A message from Miss Hulse Parent Pay

Let’s Talk!
APRIL 2011
A message from Miss Hulse
We have had a very busy,
successful and enjoyable
term and there has been
much to celebrate. To all
those girls whose achievements feature in the main
or other newsletters –
MFL, PE, Year 8, Year 10 –
very well done and thank
you. And thank you to all
our staff who have worked
so hard and to all parents
who have supported and
facilitated their daughters’
activities.
There have been numerous trips this term namely
to Iceland, skiing in Italy,
French Exchange, German
week-end, German Exchange, ICT trip to Disney-
land, Slapton A level Geography field, RS trips to
places of worship, Black
Country Museum…Some
of these are included in
the main body of the
newsletter. As well as the
trips we have had several
successful events:
There was an Instrumentalists evening which saw
performances from students who have music lessons in school with their
teachers.
This term also saw A level
Drama presentations, and
the UCAS evening as well
as the House Music event.
I also just want to say a
hearty “well done” to all
staff and students who
worked so hard to make
the joint DCGS/DCHS
production of Guys and
Dolls such a success!
A huge thanks to the
school’s Parents Association who raised a whop-
Inside this issue:
Parent Pay
Message from the 2
Chair of Governors
More than 50% of parents in
Music Dept.
4
RS Dept
6
Sports Dept.
8
Young Enterprise
14
Years 7 – 11 are now using
ParentPay and we aim to
move all parental payments
to the system over the next
12 – 18 months. Please take a
look at the Parents’ Support
information available on the
h o m e
p a g e
o f
www.ParentPay.com.
ping £6500 profit from
the recent Indulgence
Evening. Thanks to all the
PA team especially Julia
Hughes-Morgan as well as
all the parents and girls
who supported this
event.
Finally there is some
staff news with staff leaving, moving schools or
retiring. As a consequence we have appointed two new teachers; details can be found
in the newsletter.
We have had a lot of fun
and pleasure and now
that we have finally arrived at the end of term,
there is no more for me
to say except thank you
to everyone for a great
term and have a really
lovely holiday. A happy
Easter to you all.
Peg Hulse
There is a very useful FAQs section, information on how to get
started on ParentPay and instructions on how to reset your password. You will also be able to find
out how to merge accounts if you
have more than one daughter at the
school. This is not only more convenient for you but costs the
school less when you make payments.
If you have not yet used ParentPay
and would like to be reminded of
your login details please call Mrs
Sue Hopkinson on 01494 546413.
Page 2
Let’s Talk!
Message from Lyn Williams, Chairman of Governors
Future of
Specialisms and
Sports Partnership
Academy Status
For the Governing
Body, this term has
been dominated by the
issue of Academy
status, and culminated
in our decision earlier
this week to submit an
application to the Department for Education
to become an Academy
as at 1st August 2011.
Other than Academy
status, this was the main
topic discussed at our
informal Governing Body
meeting in January. Governors expressed their
pride in what the school
achieves in these areas
and their wish to continue to do as much as
we can within the forthcoming financial constraints. We also agreed
to explore the possibility
of charging for various
activities and confirmed
that priority should be
given to our own pupils
ahead of any outreach
work we do.
Financial
constraints
We have only in the last
week received the details of our reduced
funding for the coming
financial year, and our
Finance Committee will
shortly be finalising our
budget for the year.
Having already taken
some steps to reduce
costs, we believe that
our students will see
very little impact of the
funding cuts in the next
twelve months, but we
know that subsequent
years will see further
funding reductions. As I
mentioned in the December newsletter, we
are also, through our
Enterprise Network
Committee, developing
some new and promising
ideas for increasing the
funding we receive other
than from central and
local government, and
we plan the launch of
one very important initiative early next term.
“Governors
expressed their pride
in what the school
achieves in these
areas and their wish
to continue to do as
much as we can
within the forthcoming financial constraints. “
DCHS Book Group
The DCHS Book Group, for
both staff and parents, will be
meeting next on Thursday 5 May
at 7.30 pm to discuss ‘An Instance of the Fingerpost’ by
Iain Pears. Please come along –
everyone is very welcome. Call
Sue Hopkinson on 01494 546413 if
you would like further details.
“Set in Oxford in the 1660s - a
time and place of great intellectual,
religious, scientific and political ferment - this remarkable novel centres around a young woman, Sarah
Blundy, who stands accused of the
murder of Robert Grove, a fellow
of New College. Four witnesses
describe the events surrounding his
death: Marco da Cola, a Venetian
Catholic intent on claiming credit
for the invention of blood transfusion; Jack Prescott, the son of a
supposed traitor to the Royalist
cause, determined to vindicate his
father; John Wallis, chief cryptographer to both Cromwell and
Charles II, a mathematician, theologian and master spy; and Anthony Wood, the famous Oxford
antiquary.
Each one tells their version of
what happened but only one reveals the extraordinary truth. Brilliantly written, utterly convincing,
gripping from the first page to the
last, An Instance of the Fingerpost is
a magnificent tour de force.”
Don’t forget, if you are placing
orders with Amazon please remember to use the link at the
bottom right hand side of the
DCHS website homepage and
help raise funds for the School.
Let’s Talk!
Page 3
Year 7 PSHE—How we spend our leisure time
Year 7 have done a oriental languages, and
series of PSHE dis- collecting
various
cussions on how items. Their brief was
to explain how they
got interested in it, and
showed equipment from
their
clubs
outside
school. So now we all
know which sort of
shoes to wear for tap
and ballet, which sword
to use for various fencing
activities, and have been
intrigued by a most interesting Thimble collection! One of our aims
150 plus staff
and
Prefects attentive.
Next term we shall be
encouraging representatives from each
Form to do talks under the “Community
Cohesion banner. “
Mrs McFadyen
they spend their lei- to try to inspire the
sure time, and of- others with a little
fered new ideas to demo. We had some
their
classmates
about trying out
hobbies such as Irish
very entertaining assemblies when girls
dancing,
Theatre presented a selection
workshops, learning of their work, and
was to increase the girls’
confidence in public
speaking, and they really
made a lovely effort with
it, so well done to all our
volunteers, you certainly
kept your audience of
Library News
Library News
Book Donations
donations of new books
this
term.
Jacqui
McGowan kindly donated
three boxes of new fiction
and Gold Hill Books also
donated a sizable collection of RS books.
Thank you to everyone
staff, parents and students who have donated books to the
Library this term. Because of your generosity we have been able Year 7 Parents
to replace older copies Evening
of popular titles with
newer ones as well as Thank you to all parents
bolstering the fiction who made a donation to
collection.
the school book fund. In
total we raised a fantastic
In addition the Library £200.00! New books have
has been lucky enough been purchased and a
to receive two sizable bookplate with each do-
nor’s name has been inserted into a new book.
Parent Association
Many thanks to the Parents’ Association for providing the funds to purchase 2 new book stands
for the Library. As you can
see they are already being
put to good use and allows
us to house all our new
books in one place! One is
currently being used for
new fiction and the other is
housing our newly donated
RS collection.
“Their brief was to
explain how they
got interested in it,
and to try to inspire
the others with a
little demo”
Let’s Talk!
Page 4
Musical Notes
Instrumental lessons Evening
This annual evening took
place on March 17th. The
aim of the concert was to
provide an opportunity for
pupils taught by our visiting
peripatetic music staff to
perform in front of their
parents. There were 3 venues, with concerts happening simultaneously in the
hall, The Courtyard and
the Music Room. There
were performances form
string, woodwind and brass
players. All the girls played
really well and the evening
was most enjoyable.
DCHS Musical—Guys and Dolls
This exciting and memorable musical ran for five
performances last week.
Energy and enthusiasm
were brought to the stage
by all concerned with well
know numbers like Luck
Be a Lady Tonight , Take
Back your Mink and of
course the show-stopping,
Sit down you’re Rocking the
Boat being belted out to
professional standards. –
from DCHS the cast was
led by Alex Richards as
Sarah Brown and Gabby
Jones as Miss Adelaide
with Juliette Craggs,
Sam Foskett, Leyla
Magee, Alyssa Stansbury, Bethany Tilston,
Saskia Trewavas, Helen
Bychawski,
Gretel
Scott, Beth Hitchcock,
Rebecca
McDonald,
Ashleigh Race, Suriyah
Rashid, Hannah Watts,
Imogen Beschi, Julia
Bridden, Jess Crabbe,
Izzy Garratt, Victoria
Stevens, Anna Tetlow,
Claire Richardson and
Rosie
Greenstreet.
Backstage expertise was
provided by Caitlin Jones
and Tess Cheetham.
DCHS Musical Success Stories
Marlow Music Festival
Samantha Foskett
Congratulations to Samantha
Foskett (Y12) for her success at the
Marlow Music Festival. Samantha was
successful in the following categories:
Gold Medal (1st Place) for Show Song
Category,
Bronze Medal (1st Place) for unaccompanied Folk Song Category
The Bel Canto Cup: for most outstanding vocal soloist
And if all of the above wasn’t enough
Samantha has also just achieved a Distinction in her Grade Seven Singing
Exam!
Page 5
Wycombe Orpheus Festival of Young Musicians
Congratulations to two Dr Challoner’s High School students for their success at the recent Wycombe
Orpheus Choir Festival of Young Musicians. Gretel Scott (13.6) and her duet partner, James Duff
from RGS, came second in the Senior Ensemble class and Katie Cochrane (7B) came first in the Junior Vocal class.
Katie Cochrane
In March I sang in the Wycombe Orpheus Choir Festival of Young Musicians. I
was in the 11-14 category,
which was intimidating as a
lot of the girls were older.
There were 8 contestants
and we each had 6 minutes
to sing two songs of our
choice. I sang ‘Pie Jesu’ and
‘Anything can happen’
from Mary Poppins. I did
enjoy it and was very
pleased to win – especially
as there was a £60 prize!
I was very pleased the
School put me forward
and happy I represented
them well. I am looking
forward to collecting my
trophy at the Wycombe
Swan in May.
By Katie Cochrane
Gretel Scott
In the senior ensemble class we
came 2nd. We played Passacaglia
by Handel-Halvorsen for viola
and violin. My duet partner was
James Duff from RGS High Wycombe.
will be playing two duets (the
Passacaglia and Mozart's concerto for violin and
viola mvnts 1 and 3) and a solo
each - the whole concert will be
an hour long.
Gretel and her duet partner
James will be holding a lunchtime
recital on Wednesday 25th May
at the Oak Room, the Wycombe
Swan. This is part of the lunchtime recital series of the Wycombe Arts Festival, and they
Furthermore, Gretel is leading
the Chiltern Youth Chamber
Orchestra (CYCO) this year
and a concert is being held at
5pm at the Elgiva Theatre,
Chesham, on Sunday 8th May.
LSO at the Barbican
lasted an hour, during which
several famous pieces were
played – a Mozart Horn Concerto, “The Unanswered Question” by Charles Ives and Beethoven’s 5th Symphony – which
were explained as they were
played. The different types of
musical form were all examined
and other features of the pieces
On 21st March 2011, 18 Y9s who
are going to be studying music
GCSE next year went on a visit
to the Barbican Hall to participate in a workshop with the London Symphony Orchestra, accompanied by Mrs Balderson and
Mrs Partridge. The workshop
were looked at. Sonata form was
also explained, and several clapping activities used to demonstrate how it worked.
All in all, it was a really successful
trip, as it was interesting and educational, and very much enjoyed
by all.
By Emily Flynn (9T.4)
Page 6
Let’s Talk!
Religious Studies
Year 8 RS visit by Catherine Westall
“After leaving to
have a talk on
Hinduism, we
definitely felt a
bit holier, or at
least more in
awe of Indian
craftsmanship.”
On the 24th of March
we went with 8B to
Shi Swaminarayan
Mandir in London. It
is Europe’s first traditional Mandir and was
carved in India, then
shipped to London
and assembled over
three years like a huge
jigsaw puzzle. Literally
everywhere you looked
there was a wall or pillar
of intricate carving that
most people couldn’t
even draw, let alone
carve out of marble.
After waiting for a bit in
the foyer, which was far
from boring as we were
transfixed by all of the
detail on the walls, we
went up to the main
temple, where we were
told to ‘observe silence’.
This proved less difficult
than we had expected,
as everywhere you
looked there were white
marble pillars with various Gods engraved on
them, huge murtis of the
most well-known Gods
sitting in gold-plated
thrones in little caves off
to the side, or the amazing ceiling, which we
were invited to sit and
look at. After leaving to
have a talk on Hinduism,
we definitely felt a bit
holier, or at least more
in awe of Indian craftsmanship.
The talk was held in the
Haveli, which was an
equally decorative but
slightly less castle-like
building attached to the
Mandir. We learnt
about different symbols
associated with Hinduism like the ‘aum’, and
how the Mandir was
built and is used. We
also got to see one of
the daily prayers held in
the Mandir, which consisted mainly of a lot of
candle-waving and chanting.
After we left the Mandir,
we went to an Islamic
Centre about half an
hour away. Although it
wasn’t as grand as the
Mandir, as Islam is considerably less decorative
as a religion, it was still
complete with Meccafacing carpet stripes and
watering cans in the toilets. We were shown
around by a Muslim
woman who gave us a
very different perspective on Islam, and transformed our views and
preconceptions completely. She was happy
to answer any questions,
even ones that started
with “I don’t mean to be
rude, but…” and was
very frank about her life
and beliefs. This was a
breath of fresh air after
the silent spirituality of
the Mandir, which was
awe-inspiring, but we felt
a bit nervous walking
around it in case we
chipped one of the perfect marble columns or
sneezed and interrupted
someone in prayer. We
left the Islamic centre
with all of our views and
in some cases slight inbuilt prejudices about
Islam replaced with
much more understanding.
Page 7
the subject. We were also visited
by Gerry Thomas, also from Imth
On 9 March four speakers visited perial College, who explored geYear 12 for a conference exploring netic engineers – namely that of
‘surrogate sisters’ and its emothe issues behind medical ethics.
Siobhan from Imperial College dis- tional impact on those involved.
Furthermore, Mark Bhagwandin
cussed organ donation and drew
from the charity ‘Life’, spoke
from her years of experience and
about the potentially dangerous
her current studies at PhD level,
consequences of euthanasia as
offering different perspectives on
Philosophy and Ethics Visit
well as the moral issues surrounding it. To end the conference, Johal Kuldhir, an experienced doctor in the field of
gynaecology explored the legal
status of abortion in different
societies, presenting multiple
case studies showing the varying psychological effects of it.
SACRE Logo Competition Winner!
Congratulations to
Phoebe King, 7B who
was announced as the
Finalists and overall
winner
Key Stage 1
West Wycombe Combined School
Key Stage 2 Finalists
High Ash School
Elangeni School
overall winner in the
SACRE Logo Competition.
Key Stage 3 Finalists
Alfriston School
The Buckingham School
Dr Challoner's High School
(Overall Winner).
The winning entry by Phoebe King
Page 8
Let’s Talk!
Let’s get Active
Dance for Life
Dance for Life brings together primary, secondary
and special schools, colleges, dance groups and
youth groups in a celebration of youth dance. The
Red Cross invites groups
of all abilities to choreograph a dance routine that
reflects an aspect of its
work. The groups then
come together to perform
at Dance for Life events
across the country. Our
team took part in the
event at the Wycombe
Swan and although they
didn’t win, their moving
and skilled dance was inspired by the situation in
Darfur and the Red
Cross’s work there.
Those involved were :
Year 11
Lucie Darby
Sophy Yeoman
Kayti Moran
Hannah Dawson
Hannah Barnetson
Nicola Hodgins
Beth Chater
Year 10
Katy Lewis
Alice Vaughan
Isla Robson
Rhiannon Jones
Nicole Fyfe
Emily Scott
Year 9
Rachel Moran
Page 9
Dance Festival
“The dance
st
The dance festival on 1
April 2011 was held in the
Sports Hall and was attended by 450 children
from Years 1-6.
The
schools in attendance
were:
Chalfont St Peter Infant,
Hyde Heath
Chalfont St. Giles Junior
Little Kingshill
Little Chalfont
Thomas Harding
Coleshill
Woodside
Ley Hill
festival on 1st
April 2011 was
held in the
Sports Hall
and was
Holmer Green Infant
Little Kingshill
St. Mary’s Gerrards
St George’s Infant
Denham Village Infant
Tilehouse
Chesham Bois
Each school had prepared a dance and our
girls from Y10/11 performed one of the
dances from Reflections.
The standard
gets higher every year.
attended by
450 children
from Years 16. “
Gymnastics Festival
On 5th April 2011 we
hosted the gymnastics
festival for 200 children
form Years 1-6 in the
gym. The schools attending were:
Chenies,
Coleshill
Chalfont St Giles Junior
Little Chalfont,
Chalfont St Peter Inf.
Thomas Harding
Elangeni
Hyde Heath
Little Spring
Elmtree
Curzon
Chesham Bois
They all had gym routines prepared that they
performed and then our
Y11 girls performed a
piece before they then
helped and coached all
the children on our
Gymnastic apparatus. It
was a fabulous evening,
and we are very proud
of the girls in Y9,10 and
11 who helped.
DCHS Clubs
We have also run several
clubs at Challoner’s for
our partner primary
schools in gymnastics,
netball and hockey on
Tuesday and Wednesday
nights giving our young
leaders a chance to put
their leadership skills into
action.
The girls have been so
generous with their time
giving up every evening
from 5pm-6.15pm each
week. Thanks go to:
Coralie Thomson
Mubaraka Muchala
Hannah Ziai, Anna Khanzadeh, Danniella Romano,
Megan Walsh, Emma
Dziegel, Isabel Jackson
Lily Jeffery.
“On 5th April
2011 we
hosted the
gymnastics
festival for 200
children form
Years 1-6 in
the gym.”
Page 10
Let’s Talk!
Year 13—A level Geography Iceland Trip, February 2011
In February half term, 26 students
from the sixth form set off on a 5
day trip to Iceland. After a very
early start we landed at Keflavik
airport and went straight on to
the beautiful Blue Lagoon. The
water in the pools is naturally
geothermal and the silica crystals
make it a perfect natural spa and
incredibly relaxing. We then visited the Perlan restaurant and
viewing platform to take in some
of the stunning Icelandic scenery
and views of Reykjavik. Once we
arrived at the hotel, we went for a
short walk down to the harbour at
Reykjavik. Our second day included seeing some of Iceland’s
most famous geographical features. We visited the Mid Atlantic
Ridge meaning we stood in both
North America and Europe at the
same time. A short drive took us
to the Geysirs and hot springs. We
then visited the amazing Gulfoss
waterfall and gorge. Monday
morning involved getting packed
which was a definite highlight for all of us. We were
also luckily enough to catch
a glimpse of the Eyjafjalla‐
jökull volcano which caused
all the trouble last year! Our
final day started with a wet
to move to a separate hotel for one
night in a small coastal town called
Vik. Again we had a day full of activities, including visiting hot springs and
a fissure at Hveragerdi. After this we
went riding on Icelandic Ponies, an
experience that none of us will forget
for good and bad reasons, some people were left unable to walk properly
for the rest of the trip! We walked
behind the Seljalandsfoss waterfall
and visited the Solheimajokull glacier
and windy walk on the black
sand beach at Vik and a visit
to the most stunning sea
arch at Dyrholaey. We journeyed back to Reykjavik
with a stop at the Arbasafnid
Open air museum and spent
our last night back at our
first hotel; only to have a
very early 3am start to return to Gatwick. We would
all like to thank the Geography department for such an
amazing trip that none of us
will forget in a hurry.
By Lizzie Elliott (13.2)
and Amy Quelch (13.6)
Page 11
Year 12—A level Geography Iceland Trip, February 2011
After a short, early
morning flight, the year
12 Dr Challoner’s geography students opened
their tired eyes to beautiful Icelandic landscape,
which immediately got
us asking Mrs Richmond
hundreds of questions.
Shortly after getting our
heads round the fact that
there are absolutely no
trees in Iceland we set
off to explore the tran-
quil city and outskirts of
Reykjavik, the capital city
of Iceland. We were
lucky enough to spend
one afternoon in a geothermal lagoon, where
we soaked up the relaxing atmosphere, which
was extremely enjoyable
for everyone. In the proceeding days, which
were very eventful, we
quickly settled into the
Icelandic culture and saw
many amazing coastal
features, which really
broadened our AS level
knowledge. We also got
taken to see a breathtaking glacier and around
the cities, which we
knew would help us in
our geography work
next year, so we all
found it really interesting.
Throughout and
after visiting Iceland we
learned that the skills we
gained have been invaluable, and we were
all truly honoured to
have been taken to
such a unique part of
the world, and in saying that we would
love to visit Iceland
again!
By Meera Patel
(12.2)
Year 10 French Exchange
36 Yr 10 French students and their teachers enjoyed several cultural visits during
their week-long French exchange with a
school in Versailles. The weather was fabulous, so the trip along the river Seine,
viewing all the major monuments, was all
the more memorable. The girls were very
impressed with the grandeur of Parisian
architecture, including the Sorbonne University building.
"Can you guess what interesting environmentally-friendly project is going on in Les Jardins
de Luxembourg? Why were we warned not to
tread on the lawn?!"
Girls waiting for Baton Rouge
Paris, La Sorbonne University
Page 12
Let’s Talk!
Rotary Club Young Chef of The Year Competition 2011
The regional final of the
Rotary Club Young
Chef of the Year competition was held at
Chesham Park Community College on January
15. The school was very
well represented by Jess
Stewart, Sophie Roll-
Recipes
Butternut squash and
sage risotto.
Ingredients:
500g butternut squash
2 tbsp olive oil
Bunch sage leaves
1l vegetable stock
25g butter
1 small onion
150g risotto rice
30g parmesan, finely grated
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 220C/200C/gas 7.
2. Toss the squash in 1tbs oil with
half the sage (chopped)
3. Scatter into a shallow roasting tin
and roast for 30 mins until brown
and soft.
4. Meanwhile prepare the risotto.
Bring the stock to the boil and keep
on a low simmer.
5. In a separate pan melt half the
butter over a medium heat. Stir in
the onions and sweat gently for 8-10
minutes until soft but not coloured.
6. Stir the rice into the onions until
completely coated in butter then stir
until the rice is shiny and the edges
look transparent.
7. Add the stock and cook on a low
heat for 25-30 mins until the rice is
al dente.
8. Fry the other half of the sage
leaves whole in a little olive oil until
crisp then set aside on kitchen paper.
9. When the squash is cooked mash
half into a purée and leave half
ings and Jemma Wenman
who are all from Year 10.
All three girls did brilliantly,
but in the end it was
Jemma who wowed judges
with her butternut squash
and sage risotto followed
by a lemon tart with rasp-
whole.
10. Stir through the purée and
then add the cheese and butter
and leave to rest.
11. Place the whole chunks and
sage on top to serve.
Lemon tart with raspberry
coulis and vanilla cream
Ingredients:
For the pastry:
50g butter
140g plain flour
1tbsp icing sugar
1tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 medium egg yolk
For the filling:
3 medium eggs
2 medium egg whites
140g icing sugar
Extra icing sugar for dusting
2tbsp finely grated lemon zest (4
lemons)
125ml lemon juice (4-5 lemons)
200ml half fat crème fraîche
For the coulis
300g tin raspberries (150g
drained)
50g icing sugar
1tsp lemon juice
For the vanilla cream
150g double cream
1 tbsp icing sugar
1tsp vanilla flavouring
Method
For the tart:
1. Rub the butter into the flour
until the mixture resembles fine
bread crumbs.
berry coulis and vanilla
cream. Jessica Stewart took
third place with her mushroom risotto and strawberry and raspberry pavlova.
Jemma’s winning recipes
are all listed below!
2. Stir in the icing sugar then make
a well the stir in the oil, egg yolk
and cold water until it forms dough
3. Gather into a ball and roll out.
Ease into a tin and trim the edges.
4. Prick with a fork and chill for 10
mins. Heat the oven to 190c/ gas 5
5. Then make the filling, beat the
eggs together until well mixed, sift
the icing sugar into a bowl and
gradually add the eggs.
6. Stir in the lemon and leave to
stand.
7. Sit the chilled pastry case on a
baking sheet, line with baking
parchment and bake blind for 15
mins until well set.
8. Remove the beans and bake for
another 5 mins until golden brown.
9. Strain the lemon mix through a
sieve, beat the crème fraîche until
smooth and stir in the lemon mix.
10. Pour into the case and reduce
the heat to 150/ gas mark 2. Bake
for 25-30 mins until barely set with
a slight wobble in the middle. Leave
to cool.
For the raspberry coulis
1. Wash the raspberries with a fork
2. Strain through a fine sieve until
smooth
3. Stir in lemon juice and icing sugar
For the vanilla cream
1. Pour the double cream into a
large bowl and add the icing sugar
and vanilla.
2. Whip until it forms soft peaks.
Page 13
Staff News
The following members of staff
will be leaving at the end of the
summer term: Mr Garside, has
decided to take an opportunity
to take some time out from
school and have a break from
teaching; Mrs Lloyd and Mr Fullbrook who are retiring;
Mrs Scutt, who is helping to set
up the VLE at The Mandeville
School on a year’s secondment and
Mrs King who is retiring from DT
teaching but will carry on with her
Learning Skills work. Mrs Smet
will go on maternity leave after
May half term break.
Starting from September 2011
we have Miss Thomson –
Chemistry - coming from John
F Kennedy School in Hemel
Hempstead and
Mr Greenstreet – Physics –
coming from The Misbourne
School.
Preparing for University
Students in Year 12 have
started their journey into
Higher Education. They attended a university convention
where more than 150 universities were present offering advice and help. The UCAS evening was well attended with
speakers from Birmingham and
Brunel universities giving the
key presentations. We were
particularly pleased to welcome
Jenni Nice back who left last
summer and is now reading PPE
at Oxford. Students are now
researching their options of
courses and universities in or-
der to be ready when the next cycle of applications starts in June.
On June 29th , students in yr12 will
attend a one day conference at
Brunel University and on July 6th all
Lower Sixth students are invited to
the Oxbridge Evening at the boys’
school.
Fabulous Success at
University applications
fers, with 12 girls having received an offer from Cambridge or Oxford. Congratulations to all girls – that is the
first important step into Higher
Education. Students are now
selecting their firm and insurances choices which hopefully
will be confirmed when they
receive their results in August.
ALL students in Year 13 have received at least one offer from their
selected universities. Many of them
are holding the maximum of 5 of-
German department
The German department has
been very busy this term.
Firstly, there was the yr 11 exchange visit to Dinslaken in December. A wonderful week exploring the area in the North
West of Germany and staying
with very friendly German families.
At the beginning of April, the
exchange partners came over to
England and spent 5 days with us
in DCHS. Visits to Windsor Castle, London, Westfield, Quasar
and the Guys & Dolls performance made for a brilliant visit.
In March, the A2 students went to
Celle in Northern Germany. They
had a fabulous weekend visiting castles, going shopping and to the cinema, tasting German cuisine and
visiting the concentration camp in
Bergen Belsen.
The Year 10s have started their
email exchange with a new partner
school in Schermbeck – where Fabian, Foreign Language Assistant in
2007/08, is now working.
Sophie Train-Clark in Yr 9 had
Nora from Bavaria staying with her
for two weeks. Nora’s grandfather
used to be Mrs Carr’s primary
school’s headteacher! Nora
thoroughly enjoyed her stay
and was a great help in German
lessons!
Finally, Mrs Penhale and Ms
Shah form King’s College London have both been completing
their teaching practices in the
German and French departments. They have now gone on
to their final placements, in Ms
Shah’s case to Austria! We wish
them all the best in the future.
For more details on all the
events, please see the MFL
newsletter!
Page 14
Let’s Talk!
Young Enterprise
Three were several
teams involved in the
Young Enterprise at district presentation but
only two went forward
as the “Premier” teams
to the regional final at
Milton Keynes on 6 May
– Dimensions and Potencia. Both are mixed
teams with DCGS and
Beaconsfield High but
our girls are Holly
Aboud, Philippa John-
son, Sarah McKay,
Sophie Madden,
Emma Riley, Sammie
Eales, Sophie Jewsbury, Robyn Mann,
Smruthi
Chandrasekar, and
Harleen Mann.
DIMENSION
“Dimension
went on to win
5 out of the 6
available
awards at the
Young
Enterprise Fair
for the
Chiltern
district”
Dimension is a Young
Enterprise Company
consisting of DCHS,
DCGS and Beaconsfield
High students which has
been running since September. They have been
working to bring a range
of products to the local
community including;
Christmas cards, USB
wristbands for schools,
and more recently apps.
The Old Bengal, an Indian restaurant in Beaconsfield, has been brilliant in supporting the
team. Dimension has
developed an app
for The Old Bengal
which can be distributed
to their customers for
free. The app itself consists of the restaurant’s
takeaway menu, its location in Beaconsfield and
a ‘call now’ button,
meaning it’s now really
easy for customers to
order a takeaway or
make a reservation. It
has been a great success
receiving 60 downloads
the day after the launch.
For a free download,
simply search ‘The Old
Bengal’ in iTunes, or for
other internet-enabled
phone key eyemags.com/12700 into
your phone’s browser.
Dimension went on to
win 5 out of the 6 available awards at the
Young Enterprise Fair
for the Chiltern district,
including overall Premier
Company, and are looking forward to the
County Final in May.
By Samantha Eales
Page 15
Last but not least!
IT courses at DCHS
Forgotten items
We still have places available on a
variety of IT courses which we are
running on Saturday mornings in
A reminder that if forgotten
items are brought to the school
office by kind parents, the staff
cannot take those items to the
pupil. The pupil must be contacted and must collect the
item from the school office.
Request for Hanging
Baskets
A plea to any green-fingered parents . It would be much appreciated if anyone who makes their
own hanging baskets would consider making some to donate to
the school.
Lost Property
the Summer Term. If you would
like any more information, please
contact
[email protected]
m or go onto our website for
course details and an application
form.
Facilities for Hire
Just a reminder that at DCHS we
let out our facilities after school, at
weekends and in the school holidays. We have excellent sports
and business facilities for rent at
very reasonable prices, including
IT rooms, classrooms and our Lecture Room, as well as our Main
School Hall and our new Drama
Studio. Please contact Janet Armitage on 01494 763296 ext 336 or
e-mail on
[email protected] for
more information and she will be
very happy to show you around
and discuss your needs.
A reminder to all parents to
please name all property that is
brought into school, especially
uniform and if an item is lost
please see Matron or the PE
Dept who usually have a huge
selection of items for claiming.
Back to Netball Course
Just to remind you that the ‘Back
to Netball’ course will continue
to run in the Sports Hall on
Wednesday morning 9:30am—
Parents’ Forum
The Parents’ Forum took place
in January. This is when parents can take part in a general
discussion on issues that come
up about the school such as
homework, reporting etc. The
next one is scheduled for 7pm
on 4th May 2011.
10:30am starting from the 4th
May 2011. The cost is £1.00 per
session. For more details please
email Caroline Adams on:
[email protected]
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