Dear Parents and Carers,
I hope you've had a positive week.
Teaching and Learning
I’m delighted to share some recent highlights from our school. This week, we were honoured to host our Trust CEO, Mrs Parry, and Director of Education, Mrs McKeown. They toured the school and noted the significant improvements we’ve made this academic year. Mrs McKeown was particularly impressed by our increased pupil engagement, the innovative use of visualisers to model worked examples, and the reading strategies our teachers are now implementing across the school.
Our Year 11 pupils have been working incredibly hard in preparation for their upcoming mock exams. We are confident their commitment will yield excellent results and wish them the very best over the next two weeks.
LORIC – Oracy Project
This term, pupils in Years 7–10 have been working on an Oracy project during their LORIC sessions. They began by watching and analysing great speeches—some famous and others delivered by students who had won speech competitions.
Pupils discovered that whether we agree or disagree with a topic is often irrelevant; what truly matters is how we articulate ourselves. Learning to communicate, debate, and speak to a range of audiences is arguably one of the most important life skills we can develop—without it, we cannot effectively share our opinions or emotions about things that matter to us.
Each pupil has chosen a subject they feel passionate about and has been given time to research and write their speech. We are now looking forward to hearing these speeches over the next few weeks. If you wish to support your child, ask them what their speech is about. Offer to listen, provide constructive feedback, and help them practise timing (speeches should be 2–3 minutes long and, wherever possible, presented from memory). This is a challenge, and it’s natural to feel nervous when public speaking. However, this experience will help our pupils build confidence, communication skills, and resilience. Go Team Danebury! The strongest speeches will go forward to the Hampshire Youth Speaks Competition.
Community Events
On Sunday, a group of our pupils joined Mrs Ellard and me at St Peter’s Church in Stockbridge for the Remembrance Service. We were incredibly proud to be part of the local community at this commemoration. Special mention goes to William W and Teddy L-C, who delivered an excellent reading of The Crosses, and to Penny E, Victoria S, and Oscar R, who laid the wreath on our school’s behalf.
This week also saw a deeply moving Remembrance Service in school. The level of respect demonstrated by our pupils during the service and two-minute silence was truly exceptional—a moment that made me immensely proud.
Unfortunately, we had to make the difficult decision to postpone the Year 7 Water Meadows trip on Friday due to a yellow weather warning issued by the County. The safety of our pupils always remains our top priority. Miss Barton is rescheduling the trip for a few weeks’ time.
Today, we marked Children in Need and the end of Anti-Bullying Week by inviting pupils to wear odd socks (celebrating our differences). Break time was filled with fantastic activities, including “sponge the teacher,” basketball shoot-outs, a sing-along, and bingo in the hall. Thank you to everyone for your kind donations to this wonderful charity.
Canteen Update
Please note that there is a daily spending limit of £6.50 in the canteen (for Free School Meals, this is £3.00). If you would like your child’s daily limit to be increased, please email finance@danebury.hispmat.org.
Please remind your child that there is a daily meal deal of a main meal and cookie/brownie or piece of fruit for £2.60. They can check with the canteen staff for options. Drinks can be expensive, so we recommend sending a refillable water bottle and perhaps some snacks.
If your child does not have enough money on their account to purchase food, a reminder will be issued if the balance is £3.00 or under. Regular reminders are sent on Mondays by email; however, we may phone if a top-up is urgently needed.
We will not let children go hungry. The canteen will itemise purchased items, and a reminder or phone call will be made. These items will be charged to your child’s Arbor account within 24 hours.
The weather is turning wintery next week, please ensure your child wears their Danebury coat and jumper.
Have a good weekend.
Warm wishes
Nicky Goodridge
