Davenant Newsletter Spring Term - April 2023

Thursday

Monday 8th May

Tuesday 23rd May

Early Close

Friday 26th May

Last day of half term

Monday 29th May to Friday 2nd June

Half term

Message from the Headteacher

We are at Easter already, it only seems like yesterday I was taking down my Christmas lights. It may have been a short term but it has been even ul.

On last Wednesday night I had the great pleasure to be at the Easter Concert where our Year 7 headlining act sang their hearts out. There was so much variety and talent on display from all years. We are so blessed to have so many musical students willing to work hard as well as the amazing staff that give up their me to put this all together and work with them.

I also had the pleasure this week of awarding M Cousens the prize of overall Chess Grand Champion so a massive well done to him. There are so many clubs and opportuni es, please encourage your children to take up as many as they can so they can gain a myriad of different experiences as part of the Davenant community.

This week we appointed our new Head Prefects Bea and Nathaniel. Huge congratula ons to them as they started straight away playing their part at the Easter Service. The decision to appoint was made a er a wonderful day of interviews which every year reminds me how amazing and informed young people are. Congratula ons must also go to Naomi, Freya, Paarth and Harry who performed very well and got to the final stages of the selec on process. We look forward to seeing what this talented team can achieve over the coming year.

May I wish you all a very happy Easter break and I hope you enjoy me with family and friends. We found this picture in the archives and I wanted to share it with you. It is an old form picture of students smiling.

Despite the pressures of modern life, as I walk around the school I see so many students smiling enjoying me with their friends, learning and joining in. We are blessed to have a happy school.

God Bless, Mr Thorne

Jack Petchey Speak Out Workshop

Thirty Year 10 students took part in the Jack Petchey Speak Out Workshop. All involved were impeccably behaved and engaged. There was great energy and posi vity in the room. The workshop leader sent complimentary feedback describing the students as lovely and a pleasure. Well done all!

The following six students were the winners:

1. E Agunwah

2. A Bryant

3. K Mbakadi

4. E McAllen

5. M Musau

6. K Swart

They ba led it out to decide who will go on and represent the school in the Jack Petchey Speak Out Regional Final. M Musau was crowned champion with her engaging, animated, clever and charming speech on Regret. Well done to her and well done to all six finalists who were all awesome!

We are con nually looking for Parent/Carer Lost Property Volunteers to help on a Wednesday lunch me.

Please email recep on@davenant.org if you would be interested in helping. Thank you.

Visit from Epping Forest District Council

Di Butler, Young Persons Officer for Epping Forest District Council, came into school and met with the School Council and our Youth Council representa ves.

Di Butler said “Please pass on my thanks to the school council for invi ng me over today. It was a pleasure mee ng them.”

The Royal Navy Came to Shore!

The Year 10 and 11 students of the Hospitality and Catering department had the opportunity to cook alongside a chef from the Royal Navy. They were introduced to new skills, given lots of ps and shown how a meal would be presented at a Royal Navy dinner.

Jewish Society—Lunch and Learn

For our second lunch and learn session on 20th February, we were joined by Rabbi Rafi Goodwin from the Chigwell and Hainault Synagogue. Rabbi Goodwinn led on the topic ‘you are what you eat’ and he kindly brought in bagels and fruit for the students to enjoy! We now have our own google classroom for the Jewish society where we will be pos ng updates and informa on on our lunch and learn sessions.

If your child has not yet joined the group and would like to, please contact Mrs Sacks or Mrs Cur s.

Yellow Candle Project

This year we are delighted to be once again par cipa ng in the Yellow Candle Project. The Yellow Candle Project, commemora ng Yom HaShoah on Tuesday 18th April, honours those whose lives were tragically lost in the Holocaust.

“The project aims to distribute yellow remembrance candles to a s many individuals in the community as po ssible; alongside each Yellow Candle, a card with the name, age, date, an d place of death of someone wh o perished in the Holocaust is enclosed The 2023 project wil l see the con nua on of ‘Remembrance to Re newal,’ where each Yellow Candl e will come with Dwarf Sunflower Seeds. We are encouraging the communit y to keep their empty Yellow Candle Ti n, plant a seed for the future , to help us all remember the past” h ps://www.yellowcandleuk.org/about

The cost of the candle is £2 and it can be purchased via parentpay and collected from Recep on.

The ligh ng of the candles and a short service of commemora on will take place at 8.30am on the 18th April and all those who wish to take part will be invited.

2023 Chess Tournament

A very close finish to the 2023 Chess Tournament, but in the end M Cousens was undefeated, and takes the Trophy. O Prosser played a quickfire game in the last round but M Cousens kept his cool. J Cohen lost his first game in the tournament but then went on to win his last six. Y7 students G Kurtev and MFarmer impressed in the first year.

Top 18 places:‐

Davenant Sport and Health

The PE Department are looking forward to the Easter break and no wonder considering the extent of what has been offered to our students over the last six weeks. In addi on to the extra curriculum program offered, there have been around 35 fixtures covered in a variety of sports from Indoor Athle cs, Cross country, Football, Rugby and Netball plus Inter‐House compe on, which is always a very intense affair.

Football News

ENGLISH SCHOOLS COMPETITION

In an a empt to encourage more girls’ par cipa on in football the ESFA introduced a new compe on for B teams in the U13 age group which allowed us to con nue with a good level of compe on for the Year 7 and 8 girls. So far so good, we have played in two rounds and won both convincingly. The team are growing in confidence and ability and cannot wait to meet their next opponents which hopefully will be more local than Berkhamsted!!!

ESSEX SCHOOLS CUP:

The last standing team U15 Boys reached the quarter finals where they met a strong, on form side, from Kingsford Community School which they lost 4‐1. The score did not reflect the closeness of the fixture. When you are chasing a deficit (2‐1 down at half me) you will always expose yourself to the breakaway goal which unfortunately happened twice in the second half. Disappointment for the boys but it is s ll a great achievement as they are definitely be er placed than last year which is all we can ask of the squad – improvement year on year.

The U19, 6th Form Team have gone beyond expecta ons this year, in fact, they have surprised themselves not only have they made the League Cup final by bea ng South Essex College in the semi’s but it is looking very likely that they will do the double by winning their league and gaining promo on for next season. Congratula ons to the team on their achievements this year, let’s go and win the Final on the 19th April against Beauchamps.

For the latest informa on please visit: Sports and Health on the Davenant Website

Davenant Sport and Health

Football News

WESSA DISTRICT FOOTBALL

The District football has been the main focus this term to ensure all the teams from Year 7 through to Year 11 play all their fixtures as the finals for the various year groups are scheduled early in the summer term (mid‐end of April). We s ll have a few games le to play but are experiencing mixed fortunes across most of the teams with them winning and losing games, but no one at this point is totally out of the running to win their individual league and make the finals against the Harlow district winners. The real success story currently has to go to the Year 7s who have won all of their district games so far, and are pped to make the final without having to look at goal differences, fingers crossed that they con nue their winning streak right to the finals.

The girls smaller sided District Championships has con nued a er half term with Year 7 playing in a large compe on with more than 50 girls taking part, where a er a slow start fought their way back to finish in 3rd place, a great come back girls and brilliant experience for next year.

Year 7 Girls District Team

The Year 8 girls did slightly be er finishing as runners up and definitely have the first place spot firmly in their minds for next year. Unfortunately the Year 9 event had to be postponed due to strikes but we are hoping they will come back as champions.

For the latest informa on please visit: Sports and Health on the Davenant Website

Davenant Sport and Health

This was a large event for Year 7 and Year 8 pupils from many schools throughout the county. The best placed team was our Year 7 boys team which finished 11th out of 41 schools and F Machine was the first home for the Davenant boys in 46th place, closely followed by T Adetona in 56th and T Nicholls in 65th which are good achievements considering there were 212 individual par cipants. The Year 7 Girls highest finisher was L Murray and D Arnold finished in 28th place out of 197 for Year 8 Boys; I Butler Davis was the highest ranked in the Year 8 girls team. It was a tough compe on and all Davenant students did extremely well, it should be noted that for most of the Year 7 this was their first experience of such a large scale compe ve race.

L Norden and H Stockill ran for Essex County in the inter‐coun es schools cross country championships on Saturday 18th March. L Norden finished in 54th place out of 300 plus par cipants and was the 3rd placed Essex County runner; H Stockhill finished 12 seconds behind in 112th place. Well done to both boys.

Year 7 Girls Cross Country Team

Year 7 Boys Cross Country Team

Year 8 Girls Cross Country Team

Davenant Sport and Health

The Year 7 indoor athle cs, hosted at Lee Valley Athle c Centre, first round saw the Year 7 Boys A team win the event and, along with the Girls A and B teams, making it through to the finals. The three teams did well at the final with the Boys A team finishing in 4th place overall, and the two girls teams finishing in 6th place (A team) and 8th (B Team).

Two Year 7 Girls Indoor Athle cs Finalists

We also took part in a Year 7 and Year 8 Sports Hall Athle cs event organised by the Schools Sport Partnership, hosted by Debden Park, which was thoroughly enjoyed by all who represented Davenant.

Year 7 Boys Indoor Athle c Finalists

The Netball teams, Year 7, 8, 9 and U16, have all being working hard to ensure all their league fixtures have been completed before the individual netball tournaments, the combina on of which determines the winners in each year group. The Year 7s were leading their league un l the final game against Debden Park which they unfortunately lost 13‐7 leaving them as runners up. They have now played in their tournament where they finished in third place overall. We are so excited for what will come from this year as there are many talented players. A big shout out to the Year 9 Netball team who have managed to finish all their fixtures in both league and tournament, an achievement in itself, and ended up with a mid‐table posi on.

The U16 team did extremely well in their WESSA league and final tournament ending as runners up in the District and the highest placed Davenant team ‐ great work girls and a special men on to C Clarke who was name player of the season by Mrs Doherty. The final event of the Netball tournaments was the Year 8s who fought valiantly and achieved be er results than the league games giving them a 4th place finish.

Davenant Sport and Health

We started back a er half term with two rugby finals to play – the Year 10s against Stewards which we unfortunately lost by a couple of tries. It was a really tough game to accept defeat as Davenant, for the most part, outplayed the opposi on but a couple of lapses in concentra on caused their defeat. It was a great, but frustra ng, game for the many spectators at this event.

The Year 8s had to wait un l the end of February to play their final against St Nicholas, a slightly be er result from this fixture winning 50‐10, and another trophy for Davenant. Great performance from all concerned

Year 8 Winning Rugby Team

The Girls Football inter‐house was hotly contested mainly by years 7 and 8, while there was some representa on from year 9 and 10 it wasn’t enough to run the full house tournament but they all did play football nevertheless.

The big story was that around 25% across years 7 and 8, 41 girls in total, turned up to play which is absolutely fantas c to witness, results were:

Whitechapel 7 – Salisbury 0; Whitechapel 4 – Gillingham 0; Gillingham 4 Salisbury 2.

Congratula ons to Whitechapel for their empha c victory. It is also worth commen ng on the compe ve nature and frustra on (mainly from Salisbury!), that was on display. It was great to see how passionate the students were about represen ng their house and a big thank you to all the House and Sports Captains, they made the job for the PE staff much easier throughout the event.

Goal of the Tournament—Well done to I Cowell

Davenant Sport and Health

The honour of being the Inter‐house rugby champions was also a strongly fought tournament with an abundance of boys arriving throughout the day to represent their House and year group. The winners of the Year 9 was Gillingham with 4 points closely followed by Salisbury 3 points and Whitechapel coming in third with just 1 point. The fortunes completely reversed when the Year 8 took to the field ‐ Whitechapel came out as the winners with 4 points, again Salisbury were in second place and it was the turn of Gillingham to be third. All to play for when the Year 7s arrived and they didn’t let the side down as their matches were lively, ghtly fought affairs with two of the games finishing in draws. However, it was Gillingham that managed to get the one match win advantage to take the year 7 tle, which then gave them the overall House Championship for 2023. Just as they had done for the en re day, Salisbury finished in second place with Whitechapel coming in 3rd.

The Schools Sports Partnership organised two Aqua Splash SEND events hosted by Davenant and once again our fantas c leaders had the opportunity to shine. Six of our finest leaders, R Barnard, M Bentley, L Blake, N Phillips, S Marx and L Adams assisted the visi ng primary pupils taking part in the first event and Mrs Wogan said they were amazing, so intui ve and helpful enabling all par cipants to really enjoy the experience. They are all so highly skilled they were able to engage with pupils that needed extra help both in and out of the pool.

The second event saw the same level of ability and commitment from the Davenant Leaders J Anderson, C Ashley, W Lewin, E Locke , A Hau, R Barnard and L Blake with highly posi ve comments coming from all visi ng schools. They are so caring and suppor ve ensuring everyone can par cipate in the pool and have a fun me.

We are so proud of our Leaders!

MFL Bake-Off

The Great Interna onal Bake Off!

Many congratula ons to our fantas c bakers who par cipated in the MFL department’s first Great Interna onal Bake Off House Compe on. We were very impressed with the designs and the fantas c flavours our students produced.

1st place went to A Haggai, 2nd place to P Maust and 3rd place to D Arnold.

¡Enhorabuena! Félicita ons!

Congratulations! Civic Awards 2023

Well done to Youth Councillors E Skingsley and P Patel for receiving the Chairmans outstanding achievement awards at the Civic awards 2023, for their Youth Council work.

We are con nually looking for Parent/Carer Lost Property Volunteers to help on a Wednesday lunch me. Please email recep on@davenant.org if you would be

Praise and Prayer

Praise and Prayer takes place in Room 113 (Mrs Fatoye s Form Room) on Friday s at 8am.

1st Place— A Haggai

2nd Place—P Maust

3rd Place—D Arnold

Performing Arts Department

MUSIC & DRAMA TUITION

Hopefully those of you who came to the Easter concert were inspired to encourage your child to take up an instrument, sing and be a part of the Performing Arts Department. It was a great evening and everyone performed really well.

Music Tui on starts again the week commencing the 24 April

If you would like to sign up for Music or Drama tui on for Summer term could you please complete a Google Form by 17th April 2023

PAYMENT has to be made on PARENTPAY ‘MUSIC & LAMDA TUITION SUMMER 2023’ before 17th APRIL 2023

We cannot guarantee a place if no form and no payment has been made by the 17th APRIL 2023 Add instrument/singing/Drama LAMDA on NOTES SECTION & Instrument Hire detail

Please complete a form even if you have signed up before and if you receive Pupil Premium Complete a new form for each instrument/singing/Drama LAMDA if you would like more than one set of lessons

h ps://forms.gle/rBxsaupTyA9MkHJPA

As you can appreciate it takes me for us to set out the metables and we can’t do this effec vely un l we know defini vely how many children are reques ng lessons in which instrument/singing/ Drama.

Fees: £195 for ½ hour lesson – standard lesson

10 weeks of lessons

£105 for 15 minute lesson

Instrument hire for some instruments are available at addi onal cost of £20 per term

These fees are per instrument/singing/Drama per term

Instrument Hire info:

h ps://www.davenantschool.co.uk/page/? tle=Fees+%26amp%3B+Hiring+Instruments&pid=144

If we have no form and/or no payment by 17th April 2023 then you child will not be metabled. For some instruments we are very full so proper comple on of a form and payment will ensure a space

PLEASE make sure you read and understand the FULL terms and Condi ons on the Davenant website

h ps://www.davenantschool.co.uk/page/? tle=Terms+and+Condi ons&pid=145&ac on=saved

More informa on available on MUSIC & DRAMA tui on le er and Leaflet uploaded on Talaxy

Please make sure you have read all the informa on on Talaxy and on the website under ‘Performing Arts’ Sec on

Thank you, Mrs Santer, Performing Arts Administrator

Careers Update

Careers Talks this term

Dr Ben Shankland came to visit us from The Hurley Group to talk about life as a GP and Careers in the NHS.

He discussed his pathway through medical school including shi s as a bin man to pay his way through university and what a hugely rewarding career it is.

We had a former student, Sophie Rivas, come in to discuss her PR and Marke ng Appren ceship she’s doing at Aspectus. Sophie and her colleagues did a presenta on on What is PR? What is Marke ng? And aspects of the Aspectus Academy programme.

Rachel Pells, Senior Talent Partner, came in to talk about life at Hill Construc on and discussed their core disciplines, work experience and appren ceships opportuni es.

Rachel very kindly brought freebies for the students who were delighted and her feedback on her visit was lovely to read: “Loved visi ng Davenant today! And the kids were such a great bunch, super engaging ques ons and we look forward to coming back again.”

Another former student Denis Figura joined us from the University of Birmingham where he is studying Den stry. Denis discussed the compe ve applica on process to Medical School and Den stry as well as helping the students to prepare for UCAT exams in September.

Careers Talks next term

Thursday, 20th April ‐ Midwifery and Nursing by Louise Egan, Deputy Chief Nurse at Homerton Hospital.

Tuesday, 25th April – Ac ve Essex to Discuss Careers in Sports by Danielle Warnes

Thursday, 27th April – Life as a Poli cian. Mike Freer, a Conserva ve MP for Finchley & Golders Green and who is a Minister at the Department of Jus ce will also discuss Poli cs with A Level Students.

Friday, 28th April – Engineering. Anthony Darragh is a Chartered Engineer serving as Group Technical Director for Expo Technologies Ltd.

Thursday, 25th May – Investment 20/20

Careers Update

Employer Assemblies

This Term every year group has had a careers assembly about life in their world of work.

Years 7‐9 heard from a 2022, Year 13 leaver who is now working for Accenture, a global consul ng firm.

Year 10 & 11 heard from a Detec ve Constable in the Met police.

Years 12 & 13 heard from a Davenant alumni currently working at JP Morgan.

Child to work day

Year 10 spent the day at work with their parents. Huge thanks to Year 10 parents for accommoda ng their children at work and to Peter Arnold (Davenant parent) for arranging an amazing trip to CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang, for those that were unable to a end with their parents. 96% of students said they enjoyed the day and 100% of parents surveyed said we should run the day next year.

“My team introduced themselves and their roles within Glencore and in turn he introduced himself, spoke about school, op ons and hobbies. My staff of many years find it difficult to speak in front of 14 people, let alone a 14 old year old boy. I was very proud! Thank you for giving us parents the opportunity to do this.”

Careers Update

Upcoming Ac vi es

Year 12 ‐ Summer term ac vi es for Year 12 include:

 26 April, 7pm – Post‐18 op ons evening for students and parents

 7 June – Trip to the University of East London to a end the UCAS Discovery Exhibi on

 10‐21 July – Work Experience – forms need to be in by 2 May

 A group session on post‐18 op ons with our independent careers adviser

 Wednesday a ernoon careers lessons including sessions on how to research op ons, applying to university, making job or appren ceship applica ons, wri ng personal statements and more.

Davenant Careers Site

New jobs, work experience and summer school opportuni es have been added to the Davenant Careers Site.

Now is the me for year 11 and year 12’s to apply for university summer schools that can help with university applica ons. Some of these are on the Davenant Careers Site but many universi es run a summer school and will have more details on their university website.

Suppor ng Careers

If you would like to get involved in suppor ng our careers programme, we are always looking for individuals to help with careers talks, mock interview sessions, assemblies, work experience and tutor talks.

Please get in touch at careers@davenant.org

Parents’ Association

New Treasurer Required September 2023

If you would like further informa on on this voluntary role please contact us on the PA email address below.

This term our fundraising consisted of our Year 7 & 8 disco, an Easter Draw and refreshments for the Easter Concerts.

Our Easter raffles prizes were difficult to keep away from the staff. We raised a staggering £954! Thank you to everyone that supported this fundraiser. Winners were from:

1. Large Hamper—12N

2. Medium Hamper—9E

3. Sweet Jar—7D

4. Large Lindt Easter Egg—8A Congratula ons to all our winners.

It has been a long while since we have contributed to resources for departments, so we held our first bids mee ng in 3 years! It was agreed we would con nue to contribute to one of the school minibuses and we have been able to grant funds to departments to replenish outdated resources, new equipment and subscrip ons to give a wider access to materials in subject specialisms.

Purchases of items for the School Garden Project, Tablets for use with Cricut machines, Chromebooks, Cross Country team vests and contribu on to the strength & condi oning centre, sewing machines, heat press, wax ke les, microphones, amplifiers and djembes are just some of the items we will be funding. In total over £15,000 has been put back into the school.

Parents’ Association

The staff would like to pass on their thanks for all the fundraising and dona ons that have led to us being able to support them and enrich our children's learning.

Easyfundraising sites are helpful to our organisa on and at no addi onal cost to you. Make sure you sign up and use it every me you buy online. Register with www.easyfundraising.org.uk for Davenant Founda on School Parents Associa on, every me you buy through this site they will donate a percentage to us. This could be your weekly online shop, Amazon, Ebay and other big brand shops. So far this has raised an addi onal £1,399.16

To support us with our fundraising, if you would like to get involved, please do not hesitate to contact us at DavenantPA@hotmail.com

We have only a few more fundraising opportuni es this academic year so please support us wherever you can. If you have a new idea you would like to put forward and organise for the PA in the next academic year please let us know as planning is now taking place. Thank

In the Community

In the Community

In the Community