St Dunstan’s shortlisted at Independent Schools of the Year Awards
This term, the College was delighted to find out it had been shortlisted at the Independent Schools of the Year awards. The College has been nominated for ‘Co-educational Independent School of the Year’ at the prestigious awards. Independent Schools of the Year 2020 is an awards scheme run by the Independent School Parent portfolio of magazines, to celebrate the success stories of schools and their students, across the independent education sector in the UK and British schools overseas. The judges will be meeting at the end of summer to reach a decision on the winner of each category, and the results will be announced in October.
New woodland classroom WELCOME TO THE TRINITY TERM EDITION OF THE SHIELD
We were delighted to unveil a new woodland classroom for Junior School pupils, located behind the Sports Centre. It has been created throughout the pandemic by a committed group of staff. This sustainable project has been completed with a large amount of recycled and reused items.
The same team are now turning their attention to a Senior School pond. We hope to complete both projects by the time the children return in September. Reception pupil Avery excitedly said: ‘I love being in the wind and listening to the trees moving.’
Thank you to the amazing facilities team
Thank you to our amazing facilities team, and all of our staff, who have been working around the clock this term to prepare for pupils to return to the College and making the site as safe as possible.
New build continues
Despite the pandemic our dedicated building partners Willmott Dixon were able to operate with a smaller team and adhering to government guidelines. As you can see, the new Junior School, STEM Centre and Sixth Form Centre are going up at quite a pace!
Virtual Tour and Virtual Open Events
This term, St Dunstan’s was excited to launch a new virtual tour of the College for families to enjoy.
The tour allows visitors to navigate virtually around our buildings and find out more about what makes St Dunstan’s such a unique and special school. In the first few days of going live, more than 3,000 visitors had explored the virtual tour!
Due to the lockdown, our term of open events had to be cancelled. However, we were able to give prospective families a taste of life at St Dunstan’s with weekly virtual Q&As with our leadership team.
Overall, since April we have welcomed more than 350 individuals to a virtual open event.
TRINITY NEWS... Thank
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Teacher day
St Dunstan’s marks 120th Commemoration Day with virtual service
In normal circumstances, the College community would have taken a specially chartered train to Southwark Cathedral for the 120th Commemoration Day Service. However, due to the lockdown, the College marked the special day with an online service, which included readings by the Headmaster, Chaplain, Head of School and musical performances.
Pupils return to College
In June, we were delighted to welcome back pupils from the Junior School and Years 10 and 12. There was excitement across the College as friends reunited and teachers returned to their classrooms to teach pupils in person. We hope to be able to welcome the whole College back in September.
To mark this year’s Thank a Teacher Day, pupils created a video with special messages for their teachers. The video can be viewed on the College’s YouTube channel.
Royal Society of Biology Olympiad
Congratulations to all of the students who took part in the Royal Society of Biology Intermediate Olympiad. We were delighted to find out all had been awarded highly commended or commended.
With all of Year 13s leaving celebrations cancelled this year, the Sixth Form team decided they could not let what would have been Leavers’ Day pass without remark. The virtual ‘Quiz Night’ was actually hosted during the afternoon and featured six rounds of fiendish quizzing from resident Paxo and Head of Year, Mr Scambler. Ranging in subject from shampoo ingredients, through to throwback TV theme tunes and to anagrams of teachers’ names, (My Fortieth Homy anyone?) a fun time was had by all. The literal winner was Ciaran, with Iffy a close silver place. We hope very much to offer a proper Year 13 graduation and ball, as soon as circumstances allow.
Supporting our Community
We were pleased to continue supporting the local community this term.
Our DT department created more than 750 items of PPE in total and we were able to make several deliveries to local foodbanks.
Festival of Curiosity
During the last two weeks of term, our Lower School pupils took part in the Festival of Curiosity. Pupils were able to pick a selection of projects that crossed the boundaries between their subjects, satisfying curiosity about new ideas and developing a greater understanding of the communities and the wider world.
Year 13 Leavers’ Quiz Night
FESTIVAL OF CURIOSITY 2020
Year 2 create vessels
Year 2 were tasked with creating a buoyant vessel out of recyclable materials as part of their ‘From A to B’ IPC topic.
JUNIOR SCHOOL NEWS
Fairy Tale Science
The topic ‘Traditional Tales’ was a highlight for the Nursery students during remote learning. The children conducted some great experiments, including growing their own beanstalks, designing a waterproof cape for Red Riding Hood, and building a bridge for the gingerbread man to safely cross the river.
Nursery Sports Day
Mr Macklin and Mrs Morris made sure our Nursery Sports Day was filled with lots of fun activities; including the egg and spoon race, buggy race and of course the jumping sack race. The children cheered on their friends as they raced to the finish line and were proud of their achievements.
Harry’s healthy recipe
Harry shared his recipe and stepby-step instructions for making a fruit salad as part of our How are You? topic, where Year 2 learnt about the importance of a healthy and balanced diet.
Year 4 study The Iron Man
Year 4 have spent the second half of Trinity Term conducting an in-depth cross-curricular exploration of Ted Hughes’ The Iron Man, encompassing newspaper reports, drama, poetry, art and design activities and even including some maths!
From Venn diagrams exploring character development, to creating mood boards in order to construct vivid descriptions of new characters, the pupils immersed themselves in the world of The Iron Man.
Traction Man causes a stir
This half term, Year 1 based all of their learning on Traction Man is Here! by Mini Grey. The junior pupils wonderful time exploring the text and were ready to meet the hero himself when he went missing!
Pupils put their descriptive writing to the test and created brilliant ‘missing’ posters; they must have been well written because Traction man was spotted all around the College. The pupils then went on to learn about character speech, thought and action before creating their own Traction Man inspired narratives, which were translated in to comics.
Year 3 virtual camping trip
June marks one of the highlights for Year 3 when they usually pack their bags and head off to the beautiful countryside of Essex, for two nights of camping and fun. Sadly, this year they were not going to be able sleep under the stars so, in true St Dunstan’s style, they thought creatively and had a virtual camping trip instead!
The children had to pack a suitcase thinking carefully about all the items they would need. We were much kinder than usual and let them pack a midnight feast! They had to make their own pizzas and soup and they built a den (for the fairies that live in the forest, of course). Whilst it was not quite the same as the usual experience, it was still a lot of fun!
Junior Planner Front Cover
Congratulations to Tunde, Year 4, whose drawing of the front of the College has been selected for the front cover of next year’s planner.
Junior School Remote Concert
Atrue highlight of the term has to be the Junior School Remote Instrumental Concert! Not being in school was no barrier to our Year 3 and Year 5 musicians, who recorded and uploaded some excellent performances. Arguably they may have had their largest audience to date! The concert is available to watch on Firefly
Year 6 return to College
Since returning to school, Year 6 pupils have adapted extremely well to life in their new ‘bubbles’ and taken changes to their routine in their stride. Pupils have explored philosophical, religious and moral questions when investigating what makes a good person. Among all of this, they have been preparing for life beyond Year 6, in a series of PSHE and transition activities. They have enjoyed working together to plan a way of commemorating their time in the Junior School and cannot believe how quickly the year has flown by!
JUNIOR HOUSE EVENTS
House writing
Trinity is always a busy term for house events and this year was no exception. House challenges went ahead remotely – a first for us all! We started with the House Writing Competition. Pupils from Year 1 through to Year 6 were given the chance to write a 500-word story. We were very impressed with all the entries we received and it was no easy task to choose winners from each age category!
House Sports and Fun Days
The final weeks of term were as busy as ever. An unusual Sports Day took place, with some of our pupils participating at school (paying heed to social distancing!) and others taking part remotely.
House Art
June saw the launch of the House Art Competition. The task was to create a piece of artwork in the relevant house colour. We were delighted to see how creative our Junior School pupils are, with a variety of sculptures, photos, collages, paintings, prints and drawings being submitted. Well done to everyone who entered!
(Left: Nina - Usherwood)
Could we have any more fun we hear you cry? Well, yes of course we could! We rounded of the year with House Fun Day, with children dressing up, building towers, scavenging and so much more! Congratulations to Hecker, Usherwood, Stuart and Forder for all your creativity and enthusiasm!
This term our brilliant Forder Programme went virtual with a variety of projects and challenges for pupils to get involved with from their homes
SENIOR VIRTUAL FORDER PROGRAMME
Black Lives Matter House Challenges
upils were given the task to create artwork highlighting the Black Lives Matter movement.
Riale – Forder House
Ava – Forder House
Ethan – Stuart House
Elizabeth – Usherwood House
Mei-Lin – Forder House
Nancy - Stuart House
Mya – Usherwood House
Martha – Stuart House
Lucy – Forder House
Tomiwa – Usherwood House
House Baking
Pupils were given the task to bake something with a colourful twist… it has to include their house colour.
House Limericks and Poetry
Gethin – Usherwood House
For us to win would be sublime
But we might not do it this time
I do want to bake
A big yellow cake
But first I am writing this rhyme
Emilomoh - Stuart House
Success, we beat the rest
Talent, we are the best
Unity, we work together
Adaptability, no matter the weather
Respect, this is what we give and get
Thriving, pupils we will never forget
Eric – Usherwood House
Usherwood’s the best.
Better than the rest.
Usherwood can play music
Don’t believe that?
We’ll be sympathetic
Usherwood can race
Usherwood has grace
Usherwood can sing
Usherwood will win.
Other houses can try,
But that’s pretty much it.
Julia – Forder House
Sacha – Usherwood House
Daisy – Stuart House
Jan – Hecker House
Harriet – Stuart House
Maisie – Stuart House
Oscar – Hecker House
Amelie – Hecker House
Alex – Hecker House
House Repurposing
The pupils and staff were asked to find something in their home and repurpose it.
ABOVE: Ethan – Stuart House – ‘I made a spade, a pot and a watering can all out of old plastic milk bottles.’
ABOVE & TOP LEFT: Luke – Hecker House‘I made a swing from an old tyre, and I made a garden table from sections of a cut down tree.’
RIGHT: Josh –Hecker House – ‘I made a new shelving unit from an old chair.’
LEFT: Miss Hughes –Stuart House ‘I have used an old gate to grow my runner beans up.’
The Phoenix Project
As part of the Virtual Forder Programme, our Drama Department launched a new pupil-led project that aimed to creatively challenge the public’s perception of the Coronavirus.
The ‘Phoenix Project’ saw pupils working together in virtual groups on a five-minute media project of their choice. The media project had to encapsulate and highlight the College’s five values, along with values such as resilience, positivity, optimism and empathy. The projects are available to watch on our website.
NEWS IN BRIEF...
SDC Screen Fitness
Our Sports Department have been putting pupils through their paces with weekly challenges and tips on how to enjoy time away from the screen, keeping fit and healthy. All of the videos are available on YouTube and Instagram.
SDConnect reaches 450 members
TSDC Survival Series
he Dunstonian Association’s platform, SDConnect, passed the mark of 450 registered users this term. The alumni platform allows all past pupils, parents and members of staff to connect and reunite online. Director of Marketing, Admissions and Development, Mrs Isabelle Blake-James said: ‘We are pleased to see so many Dunstonians joining the platform and reconnecting with old and new friends. It is just the start for the platform and we hope to have many more join in the next few months.’
Each week, our SSI & Head of Adventurous Activities, Mr Telford, has been recording survival tips as part of an online series. The videos include guidance on how to make a fire and ropes. All of the videos are available on YouTube and Instagram.
Duke of Edinburgh Certificate of Social Value
The College was delighted to receive the Duke of Edinburgh Certificate of Social Value for 2019/2020. A huge well done to all our dedicated pupils, who have donated 988 hours of voluntary service to the local community.
PHOTOGRAPHY CLUB
Each week, our Art Department have been setting pupils challenges to capture images on a variety of themes – including texture, the great outdoors, colour, shadows and distortion.
