Dear Parents and Carers,
I hope you've had a good week.
Many thanks to the parents and carers who emailed to express their interest in meeting to discuss transport. I look forward to meeting with you.
Congratulations to the U16 Boys Basketball team who played really well against a strong Crestwood team, losing 48-13. Our Under 13 Boys Football team lost 6-3 against Henry Beaufort and our undefeated U16 Girls Basketball team won their match 34-22 against Romsey School. We are proud of them all for representing Danebury, well done!
We've had a number of visitors in school this week carrying out learning walks with me, as well as student voice sessions. On Tuesday our Local Authority School Improvement Partner toured the school with me, on Wednesday I was joined by one of our Trust School Improvement Leads and a Director of Education from another large Trust. On Thursday we were joined by our Governors, who carried out a number of reviews and met with groups of pupils for student Voice. They were all incredibly complimentary about the change in our school culture and the improvements in the quality of teaching and learning. They couldn’t speak more highly of our amazing pupils; their warmth, respect and their attitudes to learning. I felt so proud of our Danebury community.
They also gave valuable feedback on areas that we could improve on. I will be meeting with staff and pupils to explore two points in greater depth and work to improve them.
An area that was discussed is homework, we are currently working to improve is the frequency and quality of homework. A small number of Year 10 Parents/Carers gave feedback about this at parents evening last week. As you may be aware, we have moved to the Educake app to set homework for Science, Maths, English, Geography, History and PE. The reason for this is twofold, one to ensure homework focuses on retrieval practice, reducing the forgetting curve and helping pupils to secure the key knowledge in these subjects. Secondly, to ensure the homework is personalised and adapted to suit the level of each pupil. I understand concerns that the children may not be spending lots of time writing. At KS4 pupils will also receive additional homework to help them apply their knowledge, practice and revise. We are creating a homework timetable to help pupils to plan their week, this will be shared with you next week.
Have a good weekend.
Nicky Goodridge, Head of School
