We have reached the end of this term and this year and I want to say how proud I am of our school community.
Our students have demonstrated maturity, resilience and a determination to succeed over the last few months.
Parents too have been fantastic and have provided great support to our young people.
Our staff have worked tirelessly and have provided highly effective learning and wellbeing support for all students.
I am also very proud of our Governors who have done their best to support our DHSB community.
Please enjoy the summer break and stay safe. We can't wait to see you in September.
As promised, here is our final whole school assembly with our end of year key messages. The assembly also showcases our very own version of 'Take Me Home Paradise Road'.
Please also ensure that you have read the whole school letter containing details about September that was sent home this week (link to letter).
Our very own 'Take Me Home, Paradise Road'
Nesta Awards
Everyone at DHSB is incredibly proud that our Nesta Challenges team reached the national final this year. They were invited to attend the virtual award ceremony this week and although they didn't pick up any prizes they did walk away with the drive and ambition to try again next year.
Thank you to Ms Buckler and everyone who has supported the team.
Very well done!
Learning Commons Update
Just in case you don’t know, we have an online library system where you can borrow books, particularly useful for the summer months - https://dhsb.wheelers.co/
Ms Bucker has given the site a makeover and added our 16 by 16 titles to the homepage for easy access.
You will also find new titles from bestselling book lists, Carnegie awards and some new autobiographies. In the Learning Commons next year you will find new titles around diversity and inclusion, wellbeing and multicultural settings.
Excellent Work
Our example of Excellent Work this week is an image sent to me by Dr Colvile.
He said, “Jonah Crawford has extended the online Year 7 Physics lesson by doing a practical using some wire, a battery and a nail he had at home”.
Well done Jonah!
DHSB Wellbeing
The current pandemic has been an extremely challenging time for young people and their families. We recognise the importance of wellbeing and are committed to supporting students and families as we prepare to reopen the school in September.
Mr Manley has designed a Family Wellbeing Action Plan which is a starting point and working document to keep families healthy, especially during this difficult period. The action plan is based on the most recent evidence to support wellbeing and we hope it can support students in developing a list of fun, practical and enjoyable activities to support physical, mental, social and emotional health. It also includes a list of helpful tips on how to support children if they are feeling anxious, examples of how parents and carers can promote physical, mental, social and emotional health and a number of links to support family mental health and wellbeing.
Regardless of whether you’ve faced health issues, the action plan is designed to help all families support each other during these extremely challenging and unprecedented times. We hope that you and your family can find time to sit down together and discuss the '5 ways to wellbeing' and potential activities that promote a healthy and active lifestyle. Demonstrating and promoting the importance of wellbeing is hugely important as we prepare for normal life.
The importance of wellbeing will be a focus for our whole school community in September and it will be extremely beneficial if you’re able to discuss and engage with this over the summer holidays.
Starting a new school year can be a stressful time for young people and their families, this is likely to be heightened when we return in September. You can make your child feel at ease by having regular and open conversations about what it is that is worrying them and reassure them that it’s natural for them to feel this way. Mr Manley has also written a document called ‘Preparing Your Child For Their First Day Back at DHSB’ which could be useful to support your conversations around the reopening of the school.
PSHEE Activities
This is the last tutorial lesson for students until September, and as (we hope) the weather will be warm and sunny, and as (unfortunately) plans for more exotic holidays are unlikely to happen, many of us are likely to be visiting a UK beach over the next few weeks writes Ms Moreton.
With that in mind it is vital that we learn or relearn about water safety, so we'd like students to visit the RNLI website, https://rnli.org/youth-education/education-resources
Before students visit the site they should have a go at the pdf activity attached to the lesson plan - basically spotting the dangers in a variety of watery situations - the answers follow each picture.
Then on the site, start by looking at some of the videos, and in particular the one about cold water shock, and then pick either lower or upper secondary areas to select an activity as appropriate.
Don't forget to also watch the last whole school assembly for this year, which contains messages from all the Heads of House, and finally, have a relaxing summer break after a very strange couple of terms. We hope that we will all be back in school in September, rested and refreshed!
Ms Moreton
eSafety Advice
As we say goodbye to the most strange school term and look forward to seeing each other again in September, I wanted to flag some home school e-safety resources you may find helpful or interesting over this time.
A large portion of my updates come from internetmatters.org; launched in 2014 internetmatters.org works with BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin, Google, the BBC and has help from leading child online safety experts to offer you the best advice and information available on tackling online safety issues.
They have recently launched a new hub to deal solely with the use of social media. The hub is divided into sections, including; Advice for young people, Advice for parents & carers, Things to do together and Helpful tools including and can be found here - https://www.internetmatters.org/connecting-safely-online/
Thinkuknow is an education programme from the National Crime Agency’s CEOP Command. Since 2006, Thinkuknow has been keeping children and young people safe by providing education about sexual abuse and sexual exploitation. They have been producing home school activities throughout the lockdown period which include 15min activities that you can do to support online safety.
You can find 11-13s here and 14+ here
And don't forget - the students have their own ‘Get Help’ website which can be reached from their year portals which gives further help and information based around their e-safety weekly tutorial activity - found here
Ms Buckler