All of our Year 7 and 9 pupils were involved in two separate programmes during the first week of May. Our Year 9 pupils were involved in the SELMA project and learnt about hate speech and crime and were able to work in groups looking at case studies.

The idea of this was to help pupils to identify different aspects of hate speech and crime as well as to come up with ideas to change pupil’s viewpoints if they hear or see this happening in our local community. Over the summer term, Year 9 will be given the opportunity to work on a project surrounding tackling hate speech in the local community. We will keep you updated on this. Year 7 were involved in the “Nice Bus Campaign” which involved being able to identify different types of bullying, as well as the use of social media and how to spot signs of bullying. It placed emphasis on social inclusion and how to build solid friendships. Year 7 will also be working on different projects surrounding these issues and we will keep you updated as these develop.

Our Anti-Bullying signature wall has been painted white and is ready for everyone to sign. The Anti-bullying team are finalising the pledge, as to why we are all signing the wall and what it will mean to have our signatures on there.

For the second year running, we are proud to announce that we have been awarded the BIG award for excellence in challenging bullying. This has been achieved through the hard work of our pupils and the commitment they have in helping to tackle any forms of bullying.

As always if you have any concerns or questions or your child has disclosed anything to you at home, please let us know so we can deal with it promptly.

It’s been a really exciting term in the Mathematics faculty!

On Friday 29th March 2019, four of DEC’s most outstanding Mathematicians took part the UKMT Maths Team Challenge Regional Finals at Aston University Engineering Academy.

The Dame Elizabeth Cadbury team comprised of Havana King and Arash Jamshidi in year 9, and Jevan Nkimo and Raul Iosif in year 8.  The competition consisted of three rounds – the group round, cross-number and the shuttle round.   The success of this team depended on them working well as a team, as well as applying their Mathematical skills to range of different problems.

Earlier on in the year, on Thursday 7th February, 50 of DEC’s most promising Mathematicians comprising of year 9 and 10 students also competed in the UKMT Intermediate Mathematical challenge, an individual challenge this time.  The challenge involves answering 25 complex problems in one hour and is sat in school under national exam conditions.

This year’s results represent a magnificent achievement with many DEC pupils being awarded certificates. 

It’s not all about the glamour of competition though. Behind the scenes, our team of Numeracy ambassadors have been supporting the progress of our year 7 pupils by running a breakfast club from 8:00-8:40 every Tuesday morning before school. Within this club the Numeracy Ambassadors help the students with their Maths homework and offer them guidance and tuition with any areas they have found challenging within lesson.

We very much look forward to seeing more of our Numeracy ambassadors out and about during Friday morning form time numeracy sessions, presenting “spot prizes” and assisting with the excellent numeracy work that is taking place in form time.

Coming up for the Summer term, our Numeracy ambassadors have some development opportunities to look forward to including a training session run by our Lead Practitioners as well as a special reward to say thank you for all their hard work.

Could your child be at risk of exploitation, gangs or County Lines drug dealing?

Free theatre performance at Dame Elizabeth – 4pm on Thursday 11th April in the school hall.

Dear Parents/Carers

As part of our continued commitment to keeping our pupils safe, on Thursday 11th April at 4pm we will be hosting a theatre performance by renowned company Alter Ego Creative Solutions on the very important topic affecting our young people: Child Criminal Exploitation and County Lines. This performance will last an hour and will be for Parents/carers only. There will be an opportunity at the end for a brief questions session regarding the performance and the topic. The performance will be held in the school hall. There will be a safe space in the school canteen for children over 5 years old to be supervised by school staff whilst you watch the performance. Drinks and snacks will be provided.

Some of our pupils during the week beginning 8th April will see the performance in school but we are very excited the company have agreed to put on a FREE parents only performance. This topic is applicable to all our young people, we hope you come with an open mind and enjoy the performance. Tickets are limited to 2 parents/carers per family and will be allocated on a first come first served basis by completing the booking form below.  We have a maximum number of 240 tickets available for this production.

“Child Criminal Exploitation & County Lines gangs pose a significant threat to vulnerable adults and children upon whom they rely to conduct and/or facilitate this criminality”. –National Crime Agency, County Lines Gang Violence, Exploitation & Drug Supply briefing – 2018

In 2017 Alter Ego Creative Solutions were commissioned by the Police to develop an Applied Theatre play to raise awareness around Child Criminal Exploitation – specifically the strand of the County Lines drug trafficking model that sees vulnerable adults and young people living in regional areas of the UK targeted by organised groups and gangs (that have travelled from more urban city locations) to groom, trick, trap and manipulate them into trafficking drugs and sometimes weapons.

If you would like to attend please email r.norton@decschool.co.uk with the following information:

• Number of tickets required (parents/carers only – maximum of 2 tickets).
• Number of children (over 5 years old) requiring supervision during the performance.
• Pupil Name.
• Form Group.

Scholastic Book Fair is coming into school from April 3 – April 10th. Pupils will have the opportunity to visit the Scholastic Book Fair with their English groups during lessons. The book fair will feature brand new releases but also some classic novels that everyone knows and loves. If you would like your child to purchase a book from the fair please send them with a small amount of pocket money. The prices range from £2.99 up to £9.99.