DESBOROUGH COLLEGE
SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST: IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR PARENTS
May 2015
GOVERNORS’ THINKING BOOK PRIZE POETRY & EXPLORE LEARNING GCSE DRAMA PERFORMANCE FUNDRAISING TRIP TO OXFORD UNIVERSITY YEAR 9 FOOD COLLECTION SPORT E-NEWSLETTER SCHOOL SPORT PARTNERSHIP MOCK ELECTION YEAR 13 HERITAGE CENTRE PROJECT VISIT FROM EAST BERKSHIRE MENTAL HEALTH UNIT YEAR 9 READERS HIT A CENTURY TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT NEWS CHESS COMPETITION DESBOROUGH LEGACY
Dear Parents/Carers This half-term, although only five weeks long, has been crucial for a number of reasons. Firstly, there has been the preparation for external examinations. For our Year 11 boys and for all of our Sixth-Formers the outcome of these exams is potentially life-changing. The results will affect, amongst other things, places at university and courses followed post-16. The staff and students have risen to the challenges and, overwhelmingly, have prepared thoroughly, in particular Year 11 boys who have matured noticeably over the course of the year. I hope that every single one of them is rewarded with excellent results when they are published on 20 August. With our biggest Year 7 cohort for 6 years arriving in September we have been busy planning to make their transition from primary school both enjoyable and stress-free. Central to our planning has been a four-day summer school with a variety of fun activities and trips designed to familiarise them with the school site, meet some of the staff and make new friends. So far an astonishing 90 boys have signed-up! They will have a great 4 days. I have been busy over the last few weeks recruiting new teaching staff for September. You will be aware that there is a national shortage of teachers but thankfully there are plenty wanting to come and work at Desborough College. I always give prospective staff a tour of the school and they invariably comment upon the calm, industrious ethos that permeates Desborough these days. And, of course, they cannot fail to be impressed by the cheerful welcome given to them by the boys who are always courteous and respectful. I am bound to say that we have some outstanding staff arriving in September. The half-term has been a great success and we continue to go from strength to strength. A welcome week's holiday beckons and then it's back to work to continue our unrelenting drive to make Desborough College the best that it can be. Enjoy the half-term break.
SCHOOL MEALS AND CASHLESS CATERING PRINCIPAL’S SURGERY VACANCIES INFORMATION FOR PARENTS
Paul Frazer
Important Information for Parents Dear Parents In order to prepare for a smooth transition into the new ways of assessing student progress and attainment resulting from DfE-imposed changes we will be undertaking staff training on Monday, 29th June. This will mean that school is closed on that day. If this creates insurmountable child-care difficulties for any parents please contact me and I will try to make suitable alternative arrangements. Yours sincerely
Paul Frazer
Parents Parking on Shoppenhangers Road I have received a number of complaints from residents on Shoppenhangers Road who are having the entrances to their drives blocked by parents picking boys up from school. Could parents please avoid inconveniencing local residents in this way. Thank you.
Paul Frazer
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Governors’ Thinking
Article from Doctor Dan Jacoby, School Governor Governors have 6 meetings each major term. Our meetings in Term 5 are the final opportunity to discuss the progress of our students, our exam results since January and to highlight any last minute concerns for pupils, so that they have access to all the help that our staff give so generously, often in their own time. We heard presentations for Years 10 and 11 on the predictions identified in DC4 and were delighted with the confidence expressed that our pupils are tracking best ever outcomes in English and Maths. There is still a lot to do for them in terms of revision and overcoming final exam nerves but all the staff are encouraging them through to the finishing line. Governors and Leadership continued their discussions on new ways to engage our senior boys as they transition from GCSE to AS/A Level study and the increased work, and avoid the 6 month delay in realising that the demands are much higher and that more application is required. We were encouraged with new Year 7 admission numbers, well up again year on year, but which still leaves opportunity to move to a 6 form entry. Governors were briefed on the implications of the new DfE assessment, where Progress 8 and Attainment 8 are the new measures for Summer 2016 of how well our students and the school is judged to be performing. We recognise that this is a significant change in criteria which impacts upon choices of subjects and options for students, so governors are thinking about how best to communicate the changes for pupils to parents. Much more on this topic to come. As we come to the end of Term 5, our hopes and thoughts are with our students as the exams are well under way and we wish them all the very best outcomes and that they feel satisfied that they did the best they could do. The governors again appeal to parents to both login to “Ofsted Parent View” and express your own views on how we are doing against Ofsted’s 12 standard questions, but also to act as ambassadors in the community and amongst your friends, to encourage them to come and see what we are doing that is transforming Desborough College to an outstanding comprehensive school for boys. Please invite them to make an appointment to talk about their son with our Principal, Paul Frazer. It is never too late to change schools, especially when boys can be so much happier, creative and productive at Desborough.
http://www.desborough.org.uk/ or https://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/parent-view-results/survey/result/126992/ current
Nigel Cook Chair of Governors
Dan Jacoby Chair of Facilities
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Judging Panel for the Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize We were delighted to discover last week that we have been chosen to participate in judging the Royal Society’s Young People’s Book Prize. This prize is aimed at finding the best science book for young people up to the age of 14. I always purchase the shortlisted best (adult) science books from the Royal Society’s Winton prize each year for the older students to read as these books are always fascinating yet readable and cover all kinds of interesting science; so we were really excited that we could be involved in voting on this year’s Young People’s Book Prize. Last year’s winning book was: Eye benders: the art of seeing and believing by Clive Gifford.
I am currently recruiting budding scientists in Year 7 to join our panel to read and discuss the books and we will meet weekly. We will also get the chance to ask the shortlisted authors any questions we may have about their books. This year’s shortlist of books was announced on 14th May and covers the full spectrum of science; from Microbes to antimatter:
The shortlisting panel are:Professor John Burland FRS – Emeritus Professor of Soil Mechanics, Department of Civil and Environment. Engineering, Imperial College London. Dr Stephanie Schorge – Royal Society University Research Fellow in the Institute of Neurology, University College London. Katie Thistleton – Television presenter and host of the CBBC Book Club. Dr Shaun Long – English teacher at Royal Society Associate School, Bodmin College, Cornwall. Julia Eccleshare – Writer, broadcaster and lecturer, and the Guardian's children's books editor. We are looking forward to receiving our judging pack and looking at the criteria to follow when judging each book’s merits. It should be lots of fun. Mrs Hallissey, School Librarian
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Year 7 Poetry and Explore Learning Visit I love you, For all that you are, All that you have been And all you’re yet to be. Within your heart I lose myself And without you I find myself Wanting to be Lost again. And something Inside me dies And I wish I could feel The way I Used to, But I don’t.
By Krystian Bisikierski—Yr 7
On Wednesday 6th May, two people from 'Explore Learning' came to our school to help us develop our story writing abilities and helped us to start writing our own weird stories! To start with, we had to expand on a simple sentence, by adding on certain techniques such as adjectives. This simple sentence had to be about this picture. After this, ‘First News' newspapers were handed out. With these we had to cut out a picture of one object, one person and one setting. Using these pictures, we were to make a collage which we were meant to create a story out of. This could be about whatever we wanted, as long as it was to do with our collage but it had to be as strange as possible. For example, Rafe cut out a picture of a panda, something saying 'Is Clegg a Clever Cloggs?', and a forest background. Out of that he created a panda chat show set in a forest at which Nick Clegg causes a riot! Another example was Nathan’s story about Jennifer Lawrence on a Boris bike on the lagoon seawall in Swansea! Our stories are for a competition in which we can win two child and two adult tickets to Disneyland Paris and £500 worth of books for the school- Mrs Hallissey will be pleased! By Rafe Lyons and Nathan Jefferys
GCSE Drama Performances: Oh What A Night! The GCSE Drama students presented a magnificent display of talent recently to a full house of parents, friends and staff in the Jacoby Studios. It was a delight to see boys rise to the challenges and pressures of live performance and many were buzzing with confidence and a sense of real achievement. Mrs Holyoake-Lloyd and I would like to commend the students for their sustained energy and resilience during some lengthy rehearsals and for their professionalism and creativity in performance. Some particular highlights include great Russian dancing and caricatures from The Government Inspector; powerful, realistic emotion from the tragedy of Kes; hilarious ensemble moments and physical theatre from the comic satire Accidental Death of an Anarchist; tragic realism and storytelling from the WW1 play Cornelius; symbolic and atmospheric work depicting the collapse of the boys society in Lord of the Flies; side-splitting realistic comedy from Neville’s Island, portraying four business men lost in the Lake District on a bonding weekend; and hilarious, boisterous physical comedy from Up ‘n’ Under. The effort put into learning lines, costume, lighting, sound and supporting each other as a team was remarkable. A big well done and thank you goes out to all the Year 10 and 11 performers for a highly entertaining evening.
Mrs Turner—Head of Drama
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Drama Photos
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Drama Photos Cont’d ..
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Fundraising for Student Well done, Kieran Patel Kieran Patel, who left Desborough last summer to take up a place at Royal Holloway studying German and Management, is busy fund-raising to finance a visit that he is making to Uganda in July to re-build and refurbish two village schools near Jinja. The funds raised will allow Kieran and 50 other Berkshire Scouts to massively improve the life-chances of the children who attend these schools. More information on the project can be found on the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gN9fJi2wqg Donations can be made to Kieron on https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/kieranpatel1
Oxford University Trip On the 13th May 2015, eight students from their Year 9 Computer Science class were invited to go to Wooster College, Oxford University for a day to visit their Computer Science Department. Ms McDonald, our teacher and organiser selected myself, Elliot Jones, Gabriel Doyle, Zander Dumas, Ollie Hull, Robert Matthews, Jonathan Nankivell and Davor Larsen. When we arrived we were welcomed by Doctor Wallace of The Education Fellowship and three teachers from the other schools. We started our day having a lecture whereby a women talked about the university. We were then split up into two groups. We had a tour of the massive college showing the sport facilities and classrooms. After we finished the tour we were sent to the same lecture room for a Q and A session and then we were sent for lunch. We were given a very tasty spaghetti Bolognese with garlic bread and me and my friends talked to one of the 3rd years at the college about university life. After lunch, we were sent to the Computer Science Faculty where we had to take on a quiz (in groups of 3) which required going around the block and talking to the second years who have created their own programs. There were 13 groups to visit. Each group were using different programs using different types of code. Our group found the AR program the most fascinating. Once we had asked all the questions we had to create our own plan for a project that the next second years can do. After the quiz ended, we had two very engaging lectures, one about internet safety and the other about the future of technology. I personally thought that the second lecture was more interesting for me as a Computer Scientist. The quizzes had been marked and it was time for the results. In 3rd place was a school from Northampton with a score of 15. Then in 2nd place was a school from Wiltshire with a score of 17.5 and finally the group that came 1st with 21.5 points was group one from Desborough College! My group went to receive the prize (a big bag of sweets). We had a couple of photos taken, then we were advised it was time to go home (4:30 pm). When we got on the coach we had a big party with sweets. After a fun day of work, Desborough returned home victorious. Harley Jones – Year 9 Following the recent trip to Oxford University, the following comment was made regarding the impeccable behaviour of Desborough students:“I feel the boys from Desborough should be especially singled out. Their engagement and enthusiasm on the day was exemplary. They engaged with all the activities and were attentive and interested in everything. At the end of the day each of them came up and shook my hand and thanked me. I was very moved by their sincerity and their courteousness. And to make it even better, they won the competition against the other Education Fellowship schools. They are a real credit to the school and I am grateful to you for allowing them to come. Delorise was also great during the day, engaging and encouraging the boys throughout. I would be proud to take the boys from Desborough on any future trips. Best wishes Doctor Wallace Director of IT and School Development—The Education Fellowship
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Year 9 Food Collection Millions around the world go hungry every day and hunger affects people from all walks of life. They are your neighbours, the people you pass on the street or even friends. Most people never expect to have to go to a food bank. But when faced with unemployment, poverty or family crisis, many find themselves having to turn to their community food bank to feed their family. During the run up to the Easter Holidays, the Year 9 Prefects organised a school wide food collection to raise awareness of this on-going issue and to provide extra food for our local food bank right here in Maidenhead. The response from the boys was fantastic and donations we greatly received. On behalf of the Year 9 Prefects, I would like to thank all those parents who raided their cupboards and did their bit to stop hunger in its tracks! Mr Hall—Raising Achievement Leader
East Berkshire School’s Plate Winner Year 11 students recently won their cup final against Waingels, making light work of the opposition and winning 2-0. The boys gave another dominant display and thoroughly deserved their win. Kamal Chammari and Duncan Brown scored the goals. But it was Bradley Pearce who won man of the match for his disciplined display in midfield doing a great job for the team. A massive thank you to our travelling away fan for making the journey to come and support the boys, Ms Gater and an even bigger thank you to Mr Rattigan for all his help this year with helping with the team. Mr Snell—Raising Achievement Leader
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Year 7 Cricket Results
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Football I am pleased to announce a new partnership between Desborough College and Maidenhead United Football club. From the start of this term a futsal coach has been visiting the school every Friday to lead sessions to selected Year 9 pupils. The aim of these sessions is to build on top of the fundamental football skills the boys already have. In the near future we are hoping to arrange friendly fixtures with other local schools. As it has been very successful in such as short space of time, the boys will be able to continue the training into Year 10 and potentially be entered into a futsal league. Starting from September we are also looking to expand the futsal programme to other year groups. We were also privileged to have a Maidenhead United coach come into the school and lead a football training session to our 1st XI. The boys really enjoyed it and gained a lot from the session. I would like to thank the coach, Sam Lock, for giving up his time to deliver the training session and I am keen to organise similar sessions next season. Mr Furmage—PE Teacher
Athletics The athletics season is now well under way at Desborough College with one of the first events being Quadkids. In this competition, a squad of Year 7 pupils had to each take part in the following events: 100m, 800m, standing long jump and vortex throw. For each event the boys would get a score based on their performance. By adding up each of the boy’s scores from each event, an overall team score would then be created. The boys were competing with 9 other local schools from the PE and School Sport Partnership. The pupils in the squad chosen for this event were Cameron Macrae, Louie Atherton, Jimmy March and James Ferguson. The boys showed huge amounts of determination throughout each event and overall as a team came 3rd. This is an excellent result as it was the boys’ first athletics competition for Desborough College. One of the team members, James Ferguson, performed outstandingly and with his individual score managed to finish 2nd overall. This is a fantastic achievement as there were around 80 boys who entered the competition. Mr Furmage PE Teacher
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E-Newsletter from Ascot & Maidenhead School Sport Partnership
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Mock Election Article Four parties took part in the 2015 mock election at Desborough College. The Liberal Democrats, UK Independence Party (UKIP), the Labour Party and the Conservatives were fighting for a place in parliament. In what was a very close and unpredictable battle for parliament, all four parties looked in contention to win the biggest and most responsible job in the United Kingdom. Lib Dems Leader: Cian Jefferys Main ambitions: Education Protect the education budget in real terms from the early years to age 19. Increase the number of Teaching Schools – centres of teaching excellence that provide support for other schools. Work Increase the number of apprenticeships and improve their quality. Work with the Apprenticeship Advisory Group to increase the number of apprentices from BAME backgrounds, ensure gender balance across industry sectors and encourage underrepresented groups to apply. How well did they do? During speeches across the years, the Liberal Democrats did not find favour with the electorate for providing arguments against the other parties. They promoted themselves well through an active and interesting party political broadcast. This left the members of the party with mixed emotions. UKIP Leader: Rajveer Pahl Main Ambitions: Education Existing schools will be allowed to apply to become grammar schools and select according to ability and aptitude. Selection ages will be flexible and determined by the school in consultation with the Local Authority. Subject to academic performance UKIP will remove tuition fees for students taking approved degrees in science, medicine, technology, engineering, maths on the condition that they live, work and pay tax in the UK for five years after the completion of their degrees. Work There must be no exclusivity clauses in any zero-hours contract. Workers on zero-hours contracts must be given at least 12 hours advance notice of work. Once notice has been given, they must be paid for the work, regardless of whether or not they are actually needed. Tax UKIP will raise the personal allowance, the point at which you start paying tax, from £10,600 to £13,500 to the level of a full time minimum wage. How well did they do? Although they were not appreciated in Year 9, the UKIP members were liked by the Year 7 students a lot, though this did not secure them the winning votes. This left the leader and his party fuming at the voters.
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Mock Election Cont’d …. Labour Party Leader: Blessing Hamandishe Main Ambitions: Education We will raise teaching standards by requiring every teacher to become qualified and continue to update their skills and knowledge, introducing a new Master teacher status and supporting plans for a College of Teaching. We will cut tuition fees from £9,000 to £6,000, reducing the burden of debt on students and the country, paid for by restricting Pension Tax Relief for the highest earners and clamping down on tax avoidance. Jobs for Young People We will ensure young people are in training, not on benefits, replacing out-of-work benefits for 18-21 year olds with a new youth allowance that supports them to train. We will guarantee a job to all young people who have been out of work for a year, paid at the National Minimum Wage. It will be a job they have to take, or they will lose their benefits. How well did they do? Their campaign started off well with a well-received promotional video, they kept this going all the way through until the end only losing narrowly to the Conservatives. It was a valiant effort from the whole Labour Party and they were proud to come as close as they did to winning. Conservatives Leader: Takashi Fujimoto Duly elected by the students of Year 7 and Year 9 at Desborough College Main ambitions: Young People Ensure a good primary school place for your child with zero tolerance for failure. Help teachers to make Britain the best country in the world for developing maths, engineering, science and computing skills. Employment We will create 3 million new apprenticeships and make sure there is no cap on university places so we have aspiration for all. We will take everyone earning less than £12,500 out of income tax altogether and pass a law to ensure we have a Tax-Free Minimum Wage in this country. Housing We will build 200,000 homes for first time buyers in England and introduce a new bank account to help young people save for a house. For every £1 saved towards a deposit the government will add 25p (up to £200 a month and a total of £12,000). How well did they do? After days of voting and battling for the number one spot in parliament the Conservatives won the election. Many people were stunned as the reigning party regained their place as Britain’s national leader. Note from returning officer: Mrs Murphy, a number of ballot papers were disqualified for having multiple crosses and therefore counting as spoilt ballots. These votes could have made the result very different. By Matthew Worsfold and Gursangat Pattar—Year 9
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Photos of Mock Election Conservative Candidate & Winner: Takashi Fujimoto
UKIP Candidate, Rajveer Pahl
Liberal Democrats Candidate, Cian Jefferys
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Labour Candidate Blessing Hamandishe
Year 13 Heritage Centre Project During the winter term, we had the opportunity to visit the Maidenhead Heritage Centre to conduct a project to help develop our historical research skills. Throughout the course of our project we worked closely with Virginia Jenner, who had visited us at the end of Year 12. She aided us with our research on a local war hero – Albert Frederick Boddington. Unbeknown to us, our project would be used as part of the Key Stage 2 educational packs provided to local primary schools for their research projects on the First World War. Along the way we acquired valuable research and analytical skills that we will be able to use at university. We handled a range of artefacts, including a switchblade knife, a bible, WW1 era postcards and a service medal, all belonging to Sergeant Boddington. We would like to extend our thanks to the Virginia Jenner at Maidenhead Heritage Centre and Mrs Murphy for arranging the project, as we now hand over our task to our Year 12 historians. By George Weston, Simran Rai and Joe Beel
Visit from East Berkshire Mental Health Unit On Friday 8th May two nurses from The East Berkshire Mental Health Unit came in to school to deliver a day of training to our Sixth Form on recognising the signs of people suffering with a mental health issue and just as importantly what they can do to help those people, whether they are family or friends. They also gave tips and advice on how to deal with stress and anxiety. A vital tool with upcoming exams. The pupils clearly found this useful and the common room was filled with talk surrounding the training for days afterwards. Clearly this is training that will be with them for life and will ensure that pupils who leave Desborough College are not only achieving outstanding grades but they are also well rounded young adults ready to deal with the world outside of education. Mr McInerney—Head of Sixth Form
Year 9 Readers Hit a Century Every Wednesday morning a small group of Year 9 boys have arrived at the Learning Resource Centre to read for an hour as part of the literacy drive at Desborough. For a few, this was a particular challenge because they have only been living in this country for scarcely over a year, having arrived with little English. The shelves are well stocked with a variety of books for different levels of readers, so there was plenty to choose from and something for everyone, no matter the reading ability. Each time a boy finished reading a book, he completed an online test to check on his understanding of what had been read. We decided to set ourselves a challenge to read one hundred books as a group. On completion of each book, a paper image of a tome was stuck on the wall showing the name of the book, the name of the student who read it and the number of the book we were up to. It was a constant visual reminder of what we had achieved and what we were aiming for, and it was fun to see our pile of paper books gradually creeping up the wall and getting higher and higher. With the promise of a pizza lunch delivered by Domino’s, everyone worked really hard to hit our target. In recognition of their achievement, Mr Frazer invited the group to meet with him and talk about some of the books they had read. Now that we have one hundred books under our belt, we are going for our next goal: to read another hundred, of course! Mrs Aslett – Learning Support Assistant
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News from the Technology Department Year 7’s have been completing their toy airplane projects this term. We have been incredibly impressed with how their design and make skills have developed. This bunch of boys are great at using the laser cutter and really strong at the hand traditional methods too! Bright future ahead for these Design Technology whizzes! Many more pictures can be seen on our Twitter! @DesboroughDT Year 8 classes have been very busy this term too making their very own mantle piece clocks! Again we are seeing a wonderful mix between traditional technologies and new! The clocks are turning out great and the boys are getting ready to take these projects home soon! Their clocks have been retweeted and favourited by huge design companies online! Amazing work boys! Putting Desborough on the map!
Year 9 students have been challenged this term to Design and make a stool using some very advanced joint work. Needless to say the year group has risen to the challenge and we are already seeing incredible results! Keep it up boys!
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News from the Technology Department Cont’d ... A big mention is needed for our GCSE and BTEC level 2 boys who have had a very busy year. They have all sent off excellent coursework on time and the effort put in to final products has been immense. As they prepare to sit their exams with us this year we wish them the absolute best, each student has been a pleasure to work with. The whole team here in technology take our hats off to them.
Another group needing a mention is our AS Level Product Design students. These boys have completed astonishing furniture products, their coursework is sent off with wonderful determination and effort put in. We wish these boys the very best in their exam in June we are very proud of how far they have come in this one year!
Miss Kelleher—Head of Design Technology
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Chess Competition with the Principal This was our 3rd annual chess tournament for all boys to enter. As this tournament continues to grow I was grateful for the organising skills and chess expertise of Arshdeep Sohal in Year 11. Chess is a great leveller. Once boys had played others in their year, the year groups were mixed up in the knock out rounds. Isacc Bark (Year 7) did particularly well against the older boys becoming a runner up as did Naill Canning (Year 9). It was wonderful to see the enthusiasm and camaraderie between all the entrants and the well-meaning advice from spectators. The competition took place over many weeks until we had our winner – Lee Davis of Year 11. As a reward for winning, Lee was challenged to a match by our Principal Mr Frazer. The match was played during lunch-time and the audience watched in silence, awed by the standard of play. Lee lost his queen very early in the game but fought back valiantly. The game continued with long pauses as they pondered each move with so much pride at stake. It was a fabulous match and as the match had not been completed by the time that lunch was finished, Mr Frazer gallantly offered Lee the win. Lee commented “Sir played tremendously well and he put me under a lot of pressure.” Perhaps we could have a rematch in the future!
Chess is still played every day in the library, even on those infrequent sunny days and we intend to run another tournament in the next school year. I have hopes for a Scrabble tournament so if you have any old board games you no longer need please consider donating them to Desborough College LRC. The boys are certainly up for the challenge! Mrs Hallissey School Librarian
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Desborough Legacy Desborough Legacy is a Fundraising Charity established by Parents & Staff. Its purpose is to raise funds so that donations and gifts can be made to provide the extra equipment and facilities that benefit the students. We want to improve and enrich the lives of our children attending Desborough College by enabling them to have the use of equipment that the college simply cannot include in their budgets from the funds provided by the government. Desborough Legacy is an opportunity for every parent and family to join in with their son’s college life, offering their particular skills and services and participating and helping in our community of parents and staff. Because we are a registered charity, we are able to claim “Gift Aid” on donations and gifts, where the tax man will give us £500 for every £2,000 we raise ourselves (or 25p per £1). If you are self-employed and your business pays business tax, then you can claim exemption for donations and gifts to a registered charity. Why not give this tax to your son’s college via Desborough Legacy and not the tax man? Your accountant can advise you. If you work for a company or organisation, they too can donate to charity and receive the same exemption from business tax. Help your son’s college by encouraging your company to help us and not the tax man.
Donate to Desborough Legacy to improve and enrich your son’s college life. There is more information about the organisation and events on the website pages www.desborough.org.uk/Desborough-Legacy Charity Commission Registration Number : 1113365 Mr Ayres-Turner—Site Manager
Desborough Legacy Current Fund Raising Events BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE DESBOROUGH LEGACY
Let the games begin!!! Descot Race Night taking place Friday 12th June Held in the Main Hall 6.30pm till late £6 entrance or become a VIP for the night for only £12 VIP includes: VIP Parking & Red Carpet Private Entrance Best seats in the house Waiter Service Free bottle of wine per table
Feeling lucky? Then why not come along!
Tickets on sale either on squid or in Reception 21
Free £400 for Lunchtime Hot Meals If you are in receipt of state benefits or you work less than 16 hours per week with a family income below £16,190, your son may be entitled to free schools meals. This can provide you with more than £400 per child for free lunchtime meals in school. We believe that the FSM is a crucial entitlement to help ensure that all children, independent of their family income should be able to get a nutritious meal in the middle of the day. They also have important health and educational benefits for the children that receive them. All school providers are encouraged to introduce cashless systems so that children in receipt of FSM get this funding automatically. This was one of the reasons to improve our catering service. To complete an Application Form on-line press ctrl and click on the link below:-
https://www.cloudforedu.org.uk/ofsm/mwschools/ If you have any further questions, please contact the school on 01628 634505
Cashless Catering for Students Desborough has now introduced Cashless catering for all our students and staff. Desborough College is working in partnership with Catering Academy to ensure a healthier delivery of food to all its students and staff. Our dining room is open from breakfast onwards and offers hot and cold drinks, snacks, and home cooked meals created by the chef on our site. Samples of the Catering Academy menus can be found on the school website. Once your son is registered for our cashless catering system just follow the instructions on our website for the sQuid online payment system, and your son will be able to buy food in our dining room without the worry of remembering to ensure he has cash with him. The cashless facility has allowed us to provide the students with a quicker service as no money and change is being handled. Please be aware that there is no cash facility at the tills.
http://www.desborough.org.uk/sQUID-Online-Payments
Next Principal’s Surgery Parents wishing to have a private conversation with me about any issues relating to school are invited to attend my Principal’s surgery. The next one will be held on 12 June 2015. These sessions are 10 minute slots. If you wish to have a longer conversation then please book a separate appointment via Nicola Humphries on 01628 762521.
Desborough College Shoppenhangers Road Maidenhead Berkshire SL6 2QB Tel: 01628 634505 Fax: 01628 639263 E-Mail: info@desborough-college.net
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Vacancies
FULL-TIME TEACHER OF ENGLISH MPS/UPS (Required for September 2015) A position has arisen for an enthusiastic, ambitious and qualified teacher of English to join our lively team of committed professionals. The ideal candidate would be highly motivated, imaginative and inspiring with excellent interpersonal skills. We offer a wide range of opportunities to develop teaching skills, including a comprehensive CPD programme, and are committed to effective learning, teaching and safeguarding. The position would be suited to an NQT or a more experienced teacher who wishes to join a school with a supportive Leadership team who work alongside teachers to inspire students to make significant and sustained progress. The role involves teaching English and English Literature at KS3 and KS4, with the possibility of teaching A Level English Literature. If you are committed and feel you have a contribution to make to our school we would be delighted to hear from you. Candidates are invited to submit a comprehensive Curriculum Vitae and a two page A4 letter of application which clearly demonstrates how experience to date has prepared you for this role. Desborough College is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All successful candidates will be required to undergo an enhanced DBS check. For further information please refer to our web site at www.desborough.org.uk.
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Information for Parents
“For Tweens By Tweens” TotallyTween’s Get Fit for Fun Campaign launches May 2015 www.totallytween.co.uk is a pioneering new online platform, which is a safe, engaging “go-to” source for information, discussion and trends for 8-12 year olds. A Tween is a young person who is at that transition period between being a child and a teen, where they experience rapid physical and emotional change. TotallyTween comes as a response to their unique needs. The platform is the “go-to” source for information, discussion, opinion and sharing on trends, fashion, sport, style, health, fitness, beauty, entertainment, film, music, books, TV, social issues, cooking and all manner of subjects that are of interest to this exciting and eclectic young audience. The Campaign: Summer is almost upon us, so we want to encourage our young community to ‘Get Fit for Fun’ by either joining local clubs, playing tennis, joining a street dance crew, visiting local pools, or simply getting on their bikes, but ultimately we want them to make friends, get fit and have fun! We all know exercise has a positive effect on keeping both mind and body healthy, and we want to ensure TotallyTween’s community is happy and motivated. Over the course of May-August 2015 we will be focussing on key youth sporting activities that take place across the UK. Attend following events (or others suggested by national sporting bodies): We will be attending key events for young people during that period, such as: BBC’s Young Dancer of the Year competition – May 9th @ Sadler’s Wells, London Gymnastics - Gym Fusion – 17th May, London Netball – National Clubs U14 Final - 23rd&24th May, Newcastle Upon Tyne Swimming – ASA National Age Group Diving Championships 27-31st May, Group D 9-11 years, Sheffield Cycling – BNECC Go-Ride League – 6th July, Merseyside Our roving Tween reporters would then need access to the young sports people to interview them on camera and also to receive information, photos and trailers and any promotional assets that they can use to write and produce features for www.totallytween.co.uk
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Information for Parents Cont’d ... Promotional material TT would create: Make the designated sport a home page feature on the site Produce a TTMag article written from attending a gymnastics, netball, swimming, cycling or dance event and meeting the participants Have a video to upload from the relevant sport or activity to the TT Channel We already have a Q&A and photos with Olympic gymnast Beth Tweddle ready for the site, but would like to feature other key athletes and sports personalities Start a debate about the importance and benefits of getting involved in these activities Ask our Tweens to send in their own User Generated Content about these activities or their own favourite sport We will pose a relevant question on the sport, asked by our Tweens to our resident nutritionist Jessica Mark – who has a monthly spot on the site Competition for Schools Nationwide: Skipping Challenge! Friday 12th June is the nominated “TotallyTween’s Get Fit For Fun” day in Schools Challenge – each class in Years 3-8 to take part in a skipping challenge – every person in each class needs to skip for 1 minute, with their number of jumps/skips counted. Then take the top 20 scores in the class, add them together to create an overall total for that class. The school should then put forward its overall winning class total to compete against every other participating school in the country. We will award a prize to the winning school(s), donated by a major sponsor. Press & PR: Press release and regular news stories including mention of sponsors sent to national press and regional National sporting bodies to promote the campaign Social Media campaign Key Industry Figures: Theresa May, Home Secretary Sebastian Coe, Vice-President of the International Association of Athletics Federation The Rt Hon Nicky Morgan, Secretary of State for Education, Minister for Women and Equalities The Rt Hon David Laws, Minister of State for Schools Nick Gibb, Minister of State for School Reform Edward Timpson, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families Lord Nash, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools Unpaid Sam Gyimah, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Childcare and Education The Rt Hon Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Ed Vaizey, Minister of State for Culture and the Digital Economy Helen Grant, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Sport and Tourism
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Information for Parents Cont’d ... Possible collaboration: Total Gymnastics (Beth Tweddle) – Sportsphere – www.totalgymnastics.co.uk Sport England – ‘This Girl Can’ campaign – www.sportengland.org What we require to underpin the campaign: Public backing for the campaign from key industry figures & bodies Attendance at Events above, or any other suggested more relevant events Schools participation Sponsorship/Prize donation from leading brands such as Speedo, Nike, Zoggs, Innocent Drinks, Sports Direct, Ready Brek and Cotswold Outdoor Tween participation Support from: Gymnastics Swimming Cycling Netball Dance
www.british-gymnastics.org www.swimming.org www.britishcycling.org.uk www.englandnetball.co.uk www.emdp.org
Background information about founders of the site: Founded in early 2014 by Berkshire-based businesswomen and parents, Clare Vincent and Gina Walter. TotallyTween (TT) has been designed with the input of Tweens, hence it’s tagline “For Tweens By Tweens”. TotallyTween comes to fruition following almost a year of meticulous research by the women. Clare Vincent is a business and marketing specialist who spent more than 20 years in the television business, latterly as a BBC Worldwide Sales & Distribution board member. Most recently she has been commercial director of a Windsor-based charity, where she was responsible for creating an Ofsted registered independent school. Gina Walter is a former London Stock Exchange marketing executive specializing in corporate advertising, who went on to be a director of her own Windsorbased retail bridal business. Most recently Walter has been managing the office of a busy, expanding mainstream school in Berkshire. Site Content: TotallyTween went live with a raft of diverse, colourful and exclusive launch content, which included interviews with the cast and costume designer of Disney’s Cinderella. Exclusive interviews include Martha Collison, the youngest ever contestant on last year’s Great British Bake Off and Royal Ballet dancer Grace Horler. Girls’ football coach Yul Muzzioli offers tips and insight and we also have nutrition advice from young nutritionist and food guru Jessica Mark. There’s a fascinating feature on Medical Detection Dogs including an interview with its founder Dr Claire Guest. TotallyTween is packed full of fashion and style tips, film and book reviews including a tween report on the new DreamWorks computer-animated buddy comedy Home, which is voiced by Rihanna, and new online discoveries like Lovereading4kids.co.uk. We talk to celebrity hair and make-up artist Mira about working with Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson and offer fun ideas on how to spend the Easter holidays including events at the awesome Roald Dahl Museum. What Jamie Oliver did for School Dinners… TotallyTween’s mission is to get Tweens across the country “Fit for fun”….
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