Stringer Press | Spring Term 2021 by Dorothy Stringer School

STRINGER PRESS SPRING TERM 2021

Dear Parents, Carers, Staff, Governors and Students, Welcome to our spring term newsletter. I very much hope you enjoy reading about everything that has been going on in school this term, even during a lockdown! It goes without saying that it has been one of the most challenging we have faced as a profession that I have known in the 24 years of working in schools. As a community we have all managed to develop new skills and built resilience to get through this global pandemic. I would like to publicly thank the staff for adapting their teaching and being able to switch between lessons online as well as face to face delivery. Many an evening was spent learning how the visualisers displayed on Teams, how our blended learning worked, and making sure the students received high quality learning throughout. It seems strange that a year ago we were just about to have our first national lockdown and not many of us had heard of Zoom. Now a year later, the new ICT systems and ways of working are ingrained in our everyday life. We are so pleased to be able to be back to face-to-teaching and long for the days when we can get back to trips, both to our centre in Dolawen, as well as further afield. Thank you too to all of our students, parents and carers who have had to adapt to learning at home. Even in these extreme circumstances you will see the huge amount of work which has been undertaken by staff and students, from the Green flag award, writing for pleasure club for Year 7s, and we even had sheep grazing on the butterfly haven. You will be aware that Dr Danahar was instrumental in his work with the butterfly haven here at Stringer and at February half-term he decided to take his well-earned retirement. He had hoped to be abroad working on his butterfly project in Corfu as we speak, however with the international travel bans this hasn’t been possible. We know that he will be back in the summer to tell us of his travels and to celebrate his 21 years of service to the school. Mr Voegeli too has decided to retire after 20 years at Dorothy Stringer, we wish him all the best, and we hope to see him in the summer to say a proper farewell. I am sure many of us will have pencilled in the date of 17th May which is when the government looks to ease some of the restrictions which are currently in place. In the meantime, even with the current guidelines everyone is able to make the most of the lighter days and warmer weather. I wish you all a safe and Happy Easter, and hope that students are able to take a break away from their screens and look forward to welcoming the whole school back on Monday 19th April. Mr Hillier | Headteacher

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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.

Contents Weekly News Updates 3 Recycling 4 Stringer Sheep Grazing 4 9th Green Flag Award 5 Brighton and Hove MP’s Climate and Biodiversity Emergency Meeting 6 Ross Young Writing Workshop 7 Art Community Tapestry Project 8 Holocaust Memorial Day 10 International Womens Day 10 Brit School Auditions 11 World Book Day 11 PE Summer Term 12 Virtual Indoors Athletics 12 PE Extra-Curricular Timetable 13 Tennis League 13 Spring Term Calendar Photo Winners 14 Business & Computing News 16 Year 8 Animation Films 17 Stringer Alumni: Where are they now? 18 #ShopForStringer - Easy Fundraising 20 DOTs Parent Fundraising Group 20 Smarter Uniforms 21 Photography Competition 2021 22 Virtual Performace of ‘The Greatest Show’ song from The Greatest Showman 23 Careers News 24 Some Fond Farewells... 26 Social Feed Highlights 28 #followoursocials 28

Upcoming Key Dates START OF SUMMER TERM

19 April 2021

YEAR 8 PARENTS’ EVENING

22 April 2021

BANK HOLIDAY

3 May 2021

DEAR WEEK

17 - 21 May 2021

SUMMER HALF TERM

31 May - 4 June 2021

DEAR WEEK

5 - 9 July 2021

END OF ACADEMIC YEAR

22 July 2021

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’.

Weekly News Updates Each week we send out a Headteacher News Update, these include important information for the weeks ahead and a link to them is sent out via email to all parents and carers. If you have missed any from this term you can read them by clicking on the pdf’s below: MARCH 2021 Weekly News Update Thursday 4 March 2021.pdf Weekly News Update Friday 12 March 2021.pdf Weekly News Update Friday 19 March 2021.pdf Weekly News Update Friday 26 March 2021.pdf FEBRUARY 2021 Weekly News Update Friday 5 February 2021.pdf Weekly News Update Friday 12 February 2021.pdf Weekly News Update Friday 26 February 2021.pdf JANUARY 2021 Weekly News Update Friday 8 January 2021.pdf Weekly News Update  Friday 15 January 2021.pdf Weekly News Update Friday 29 January.pdf Previous updates can be found on the website here: Headteacher Weekly News Updates

Recycling As a school we re-cycled over half a tonne of paper in 2020. We are really proud of this considering the circumstances of 2020. As always, we will continue to recycle as much as possible in 2021 Chris Lyddon | Site Manager

Stringer Sheep Grazing On 1 - 5 February we had sheep Grazing at the Liz Williams Butterfly Haven - Dorothy Stringer Over several centuries’ sheep created the right conditions for rare wildflowers and insects to survive. Without their grazing many species over the Downs would be lost. We loved having the sheep at our Butterfly Haven and look forward to welcoming them back next time!

9th Green Flag Award We are delighted to announce that we have successfully secured our 9th Green Flag, Eco Schools’ top award. This puts us into a very small group of schools that have held this status for 20 years. How did we manage this considering our current situation you might ask? Well the Green Flag award is based on the work that has been done over the 2 years since the last award. Although we were limited in 2020 the work we did in Autumn 2018 and throughout 2019 was enough to illustrate we are deserving of the award. The Eco Committee is made up from students from all year groups. They meet on a regular basis and discuss ideas about how we can improve the eco credentials of our school. One successful project in 2019 was turning old Pringles tubes, which are renowned for not being recyclable, into pen recycling pots. Two students designed a covering for the tube that explained what could be recycled. They were then distributed to teachers’ classrooms. The collected pens, highlighters and board markers will now be recycled rather than go to landfill. Our Year 7 Environmental Science lessons continue to impress the Eco Schools assessors. This unique course utilises the wide range of habitats we have developed on the school grounds over the last 20 years, connecting the next generation with the natural world and showing them how we can increase biodiversity if we give nature a chance. Despite all the positives we continue to have challenges and litter is something we still struggle with at our school. Social distancing, changes to the canteen and other COVID safety restraints have prevented us from carrying out our regular litter picking activities with each form. We hope to get this back up and running when we are all back in school later this year. The external works to the swimming pool are nearly finished so we are looking forward to getting the polytunnel back and getting the Stringer Community Allotment up and going again once restrictions are eased. Mr Sandercock | Biodiversity Coordinator

Brighton and Hove MP’s Climate and Biodiversity Emergency Meeting During lockdown myself and a handful of other secondary school students were lucky enough to join in a zoom call with Caroline Lucas, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Peter Kyle and Samer Bagaeen. We discussed the importance of environmental education and had the opportunity to directly ask MPs about their plans to take direct action and help the climate crisis. In preparation for this event, Ted Holtom, Frasier Cox and Elsa Kriebel (me) from Dorothy Stringer came up with a couple questions to discuss - specifically targeting different aspects of the environment. 1 - The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that the government can put lots of resources into dealing with a problem if they need to but they have neglected environmental issues and haven’t prioritised the climate emergency. For example, the Environment Bill has been postponed for the third time. What evidence can you display to show that your party has been treating climate change as a global emergency? 2 - Due to Brexit and COVID-19 we are going through a recession; as we rebuild, how do you propose we restructure society with the environment as a priority? 3 - Many jobs especially in retail have been lost forever during the pandemic, what areas of the growing green economy do you think should be encouraged to provide jobs? 4 - The UK is one of the worst countries in Europe for wild areas and woodlands. How does your party propose to balance the need to become more self-sufficient in food production due to Brexit and the need to protect and increase our natural habitats? 5 - We are possibly the only school in the country that runs an environmental science/ natural history course for Year 7 students; would you consider making this compulsory across all schools? How do you think the school curriculum could be changed to reflect the climate emergency? Although we didn’t get to ask them all due to restricted time, the answers we did receive were hopeful, which I personally appreciated as it made me even more driven to do my bit to stop climate change. This experience was invaluable to all who were able to take part and I know that it has helped spread optimism and determination; indispensable during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Elsa Kriebel | Year 11 Student 6

Ross Young Writing Workshop On Tuesday 9 March 7EDW were joined by Ross Young over Teams for an exciting writing workshop. Ross Young is a former Dorothy Stringer student and has published two books on ‘Writing for Pleasure.’ He works closely with the United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA) and was invited to share his insights into writing strategies. 7EDW are currently working on a story writing project with a focus on flash fiction. Students shared their work with Ross and he gave some valuable tips about how to edit and re-draft a short story. The students found his advice extremely useful and have been practising how to peer review and think like writers! 7EDW are working towards putting together a class anthology of flash fiction which we will send to Ross Young – he is excited to see their final drafts! Gus Christian 7EDW has already taken on board the advice and has re-drafted his story. Please read below for his beautifully written, yet slightly disturbing, final draft. We would like to thank Ross for his input and hope to work with him again! Your Friend... of Death by Gus - Year 7 Student One cold miserable day, around lunch time, Jack finally knew the promise had to be fulfilled; they were finally going to Elder Wood. Sitting around the school benches Rick pulled a smug grin as his friend Jack turned the shaded corner. Rick looked past him at the iron bars surrounding the almost dead trees. Jack’s slight smile dropped to a frown. Rick muttered “You better start climbing…now.” In a matter of seconds, they both lurched towards the fence finding footholds in the most particular places followed by a quick decent. Their vision suddenly decreased as the fog encompassed their souls. Jack looked up in fear, dazed as he ran through the needle-like branches whilst Rick followed unhinged by the dread seeking wood. The desolate trees peered over them waiting for a time to strike whilst the desolate swamp slipped their view. Jack frequently glanced left and right at the moss and vines throttling the perishing wood. Jack kept rehearing the tales that he heard “They say that every tree is a lost soul disintegrating by the second.” Suddenly the vines extended their reach and twirled with excitement. The creeping vines slithered through the ground pinpointing the only fragile soul. They continued to run along a winding path formed from ash and soot. While his heart jumped out of his chest, Jack felt a bead of sweat trickle down his pale face before he noticed only what he never craved to see… He stood in front of a giant manor house staring at the frequent holes piercing the building. Mass vegetation spiralled around the house trapping the spirit of the building forever. Shocked, Jack quickly turned around only to be encounter deep red eyes with the face of Rick staring back. Jack quickly took a glimpse at Rick’s scythe in his hand and robes draping along the murky floor. Rick whispered “how do you think I won the bet…”before the winding vine curled around Jack sucking the very life out of him. The vines twisted around and spoke “Just give up” Before anyone knew it, a new tree lurked in Elder Wood.

Art Community Tapestry Project Well done and thank you to everyone who has already submited pieces for the Threads of Lockdown Life Tapestry Project. We’ve had some brilliant submissions. Individual artworks will be joined together to make a huge historic piece that will be displayed in school for everyone to see. We thought we would share some of the submissions we’ve had so far. Remember there is still time to take part, the deadline for submissions is 19 April 2021.

Holocaust Memorial Day In January, the History department ran an assembly time to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day which was on the 27 January. The Holocaust Memorial Day is a day to remember the millions of people murdered in the Holocaust, under Nazi Persecution and in the genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur. This year’s theme was “A light in the darkness” which was the idea of identifying positive moments, especially during the hardest times. By raising awareness of what happened in the Holocaust and other genocides, it is hoped that any future genocides can be avoided. The assembly asked students to think about their own lights in the darkness during the pandemic. There were some wonderful responses from students. Mr Imrie, Head of History

International Womens Day This term saw International Women’s Day, 8th March 2021. This year’s theme was ‘Choose to Challenge’, to encourage us to challenge any gender bias or gender inequality happening around us. By challenging this behaviour, it will start to create an inclusive world. This term Year 9 have been learning about the Suffragettes’ fight for the vote in the 19th and 20th centuries. Recognising the progress of women in the past will help students appreciate the importance of International Women’s Day and the challenges which we all face in bringing about equality. History Department 10

Brit School Auditions During the most recent lockdown, several Year 11 GCSE Drama students independently prepared two monologues for an online audition for post-16 Brit School courses. They applied for 2-year courses in Acting, Community Arts Practise and Musical Theatre which involved an audition and a rigorous online interview. Gabe Robinson the Drama Departmental Assistant actively supported them in preparing their performances and discussing the interview process. Thank you, Gabe and our students,: Daniel Kiabalenga, Lola Weyman, Bea Butcher, Cody Thacker, Ben Connolly, Esme Izzard and Nancy Wormesley for your enthusiasm and commitment in taking the opportunity to apply for this exciting opportunity. We wait in anticipation for the outcome of their applications. Ms Ettinger | Head of Drama

World Book Day To celebrate World Book Day 2021 our teaching staff read an abridged version ‘‘Lamb to the Slaughter’’ by Roald Dahl at the beginning of each lesson. It was adapted into five sections, each section revealed one lesson at a time. We hope students enjoyed hearing the story read aloud. As well as our reading, Mr Charlesworth created A virtual bookshelf for students. This allowed them to click on any book on the virtual shelf and it took them to an audio reading/ interview with the author. The Virtual Bookshelf can still be found on the student newsletter on the SLG. English Department 11

PE Summer Term In the summer term we will run our usual summer programme. We are also hoping to utilise the sports hall for some activities that have been missed over the period of lockdown. Please look out for some badminton, short tennis, tennis, rounders, athletics, swimming and also some leadership clubs that will be running over the summer. We will be running a number of Interhouse competitions that will include rounder and cricket. Watch this space for sports day announcements! Mr Corrigan | Head of PE

Virtual Indoors Athletics During the Spring term Year 7 and Year 8 students have been taking part in a range of different interhouse challenges, students have been split into four houses names after our surrounding areas, Beaconsfield, Ditchling, Hollingbury and Surrenden. The challenges have included a Steps Challenge, Indoor Athletics, Badminton Competitions and Football Competitions. We hope students have enjoyed taking part in the activities, interacting with each other and representing their houses. Congratulations to Year 7 Ditchling who are first place in Year 7 competitions with 102 points, and Year 8 Hollingbury who are first place in Year 8 competitions with 88 points. The inter house will continue throughout the summer term we look foward to hearing the final results next term. Below you can see the current points and House Organisation.

PE Extra-Curricular Timetable Before School 7.308.30am

Monday

Fitness Studio Year 11 Basketball (CGN)

Tuesday

Swimming Club (DW)

Wednesday

Fitness Studio

Year 8 Dance (LWW)

Thursday

Friday

Year 9 Dance (LWW)

Swimming Club (CGN/ DW)

Year 8/ 10 Basket- G&T Dance Club ball (QUINTO) (LWW)

Fitness Studio

Lunch Time

3v3 Year 7 Basketball Club (Sports)

Year 8 Basketball Year 9 Basketball QUINTO

Year 7 Cricket

After School

Year 7 Cricket (PBY/ CGN)

Girls Cricket (BSK/ Year 7 Basketball (QUINTO) J.Mead)

3.204.30pm

Athletics (JUD/ LMB/ GIL/ AAB)

Year 10 Basketball Year 11 Basketball CGN Athletics Club (GDB/ JUD/ LMB/ AAK)

Year 9/ 10 Basket- Year 8/ 9/ 10 ball (QUINTO) Cricket (GIL/ AAB) Short Tennis Club (CGN) Trampoline (LMB) Tennis Club (CGN) Staff/ Student All Years Tennis League Year 10 Dance Year 7 Dance Rounders/ (AAK) (LWW) (SMN) Stoolball (Sports Leaders/ PBY/ Badminton/ Table PRS) Tennis Club (GDB/ PRS)

Tennis League Next term the PE department are running a Tennis League. This is open to staff and students of all abilities. There is a short form to complete so that the PE department can participants up with similar ability competition. If you would like to take part please complete the form on the SLG before Monday 19 April. Mr Corrigan | Head of PE

SPRING TERM

January | Winter by Alex Rus, Year 11

February | Colour by Scout Carter, Year 9

Calendar Photo Winners

March | Lockdown Photo by Efa Mackintosh, Year 9

April | Spring by Joe Wilburn, Year 10

Business & Computing News Oxford University Computing Challenge Congratulations to our Bebras Gold Award winning students who competed in the Oxford University Computing Challenge online last month. Over 40 students participated across all year groups which is a fantastic achievement. iDEA Award Winners

Many of our Lower School students worked towards their Bronze and Silver Inspiring Digital and Enterprise Awards during Lockdown. Since joining the iDEA Award scheme a total of 147 students have achieved their Bronze Award and a further 14 have gone on to achieve their Silver Award. The Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award, known as iDEA is an international award winning programme that helps students to develop digital, enterprise and employability skills. Students complete a series of online challenges in order to win career-enhancing badges, unlock new opportunities and, ultimately, gain industry-recognised Awards. Screen Free Stunners Our screen free lessons were very popular during Lockdown and our students showed just how creative they can be. below are a few of the wonderful Computing themed creations our Lower School students made this term.

Mrs Mockeridge | Head of Business & Computing 16

Year 8 Animation Films Below are two animation films which made at home by two of our talented Year 8 students for their Computing Animation project during Lockdown.

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Xanthe - Year 8 Student

 Felix - Year 8 Student 17

Stringer Alumni: Where are they now? Morgan Adderly-Jones: The Cherry on the Cake When 11 year old Morgan Adderley-Jones joined Dorothy Stringer School in 2014 his passion for rugby had already been kindled. A member of Hove Rugby Club from a very early age, Morgan’s passion for rugby shone bright. His talent and passion for game the were nurtured by two very special rugby coaches at the school: Mr Grant Lawrence and Mr Andy Ibbott. Morgan was captain of the boys rugby team for his five years here and, in three of those years, led the team to winning silverware in both cup and league. In his last season for Hove the team won the league and Morgan was awarded the accolade all players aspire to: Players’ Player of the Year! Morgan plays fly half: the conductor who sets the tempo and manages the direction of play. His job is to unleash the best in his fellow players, to have oversight of the game and to manipulate the opposition to create openings for the team. Fly halfs are the navigators. Fly halfs cannot be brawn alone, they need brains to play this pivotal roles and Morgan has both in abundance. In 2018 he was selected to play for Sussex but his career in county rugby was cut short when he joined the prestigious Hartpury College – an educational establishment who have been nurturing rugby talent and producing international stars of the game for decades. Morgan’s exceptional ability on the pitch meant he was spotted by talent scouts from English premiership team, Gloucester and by early 2020 he was a regular in the youth team. But Morgan’s rapid ascent did not stop there: he was soon offered to trial for England u17’s. Morgan excelled in the trials but unfortunately, as was the case for so many of us last year, things came to a halt due to Covid 10 restrictions. Undeterred and showing the dedication and resilience all professional athletes need, Morgan remained committed to his training programme throughout lockdown; although game time might have been curtailed, he continued to work on his fitness and agility, training hard but training alone. As restrictions have been lifted however he is now delighted to be able to train with his teammates once again. His hard work paid off when, in January of this year, Morgan was offered a one year contract with Gloucester RFU. Dorothy Stinger School is so very proud of everything our students achieve and Morgan has certainly achieved amazing success in his chosen sport. Let’s hope it won’t be too long before Morgan pulls on the cherry and white hooped shirt for the first team and plays his first game at Kingsholm Stadium. And who knows, it might not be long before he sees a red rose beckon… Liz Uren | Deputy Head Teacher (and avid rugby fan)

Will Becher | Director of an OSCAR nominated film! Will Becher was a student at Dorothy Stringer in the 90s and a deputy head student in his last year at Dorothy Stringer. We were extremely proud to hear of his successes when he got in contact with us this term to offer his time in speaking to our Art department about his career in animated film making. Will started animating as a hobby and, encouraged by teachers and staff at Dorothy Stringer along the way, continued to practise the craft before landing a job on Chicken Run at Aardman animations In Bristol a few years later. Last year Will had the pleasure of becoming director on a Shaun the Sheep movie, Farmageddon and a couple of weeks ago discovered the film had been nominated for an Oscar! Will shared this news with as as he knew we love to hear where our Stringer students end up.... in Will’s case on a zoom call to the Oscars red carpet. Well done Will, what an acheivement! The Communications Team

We love to share Dorothy Stringer Alumni Success & Career Paths - If you would like to get in contact and let us know what you are up to please email communications@dorothy-stringer.co.uk. Your lives can inspire our current stringer students! 19

#ShopForStringer Easy Fundraising We need your Support So far we have raised £416.69 through EasyFundraising. Help us raise more by following the link below & signing up: https://easyfundraising.org.uk/ causes/dorothystringerschoolfund/ Short videos on how to get started can be found here: https://public.dorothy-stringer. co.uk/ds/Pages/shop_for_stringer.aspx

DOTs Parent Fundraising Group We are looking for more parents to contribute not only time, but fun ideas and expertise to bring our school events and our wider community together. The DOTS are the Dorothy Stringer Parent Fundraising Group. DOTS parents plan and organise events that raise crucial funds for the school. In the past he DOTS have held successful quiz nights, an annual comedy night and raffles that have raised money for the Dorothy Stringer School Fund Fundraising ideas are always welcome, especially when many of our usual events can’t run in the same way. If you would like to join us please follow the link or scan the QR code to fill out the form and we will get back to you Parent Fundraising Form

Smarter Uniforms 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 at a reduced cost. Uniform donations can be left in the Smarter UniformS 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. A MESSAGE FROM SMARTER UNIFORMS: Become an Ambassador for your school Smarter Uniform are now looking for a school staff member, governor, or parent/guardian in the PTA to become an ambassador for their school on behalf of Smarter Uniforms. This way, smarter uniform can reach more schools across the city to help as many families as possible. In order to achieve this, we need an ambassador for each school that we are partnered with. We are currently only partnered with 8 schools, but we hope to increase this to every school in the city - with your help! An ambassador can help us by encouraging parent volunteers to join us (which has worked very well in some schools), or by spreading the word to the school community about the initiative, involving us at school events where appropriate. The more support we have from your school, the more we can fundraise for your school and keep textile waste to a minimum! So far, we have raised almost £4000 for local schools! You can help to give back to your school community by – helping to: raise awareness; raise funds and reduce carbon emissions. Why become an ambassador? 1. Raise Awareness – help make parents/guardians aware that school uniform doesn’t have to cost the earth (both literally and metaphorically)! 2. Help Brighton and Hove become more circular – help reduce carbon emissions and textile waste in our city to develop this project on a wider scale. 3. Help to raise much-needed funds – through revenue generated from uniform sales going back to our partner schools 4. Give back to the community – our initiative also offers a vital free school uniform service to families in need of financial support If you would like more infromation or are interested in becoming a school ambassador please email Smarter Uniforms - hello@ smarteruniforms.org with the following details:

Name Email address Phone number Name of school you would like to be an ambassador for Relationship to school (e.g. parent, teacher etc)

Photography Competition 2021

Virtual Performace of ‘The Greatest Show’ song from The Greatest Showman This term we decided to try something different, a virtual performance of the song ‘The Greatest Show’. Students have worked tirelessly practising and performing their individual parts to an arrangement of the hit from the popular musical ‘The Greatest Showman’. The performance was streamed on our Stringer YouTube channel on Wednesday 31st March, we hope you enjoyed the talents of our students performing from the comfort of their own homes. If you missed the performance you can watch it below. My thanks go out to all the students involved for their hard work and to the staff in the Music Department, especially Mr Laverty, who has spent many an hour listening to recordings over the past few weeks. Mrs Flint | Music Department

To keep up to date with Music Department news please follow their twitter account : @music_dss

Careers Page SPEAKERS FOR SCHOOLS GREEN SKILLS CAMPAIGN As part of the Speakers for Schools Green Skills campaign, we welcomed Caroline Lucas MP, live via Teams into our classrooms during Period 5 on Thursday 25th March. The Green Skills campaign has been organised to help to engage young people across the UK in numerous green topics, from climate change to green jobs for the future. By working with some of the world’s leading employers and speakers, the Green Skills talks, organised by Speakers for Schools, will inform and inspire young people to consider their future in the green economy, giving them practical advice and opening doors to unconsidered futures. Green Skills Week will introduce young people to speakers and employers within industries where Green Skills are utilised and sign post them towards training and recruitment paths into those sectors. More details about the Green Skills campaign can be found here: https:// www.greenskillsweek.org/ YEAR 11 MOCK INTERVIEWS WITH THE JOHN LEWIS PARTNERSHIP As part of our growing careers programme, our Y11 students were all invited to attend remote mock interviews with management staff at the John Lewis Partnership. Students prepared for these interviews in their PSHE lessons and received personalised feedback about their interview technique from the John Lewis team. During a call with Kerry Jones, our Enterprise Coordinator at John Lewis, we were provided with some really positive reports about our students. The staff at John Lewis noted that many of our students were well prepared and had thought of lots of examples though which they could demonstrate their soft skills, our Drama and Ad. Maths students were particularly praised for their confidence. Students who were nervous responded well to the reassurance given by these experienced interviewers. Feedback from students indicates that the 120 students who took part considered this to be a really important learning experience, helping to prepare them for life after Stringer. We are very pleased that this venture will be repeated next year, with our current Year 10 students being invited to attend mock interviews in January 2022.

ETONX Resilience Course We are really proud that nearly 50 of our Year 11 students have signed up for a voluntary Resilience course with EtonX, a prestigious online course run by Eton College. This course is designed for students aged 14 or above and helps participants develop the skills to adapt in a world of constant change. Students can either complete the course by attending online tutorials or by working through a self-study programme. This is the first year we have signed-up to this course and our students are about half-way through. If the feedback we get from our participating students is good, we look forward to this opportunity being made available to our Year 10 students next year.

ONLINE NHS CAREERS WORKSHOP Dorothy Stringer School are really proud to work with The Girls’ Network, an organisation who believes that no girl should have their future limited by their gender, ethnicity, background or parental income. They support girls to realise their ambitions, to discover their self-worth, and to develop their capacity to shape their world and their future. Each year we pair a small number of students with a Girls’ Network mentor; this mentoring has continued through lockdown with 15 of our Year 10 students actively participating in online meetings. The Girls’ Network also offer inspirational workshops. We normally have to limit the number of girls we can invite to these events because of space. However, as a positive impact of lockdown, number limits have been removed as workshops moved online. As such, all the female students in our school were invited to an online “Careers in the NHS” workshop in February 2021. We had a really good turn out with feedback indicating that this was a really valuable event that engaged our students with new ideas about their future.

YEAR 10 TASTER DAYS We are really pleased that three of our most popular student destinations are currently planning to hold Year 10 taster days. Information has not yet been released about these events and we do not yet know if they will be on-site visits or virtual experiences. However, I know they are looking forward to welcoming our students. We will be encouraging and supporting students to attend these events during Form Times and in PSHE lessons. More information will follow as soon as we have details. Meanwhile, Year 10 parents might want to pencil these dates into their diaries. · · ·

Varndean College: Tuesday 6th July 2021 BHASVIC: Wednesday 14th July 2021 MET (Brighton): 29th & 30th June 2021

In these uncertain times these dates might be subject to change at short notice.

Mrs Lloyd | Assistant Headteacher, Careers Leader

Some Fond Farewells... Mr Peter Voegeli | Modern Foreign Languages Department The start of the Easter holiday marks the start of a new era for Peter Voegeli. After just over 21 years at Dorothy Stringer, he will be calling his last register before starting his well-earned retirement. Peter spent many of his years at the school as Head of Year 7. He visited many of our students in primary school prior to them starting with us, and he supported and guided them through their first year at secondary school. Peter has been a teacher of both Modern Languages and Religious Studies at Dorothy Stringer and will be sorely missed by colleagues in both departments. But, it is not just within his departments that he will be missed; he has worked with so many of us over the years and you can’t help but to like him. I know that Peter will have had a positive influence on so many of the lives of your children and I am sure that you all join me in wishing him a happy and restful retirement. Rachel Revéreault Head of Modern Languages

Dr Dan Danahar | Science & Environmental Science A Flutterbye Bye to our Butterfly Guy After 22½ years of service to our school and the wider community, Dan Danahar retired this February. Many thousands of students over the last two decades have benefitted from his passion and knowledge around biodiversity and particularly butterflies. In this time we have worked together to develop the school grounds as a learning resource for all to use and developed the unique Year 7 Environmental Science course which is now being referenced in the national campaign for a GCSE in Natural History. Giving students a good news story in a world of negative headlines was key to Dr Dan’s teaching. What he achieved at Stringer and beyond was to show how, given the chance, nature can rebound and return to the abundance that we often only read about in natural history diaries of the past. In his time here we created the Dorothy Stringer Nature Reserve that runs along the northern edge of the school site, the pond which is used for education of both our students and students from local primaries, and got students to plant thousands of trees all around the perimeter of the school. The ATP football pitch would not have got planning without the work Dr Dan did around the creation of habitats to mitigate the impact of the development. We now boast an avenue of 56 disease resistant Elms up the driveway from Loder Rd which are the only plant the White Letter Hairstreak butterfly lives on. Butterflies are Dr Dan’s passion and his greatest success is the creation of the Butterfly Haven on the north side of Stringer Way. The creation of this Chalk Downland space by removing the top soil and getting students to plant up thousands of wildflowers has resulted in an area half the size of a football pitch having sightings of 81% of all the butterfly species seen in Brighton and Hove. Getting students out into nature exploring and connecting, monitoring and identifying is fundamental to making sure the next generation is better equipped to tackle the challenges ahead. Dan has worked with local primaries, many local and national organisations and won numerous awards for his work. Every school should have someone like Dan that can champion nature and push biodiversity education up the agenda. We will miss him greatly and wish him success in the many other projects he is exploring. Rob Sandercock | Biodiversity Coordinator

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