DATES FOR YOUR DIARY: 

• MONDAY 20th January - Envision Final 8.40am until 1.30pm with Ms Nembhard
• Y10 Build Your Future Launch in Careers Hub from 3.05 - 4.15pm
• TUESDAY 21st January - School Council London Assembly Trip with Ms Joauvel 9.30 - 2.30pm
• DT Discovery Trip to Creekside With Mr Dallimore-Levinson
• Y9F Trip to Science Museum with Mr Curran
• Y11 Individual Careers Guidance Meetings (students will be informed)
• WEDNESDAY 22nd January Y10 Parents Evening - 4-7pm
• Mental Health Ambassadors Meeting during tutor time in 201 with Place2Be
• STOMP Workshops P1 & 2  - participating students will be informed
• TEAM UP 3pm in Careers Hub
• THURSDAY 23rd January Open Mic 3.15pm onwards in RM 117
• Envision Cohort Celebration from 3pm in Careers Hub
• MJ The Musical Trip with Mr Heelbeck and MS Williams from 12.30pm
• FRIDAY 24th January - Y9 Meningitis ACWY/DTP Vaccinations in Phoenix Hall
• Brilliant Club Tutorials in Careers Hub: Group A 9-10am Group B 10-11am
• MONDAY 27th January - HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY
• TUESDAY 28TH January - DT Discovery Trip (detail to follow)
• WEDNESDAY 29th January - School Council Mtg 8.20am in 121 
• STOMP workshops - more detail to follow
• Mental Health Ambassador Mtg during tutor time
• KS3 Debating Workshop at Colfe's with Mr Ramsay and Ms Nembhard

DG X FEED

Click HERE to see our AMAZING X account that truly gives you a broad perspective of things going on all across our school!

Thank you Ms Heiser

If you don't have an X account, you may need to sign up to see our latest tweets!

 Our handle is @deptfordgreen.bsky.social - click HERE

WHAT'S COMING UP?

Y8 GEOGRAPHY TRIP TO DEPTFORD CREEK

WHEN: Tuesday 21^st of January (leave after registration and return 2.50pm)

WHAT: We will be taking you to Deptford Creek River where you will be...

• Walking in the river to collect data
• Measuring the width, depth and speed of the river
• Looking at the species diversity and habitats along the river

Why: this will be a fantastic day out in which you can start to apply your understanding of the rivers unit we have studied

There will be limited places available for this trip. If you would like to know more then please speak to Mr Dallimore in Room 211.

The trip will cost £8. You will not be required to where school uniform but will need to wear sensible clothes. 

Holocaust Memorial Day 2025: Monday 27th January

To read more about it from the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, please click HERE.  Students will be taught more about this in their History lessons during this time. 

Our students will all have assemblies on this next week and in Y9 they are currently studying this as part of the History Curriculum.

YOUNG MAYOR OF LEWISHAM ELECTION COMING SOON!

Here are our candidates.  Who will your children vote for out of those standing? In the next newsletter we will introduce them to you in more detail...

 

WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING AT SCHOOL?

To start off with... a celebration of success! 

Special mention @ KS3 – Daisy – Excellent start to Year 7 with exemplary Home Learning! 

Special mention @ KS4 – Rachael Y11 for her incredible progression in English, moving up 4 GCSE grades since the start of Year 10!! Outstanding Rachael. We are so proud of you.

MEET THE NEWEST MEMBERS OF THE TEAM

Ms Mackness – ‘I am a Philosophy with Creative Writing graduate with an interest in ethics and aesthetics, and in how these disciplines intersect with literature teaching pedagogies. I completed my PGCE with Goldsmiths last year and was placed at Deptford Green for my second placement - I was lucky enough to be able to become a permanent member of the team this academic year! I’m enjoying running the Poetry Club and am amazed by the talent of our students in all year groups! 

 

Ms Sklavounos –  'I joined Deptford Green in September from a school in West London. I'm really enjoying getting to know this new school community and I must say there hasn't been a dull moment so far! The students at DG are absolutely brilliant and lots of fun. In addition to my main teaching role, I am also leading on the KS4 curriculum and am really looking forward to helping our students excel at GCSE and beyond.'

 

Ms Philp - 'I'm really enjoying my start at Deptford Green School and getting to know all of the wonderful students in my classes and tutor groups. I had a break from teaching recently to finish my Master's degree in Education and it's been a breath of fresh air to be back. I'm lucky enough to be an ECT mentor here working with newer teachers and that's been such a rewarding experience already. It's the first time I've lived so close to a school, too, and it's lovely to see the ways DG cares about its local community - which is also mine!' 

Home Learning is really important as it is training for revision and life beyond the classroom. It teaches you how to manage your time effectively and tests your recall skills. It is sometimes a chance to be creative or to dig deeper into a topic that interests you. 

Ensure that you are checking Classcharts regularly for your home learning tasks. 

Shout out to all our Y7 students who consistently produce brilliant home learning and there are many of you! Here are some examples...

Y11's are revising Poetry at the moment, ready for the PPE's in March. Students will be sitting Language Paper 2 and Literature Paper 2. To help them revise, Revision Guides can be purchased on Parent Pay and collected from Mr Watts in room 405. Students should also be attending interventions after school and completing all Revision tasks set by their teachers.  

Y10's are learning about Conflict Poetry for the Literature Paper 2 GCSE. They are learning to annotate effectively and how to make comparisons between poems. They are exploring big themes such as power, conflict, death, powerlessness and identity. There are 15 poems to cover for the GCSE exam and Y10 students have shown excellent understanding and knowledge of the poems in their recent assessments. 

ENGLISH ENRICHMENT

Poetry Club/ Creative Writing Club with Ms Mackness: 

Creative writing is a form of artistic expression. It inspires writers to use their imagination to bring personality and flair to their work. It doesn't just focus on more traditional, technical forms of writing, like journalistic and academic styles, but instead displays imagination and invention. In Creative Writing Club we have been exploring the idea of character, voice and tone and enjoying the successful (and less successful) writing efforts.  

Students say:

‘Creative writing club allows me to express who I am and to use my imagination to write what I feel. I like my English lessons but sometimes I don’t like how we have to explain what the writer feels or means. I like writing what I want.’ 

‘I love how you can’t get it wrong in creative writing!’ 

‘I think that the best stories come from something you know but from your imagination too.’ 

READING ROYALE WITH MR NEIL AND MS WALKER

What is Reading Royale?

An incentivised project to engage students in reading – students choose a level-appropriate book (or one slightly more challenging); they complete comprehension quizzes on that book, then the points from the quiz are collated and recorded to secure their position for the prizes at the end of term!

What are the prizes?

• A gaming session including PS5 and Nintendo Switch 
• A variety of board/family games
• Food Feasts - snacks and drinks (to fuel the already fuelled excitement of video games)
• Exclusive Sport sessions

What can you do to support?

Please encourage your children (if they’re in Y7 or Y8) to get involved!
When they’re at home, encourage them to read so that they can move onto the next book and start racking up the points! 

OUR NEXT READING CYCLE STARTS FROM MONDAY 3RD FEBRUARY.  STUDENTS NEED TO SIGN UP WITH MS WALKER OR MR NEIL

FIRST EVER READING ROYALE CELEBRATIONS OF READING ACHIEVEMENT!

Congratulations to:

Jasmine, Rae J, Celeste, Mykhailo, Elspeth, Faith, Naod, Adam, Dayo, Daisy, Dorothy, Gahbriel, Jamie, Konrad, Jesse, Kristel, Kioni, Eleanor, Jai and Ben for doing so well and most importantly READING! They all said they were going to take part in the next Reading Royale Challenge! FANTASTIC...

Y7 & Y8 parents/carers recently heard more detail about the programme we use in library lessons - Accelerated Reader.  Below are some (grainy on purpose!) Y7's focusing hard on their Star Reading Assessment which they all take at the beginning of every term in Y7 & 8.  This gives us their reading age - please ask your child what they got! The idea is obviously that, throughout the year, as they read more, their reading age will increase and there are already some outstanding results coming out of this round of testing. 

Sometimes, students get distracted or are too tired or anxious around testing. However, this is a gentle progression where no one gets 'told off' or 'negatives' for not doing as well as they could. We try to be encouraging and work with students who 'don't like reading' although JK Rowling said “If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book!" so we try our best to work with our students and encourage them to try different genres and titles as much as possible.  There is currently excellent feedback from Tutors around the Reciprocal Reading in Tutor time in KS3. Please ask your children what books they are reading with their tutor and to tell you about the plot of the books.

 

SIMPLY WOW. SO PROUD OF LEYLA!

We were delighted to receive a special invitation to attend a Masterclass at London Screen Academy in Islington.

The talk was hosted by Leyla, a Deptford Green alumnae, Class of 24, who is now a student at LSA.

In front of an audience of over 200 people, Leyla interviewed David Heyman, an illustrious producer with a career spanning several decades and one of the co-founders of the London Screen Academy. David has worked with actors such as Margot Robbie, Will Smith, George Clooney, Samuel L Jackson and produced over 45 movies and TV dramas, including the Harry Potter series, Barbie, Paddington, and Wonka.

Dulcie in Y10 commented “It was very interesting to hear about David Heyman’s experience of being on set and working with all parts of a film crew and his advice about breaking into the film industry. So many people work together to bring a movie out: actors, director, lighting, props, costumes, legal and finance teams… I had heard of LSA before but did not know a huge amount. After meeting one of their co- founder, it has really solidified my interest in enrolling in the future.”

Some of David’s advice included: be kind, be on time, be resilient and do not hesitate to reach out to people whose work you find interesting.

Other Y10's and Y11's attending the talk added that they are interested in enroling on the Craft Pathway at LSA because it brings their interest in Arts, Textiles and Fashion together and that producing might suit them as it allows you to be involved with all parts of the process of bringing a story to an audience.

The event was also a wonderful opportunity to support and catch up with our ex-student Leyla, who demonstrated such poise and passion throughout the talk. Despite not being eighteen yet, Leyla has already completed several work experience placements as a runner in production companies and behind the camera and she shared her ambitions of becoming a cinematographer. Leyla is an amazing role model and we look forward to welcoming her back to school very soon.

Thanks Ms Nembhard and Ms Joauvel, and of course the wonderful Leyla.

ENVISION

The team’s project was focused on mental health and aimed to spread joy , calm and positivity. They made affirmation posters and bracelets and are inviting other students to join in the careers hub during Y8 and Y10 lunchtime on Mondays for some mindfulness and creativity, listening to music, making bracelets, posters and  colouring mandalas.

We are thrilled to share with you a film made last summer with some of the students who participated in the Envision Programme during last academic year. The students worked with their facilitator and a director to devise and film a story that reflected some of the programme aims and outcomes.

You can watch it by clicking HERE

The film has been nominated for a Smiley Charity Film Award! Huge congratulations to all the incredible young people who were involved in the project - it’s such a fantastic recognition of their efforts. (And yes, it’s basically the Oscars of charity films, no big deal!) If you would like to support the nomination, you can do so. Click HERE

Envision is a 12-week programme offered to Y10 students at Deptford Green. Students work with their coach and are paired with business mentors so they can plan and deliver a social action project and develop the essential skills and confidence they need to succeed and that supports their education, future employment and well-being. A new Envision team will run from February till May and Y10 can SIGN UP NOW!

Parents and carers, if you want to know more, get in touch with Ms Nembhard, our Careers and Enrichment Lead at cnembhard@deptfordgreen.co.uk or call her on her direct line: 0208 469 4896

Thank you as always Ms Nembhard

Y9 WESTMINSTER COLLEGE FOOD TECH TRIP

Mr Djordjevic reports:

'The trip to Westminster Catering College was a huge success, We had a fantastic tour of all the kitchens and a delicious 3-course meal in the brasserie restaurant.'

The trip was taken with the idea of introducing students to what a Food Tech college would be like should they choose this as one of their GCSE subjects and maybe even carry on with the subject into their Post 16 Journey. 

Thanks Mr Djordjevic.

FIRST TIME JAZZ PERFORMANCE WITH THE NYJO

Ms Daszek-Green, our new permanent Head of Music (congratulations Ms!) said:

On Wednesday 15th January, selected music students attended an improvised jazz performance put on by the National Youth Jazz Orchestra.

The 5-piece band performed songs by each member, and with audience participation too on both the mood and speed of the songs. They also spoke about the paths they took in music and what shaped them as musicians, as well as taking questions from the students.

Thank you to the NYJO for organising and putting on this free event!

Thanks to Ms Daszek-Green for organising it and to Ms Player for one of the photos...

RESOURCE BASE TRIP TO ROWDY BURGER!

Just before Christmas, our Resource Base students went on a trip to Rowdy Burger to practice independence and life skills. They developed their ability to travel, order, pay, budget and communicate independently in an unfamiliar environment out in the wider community. All of them had a fun time and we look forward to having more enrichment opportunities to promote life skills in the Spring term. 

Thanks Mx Landon and all our wonderful Resource Base Students..

Our Y10 Work Experience is the week before May Half Term:

19^th- 23^rd May 2025

When students have secured a placement, the own-find form for Work Experience should be returned by February Half Term. Well done to students who have already contacted employers and applied. Keep up the good work!

If the agreement has been done through email, copy in Ms Nembhard or forward the agreement email to cnembhard@deptfordgreen.co.uk

Please, keep in mind that Y10 work experience is not preparation for a specific job and that students should focus on developing transferable skills and an understanding of work environments.

Ms Nembhard has previously shared examples of places that were awaiting and would welcome applications from Deptford Green students, such as:

1. The National Army Museum work experience programme will give you the chance to observe and assist with a variety of activities and exclusive ‘behind the scenes’ tasks. Students will gain an insight into the museum and heritage industry and meet with a variety of museum staff including Archivists, Conservators, Curators, Front of House & Visitor Experience staff.

If you are interested in pursuing a career within the Museums & Heritage sector, please apply by sending a copy of your CV or a Cover Letter to learning@nam.ac.uk  and copy in cnembhard@deptfordgreen.co.uk  

You can look at the work experience section of different organisations and employers such as:

1. Work Experience at the Royal Observatory Greenwich | Royal Museums Greenwich
2. Work experience - Horniman Museum and Gardens
3. Law: Fountain Court Chambers. For work experience, contact workexperience@fountaincourt.co.uk
4. VFX and Animation: DNEG Shows  For work experience, email:  careers@dneg.com

OTHER WORK EXPERIENCE REMINDERS:

• Before emailing an employer ‘cold’, students should see Ms Nembhard, their tutor or parent and carers to check their CV and cover letter.
• Make sure you include the dates and what you are keen to learn about in your communications to employers and show your enthusiasm for learning and what the employer does. For example, do not contact an architect saying that you want to become a solicitor. You could however, contact an Architect Practice and explain that you are interested in gaining an overview of what each role entails and that you are particularly interested in visualisation.
• Ensure your email address is a professional one and please copy Ms Nembhard in in your emails:  cnembhard@deptfordgreen.co.uk 
• You can use Xello for CV building. A guide and forms are available on your login page too.

Enrichment Opportunities coming up to prepare for work experience, explore Post -16 next steps and develop transferable skills- Contact Ms Nembhard at cnembhard@deptfordgreen.co.uk or on 0208 469 4896 if you’d like to sign up or would like more details.

• Starts in February: Envision - Team 2
• Build Your Future - starts Monday 20^th January
• Tuesday 4^th February: Visit University of Cambridge
• Tuesday 11^th February: STEM Careers afternoon at The Cutty Sark

Thanks Ms Nembhard

POST 16 APPLICATIONS

STAC Sixth Form: Applications are closed but if you are aiming and on track to achieve their entry requirements, and really interested in applying, see Ms Nembhard ASAP.

Mulberry UTC Open Mornings 30th and 31st January 2025, 9:00-10:00am - sign up by clicking HERE

 

Haberdashers' Hatcham Sixth Form

Please, see below a message from Ms Kennedy, head of Sixth Form at Haberdashers' Hatcham regarding Subject tasters sessions.

We encourage students to attend, particularly if they are planning to study a new subject or hesitating between a couple of A Levels

Dear Deptford Green Year 11 students and parents and carers,

It has been lovely to meet lots of you at different events. We would like to invite you to a very special evening of taster lessons on the 6^th February. This will give you a chance to see how high quality our teaching and learning is at our sixth form and get a flavour of what the subjects would be like. You can choose 3x 30minute taster lessons.

 In order to attend you must sign up HERE

Please also see our very recently published Ofsted report that talks highly of our sixth form. Click HERE

Please email me directly at h.kennedy@habstrustsouth.org.uk if you have any questions.

 

DOWNLOAD STUDYBUGS!

Dear Parent/Carer,

A reminder that Deptford Green has a new, more efficient and secure system for reporting your child’s absence due to illness, called Studybugs.

If you haven’t already, please get the free Studybugs app, or register on the Studybugs website, and use it to tell us whenever your child’s ill and unable to attend school.

Get the app or register now: Click HERE

Thank you,

Mr Bannon: Deputy Designated Safeguarding and Attendance Officer Deptford Green School

Top 3 reasons to use Studybugs

1. It’s integrated with our systems so we know right away if your child is unaccounted for.

2. It’s quick and easy to register and use and automatically reminds you to keep us posted.

3. You’ll be helping the NHS and other public health organisations improve children’s health.

Dear Parent and Carers,

Please read our January 2025 SEND and Health News Bulletin by clicking HERE.

We have updates from our Lewisham SEND Team, together with updates from Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, on the work that they have been doing on listening to parents and carers. CONTACT have provided national information on SEND and Health.

We encourage you to become part of the journey in shaping the services for our children and young people. All are welcome to be part of the team, share your views and give general feedback.

We would also welcome news of all the great support you have received, and any good practice from educational settings and service providers. Please email: info@lewishamparentcarer.org.uk

Best wishes
LPCF Team