the marks for all the contestants taking part.

We are grateful to Head of Food Technology, Mrs Thomas for her support and to Orpington Rotary.

Mental Health

Bromley Y have provided some helpful documents as found below. One is called “Mindful March” which might be of interest to many in our school community. Please take a look:

https://news.darrickwood.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Mar-2023-1.pdf

The other is about managing academic stress:

https://news.darrickwood.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Bromley-Y-managing-academic-stress.pdf

British Red Cross sessions 

Over the last couple of weeks we have had some exciting and informative workshops arranged in school by the British Red Cross for PSHE. Year 8 all had a lesson on ‘Coping with Challenges,’ which looked at ways to deal with stress and anxiety and ways to cope in situations that we find difficult.

Year 7 had a First Aid session in which they learnt how to deal with burns, cuts, choking, fainting and were able to practice CPR on a real life model.

Both workshops were very well received by the students and we look forward to the British Red Cross coming back to Darrick Wood later in the year for Year 9.

Lottery

Don’t forget to join the PSFA lottery via the link below. There’s a £25,000 jackpot up for grabs:

https://www.yourschoollottery.co.uk/lottery/school/darrick-wood-secondary-school for details.

Reminders

Please remember that if your child does not have the correct uniform or equipment they should have a note from their parent/carer in their Planner.

Boots are not allowed, only shoes

Bags should be plain and large enough to fit an A4 folder in. They should not be hand bags.

Coats should be plain, dark brown or black without large logos.

Thank you for your support in maintaining our high standards of uniform.

Dates for the diary

Wednesday, 8th March	Year 9 Options Evening
Tuesday, 21st March	Year 9 Parents’ Evening
Wednesday, 29th March	Year 8 Parents’ Evening
Monday, 3rd April to Friday, 14th April	EASTER HOLIDAY (return Monday, 17th April)
Thursday, 20th April	Year 7 Parents’ Evening