FOCUS

Half-Term Newsletter

Issue 11 - May 2005

 
Dear Parents

The examination season is upon us! Students in Years 11, 12 and 13 are working hard to prepare for their public examinations. I have been most impressed by the commitment shown by many of them over recent weeks. For example, every Saturday for the last month, Year 11 students have been coming into school for extra revision sessions with their teachers to help prepare for their exams. Their determination to succeed has impressed me, and I wish them every success.

We were delighted to receive a very impressive report from the Investors in People assessor earlier this term. They complimented us on the team spirit apparent in the school. A fuller report appears elsewhere in the Focus magazine. Team work is a very important aspect of life at DGSB. All staff and students are encouraged to play their part in "Team DGSB" and to take full responsibility for their contribution to the success of all. It is most encouraging to see that teamwork confirmed by successfully achieving Investors in People status.

I am very pleased to see so many students wearing their Centenary tie. If your son has not ordered his tie yet, do encourage him to do so. The Centenary photograph is also now available. Information on how to order this historic photograph can be found in this newsletter. Coming up later this term, we have our Centenary Sports/Fun Day on 11 July. We would love to see as many parents as possible on that day. The Centenary Ball follows on 16 July, and there are still some tickets available. Don't miss out - order your tickets now! Order forms for ties and Centenary ball tickets were sent home in our recent mailing. If you need more, please contact the School Office.

Our athletics teams have got off to an excellent start this season. The Year 9 team have already won the SE Kent Schools Championship and now go on to the Kent Championship. Full results of recent competitions appear elsewhere in the newsletter.

In this Centenary year, there has been so much to celebrate at DGSB. The refurbishment programme continues, and is a visible sign of the improvements that are taking place throughout the school. Our new PE facilities were recently described as the "best in Kent" by a visitor from the Local Education Authority. Our aim is for DGSB to become the "best in Kent" in everything we do. Sports results, exam results, quality of facilities - there is still plenty to do, but we are on our way!

Mrs SJ Lees
Headteacher
May 2005

Free School Meals

The Government is changing the income threshold below which you are entitled to claim free school meals. The changes come into force on 6 April 2005.

From 6 April 2005, children whose parents receive the following support payments are entitled to receive free school meals:

* Income Support (IS)
* Income Based Jobseekers Allowance (IBJSA)
* Support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
* Child Tax Credit, provided they are not entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual income, as assessed by the Inland Revenue that does not exceed £13,910 (this threshold has changed)

Children who receive IS or IBJSA in their own right are also entitled to receive free school meals.

If you think you are eligible to claim free school meals for your son and are not already doing so, please contact Mrs Howe at the school who will give you further advice.

Modern Foreign Languages
By Mrs Lloyd

The students in Years 11, 12 and 13 have now completed their oral examinations and we wish to congratulate some of them for the excellent preparation they put in beforehand. We wish them the very best for the remainder of the examinations.

We would like to thank Miss Albrecht, our German Assistant, and Mr Usai, our French Assistant for all their help and good humour during their 8-month stay at Dover Grammar School for Boys. We wish them both the very best in their studies and chosen careers.

‘2nd Time Around’ Uniform

Do you need to replace an item of your son’s uniform or sports kit?
The PTFA has a stock of ‘As Good As New’ clothes available in most sizes at reasonable prices.
Contact Christine Neilson on 01304 360074.

Balloon Race

There is a chance to win £50 as part of the School’s Centenary Events. At Sports Day, which is to be held on Monday 11 July, there will be a whole host of other activities so it is being expanded into a Centenary ‘Fun Day’ with a BALLOON RACE. For a £1 entry fee your name will be printed on a label and fixed to a bio-degradable helium balloon which will be released on the afternoon of 11 July. Of all the labels received by Sunday 11 September, the £50 prize will be awarded to the entrant whose balloon travelled the furthest.

You may enter as many times as you like – each entry will cost £1. Bookings can be made in advance by handing in £1 along with your name and form to Mrs Howe. Other entries may be made on the day at the Fun Day/Sports Day.

The School Flag has been raised at the start of the school day and lowered at the end of the day as a joint venture between Andrew Ward of Year 12 and members of 10 Channel, including Anthony Bugden, Jake Burrows, Ben Clarke, Oliver English, Joe Fogarty, Karl Knight and David Wahl.

French Exchange Trip
By Jack Williams of 9 Castle

From Sunday 8 to Tuesday 10 May, members of Years 9 and 10 of the boy’s and girl’s schools went on a French exchange trip with students from College St Pierre.

Once we arrived in France we met our French families and all spent the rest of the day with them. Some of us went bowling, some went to the beach and one person even went flying!

The next day we all met up again in school to go on our excursions. To our delight the chocolate factory was first on the agenda. We had an interesting talk on the production of chocolate, containing relevant information about how to mould and decorate chocolate and then greatly enjoyed our delicious, free samples of home-made chocolate. We were all delighted to bring back our expensive chocolate souvenirs to England, except for poor Mr Usai, whose chocolates were eaten by his host family’s dog!

After this, we made the long journey to the V2 rocket factory. To our pleasant surprise, we had to fill in a huge question booklet on the history of WWII (‘We couldn’t miss two days of school without doing any work’, said Mrs Hargrave, laughing).

All wanting to enjoy ourselves once more, we next went shopping in Cite Europe, a French version of Bluewater, but with supermarkets. We searched for an hour for things to waste our money on, but still after looking in numerous clothes shops I found nothing to my taste and left empty handed. We returned to our French pen pals in the late afternoon, just in time for dinner.

After a short night’s sleep, we all awoke to find that it was our last day in France, which meant one thing: School! At 9 o’clock we were all ready for lessons to begin, in which we and our correspondents worked together on tasks such as a 20th Century quiz, which the French seemed to know every answer to. We had lunch and then it was time to say ‘au revior’ and ‘merci’ to our French correspondents.

After an hour’s delay, we boarded the ferry to return to England, after an excellent and very enjoyable French experience. I strongly recommend the exchange to anyone looking to go in the future and believe that it helped my French and knowledge of France immensely. I would like to thank Mrs Hargrave and Mr Usai for making the whole experience run easily and making it as interesting and fun as possible.

French Exchange Trip
By Mrs Hargrave

My thanks go to all the boys who took part in the 3-day exchange with the College St Pierre in Calais. They were a pleasure to take and a credit to the school. They practiced their French and many families commented on the students’ politeness.

Several boys have already asked if the trip will be taken one stage further next year so I encourage them to make their own arrangements now that they have the contacts with the French families. I know that one boy has been invited to go on holiday with the French family in the Alps.

Once again, well done to all the participants! It will certainly encourage me to arrange this again next year.

Forensic Psychology Conference
By Ms Ball

On 14 April, fifteen Year 13 psychology students and I attended a forensic psychology conference in London, organised by True Life Conferences.

It was a packed day with many speakers from different areas of Forensic Psychology; the most renowned being Hamish Brown MBE who gave us an insight into the mind of the stalker. A forensic psychologist from Dovegate talked about the work of a psychologist within the prison service. A researcher of domestic violence produced evidence, which suggests that many more men suffer abuse at the hands of their partners than is generally recognised or admitted to.

The last speaker was an ex-prisoner of some 25 years who talked about life in prison and the effectiveness of various rehabilitation programmes. All in all, it was a day which proved much food for thought and will hopefully become an annual event as part of the A2 Psychology of Crime option.

Sports News by Mr Howe

42 year wait is over and Dukies are beaten!
South East Kent Athletics Championships - Ashford - Friday 13 May

Dover Grammar School for Boys had only won this trophy once in over 50 years, in 1963. Being Friday the 13th one might have thought that our luck was out again. Not so – DGSB put up a magnificent performance, winning 5 of the Titles and running out emphatic winners of the 8 schools taking part.

The final scores of the top 3 schools were:

1st DGSB 84 pts
2nd Duke of Yorks 66 pts
3rd Manwoods 65 pts

The team consisted of Daniel Allen, Visar Beqiri, Elliott Brown, Ryan Doble, Sam Douglas, Michael Kelly, Dale Mercer and James Wright.

Daniel Allen won both the 100m and Javelin, Michael Kelly won the 400m after coming a close 2nd in the 200m, Ryan Doble easily won the 1500m and Sam Douglas won the Triple Jump. The lowest position was 4th emphasising the consistency within the team. Hopefully, this form will continue at the Kent Championships on Saturday, 18 June – where the opposition will be the extremely formidable Judd. Well done on a truly historic victory lads!

Lunchtime clubs

Cricket and Athletics clubs are held every lunchtime on the top field. For cricket see Mr White and for Athletics see Mr Howe before you turn up.

There are many Cricket and Athletics matches still left this Summer – turn up and train if you want to be selected.

In particular, Mr Howe would like to go out on a high note with the Athletics this year as it is his last Term at the school and his final year as a PE teacher.

The ultimate goal would be to guide the boys in winning the Powell Trophy (Years 8-10), the District Championships (Year 7), and the Kent Schools Championships (Year 9). We already have the Junior Boys District Championships (Year 9).
Let’s go for the QUAD!

TSB Cup, Ashford –
Thursday 19 May

Final Results:
Dover Grammar 312pts
Harvey Grammar 268pts
Brockhill 235pts
Homewood 226pts
Canterbury High 216pts

The individual results of this are still unknown but I had to mention the performances of Troy Smissen and Ryan Doble who both ran magnificently to get under 5 minutes for the 1500m. Troy ran 4 mins 54 secs and Ryan ran 4 mins and 58 secs – superb!

Year 8 Rugby – DGSB (29) v St Edmunds (12)
By Nick Keen of 8 Castle

In the first half, Grammar took a good lead with three tries, scored by Visar Beqiri, George Mortley and Jamie Capon. It was clear from the start that the match was going to be a competitive one. The forwards made some good ground with their strong runs, and also did well in the scrums. There were some explosive runs from the backs, but especially from the centres, Sam Fogarty and George Mortley and also the full back Joshua Coughlan.

In the second half two tries were scored by Visar Beqiri and Josh Coughlan, due to excellent forward work and precision passing. Unfortunately, St Edmunds managed to score two consolidation tries, and one conversion. In both halves there were hard-hitting tackles from Grammar, but especially from Joshua Coughlan. Also, good kicks from Jamie Capon, George Mortley, Tom Neill and Conor Wynne.

Investors in People

The school was recently inspected by the Investors in People organisation and re-awarded the status of being an Investor in People.

The nationally recognised standard means that the school has shown it has a good programme of staff training and development which is bringing benefit to the students particularly in terms of teaching and learning.

The report highlighted the fact that the school has clear aims which are focused on achieving:

· Excellent Academic Results.
· Excellent Learning and Teaching.
· Excellent Behaviour and Appearance.
· Excellent Environment.
· Excellent Teamwork.

The assessor praised the school for the progress it has made this year and made special reference to how the school is now working as a team.

Year 10 Enterprise Activity Days.
Thursday 19 & Friday 20 May 2005

All Year 10 boys took part in two days of activities aimed to raise their aspirations and help them to aim higher in their personal expectations of themselves.

The two days kicked off to a energetic start with an opening address from Gareth Marshall – GM Consultants Ltd – whose lively presentation challenged every boy to prepare himself for the world of work by having the edge over his rivals and getting the job, University place or exam results they want.

Over the two days each boy took part in a range of workshops led by ‘Learning by Design’ aimed at developing leadership, enterprise and team building skills. The two days were organised as a joint venture between DGSB & the East Kent Education & Business Partnership.

Highlights of the two days included a workshop given by Bernie Facer who has spent over forty years in hand making cricket bats and physical challenges aimed to motivate everyone, teachers included, to achieve beyond their expectations.

The second day was opened by England and Yorkshire cricketer Clare Taylor OBE, who answered questions and posed for photographs after her presentation. Clare’s passionate approach to Sport as a great way to motivate and achieve goals enthused all the boys to work hard.

Focus Newsletter by Email

If you would like to receive our newsletter by email please let the school know. Thank you to those parents/friends who have already done so – we aim to send you the next newsletter electronically.

Governors Annual Report to Parents by Sue Barham,
Clerk to the Governing Body

I hope that you have all received the Annual Report to Parents that was sent home with students recently.

In the letter you were informed that the traditional annual meeting to discuss the report would be organised unless there was little or no demand from parents. The ‘magic’ number of requests for such a meeting to take place is fifteen and I am writing to let you know that we did only receive one. There will, therefore, not be an Annual Meeting for Parents this year.

Thank you to those parents who responded by returning the response slips.

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