Stony Dean School Stony Dean School Bulletin A message...

Stony Dean School Working to Inspire

Orchard End Avenue, Pineapple Road, Amersham, HP7 9JW Tel: 01494 762538 Fax: 01494 765631 www.stonydean.bucks.sch.uk

A message from our Head Teacher

Stony Dean School Bulletin

Summer 2019

Dear Parents and Carers, It gives me great pleasure to congratulate everyone for making it to the end of term and another year. I think the manner in which we end the term says a lot about the type of school we are; we take this opportunity to celebrate the success of the year with a number of planned events, such as a terrific Sports Day, end of term fayre an abundance of trips and visits. At this point, I would like to say what a wonderfully supportive and caring PFA the school has - Jojo, Karen, Sarah, Sue and Trudi you make the impossible, possible; thank you on behalf of the pupils and staff of the school for another cracking summer fayre. Success at Stony Dean is based on our core values of developing Communication and Interaction skills, Independence and Employability; these are the skills that will enable our pupils to develop into successful young people. Success does come in all shapes and sizes and, at this reflective time of the year, my challenge to you as parents and carers is to reflect upon your young person’s journey. This success comes from the school’s commitment to employing the very best staff and ensuring they grow through their own staff training. This then gets reflected by school strategic developments of an adapted, personalised curriculum and combined with vast array of different learning experiences from Entry Level and Level 1/2 qualifications to Lego Therapy/Equine Therapy/Art Therapy etc. What we offer our pupils is a broad and personalised curriculum that is evidence based and this evidence based practice is essential to our values. The school held a governor/parent/staff consultation recently on the school direction and purpose. Everyone remain committed to working towards the school values and purpose they remain the right areas of development we need to focus on for pupil growth. For those parents who did not make it, I would and always do welcome feedback on what as school we can improve and develop. It’s the governing body responsibility to ensure that all this drive and determination to raise standards is aligned to ensuring that the budget is balanced, but more importantly the strategic priorities and development of the school. These governors are always keen to hear feedback and you can always find them at school events and if ever you would like to feedback matters of school improvement, whether that is curriculum content or parent communication, they will always welcome your comments. Whilst they don’t deal in the operational management of the school they will welcome your feedback on how we can improve. Governors are volunteers that freely give up their time to see positive change in our school and as a school community you should feel confident to share your view on these topics with them. As we head into the Summer Holidays, please remember that structure and routines are important for our pupils. As such, do give them as much notice as possible and have a form of wall planner that informs your young person what is happening and when it is happening. The summer holidays are much welcomed by staff and pupils and I’m aware that childcare can be difficult for many parents. Please do encourage your pupils to read something that interests them, practice their numeracy skills and encourage them to get as much fresh air as possible. Exercise is excellent at promoting a positive mind-set, fighting low mood and staying healthy. There are lots of activities that can help entertain your children this summer. Whether its https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/50-things-to-do or if you look at Martin Lewis Money saving tips that recommend activities like, write a letter to a celebrity, take a tour of an ‘Amazon’ warehouse, go on a painted rock treasure hunt, reading challenges from the Library, catch a bus/train to a friend’s house, go to Heathrow and watch planes land/take off, go on a park crawl, have themed days, camp in the garden (my favourite) or cook favourite meals at home. Take a look at the ideas, they might give you some ideas for the summer (https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/team-blog/2019/07/tricks-for-summer-magic/). Also for clubs and activities in Buckinghamshire I would recommend looking at taking the time to explore the local offer webpage. https://www.bucksfamilyinfo.org/kb5/buckinghamshire/fsd/localoffer.page.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/50-things-to-do

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/team-blog/2019/07/tricks-for-summer-magic/

https://www.bucksfamilyinfo.org/kb5/buckinghamshire/fsd/localoffer.page



While I am not comparing the school to an Elephant I am conscious that my role as Head Teacher of Stony Dean School is to continue to drive us forward asking questions of our pupils, of our staff. What we can do differently? How we can try again? How can we improve? While at the same time installing in staff and pupils that learning is a journey and we are heading in the right direction.

I would like to finish with a little story about an Elephant. There is a story about a man who, as he was passing some elephants, suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at any time, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.

He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” the trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.” The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.

Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before? I think every one of us can relate to this story and the feeling of having failed at something or another over the years. Over time, we can begin to think that we are not capable of doing a particular thing and we accept this as the truth and limit ourselves to a very confined world. We think to ourselves ‘ah I tried that before and it didn’t work out, what is the point in trying it again and wasting my time, I don’t want to look like a fool!’ And this is how we start to shrink and contract and settle. However, if we could look at all the so-called ‘failures’ in our lives as just stepping stones along our path and decide to respond in a way that is positive, saying ‘ah well, at least I tried, now I know what doesn’t work so it makes my next attempt clearer!’ Treat it like a process of elimination, gathering momentum and staying focused on what we would like to achieve, trying this way and that until we succeed!

I am incredibly proud of the school, pupils, staff and parents, for what we achieve together, but more importantly how we achieve it together. The sense of moral purpose and doing the right thing. Just to finish on a quote, I will replace my normal Batman quote with a Star Wars quote!

Anakin SkyWalker - Clone Wars



Term dates 2019/2020



A friendly reminder to parents, carers and students that we are a nut-free school; we have several children in attendance with life threatening allergies to nuts. It is important that there is a strict avoidance of nuts or any food that contains nuts in order to provide our students with a safe school environment. We do understand at this time of year that it is a kind gesture to send in chocolate with your child to share with their friends; may we suggest Cadbury’s Miniature heroes as an option, as they offer a selection of chocolates that are not made with nuts. Thank you for your understanding.

Messages from our staff

*Poster created by pupils on the school council



On Tuesday 25/06/2019 at Kings Church, Amersham, Year 11 and 13 pupils

were rewarded for all of their hard work over the past year. Kings Church

was filled and pupils dressed incredibly smart for the occasion. There was a

real sense of pride in the air as pupils went on stage and received their

folders and certificates.

We had speeches from Mr Strain, Mr Boardman, Mr Allen, Nathan from year

11 and Toby from year 13. It was also great to have guest speakers in from

the Princes Trust, Restore Hope Latimer and the Entertainer.

Parents, pupils and staff were treated to presentations of the pupil’s time

here at Stony Dean showcasing the wonderful things that the pupils do.

After the presentations and celebrations were over, pupils, staff and parents

came together to say farewell over some cake, juice and outstanding art

display kindly set up by Mrs White and Mr Renouf.

A fantastic evening was had by all and we look forward to getting the next

one ready for 2020.



.

Years 7 and 8 have been putting their maths skills to practical use in the food tech department. First they had to convert a recipe, then they had to use the correct combination of weights on a traditional balance scale. Everyone worked hard and the resulting fairy cakes were delicious!

Sixth form students were also doing some practical maths by figuring out how much netting and pipes were used to build the new golf chipping area. The boys had to measure and use formulae to calculate. It was a big job.



Here is a selection of some of the imaginative art work that our students have created this term – aren’t they fantastic!



In Science students are learning all about

“forces”. They have been exploring the push,

pull and twist forces and how we use

different forces in our day to day life. The

students enjoyed their day out at the Lookout

Discovery Centre with hands-on interactive

science activities.

A fun experience was had by all!

This term’s topic focused on learning all about fantasy

worlds where students had the opportunity to study

and role-play the

Harry Potter stories.

Sports day was a great success! Our

foundation students enthusiastically took

part in all of the competitions.



The Linking Network

School Linking Network is about meeting different people from varied backgrounds and discussing PSHE related topics. This is the second year Stony Dean School is working with Dr Challenor’s Grammar School – this time with both year 8 and Year 11. Students have worked together on a project to create an enormous Bug Hotel of approximately 14ft wide x 8ft high x 4.5ft deep. Students researched and contributed to the design of the modular bug hotel and the Y11 group constructed the outer frame. The individual modules were furnished by pupils at local primary schools and the Y8 group then installed them into the frame to create the finished hotel at Pondwicks, Old Amersham.



‘Next Steps’ project



In June, 42 students from all year groups went on a day trip to Bracklesham Bay in West Sussex to look for fossils on the beach. Bracklesham is known for its 40 million-year-old bivalves (cockle shells) and turitellas (which look like Mr Whippy ice cream) all of which were found aplenty by our students. Some of our super-sleuths also found the rarer shark’s teeth and ray jaws, including Chris who found the biggest shark’s tooth Mrs Hall has ever seen on the beach!

The weather was very kind to us and the morning of Sherlock Holmes-like fossil hunting soon turned into an afternoon of paddling, football, chilling on the beach and for the incurable – more fossil hunting! Highlights of the day (other than the fossils) include skilful negotiation by our students to buy takeaway chips from the otherwise table-service-only café, and the enormous ice creams. “Best school trip ever” and “can we do this EVERY year?” were some of the comments made by students as if not noticing the somewhat lengthy and hot bus ride home.



As part of their Humanities Entry Level coursework, year 10’s have been learning about the need for more renewable energy to combat climate change. To find out more, we visited Greatmoor power plant near Waddesdon. Greatmoor takes all our remaining rubbish after everything else has been recycled and turns it into electricity. We saw the huge hopper where the rubbish is delivered from all over Buckinghamshire and parts of London then went to see the giant furnace

where it is burned at 1,000C. The Guide explained to us how they then extract toxins emitted by the burning so as not to pollute the air outside. It was a very interesting morning and gave us a good example of a clean renewable source of energy that makes enough electricity to power ¾ of the homes in Wycombe.



This month saw the opening of both the Golf Facility and the BMX track located on the school site. Harvey W came up with the idea of doing golf in PE as it was an individual sport and would be suited to many of our pupils. We hired a digger and Phil, the Caretaker, landscaped 2 tons of soil, laid under soil drainage and laid specialist turf for the putting green. We then ordered 150 metres of metal tubing to create 5 driving bays to hit the balls into. It has been used by nearly every pupil in the last few weeks and now has a dedicated group of students who maintain the area and keep it looking perfect. This year we decided to build a BMX track at the rear of the school. This was a lot more straight forward, with the Caretaker taking 3 days to create this using the digger. We have been donated 6 bikes and have bought helmets and pads for the pupils to use during lunchtimes from September. The Fun Run this year raised a staggering £1,150 along with Year 7 Alfie’s £400, Ethan S’s £135 and Ethan L’s £100, receiving gift cards for their efforts.



Stony Dean School has a Vimeo account! You can download Vimeo on Google Play and iTunes. It can also be accessed via the internet; www.vimeo.com. The Stony Dean School channel is https://vimeo.com/stonydeanschool; password: stonydean

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