Parent Bulletin 23/06/23
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In last week’s assemblies, students were encouraged to consider the theme of Senses but not only five usual human senses of sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. We considered a whole host of other possible senses such as super sight (when an animal sees things differently to humans), super smell (i.e. the way some dogs seem to be able to detect serious diseases in humans and save lives), that dolphins seem to be able detect when a human is pregnant through their echolocation ability and finally, most intriguingly of all perhaps, the way trees in a wood can all be connected underground through a complex fungal network so that stronger trees are able to support weaker trees.
In this week’s assemblies, we were delighted to welcome members of the Student Leadership Council and Senior Prefects to talk about the importance of speaking respectfully to others. Students also heard about the importance of cultural respect (the recognition, protection and continued advancement of the inherent rights, cultures and traditions or a particular culture) and were reminded about their role in this in a school community and the wider world around them.
Thursday, 22nd June was Book Return Day, during which we held our Year 11 Leavers’ Assembly. The Year 9 band played brilliantly and then the Head Teacher and pastoral staff provided thoughts, memories and best wishes for the future to all those leaving the School this year and those continuing into the Sixth Form. In the evening, for the first time since the pandemic we were able to hold our Year 11 Prom. All the students looked very impressive and seemed to have a very good time. This year group were in Year 8 when the pandemic struck and, along with other students, have missed out on so much during their time at the School, so it was great to see them having such a good time. We wish them all the very best of luck and will see them on Results Day!
Art Exhibition
On Wednesday, 14th June it was the GCSE and A level Art Exhibition, which showcased the fantastic artwork that the students had produced over the last two years. It was great to see so many parents, pupils and staff attend to celebrate our amazing artists. The Art Department would like to thank everyone who came to support the exhibition. A selection of the pieces displayed is presented below:
Rounders Tournament
There were amazing performances from all of our Year 9 rounders players on Wednesday in the u14 rounders tournament. They won Poole A beating Newstead, Farrington’s and Bishop Justus, with amazing catches from Asia, Lucy, Hannah, Summer and Olivia. All girls scored when batting and made it through to the semi-finals. They had a strong win in the semi-finals beating Charles Darwin 8 rounders to 2 and made it through to the final against Langley Park. Both teams showed strong fielding to some good hits, but in the final 30 seconds Langley Park scored a rounder beating Darrick Wood 61/2 rounders to 6. The girls were very disappointed as it was the last hit of the game, but should all be very proud of themselves.
English Schools Athletics Cup
I am proud to report another successful outing from our young athletes in the Regional A Final (South East England) of the English Schools Athletics Cup! 😊
This is only the second time that a Darrick Wood team has qualified for the ‘A’ Final and to have both our Junior Boys and Junior Girls teams qualify was an outstanding achievement.
The boys’ team comprised of Y8 athletes far exceeded their previous points tally of 388 (set when winning the Kent Schools Round) by 29 points, scoring 417 and finishing as the 5th best school in the South East England region!
The girls’ team comprising both Year 7 and Year 8 athletes also surpassed their previous total of 309 pts, scoring 329 and also finishing 5th in the Region!
Yet again we are holding our own with and beating some of the top Independent Schools and Grammar Schools in the region.
What makes this feat even more impressive is that none of our athletes actually compete in the sport outside of school!
Special mention must go to Annie who broke the Year 8 school record in the 100m with 12.87s this year!
Anthony narrowly missed the Year 8 1500m record which was set in 2002 and is intent on beating this record on Sports Day.
Highlights include:
Anthony – another outstanding performance in his 2 events finishing as the highest individual scorer with 44 points for the second event running. Anthony narrowly missed the School 1500m Record by just 2 seconds running 4:43s (26pts)! Anthony also threw the discus 24.18m (18pts).
Andreas – a huge 10 second improvement also in the 1500m event, running 4:58 (22pts)!
Alex – scoring 24 points in the Javelin with an impressive 31.60m, just short of his winning distance and PB from the day before at the Bromley Minors Championships.
Patrick – easily the most improved performer of the team with two huge personal bests in his two events! Smashed his 80m Hurdles best with 13.4s (22pts) and an improvement of well over a metre in the Triple Jump with 9.62m (17pts) to finish as the second highest scorer in the team with a contribution of 39 points.
James – another who performed superbly with two personal bests across his two events. James ran 43.6s in the 300m (18pts) and threw the Shot Put 9.57m (18 pts) to score 36 points in total.
Vlad – also scored well for the team with 36 points across his two events 800m (2:35)/Long Jump (4.60). The latter just under his recent PB set when winning the Bromley Minors Championships.
Oscar – contributing 35 points in his two events, setting a new PB in the 80m Hurdles with 14.3s (18pts) and equalling his High Jump best with 1.41m (17 pts).
Congratulations to all these and to the remainder of the team who all performed and conducted themselves excellently throughout. I look forward to seeing their progress next Summer.
Mr Timmins
Bromley Minors Athletics
Our Year 7 and Year 8 Athletics teams competed in the Bromley Minors Athletics Championship on Wednesday this week against 14 other schools from across the borough.
Our Year 7 Girls finished in a fantastic 3rd place. Highlights include Hallie finishing 2nd in the Discus, Lillian finishing 3rd in the hurdles final and Heidi coming 2nd in the Long Jump!
Year 8 Girls went one better to finish 2nd in the competition! Highlight of the day was Annie breaking the school 100m record with a blistering performance of 12.87s in winning the 100m – an incredible performance! Alice also won her 300m event coming 1st in the final (46.5s). Alice also came 2nd in the High Jump (1.35m)! Isabella won the Shot Put event with an 8m throw! Aniela won the Discus event! Annabelle won the Long Jump and came a brilliant 2nd in the 200m (4.30m/28.2s)!! Valentina C came 2nd in the Javelin with 18.95m.
Going into the final 4x100m event, the Year 8 girls were equal on points with Newstead Wood and unfortunately were cruelly beaten by the narrowest of margins by 0.5s!
The Year 7 Boys, in their first ever outing in track and field finished, a creditable 5th. Highlight for the team was Corran winning the Discus with a throw of 22.80m!
The Year 8 Boys have a great rivalry with Langley Park and on this occasion came out 2nd best. There were some brilliant performances, however, with highlights including Vlad winning the Long Jump with a huge PB of 4.76m and Alex throwing a new PB in the Javelin with 32.23m! Anthony (800m) and Andreas (1500m) performed excellently in the middle distance events coming 2nd and 3rd respectively.
The combined results mean that our girls finished 2nd overall behind Newstead Wood and our boys finished 3rd overall behind a strong Langley Park Boys and Bullers Wood Boys.
We are really proud of the hard work and dedication of all those involved. They also conducted themselves superbly on the day.
Kent Schools’ Athletics Championships
The Kent Schools’ Athletics Championships were held in Gillingham and we had two representatives from Darrick Wood School, both in the Pole Vault event.
Charlie competed in the Junior Boys (U15) event, winning the gold medal in a new Championship Record of 3.80m. The previous record was held by another former Darrick Wood student, older brother Ben!
Finn competed in the Intermediate Boys (U17) age group, setting a new lifetime best which happened to also be at 3.80m! Fantastically, Finn secured a silver medal for his efforts.
Dance Show
The students are working hard with the Dance Department to prepare for this year’s Dance Production, The Brits, which is a celebration of Great Britain, fitting for the year of the King’s Coronation. Involving a large cast, with students from across all key stages, performing a variety of dance styles. The production takes place on Tuesday, 4th July at 7pm and is guaranteed to be an uplifting and enjoyable night. We are so excited to be able to share our work with you once again. Make sure to get your tickets (see poster for more information).
School Production
The last couple of weeks saw over 70 students audition for the Wizard of Oz and another 80 ask to be part of the chorus, a key dancer to or work backstage. These are great numbers and we are really excited to start work on rehearsals next week. Congratulations to all of those who auditioned – it was a very difficult choice but we are thrilled that we have lots of younger cast members in the main roles including two Year 7 students as the Tin Man and Lion. The production will take place next November so watch this space for ticket details nearer the time.
Madrid trip
Last Friday morning, 36 Year 10 students headed to Heathrow airport to board their British Airways flight to Madrid, for their four day, three night trip, organised by the Spanish department.
After a slight delay taking off, we were soon on our way and enjoying the short flight over to Spain. We were lucky to be staying in a lovely hostel right in the centre of Madrid so we were able to walk everywhere, which was a huge bonus as it meant we saw so many interesting sites as we wandered through the city each day. We had a packed itinerary which included a tour of the Palacio Real (the Royal Palace), the Bernabeu (Real Madrid) stadium, the Prado art museum, El Rastro flea market, a walking tour of Madrid where we learnt about the history and culture of life in Madrid, as well as an afternoon at the beautiful Retiro Park, where we walked around the boating lake, ate in cafés, played football, visited the crystal palace – and some students enjoyed stroking the turtles in the pond.
Everyone made the most of the many different opportunities to speak Spanish and it was wonderful to see everyone so motivated to speak with the locals, whether ordering food and drink, haggling with street sellers for discount on Real Madrid shirts, asking for directions or asking for information in the hostel, they were all so motivated to practise their skills and were so pleased with themselves for having a go and then realising that they can speak in Spanish in real life situations.
We spent the evenings eating in local Spanish restaurants where we enjoyed paella, tapas, pollo y patatas fritas, tarta de chocolate and we had time to buy souvenirs and to look around the clothes shops along the Gran Via. The students loved the warm, relaxed atmosphere in Madrid and were all saying how much they loved the experience and many of them were asking if we could stay one more day.
Thank you to all of the students for their enthusiasm, engagement and excellent behaviour whilst on the trip to Madrid and thank you to the staff who accompanied the students and helped with all of the organisation. It is a weekend I think we will all remember for a very long time – so many fantastic memories.
Gracias a todos,
Señora Brunner
Armed Forces Day
With special permission from the Head Teacher one student was allowed to wear their army cadet uniform at school today to raise awareness of tomorrow’s Armed Forces Day. Well done Abigail!
Industrial action
Please see the email sent home on Friday, 23rd June regarding our planned arrangements for the two days of strike action by teacher members of the NEU.
PSFA Quiz Night
There is still time to get a group together and join in with what promises to be an exciting evening! Tickets are still available for the PSFA quiz night on Friday 14th July.
Please book here: Darrick Wood School PSFA Darrick Wood Summer Quiz Night!
Thank you to all those who have already made donations for our raffle. We are still collecting and all donations will be gratefully received.
If anyone is lucky enough to have links to any local companies who may like to sponsor our raffle by donating prizes or tickets, please let us know.
Please leave donations at main reception marked FAO PSFA.
DWS Audio
We have launched a new audio sketch show called ‘Drawn With Sound’ (DWS!) which is a mix of some of our classic sketches as well as some brand new comedy material written and performed by some of our students in Years 8 and 9. We’ve also posted Thomas Cridland’s play that was repeated recently on BBC Radio Kent – the link to BBC Sounds is on the DWS Audio blog. BBC Radio Kent are also planning to broadcast another of our ‘Rough Diamonds’ serials.
Dates for the diary
| Saturday, 24th / Sunday 25th June | DofE Bronze assessed walk |
| Monday, 26th June to Friday, 30th June | Year 12 Assessments |
| Tuesday, 27th June | Year 12 September 2023 Orientation |
| Tuesday, 4th July | Year 6 to 7 Transition Day |
| Tuesday, 4th July 7.00pm | Dance production |
| Wednesday, 5th July 7.00pm | New Year 7 parents’ evening |
| Wednesday, 5th July and Friday 7th July | Industrial action planned. See separate email. |
| Thursday, 6th July to Sunday, 9th July | DofE Gold Peak District trip |
| Monday, 10th July to Friday, 14th July | Year 12 Work Experience |
| Tuesday, 11th July | Sports Day for Years 7, 8, 9 |
| Tuesday, 11th July | Year 10 Work Related Learning Day |
| Wednesday, 12th July 7.00pm | Sports Awards Ceremony |
| Thursday, 13th July 7.00pm | Summer Concert |
| Friday, 14th July | Year 9 Team Building day |
| Monday, 17th July to Wednesday, 19th July | Year 8 Sayers Croft trip |
| Wednesday, 19th July to Friday, 21st July | Year 8 Sayers Croft trip |
| Wednesday, 19th July to Monday, 24th July | DofE Gold Brecon Beacons trip |
| Friday, 21st July | End of term |
| Thursday, 17th August | A level results day |
| Thursday, 24th August | GCSE results day |
| Monday, 4th September | Year 7 and 12 return to school |
| Tuesday, 5th September | All year groups return to school |