Engineering Education Scheme

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Written by Mr M Alderson

Published: 28 April 2015

Five sixth form students from Dane Court Grammar School completed their submission for the Engineering Education Scheme last Friday. The scheme culminated in a celebration and assessment event held at the University of Kent, Canterbury.

The aim of the scheme is to provide students with an insight into the potential career opportunities available in the engineering industry. Teams work on a real time engineering project set by a local company then have six months to resolve the problem, create a solution, prepare a report and present their ideas to a panel of assessors. Dane Court has been generously supported by Instro Precision Ltd, Broadstairs (Instro) for a number of years by providing a wide variety of challenging tasks and this year was no exception.

The task this year was to create an environment to simulate a typical dust storm that equipment developed by Instro would be subject to in hostile working conditions. If the equipment passes these in house test conditions then it would be sent for official certification with a high degree of certainty that it will pass.
The team developed a variety of solutions and, after some prototyping and discussion with the engineers at Instro, produced a successful outcome that they were able to successfully test to ensure it met industry standards.

Paul Dean, Head of Design Technology said 'This is an outstanding scheme that gives our students a unique opportunity to explore the opportunities presented by potential careers in engineering. This year's team produced an excellent solution to the problem and their presentation was well received by the panel of assessors. As a result the team are likely to receive a Gold CREST award for their efforts. CREST is an industry award scheme that recognises creativity in engineering, science and technology.'

Student Emily Watkins described her experience 'I learned a lot about teamwork as there were occasions where we did not agree on things so would have to talk problems through to arrive at the best possible solution. I also learnt a lot about engineering and what it would be like to have a job in the industry as you have to complete tasks within a deadline'

Tom Jury, Engineering Manager at Instro and chair of the Kent Area of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers added 'Britain is currently lacking in good professional engineers, especially mechanical engineers. Schemes such as EES do not only give huge benefits to the students in introducing them to engineering but also benefit the companies. It was a pleasure to work with the team from Dane Court the students displayed some very good engineering knowledge and implemented a good solution that Instro hopes to adopt as part of their feasibility testing'

Year 13 leavers fancy dress finale

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Written by Mr M Alderson

Published: 24 April 2015

With a traditional fancy dress finale our year 13 students completed their time at Dane Court today.

Arriving just before morning break allowed the rest of the school to gather around and marvel at the fantastic costumes.

The year 13s followed the show with a farewell assembly where they were joined by their mentors for fond remeniscing.

Of course, they will return to sit their exams over the next few weeks and we wish them everey succes.

Table tennis Southern Tournament

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Written by Mr R Pugh

Published: 02 April 2015

The glorious adventure ended on Saturday when the Dane Court Under 13 Girls Table Tennis team just missed out on winning a place in the National Finals. A 5:45 am start and a 360 mile round trip to the Southern Regional Tournament at Bournemouth saw Dane Court in a group of three schools with only the winner qualifying. After a long wait the first game against the Somerset champions Haygrove School from Bridgewater saw Dane Court come through with a 5-3 victory thanks to Catherine Banks and Tayla Bayley winning both their games with Annabel Cole securing the vital fifth point.

Medieval Banquet 2015

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Written by Mr P Dean

Published: 31 March 2015

This was the twenty first year of the medieval banquet; a hugely successful cross curricular project at Dane Court Grammar School bringing together the Food Technology, History, Art, Music, and English departments.

Geography department steps into the rainforest

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Written by Mr Hutchings

Published: 24 March 2015

As part of our year sevens unit on ecology and sustainability, we once again welcomed Ranger Emma from Zoolab, with her wonderful collection of rainforest creatures. Students were introduced to a giant African snail, a thorny stick insect, a tree frog, a millipede and finally a corn (constrictor) snake. Emma described many interesting facts about the natural habitats and life cycles of each creature and also the many dangers facing the rainforests of the world, particularly through deforestation. The students exhibited great curiosity and delight whilst handling the creatures and will take away a greater appreciation of the huge diversity that exists within the depths of the rainforests.

Rugby Sevens champions

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Written by Mr A White

Published: 19 March 2015

On Wednesday 18 March Dane Court Under 16s took part in the annual Kent Rugby Sevens tournament, hosted by Sutton Valence.

After a nervy start the boys soon got into try scoring mode, racking up 11 try's in the group stages.
By early afternoon they found themselves in the final against Harvey Grammar School. Saving their best rugby until the end, they pulled off an almost faultless performance and won 34-0. All the boys were superb throughout the day, with highlights coming from the dogged George Dyerson, hard working Joe Harmes and Dan Adams who was playing up a year. Squad: J Harmes, C Knight, A Shrestha, D Adams, L Doyle, T Norman, J Barnett, G Dyerson, B Kendathy, M Dennis, J Robinson.

Boys win Rugby Sevens competition

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Written by Mr A White

Published: 22 March 2014

Spurred on by the success of the girls, the equally quick boys side, competed in the Kent Under 14 Rugby Sevens bowl annual competition held at Dartford Grammar. Some excellent running rugby saw the team qualify undefeated into the semi finals, scoring 94 points and thanks to the excellent defence spurred on by the tackling of Joe Wyatt, they conceded just 12 points.