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Written by Mrs H Brissenden

Published: 26 January 2016

Everyone knows you’re a parent... but do you remember who you are!

When we become parents our priorities change, we take on the responsibility of another little person and we tend to get so focused on this we forget we are still a person in our own right.

Parents’ emotional first aid will help you re-discover you!

We sometimes feel that we must be the only person in the world feeling the way we feel. Parents’ emotional first aid will help you recognise that we all share similar thoughts, feelings, emotions and behaviours to varying degrees.

The course helps to create strategies for our anxieties; identify the stress factors in our everyday lives; gain a better understanding of ourselves and promote a healthier sense of our own wellbeing. It is delivered by trained facilitators over 6 sessions, each lasting half a day.

Dates and location of future courses are to be confirmed.
Further information about Parents Emotional First aid is available at: http://www.emotionalfirstaid.co.uk/course-parents

If you are interested in this course please contact Mrs Brissenden at the school.

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Written by Mr J Butt

Published: 22 January 2016

For your chance to win up to £100 cash, simply design a poster showing;

"how microbes work for us by interacting with their surroundings and, sometimes, with each other”.

Hurry! Closing date for the competition is 29 February 2016.
 Check out the flyer for more details.

You will be given one lesson and one homework to help you do this. The best posters will be entered in the official MiSAC competition by your biology teacher.

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Written by Mr P Luxmoore

Published: 30 November 2015

Dane Court is celebrating its extraordinary rating in the Sunday Times ‘Top 200 State Secondary Schools’. The table measures the percentage of students gaining A* and A grades at GCSE and the percentage of students gaining A* to B at A level or equivalent. Out of nearly 3,500 state secondary schools, Dane Court came 98^th equal in the whole country, beating other Kent grammar schools, such as Invicta Grammar School (112^th), Highworth Grammar School (151^st), Maidstone Grammar School for Girls (159^th), Barton Court (171^st), Sir Roger Manwood’s (174^th), Maidstone Grammar School for Boys (180^th), Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys (191^st) and Dover Grammar School for Girls (194^th). Simon Langton Girls came 228^th and Chatham and Clarendon House came 292^nd.
Paul Luxmoore, Executive Head of Coastal Academies Trust, said ‘This phenomenal achievement is proof of the effectiveness of the International Baccalaureate. Dane Court students are competing with and out performing students in some of the most selective schools in the UK. We offer the IB precisely because it gives our students a massive advantage. Young people from Thanet are easily outperforming those from towns like Tonbridge and this will, in turn, lead to offers from the better universities and better job opportunities in the future. Dane Court is punching well above its weight and that is an achievement that the whole of Thanet should be proud of.’
Andrew Fowler, Dane Court’s Headteacher, said ‘This brilliant result is no fluke. It is the result of very hard work by a hugely talented and dedicated staff, as well as the commitment and intelligence of our wonderful students. I am immensely proud of their achievement and determined that we should perform at an even higher level next year and into the future.’
The International Baccalaureate Diploma requires students to study six academic subjects, including an extended essay, a course of the Theory of Knowledge and 150 hours of community related work. Students must study a foreign language, Maths, English and at least one science. The IB Careers – related Programme requires students to study at least two IB subjects, as well as a vocational subject, together with a very well designed and flexible core that links these areas of study together. There is increasing evidence that universities and employers prefer the IB to A levels because it offers a broader range of study and develops students who are more resilient and self-reliant.

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Written by Amika Tupcharoen

Published: 22 November 2015

This year, IBDP students studying Ab initio Japanese have begun correspondence with students attending Kitakyushu National College of Technology in Fukuoka in Japan. Pen pals were assigned to each student, and started by sending an introductory letter in Japanese to said partners, before receiving a reply in both English and Japanese. We have found it very beneficial to our studies because it gives us sufficient practice in reading and writing Japanese outside the classroom. This will continue for the present students until next year as the next line of students begin their pen pal project.

One of Year 13 ab initio Japanese students says “I like the idea. It is enjoyable because it’s different to writing in exams. It’s also helped me with using sentence structures, using extensive vocabulary, and reading Kanji characters”. Some comment on how, “It’s fun to communicate with Japanese people abroad.” Others have also expressed interest in questioning their pen pals about their different culture and lifestyles, stating that, “It was enlightening; I enjoyed communicating with someone from a different culture as it helped me better understand the culture.”

Having initially started from an idea presented by one of the students in the previous year, there are high hopes that this will be an activity for all Japanese Ab Initio students to participate in for years to come. If possible, this sort of correspondence could lead to future exciting developments for IBCP students studying Japanese and culture.