Welcome back

We look forward to welcoming all of our students and staff back after the Easter Holiday. We hope everyone had an enjoyable break and all are ready for what will be a busy but highly successful summer term. This parent bulletin largely rounds off final items of news from last term and also provides some reminders and key dates coming up.

Reminders

To be successful at school students need to be well prepared and have high expectations of themselves. This is easier to achieve when parents support this too. Please check your child has a pencil case full of the required equipment, has the correct school uniform and PE kit and is through the school gates before 8.35am each day.

The start of a new term is an ideal time to remind everyone of the high standards expected at Darrick Wood School and of School Rule 1 – Students are expected to behave sensibly and with consideration for others at all times (including when travelling to and from school). Please see the student planner and our website for a full list. We are grateful that the majority of our students respond well to this expectation and adhere to our values of Respect, Responsibility and Honesty. We would like to thank parents/carers for their ongoing support ensuring students are ready for learning each day and making the most of the opportunities we offer whilst showing consideration and support for others. 

Spring term 2024

The Spring Concert and the Gymnastics Show were highlights of a very busy term where so many of our students excelled in the extra-curricular opportunities on offer.  A look through the Parent Bulletins across the last three months will show you how much is going on every week and how our students are flourishing because of this. In the last week of term we held achievement assemblies for students in Years 7-11. The Sixth Form assembly was held on the first day back in the summer term. In these assemblies we congratulated all those who had achieved Bronze, Silver, Gold and even our first Platinum Awards of the year. The achievements of individuals in each year group and area of the curriculum were also recognised, along with the special recognition of students rewarded with the Head Teacher’s Award. Music was provided by Marcus in Year 11 who played “Idea 22” on the piano, a piece he also played so well at the Spring Concert.

This followed assemblies the week before which were superbly led by Poppy, Anthony and Alex who spoke with great clarity and passion – Poppy about her experience of the Year 10 Speak-Out Challenge, and Anthony and Alex about the theme of the week – Courage. This is another example of how our assemblies have been increasingly led by students showing great leadership and growing confidence, speaking to and performing in front of their peers.

This year’s Bromley Jack Petchey Speak Out Challenge Darrick Wood representative was Harry Way. He gave an impressive and energetic speech called ‘The Floor or The Importance of Support’ . Out of 611 pupils across Bromley who had been given public speaking training, just 13 made it through to this event at Chislehurst School for Girls, so the calibre of speeches was very high.  Harry gave his speech to an enthusiastic audience and an expert panel of judges, including one of our local Bromley councillors. He did a superb job! Congratulations Harry on your inspiring achievement.

Poetry By Heart: Congratulations to our Champions and participants!

Our Poetry By Heart judges had a very serious challenge to select a limited number of entries for our Poetry Champions (winners), Runners-up, and Special Entries for the annual Poetry By Heart competition. Each of our students put forward by their English teachers showed an excellent standard of memorisation, recital, and performance. Please join me in congratulating:

Year 7

Esmee and Issy – Year 7 Poetry Champions – going through to the National Competition

Isabella– Runner Up

Cameron– Special Entry to National Competition

Xin and Burchell – Special Entry to National Competition

Year 8

Sami /Lewis /Lucas– Year 8 Poetry Champions – going through to the National Competition

Daisy and Sophia– Runners Up (it was a VERY close decision)

Ryan– Year 8 Classic Champion – he will compete in the most challenging category of the competition – two poems (one from before and one after 1914)

Year 9

Alexandre and Anthony– Co-Champions – going through to the National Competition – Special Entry

Alexander R – Co-Champion – going through to the National Competition

Ella and Emma– Runners Up

Katelyn– Honourable Mention

It is a delight to offer our students the chance to show their talents in this competition. Any Darrick Wood students invited to compete in the Nationals at the Globe Theatre will be announced on 1st May.

Charity update

Thank you to everyone who has organised charity events or made charitable donations. Please see below a summary of funds raised this academic year so far.

Event	Money Raised (£)
Jeans for Genes day	815.00
Bake Sale – Cancer Research	220.00
Penalty shootout – Cystic Fibrosis	71.88
Children in Need	478.00
Poppy Appeal	464.00
Save the Children Xmas Jumper	610.00
Shelter send a candy cane	215.00
Save the Children Bake Sale	52.10
Cultural clothing day (Red Cross)	700.00
Penny a Page (Year 9)	496.08
Red Nose Day	748.00
TOTAL	4,870.06

School Production Auditions

Year 9 ‘Penny a Page’ Reading Challenge

Year 9 students have recently taken part in a two week Reading Challenge. This started off with an assembly which focussed on the academic benefits and pleasures of reading. Students then listened to pre-recorded extracts of recommended books read by some school staff to help inspire them on their reading journey. Over the course of the two weeks, students have recorded a total of 61,680 pages read. Through sponsorship they have raised £506.08p. The monies raised will go to the ‘Read for Good’ charity who provide free books and storytellers for all major children’s hospitals in the UK to improve the education, wellbeing, and social opportunities of ill and hospitalised children.

The winning form was 9YM. A huge congratulations also goes to Eira in 9YH who raised the most sponsorship money. The winning students have all ordered a new book through the scholastic book fair as their prize.

We hope all the students enjoyed the challenge and continue to read!

Eco Schools Green Flag Award

Eco Meeting 4

The Eco Group has gone from strength to strength and we now have over 40 active members across the whole school. This academic year we have had three areas of focus; the school grounds, litter and biodiversity. During the meeting the Eco reps worked on the schools’ Eco Code which will be shared in the summer term.

School Grounds – The Years 7, 8, 9 and 10 playgrounds all now have metal storage containers for sports equipment. Each of these playgrounds have new equipment to increase physical activity and engagement during break and lunch times. The seating arrangements have been altered and we have completed the new picnic area in the Y7 playground.

Litter – There are 35 litter pickers which are in use on a daily basis. The redesigning of the seating areas and the bin placement has also helped in supporting keeping our site litter free.

Biodiversity – The Year 9 Gardening club have so far built two bug hotels in the school garden and have started to construct the new pond.

Thank you to the PSFA whose donation have helped fund these improvements to our playgrounds.

During the summer term we will continue to develop in each of these areas. There will be a new Commnunity Club which will using their DT skills to refurbish the benches. The Sixth form team will be establishing an outreach group who will take part in weekly litter picking on the Tugmutton Common. We also aim to build further bug hotels in each of the picnic areas and to complete the school pond.

Young Reporter Scheme

Three of our Year 12 students – Anna, Esme and Aerin have been participating in the Newsquest Young Reporter Scheme this year. As a result of their involvement Newsquest have planted a tree on behalf of Darrick Wood School in Madagascar. Details via the link below.

Forest of Young Reporter Scheme | Tree-Nation – Forest’s trees

DWS Audio

Don’t forget that Darrick Wood’s award winning podcast service created entirely by our students can be found on our website here: DWS Audio (darrickwood.co.uk)

Gymnastics Show 2024

Congratulations to all the gymnasts that took park in the “Come Fly with me” Gymnastics Show on Tuesday night.  It consisted of a variety of performances from Year 7 up to Year 9 with curriculum work, gymnastics squad routines and 2 x pairs acro national champions showing us an amazing routine.

Netball Tour 2024

On the 15-17^th March Darrick Wood took part in their first netball tour from year groups 8-10.  They all participated in a netball tournament across the two days along with outdoor adventurous activities and a silent disco in the evening. They all had some wins over the two days and the 10A team were successful in coming 3^rd overall in the tournament.  We look forward to running this tour again in 2025.

South London Super 10s

The thrill of playing under floodlights, the excitement of a hyper-competitive tournament against 5 other schools and the joys of a ride on the old school minibus – does it get any better than this?

Roebucks’ third annual 10 a side tournament saw a strong field of opponents heading for Charlton Park on a Friday evening. We’d been to the first two – though without winning a game. A large squad made themselves available and off we went after school, with singing voices in fine fettle. The draw had not been kind – what looked like our three toughest opponents in our first three fixtures. Roebucks, hosts and reigning champions were first.

Game 1 – Roebucks 17 v Darrick Wood 5

Roebucks are a powerful unit – with their pick of players from a wide pool of schools in SE London they have great athletes and their three-times a week training programme drills these athletes into decent rugby players. We saw little ball in the early stages but, started like a steam-train in defence, fantastic speed off the line forcing error after error from Roebucks backs, culminating in a huge hit from Hayden which forced yet another knock on. Unfortunately, we kept on losing the ensuing scrums and found it hard to stamp any kind of offensive plan on the game. Without the ball you cannot score and eventually, Roebucks managed to hang on to a few passes and their big guy rumbled over for a 5-0 lead. Not a problem until what followed, where we lost the game in the next 20 seconds. Roebucks kicked off and we failed to collect the ball, instead allowing Roebucks to immediately score a second and take the lead to 12-0.

But we’re ‘the Mighty Darrick’ and heads did not drop. Instead, efforts were re-doubled and we won a string of penalties with Roebucks players not releasing and made our way down to their 22m line. Sustaining the game plan of playing faster than Roebucks could cope with, Amari took a quick one before launching a fantastic pass to Hayden out wide who went over to put us on the board and narrow the gap to just one score – 12-5. We worked our way down within range again but Amari, nearly breaching their defensive line was stripped of the ball. The game closed with Roebucks adding a final try to consign us to a hard-fought and highly competitive defeat.

Game 2 – Colfe’s 33 v Darrick Wood 0

This was always going to be tough, and wasn’t helped by our coach’s squad rotation policy, throwing a few of our less experienced players in as Colfe’s ran in 5 unanswered tries. This despite some late pressure where both Chris and Alex were stopped just short of the Colfe’s line. The lowlight may well have been Seb suffering from cramp a whole 10 minutes into the match.

Game 3 – Langley Park Boys 19 v Darrick Wood 10

Refusing to be intimidated by a Langley team from a serious rugby school, Darrick started strongly, with Amari nearly scoring in the first few minutes – scragged by their final defender. However, we applied pressure and after a great run from Josh, we recycled and Alex rumbled his way over under the posts. Amari’s ground-hugging conversion was somewhat disappointing. For the first time of the evening, we actually managed to win our own lineout ball – things were picking up! Langley applied good pressure but Darrick’s blitz defence held firm, and, from a scrum, Dan dashed up the blindside with a super break, before feeding Amari who finished from 60 yards out – Darrick Wood were 10-0 up against Langley Boys! However, Langley stuck to their guns and managed to find their way around the outside to score and narrow the gap to 10-7. Dogged defence ensued as we tackled our hearts out, but eventually, the tiredness of our third game on the spin with no break allowed Langley to take, and then extend their lead in the final couple of minutes – a fine performance, but we just ran out of steam after a great start.

Game 4 – Wilmington Grammar 0 v Darrick Wood 29

With a fifteen-a-side victory against them earlier in the season, this was a game we fancied. Starting quicker after our 20 minute break, we piled the pressure on Wilmington from the outset, but after just two minutes, talismanic captain Amari crocked his ankle and had to be helped from the field. But this is a deep pool of talent and our first score came shortly afterwards with Dan slicing his way through the Wilmington defence and Nathan, taking over the kicking duties, converted for a 7-0 lead. Darrick kept coming, bringing out all the tricks (Kiryn managed a sidestep) and our second try created by a fantastic break by Chris, was scored by Ezra powering over from 5 yards out. Nathan took the lead out to 14-0 but we weren’t finished yet. Jacob’s 50 yard kick return  led to a penalty, which Dan took quickly and it was 19-0. Next came a score for Jacob himself, sliding over on the right wing to move the score to 24-0 and, with Wilmington heads, perhaps understandably dropping a little,  Jack rounded off the scoring, finishing a move started by Henry, who offloaded superbly to Nathan. At last our efforts were rewarded with victory – what could we do in our final game against the impressive team from BETHS?

Game 5 – BETHS 10 v Darrick Wood 7

Good early pressure from Chris saw us open the scoring with a converted try – 7-0. BETHS however, came straight back with their power-based running and narrowed the lead to just 7-5. The next 10 minutes saw possession dominated by BETHS who were probing for a way through our increasingly desperate scrambling defence. So much courage on display in the tackle and hard work but it was finally undone with just two minutes to go as BETHS worked an overlap to score in the corner and go into the lead. Despite desperate substitutions (sorry the forwards) meaning we finished with a team full of backs, Darrick just couldn’t quite find a way to breach BETHS defence and the evening closed with a narrow 3 point defeat. A strong showing against the team we believe eventually won the tournament.

At the end of the day:

We made it safely back to school by 10pm! It was great to see some debutants and such a large squad, even if there weren’t enough burgers to go around, these boys can sing (mainly Adele tunes) and a big thanks to the parents who came and supported. Great hospitality from Roebucks and a super evening of rugby. The season will close with a home game against Riddlesdown on Wednesday 27^th.

Squad:

Amari O, Josh L, Hayden T, Michael T, Brandon A, Ezra M, Rowan B, Nathan J, Malachi O, Jack G, Sam E, Abdullah A (asst DoR), Chris B

Seb K, Dan S, Rohan G, Kiryn F, Alex I, Henry H, Jamie C-L, Jacob D

PSFA news

The PSFA would like to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone who came along and supported our fantastic musical extravaganza ‘Showtime’ last Friday.  In total an incredible £1629 was raised by this event. We will be sharing this with a local charity that will now be decided on by the students in the coming weeks.  The school will be investing their funds into the outdoors areas where the students spend their breaktimes to make the areas more pleasant and engaging.

The evening was an amazing success and greatly enjoyed by everyone that attended.  We were incredibly lucky to have the fantastically talented West End-trained performers from ‘Howe Entertaining’ entertaining us all evening with songs from Hollywood movies and musicals.  Our hall and stage were stunningly designed and dressed by Lesley Howe, (many thanks to the Art department and Curriculum Support for the materials) and Sarah-Leanne Howe was our wonderful, gregarious host.  There was something for everyone to enjoy.  Songs ranged from the beautiful ‘When you say nothing at all’ from Notting Hill and the haunting ‘Skyfall’ to the energetic and powerful ‘(I’ve had) the time of my life’ from Dirty Dancing, and ‘Good morning, Baltimore’ from Hairspray.  We were treated to an amazing finale of Disney songs which culminated in a powerful, spine-chilling performance of ‘Let it go’ from Frozen.  All the performers kindly donated their time free of charge for this charity event and we are extremely grateful to them for their generosity with both their time and their talent.

We also want to say a big thank you to all the Parents, Staff and Friends of Darrick Wood that donated wonderful items for the raffle.  Amongst some of the lovely prizes was a professional whitening gel kit generously donated by Caring Dental worth £360, one month’s family membership at HITIO Gym worth £140 and 12 bottles of wine generously donated by Map UK Ventilation Systems. A memory foam pillow was kindly donated by The Bed Post in Petts Wood, worth £65. They are also offering a 10% customer discount to all our parents: just quote the name of our school when purchasing.  Joy Kitchen, Xenia, A Mano Coffee Bar and Kitchen, Salina at Glow Beauty and Revolve Trampoline all generously donated vouchers; and several beautiful easter eggs were donated by Dampworks, The Damp & Timber Experts.  Thank you to all these local companies that have supported Darrick Wood and congratulations to all our raffle winners.

Other PSFA News:

Thanks to….

Huge thanks to PSFA members Caz and Susann for providing refreshments to those attending the school concert this week. It was a busy interval but the ladies managed to get everyone served and we made over £120 for the school. Next up we hope to sell refreshments at the gymnastics display next week, but we need two volunteers to make this happen please. The show starts at 7pm and we sell during the interval (approx. 7:45pm) so this is not a big time commitment.

Preloved Uniform

The next preloved uniform sale is also fast approaching after Easter so please save the date Saturday 27^th April.

If you can help with refreshments next week or the uniform sale in April, please sign up here: volunteersignup.org/9MMDP

What next?

Lastly, it was great to see so many groups of friends/families having a great time at the Showtime evening, so now we are thinking about what can we do next to bring us all together and raise money for the school. We have been asked about the return of our legendary DW quiz night, is this wanted or something else? We would appreciate your help planning our next fundraiser, so please take a minute to complete this survey, it is just two questions but will massively help us focus on planning events that you that you will want to come to: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KLKPCYB

Bikeability – Level 3 courses starting Monday 15^th April

If your child has a place on one of the six Level 3 BikeAbility course running during the next half term, please inform your child to sign in at pupil reception as soon as they get to school on the day of their course. Pupils should bring a bike lock with them on the day to lock their bikes in the bike sheds whilst they are not required. Following signing in at Pupil Reception, please lock your bikes in the school’s bike sheds and then make your way over to the external doors at the front of the school, leading to Main Reception where a member of the BikeAbility team will meet you.

Pupils will not need to go to registration or their playgrounds at the start of school day as usual, because they would have already signed in at Pupil Reception to get their attendance marked as present. Pupils are allowed to wear suitable clothing for the course and will be allowed back into lessons later in the day wearing this attire.

Finally, please ensure bikes are not left on the school premises over night as the site is open to members of the public and therefore the school will not accept responsibility for any damage or loss caused to bikes whilst housed in the bike sheds overnight.

Kind regards,

Mr Aylwin

Dates for the diary

Date	Event	Notes
Monday, 15th April	Start of term. Year 12 internal assessments all week	Students to arrive before 8.35am
Thursday, 18th April until Friday, 26th April	Year 10 examinations
Tuesday, 30th April	Leavers’ photographs
Monday, 6th May	Bank Holiday	School closed
Thursday, 9th May	Public Examinations start
Monday, 27th May	Half-term break
Monday, 3rd June	Return from half-term break Years7-9 assessments for next two weeks
Monday, 24th June	Year 12 examinations
Wednesday, 3rd July	Sports Day – Years 7-9	Norman Park Athletics Arena
Monday, 15th July	Year 8 Sayers Croft trip	Half Mon-Wed, half Wed-Fri
Wednesday, 24th July	Last day of term