Dear Parents and Carers, 

I hope you’re well and have had a positive week. 

As we complete our first week back at Danebury, I wanted to take a moment to celebrate the excellent start that our pupils have made to the new academic year and to thank you for your continued support. 

I would like to extend a very warm welcome to our new families in Year 7 as well as our new starters in Years 8-11, it’s been lovely to meet your wonderful children this week. Big shout out to Year 7 for achieving 99.5% attendance this week! 

From the moment pupils returned through our doors, they  have demonstrated the values, attitudes and behaviours that make our school community so special. It has been wonderful to see classrooms filled with positive learning, enthusiasm and determination to succeed. 

I am particularly delighted to share some remarkable news regarding pupil’s attitudes to learning. Pupils have made a really fantastic effort this week, showing excellent behaviour for learning in their lessons and a sunny, positive attitude all around the school. 

All year groups have achieved above a 99.9% positive to negative ratio in behaviour points with year 7 at 100% positive!  By the close of play on Thursday only 2 negative points were awarded across the school.  

More than 8500 positive points have been awarded! 

Top 5-point scorers: 

Chester L (Yr 7) 

Posey C (Yr 7) 

Chloe G (Yr 11) 

Travis P (Yr 7) 

Harriet S (Yr 11) 

Congratulations to them 

I would also like to thank all parents and carers for your support with our uniform expectations. Pupils have returned looking smart, prepared and ready to learn. The standard of uniform across the school has been excellent and helps reinforce the sense of pride we have in belonging to the Danebury community. 

To further support families, we now have a substantial stock of spare uniform items and school shoes available. Should a pupil arrive at school missing an item of uniform, we will be able to lend the required item for the day, ensuring that all pupils can continue their learning without disruption while maintaining our high standards. 

Enrichment Opportunities 

During our whole-school assembly on Thursday, I spoke to pupils about the importance of making the most of every opportunity available to them. I shared the message that they will ‘only get out of school what they put into it’, and I encouraged them to become actively involved in the range of clubs, activities, and enrichment opportunities available this term. 

We know that participation in enrichment activities helps pupils develop confidence, resilience, teamwork and new interests. To recognise this commitment, pupils will receive additional positive behaviour points for attending enrichment activities. 

Our end-of-term reward activities will be organised for pupils who have accumulated high numbers of positive points and low numbers of negative points, ensuring that effort, commitment and positive conduct are celebrated appropriately. 

You can view this term's clubs and enrichment programme using the link below: 

Extra curricular clubs and enrichment 

Clubs and Enrichment Sign-Up will be available via Arbor Parent Portal from Monday. 

Late Minibus Service 

I appreciate that, as a school serving a rural community, it can sometimes be difficult to arrange transport home for your child after enrichment activities, particularly when work commitments make collection challenging. 

As always, we will do our very best to remove barriers and ensure that as many pupils as possible can access these valuable opportunities. To support this, we will be running a late minibus on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. 

Please note that we have had to move our staff meeting evening to Tuesdays this year. As a result, there will be no clubs, enrichment activities, or late bus service on Tuesdays, other than Judo which is run by The Judo Company (see separate advert on the previous blog). 

To register your child's interest in using the late minibus service, register via Arbor next week. 

In order to cover the cost of drivers, there will be a charge of £10 per term (less than £1 per week) for use of the late bus service. Once we have established levels of demand, we will plan suitable routes. Whilst we cannot provide a door-to-door service, we will do our best to minimise the distance pupils need to walk between their drop-off point and home. 

Open Evening – Thursday 10 September 

Our annual Open Evening will take place on Thursday 10 September from 5:30pm to 7:30pm. 

A large number of our pupils have already volunteered to support the evening, and I am incredibly grateful for their willingness to showcase our school to prospective families. Mrs Braidley will be in contact regarding parental consent for those pupils who have volunteered. 

Open Evening is one of the most important events in our school calendar, and I would be extremely grateful if you could help us promote it by spreading the word to any prospective parents and carers who may be considering Danebury School. Personal recommendations from our families are invaluable, and your support is very much appreciated Open Evening 

Thank you for the important role you play in supporting your child's education. The strength of the partnership between home and school is clearly evident in the fantastic start our pupils have made. We are incredibly proud of them and look forward to seeing this positive momentum continue throughout the term. 

Thank you for your ongoing support, have a great weekend, fingers crossed the sun shines for us all. 

Nicky Goodridge
Head Teacher