Dear Families,
I hope this week’s update finds you and those closest to you in good health. Today we observed a 2 minutes silence as part of our remembrance day activities. Whilst this always feels a very solemn activity it gives time for our community to pause, reflect and acknowledge those who have given the ultimate sacrifice to preserve our way of life and our freedom. Students have been taking part in assemblies over the last fortnight to help them understand the meaning behind Remembrance Day whilst our Art and Design teams have helped students create art installations inspired by the poppy across the school.
Year 11 Mock Examinations
The first round of mocks have now come to an end. There will be some scope for catch up over the next week for those students who have missed an exam but our staff are busily marking and moderating the tests ready to feedback to students this half term. We aim to share results with families during the Year 11 Parents Evening on the 30th November with a ‘Results Day’ style envelope that will be distributed on the evening.
Computing
Our computing team would like to draw your attention to the Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award, known as iDEA. This is an international award winning programme that helps students to develop and demonstrate digital, enterprise and employability skills for free. Through a series of online challenges, students can win badges, unlock new opportunities and, ultimately, gain industry-recognised Awards that help them to stand out from the crowd. If you are interested, please encourage your child to sign up using this link. Our computing team will support students with this during lunchtime clubs.
Youth Mayor Elections
Five students from Derby Moor showed interest in being nominated as Derby’s Youth Mayor this year, each presenting some excellent ideas for improving provision for the young people of Derby. AM was praised for the quality of his application, but congratulations to William Bilton who has been shortlisted by Derby City Council to represent Derby Moor in the elections in January.
Teen-Tech Innovation Club
As we continue to work closely with Teen Tech to promote the amazing ideas of young minds, a new Innovation Club is starting for Year 8 students to develop their ideas for Teen Tech Awards. This will be an opportunity for anyone from Year 8 to benefit from the expertise of last year’s finalists, as they develop their entries for the national competition. We will arrange Virtual Mentor Meetings with experts from industry to help young people to make their ideas become a reality, answer any questions they might have about their invention and set some realistic challenges to give them a greater chance of success. The Innovation Club meets in DE15 on Mondays from 3.05-4.05pm. Letters are available from the HD Hub or Year 8 PD teachers.
Anti-Bullying Week
Next week is National Anti-Bullying Week. The school will be joining in with odd socks Monday theme with staff and students being encouraged to wear odd socks to show solidarity against bullying. Please do remind your child to sort some odd socks ahead of the day so they are prepared for Monday Morning.
Visitors
We have a number of visitors to the school over the next week or so with guests coming to see what it is that makes Derby Moor such a special place to work and to learn. Visitors will include trainees teachers, employers looking to form partnerships with us and recruit apprentices, colleagues from our Academy Trust and officials from the government. We are excited to be hosting tours and meetings for so many guests and to be providing opportunities for our students to be ambassadors and engage with adults from a range of different fields.
Sports update
Cross Country City Championships: Thirteen students represented Derby Moor from Years 7, 9, 10 and 12 this week with each student really pushing themselves to achieve their best. We saw some exceptional performances from IC, NO, PK, JD, JG, CH, MG in Year 7, AL and HR in Yr9 and JC and FO in Yr10. We are likely to have several representatives in the Derby City Team at County Championships as a result of these performances. Well done. The atmosphere of support and camaraderie in the team is tremendous and all students were a credit to the school. A huge thank you to the parents who came to cheer them on too.
Girls Football: Also on Thursday night a number of the Y8 and Y9 girls football team travelled to Walsall to enjoy an evening of international football. The girls got to watch a highly competitive fixture between England’s Young Lionesses and Holland Women’s U23. The final score was 2-0 to England with two goals from Aston Villa’s Freya Gregory, meant that the girls went home happy.
Y9/10 Futsal Tournament: On Tuesday, our yr9/10 boys travelled to Noel Baker for a Derby City Futsal tournament. Aside from one training session, this was the first time the boys had played Futsal. The first game started well, beating Noel Baker 6-0, in which the boys played some very impressive Futsal. This was then followed with a 6-2 victory over Bemrose, 4-0 over Alvaston Moor and 6-1 over Derby High. The boys were therefore crowned the winners of the tournament. Player of the tournament: L-JT
Careers Update
This week’s job of the week is a ‘You Tuber’.
On Thursday 17th November we will have a visit from JCB to talk about their Level 4 and Level 6 apprenticeship programmes. Applications are open and relevant to students in Year 13 for a start date of next September. We are also encouraging Year 12 students to look at the range of apprenticeship opportunities as they are likely to be available to them the following year. More details can be seen at: https://earlycareers.jcb.com/
Year 12 Work Experience : We will be offering our Year 12 students the opportunity to complete some face to face work experience during the spring term and will be providing some detailed information about this in the next couple of weeks. If you are able to offer a work experience placement through your place of work please do get in touch with our careers lead, Mr Kilgour at a.kilgour@derbymoor.derby.sch.uk
Over the last year we have been developing links with our alumni to support our students with their aspirations and career goals. There is now a Linkedin 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 this link.
Any former students who are not on Linkedin are also welcome to be join our alumni family and get involved in supporting careers activity with our students. Please do email me at a.kilgour@derbymoor.derby.sch.uk if you would like to offer your support or you have any questions about our careers provision at Derby Moor.
We have another busy week ahead of us next week anti-bullying week activities, Principal and Vice Principal Awards assemblies, QAUD Workshops, JCB Apprenticeships programmes, Mock Interviews, a Drama trip to the theatre, Sports Fixtures and a whole host of visitors to the academy. There is never an ordinary week at Derby Moor but we are happy with Extraordinary.
Wishing you a great weekend,
Scott Doyle
Principal
