The Darrick Wood Way
Parent Bulletin
“When educating the minds of our youth we must not forget to educate their hearts”
– Dalai Lama –
Message from the Head Teacher
I am writing this message just before I attend the AGM and October meeting for the PSFA. It is a timely reminder to me about how our students benefit from the strong partnership we have with parents/carers. The PSFA has existed at Darrick Wood School for decades. I have been fortunate to work with many amazing volunteers who have gone the extra mile to raise much needed funds to support the purchase of items that will benefit all students. I am so grateful for the time they give voluntarily for our school. On receipt of any donations to the School, we think carefully about how we can use these to make a difference. We are about to embark on a project to provide much needed shade in the Year 7 playground, for example. Thank you to all parents/carers who have donated either with their time, money or both over the years.
This Parent Bulletin will be the last before we break for the half-term next Friday. Time has really flown by, but reading this and previous bulletins reminds me of how much goes on in an average week at Darrick Wood School. I am really looking forward to seeing all of Year 7 at the Choir of the Year event on Thursday. Parents and carers are in for a treat here. Individual Form performances will be amazing, but the whole year group performing together will be particularly special.
As we come back after the break, we have the School Production to look forward to and so much more. Whilst the serious side of school, preparing students for high levels of achievement in Years 11 and 13 in particular, will always be our major focus, we know that a Darrick Wood education is more than that – it is about developing the whole child, ensuring that through the many other activities we offer, they have the opportunity to develop skills and experience beyond that gained through the taught subjects alone.
Screening arch
As mentioned in parent bulletins and communications in the past, like all Bromley secondary schools, the Police offer us the opportunity to set up a temporary screening arch at the entrance to the School. Previous attempts to do this have not been possible for logistical reasons, but we are pleased to be in a position to be planning for this again. We will not be informing anyone when this will be happening, but please be reassured that this is something all schools do periodically nowadays and that it is part of an overall strategy to keep all our schools as safe as possible.
Term dates 2025/26
Our term dates for the 2025/26 academic year are presented below. Please note that the School will confirm two further Professional Development Days (PDD) during the year, when students will not be in school. These will be mid-term, i.e. not appended to a holiday.
Autumn term 2025
Monday, 1st September 2025 – PDD1 (no students in school)
Tuesday, 2nd September 2025 – Year 7/Year 12 in school
Wednesday, 3rd September 2025 – All students return
Monday, 20th October 2025 to Friday, 31st October 2025 – Half-term break
Friday, 19th December 2025 – end of term
Monday, 22nd December 2025 to Friday, 2nd January 2026 – Christmas holiday
Spring term 2026
Monday, 5th January 2026 – PDD2 (no students in school)
Tuesday, 6th January 2026 – All students return
Monday, 16th February 2026 to Friday, 20th February 2026 – Half-term break
Friday, 27th March 2026 – end of term
Monday, 30th March 2026 to Friday, 10th April 2026 – Easter holiday
Summer term 2026
Monday, 13th April 2026 – All students return
Monday, 4th May 2026 – Bank holiday
Monday, 25th May 2026 to Friday, 29th May 2026 – Half-term break
Wednesday, 22nd July 2026 – end of term
Attendance Focus
95.3%
Form Attendance
Well done to 7YD, 8XW, 9XB, 10XW and 11YM for having the top attendance in their year group so far this year.
Reading Recommendations
Click below for details
Previous Bulletins
Upcoming Events
15/10/24 – School Photographs (Years 9, 11 & 13)
17/10/24 – Year 7 Choir of the Year, 7pm, Main Hall
21/10/24 – 01/11/24 – Half-term break
07/11/24 – Sixth Form Open Evening, 7-9pm. For entry into the Sixth Form, September 2025.
19-21/11/24 – School Production
28/11/2024 – Pathways 2024 – 6.00pm to 7.30pm – Click here for more information
04/12/2024 – Year 12 Parents’ Evening
06/12/2024 – Year 7 PSFA disco
20/12/2024 – End of term
06/01/2025 – Start of spring term
Useful Links
If you would like to nominate a student for a Youth Award, please send Mrs Iddiols-Bunclark their name and a few sentences to explain why they should receive this award.
Highlights of the fortnight
Shakespeare Competition Results
The English Department recently held a school-wide competition to create a Shakespearean or Tudor item for display in Main Reception. Congratulations to all competitors who created amazing entries. The results are: Sam in Year 8 received an honourable mention, Chloe in Year 10 came third, Poppy in Year 9 came second and congratulations to Ryan in Year 9 who came first. He created a hand-made model of the Globe Theatre which looks outstanding. These four entries are shown in the photograph. Thank you to Ms Iddiols-Bunclark for judging the entries.
European Day of Languages 2024
On Thursday, 26th September, Darrick Wood School celebrated the 23rd annual European Day of Languages. The MFL Faculty’s valued guests were the new Year 7 students. Students were able to sample the gastronomic delights of our European neighbours, as well as practise some of their new language skills. As might be expected, the students were appropriately excited about the prospect of free food and drink, and so the Languages corridor was thronged between 1.25pm and 2.00pm with eager visitors availing themselves of brioches and crêpes au chocolat, Frikadellen, Apfelschorle, Bratwurst and Hausgemachte Waffeln, and guacamole, patatas bravas, chorizo, Spanish potato omelette, battered squid and (non alcoholic) sangria. The MFL corridor also displayed facts about some of the 47 European languages that the continent is home to and some students gamely attempted to complete the accompanying treasure hunt.
KS3 Art Club
Last week in Main Assembly Scarlett and Isobel from Year 7 and Aimee from Year 8 talk to us about KS3 Art Club. They showed us pictures of previous work that has been created from last year and discussed what they enjoy about going to this club. We thank them for showing such positive communication skills in front of the whole school at such a young age and Mr Radford for his help and support with this. The overall theme for the week was, aptly, Talents and students were encouraged to seek out their talents, to put effort into all that they do to develop and improve their skills and to use their talents to bring joy and happiness to others.
Costume Design Competition
These are the winning entries from a costume design competition where students designed the costume for the character of ‘Ursula’ for our school production.
Winning students will be making the costume with the support of the Head of Textiles.
Open Evening
During our Open Evening last week, lots of students represented the School in various departments, or volunteered to be tour guides to families who came to look around. Every student involved was a credit to us and should be very proud of themselves. Special mentions need to go to Tobie, Marcus, Sophie, Natalie, Lily, Imogen, Chloe, Charlie and Kavinushree who raised £315 for the Jeans for Genes charity by selling the cakes and biscuits they made in Food Technology with Mr Sobieszynski. Parents were also treated to amazing speeches by Lucy, Finn and Olivia and we would like to thank them for representing the our school in such a mature and inspirational way.
Jack Petchey Bromley Schools Awards
On Monday night the Jack Petchey Bromley Schools Awards Evening was held at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley. It was a lovely event where our students were able to collect their medals in front of friends and family whilst representing the School. Congratulations to Alex, Anthony, Ahuva, Lucy, Tommy, Matthew and Adrina who all attended the night. A special mention to Mrs Rose who won a Leadership Award and also collected her own medal during the evening.
DWS Audio
On DWS Audio we have posted further episodes for two of our new audio drama serials. Episodes two and three of ‘Enquiry Agents’ are available to listen to, along with part two of Ella’s ‘We all Have a Secret’. You can catch them via these links:
Enquiry Agents – DWS Audio (darrickwood.co.uk)
Year 9 Cooking Workshop
On Tuesday, 8th October selected Year 9 students took part in a cooking workshop with Miss Bargeron, Mrs Sabir-Ali and Mrs Talbot. Students were given a shopping list and a budget to purchase their ingredients in Sainsbury’s, Locksbottom. Once the ingredients were secured, students worked together in groups to prepare a meal of nachos, chicken fajitas and brownies that we then got to enjoy together – after washing up of course! All students were fantastic throughout the afternoon and demonstrated many of our DWS Life Learning Skills, including using their initiative, developing their communication skills and being open minded about who they were working with and the food they were preparing. Well done to all students involved!
Green Flag Eco Award 2024-2025
This week the year Eco Reps met for the first time to conduct a school survey of 10 key areas. The results of this will be processed and the Eco Committee will agree on the areas of focus for 2024/25. The Eco Committee will meet each half term.
This year we have expanded the Eco Committee who will now be supported by the Wider Eco Committee which has two representatives from each form group. The Wider Eco Committee will be participating in half termly litter picks and Eco challenges throughout the year.
Curriculum Showcase
In English, Year 10 have been engaging with their first GCSE Literature texts, including ideas around family and social responsibility in An Inspector Calls by JB Priestley. Year 12 enjoyed being Student Critics for the BBC National Short Story Award – the eventual winner, Ghost Kitchen by Ross Raisin, was guessed correctly by some students, although our favourite to win was Pieces by Manish Chauhan! Year 12 are also beginning their prose texts for A level English Literature and have been studying the context of the ground-breaking classic, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley. Year 13 are currently in the process of choosing their focus areas for their independent comparative coursework – one text being investigated is the controversial gothic mystery: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Black History Month
This week in assembly and to celebrate Black History Month we had the wonderful Rejoice, Xanthe, Isabelle, Olivia, Sophia, Wesley, Ellie and Alex present to us on the topic. It was creative, informative and very sophisticated and allowed us to all see how important it is we celebrate this as a school. Thank you to them for all their hard work with this and to Miss Stott for putting it all together.
As part of their course, Year 13 Health and Social Care students learned about influential black people within the Health and Social Care sector by making chatterboxes.
Click her to view the Darrick Wood School Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy
Sports and PE News
- Year 7 girls played their first game for the School and beat Colfes 3-1 in extra time in the National Cup.
- Year 9 Girls progressed to Round 2 of the National Cup with a 12-1 victory over Longfield Academy. The Year 9 girls also progressed to Round 3 of the Kent Cup with a 10-1 victory over Charles Darwin.
- Year 9 boys are unfortunately out of the Kent Cup after losing to Harris Beckenham 3-1.
- Year 10 boys won their Kent Cup 1st round game 5-0 against Kemnal Technology College.
- Year 11 Girls have unfortunately crashed out of both the Kent and National Cups with narrow losses to Bennett Memorial and to St Bede’s (Surrey).
- The first XI team (U19 boys) beat Bennett Memorial 6-2 in the North Kent Division 1. The second XI lost to Farringtons 6-0 in the North Kent Division 2
We still have 10 games to play this half term and will have played a total of 33 games since early September. We are still competing in 12 cups!
Click here to read all about Darrick Wood Vs Wilmington Grammar Rugby
Safety & Awareness
This week the PSHE safety leaflet looks at ‘In Game Chat’ and ‘Instagram’, two areas that are constantly causing conflict and issues amongst children. We hope you find these useful and informative. Please remember to look at all our past leaflets on the school website under PSHE curriculum.
Click below for details
Click below for details
Wellbeing
Yesterday (10th October) was World Mental Health day and this year’s theme is workplace mental health.
A staff ‘tea and talk’ event was planned for after school Friday, selling cakes and snacks to raise money for the Mental Health Foundation.
The Mental Health Foundation website offers support and advice about looking after your own mental health and that of the people around you.
They also publish regular Podcasts exploring the many different topics that can affect how we think and feel.
Student Health Guide
Please scan the QR code to read our school addition of the Student Health Magazine.
Student Leadership
Congratulations to all of those students who applied to be Subject Ambassadors in Years 7 and 12. Heads of Department were very impressed with the application letters and have now assigned the roles. Badges will be given out next week and we look forward to seeing them thrive in their student leadership roles.
