Dear Parent(s) and Carer(s),

I hope that your child/children enjoyed the reading week activities last week – we certainly enjoyed creating them! If you haven’t found the reading videos or other resources then please look on our website under home – online resources – reading week. We hope that they have, in some way, inspired your child to read and keep practising this vital skill as well as really enjoying it.

This last week has seen unrest in many places across the world following the death of George Floyd. If we were all still in school, we would have been able to spend some time talking to our students about issues relating to racism and discrimination of all forms. As a Christian School, we are reminded that the Bible talks in many places about loving one another. This is not just something that is a nice option but is actually a command: ‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.’ (John 13:34). There are more details including the wise words of Martin Luther King and some relevant articles on BBC Bitesize that may be of interest to your child – see the ‘Keeping Up With Education’ section.

I would also like to signpost you to the final section of this newsletter. Each week we post various activities that are available online for free. Derbyshire School Games have produced some great resources aimed to support all young people stay active. Having more unsettled weather can be tricky and stop our ability to get out and active as much as we’d like. These resources don’t all rely on being outside and provide something different and interesting to try. As all young people are supposed to get about an hour every day of exercise, these half hour activities are a big help. June is also Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month. The ‘Tops Tips for Families’ section also has a link to some resources aimed to give us a short introduction to this interesting area.

Tutors and pastoral staff are continuing with our aim of every family receiving a phone call. If you do have any questions or worries please don’t wait for us to call but feel very welcome to get in touch via info@derbycathedralschool.org.uk.
I wish you all a happy and productive week.

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.

Relate Counselling

Relate Derby has been commissioned by NHS England to provide counselling services for free to residents of Derby and Derbyshire. Due to social distancing measures, services are being delivered remotely via video call and telephone. The services available are:
• IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) counselling for couples and young people (16 – 18 years)
• Support for children and young people’s (age 5 – 8 years) emotional health and wellbeing
• Counselling for people affected by Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC)
The free Relate telephone helpline (0808 178 9363) has also been extended and is now running on Monday, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10.00am – 1.00pm. The helpline gives people the opportunity to speak directly to an experienced Relate trained counsellor, without having to make an appointment. Please signpost clients, customers, friends and family to Relate, if you think they would benefit from this. It’s OK not to be OK. For further information contact 01332 349177 or 07741193484 or email info@relatederby.org.uk
www.relatederby.org.uk

LGBT+ Support
If you, or anyone you know would benefit from support, please use the following link: https://www.derbyshirelgbt.org.uk/

Dealing with Loss and Coping With Lockdown
BBC Bitesize has an article about coping with the change and emotions that lockdown can bring:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z7xyvk7

Childhood Day - June 26th
It’s national childhood day on Friday 26th June. The NSPCC have some fundraising ideas on their website to support vulnerable children. See their website for more details: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/

The following helplines give support and advice on a number of issues including personal safety, mental health 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

Dealing with Discrimination

Events following the death of George Floyd in the USA have sparked outrage throughout the world, with demonstrations against racial inequality organised in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. As young people in the 21st Century it can be confusing and frightening not fully understanding the world around you and as a school we believe education plays a key role in improving the world so that no one ever has to suffer discrimination and prejudice. Nelson Mandela put it best when he said, “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
If you are interested in this topic and would like to find out more, BBC Bitesize have some interesting articles on the following link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zq66dp3

Learning Timetable
Just a reminder that if are struggling to plan a routine for your child, the timetable below might be useful. Each family will have their own circumstances and can adjust to fit your own needs. 

Student Book Review

Our review this week is from Joseph Flemming in Year 8. His full review will feature in the Head of Year assembly this week but read below for a sneak preview… It sounds like it’s a very exciting story!
Title: The Paladin
Author: Brian Garfield
The Paladin is based on a true story, but substitutes the names of some of the main characters. It is set just before and during the Second World War and focuses on a young schoolboy called ‘Christopher Creighton’. When he is fifteen, Christopher is recruited by Winston Churchill, his mother’s ex-landord, who is very high up in Parliament in 1940. Christopher became an assassin for Parliament and a personal spy for Winston Churchill, later the Prime Minister.
We’d love to have more so please send in your review or recommendations to the distancelearning@ email address. Make sure you put ‘Online Book Club’ in the Subject. We’ll put them in the news bulletin or on the school website, from Mr Salter.

Winner of the Hook-a-Book Challenge - Easter Term
Alexandra of 8N1 read and responded to an incredible 38 books over the course of the Easter Term resulting in 38 entries into the Hook-a-Book Challenge Prize Draw. It's no surprise that her ticket was drawn for a second time! Congratulations Alexandra!

Free Book from J. K. Rowling
J. K. Rowling is publishing her new book as a serial from 26 May; it’s called ‘The Ickabog’. She’ll be posting a chapter (or two, or three) every weekday between 26th May and 10th July on The Ickabog website. Find the link on the following website: https://www.jkrowling.com/j-k-rowling-introduces-the-ickabog/
There is also an illustration competition that you can enter.

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!

Year 7
Well done to all the students for their hard work during the assessment weeks. A big thank you to parents for your support with this.
Another well done to those students that got involved with Reading week last week.
Remember to check the website each Wednesday for the new assemblies and also the Beat the Teacher Quizzes. The deadline for the new House competition is Friday 26th June, thank you for all of your entries so far. If you would like your work or any activities that you have been doing to be included in the assemblies please email: distancelearning@derbycathedralschool.org.uk and mark them for the attention of Miss Amiss.

Year 8
Well done to all the students for their hard work during the assessment weeks. A big thank you to parents for your support with this.
Another well done to those students that got involved with Reading week last week.
Remember to check the website each Wednesday for the new assemblies and also the Beat the Teacher Quizzes. The deadline for the new House competition is Friday 26th June, thank you for all of your entries so far. If you would like your work or any activities that you have been doing to be included in the assemblies please email: distancelearning@derbycathedralschool.org.uk and mark them for the attention of Mr Capon.

This week sees two ‘Beat the Teachers’ quizzes for students to enter. Topics are as follows:

 PE, Fitness and Sports quiz
 Art 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!

Look out for the Wednesday challenge as announced in the virtual assembly from your Head of Year.

From the Revd Canon Dr Elizabeth Thomson:

One of the great things about being a new school, with a new building beginning to take shape, is that there aren’t any statues or monuments. Not yet.
One of the great things about being a cathedral is that there are monuments – and a couple of statues. Some of the monuments in the Cathedral are older than the present building, because they were in the medieval church and when it was rebuilt in the 1720s they were kept. Bess of Hardwick’s tomb is one of those old ones. Bess left a sum of money for the upkeep of her tomb, which is still part of the Cathedral’s funds – it’s not a very big part but it did help pay for a minor repair to a deer’s antler not long ago. Some of the monuments, unlike Bess’s, were first put up long after the person they commemorate had died. The plaque to Florence Nightingale went up in 2014, because what she did and made possible is still so important to people today. History is never just in the past. It always talks to the present, and the present talks back.

My favourite statue in the Cathedral is so tiny that most people never see it. It got there almost by accident – nobody really meant to commemorate the person it shows. But now, nearly three hundred years later, it jumps out and speaks to the present. It’s a figure of a lead miner. He’s only a few centimetres high, inside a green hill, sitting on top of a coat of arms. The coat of arms is part of the Chambers monument. Thomas and Margaret Chambers were rich people with a fine house in Derby, and the monument is nearly as big as Bess’s, with portrait busts of both of them in fine stone 18th-century wigs. They owned the lead mines and they got the profits. And now people walk past the enormous monument without knowing anything about Thomas and Margaret, but the little lead miner who’s part of their coat of arms, who’s just at eye level as I walk past, jumps out and reminds me of all the untold people in history, the ones who did all the work, the ordinary ones we don’t remember. Until we make an effort and do.

Choose your monuments carefully, when you put them up, and think about what they’ll say about you to the future.

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…

‘This week’s top tip has a numeracy focus: revision of mental arithmetic skills often gets overlooked, especially basic number skills. The following websites have a range of activities and games designed to improve these essential skills.

www.nrich.maths.org
www.themathsfactor.com

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:

Supporting Young People to be Active
Children and young people should engage in moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity for an average of at least 60 minutes per day across the week. Derbyshire School Games are providing a weekly resource to give ideas on how to be physically active with a different sport theme for 30 minutes each day.
This is an excellent website with lots of ideas and a weekly competition every Friday.
All of the resources (which currently also include golf, football, netball, athletics and orienteering) can be found on the website https://www.activederbyshire.org.uk/young-people-active-at-home

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

Roads from the past: a short history of Britain's Gypsies, Roma and Travellers

Have a watch of this short video during Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month. It is a short-animated film about the history of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people in Britain, from ancient times up to the present day.
The history is long and complicated and can't be explained in five minutes. This film isn't a full explanation. It's just a start. A way into thinking about Gypsy, Roma and Traveller history that is based on some important facts. Gypsy, Roma Traveller History can be traced back a long way and has different ethnic groups and origins.
https://www.travellerstimes.org.uk/heritage/roads-past-short-history-Britains-Gypsies-Roma-and-Travellers