Dear Parents and Carers,  

I hope you’ve had a good week. 

Teaching and Learning 

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed spending time in lessons this week looking at the learning taking place. When I’m in lessons, I ask pupils to show me the piece of work they are most proud of and explain why. It’s heartwarming when pupils talk to me through their work and burst with pride. We try our best to recognise and celebrate pupils' achievements within the classroom and beyond. Over the coming months, we are going to work even harder to do this by meeting with groups of pupils weekly to talk through their best pieces of work and celebrate their academic achievements. 

As I’ve previously mentioned, one of the school's improvement priorities is to increase levels of active engagement and reduce passivity in lessons; I was especially impressed with the learning of languages this week. It's great to see pupils fully immerse themselves in another language, embrace the level of challenge from the teachers and have fun at the same time! 

There have been some exciting developments in our academic support this term. As we have increased staffing levels in the Maths Department, we are now in a position to run more Maths interventions for pupils in Years 7-11 who need it the most. Targeted intervention is being put in place to support pupils to develop their confidence in Maths. I would like to extend a warm welcome to Mr Adey, who joined the team this week, and to Mrs Ormston, who returns to provide interventions. Next week, we are looking to recruit Year 10 pupils to act as ‘Maths Buddies’ to provide peer support in tutor time. This has worked well with our ‘Reading Buddies’ over the last year; we hope the impact will be as effective in Maths. 

We continue to run a wide range of interventions for pupils who need help with reading. These include the Little Wandle phonics programme, the Reciprocal Reading programme, Buddy Reading, Accelerated Reading programme and 'Drop Everything and Read' time each day. Please do encourage your children to read each day.  

• Research shows that reading improves teenagers' vocabulary by 26% regardless of background.  

• At age 14, children who enjoy reading on average have a better reading age compared to children who don't read by 3.3 years. Please do continue to encourage your child to read daily. 

We have had an extra drive on 'working hard and being kind' this week. In addition to our usual Friday ‘Shout Outs,’ pupils who have gone above and beyond in their lessons or shown kindness to others have been given raffle tickets. These have now gone into a draw, which will take place on Monday, when prizes will be awarded. This is an initiative that we will roll out bi-weekly. Staff have also been nominating those who show support for each other and carry out random acts of kindness. These pupils will be invited down to the cinema in Stockbridge next week as a reward. 

Things to celebrate this week.  

• Congratulations to Year 11 who have now completed their mock interviews in preparation for their college interviews over the next few weeks. Our interviewers were blown away by their maturity and confidence. Good luck, Year 11! 

• Well done to Year 8 for conducting themselves so well during their STEM Aviation Day at Middle Wallop. A highly engaging, interactive, and inspiring day was had by all. Huge thanks to Mrs Ablett for organising this opportunity. 

• Well done to our Year 10 Subject Ambassadors for supporting with the Year 9 Options process, a great opportunity to share insights into the subjects we offer. 

• I'm also pleased to share some staffing updates. Congratulations to Mrs White, who joins SLT as our Associate Assistant Head - Raising Achievement Lead. 

• Welcome to our new Learning Support Assistant, Miss Ruddick who joins Team Danebury this week. We know her energy and positivity will make a difference to our pupils learning. 

Notices 

• It is show week, and the Cast of Oliver have been working hard on the finishing touches. The set arrived on Friday, and it was all hands-on deck to build it. As ever, our pupils showed great community spirit, helping unload and build the set. Huge thanks to Mrs Brush and her family for working so hard to get it ready for the dress rehearsal on Tuesday.  

• We are very much looking forward to welcoming our Primary Schools to Danebury to watch the first run through. Please come along and join us on Wednesday, 11th or Thursday, 12th February at 7pm. Tickets can be purchased on Arbor or bought on the door for £8 each. Our wonderful PTA will be selling refreshments on both evenings. 

• Please check that your child's coat is named – we have a large collection of Danebury coats in lost property!  

• Please can you check your child isn’t bringing aerosol deodorant into school. We have a number of pupils with asthma who suffer when aerosols are sprayed in changing rooms. 

• We've noticed that a number of pupils are spending a significant amount of money each day in the canteen. Please check your Arbor Parent Portal to check your child’s meal balance and to top up. We are happy to set a daily allowance to ensure pupils are not running up large debts. Please email office@danebury.hispmat.org if you'd like to add a spending cap. A meal deal is £2.60, which includes a healthy main meal and dessert, e.g., a roast dinner and a cake, cookie, or piece of fruit. We are trying to educate pupils to choose the healthier options as they are cheaper, more filling, and nutritious.  

Have a good weekend. 

Nicky Goodridge 
Head Teacher