DESBOROUGH COLLEGE DESBOROUGH SCHOOL
SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST:
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Year 11 GCE Maths
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Parents Forum
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Parental Survey:
Dear Parents/Guardian Once again the weeks seems to be flying past. It has been an eventful and successful short-term and there is plenty to report upon:
Year 11 GCSE Maths Examination Results
Year 8
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Friends of Desborough
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Parental Survey: Year 7
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The Radley Connection
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Extra-Curricular Activities: Football
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Year 10 Drama
Congratulations to the Year 11 students on their results: 71% gained A*-C grades. This will rise to about 85% following the March and June examinations. This is already more than last year and above the national average. Well done to Miss Carr and her team who gave up some of their holidays and week -ends to support the boys.
Trip
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Swimarathon
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German Exchange: 25th Anniversary
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World Record Attempt
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Public Speaking
Every subject area is now offering lessons after school or on Saturdays or during the upcoming halfterm holiday and some subjects are offering all three!
I am extremely fortunate to work alongside so many hard-working colleagues. The impact of the support that is being offered to Year 11 boys will be the best examination results in the school’s history. I am confident that we will achieve 70% 5A*-C grades, including English and Maths and this will propel us towards the top of the local performance tables. Desborough’s on the march! Well done!
Parents Forum
Competition
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Year 13 Artists
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Outstanding At-
Following on from the success of my Headteacher’s Surgery which took place on the 25 January, I have decided to hold a Parent’s Forum Meeting on 27 February at 6.30 to 8.00 pm in the School Hall.
tendance
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Links with Oxford University
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Budding Sports Journalist
All parents are welcome and it will be an opportunity for me to update you on recent developments and initiatives, and for you to ask questions on matters relating to Desborough College.
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Parental Survey I do believe in surveying parents to get their views on how they think we are doing at Desborough College and how we can improve. We recently surveyed the parents of Year 7 and Year 8 boys and the results are as follows:
Desborough College: Year 7 Base
1. The transition day helped to fully prepare my son for their move to Desborough College 2. As a parent or carer, I felt fully prepared for my son moving to Desborough College 3. The year 7 base has assisted with the integration of my son into Secondary School life 4. My son is happy at this school 5. My son feels safe at this school 6. My son is well looked after at this school 7. My son is taught well at this school 8. This school makes sure its pupils are well behaved 9. This school deals effectively with bullying 10. This school is well led and managed 11. This school responds well to any concerns I raise 12. I am happy with the amount of homework my son recieves 13. I feel my son has great opportunities at Desborough to try new things 14. I am regularly informed of my son's working level 15. I feel confident that any issue which may arise will be dealt with effectively
Would you recommend this school to another parent
Strongly Agree %
Agree %
Disagree Strongly Dis- Not Appli% agree % cable %
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
57 52 45 55 52
26 48 55 45 43
12 0 0 0 4
0 0 0 0 0
5
43 29 57
55 43 40
7 5 0
2 0 0
2
62
29
5
0
10
33
50
14
7
0
50
48
0
0
2
52
43
2
0
5
45
48
0
0
7
Yes %
No %
No Answer %
92
0
8
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Parental Survey Year 8: Desborough College: Year Strongly 8 Parents (26 responses) Agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly Not AppliDisagree cable
1. My son is happy at this school.
46%
54%
0%
0%
0%
2. My son feels safe at this school.
42%
58%
0%
0%
0%
3. My son is well looked aŌer at this school.
38%
62%
0%
0%
0%
4. My son is taught well at this school.
31%
62%
3.50%
3.50%
0%
31%
62%
7%
0%
0%
27%
50%
8%
4%
11%
35%
65%
0%
0%
0%
31%
62%
3.50%
0%
3.50%
38%
46%
8%
8%
0%
5. This school makes sure its pupils are well behaved. 6. This school deals effecƟvely with bullying. 7. This school is well led and managed. 8. This school responds well to any concerns I raise. 9. This school communicates well with parents
I would like to encourage parents to go online and complete the Ofsted Survey, Parentview, which can be done by following this link: parentview.ofsted.gov.uk. It does not take long to complete and it would be helpful to me in obtaining your opinions.
Friends of Desborough The next meeting of the Friends of Desborough shall be taking place on the 6 March 2013 at 7.00 pm in the Staff Room. New members are always welcomed to the Friends who do a great job fund raising and offering their support at many school functions.
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The Radley Connection I know that many of you are aware of our Partnership with Radley College, but I thought that I would give you a brief outline of some of the ways that we collaborate.
The November “5 x 15” conference was a great success (a Radley tradition of five guest speakers speaking for 15 minutes on a variety of topics, stimulating discussions and presentations). The feedback from our students was very positive. They particularly enjoyed spending the night at Radley and getting a chance to talk to their peers there. They also acquitted themselves well in the talks and presentations the following day. They made interesting observations on the very regulated use of time at Radley which they recognised as helping their students to achieve good results. Two of our students were back at Radley shortly afterwards with others in the sixth form to see a controversial US play, the Laramie Project, on the subject of homosexuality. It was widely viewed as an interesting experience. Further collaboration is planned between our Drama Departments, with their Director staging a master class on method acting here with a group of students from Radley and our own year 13 Theatre Studies students. Last month, our Politics students attended a master class at Radley, and a lecture given by Owen Patterson, MP, and minister at DEFRA, followed by lunch. Natalie Smith-Phelps- Curriculum Leader for Music, will be visiting Radley shortly to meet with her equivalent, who visited us last term. Natalie will have the opportunity to moderate her year 11 GCSE practical assessments with an experienced examiner. Further links have been established between MFL and Art, and their Radley counterparts. Andrew Reekes, who visited school on 23 January invited John Sparks and a very productive discussion took place about the future of Rugby at Desborough and how it could be developed in the future. Arrangements have been made to transport 20 boys, via a coach paid for by Radley to attend lessons in Maths and Science. The boys will be attending every Tuesday for approximately 10 weeks leading up to the GCSE examinations and the aim is to ensure that they achieve A and A* grades. We have been given 6 complementary tickets to attend the next “5 x15” Conference, and our Drama Departments are collaborating and have planed a theatre workshop. Zoe Percival, our SENCO, is meeting with Charlie Scott-Molden to find out how Radley get the most of the additional time allocated to the students in public examinations. Yvette Kershaw is going to visit Radley to find out how they prepare boys for the English GCSE examinations.
I will take this opportunity to thank Radley College, Andrew Reekes and Rob King, both of whom sit on our Governing Body, in particular, for the work that they do on behalf of Desborough boys. It is greatly appreciated.
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Extra-Curricular Activities: Football Football is now on the PE curriculum for all boys and now, thanks to the efforts of Colin Cox and Dan Jacoby, we have our football posts and can play home fixtures. Mr Cox and Mr Jacoby, both members of the Governing Body, made a successful bid to the FA for the equipment. There are now regular fixtures for all year groups. I did watch the second half of the Sixth Form game against Reading School and, unfortunately, we lost 3:0. However, in the following game, away to Altwood School, we gained a comfortable win 6:1. Well done boys!
Year 10 Drama Trip Congratulations to the Year 10 Drama boys who had a fantastic theatre trip to see Blood Brothers last week in Croydon. Behaviour was impeccable, despite some appalling out of key singing on the coach(!) and boys were courteous to the bus driver and members of the public. They even started a standing ovation at the end of the performance which triggered off the whole audience— amazing.
Swimarathon On Saturday 5th January there were 5 teams entered in the annual Swimarathon event. Representing Desborough College were Andrew Wyles, Sarah Gilmour, Angela McDonald, Nick McDonald, Jake Milston, Aiden Milston and Ross McRae. We raised over ÂŁ400 in aid of the ME Association and towards local charities. It was an amazing event showing support especially for Rachel Milston, Mum of Jake and Aiden, who has suffered with ME for the last 3 years.
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German Exchange: 25th Anniversary
AUF NACH MAIDENHEAD - DAS ABENTEUER GEHT WEITER!
On Saturday afternoon of 2 March 2013, staff, parents and students from Desborough and Newlands Schools will be greeting our partners from Düsüd Gesamtschule in Duisburg for the 25th year running! The annual German Exchange is in its 25th consecutive year for Desborough and Düsüd – a landmark, we believe, in school exchanges? It is also the 8th consecutive year in which Newlands School has participated. Upon arriving in Maidenhead by coach, we shall be greeting our exchange partners, some of whom have visited us previously and enjoyed it so much, have returned! Host families will be ready to receive them and whisk them away to whatever weekend activity programmes they have in mind and many of us will meet up to be as sociable and speak as much German/English as possible. On the Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, it is traditional for our partners to visit local beauty spots – London of course, and Portsmouth is always popular, where they can soak up some true British maritime history on Nelson’s flagship and wonder at the Tudor Mary Rose.
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On Monday and Wednesday our partners will come into school, visiting classes and participating as much as possible in lessons - the German classes are usually very popular! To mark the anniversary of such a prestigious and long-running exchange, we will be hosting the Abschiedsparty (the farewell party), in the evening of Friday 8 March, and we have invited some ex exchangers, staff and pupils, along, to trade some memories and enjoy the evening. A buffet and drinks will be provided in the hall. Herr Ferber and Herr Moritz are to be warmly congratulated as the original founders of the exchange (they have participated, one or the other, in all 25 years). The exchange has not only strengthened our links with our German partner school but also the links between the German and English exchange partners and we are most appreciative of the time and effort from all concerned, particularly from parents, who are always so willing and helpful, welcoming our German partners back here in Maidenhead. Without them, this 25th anniversary would not be possible!
Vielen Dank, tsch端ss und bis bald Ms Watson and the Year 10, 11 and 12 German students.
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World Record Attempt! The library at Desborough College was buzzing at lunch time on the 6 February – over 65 boys took part in the world record attempt for the most people writing a story at multiple venues. This was an event to support National Libraries Day. The boys each had to write two lines of a story on parallel universes begun by the author Matt Haig. This is the first of many events we have planned at Desborough LRC to encourage our boys to develop their love of reading and writing. The Sci-Fi element of this project really touched a nerve with our students and they were all very excited to be part of a World record attempt. Jacob a Pupil Librarian in year 9 said: “We have never done anything like this before, it is something new and has brought lots of excitement to our library.” Jonathan a Year 8 student said: “It is so exciting to take part in an event that makes you feel so proud of your school.” The year 7 boys have been preparing for the event with English teacher, Mr Palanivel, by brain- storming, plot development and narrative techniques. The students enjoyed writing about Danny and his extra-terrestrial parents and had some very inventive ideas for the plot! The excitement generated by being part of the world record attempt is palpable and we have all enjoyed taking part. We are also looking forward to World Book Day in March and the events we have planned to celebrate in the LRC.
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Public Speaking Competition The Rotary Youth Speaks area competition took place at Claires Court School on 31 January. Our year 12 and 13 students entered this public speaking competition to speak on the topic, “The Value of Eye Sight” with Kieran Patel as the chairman, Jasmeet Chagger as the main speaker and Kundayi Fugede who gave the vote of thanks. We had great support from Rotarian Tony Hill and parent Mr Patel in preparing our students for the big day. Pitted against three other teams from Claires Court our students came across very well indeed. We did not win, but at a team level our students learnt and achieved a great deal. Kieran’s powerful introduction, Jasmeet’s audience participation in closing their eyes along with her poignant anecdote and Kundayi’s relaxed and jolly style were among the compliments paid to our team. I know that the team will be able to draw much strength from this experience when faced with the challenges of public speaking in later life. They are super ambassadors for the school.
Year 13 Artists Congratulations to the following boys for receiving unconditional offers from University and Colleges. I see their work on a fairly regular basis and it is astonishingly good. They are tremendously talented young men with very bright futures ahead:-
Benjamin Rutherford
Bucks New University
David Buckley
Bucks New University
Benjamin Borst
Bucks New University/UCA Farnham
William Durant
Bucks New University/Reading College
Outstanding Attendance Well done to Jake Wheatley in Year 11 who has attended school every day since he joined us in Year 7. This is a total of 845 days to date.
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Links with Oxford University On Friday 1st February we were pleased to welcome Dr Joe Organ from Brasenose College Oxford and Ellen Slack from Selwyn College Cambridge, to speak to a large group of students from Year 11 and interested students in Year 12 about studying at Oxford and Cambridge as well as the application process. In addition, for the first time at Desborough, we have two students in Year 12 who have gained places to study at Oxford for a day in March. They will attend seminars delivered by Oxford tutors in subjects of their choice!
Budding Sports Journalist Report from Duncan Brown in Year 9—We Gave It Our Best Shot! On Thursday the 31 January the Year 10 Desborough football team travelled down to Forest School on the outskirts of Reading for a friendly game. “Missing a few key players it was always going to be an up-hill battle for Desborough and that is how it started from the off. It seemed there was a lack of desire in the competition and it showed on the field. Failing to string passes in the middle or create a chance, we were 4-0 down at half-time. The side had a slight lift after Louis bought one back to make it 4-1, but it proved only a consolation goal as Forest went on to a 6-1 victory. On the whole, the performance was nowhere near the usual standard of the side. Whether that was because of the poor standard of the pitch, the lack of key players or desire, but the winning mentality seemed to go out the window and we looked a beaten side at half time. Luckily it was only a friendly and hopefully we can bounce back and learn from the mistakes to win the important games this season.”
On behalf of the staff, Governors and sponsors of Desborough College, I would like to thank you for your support and wish you a restful half term.
Desborough College Shoppenhangers Road Maidenhead Berkshire SL6 2QB Tel: 01628 634505 Fax: 01628 639263 E-Mail: info@desborough-college.net