Stringer Press - Autumn Term 2020 by Dorothy Stringer School

STRINGER PRESS AUTUMN TERM 2020 Dear Parents, Carers and Students This first term of the academic year has been the most challenging time in education I have known. Over the years, leaders have become adept at dealing with floods, snow and various bouts of widespread ill health, however Covid-19 has challenged all schools, as well as parents and students in an unparalleled manner. Students and staff have gotten used to staggered breaks, re-arranged classrooms as well as copious amounts of hand sanitiser. However what has been fantastic is seeing the students back in lessons and learning again. I am most proud that, through working together, we have been able to keep our community safe and offer the full curriculum throughout the term and students have had a near normal timetable. Sport has continued and creative subjects have flourished. Students taking mock examinations have been able to show what their hard work can achieve. As staff we have developed new ways of working. Assemblies are virtual, parentsâ€™ evenings as well use our new technology and our investment in Teams and laptops have allowed blended learning to support those who have had to isolate. We have also invested in high quality HD visualizers. As we reach the end of term Iâ€™m proud of the ways everyone has adapted week on week to allow learning to be the real focus. Students in Year 11 have had to adapt to changes to their GCSEs subjects for next year, however their focus in the classroom and dedication to their studies is commendable. They await their mock results with anticipation and for the next two terms we will work together to support our students and their families through to those GCSE exams in June and then onto college after their August results. The extra-curricular life of the school continues to flourish as students participate in our new year-group house competitions. It has been a pleasure to see competitive sport return which has only been possible with the determined efforts of staff to keep this going. You can see a detailed report from Mr Corrigan in PE News. I do hope that over the Christmas break you and your families can rest and enjoy time together. It will be a very different Christmas break this year, however with the first vaccinations starting this week we can hope for a brighter 2021. On behalf of all the Governors and staff at Stringer, I wish you all a safe and relaxing break over the festive period and a happy and healthy 2021. Matt Hillier

1w:1www.dorothy-stringer.co.uk

t: 01273 852222

e: office@dorothy-stringer.co.uk

This Terms News... This is an interactive document, please use the contents below to go to a particular page of interest, or click on hyper links in the text to visit the web page. Virtual Open Evening Head Students The Martlets - Thank You Junior Leadership Team Stringer Run Student Gets Scouted for Bede’s Scholarship The Drama Department Dorothy Stringer Alumni Allotment News Anti-Bullying Week 2020 Surrenden Pool Renovation Calendar Photo Winners PE News Art Students Inspire Primary School Students Bebras Computing Challenge Winter Concert Christmas Collections Univeral Music UK Sound Foundation Smarter Uniform #ShopForStringer Celebration Time Yearbook Wildflower Lewes Recycled Tree Decorations SMTC Maths Challenge Maths Department Movember Social Feed Highlights Stringer Life - Autumn Term

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Upcoming Key Dates Monday 4 January 2021

Start of Spring Term

Friday 8 January 2021 Monday 18 - 22 January Thursday 21 January Friday 22 January 2021 hursday 28 January 2021 Thursday 25 February 2021 Tuesday 30, Wednesday 31 February 2021 Thursday 18 March 2021 Thursday 1 April 2021

Year 9 Options Process Begins DEAR Week Year 9 Virtual Options Evening Inset Day - School Closed Year 9 Parents’ Evening Year 11 Parents’ Evening Spring Concert Year 7 Parents’ Evening End of Term/Non Uniform Day

DOROTHY STRINGER SOCIAL ACCOUNTS To keep up to date with current news please follow our social media accounts, various departments run their own accounts and celebrate good work, events and success’.

@dorothystringerschool

share your news We are always interested in hearing student’s achievements in and out of school, and would love to celebrate them in our termly news and on social accounts. Please share them with us by emailing communications@dorothystringer.co.uk

we would love your feedback If you have any ideas or suggestions of the type of news you would like to hear about please email us communications@dorothy-stringer.co.uk

weekly news updates Remember to keep an eye out for our weekly news update from the head teacher in your email in box, it can also be viewed by logging onto the SLG, under ‘newsletter’.

Virtual Open Evening This year for the first time ever we ran a Virtual Open Evening. Prospective Year 7 Families were invited to join the virtual evening which was made up of speeches, demonstrations and live Q&Aâ€™S. The evening was a great success and we would like to thank our Head Students Ben and Ava for their brilliant speeches, and our New Year 7 Students, Frankie, Cassidy, Editih, Lilith & Iona who helped us put together a video for the Year 7 students about Dorothy Stringer. You can view the videos by clicking below.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH

Head Students NEWLY APPOINTED HEAD STUDENTS This term has been our 2020/21 Head Students first term. We would like to congratulate them on their appointments and on their first duty of the year - speaking Virtually at Open Evening to our prospective students and parents. Ben and Ava both stepped up to the challenge for our first ever Virtual head students speech, they were both brilliant. (this can be viewed on page 3) If you are not familiar with our head students we would like to introduce them to you. Head Students: Ava & Ben Deputy Head Students: Grace, Nathanael, Sonny, Florence, Scarlett and Abigail. Our head students will regularly meet with members of the Senior Leadership Team to discuss studentâ€™s wishes and plans for the future of Dorothy Stringer School.

The Martlets - Thank You

CLICK HERE TO WATCH

Junior Leadership Team The Junior Leadership Team (JLT) are unable to meet in person this year due to current restrictions but have been working hard behind the scenes. This has meant that the Year Leadership Team (YLT) meetings have been important to hear our studentâ€™s voices. JLT have been communicating through email and Zoom (who thought that would ever happen!?) and Miss Poole created a virtual assembly. Normally she would have all the JLT up on stage with her so it was a lonely experience this year. We were due to have Caroline Lucas come in and talk to all of our YLT and JLT reps during Parliament Week but this was another victim to current circumstances so Caroline has kindly agreed to postpone to the Summer Term when hopefully we will be able to mix year groups once more. This year we are supporting our school community and currently collecting donations for Christmas boxes and remember you can help throughout the year by using the link below when you shop online. https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/dorothystringerschoolfund/ We are very proud of our students who have shown great resilience and empathy during a testing time. Ms Poole | JLT

Stringer Run

On Wednesday 9 October we held our annual Stringer Run. Well done to all the students in Years 7 and 8 who took part, it was a brilliant event. Congratulations to Iona and George, our Year 7 winners and Llouis and Simi our Year 8 winners.

Student Gets Scouted for Bede’s Scholarship We would like to congratulate Ollie in Year 11 who has been ‘scouted’ by Bedes. Bede’s offered Ollie a scholarship to join Bede’s Sixth Form after playing football against them a few weeks ago. This is a brilliant achievement and we wish Ollie all the luck in the future!

The Drama Department It’s been a challenging term in Drama but, as always, the students and the Drama Department have worked hard to make sure practical learning still takes place in a safe and creative environment. Year 11 GCSE Drama students have completed their Component 2 devised performances that they originally started before lockdown. These performances were creative and engaging; responding to the affect COVID and lockdown had had on teenage lives. We were very proud of our students who worked within a very tight time frame but were resilient and positive in their attitude to learning. Year 10 GCSE Drama students are in the final weeks of rehearsal for their performance of their set text, ‘DNA’ by Dennis Kelly. They have been working hard in lessons and in independent rehearsals after school on this, their first performance. We are excited to see the results of all of their hard work and dedication in December.

During the Autumn half-term break 40 of our Year 11 GCSE Drama students willingly gave up a day of their holiday to rehearse and make sure they are ready for their assessed Devised performances.

To keep up to date with all things drama follow them on instagram: @dramadorothystringer and Twitter: @DStringerDRAMA

Dorothy Stringer Alumni We went to Dorothy Stringer School and this is what we are doing now....

We love to hear about and celebrate ex-studentsâ€™ success. If you would like to inspire and support the next generation of Dorothy Stringer School students, please sign up to our Student Support Network by emailing careers@dorothy-stringer.co.uk and asking for a link to the Student Support Network platform.

Allotment News

When I heard in March 2019 that the works to the swimming pool were going to mean that the allotment we had spent the last three years developing was due to be bulldozed; I must admit I was overcome with a range of emotions. After a lot of campaigning and nagging we managed to get the council to agree to create a new allotment area as part of the mitigation plans. So we are delighted to now have a new community allotment on an adjacent plot. Over lockdown a couple of Stringer families have taken care of the 23 raised beds and we are enjoying our first autumn harvest. Stringer Community Allotment is still in its developing stage but if you are interested in being part of the project in the future do get in touch with myself, Mr Sandercock sdk@dorothy-stringer.co.uk. Due to the current situation we are limited in what we can organise but we hope to get some regular working events on the calendar in the new year. The seed potatoes are already ordered for the Year 7â€™s to be able to plant potatoes as part of their Environmental Science class next spring with a bountiful harvest predicted for July 2021. Watch this space! Mr Sandercock 9

Anti-Bullying Week 2020 Monday 16 - Friday 20 November was anti-bullying week, to mark the occasion Stringer took part in the Odd Socks Campaign. This year, more than ever, we’ve witnessed the positive power that society can have when we come together to tackle a common challenge. Anti-Bullying Week is no different. Bullying has a long lasting effect on those who experience and witness it. But by channelling our collective power, through shared efforts and shared ambitions, we can reduce bullying together. From parents and carers, to teachers and politicians, to children and young people, we all have our part to play in coming together to make a difference. During anti-bullying week students focussed on bullying, the effects it can cause and how they can help tackle. If any students are experiencing bullying they should speak to someone. • You can report any harmful or hurtful behaviour, even if you’re not sure whether it is bullying. You can report for yourself, for your friends or for someone you don’t know. • Speaking to a member of staff • Speaking to a parent/carer or another trusted adult who can contact the school • Anonymously reporting your concern through our online reporting tool within SLG.

Surrenden Pool Renovation

The Surrenden Swimming pool is benefitting from the Local Authority investment. The majority of the works being carried out involve the interior mechanical rearrangement of the plant room. A new plant room has been constructed to the south face of the pool. As part of the project the allotment has been relocated to a new area that has its own entrance adjacent to the car park; you can see Mr Sandercockâ€™s report in this issue. The new plant and machinery being installed will include new filtration, and an automatic chlorination dosing system. In addition to the new plant, the interior of the pool area will have new lighting, a white tiled suspended ceiling, white plastic wall panelling, and full air conditioning. The pool itself will be fully relined and finished in white which will give the appearance of a blue tint to the water. Chris Lyddon | Site Manager 11

Autumn Term 2020

Malik Carter - September, Animals

Isabella Martin | October, Autumn

Calendar Photo Winners

Lily Murray | November, Shapes & Structures

Safia Kadri | December, Black & White

PE News We have had a great start in PE, Dance and Sport this year. Although, government restrictions and bubbles have given us an inconsistent start we have provided some great opportunities to get involved in physical activity and sport. Clubs have been well attended this half term and we have had more students than ever attending regularly and getting their fix of Sport and Dance. With the absence of fixtures this half term, we are very grateful to all the students and staff who have been involved in the inter-house and D vs S half fixtures at school. The Inter House competitions have been a huge success with Year 7s and 8s already competing in Football, Netball, Tag Rugby, Basketball and Table Tennis this term. We have plans to continue this programme of Inter House fixtures with even more students taking part in the New Year.  The creation of our houses has been inspired by the areas of Brighton and Hove that make up our catchment area; Hollingbury, Ditchling, Surrenden and Beaconsfield. We hope that these houses will form a great legacy and competitive outlet for students for many years to come. Each term houses will be in competition for the Year 7 and 8 house cup which will be awarded to the teams who accumulate the most points over all the sports that term. The current leaders of the house competitions are Ditchling in Year 7 and Beaconsfield in Year 8. That being said, the points totals are still close! The D vs S half fixtures have also been a huge success. The boys’ Year 11 D vs S half was feisty at times, but was played in great spirit and after a last minute header from Alex Brett made the score 3-3, the spoils of the game were decided on penalties. S half took the D vs S half game after winning the shoot-out 4-2. The Year 9 girl’s netball game was also a close contest, finishing 11-11 after a hard fought fixture. Miss Lambert was delighted that 22 girls took part in the game! Another big event this year was the Stringer Run. Over 180 students from Year 7 and 8 took part in the challenging cross-country course. Well done to all of those who took part, but a special mention to Iona T, Simmy S, George H and Llouis M. Who won the race for their respective year groups! We would like to say a huge thank you to a number of Year 10 and 11 sports captains plus students taking GCSE Sports Studies who have been supporting the PE department to organise and officiate the Inter House competitions. These students are developing their leadership skills and confidence is growing with every event they help with. They are a great addition to our team and their help and commitment has been greatly appreciated. Keep up the good work. Mr Corrigan | Head of PE & Sport

Art Students Inspire Local Primary School Students Two of our Year 10 Art students Blu and Barney met Year 4 students of Hove Park Primary via Zoom to talk about their GCSE Art course and show their sketchbooks. The Year 4 students and their teacher at Hove Park Primary School were so impressed with Blu and Barney's presentation. The Hove Park students sent Blu and Barney a stack of Thank You cards to show their appreciation. We would like to add our thanks too from the Stringer Art Department for being such an inspiration to the Primary school students. We are very proud of you both!

Bebras Computing Challenge During the Autumn Term all of our Lower School students, as well as our Year 10 and Year 11 GCSE Computer Science students competed in this yearâ€™s Bebras Computing Challenge online. The challenge is run in partnership with Oxford University with the aim of enthusing students about Computer Science. Our students performed fantastically across the challenge. Year 7 competed in the Junior Challenge, Years 8 and 9 in the Intermediate Challenge and Years 10 and 11 in the Senior Challenge. Huge congratulations go to our students who received a Gold Award. This places them in the 10 % of students who competed across the country and takes them through to the next round of the competition. In total 25 Year 7 students, 57 Year 8 and 9 students and five of our GCSE Computer Science students have qualified for the next round. A special mention to Toby W in Year 7, Mabel G-C in Year 8 and Arthur R in Year 10 who were all awarded Best in School certificates for their performance in their respective challenges. Ms Mockeridge

Winter Concert Thank you to all the staff and students who worked so hard to put on the Virtual Winter Concert, and thank you to all the Stringer families and community who supported the event and watched it on the night. It was a brilliant evening of Music put on by the Music Department and Students in place of the Carol Concert which was unable to go ahead this year. You can view the concert below if you were unable to watch it on the evening.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH

Christmas Collections Supporting the Stringer Community We are enormously grateful to everyone who responded to the appeal to support the Stringer Community by contributing food, gifts and money. We are opening the school on Monday 21 December from 9am till 12pm so that anyone that needs a food hamper is welcome to just come in and get one on a first come first served basis. Please go to Reception via the Loder Road entrance. Charity Cake Sale to Raise Funds for the Hallifax Care Home OAP Christmas Dinner In recent years Mr Brown and the PE department have hosted a Christmas Dinner for the residents of Hallifax Care Home. This year we couldn’t invite them to join us in school but instead we will send them Christmas treats in the form of hampers and cards from students. The canteen has been raising money, through a charity cake sale, and have raised £545.56. We hope the Hallifax residents enjoy the hampers and reading their cards brings some Christmas cheer.

Univeral Music UK Sound Foundation We are excited to announce that the music department has been awarded £1000 from Universal Music UK Sound Foundation towards the purchase of 18 new ukuleles. Thank you to Universal Music UK Sound Foundation.

Smarter Uniform We are delighted to announce that Dorothy Stringer School has partnered with Brighton & Hove's innovative school-uniform reuse project, Smarter Uniforms. Smarter Uniforms collects uniform students have outgrown or no longer need when they move on from Stringer. The uniform is then sorted, washed and resold back to parents. Uniform donations can be left in the Smarter Uniform collection box in Dorothy Stringer’s reception. Working with Smarter uniform we will save parents money, protect our planet's precious resources for our children's future, and raise important funds for the school. Parents and carers can order through the Smarter Uniforms website https://smarteruniforms.org/collections/dorothy-stringer-school and collect from the Fair Shop Queens Road, Brighton. Delivery is also available to all local families, see the website for more details.

#ShopForStringer Easy Fundraising

Celebration Time At the end of this term we celebrated students in assemblies. Below are some of the names of students who were nominated by members of staff, and some comments made by staff. Well done to everyone who was nominated. “It’s so difficult to choose because so many year 7 students have made an excellent start to Stringer. They have shown resilience and kindness and fantastic attitudes, whilst dealing with a challenging time. I am very very proud of the year 7’s!” Resilience: when the going gets tough the tough get going! Claudia T Tegan S Elliot M-J Raoul L Louisha D Maryam A Evie W Johan M Abbie B Charlie T-S Jaydon T Kinda B All these students have been nominated for engagement in lessons and showing enthusiasm and a positive attitude to learning. They demonstrate determination and resilience in all aspects of school life In a world where you can be anything at all, be kind. Frasier C Mohamed M Arlo B Shula C Logan S All these students have been nominated for looking out for others, going out of their way to help, showing empathy and helping out without being asked.

Yearbook Our yearbook team of 2021 has been finalised and we are looking forward to getting to work on it in the New Year. We would like to congratulate all the students involved and look foward to working with you all. The yearbook team will need your help to make the best possible yearbook by providing photos of students from their time at Dorothy Stringer. If you have any photos from the list below, or any general photos from the past five years please email them to olivia.stoner@dorothy-stringer.co.uk School Trips Dolawen Duke of Edinburgh Work Experience Dance Show Sports Teams Sports Day Miss Stoner | Communications Office

Wildflower Lewes On 3 November 2020 A group of Stringer Students led by Dr. Danahar visited Lewes to plant wildflowers with the group â€œWildflower Lewesâ€? this activity was filmed for the Earth Optimism event run by Cambridge University. These are plants grown especially for us by the Millennium Seed Bank, and Big Nature.

Recycled Tree Decorations

This year our Year 7 Environmental Science classes have been making recycled decorations for our School Christmas tree. One by one each class has put their decorations on the tree outside the Main Hall. The decorations look wonderful, a great effort from our Year 7â€™s. Mr Sandercock & Dr Danahar.

SMTC Maths Challenge Twenty eight of our Advanced Maths students took part in the Senior Maths Challenge on the 5th of November. The majority of entrants across the country are in Years 12 and 13, so weâ€™re very pleased that many of our students achieved awards. Twelve students achieved bronze certificates and seven achieved sliver certificates. These students came in the top 60% and 30% respectively of all entries nationwide which is an excellent achievement. Special congratulations to Spike Swho scored the highest mark from students at Dorothy Stringer. Well done to all who took part. As well as completing the Senior Maths Challenge, our Advanced Maths girls have also taken part in the Mathematical Olympiad for girls this term. Well done to everyone involved especially Abigail E who came in the top 25% of all participants across the country. Mr Field, Maths Department

Maths Department Movember We would like to say well done to the Stringer Maths department for their brilliant Movember efforts. They have managed to hit their target and raise ÂŁ1077.00 for Movember. Movember is the leading charity changing the face of menâ€™s health on a global scale, focussing on mental health and suicide prevention, prostate Cancer and testicular cancer. On behalf of the Maths Department we would like to say a huge thank you to all our parents, carers, students and staff who donated to this cause. Top photo - Half way through the challenge. Bottom photo - At the end of the challenge.

Social Feed Highlights #followoursocials

Dorothy Stringer PE @DStringerPE First inter house competition was a overwhelming success. Lots of outstanding performances and competition. Thank you to our sponsors @donatello__ DorothyStringerSchoolLibrary @DSSLibrary1

Its #AntiBullyingWeek @DorothyStringer and in the School Library we have some fantastic resources to support our students. Come along and take a look #Antibullyingweek2020

Dorothy Stringer @DorothyStringer

#SwitchOffFortnight It’s that time of year when we ask our school community to be more aware of their electricity usage. For SwitchOff Fortnight we’re asking you to have a good look around and see what could be turned off to help save electricity.

StringerFundraising @DSFundraising

#ShopForStringer Support our new fundraising initiative.

Dorothy Stringer@DorothyStringer

The Music department would like to invite you to join us for an evening of festive music. We will send out a link to the event nearer the time, but for now pop it in your diary and spread the word to your friends and family.

StringerFundraising @DSFundraising

We are excited to announce that @music_dss has been awarded a £1000 grant from the #UniversalMusicUKSoundFoundation to fund the purchase of 18 new ukuleles for our young musicians.

DorothyStringerSchoolLibrary @DSSLibrary1

Its that wonderful time of the year when the Library Christmas Book Tree appears.

Dorothy Stringer @DorothyStringer A new puzzle to start of the week! @StringerMaths

DStringerDRAMA @DStringerDRAMA

40 Year 11 GCSE Drama students have willingly given up a day of their holiday to rehearse and make sure they are ready for assessed Devised performances next week. We never hear about ambitious, creative teenagers not afraid of a bit of hard graft. @DorothyStringer #edexceldrama

Dorothy Stringer PE @DStringerPE

Rain stayed away, 200+ students competing. Well done to our amazing winners of the Annual Stringer Run. Legends. Thank you as always to our sponsors @donatello__

Stringer Life - Autumn Term

We would like to wish our parents, carers, students and staff a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We hope you have an enjoyable and relaxing break and we look forward to welcoming our students back on January 4 2020, We will be on week 1 of the timetable with tutor time starting at 8.40am. From Dorothy Stringer School.

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