Dear Parents and Carers,  

I hope this newsletter finds you well. 

Danebury updates 

The warm spring sunshine has positively impacted attitudes to learning this week, and we've been making the most of our beautiful outdoor spaces at break times. I opened the field earlier than usual this year to provide pupils with the opportunity to play games or socialise with their friends whilst gaining their daily dosage of vitamin D! It's been a settled, calm week with pupils working hard in lessons as they sit their end-of-term assessments. End-of-term reports will be shared with you next Friday. 

Attendance and Behaviour 

Thank you for your continued support with attendance – we are doing all we can to support our pupils and families, and I'm delighted to report that this is going in the right direction. We had 2 days this week when we were above the national average – which is 91.6%, great news! Year 7 continues to have the highest attendance rates at 95%, closely followed by Year 9 and Year 11. We are working closely with external agencies and the Hampshire Inclusion Team to provide a wider range of support strategies for pupils whose attendance drops below 90%. This is classed as 'persistent absence' and will impact on outcomes if we don't intervene. Our workshops and 1-1 support sessions start next week; the first round of parents and carers have been invited. We hope engagement is high. The Educational Psychologist from Hampshire’s Inclusion Team will be leading these sessions. 

Next half-term, we have invited a Complex Behaviour specialist into school to run parent and carer sessions. Four presentations are planned: Understanding the ADHD Brain (the introductory session), Emotional Regulation and Parenting Tips, Exams and Revision, and Executive Function Support and Sleep. The first presentation on understanding the ADHD brain is foundational for the other sessions. These sessions are open to anyone, free of charge. Kate Locke will be running these sessions. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with Kate before within the Trust. She is highly experienced and exceptional in her role. Dates will be shared with you next week in a separate email. 

Wonderful achievements to celebrate! 

Well done to our Year 11s who had their Peter Symonds College interviews in school on Friday. The interviewers were really impressed by how well prepared they were, how confident they were with their plans for the future, and how positive and well-mannered they were. We are so proud of them all! 

On Friday, it was my absolute privilege to interview 18 Year 10 pupils who have applied for a position on the Student Leadership Team, commencing after Easter. Without exception, all 18 embodied our school values of kindness, excellence, resilience and empowerment. It was the most uplifting 3 hours, to listen to each of them talk passionately about their leadership experiences at Danebury and outside of school, as well as their fresh ideas to help improve the school further. What a formidable team they are going to be! I will announce the roles in our end-of-term assembly next Friday. 

A huge well done to our incredibly talented Beau Dowinton, who sang a solo in Voice in a Million in front of ten thousand people at Wembley this week! An experience Beau will never forget, I'm sure. A superstar in the making – watch this space! 

Well done to our Year 7 Basketball Team, who played in a tournament against Kings School on Friday. The format meant that pupils got to play in smaller teams to ensure they got more time on court against a range of opponents. We are super proud of your teamwork and excellence shown throughout. 

Congratulations to our LORIC Enterprise groups, who continue to put their business plans into action, raising money for charity and doing things to help others. Well done also to our LORIC 'Generation project' group, who visited their first care home this week. They took games along to play with the residents and enjoyed chatting with them. I'm sure this group were the highlight of the week at Brendon Care in Winchester. I love how empowered this group has been. 

Good luck to Mrs Ellis’ LORIC Charity group, who have planned events each day next week to raise money for Cancer Research and an Animal Charity.  Please see the blog below for details.  

Many thanks to those of you who’ve kindly donated Easter Eggs to the LORIC Group who are organising the Easter Egg Hunt. The hunt is £1 to enter. All the money raised will go to the Children’s Ward at Winchester Hospital. I believe the group are also delivering Easter Eggs to the children on the ward too. Such an act of kindness, well done team. 

As previously mentioned, we are growing as a school and will need additional staff in certain areas. We are delighted to have employed an additional Maths teacher for September, and this week we are interviewing for a new English teacher for September. Further teaching posts will be advertised in the coming weeks. In addition, we are looking to expand our Exam Invigilator team. If you are interested, please do contact the office. 

Notices for the week ahead. 

We will be holding our whole school photograph on Wednesday this week. Let’s hope the sun shines! 

As pupils have managed to hit the 97% positive to negative point ratio this term (rising to 98% over the last 3 weeks), we will be holding a non-uniform day on Friday in aid of Cancer Research. Donations of £1 are greatly appreciated, payable on Arbor or in school. 

We will finish at normal time on Friday – 3:10pm. 

Have a wonderful weekend 

Nicky Goodridge 
Head Teacher