Newsletter
Messages from Stephen Brady
May 2015
Latest News...
Welcome to our latest newsletter that sees exciting changes at Dene Magna. You will
see the information on the new house system and I urge you to read the stories of
the different house names and see how each House can take on its own personality.
Please discuss the House system with your daughter/son so that you can all develop
a sense of belonging. We will be issuing the final uniform guidance after half term.
Summer Fayre
Coming Up ...
We are delighted to be hosting our Summer Fayre on Sunday 12 July. We are grateful
to the Friends of Dene Magna for all their hard work in setting this up and look
forward to seeing you there, supporting Dene Magna.
Parking
Sports Roundup
To report an absence please
call 01594 542370
and press 1.
Parking continues to be an issue in school. Please can I ask you to remain mindful of
students who use our Zebra Crossing. Governors have approved a plan to help
alleviate the parking issue and we will publish this during the coming term. In the
meantime, thank you for your consideration when picking students up from school.
Latest News!
Friends of Dene Magna
Following the great success of the last
FDMA Quiz, with a packed hall, there will
now be another quiz on 26th June. The
Dene Magna partner group for the quiz
this time will be the Art Department, who
will benefit from the proceeds and
support us on the night.
Summer Fayre
FDMA QUIZ NIGHT
7pm FRI 26 JUNE
BAR & NIBBLES!
Entry £3 per
person with teams
of up to 6
The plans are coming together for a great afternoon on Sunday 12th
July, with school departments, community groups and local
businesses all signing up to run loads of exciting stalls and games.
However...we do need to ask for your help so that we can make the
day run smoothly and raise as much money as possible. If you can
help, we really need to know now so that we can plan effectively –
we are particularly looking for volunteers to run the BBQ and the car
park and to sell programs on the gate.
FDMA funds are used to benefit students with extra equipment or
activities. Recently FDMA has contributed to the Civil War Day, the
Maths’ Challenge and the Music Dept and future fundraising will
support the Okinawa exchange’s activities when the Japanese
students visit Dene Magna later this year.
Email FDMA at [email protected] to book a table for the Quiz, to offer help with the Fayre or any other
suggestions or queries. You can also follow us on Facebook as “Friends of Dene Magna”.
School Address: Abenhall Road Mitcheldean Gloucestershire GL17 0DU Phone Number: 01594 542370 Fax Number: 01594 544862
Website: www.denemagna.gloucs.sch.uk
Email: [email protected]
facebook.com/denemagna
twitter.com/denemagnaschool
Latest News!
Maths’ Challenge
improve the reading experience of those with
On Thursday 30 April over 80 students from Years 7 and 8, as
well as over 30 students from various local primary schools,
took part in the annual Junior Maths’ Challenge. The event
tests an individual's logic and problem solving skills, as well
as fundamental mathematical processes. The paper was
challenging, as it always is, and we await the results with
bated breath. If you would like to try some questions for
yourself there are some past papers at
http://www.ukmt.org.uk
dyslexia and dyslexic tendencies. Research
Attendance
available to interested students so they can
As you are aware good attendance is key to making progress
throughout the year. Our school target for every student is
96% and we have been delighted with the amount of
students gaining rewards for their attendance throughout
the year. If a student has 80% attendance every year over
the course of 5 years they will have missed a whole year of
lessons. With only 7 school weeks remaining after half term,
can I urge every student to endeavour to be in school every
day until we break for Summer.
WW1
indicates that up to 84.3% of readers read
faster and 77.8% make fewer errors when
reading text in this font.
At Dene Magna we are keen to test out this
research and are planning to make this font
try it out for themselves.
This will enable
them to word-process in dyslexiefont, as well
as convert existing online text to this readerfriendly style.
We would appreciate your thoughts on how
this works for you.
Please email Ms
Broadfield at
Y7s have been issued with a piece of research ILT where we
[email protected].
are asking them to look into family involvement in WW1. A
letter detailing our expectations has been given to every
student, but if you have any further questions please contact More information can be found on the dyslexie
Jonathon Woodhead at:
[email protected] font Facebook page as well as their website:
www.dyslexiefont.com
A Magical Trip
Cashless Catering
On Friday 8 May, 50 lucky Y7 students (and
4 lucky teachers) travelled to London to
visit the Warner Brothers’ Studios, where
the Harry Potter films were created.
We recently surveyed the students on the
catering service provided and one of the concerns was the
length of time wasted queuing for lunch. We are therefore
delighted to advise that we will be implementing a biometric
cashless catering service during the summer term. We
envisage this significantly reducing queuing time and with
the removal of cash at the tills, parents/carers can pay
online at a time that is convenient to them. Parents/Carers
can also check what food is being purchased on a daily basis
and be more secure in knowing that money is not being
brought to school and spent on other things.
We spent many hours touring, interacting
with the real props used in the films and
discovering many of the secrets, until now
hidden from the public. Activities ranged
from being able to have a picture taken on
a broomstick in front of a green screen, to
drinking ‘Butterbeer’ outside Harry Potter’s
house.
All in all, the visit was a huge success, filled with much awe
and excitement along with a barrel of laughs. Hopefully, this
will have inspired those who went to write more
imaginatively and gain an appetite for some magical fiction!
The equipment and training will be delivered shortly and will
to GO LIVE on 6 July. Look out for our "Parents/Carers and
Students Briefing sessions" on how the process will be
introduced, along with the registration process after half
term.
Faster, Easier and More Enjoyable!
We look forward to your support with this new initiative.
How does this font look to you?
Catering Team
Can you see
the subtle differences: slightly different letter
Ski Austria 2016
shapes, clearer spacing, bolder capital letters
The next payment of £365 is due by Wednesday 7 July.
and punctuation?
GCSE History Trip to Krakow, Poland
Dyslexiefont has been specially designed to
All payments should now have been made for this
trip.
Latest News!
New House Structure
All students have now been allocated their 'House' and all have received a welcome letter from their Head of House. Year
10 were informed on Friday in readiness to write their prefect letters and all other years today. Please take time to read
the letter and find out more about your child's 'House'.
Mr Tolley is Head of Jenner House (red), Mr Adams Head of Dowty House (blue), Mr Woodhead Head of Foley House
(yellow) and Mrs Hill Head of Wilson House (Green). As of September students will wear the new school uniform and their
House colour will be seen in the piping of their V neck jumper. The uniform can be bought from either Labels, which is
located in Ross, or Gooch Sports, which is located in Newent. Please ensure you read the uniform guidelines for
September to ensure your child is in the correct uniform. As Mr Brady stated in his previous letter, these are exciting times
and we are really looking forward to next year and the many 'House' competitions.
Please ensure you purchase the correct jumper for your 'House'.
Here’s a bit more about each House…
Dowty House
takes its inspiration and name from a local business that many families in the Forest of Dean will associate with: Sir George Dowty. Through his perseverance and dedication as an Apprentice, he was able in 1935 to set up
his own company in Cheltenham, making innovative aircraft equipment and named it Dowty's. They made parts for
the Concorde supersonic airliners and many more besides. The business still exists today, making highly reliable undercarriages for many of the world's famous aircraft manufacturers. In 1956 George was knighted for his services to the industry. Sir George Dowty worked hard to ensure that he had teams of people making the very best quality engineering. He really reached for the skies and succeeded, so too shall we.
Our House motto is: Stronger Together
Foley House
is named after Winifred Foley. She was an authoress, who was born in 1914 in Brierley. She embodied
the spirit of Dene Magna in so far as she took what she could from her childhood, youth, family and school, used it to go
out into the world to learn and experience and then brought all of these skills back to the Forest. She spoke of the grinding poverty in which she was brought up and the fact that her dad, because of his firm beliefs about the rights of his fellow coal miners, was often unemployed. Clearly, her own personal values were very important to her. This is something
else that we will share! All of these challenges never stopped her achieving. She did her best at school and at the age of
14 went to Cheltenham and then London to work in domestic service. She never did lose her love of the Forest, nor her
pride from where she came.
Our House motto is: Nil satis nisi optimum (Only the best will do)
Jenner House.
Our house is named after Edward Jenner, a famous scientist from Berkeley, Gloucester who discovered the vaccination against Smallpox. In 1980, the World Health Organisation declared that the world is now free from
Smallpox, a disease that once killed thousands of people every year was beaten, thanks to Jenner’s perseverance and
hard work. Many scientists laughed at his work, but Jenner was not put off. People all over the world are now grateful
for his persistence and he became revered worldwide for his achievements. This epitomises our House motto – something that we could all learn from.
Our House motto is: Perseverance Breeds Success
Wilson House.
A little bit of background about our new house name: Edward Wilson was a physician and polar explorer from Gloucestershire. Wilson was a key member of the British Antarctic 1910 – 1912 Expedition amongst many
others, in which he sadly died. The group hit bad weather and subsequently one by one they sacrificed their own lives to
save their fellow team members, a hugely commendable act. Wilson has a statue in Cheltenham and more recently has
had a museum named after him, The Wilson Museum.
Our House motto is: Aspire Together, Achieve Together
International at Dene Magna
The students for the Okinawa Exchange 2016 have been
selected and are now working with their parents/carers and
staff to raise the funds for the Exchange. This will begin on
Sports Day where the Team will be running a Krispy Kreme
doughnut sale at £1 each. Additionally, they will be running a
stall at the Summer Fayre.
Don't forget to look at the Facebook Okinawa page (found
through the main Dene Magna Facebook page).
Menu of the Month
Tuesday 2 June
Sweet and Sour Chicken
with Rice or Noodles
Oriental Steamed Bun
with Vegetable Chow Mein
£2.20
Chinese
Okinawa 2016
Coming Up...
Friday 5 June
Wednesday 10 June
Thursday 18 June
Friday 19 June
W/c 22 June
Friday 26 June
Saturday 27 June
W/c 29 June
Sports Day
Y9 Vaccinations—Diphtheria , Tetanus, Polio and Meningitis C
Y7 Parent/Carer Consultation Evening
Sponsored Walk
Y6 Induction Week (Yr6 Parents/Carer Evening on Thursday 25 June)
7pm FoDM Quiz Nite
Y11 Prom
Y10 Work Experience Week and Timetable Suspension Week
Sports Roundup
Boccia
Gymnastics
Dene Magna v Hearts of the Forest.
Well done to Archie Eaton, Isaac Eaton, Seya Taylor, Edwin
Mathieson, Harry Stokes, Chloe Williams, Tommy Penn, Alex
Bullock, Megan English. A brilliant game, and so close, but
unfortunately we lost 17 - 20.
We would like to congratulate Will Bees (Y10) on his
achievements in gymnastics. He came 9th out of 27
competitors in an international competition in Switzerland
during April. A massive well done from us all.
Rounders
Y10 mixed team played a fantastic game of rounders on
Wednesday 29 April and were crowned District Champions.
Tennis
On Thursday 30 April the Y8 and Y10 boys played brilliantly
against Severn Vale. Unfortunately they both lost their
games.
District Mountain Biking
Community Partners’ Programme
Thursday 30 April
Y7 boys came 1st, Y8 girls came 1st, Y8 boys came 3rd and
Y7 girls came 3rd. Well done everyone who took part.
KS4 Girls’/Boys’ District Softball
Well done to the A team who won their matches and were
crowned District Champions. They now progress to the
Schools Games County Finals in June. The B team played so
well but came in third.
Tennis Passes 2015
Dene Magna Tennis Passes (for the old courts only) will be
available again from 13 April 2015. Prices remain the same
as last year and are available from Reception.
School days
6pm-9pm
Weekends and holidays
9am-9pm
Family ticket (2 adults and any number of
children)
£25
Adults
£12
Students
£7
Staff
£5
Concessions
£7
All passes expire on 31 August 2015
Information on the Workshops and Courses currently
running is available from our website, or just pop into
Reception for a booklet.
COURSES AND WORKSHOPS FROM 21 APRIL
PILATES BEGINNERS / BACK CARE - Tuesday, 6-7pm
PILATES MATWORK - Tuesday, 7-8pm
NEEDLE FELTING & WET FELTING - Tuesday, 7-8pm
ITALIAN FOR IMPROVERS - Tuesday, 6-8pm
ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS - Wednesday, 6-8pm
JAPANESE FOR ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS - Tuesday, 67pm
COMPUTING FOR ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS - Tuesday, 68pm
ZUMBA - Wednesday, 6.30 -7.30pm
TAE KWON-DO - Thursday, 6-7.30pm
FITNESS CENTRE/CIRCUIT CLASSES - Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings
BOKWA FITNESS - Tuesday 7.15—8.15pm & Thursday,
7.40-8.40pm
ARE YOU INTERESTED IN RUNNING A NEW
COURSE/WORKSHOP OR WOULD LIKE TO HIRE A
VENUE?
Please contact Mr Peter Adams on the following
number/email address: 01594 545318 or
[email protected].