DCGS Chatter Edition 7 - Valentines

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Published: Sunday, 17 February 2019 09:42

Written by The Chatter Team

Love is the theme for this edition of the student newspaper, Chatter. Naturally, with Valentine's Day on the horizon, it prompted thoughts of love and happiness, but also echoes of the trappings of commercialisation enforced by another retailer spend-fest. 'What's Love Got To Do With It', was debated, the results of which you can read on page 3 in 'The BIG Debate'.

Food Tech had another busy term with the Year 9 Valentine's Bistro. Students planned, prepared, cooked and served a two-course meal for their selected staff couples to have a 'blind date'. 9D had a brilliant day and took a risk to pair our Head, Miss Greig, with a mystery man! Wonderful dishes and Mrs Baker's photographs can be seen on pages 7-9.

Among many other articles, we talk about the history behind Valentine's Day, having a Chinese buddy, have a number of things to make and do, feature some of our new House Captains and the incoming Student Heads of School, and see Joe Allen and Harry Day, again 9D, who triumphed in the Key Stage 3 Talent Show.
We hope you take time to read through this edition of Chatter and we would love to hear your views or ideas for other editions.

Best regards
The Chatter Team

  pdf Chatter 7 - Valentines (2.59 MB)

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Years 7 and 8 win Kent Sports Hall Athletics

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Published: Friday, 08 February 2019 20:27

Written by Miss G Bolt

This week our year 7 girls team, year 7 boys team, year 8 girls team, and year 8 boys team attended the finals of the Kent sports hall athletics competition up at Medway Leisure Centre.

After some tough competition from schools all around the county who had won their distinct event the results for us were amazing, even beating the silvers we achieved last year:

Year 7 girls came 6^th out of 14 teams
Year 7 boys - 1^st
Year 8 girls - 1^st
Year 8 boys - 1^st.

Well done to all pupils involved, what an achievement.

A message regarding possible school closures

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Written by Mr M Alderson

If at all possible the school will try to stay open in order to make sure that students are able to continue with their lessons and learning. In the very rare event of the school needing to close we will inform the following websites so parents can check for information:

• http://danecourt.kent.sch.uk (this website)
• http://bbc.co.uk/kent

The following Kent County Council website provides a live search facility and the opportunity to register for email and text alerts:
http://www.kentclosures.co.uk/
Detailed instructions for using the service are included below.

We will post messages to our Twitter account;
https://twitter.com/danecourtGS

and Facebook page;
http://www.facebook.com/danecourt

Parents can also listen for announcements on the following radio stations:

• BBC Radio Kent (104.2 FM & 774 AM or listen live on-line)
• Heart FM (103.1 & 102.8 FM)
• KMFM Radio (96.4 & 106.8 FM)

Should the school need to close once the school day has started we will contact parents by telephone and will only release students once we have had confirmation from a parent or guardian. It would be helpful if parents could ensure they are contactable by phone if it looks likely that we may have to close.

To receive notifications, you should register for alerts

• Visit www.kentclosures.co.uk and click the ‘Register for Alerts’ button on the left side of the screen.
• Fill in your
  • first name
  • surname
  • house number
  • postcode
  • email address
  • password
  • re-type password
• Tick the appropriate box to accept the "Terms and Conditions of use".
• Then click Register

Once you have registered, you need to tell the system which school(s) you want to receive alerts from.

Visit www.kentclosures.co.uk and click the ‘Alerts Login’ button on the left side of the screen.
Fill in your

• email address
• password

Then click ‘sign in’

Register to Receive Alerts from your Choice of School

Under ‘Add a School’

• Using the drop down menu, choose the town or village nearest to the school you want to receive alerts from, the drop down menu
• Using the next drop down menu, choose the school
• Click on ‘add school to alerts’
• You can add as many schools as you wish.

You should now receive an email if there is a status change reported by your chosen schools

SMS Service

The SMS service is no longer being offered as an option.  Anyparents with outstanding credit will still continue to receive alerts, but no new requests for SMS alerts will be accepted.  All alerts are by email.

Kent Mountain Centre 2018

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Published: Monday, 21 January 2019 21:55

Written by Mr M Alderson

In what must have been Dane Court Grammar School's fortieth year of visiting Kent County Council's outdoor adventure centre, we were blessed with calm, sunny weather to greet our group of 32 year 9 students.

As always, there was excited anticipation mixed with a little apprehension as we arrived at the Kent Mountain Centre (KMC) set on the shores of Llyn Padarn at the foot of Snowdon in North Wales. We were welcomed by the friendly KMC staff who, as usual, smoothed the way to our settling in.

Our weeks at KMC are always action packed with outdoor activities every day starting soon after a good breakfast and finishing in time for a well-earned evening meal (with a packed lunch in between, obviously). After dinner there are more indoor and outdoor activities followed by supper and a welcome bedtime.

I am pleased to report that the weather was pretty much perfect all week. We even had stronger winds on the days we visited the sea level traverse (which is always more fun when the waves are bigger) and lighter breezes when we ventured onto the mountains.

The group were outstanding; full of awe and enthusiasm. They thoroughly enjoyed their experiences (just look at the photos below) and returned home full of stories about their adventures and carrying memories that will last a lifetime.

During their time at KMC, the students contributed to a live on-line blog which forms a journal to keep parents and friends up to date. You can read the Dane Court KMC Blog here.

KMC 2019 takes place in the week after autumn half term. It is open to all current year 8 students.
Introductory letters will be available for download here from 1:15pm or students can pick up a copy in C2 from 1:45pm on Thursday 24 January 2019.

A message to parents of year 11 students

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Published: Sunday, 13 January 2019 17:58

Written by Nic Aherne

Dear parents/guardians of year 11
The GCSE examination timetables have been issued to students this week, please keep these in a safe place to enable you to support your child through these examinations.
Whilst the timetables have now been finalised the qualification regulators, JCQ (Joint Council for Qualifications) and government departments responsible for education have prepared and agreed information for schools in the event of examinations being seriously disrupted. This jointly agreed information will ensure consistency of response in the event of major disruption to the examination system affecting a number of different candidates and examination centres.

JCQ has designated Wednesday 26 June 2019 as a 'contingency day' for examinations.
This means that students should be available up until 27 June 2019, in case the contingency day has to be used.
Please bear this in mind when booking any holidays this summer.

Kind regards
Nic Aherne
Examinations Officer

Dane Court teacher guest editor of BBC Radio 4 Feedback

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Published: Saturday, 15 December 2018 15:27

Written by Mr M Alderson

When BBC Radio 4 programme Feedback announced that it was looking for guest editors for its broadcasts in the run-up to Christmas, Dane Court Grammar School English teacher Ben Forward was quick to respond.
The BBC calls Feedback "Radio 4's forum for comments, queries, criticisms and congratulations" and, as a frequent listener, Ben was keen to get involved. He also knew there would be Dane Court staff, students and parents with something to say about current issues important to the BBC and many of its listeners.

Feedback promptly appointed Ben as its guest editor for the show to be aired on Friday 14 December 2018. Preparations were made to welcome the Feedback team to our school just two days before the broadcast date.

In the programme, students, teachers and parents join a debate to discuss BBC radio programmes and podcasts selected by editor Ben. Later on, programme presenter Roger Bolton met with a student discussion group including head of our very own Dane Court Radio station to tackle, among others, the question "Should the BBC be spending its time and money chasing younger listeners?"

Thanks to the following for their valuable contribution to the success of this venture:
Students Josh (discussion group), Ash (discussion group and debate), William (DC Radio interview and debate), Pasan (DC Radio interview), Alfie (DC Radio interview) and Antonio (debate)
Parent Ian Barker
Teachers Nicola Sotiri, Sarah Stivarius and of course, mastermind and editor-for-the-day Ben Forward. 

Listen to the extended podcast version now

BBC Radio 4 Feedback's Twitter page

Ephemeral magazine

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Published: Thursday, 13 December 2018 01:36

Written by Mr B Forward

December sees the publication of the sixth edition of the school's creative writing magazine - now re-branded as 'Ephemeral'.

The pupils have surpassed themselves with the quality of creative writing and poetry on display, and they have also branched out with thought-provoking opinion pieces and investigative journalism. This festive edition even includes some delicious seasonal recipes to get you through the winter months.

Well done to Sonia, Jasmine, Grace, Peri and Dan for putting this together.

Read Ephemeral and Eloquent magazine (all issues)