Dear Families,
I hope this update finds you all in good health. This week’s summary includes information about the upcoming Year 10 Parents Evening, Mock Examinations, an update from the Director of Public Health and excellent news about the Derby Youth Mayor elections.
Covid Update
Thank you for your continued support with our measures to minimise transmission of Covid-19. As things stand, we will continue with our enhanced cleaning routine, sanitising hands and the wearing of face coverings in communal spaces for the remainder of this half term and into the next. Attached to the email version of this update is a letter from our local Director for Public Health, Dr Dewis. This goes some way to explaining why we will continue with our measures as the numbers of cases across our city remain high, particularly amongst younger people. Your child should continue with the home testing, as explained in the letter, and report all results to the NHS website.
Parents Evening
The Year 10 Parents Evening will take place on the 2nd March. We will again be using our SchoolCloud software for this. Further detail will be distributed shortly to advise families on how to make appointments and log on. If you require support with any of this, please do contact your child’s Year Manager.
Mock Examinations
A reminder that our Year 11 students will begin their mock examination series immediately after half term on February 28th. We have seen them working hard most evenings this week at after school intervention or at the Science Fish and Chip night in preparation for this. They are in a good position to secure some excellent grades in the mocks and then the summer, with continued commitment and organisation we are confident that our young people will have a set of results to be proud of in August.
The Year 13 mock window begins on the 14th March for most subjects. There will be minor variations to this for individuals that will be communicated through subject staff. If you have any queries about this, please contact the sixth form team.
Careers, PTA and Alumni Update
Following the introduction of a ‘Job of the week’ into our weekly tutor programme you might be interested to watch the ‘Guide to apprenticeships’ video.
Over the last year or so we have been developing links with our alumni to support our students with their aspirations and career goals. There is now a Linked-in group called ‘Derby Moor (formerly Derby School) Alumni’. If you are a former student of Derby Moor and have Linkedin you are welcome to join the group by following the link here. Any former students who are not on Linked-in are also welcome to be join our alumni family and get involved in supporting careers activity with our students. This may include mock interviews, careers talks, mentoring, careers fairs and more. Please email Mr Kilgour at a.kilgour@derbymoor.derby.sch.uk if you would like to offer your support.
Following meetings in our community and at school we can now officially announce the successful formation of the Derby Moor PTFA (Parents, Teachers, Friends Association). Our thanks go out to the families and members of the community for helping to organise the meetings and also for giving up their time to take part and contribute their ideas. We are excited to see how the involvement of our wider community can help to shape our provision at the school going forwards.
Derby Youth Mayor Elections
Over the past two months one of our Sixth Form students has been working and campaigning with the Derby City Council, vying to become the next Derby Youth Mayor. The voting process resembled a democratic election, with booths and ballots taking place at schools across the city. We are proud to announce that Gloria Osei Bonsu has been successful and later this month will take the helm as Deputy Youth Mayor. She will be shadowing the current team in their final days of the role before she takes the responsibility on herself. This is a fantastic achievement and we look forward to Gloria making an impact upon the lives of young people across the city. Gloria will co-chair the Voices In Action group who are representatives of young people from schools across the city. Much like a city wide school council, their role is to hear the voice of young people and feed this into Derby City Council’s work. If our students would like a matter to be raised at Voices in Action, they should contact Gloria, or If they would like to join the Voices in Action (ViA) group they can get involved by contacting Adele Styles at Derby City Council on via@derby.gov.uk.
Spencer Superstars
This academic year represents the 10th anniversary of the Spencer Academies Trust. As part of our 10th anniversary celebrations we have launched a charitable foundation known as the Spencer Superstars. The aim of the foundation is to support children and young people, attending Spencer Academies, to pursue their passions and follow their dreams. The Foundation provides financial gifts directly to children and young people, to support opportunities in one of the following disciplines:
- The Arts
- Sports
- Science & Technology
- Entrepreneurship
- Conservation
- Wellbeing & Healthy Lifestyles
- Community Projects.
It may be that a student is passionate about portraiture, fashion or music. They may be a promising athlete, or have an idea to create a new App to help learning. Perhaps the young person has a blueprint for an ethical start up business for protecting the environment, or for making a contribution to healthy living and volunteering. Whichever discipline a child is passionate about, it is our desire to support their passion by gifting the funds raised to our children and young people to help them fulfil their aspiration. If you think your child may be a potential Spencer Superstar, please contact their Progress Leader to explore eligibility and how to apply.
Wishing you a safe and relaxing weekend,
Scott Doyle
Principal
