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Dear Parent(s) and Carer(s),
I hope you have all had a good bank holiday weekend and were able to enjoy the VE day celebrations. I am delighted to introduce you to our new weekly family newsletter. This aims to give you key information related to coping with the current situation along with all of the updates and news from school. We understand the difficulties that families currently face and want to provide as much support as we are able to. The most recent government announcement may cause a change to the working patterns for some of you – please do get in touch if you need support from school. As yet there are no plans for an imminent return to school for students in years 7 and 8.
Please do take some time to look at the various sections in the newsletter. You will see in the ‘Keeping up with education’ section that we want to ensure all of our students are able to send some pieces of work to staff and receive a reply. Mr Coucill has provided details of our ‘praise week’ and will be in touch about the subsequent weeks where a short assessment for each subject will be expected. These are designed for staff to be able to see what gaps in knowledge our students have so that they can plan appropriately for the next set of work and whenever we return to school. Organising this for the school is a challenge, so please do be patient with us and do get in touch if you need any further support.
We also know that staff and students miss seeing each other and are planning a few more interactive activities in order to help with this. The Heads of Year will be sending out a narrated bulletin for all students and Mr Richardson will continue to send out collective worship every Tuesday. There is an exciting video for all staff and students to participate in if they are feeling musical – all students of any level of musical talent/experience are very welcome. Please see the messages below for more details.
There are other challenges to get involved with too. Beat the Teacher each week is a great way to see whether you can beat some of the top scores achieved by the teachers on a variety of topics. I really enjoyed the one on children’s books last week and am looking forward to the two available this week. I have already baked my swiss roll for the challenge set for the staff and it’s been great to see everyone’s efforts. I hope that you all enjoy the PE one this week.
Whilst every family will be working to their own schedule, I would encourage every student to be reading as much as possible. This vital skill is needed for every part of their ongoing education and is a lifelong skill. Do have a look at the ‘Reading’ section and I look forward to seeing your reading recommendations each week. If you haven’t got books available at home then don’t worry – there are plenty available for free online.
I am so pleased that the building work on the new site has been able to keep going - please do see the school website for updates on this and pictures of the current works. Refurbishment work at Midland House is also ongoing, getting the site ready for our new cohort of year 7. Whilst we are currently unsure what the future has in store for all of us in terms of a return to school, I wish to extend my thanks to the whole team behind the scenes of both projects who are working incredibly hard.
Having completed my first week at Derby Cathedral School, I already have a real sense of what a welcoming community this is and am very appreciative of the kind messages that I have received from many of you. I am really looking forward to working with you all and continuing to build Derby Cathedral School to be a school that we are all incredibly proud of. I wish you all a good week and hope that you enjoy the variety of work, challenge and support from all of us.
Yours faithfully
Mrs J. Brown
Safeguarding concernsIf you have any concerns related to safeguarding then please do contact either social services or the police. If you feel that a child is in immediate danger then call 999.
Please see the contacts box below for contact details of social care and the police.
You can also inform the school safeguarding team of any concerns or issues.
The staff to contact are Mr R. Hoy or Ms J. Nethercott – again, contact details are below.
Online Safety Parent Support
If you would like to raise awareness of online safety issues with your child then have a look at the following website. It has a number of home activity packs with simple 15 minute activities you can do with your child to support their online safety at home
www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/Support-tools/home-activity-worksheets/11-13s/
A number of information sheets about various apps and social media are available on our website. These give a useful insight into how each one works and are worth a read.
Well being support
ThinkNinja is an app specifically designed to educate 10-18 year olds about mental health, emotional wellbeing and to provide skills young people can use to build resilience and stay well www.healios.org.uk/services/thinkninja1
The following helplines give support and advice on a number of issues including personal safety, mental helath and well-being.
Childline: 0800 1111 www.childline.org.uk
NSPCC – 0800 028 3550 www.nspcc.org.uk
Samaritans – 116 123
Shout – www.giveusashout.org. Text Shout to 85258
Kooth – www.kooth.com
Derby City Children’s Social Care First Contact Team: 9am to 5pm 01332 641172 or out of hours 01332 786968
You can also report non-urgent concerns online https://myaccount.derby.gov.uk/en/service/report_concerns_about_a_child
If you believe that a child is at immediate risk and in need of protection then you should call the police on 999 or 101 immediately.
Alternatively if you want advice from the police and the child is not in immediate need of protection, you can call them on 0845 123 33 33.
Key staff email contacts:
Mr R Hoy (Designated Safeguarding Lead) r.hoy@derbycathedralschool.org.uk
Mrs J Nethercott (Deputy DSL) j.nethercott@derbycathedralschool.org.uk
Miss M Amiss (Head of Year 7) m.amiss@derbycathedralschool.org.uk
Mr C Capon (Head of Year 8) c.capon@derbycathedralschool.org.uk
National Online Safety have created a range of information sheets which you may find helpful. You can access these via the links below, or through the National Online Safety website nationalonlinesafety.com
This week is ‘Praise Week’ at Derby Cathedral School, we want every student to share with us the work that they are most proud of since they have been at home.
Simply take a photo of up to 3 pieces of work from 3 different subjects and email them through to school for your teachers to see and praise. We will be sending out messages and merits a plenty, posting some of your lovely work on our school website and social media pages.
Please send your pictures to the relevant subject emails below and your teachers will be in touch!
Maths@derbycathedralschool.org.uk
English@derbycathedralschool.org.uk
Music@derbycathedralschool.org.uk
Science@derbycathedralschool.org.uk
DT@derbycathedralschool.org.uk
PE@derbycathedralschool.org.uk
Art@derbycathedralschool.org.uk
Geography@derbycathedralschool.org.uk
ICT@derbycathedralschool.org.uk
PSHE@derbycathedralschool.org.uk
History@derbycathedralschool.org.uk
RE@derbycathedralschool.org.uk
Spanish@derbycathedralschool.org.uk
Please keep your eyes peeled for an email from Mr Coucill who will be explaining a little bit about how we are going to be assessing your knowledge whilst you work from home.
We are also putting together our first socially distanced musical performance. This means we are looking for student volunteers to take part in singing along to a backing track whilst recording this on a device and then sending this back to myself to turn into a video to share with our students and families. In this challenging time of separation I am so happy to hear many of you are still practicing, singing and recording at home as well as many of you still having instrumental lessons with your teachers remotely of school with the Derbyshire Music Partnership staff. Parents if you could please encourage your child to get involved and send an email to music@derbycathedralschool.org.uk expressing their interest along with their name and tutor group, further information and resources will then be sent to you. Deadline for expressions of interest by Friday the 15th of May. Lets keep the music going together!
Mr Emberley
www.starline.org.uk is a useful website that give hints, tips and ideas for home schooling. It also has a section on supporting children with special or additional needs.
Listen to a book
Amazon have made hundreds of audible books available to young people without subscription. These can be accessed at the link below:
stories.audible.com/start-listen
Online book club
Calling all readers! Using the amazon link or your own book, it would be great to get a recommendation each week from a pupil about their favourite books (old and new). A picture of the cover, your reason for recommending, or who you think it would be a good read for would be excellent. Or, if you are feeling really ambitious, a short reading from your favourite moment could be sent to distancelearning@derbycathedralschool.org.uk. Good luck. Recommendations will be posted in the newsletter each week.
Bookmark competition
You can enter this completion to design a book token, it runs each week and gives you and the school a chance to win a prize and, have your bookmarks made. Look at the link https://www.nationalbooktokens.com to enter. Any questions email: distancelearning@derbycathedralschool.org.uk
Each Head of Year will be sending you a narrated bulletin every week which gives you all sorts of information. It will include the weekly challenge and other bits of information to inspire, encourage and celebrate your achievements. We hope that you enjoy them! This week you will get them on Monday – in future they will be every Wednesday to link with each week’s new challenge.
Year 7
Please watch the Y7 virtual assembly each week as this will keep you up to date with all the latest notices and also what some of our students and staff have been getting up to each week. Don't forget that every Wednesday we will set students a new challenge, make sure you email in your answers/entries to: DCSchallenge@derbycathedralschool.org.uk
All of the challenges are worth merits and House points so it's really important that as many students as possible get involved. You can also suggest a challenge for staff to complete each week too!
Mr Salter is running an Online Book Club, make sure you send in your book recommendations each week to the distance learning email address.
If you would like to show me any of your work or something you are proud of you can send in a picture of what you have done to distancelearning@derbycathedralschool.org.uk and ask for it to be sent to Miss Amiss.
Year 8
Keep an eye on the website for the weekly Wednesday Challenge. It will be great to have as many students as possible in every form taking part, let’s show the Year 7’s how it’s done. Also I am sending out emails every few weeks so watch out for those and you we will be having virtual assemblies on Monday’s so if you have anything you have done that you are really proud of then please let me know via the dcschallenge email address. It doesn’t have to be work related, it could be a new skill you’ve learnt or volunteering you’ve been doing, anything you would like to highlight. And finally, Mr Salter is running an Online Book Club, so any recommendations you have, please let us know via the distancelearning@ email address. Make sure you put ‘Online Book Club’ in the Subject.
Don’t forget to challenge yourself to the PE grueller posted on the school website last Wednesday! If you want to take part, you can in the following ways:
• Safely have a go at home in a place where you have plenty of space around you, time how long it takes you complete the CATHEDRAL challenge.
• Have a go at spelling out your name in exercise activities, maybe get your family involved! If you wish to share your evidence with us you can!
• send us videos or photo of you completing the CATHEDRAL challenge – from your parent’s email address so we know you have permission - to DCSchallenge@derbycathedralschool.org.uk stating your name and year group in the email title.
• send us a picture of your stopwatch to show us how long it took you to complete the CATHEDRAL challenge.
• email us to tell us all about how you got on and to set us a challenge of your own! All entries to be sent through by midnight on Tuesday.
This week, staff will be having a go at baking a swiss roll, we can’t wait to show you what we’ve created! This week sees two ‘Beat the Teachers’ quizzes for students to enter. Topics are as follows:
Logic, Riddles, Puzzles & Maths)
Fashion Brands mini quiz
Links to the Kahoot quizzes will be sent to students on Wednesday. The teachers will have already participated so you will be able to see what the score is to beat! These are designed to be fun and appeal to your competitive spirits!
Derby Cathedral will be sending us a message each week. We are delighted to be able to start this with an introduction to the new Dean designate: Peter Richardson. You can see a short video where the dean introduces himself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZCU4DrzYUg&t=13s. All of us at Derby Cathedral School wish him all the best as he takes up this post. We are looking forward to working with him and forging stronger links together.
If you have a child on the SEND register who is struggling to adjust to this new way of working then please have a read…
Try to create and stick to a standard daily/weekly routine including school work, exercise, life skills and leisure time. This is an excellent opportunity to include your child in everyday activities; you may not normally have time to do together, such as cooking or gardening. More information and activities to help your child with well-being can be found at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zh9v382
Universal Credit
If you are having problems claiming universal credit then you may be eligible for an advanced payment. A Universal Credit Advance (new claim) is an advance payment of a customer’s first estimated Universal Credit monthly payment. This may be paid if the customer is in urgent need of money, has made their universal credit claim and can’t wait the 5 week period for their first payment.
Please use the following link for more information https://www.understandinguniversalcredit.gov.uk/new-to-universal-credit/help-with-managing-your-money/
There are lots of free resources and fun activities online made available during this time. We have picked out some useful ones below:
Design a Train of the Future!
Our Future-Derby and Porterbrook are delighted to launch an exciting competition open to all Derby school children with some very impressive prizes for 3 winners including up to £250 in vouchers for your school to purchase STEM equipment.
The challenge is to design a ‘green’ train of the future. We all want a greener world and this competition gets students thinking of how this goal can begin to be achieved with a simple to follow guide to support learning. The deadline for submitting entries has been extended to 15th June 2020.
See website for full details: https://www.learnbydesign.co.uk/porterbrook-competition?cid=e97b1afa-be83-4dc5-b9f5-aa0a7d8b0fee&utm_campaign=6e797dfa-4b92-493c-b4a6-2991bf0740d1&utm_medium=mail&utm_source=so
Love writing? Passionate about climate change? Then this is for you!
We are delighted to announce the Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition.
This competition asks for a piece of writing (with an option to include illustrations) about climate change and what can be done by young people today to make a difference. The deadline is 30th June and you would be able to enter the junior category. All details can be found in the flyer available on our website and by using the following link:
https://www.thercs.org/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=23eac46c-a796-4a79-a9f2-484d8a12bc98
Music at Home
The Derbyshire Music Education Hub is a collaboration between key local and regional music organisations, led by the Derby & Derbyshire Music Partnership. They are producing weekly activities, ideas and resources for
continuing music learning from home – for all ages and stages of education . For more information visit https://derbyshiremusichub.org.uk/get-involved/music-at-home/music-at-home.aspx
National Theatre at home
The National Theatre are streaming a different production every week, usually released every Friday and available until the following Thursday. You will need to check the age-suitability of each production for your child.
This week, Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo are Shakespeare's Antony & Cleopatra, streaming, until Thursday 14 May. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWc6_aCTqI0
The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition is the world’s oldest international writing competition for schools, established in 1883. With thousands of young people taking part every year, it is an important way to recognise achievement, elevate youth voices and develop key skills through creative writing.
One Winner and Runner-up will be chosen from each category. Winners and Runners-up will be brought to London for a week of educational and cultural events, culminating in a special Awards Ceremony. A number of Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards will be given in both the Senior and Junior categories, rewarding excellence in writing. All entrants will receive a Certificate of Participation.
CLIMATE ACTION AND THE COMMONWEALTH
Drawing on the urgency of the ongoing climate crisis and increasing youth activism across the Commonwealth; young people are called upon to consider their position and power in bringing about change and how the Commonwealth can be used as a tool for positive action.
ENTER BY 30 JUNE 2020