At Dame Elizabeth Cadbury, we are committed to building partnerships with our parents and doing all we can to keep them informed and help them to support their child’s learning at home. We are delighted to announce a range of sessions, both virtually and face to face, for the Summer Term to support parents and carers.
2024
Parental Session – Reading and Supporting Literacy
Creating a safe learning environment for your child
On Saturday 13th April, 6 cadets from Dame Elizabeth Cadbury and Turves Green Boys’ took part in the Mini Royal Air Force Squadron Trophy as part of our ever-growing cadet experience. The team took part in various events which included; leadership, drill, first aid and shooting. Regardless of a small team, the cadets involved put their absolute all into all aspects of the activities and came away with not only experiences made but massive smiles on their faces. A special shout out goes to Lance Corporal Charlie who performed incredibly in his first ever shooting event and to Corporal Britney who scored highly on her first aid activity. Every cadet who took part represented both schools incredibly and were exceptional ambassadors for both schools! A huge well done to everyone involved and a fantastic stepping stone has been made to keep our ever growing and ever evolving contingent moving strong!
On Saturday 23rd March, a group of our year 12 students volunteered their services at the Chocolate 5K; an event raising money for Birmingham Hospice. The event organisers we’re effusive in their praise and appreciation for our exemplary students who supported on the day. Well done to Shamsa, Jafaar, Megan, Prabjhot, Ella, Tamara, Nafesa, Theirn and Syed for living by our mission statement and showing your desire in making a difference to our local and wider community. A special thank you to Ms Hawtin-Powell who also helped out on the day.
We are excited to launch our brand-new Careers Guidance Pupil Website.
Pupils need to be prepared for the evolving working world and so, at the heart of our Careers Programme, is a focus on building up essential lifelong employability skills.
Visit our new website to access a wealth of careers guidance, designed to support both pupils and parents.
With our brand-new resources, you can…
Visit https://matrixcareersguide.co.uk/
Our Year 9 pupils received a visit from Darren at Ignition Arts on Thursday and Friday this week. Ignition Arts uses drama as a tool to educate, inspire and ignite young minds. Darren’s energetic sessions focused on mental health and encouraged the pupils to think about positive relationships, their emotions, expressing how they feel and grounding techniques. The feedback from pupils and staff was brilliant. It was amazing to see Darren react to the pupils throughout the sessions and share positive and inspiring messages based on what he saw from them in each activity. More information about their work can be found at: https://www.ignitionarts.co.uk/
We celebrated the end of our Egg-cellent Attendance incentive with 408 pupils receiving an Easter treat for their excellent attendance over the two-week period. The waffles went down a storm at lunchtime, with two winners in each year group. Finally, our Easter hamper went to a well-deserving Year 7 pupil with 100% attendance this academic year. Well done to all involved. We’re looking forward to our next incentive!
Today, Year 8 watched a performance of Safe & Sound by Loudmouth. The drama follows a young couple as their relationship develops. Looking in on their relationship the pupils were shown the characteristics of both a healthy and unhealthy relationship. The performance and workshop explored the concepts of respect, privacy and consent and pupils learnt about sexting and abusive and coercive behaviours within relationships. The workshop also focused on increasing the pupils’ knowledge of where to go for support and their knowledge and ability to spot signs of abuse in teenage relationships.
We interviewed Miss E Hart, PE/Dance, for International Women’s Day to celebrate women in sport. She has spoken about her Dance World Cup journey with Team England 🙂
Q: Tell us about your Dance World Cup journey with Team England.
After a successful competition season last year and seeing lots of photos and videos on social media of the 2023 Dance World Cup, myself and my dance partner approached the principal of our dance school, expressing an interest in trying out for Team England. In order to qualify for the team/competition, we had to submit videos of our routines to the Head of Team England for them to be marked and ranked in relation to the rest of the entries (only the top 5 in each category can qualify). We successfully qualified in the Top 5 with two duets; Lyrical and Show Dance, and will perform these routines representing Team England in the Dance World Cup Final, held in Prague.
Q: How did you begin your dance career?
Since a very young age, I have attended a local dance school, where I received training in a range of dance styles, completed dance examination, took part in shows and competitions (which I still do now!) When choosing my options in Secondary School, I opted to take BTEC Performing arts (Dance), before successfully auditioning for a place on a Dance course at a Performing Arts College. After this, I went on to study Dance Degree at University and continued to complete my PGCE in Secondary Education: Dance, before starting my job as Teacher of PE and Dance at Dame Elizabeth Cadbury School. Throughout my training, I continued to take on as many opportunities as possible, successfully auditioning for a Youth Ballet Company and performing/competing all over the country, including on London’s West End Stages and at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens.
Q: Growing up, what women in dance/sports did you look up to?
My biggest inspiration is my Dance Teacher/Principal and she still continues inspire me today. When I was younger, I used to watch her dance and I could see her passion for Dance in everything she did- I used to say ‘I want to be like her’. Even as a teacher, she continues to support me in everything that I do and this continues to inspire me as I begin to support the next generation of dancers.
Q: What is your favourite memory associated with dance?
Although I treasure ever memory when it’s associated with Dance, my favourite memory has to be the time that I made my Dance Teacher cry when I performed my Contemporary Solo. Dance is such an expressive art form and I truly believe that it can convey what anyone is feeling and so, when I made my Dance Teacher cry, I feel like my performance had really made a difference to the person watching.
Q: Describe your major highlights and achievements in dance in the past.
There have been many moments that I have been proud of but one that always stands out was when I completed my first Teaching Examination. This was really the start of my journey as a teacher, being able to offer pupils at my local dance school the opportunity to take their Tap Examinations and really excel in tap- seeing their improvement is really rewarding, especially as some of my first ever groups are now taking high Tap Grades and working towards their student-teacher qualification.
Another moment that will always be one of my biggest achievements in being nominated as Runner-up of the ‘Best Choreography Award’ at a competition (something which is unheard of for student choreography). This was for the first group dance I had ever choreographed so for it to get that level of recognition from the Competition Judge was an amazing feeling that I will always remember. Finally, some of my favourite highlights have been during Dance Competitions; Being awarded ‘Highest Scoring Soloist’, placing as the Top 3 routines (1st, 2nd and 3rd) in a competition and qualifying for Team England etc. as there is a lot of preparation that goes into getting Competition-Ready so these are the celebratory moments that I will always remember.
Q: What do you see yourself accomplishing next?
I would like to continue to develop Dance at DEC, providing as many opportunities for the pupils to learn, perform and experience Dance as I feel that, when I was at training, my dance own dance experiences really shaped the dancer/person I am today and there are lots of pupils at DEC that are really passionate about Dance. I also think it’s really important to push yourself in your own training, so I would like to continue to complete my own Teaching Examinations with the Associated Board of Dance.
Q: What attributes make you the dancer you are?
The biggest thing for me is my passion for Dance as I think it underpins everything I do. Dance has been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember and I think it is because of this that I am always striving to take part in as many Dance opportunities as possible and always looking to improve/develop my own Dance knowledge and performance- I couldn’t imagine dance not being a part of my life.
Also, because of the discipline required in Dance, particularly Ballet, I find that I am a bit of a perfectionist. This means I am always reflecting on my own performance, and although I am sometimes very self-critical, I find that I am always seeking out ways to improve specific aspects of my Dance performance.
Q: What advice would you give to a young girl who is just starting off in dance/sport?
Keep going! If you are truly passionate about something, whether it be dance or another sport, never lose sight of why you started in the first place. Particularly in competitive sports, I think it is important to put your passion into everything that you do as it will be what motivates you to keep going, even if things seem hard or like they aren’t going as well as you would like them to.
Today we welcomed Dr Eve Griffiths and Antonia Thomas from Outreach, who delivered training to Matrix staff on understanding the effects ACES and trauma can have on our pupils’ mental health, behaviour and understanding, as well as how we can facilitate restorative conversations in school. We learnt innovative new ways to support our pupils in building and maintaining positive, healthy relationships, resolving difficulties and repairing harm when there has been conflict. Thank you Outreach!
After another successful Ski trip to Austria in February 2024. We are delighted to announce that we are planning next years trip to Italy. Pupils will be able to experience the Italian resort of Prato Nevoso. Prato Nevoso is an excellent choice for beginners with easy runs both at village level and at altitude, and a caring ski school. Intermediates are also well catered for with many wide blue runs, and some great red runs for strong intermediates especially over the Artesina side. With skiing above 2000 metres, snow cover is generally reliable, and the pistes are extremely well maintained. Pupils will have 4 hours ski instruction per day, all food included as well as equipment hire.
A ski trip is a great way for pupils to experience many skills out of the classroom. Some of these skills include , resilience, social skills communication as well as experiencing different cultures, whilst doing something fun and exciting with breathtaking views. A ski trip also help pupils to become more Independant as well as engage in leadership and give pupils more responsibility.
For more information on what the trip includes please click here
Woodbrooke Road, Birmingham,
West Midlands B30 1UL
Contact Number: 0121 464 4040
enquiry@decschool.co.uk
Monday - Friday: 8:00 am - 4:00 pm
