Strike Action – Thursday 10th July 2014

7th July 2014J Portman

RE: STRIKE ACTION

Dear Parent/Carer

As you may well be aware, the National Union of Teachers, Unison, GMB and Unite have balloted members and voted to take strike action on Thursday 10th July 2014.

I therefore intend to close the College for all years on the 10th July 2014 due to ensuring the health and safety of all students.

If your child is starting at Darton College on Monday 7th July 2014 and their primary school is open on the 10th July 2014 then they must return to their primary school on that day. All other days are as normal at Darton College.
Needless to say, if prior to Thursday 10th July 2014 a resolution is agreed and the strike is called off, our expectation would be that the College would open as normal.

You will appreciate I want to give families due notice of this closure, but the situation potentially remains fluid, so please keep an eye on the website for any further updates.

Yours sincerely

Sharon Rossides (Executive Principal)

Safe@last charity day – Year 7 sponsored walk

26th June 2014Mr J Elliott

Team Seven!

Team Seven!

Today was Charities Day at Darton College, with our chosen charity being Safe@last.  They do some amazing work with young people who are at risk of running away in South Yorkshire (http://www.safeatlast.org.uk/index.html)

Year 7 have been busy fundraising during the last few weeks for a six mile sponsored walk from school to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and back.  The whole year group were amazing and not a single student failed to complete the walk!

The final amount of money raised will be announced next week and we are hopeful for a big total. (One student told me today she has raised over £40 so far!)

These students continue to make me proud every day!

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Alien landing investigation – Year 5 saves the day!

25th June 2014Mr J Elliott

group 1

Over the last two weeks, Darton has been investigating the possibility of alien life.  Luckily, over 550 year 5 students from local primary schools have been around to help!

An alien spaceship was spotted crash landing at Darton College; we immediately called in the local schools to help us with the enormous task of investigating the evidence found in the wreckage.

These brave students worked incredibly hard to carry out 5 different scientific experiments to find out if aliens had finally landed, or if we had been caught out by a clever hoax.  The experiments included:

  • Testing alien bones for energy release;
  • Testing alien blood for acidity;
  • Flame testing crash site evidence;
  • Chromatography of the tip off note;
  • Fingerprinting hoax suspects.

After hours of gruelling team work, the year 5 students reported back that.. Well… You’ll just have to ask them, won’t you?

 

The truth is out there!

 

 

A Day in the Life of an English Teacher

23rd June 2014Ms R Hodkin

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Eleanor created an amazing Media Studies display

Having finished her GCSE exams, Eleanor has spent a week working in the English Department. This is what she had to say about the experience:

What a week it’s been! As a Year 11 student returning for work experience, I can safely say I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun I’ve actually had!
Not only have the staff of the English department been so welcoming and helpful, but the students in lessons have really engaged with my presence, to which I have been asked for help and called “miss” a few times, which is quite scary seeing as it’s only been a few years since I was calling out that name to teenage assistants like that myself!
I have a great passion for English, and with that passion I hope to inspire and guide others with their English abilities in the future, and a teaching career seems a very logical choice in order to do this. I came to Work Experience believing I’d be stapling papers and photocopying texts, but the majority of my time I’ve been talking to students, getting advice from the teachers in the department and helping prepare lessons!
There are so many bright and talented individual students that have made me further determined to become a teacher to help others like them excel in the future, and the teachers have given me so much more confidence by advising me, guiding me and showing me what teaching is all about; it seems to a student to be about grades or targets, but that is not the case of all. The teachers put so much effort into making a lesson push every student in the right direction, without leaving any behind, and always strive to provide the best lessons to gain the best from every student.
In the midst of the hard work and planning, they still find ways to laugh and smile (which is contagious!) and that is what I believe is the key to being a great teacher: a good balance of humour and a good relationship with the students in the classroom, but also challenging them and not allowing disruption.
Work experience has definitely been an experience, yet it has not just been work; it has been a learning curve and an enjoyable experience, and all the merits I have acquired of what it means to be a teacher, I will take with me to college (and further, I hope!)
The English department was my home at school, and that will never change. Hopefully, one day, I can return myself, as a teacher, instead of a student, and work alongside these teachers and not only teach, but learn from them as well.
Best of luck to the English Department in the future! I’ll be back!

“

7RVH used the Activate Phase of their lesson today in English to revise the use of colons. Miss Hodkin is pleased to say that, with support from their peers, everyone got it right!55201412959

 

— Year 7 reviewing when to use colons!