THE "FIRST THURSDAY" NEWSLETTER

NEWSLETTER JUNE 1999 No. 60

OFSTED

The inspection report will soon emerge and a summary will be sent to all parents within approximately the next two weeks. I have discussed the draft at long length with the Registered Inspector. The findings are largely positive and the key issues for action are very close to the already existing school development plan.

OfSTED have mishandled the examination statistics which has led to some untrue comment about standards. This has led to me lodging a complaint with the OfSTED Inspection Quality and Monitoring Division.

Headteacher

INVESTORS IN PEOPLE AWARD

On Thursday 6th May Neil Slater (Headteacher) and Giles Falconer (Senior Teacher) attended an evening reception at Leeds Castle, near Maidstone where, on behalf of the School, they received its 'Investors in People' Award which shows that the management systems regarding training and development have been recognised as meeting this testing national standard. Visitors to the school can see the Investors in People plaque in the School Reception area. Recognition as an 'Investor in People' lasts three years, but steps have already been taken to move the school on by joining the 'Investors in Success' Scheme from this year onward.

Mr G M Falconer - Senior Teacher

YEAR 12 ANCIENT HISTORY TRIP TO SILCHESTER ROMAN TOWN AND BIGNOR ROMAN VILLA - Tuesday 18th May

On a rather grey and wet Tuesday in May the Year 12 Ancient History class travelled to Hampshire to visit the historic site of Silchester Roman Town. With town wall, sometimes reaching heights of 10' and covering a very large and undeveloped area, Silchester is one of the largest and impressive Roman sites in England. We then moved on to Bignor Roman Villa in West Sussex where we marvelled at many fantastic mosaics. Bignor was once the home to a very wealthy family in the 3rd AD. Overall, the trip was very interesting and informative and a most enjoyable alternative to a day at school!

Tom Auld - 12T

ART DEPARTMENT

A painting of Dover Castle by Steven Laycock of Year 12 has recently been selected for an exhibition organised by Countryside Protection for Rural England, KCC and UK Paper. The title theme for the exhibition was "What do you love most about your County?"

More details to follow about venue and dates etc.

Mr S Thompson

MUSIC

Lunchtime Jazz Concert

On Thursday 20th May the DGSB Big Band presented a Lunchtime Jazz Concert in the School Hall. An appreciative audience of pupils and members of staff gathered to hear a programme of classic swing numbers including such favourites as In the mood, American Patrol and Take the A Train.

Music Practical Examinations

In addition to the results reported in the April First Thursday Newsletter the following students have been successful in Graded Music Practical Examinations recently and deserve our congratulations: Matthew Topping (Grade 1 Piano with Merit), Joshua Collins and Andrew Lightwing (Grade 2 Piano), Tom Parkin (Grade 4 Piano), Giles Barrett (Grade 4 Electronic Keyboard with Merit and Xavier Taylor (Grade 6 Saxophone with Distinction).

Kamister and Alf Stewart

Two pop bands formed largely of DGSB pupils have been active on the local music scene recently.

"Kamister" (Chris Lamb, James Langley and Tom Parkin together with drummer Ian Gooda from St Edmunds School) played at the school's Spring Concert in March and were enthusiastically received by the audience.

"Alf Stewart" (Sam Donaldson, Richard Warren and Paul Reid making up three of the band's five members) have been heard in a number of gigs in the area over the past few months. We look forward to hearing more of both groups in the future.

Forthcoming Events

The next event will be the Summer Concert to be given on Wednesday 14th July at 7.30 pm in the School Hall. The school's junior musicians will also be providing the musical items at Junior Prizegiving on the following Wednesday, 21st July.

Mr R Davies - Director of Music

INTERNET

The school e-mail address is:

office@dovergramboys.kent.sch.uk

The address for old boys to contact the school is now:

pharos@dovergramboys.kent.sch.uk

The new address of the school website is:

www.rmplc.co.uk/eduweb/sites/dovergramboys/index.html

NEW GOVERNING BODY

I am pleased to be able to inform you that the new Instrument of Government for the Governing Body of Dover Grammar School for Boys has been approved by the LEA and received by the school on 21st May 1999.

The school will belong to the Foundation category from 1st September 1999 which means that the governing body will continue to:

• employ the school's staff

• be the school's admission authority, and

• retain any land owned at present

The process of reconstituting the Governing Body for 1st September 1999 must take place during the remainder of this Summer Term.

Some categories of governor will continue to serve on the new Governing Body and the table below shows both the governors remaining; and the vacancies including how they will be filled.

There will no longer be a category called First Governors and therefore all First Governors have to stand down including Rev. Graham Batten, Suzanne Dawson, Rev. Nick De Keyser, John Hogg, Bob Joslin and Jim Murray. The current Chairman, Robin Terry, and the current Vice Chairman, Walter Robertson, are also First Governors and will stand down, although both governors have been nominated by the current Governing Body to the LEA who may appoint them as LEA Governors but this is by no means certain.

Parent Governor, Alan Bostock, First Governor, David Spink and Teacher Governor, Alastair Gardiner do not wish to continue and are therefore all standing down from the Governing Body.

(For the vacancies to be filled by election please see page 4.)

Additional parental right

In addition to nominating Parent Governors, parents also have the right to nominate a new category of Governor called Partnership Governors which replaces the existing First Governor category. Partnership Governors must be from the community served by the school and committed to the good government and success of the school. The Governing Body is responsible for seeking nominations for and appointing Partnership Governors. Parents may wish to consider making nominations from the list of First Governors standing down as it is not considered good practice for existing governors to nominate themselves. Partnership Governors cannot be:

• a parent of a registered pupil at the school;

• a person who is eligible to be either a staff governor or a teacher governor;

• an elected member or employee of the LEA
  

Mr R Terry - Chairman of Governors

PFA

The PFA committee met on Tuesday evening and several new appointments were made. Sandra Wright will be retiring as secretary in September and she will be succeeded by Janet Munford. Christine Dunstone will be retiring as organiser of the 200 Club and Paula Brown is taking her place, while Elaine Keen has volunteered to look after the second-hand uniform. We are grateful to those who are retiring for all the work they have done and we also thank those who have offered to take on these tasks. We also thank Gill Martin for the work she has done as a committee member. She is now retiring.

Volunteers have been organised to help at various school events next month, including the new boys and parents evening, sports day and the summer concert.

The next committee meeting is on 14th September at 7.30 pm and the PFA annual meeting is on 29th September also at 7.30 pm.

Mrs J Tutthill - Chairman

200 Club

The winners for May are as follows:

1st Mr C Hale (£25) (188), 2nd Mr J Petts (£15) (140) and 3rd Mr & Mrs W Flynn £10 (138).

OLD PHAROSIANS

The Old Pharosians committee meets next Wednesday evening at 7.00 pm to discuss forthcoming events, including the annual meeting, football match and dinner in September. Work is progressing on the next edition of the association's newsletter which is distributed to more than 700 members worldwide. It will contain information about many former pupils, and, sadly obituaries for several who have died in recent months.

Mr G Tutthill - Newsletter editor

SPORTS NEWS

Cricket Fixtures:

Mon 14th - Year 9 Inter Form House matches
Tues 15th - Year 8 Inter Form House matches. 3.45pm Year 7 -v- Astor (H) and Year 10 -v- Astor (A)
Thurs 17th - Year 10 Inter Form House matches. 3.45pm Year 8 -v- Astor (H)
Fri 18th - Year 7 Inter Form House matches
Mon 21st - Year 9 Inter Form House matches
Tues 22nd - Year 8 Inter Form House matches
Thurs 24th - 2.30pm Year 10 -v- Harvey G.S. (H)
Fri 25th - Year 7 Inter Form House matches. 4.00pm Year 7 -v- Harvey G.S. (A)
Tues 29th - 4.30pm Year 9 -v- Norton Knatchbull (A) and Year 10 -v- Norton Knatchbull (H)
Wed 30th - 2.00pm 1st XI -v- Old Pharosians (H)

ADVANCE NOTICE

The school Sports Day will be held on Wednesday 7th July (reserve day in case of bad weather will be Thursday 8th July). Events will be held on the top field from about 9.30 am until lunchtime and again in the afternoon. The Guest of Honour presenting the prizes this year is Mr Bill Williams, Manager of Dover Athletic Football Club. All parents are very welcome to attend.

TABLE TENNIS

In the near future The Dover & District Table Tennis Association will hold its annual fixture meeting. At this meeting the format of the leagues will be decided. In 1998-99 Grammar fielded 5 teams in two leagues and it is hoped that we will be able to do this again for the following season. Boys wishing to be considered for any of the teams should make themselves known to Paul Skelton as soon as possible, and this applies to boys who played in the teams last year.

HOUSE MATCHES

The house matches for Years 7, 8 & 9 are starting to take shape at this stage of the league and the up to date personal averages and league positions are posted outside the lower school office each week. The matches are going very well indeed, even though a few teams have dropped out over the last few weeks. The league positions are calculated on team performance regarding the number of points they average in each match played, and also on Speed Control i.e. the average number of strokes the team can achieve in one minute. Below are shown the current league tables accurate to 10th June.

YEAR 7

Average points per leg in matches played

Average strokes per minute in Speed Control

7 Channel Tungsten have been withdrawn from the leagues due to being unable to field a team of 4.

YEAR 8

Average points per leg in matches played

Average strokes per minute in Speed Control

8 Channel Platinum and 8 Castle Silver have both been withdrawn from the leagues due to being unable to field a team of 4.

YEAR 9

Average points per leg in matches played

Average strokes per minute in Speed Control

9 Castle Titanium have been withdrawn from the leagues due to being unable to field a team of 4.

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