21
Jan
Senior High Notes 21st January 2022
This week has flown by, and for our U5 it has been a busy full week of mock examinations. Our U6 have now completed their mocks and are receiving their grades along with advice, support and targets to ensure they achieve their potential in the summer. Mock examinations are an essential part of school life because they enable the students to experience the closest thing to actual GCSE and A level exams and then to reflect on areas of strength and areas that require development, to ensure they are fully prepared for the exams in the summer.
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21
Jan
Primary High Notes 21st January 2022
I am delighted to announce that Mr Richard Gould has been appointed to the newly created role of Assistant Head (Academic) in Primary. Mr Gould will take responsibility for managing curriculum, assessment and reporting, joining Mr Harper and Mrs Youngman, Assistant Head (Pastoral) as members of the Whole School Leadership Team. The Leadership Team has been expanded as a consequence of the growth in numbers in Primary over the past few years.
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14
Jan
Senior High Notes 14th January 2022
We have had a very successful, busy week. The weather has been wonderful, and has enabled lots of great sporting activities to take place. I have been delighted to see rehearsals well underway for our Senior School production, The Importance of Being Ernest.
Thank you to everyone for following our covid measures, keeping everyone as safe as possible. I am pleased to say that currently no one in senior school is isolating with covid and only 1 isolating in primary. There will be new measures from Monday January 17th, where isolation is reduced to five days, as long as a negative test is achieved on day 5 and day 6.
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14
Jan
Primary High Notes 14th January 2022
We have had a very successful, busy week. The weather has been wonderful, and has enabled lots of great sporting activities to take place.
Thank you to everyone for following our covid measures, keeping everyone as safe as possible. I am pleased to say that currently no one in senior school is isolating with covid and only 1 isolating in primary. There will be new measures from Monday January 17th, where isolation is reduced to five days, as long as a negative test is achieved on day 5 and day 6
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07
Jan
Primary High Notes 7th January 2022
Happy New Year! It has been wonderful to welcome back our students this week for the new term. We started the term with a whole school assembly with everyone, from pre-school up to Sixth Form, joining on Teams. We had hoped to be able to slowly start to bring back in-person events such as assemblies and occasions with parents coming into school, at the beginning of this term. Unfortunately the latest, more transmissible variant of Covid has led to us postponing these plans, hopefully only for a short while. I will keep everyone informed of any changes to our current safety measures.
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07
Jan
Senior High Notes 7th January 2022
Happy New Year! It has been wonderful to welcome back our students this week for the new term. We started the term with a whole school assembly with everyone, from pre-school up to Sixth Form, joining on Teams. We had hoped to be able to slowly start to bring back in-person events such as assemblies and occasions with parents coming into school, at the beginning of this term. Unfortunately the latest, more transmissible variant of Covid has led to us postponing these plans, hopefully only for a short while. I will keep everyone informed of any changes to our current safety measures.
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15
Dec
Whole School High Notes 15th December 2021
As the curtain comes down on another successful term at Derby High, I would like to record my sincere thanks to you all for your support for the school throughout another incredibly busy and exciting term. And a special thank you to our brilliant staff across all age groups and subjects who have enthusiastically supported each and every one of our pupils.
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10
Dec
Primary High Notes 10th December 2021
In my final Primary assembly of the term I discussed why we love or hate Christmas tunes. It was lovely to be able to listen to some of our staff’s favourite songs, from Driving Home for Christmas by Chris Rhea, to White Christmas by Bing Crosby and Last Christmas by Wham. What many of these songs have in common is they are really quite old - my favourite, Stay Another Day by East 17, was Christmas number 1 in 1994, some 27 years ago! Nostalgia is a powerful force in popular culture, particularly around Christmas. Christmas pop songs are all about nostalgia – think about 'White Christmas', the biggest selling song of all time, where all the lyrics are about nostalgia and going back to Christmases in the past
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10
Dec
Senior High Notes 10th December 2021
This morning in my assembly, I had the pleasure of announcing so many wonderful music achievements in ABRSM music exams this term. It was amazing to see the variety of instruments involved and grades awarded. These student achievements would not be possible without the hard work, commitment and support our students receive from our music department and peripatetic music teachers.
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03
Dec
Primary High Notes 3rd December 2021
Perfection is overrated! In so many areas of life we are encouraged to strive for perfection. Now that’s not a bad thing, however it can result in us missing out on the beauty of the world around us. Make no mistake, I am all for being the best you can be and having high standards, but not at the expense of enjoying life. You see, if you become obsessed with perfection, living in an imperfect world can become quite taxing and you risk losing sight of the importance of the process. In my Primary assembly yesterday, I illustrated this with the wonderful story A Squash and a Squeeze.
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