Harvest Festival at St Mary’s Church Arnold
On 10th October Derrymount School went along to St Mary’s Church in Arnold to celebrate our Harvest Festival.
We collected an amazing amount of food which will be taken to the local food bank. The fresh fruit and vegetables will go to Emmanuel House and a refugee centre in Nottingham.
Some of our pupils performed on guitars as part of the service and others had brought their paintings of vegetables, salt dough, Harvest Sheaves, and Harvest poems to decorate the church.
Parents and carers also came along, and some came back to school for coffee and biscuits afterwards.
Margaret, the Vicar was really impressed with Derrymount and said we had given more than 20 big bags of food! A big thank you to everyone who helped and contributed something towards those who are in need.
We will be visiting Margaret again at St Mary’s in December for our Christingle.
Well done everyone!
Cathy Clay
Adventure School update
Thanks to our new tent stove (bought with funds from DofE Central), we have a warm and less smokey environment – with an extended covered area – that will help us keep working outdoors during the colder months.
Already enjoying the benefits
A lunchtime visit from students from our junior site resulted in smiles all round: archery, some moving of bark chippings, relaxing in the hammocks and bellies full of hot dogs all helped create a very enjoyable lunchtime for all. Speaking of dogs, Gryff played his part too.
Flu Vaccinations 2018
Flu vaccinations are on Tuesday 9th October
Children included in the programme are Reception through to year 13.
Consent Forms
Consent forms will be bought in to school early September 2018 and should be returned to school by parents 21st September 2018 for the team to collect week commencing 24th September 2018.
Further information about the flu vaccination programme:
www.nottinghamshirehealthcare.
Children will not be able to receive this vaccination at the GP unless they have an identified health problem. We will be holding clinics throughout the season for those children who have consented and were absent on the day.
Each child vaccinated will receive a record card on the day of the vaccination to take home.
SEND Co-production Charter Survey
Please complete this 8 question Nottinghamshire County Council survey.
This survey is for parents, carers, children and young people who have experienced SEND services.
Leavers’ / P16 Summer Residential
Residential to York and Dalby
Note: please pay the balance for the trip as soon as possible.
Dates:
- Leave DMS on Monday 18th June, 12.30
- Arrive at school as normal. We will be going to the supermarket to buy provisions for the meals the trip will be providing.
NB. a packed lunch is needed for Monday
- Arrive at school as normal. We will be going to the supermarket to buy provisions for the meals the trip will be providing.
- Return DMS on Thursday 21st June, approx 3pm
Kit list:
Bring a single bag / small suitcase and a small bag/day sack for trips etc
The below is just a guide – please adjust according your own needs.
- Pants (3 days)
- Socks (3 days)
- Trousers & Shorts (weather dependant) (3 days)
- Waterproof coat
- Waterproof trousers
- Sturdy Shoes / trainers
- Casual Shoes (for around town)
- Sun Hat
- Sun Cream
- Fleece
- Jumper / Hoody (couple)
- Pyjamas
- Dressing gown / onesie
- Slippers / indoor shoes
- 2 towels
- Wash Kit
- Torch (spare batteries)
- Watch
- Tshirts (3 days)
- Money for extra activities
- Swimwear
- Camera
- Snack
- Refreshment and snacks
Spending money:
Some spending money for shopping / gifts / souvenirs can be taken (£25 – £35) but please also bring money to cover elements of the trip not covered by the core costs – please see below:
- Monday
- evening meal (pub meal)
- York Dungeon (£11) and/ or Cinema (£6-7)
- Wednesday
- Segway – optional (£5)
- Change for amusements
- Fish and Chip supper
- Dracula walk – optional (£5)Phones and valuables
Students will be encouraged to look after their own valuables (including spending money), but if any students are worried about this, they should let the DMS staff on the trip know.
Phones and chargers can be brought along so as to make a call home in the evenings (if required) but students will be encouraged to use phones just for music and photographs at other times.
A handheld game device can be brought for journeys, but students will be encouraged to not use them at other times.
Any more questions / queries, please get in touch with the school office.
Gryff’s Paws for Thought – Dlog update 1
Hi, Gryff here!
Welcome to my Dog Log, or Dlog.
I’m new to Derrymount School; I was recently re-homed from Jerry Green Dog Rescue Centre in South Lincolnshire. They looked after me really well until they found me a new home to go to.
What’s great about my new life is that I get to go to work everyday! That’s right; I’m training to be a therapy dog – which to me means I get to play with and get stroked by the lovely students that want to spend time with me.
I’ve settled in really well at Derrymount – everyone has been really friendly with me – and apparently I’m a Grade A student so I’ve progressed well from meeting a few students at a time to being taken into all classes every day to see how everyone is – I’ve even been out for a few walks with the students in the Adventure School option. One student (and teacher) even took me into Nottingham on the bus – that was great fun cos I got to meet loads of pigeons.
One thing I have done a lot of though is sleep – it’s great cos I can just fall asleep in class whenever I want to and when someone wants to stroke me or play with me, they just call me over.
Anyway, all this talk of sleep is making me feel sleepy right now, so I’ll sign off.
Be good, be happy, and if you’re ever not feeling great, come and see me and I’ll cheer you up.
Gryff!
Preparing for Adulthood event, Saturday 10th February 2018
14-25 year olds are invited to a free Preparing For Adulthood event.
Date: Saturday 10th February
Venue: Kelham Hall
Time: 10am – 2pm
Link: Booking information
Pupils hand over sponsor money to Framework
Sleep out for the homeless
After a very successful Big Sleep Out for the homeless a couple of weeks ago, some of the hardy group that braved a cold night under the stars headed over to Elizabeth House ( a local Framework provision for the homeless) to hand over the money and items the students had collected as part of their Big Sleep Out.
All in all, they handed over:
- £460 in sponsorship
- several bags (and a suitcase) of clothes and shoes
- a Christmas hamper full of chocolate and other goodies
During the handover (at which the Nottingham Post sent a reporter/photographer attended) the students chatted to the Framework staff to learn more about homelessness (causes and ways to support homeless people) and got to see a little glimpse of the accommodation and services Framework provide. It’s clear that Framework provide valuable resources to some of the most vulnerable in society, so it was a real pleasure to do our little bit to help them. We’re hoping that this is just the start of something longer term i.e. we hope to make the Sleep Out for Framework an annual event at our school.
So, once again, I’d like to say a BIG well done to the students who took part in the sleep out and visited Elizabeth House, and of course… a BIG thank you to everyone who sponsored the students or sent in clothes / shoes.
Adventure School takes shelter
Taking shelter from the Go Outdoors
The Derrymount Adventure School has been running for half a term so far and the students who chose this as one of the KS4 options have enjoyed a range of activities so far, including:
- Cooking a range of meals and snacks using our fire pit
- Learning the necessary knife skills to be able to split wood, make tent pegs and whittle
- Learning knots and lashings and making simple structures
- Putting up a range of tents
- Making shelters using a tarpaulin
- Soft archery and slacklining
The students have also worked hard to help clear and expand the Adventure School area.
A slight weather worry
Despite the successes of our first half term running this new Adventure School option, Andrew and I (we conceived and run the Adventure option) had a slight worry in the back of our minds about how we might keep running when the weather turns against us. You see, whilst it might be our every wish to keep taking the young people outdoors for their dose of fresh air and ‘green time’ – a natural therapy we get from a connection to nature – we are aware of the practicalities and pragmatic issues that arise when the weather is wet and cold.
We had managed to put some tarps up before, but they were less than adequate as they kept pooling water and being ripped down by the weight of the water.
We had also begged some small canvas frame shelters and these gave us some protection over the elements over the fire pit area.
But providing a larger sheltered area was still our aim.
Go Outdoors to the rescue
You can imagine the relief and appreciation then when our local Go Outdoors store in Arnold supplied us with a large ‘reject’ tunnel that was destined for the scrap heap (or recycling, I hope). The saying ‘one man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure’ comes to mind as we now have a large sheltered space that will enable us to keep our Adventure School ‘outdoors’ through the winter and allow us to even sleep out over the winter – the students are so keen to try a winter survival camp when the weather turns cold; a real sign of just how much our students are enjoying and relishing their time outside doing something new.
Roll on the DofE season – we plan to put our first groups through the Bronze Award – and plenty of more Adventure School opportunities.
Thanks to Go Outdoors, our students can all now ‘go outdoors’ whatever the weather.
Tim Meek
Transition event at Carlton Digby School
On the 4th October 2017 Carlton Digby School will be hosting a Transition event.
Over 25 agencies have been invited to provide information about services available post school such as colleges, day services and many many more.
They would like to invite upper school pupils along to the event and also invite the parents to join them (either with the group or on their own). They are opening the event to neighbouring schools from 12:30- 2:00pm.
Please contact Tricia Lebeter via email at Carlton Digby School for any additional info, or by phone on 0115 9568290