Girls in rugby national finals tournament

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Published: Saturday, 25 May 2019 16:20

Written by Miss E Downes

Dane Court Grammar School’s sporting girls came so close to a National final when both their year 9 and year 10 Rugby League teams lost hard fought semi-finals in Warrington last Tuesday (21 May). For a few years now, Dane Court has entered the Rugby League Champion Schools competition with increasing success.

Initially doing well in the county tournament they often qualified for the South East regionals and the, last year, one team gained entrance to the National Finals tournament finishing 5th - outside the semi-final qualifications. However, this season years 8, 9 and 10 all won county titles and then reached the National tournament following success at the Regionals in Roehampton. This meant a trip to either Leeds (year 9) or Warrington (year 8 and 10), both hotbeds of Rugby league competition in the country. Fantastically, both the older year groups gained entry to the semi-finals playing against vastly more experienced and bigger schools. They did this with skilful, determined and courageous play to surprise their northern opponents.

At the semi-finals, again in Warrington, the stakes were higher and the teams tougher as you would expect. Although Dane Court were ultimately defeated every girl gave everything they had for the team and caused their opponents more than a little anxiety.
In the end experience of regular competition told as Dane Court succumbed to quality play by Castleford Academy year 9 and St Peters school Manchester year 10. The year 9 game in particular was a on a knife edge until the final 2 mins when Castleford, unbeaten for 2 years in the competition, scored the winning try. Their coach a former professional Premiership player, gave lavish praise to the Dane Court girls for their unrelenting efforts.
Also, in both semi-finals a Dane Court student was awarded player of the match, albeit in a losing cause, those being Keira Hulks for year 9 and Holly Enright for year 10.

All the staff and helpers who aided the preparation and travelled with the students can, and do, feel proud of all the girls who lived up to Dane Court’s never-get-up, everything is possible attitude.

Ben walks the walk for breast cancer charity

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Published: Sunday, 19 May 2019 10:26

Written by Mrs C Pope

On the weekend of 11 and 12 May 2109 Ben Pope took part in the Walk the Walk Moonwalk in London. It is run by the charity Walk the Walk and it is about raising money and awareness of breast cancer. It involves walking (absolutely no running is allowed) marathon (26.2 miles) through the night around London along with 15,000 other men and women (10,000 women & 5,000 men) in decorated bras (or dressed as a superhero in the case of Ben and his friend Paul) - from about 11:00pm until however long it takes. The minimum age to take part in the event is 13. Being 13 they could only be registered for the Half Moon plus 2 (15.1 miles) and not yet for the Full. This is the same event but for just over half of the route.

We trained since January and built up the distances gradually and the longest walk we did was 14 miles - Ramsgate to Sandwich and back via the nature reserve. We did a fundraising quiz night to help with building up our donations which was very successful and this all boosted their confidence in completing the Half Moon. On Thursday 9 May we received an email from Walk the Walk to tell us that out of 15,000 people there were 36 13 year olds taking part - 33 girls and 3 boys (Ben, Paul and one other). On Saturday evening the 13 year olds were called to the stage in the huge pink 'tent' where the impact could be made that when they are middle aged (in 2050) there will be a cure for breast cancer. They raised awareness that men get breast cancer too (worryingly not that many people know this) and they put themselves through mental and physical endurance challenge to achieve this. They saw the London Eye and Marble Arch lit up pink for the night to mark the event. Ben showed great stamina and willingness to put himself through this challenge for others. Up until Saturday night our team of four had raised £875. This has contributed to the total of £2.8 million which is incredible for 15,000 people.

Netball invitation tournament

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Published: Saturday, 04 May 2019 11:40

Written by Ms G Bolt

On Thursday 25 April 2019 the year 7 and 8 girls netball team attended the Kent Netball Invitation tournament at Rainham School for girls. We are extremely proud of both teams achieving some amazing results; year sevens came first and year eights came second. Well done girls.

CAT supports Porchlight

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Published: Monday, 01 April 2019 20:59

Written by Mr M Alderson

In the last week  before the Spring holiday, Dane Court Grammar School joined forces with other members of Coastal Academies Trust to raise awareness of and money for Porchlight, a charity helping homeless people in Thanet.

Students supported Porchlight through the following activities:
Monday - Bake sale in the school theatre at break and lunch time
Wednesday - Hot dog sale in Food Technology at break time
Thursday - Bring in donations for food bank to be collected in mentoring
Friday - Pyjama day (wear pyjama, slippers or dressing gown) donate a £1

In total, Dane Court raised £1541.17 for the homeless people in Thanet. We also collected food, goods and bedding for this very worthy cause.

Many thanks to everyone who contributed cash, cakes for the bake sale and items for the food bank.

Donated items included:

• Toiletries – deodorant, toilet paper, shower gel, shaving gel, shampoo, soap, toothbrushes, tooth paste, hand wipes
• Household items – laundry liquid detergent, laundry powder, washing up liquid
• Feminine products – sanitary towels and tampons
• Baby supplies – nappies, baby wipes and baby food
• Cereal
• Soup
• Pasta
• Rice
• Tinned tomatoes/ pasta sauce
• Lentils, beans and pulses
• Tinned meat
• tinned vegetables
• Tea/coffee
• Tinned fruit
• Biscuits
• UHT milk
• Fruit juice

Japanese cooking lesson

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Published: Wednesday, 10 April 2019 17:44

Written by Louisa McDonald

In our last lesson on 21 March 2019, we made two different Japanese noodle dishes. The one my group made was a dish called Soba noodles. It was very technical to make but it was worth it. The food was very delicious and we had great fun making them.
Our peers made a dish called Udon noodles. This was different to ours as it included chicken and leeks. They said it was easy to make and great fun. Some even said that they would make it at home for friends and family.
We were very lucky to be able to take part in this lesson. Thank you, Ms Myers!

Inspiring Olympic speaker

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Published: Sunday, 24 March 2019 10:23

Written by Josh Rudloff

On Thursday 21 March, we had the wonderful opportunity to host Alex Gregory, two-time Gold Medal Olympic Rower, as he gave inspirational talks to some of our students. The Head Student Team and the House Captains had the pleasure of taking part in a special presentation after school, where they were given advice about conquering their upcoming challenges in the IB program as well as their responsibilities as leaders within the school community.

Alex related his success story to the pressures and trials that we face. He made it clear that "communicating the pressure that you're under is the key to success" and advised the students to seek help from teachers as well as from each other, especially in times of great pressure. Teamwork is a crucial part of success and communication is what keeps teamwork strong. He also encouraged students to "keep consistent" He counselled them that it was the consistent rowers that were the best - not the ones who only trained and performed well some of the time. The students were encouraged to keep consistent in their work and studies so that they could rely on it when it really counts.

Our gratitude goes to Alex Gregory for the wonderful opportunity that the students were given, and Mr White who helped arrange it for them.

Maths feast

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Published: Wednesday, 20 March 2019 06:11

Written by Miss R Neve

On Wednesday 13 March Mr Towe and Miss Neve accompanied eight of our best year 10 mathematicians to the Canterbury Maths Feast. The competition consisted of four rounds and students competed in teams of four. Our teams were; Team A: Oscar Phillips-James, Ben Jellett, Erin White and Christopher Nisan alongside Team B: Oliver Goult, Kirsten Hutchinson, Tom Askin and Ben Geraghty.

The first round involved a variety of maths topics and had to be completed in silence. Both teams made a strong start with high scores in this round. The second round required pupils to teach themselves an A level maths topic which they were then required to apply to a set of problems. Once again both teams put in strong performances putting them well ahead of most of their competition. Team A did particularly well in this round and were crowned champions. The third round was based upon ‘Play your cards right’ with teams being asked to solve problems and to determine whether the next answer was higher or lower than the previous. Team A once again managed to gain a top score. The final round was by far the most challenging with the top score for this round being 10 out of a possible 20 marks. In this round pupils were split into two pairs within their teams and sat at opposite ends of their table with an adjudicator between them. Each team then had five minutes to answer questions which pairs completed alternately. Added to this was the jeopardy that the second pair's problem could not be solved without the first pair's answer.

Both teams demonstrated excellent mathematical prowess as well as exemplary teamwork. Team B were also highly commended by the event organisers for their consistently high scores in all rounds, despite narrowly missing out of being round winners.
A special thank you goes to Mr Towe who drove us there and used his mathematical skills during the event, despite it being his day off.