from the...
TRANSCRIPT
News @ The Dixie Christmas 2014
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From the
Headmaster
Dear Parents and Friends of the School,
he talk at the end of term, apart from Christmas lists of course, is inevitably snow,
and the Internal Concert. Snow can be a blessing as well as a curse, but thanks to
the extraordinary efforts of our Sixth Form the internal concert was a huge success – a
really fitting end to a long Term.
It was ably compèred by
Liam Reynish and Ben
Payne, and contained a mix
of singing, gymnastics,
video clips and ghost
hunting. It was my first
experience of what in the
past has been dubbed ‘the
infernal concert’, and along
with the rest of the School,
I enjoyed every minute.
Earlier in the week, we were
thrilled to welcome Mr Graham
Rowntree, England forwards’
coach to put our rugby teams
through their paces. Graham
took time out of his busy
training schedule with the
International Team to visit us,
to the obvious delight of the
pupils. More picture are
available on our new website –
www.dixie.org.uk .
Our Sport provision was recognised by an ISA
National Award last year, and the range and quality
of participation has been impressive this term. As
well as assistant coach Mr Rowntree (!), we have
also had Mr Paul Walsh (Director of Rugby at
Hinckley Rugby Club) coming into school to help
with the rugby development of our pupils. He will
also be running an after school session in the spring
term for any interested pupils.
Our Senior boys won the ISA Midlands swimming competition overall, a feat repeated
by the U15 boys. Our individual qualifiers for the Nationals at the London Olympic Pool
in January are:
Edward Dyer – Breaststroke, medley relay
Joe Grainger – Individual Freestyle, Freestyle relay
Joe Robertson – Individual Backstroke, medley relay
Ryan Gordon – Freestyle relay, medley relay (Fly)
T
News @ The Dixie Christmas 2014
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Eleanor Partridge – Medley relay (Fly)
Oliver Crane – has qualified for the
nationals through the junior ISA gala
Many congratulations to all our swimmers,
and we will be there in January at the
Olympic Pool to cheer you on!
Our after school sports training sessions and clubs continue to be really well attended
by boys and girls from year 6 to the Sixth Form - Monday football, Tuesday & Thursday
Hockey practices and Wednesday touch rugby.
Huge congratulations also go to Nathan Banton (year 10) who has recently been on
trial at Walsall FC Academy and has since been signed for their under 15s team. Ryan
Clark in year 7 has also been signed for the Burton Albion Under 12 Academy. It really
is fantastic to see our boys doing so well in their football outside of school.
The value added to each student at The Dixie is a real feature of the education here. All
pupils sit an external test in year 7 and the score in this test is turned into a series of
GCSE predictions against which our results can be measured. The tests are organised
by the NFER – National Foundation for Educational Research and the value we add is
compared to all schools nationally. Across the board, and on the basis of last summer’s
GCSE results we average +0.67 – taking into account ability, pupils achieve two-thirds
of a grade higher on average in every single GCSE exam taken compared to other
schools. GCSE AS and A2 results are available to view on our new website.
I hope you have taken the time to visit our
fantastic new website? If not, please do! Staff
email addresses are included on it, as a direct
response to comments in the parent survey and
can be found at
https://dixiegrammar.fluencycms.co.uk/Staff-
email-addresses, or under the ‘contact us’
section on the left hand side menu. The
website is continually updated and has a rolling
‘News’ section on the front page as well as
rolling ‘Images of the Week’. Pictures of the
Christmas celebrations at both schools are on
the website now, as well as pictures of the Year
Six Harry Potter trip! If there are any features
or information that you would like to see on
the website, please do pass your suggestions to
me – [email protected] . AS a mathematician, I
always reach for numbers and since going live just
over a week ago, our website has had over 10000
hits across 22 countries!
One casualty of the new website will be the printed calendar. There will be no calendar
printed for next term and all dates are displayed on the calendars on the website. For
From the
Headmaster
News @ The Dixie Christmas 2014
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those who prefer the printed version, these will be available on request from
Reception in the New Year. Please note that important dates for parents are included
in this newsletter on the left hand side of the final page.
The musical culmination of the Term
were the two Carol services in St.
Peter’s Church in which the School
Orchestra and various choirs
performed and in which pupils and
staff read lessons. It was a magical
service and our thanks must go to Mrs
Ennis, Mrs Smaditch and all the
musicians in the school for giving us
such a wonderful musical treat.
We verymuch look forward to
‘Joseph’ next Term and it has
been wonderful to hear
rehearsals starting for what is
bound to be another knockout
Dixie musical event. The
retiring collection from the
Carol Service raised £250 for
Diabetes UK – a charity so close
to our hearts this year.
Whilst talking of Charity, the various fundraising efforts lead by the students and Miss
Fatima this Term have been outstanding. In total, we have raised over £1400 this
Term, including £685 for Movember, the money for which hhas been passed to
PROSTaid, a local charity. Many thanks to you all for your support.
Thanks also to Mr Mackley and Lucy Ibbetson for their photographic support this Term,
in the Carol Service and in various other events. Mr Mackley’s photographs can be
seen at http://www.photoluminati.com/dixie .
In my End of Term assembly I was able to reflect on the myriad of events and student
successes this Term and had so many awards to give out to students, we over-ran by
half an hour! I presented awards for music composition, sports, maths senior
challenge success, art, individual instrumental music exams, maths primary challenge
success, refereeing, but also awards to the form with the best average effort – 8S were
the lucky recipients of chocolate on this occasion!
From the
Headmaster
News @ The Dixie Christmas 2014
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From the
Headmaster
magnificently at the Parents’ Association Christmas Party. I received many emails
containing a similar sentiment to this one: ‘The students serving were an amazing
reflection on the Dixie’. Petra and I were at the evening and we too, left feeling very
proud.
The much awaited House update was also given at the final assembly – for sports this
term, Lancaster House receive 9 points and York House, 7. The average number of
credits in each section have been calculated by Miss Entwisle and her amazing
spreadsheet and York get 10 points, Lancaster 5. The overall totals for the Autumn
Term are therefore, York 17, Lancaster 14. We look forward to the new House event
early next Term – the House Quiz. As I suggested to students, if they do happen to get
a general knowledge quiz book for Christmas, they should consider getting in some
early practise!
Ruth Hope was presented with her
award for coming first nationally in the
ISA Art competition for her piece ‘Who
Killed the General?’. There is no doubt
that the quality of the Art in school is
amazing, but Mr Bailey and Mrs Knight
are always happy to have external
verification of the fact!
Also this Term the local round of
the Rotary Club Young Chef was
contested and Amy Hemsworth,
Rubie Milne, Emma Rudge and
Maddy Kirk made it through to
the final. Judges included Petra
and I, Mrs Mallard and Rotary
Club judges and the standard in
the four 2-course meals was
exceptionally high.
Many congratulations to Maddy,
who will go on to the District
Final to be held on Saturday 7th
February 2015 at The Samworth
Enterprise Academy, Leicester.
The top of the bench competition is organised by the Royal society of chemistry and
our team, Christian Smaditch, George Bacon, Eniola Awodiya and Zach Gauhar had
their spirits livened by an interesting car journey to the venue with Mr Hamson where
he profoundly broadened their knowledge of the histories of nearby mine and quarry
regions. We secured an amazing first placed beating Loughborough Grammar and
Ratcliffe college – and therefore the team move forward to the Regional Round to be
held on 10 January 2015 at Derby University. Congratulations to all team members!
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Our combined efforts and Mrs
Oliver’s and Mrs Scott’s wrapping
skills ensured that 90 shoeboxes
were sent to the Phillipines as part
of the shoebox appeal – our
biggest toal to date. Charlie Beck
in Year 7 deserves a special
mention for bringing in over 20
completed shoeboxes single-
handedly!
Next Term we look forward to visits from Hungarians from the Moricz Szigmond
School, Dunaujvaros, Hungary with whom we have long-standing links. There are 24
students coming over and we would be most grateful for offers to host. Several
parents have already kindly volunteered but we are still very much in need of host
families. If you are able to offer hospitality for one or two students please either reply
by e-mail to [email protected].
Steve Green and Leigh Chapman are very much in need of old towels with which to
wipe down their various machines at our Sports ground in Barton Road. If Father
Christmas brings you towels of any kind, would you please consider bring the old ones
to Reception? Steve and Leigh would be most grateful!
We will be running our very popular Sports Camps again in the February half term –
Wednesday and Thursday the 18th
and 19th
February from 8.30am until 4pm. To
reserve a place, please contact Martin Roe as soon as possible, at [email protected].
Our Entrance Examination will take place on Saturday 17th
January 2015 starting at
9am and the dealine for bursary applications is 31 December 2014. The dealine date
for Music Scholarship applications is Thursday 29 January 2015 and auditions will be
held on Thursday 5 February 2015.
We are always looking for ways to extend the
opportunities available to students here, and a good
example of that this Term is our new provision of the
Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award this term. I am very
keen that you as parents should be as involved as
possible in life at the Senior School. With your
collective expertise, the range and scope of the
experiences we offer can be massively increased. If
you are ex-Army, a lapsed mountain leader or climber
or canoeist, ex hockey, rugby or netball player, or just
have time to be involved and you would be willing to
help, please get in contact. If you run your own
business our Business Studies department would love
to hear from you.Whatever your particular interest,
skill or just enthusiasm, if you are willing to be involved
in a way that could enrich the experience of your sons
and daughters and their friends, please do get in
contact with me ([email protected]).
From the
Headmaster
Sat 17 Jan
9 am
Entrance
Exam
Weds 28 Jan
7pm
GCSE info
evening
(Yr9)
Tues 3 Feb
5pm
Year 8
Parents’
Evening
Thurs 12
Feb
11.30am
House
Swimming
Gala
Thurs 5
March
5pm
Year 10
Parents’
and
Students’
Evening
Tues 10
March 7pm
Higher
Education
Evening
(Yr12)
Thurs 12
March-Sat
14 March
7.30pm
JOSEPH!
Tues 17
March
6.30pm
Year 6
Inventions
Evening
Tues 24
March
5pm
Year 9
Parents’
and
Students’
Evening
Fri 27 March Term Ends
Mr Burns, just before the
Movember shave off!
News @ The Dixie Christmas 2014
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From the
Headmaster
Sat 17 Jan
9 am
Entrance
Exam
Weds 28 Jan
7pm
GCSE info
evening
(Yr9)
Tues 3 Feb
5pm
Year 8
Parents’
Evening
Thurs 12
Feb
11.30am
House
Swimming
Gala
Thurs 5
March
5pm
Year 10
Parents’
and
Students’
Evening
Tues 10
March 7pm
Higher
Education
Evening
(Yr12)
Thurs 12
March-Sat
14 March
7.30pm
JOSEPH!
Tues 17
March
6.30pm
Year 6
Inventions
Evening
Tues 24
March
5pm
Year 9
Parents’
and
Students’
Evening
Fri 27 March Term Ends
We have all been most impressed by the standards of appearance during this first term
and thank you all for your support in ensuring we maintain such high standards. Please
do remind your sons and daughters to keep experimental hairstyles/colours etc to the
holidays!
For now, all that is left is for me to thank you for your support this Term and to wish
you all a peaceful, restful and very Happy Christmas.
With my best wishes,
Newly refurbished
6th
Form House
Tim Lockwood at the
PTA funded sound desk