THE "FIRST THURSDAY" NEWSLETTER
MAY 2002 No. 92

LENTEN APPEAL UPDATE

A splendid result in this year's Lenten Appeal has led to £3,385.97 being raised for the charities chosen by the School Council - Demelza House, the Meningitis Trust and the Starlight Children's Foundation. Representatives from Demelza House and the Meningitis Trust have been presented, during assemblies, with their cheques. The Starlight Children's Foundation representative will be coming to DGSB in the near future.
Mr G M Falconer - Assistant Headteacher

ANTONY HOOK

The School welcomed back a distinguished, but quite recent, old boy last week when Antony Hook, former Deputy Head Prefect and Chairman of the School Council, came to the assembly to speak to the School. Antony, who fought the last General Election as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Dover, and achieved a significant increase in their vote, was launching a national campaign to extend voting rights to 16 and 17 year olds. Following his ten-minute talk the School gave him a spontaneous standing ovation.`
This event was filmed by both BBC South and Meridian News, and reports were published in the local press. All in all this was a very positive occasion and one certainly 'in tune' with the introduction of Citizenship in the National Curriculum for Key Stages 3 and 4 from September, a point Antony made in his speech.
Mr G M Falconer - Assistant Headteacher

YOUNG ENTERPRISE

The current theme for assemblies is "Success". A successful individual is one who achieves their goals whatever they may be. This requires much more than academic prowess but a sense of purpose, enthusiasm, motivation and the fostering of a "can do" culture. We at DGSB are striving to instil this culture into our students.
With initiatives such as Young Enterprise students are rewarded for determination, enterprise and plain hard work. Well done to all who took part.
Mr M Harrison - Subject Leader for Economics and Business Studies
Apex-Enterprises
The Young Enterprise (YE) scheme has been running for many years now and DGSB has year on year offered Sixth Form students the opportunity to join together and form a company. Last September six members of Year 13 decided to take up this offer and formed the company "Apex-Enterprises". We had quite a selection of talents within the team and because we were small in number job titles practically allocated themselves. We weighed up our strengths and weaknesses to decide what market we could corner. After much debate in the boardroom we decided to focus on "events management". Since then we have organised two very successful lower school discos, a 70s and 80s night and attempted to organise a Valentines Prom. The capital gained from these ventures would allow us to embark on a big project that undoubtedly played the biggest part in us winning the local finals "Apex TT 2002 - The Tournament Organiser".
The success of Apex-Enterprises at the local YE finals was largely based around our newly developed software package, Apex TT 2002. This piece of software currently manages and organises a table tennis tournament, controlling aspects such as randomised draws, player databases and table management. We are currently in the process of packaging and finalising the package. This includes the translation of the package into French and German, the option for each program to be fully customisable to the users needs, and the seeking of a print contract.
We are also judging interest in to converting the software to run other sporting tournaments, such as football and sailing. However, should the market come available we are confident that any sport could be covered. If you are interested in finding out more about our software then please call Chris Hadley on 01304 210816.
We are going to compete in the Kent County Finals on Thursday 9th May. Hopefully the judges will see that our product has potential and let us progress to the National stage of this competition.
Chris Hadley - ICT Director
James Evans - Managing Director
Tom Freeman - Finance Director
James Eberlein - Marketing Director
Dave Tilbee - Operations Director
Dean Baker - Health & Safety Director

Venture Enterprises

Darren Howard, Keith Renault, Matthew Long and Graeme Mitchell were one of the youngest teams taking part in the Dover area final. The company which specialised in computer entertainment software impressed the judges with their IT know how and determination. Congratulations on a good effort.
Mr M Harrison - Subject Leader for Economics & Business Studies

AFRICAN ART WORKSHOP - 26th April 2002

Pupils in Years 7, 8, 9, 11, 12 and 13 enjoyed a fascinating series of workshops, including projects using clay and textiles. Four Key Stage 3 groups made African masks out of clay, whilst the older pupils were introduced to the technique of batik and produced numerous dynamically coloured designs, inspired by traditional Nigerian designs.
Sammy, a senior trainer with a London based African Arts Group, was the tutor for the day and his clear, simple instructions combined with his obviously high degree of expertise helped make the entire day memorable.
Friday's workshop was the second given at DGSB by this brilliant group, the first having taken place a few years ago. We look forward to more collaboration in the future years.
Mr S Almond - Subject Leader for Art & Design

SCHOOL PREFECT APPOINTMENTS

The following boys have been appointed School Prefects with immediate effect:
ARTIS, Mark
BLASKETT, Brady
BRIDGES, Ben
BURKE, James
CHAN, Ian
CLUTTON, Ben
CORLETT, Nicholas
DOWNER, James
FERMOR, Andrew
FLYNN, Michael
GRILLI, Sam
HAYDEN, Alan
HORSLER, Steven
HOWARD, Darren
KNIGHT, Chris
MORGAN, Neil
MYERS, Glynn
PEARSON-WOOD, Jon
PETTMAN, Kieran
RENAULT, Keith
RICHARDSON, Tom
ROBERTS, John-Neal
SALISBURY, Tim
SHEPHERD, Simon
THOMAS, Matthew
TOWNEND, Nicholas
WARD, Cameron
WEATHERHEAD, Ryan
WHEELER, Tim
WILLIAMSON, Russell
Dr A S Jackson - Deputy Headteacher

SCHOOL LIBRARY NEWS

We are on target for acquiring a computer for the Library courtesy of Tesco Computers for Schools. Please continue to send in any stray vouchers as every one really does help. The order will have to be sent at the end of May/beginning of June.
A cheque to the value of £35 has been received from the collection of Nestle Cereal Box Tops. Thanks to all who contributed. A small selection of fiction stock will be purchased with this money.
Thank you to all the Lower School parents and pupils who have been supporting the Scholastic Book Club Leaflets. Again it helps add new Lower School fiction to the Library stock.
Mrs L George - School Librarian

MUSIC

Once again the School's musicians have been busy in recent weeks and a number of events need to be reported.
The first of these took place as long ago as Thursday 7th February when the school Big Band presented a Lunchtime Jazz Concert, their programme of eight classics from the age of swing being well received by the many pupils and staff who attended. A few weeks later the Spring Concert given in the School Hall on the evening of Wednesday 13th March presented a wide range of music to a large and appreciative audience. As well as the usual jazz contributions, pieces played by the Woodwind Ensemble, String Orchestra and Chamber Quartet were interspersed with a wide variety of solo items. One particular feature of this programme was the emphasis on music for string instruments. The most recent concert to be given by a "DGSB musician" was the magnificent Organ Recital given by Mr Paul Baldock on Saturday 27th April in St Clement's Church, Sandwich, where he is Organist and Choirmaster. St Clement's has one of the finest organs in East Kent, built by Nicholson in 1995, and the annual series of organ recitals there is now well established. Highlights of Mr Baldock's programme were the Prelude and Fugue in G major by J S Bach and the Toccata by Dubois.
Another successful event in recent weeks was the Year 11 GCSE Music group's visit to London University on Friday 15th March for a Revision Conference. This is a trip which is organised jointly with Dover Girls' Grammar School's GCSE musicians and is now in its third year. The day proved very useful to all who took part.
A number of pupils have been successful in Graded Practical Examinations and deserve congratulations:
Calum Lawrence Initial Grade Piano
Andrew Gibson Grade I Clarinet with Merit
Jonathan Green Grade 2 Clarinet
James Dray Grade 2 Clarinet
Peter Horner Grade 3 Trumpet
Mark Farthing Grade 4 Saxophone
David Buhler Grade 4 Cello with Distinction
As an outcome of the retiring collection taken after the School Carol Service in December we have been able to present a cheque for £201 to Cancer Research UK, the second time in recent years that the School's musical activities have raised money for this charity.
Mr R S Davies - Director of Music

URGENTLY REQUIRED

Please help. For the Year 12 Great Egg Race the School needs as many empty cotton reels, jam jars and lids as you can find. If you are able to assist please ask your son to hand them in at the School Office.
Mr M Harrison - Subject Leader for Economics & Business Studies

MORE HELP PLEASE……
TECHNO GAMES 2003

If you have a remote control car you no longer want please hand it in at the School Office. The components will be very useful in assisting the school's team for Techno Games 2003.
David Harper - Form 10CH

PARENTS & FRIENDS ASSOCIATION

Hi everyone
A big thank you goes to all of you who supported the Wine and Wisdom Evening last Friday. We raised the sum of £279.31 which will be going towards the fund for the replacement mini bus.
If anyone has any ideas for a fund raising event please get in touch with me - your ideas are always welcome.
The next meeting will be held on Tuesday 18th June at 7.00 pm.
Mrs J Gambrell - Chairman

PFA 200 Club

The winners of April's draw were as follows:
1st £25 Mr J Bottle (36), 2nd £15 Mrs P Chainey, 3rd £10 Mr M Collins (105)
Mrs P Brown - 200 Club Secretary

SPORTS NEWS

Football
Year 7 County Cup Final - Thursday 18th April
Dover G.S. 0 -v- Howard School 5
Team spirits were very high when we pulled into Gillingham F.C.'s superb new football stadium car park.
After a good warm up and team talk we jogged into the ground and prepared for the kick off. Several useful attacks were set up in the first quarter of the match. Calum McGeeham came especially close with a fine left footed shot that just missed the goal. The Howard School came back at us strongly and only a couple of fine saves by Michael Magrino prevented more than the one goal they scored in the last part of the first half.
Great pressure on our defence throughout the second half saw four more goals being scored. This was a difficult half with our confidence waning but Howard School seemed to improve as the second half unfolded.
Individual medals were handed out after the match and we availed ourselves of the fine hospitality at the meal laid on for us.
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all members of the squad and we look forward to winning the final next year.
Finally, I would like to thank all the parents who supported the team, the match officials and the Howard School and Gillingham F.C. for their hospitality.
The team consisted of:
M Magrino, A Hart, S Meadows, D Robinson, R Paton, K Westgarth, J Ellender, C McGeehan, T Smissen, S James, R Hockley, K Johnston, A Baker and N Blackman.
Mr M Grant - Subject Leader for PE

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Half Term: Monday 3rd - Friday 7th June (inclusive).
Sports Day: Friday 28th June

EXAMINATIONS

Key Stage 3 SATs 7th - 13th May inclusive
Years 7 & 8 20th -24th May inclusive