Head's Page

The new school!!

Well, here we are!

We are in the new school at last – on both sites! The 3-14 site is brand new build, and the 14-19 site has been extensively refurbished. To be honest I have been amazed at how much was achieved at the Upper Site in just 6 weeks, and I know that visitors have been impressed. Working across a split site has not presented any real problems in practice – and in fact we have found many distinct advantages.

My overall impression is that things have gone very smoothly – much better, I think, than we could have expected. There have been a few blips – for example people not being able to find us because we still don’t have a school sign yet! – but in general we have been really pleased. And that shows how brilliant the children have been (because they have been!), how dedicated the staff have been (in sorting everything out), and how understanding and helpful parents and others have been. It has been a terrific task, but together we have done it and we have made it work.

So what have we seen in our new facilities? These are some of the things that I personally have observed:

• Children who are unable to walk, walking in the Hydro Pool
• Children having physiotherapy as part of their lessons, because we have good track hoists in the classrooms now
• Senior students having cookery lessons in a proper Cookery Room, with proper furniture
• Children on both sites using Libraries which are big enough to get more than one person in!
• Outdoor play areas that have actually got outdoor play equipment
• Youngsters from Redmoor coming over to us and spending time with our pupils because we have space to accommodate them properly
• Art work taking place on both sites in proper, specialist areas
• Office staff not having to use the library to work

These are just some of the things that have been happening – I could give you many more examples. So has it been worth it? Of course it has!! We do not have everything right yet – many things need to be worked on and developed, and that will happen over time. But we do now have the accommodation we deserve, and we do have buildings fit for our students – at last!

News in breif

Governor news

Governors have all had to be elected again to the new Governing Body. That is because technically we are a new school.

Jeffrey Bowes remains as Chair of Governors. The new Parent Governors are:

• Dawn Hayward
• Fran Childerhouse
• Sue Pearson
• Phil Stock

Staffing

Staffing has obviously expanded to take account of our new pupils. I will not introduce you to all the new staff – that would take too long! But I will just say that we have two new teachers:

• Mrs. Emma Draycott in Senior 2 (Lower Site)
• Ms. Esther Cullen in Senior 4 (Upper Site)

Also of course next term we welcome Ms. Marie Congrave in Primary 3 (Lower Site).

We are very sorry to see Yvonne Singer retire after so many extremely successful years at Dorothy Goodman, but it comes to everybody in the end! We wish Yvonne all the very best in her new life.

New facilities

I would like to remind people that some of the new facilities are available for hire, especially:

• Hydro Pool
• Hall
• Softplay

We cannot hire the premises out for Parties etc., but we can hire them out to groups. If interested please contact either myself or Dean Rossi (Site Manager).

Concert

I will just say a special word about the Concert this year. I thought the children were fantastic – as they always are! What I also thought is that it was so good to see everyone taking a full part – which we were able to do because we used the Hall floor rather than a Stage. We are thinking of repeating this next year – but I would be interested to hear parents’ views.

Donations

Donations received this term include:

• £280 (ASDA);
• £500 (Hinckley Carnival)
• £500 (George Ward Trust)
• £230 (McCartney’s, Mrs. Whittle)
• £295 (Dr. Harrison)
• £500 (Hinckley Festival Committee)
• £160 (Princes Feathers)
• £62.53 (Arnhem House)
• £7 (Mr. & Mrs. Stock)
• £305 (Litten Tree)
• £10 (Mrs. Davis)
• £50 (Allcock & Grieves)
• £900 (Hinckley Fire Station)
• £25 (Lets Walk)
• £300 (Ashby Road Sports Club)
• £65 (Anonymous)
• £250 (Queen’s Head)
• £480 (Ashby Tavern)

We said that we wanted this to be a special year, with the new school opening, and the people of Hinckley and surrounding areas have made it so! Thank you to you all.

These amounts are being used towards equipment for the new school – including softplay, sensory room items, books and outdoor play equipment.