Easter Duke of Edinburgh Activities
Denefield Students Battle Elements to Gain Duke of Edinburgh Award
Whilst many of us spent Easter tucking into chocolate eggs and hot cross buns, five determined Denefield students defied the terrible weather to complete an assessed Duke of Edinburgh Award expedition across the Chilterns. Despite torrential rain, hail and knee-high mud, the students managed to successfully follow their route which was already longer than average for a Bronze expedition.
Judy Lambley, West Berkshire Duke of Edinburgh Award Assessor, commented, ‘They’ve done brilliantly against all the odds. Determination and team work shone through.’
The expedition culminated at Christmas Common, where the exhausted group were told they had passed the mission with flying colours. Judy explained, ‘They’re obviously good friends, and they’re always together as a group. I couldn’t ask for a better bunch of young people.’
The GCSE students will go on to pass their Bronze Award overall, and collect their medals in the summer.
February 2010
Little Shop of Horrors
The drama and music departments at Denefield School have recently proudly presented their adaptation of the Little Shop of H
orrors. Once again, the production was a huge success with large audiences attending on each evening. Over 40 students from all year groups worked on or behind the stage, accompanied by an excellent house band comprising both staff and students. The cast performed to Year 6 students from local primary schools and to students from Brookfields School at the dress rehearsal; they all had a fantastic time and emerged humming and singing their way back to school.
The story is of greed, lust, mistreatment and revenge all told through a great rock ‘n’ roll score and the students performed to a very high standard.
Mr Shaw, Head of Drama, said, ‘Many thanks to all the cast, musicians and staff who put so much time and effort into what proved to be a fantastic experience for all those involved.’
Click here for a gallery of Little Shop of Horrors photos
24/04/10
Denefield Political Debate
Published in The Reading Chronicle: Thursday, 1st April, 2010 12:00pm
Hustings call for fees to be axed
by Adam Hewitt
Reading's Youth MP Josh Harsant, 17, organised the Denefield School debate to see if young people would bother engaging with politicians eager to snatch their votes. 
He need not have worried since the students at the Long Lane school got stuck right in, firing off questions at Reading West Labour candidate Naz Sarkar, who is a part-time maths teacher at the school, the Lib Dems' Daisy Benson and the Greens' Adrian Windisch. The Conservatives sent West Berkshire Cllr Emma Webster because Alok Sharma was at a Reading Community Church event.
Mr Sarkar slammed Tory plans to return to the old system of a single A-level exam after two years, scrapping modules and AS-levels.
He said: "Teachers are a bit fed up with change. Every time the syllabus changes, it's more difficult for us to teach it to you. I think we've got a good system at the moment, we don't need this whole new way of doing things."
Cllr Benson backed dropping the voting age to 16, using Twitter and Facebook, a standardised minimum wage that ends "discrimination" against young earners and scrapping university tuition fees -but not for at least six years when the economy would cope with it.
Mr Windisch said that was not good enough and that fees should be scrapped immediately, paid for by savings from nuclear disarmament. 
He said: "We're paying all this money for an enemy we don't have any more."
Cllr Webster said: "We're about to see the largest number of new politicians in a generation, a number of those under 40 and many who were members of youth councils and parliaments. People, no matter what age, just want honesty in their politicians."She pledged an extra 10,000 university places, cheaper student loans if they are paid back quickly and a clampdown on employers exploiting interns.
About 150 students watched the debate on Thursday last week, chaired by Tommy Gilchrist from Reading University students' union. Josh said the hustings was a huge success and added: "I'm really happy that young people actively engaged in politics."
Fashion Show 2009-2010
The cameras flashed, the lights shone, the models strutted and the audience roared, as Denefield’s annual charity Sixth Form fashion show swung into action to raise money for local charity Daisy’s Dream. A host of Sixth Form students and staff had carefully prepared and choreographed moves for the event, and looked stunning in the latest fashions provided by House of Fraser, BANK, Cult Clothing, Moss, Tesco and Peacocks. Ruby Reds salon provided brilliant hair stylists for the event to ensure all who took part were made to feel like a star as they helped raise money to support children and their families facing and following bereavement throughout Berkshire.
The event was a huge success; the models provided an evening of entertainment to a sell out audience and raised £700 for Daisy’s Dream. Staff and students would like to thank all those who donated prizes for the raffle, clothes for the models and the stylists for making them feel beautiful. Mrs Shaw Head of Sixth Form said, ‘Without the shops and salon’s generosity and support we would have been unable to raise such a fantastic amount for charity. Thank you to all who helped out. We hope you will be able to support us again next year.’
24/07/09
Denefield Matters goes online
Today, the last posted copy of Denefield Matters, our termly news magazine, was delivered to parents. From next term Denefield Matters will be published online in full colour, allowing us to include more photos and input from the students. Switching to an online version will save the school nearly £1800 per issue! Denefield Matters, as well as other school communications, can be delivered to your e-mail account. If you would like us to set this up send an e-mail to myvoice@denefield.org.uk with Denefield Matters as the subject, please include your name and the name of your child/children.
6/07/09
Prospero Art Exhibition Denefield School, 6 July 2009
On Monday 6 July, Reading West MP Martin Salter visited Denefield School in Tilehurst, to see the art work exhibited in this year’s ‘Prospero’ art exhibition. In recent years Denefield students have achieved results well above national averages at GCSE, A Level and BTEC levels, and high standards were again much in evidence at this year’s show. Martin Salter spoke to students and staff from the art department and was clearly impressed with what he saw.
Prizes were awarded for the best portfolios on the evening of Friday 3 July by a panel of independent judges. The award for BTEC was won by Terri Casey, the award for AS was won by Charlie Chrobnik, while the A2 prize was awarded to Chris Ambrose.
Curriculum Leader for the Expressive Arts, Jeremy Nicholls said: ‘We are very pleased with this year’s exhibition; students have worked hard to produce some outstanding work. We do our best to develop the creativity within all of our students. Teachers effectively support students with their individual interests and ideas, which is why the artwork is so varied. We vary our teaching strategies to suit the students we have in each group; every year is different. In this year’s show we have students who have taken their inspiration from Caravaggio and Titian, and others who are interested in conceptual and abstract art; we have origami and a life-size woman made of sellotape!’
High standards in Art and Design have done much to contribute to the school’s recent Arts Mark Gold award from the Arts Council of England. Artsmark sets the standard for an outstanding arts offer in schools and the award recognises Denefield’s passion for the arts and belief in the power of creativity.
16/06/09
Denefield School awarded Artsmark Gold
Arts Council England has awarded an Artsmark Gold to Denefield in recognition of the school’s commitment to, and excellence in, arts education.
Glyn Whiteford, Headteacher said:
‘I’m delighted that the Arts Council has recognised Denefield’s dynamic arts education programme. Our students achieve the highest standards in the arts, with many going on to study arts subjects at college and university. I’d like to thank all our staff for their hard work in achieving this award.’
Jeremy Nicholls, Curriculum Leader for the Expressive Arts, said:
‘Denefield students approach their lessons in art, music, drama and dance with enthusiasm, and results are consistently above national averages. We feel that work in the arts benefits students greatly, giving them the opportunity to develop creative thinking skills which can be applied to all subject areas.’
‘We are currently working with the Arts Council, developing a Creative Partnerships project, where our students will be working with professional sculptor Geraint Edwards, dancer Elaine Macey and John Darvel from the Arts Council. The project, titled ‘Sculpting with Numbers’, will be inspired by maths and will be taught in part by the maths department. It will be a forerunner to further projects in other subject areas where creative and higher order thinking skills will be used to develop exciting outcomes.’
Alan Davey, Chief Executive, Arts Council England, said:
‘Arts Council England is committed to great art for everyone and we believe that the earlier children are creatively inspired, the more likely they are to have a lifelong engagement with art.’
‘Artsmark sets the standard for an outstanding arts offer in schools. The award recognises Denefield’s passion for the arts and belief in the power of creativity.’
A school must dedicate a minimum of 15 per cent curriculum time to qualify for Artsmark Gold. An Artsmark school also provides teachers’ with professional development and involvement with local artists and arts groups
6-7 /06/09
Duke of Edinburgh Award Weekend
Eight Year 10 students battled the elements over the weekend (6-7/06/09) to successfully complete their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award practise expedition. Despite hills, mud and downpours they managed to navigate using only a map and compass a pre-planned, gruelling 16 mile walk, carrying all their tents, sleeping bags, spare clothes, food and cooking equipment. The trip included an overnight stay in Cold Ash near Thatcham and overnight, in the pouring rain, two tents were flooded. Despite them having to get up at 4.30 am to fix the problem, the students managed to finish the second half of their trek.
Our Duke of Edinburgh Award Co-ordinator Mr Giani said, ‘The school is very proud of the exemplary way in which these young people conducted themselves in difficult weather conditions. I’m sure that they will go on to even greater success on the assessed weekend’.
The students: Jacob Jolly, Sharnie Winter, Catherine Parr, Tom Nice, Dominic Hinton, Luke Mortimore,Jake Foster and Thomas Collier.
11/12/08
First Prize Poetry from Chris Payne
Work
The biggest thing captured in a small canvas
The job of creation
The flow of the brush
The squelch of the paint
The thin scrape of the pencil
The canvas bare and empty
Transformed into a lively parade of the world
The slithering, snaky sharp lines
The black, solid colours
The stark, harsh, amazing essence of the artist.
This poem led to Chris Payne (08STN) winning first prize at KS3 in the annual Berkshire poetry competition. Popular poet and author David Orme presented Chris with a prize and a certificate at the award ceremony in Reading Museum last week. Chris's entry, along with those of the other prize winners has been published on Berkshire education library service website. www.berekshire-els.gov.uk
Well done Chris
28/11/08
Young Chef Competition
The Denefield Young Chef Competition took place during the last week of November. Two separate sessions were held to accommodate KS3 & KS4 students. This year the competition generated a large amount of interest with two rooms of students taking part on each occasion.
The task students were set this year was to cook a tasty and imaginative meal within a budget of £6.50 and a time limit of one hour. The meal had to be for a Healthy Great Britain and the main ingredients had to be either farmed or grown in the UK at some time during the year with emphasis on selecting locally and responsibly sourced items. The students all chose imaginative and interesting menu’s and achieved a high standard of cooking. The competition was judged by two members of the CBEBP, who organise the competition, along with a chef from a local restaurant. The judges took a long time sampling the food and considering their verdict and found it quite difficult to come to their final decision. The winners at KS4 were Bill McLoughlin (chef) and Adam Marriot (assistant) and at KS3 Daniel Theobald (chef) and Kieron Barrett (assistant). The students will now be entered for the Reading area competition. We hope they will get through the elimination round successfully in order to represent Denefield in the finals that take place at Reading College in March. I would like to congratulate our winners and wish them luck in the next stage of the competition. A big thank you is also due to all of the students who took part and to their parents for the support given.
19/11/08
Sixth Formers in historic trip to Auschwitz
Auschwitz Birkenau does not seem the sort of place to offer new hope.
But a historic first-time gathering of all nine UK faithleaders provides “an extraordinary symbol of hope” acording to the Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks.
Reading students witnessed the occasion and also saw vivid reminders of the hell of an extermination camp.
Reading schoolchildren were among 200 others from around the South visiting the site to make sure the world will always remember the atrocities of the Holocaust.
The visit formed part of the Lessons from Auschwitz Project run by the Holocaust Educational Trust, which has seen more than 2,000 British students visiting the site in the past 12 months alone.However, Sixth Formers from Reading School, Queen Anne’s and Denefield School were treated to an extra special visit last Thursday because they were joined by the leaders of the nine faith traditions in the UK.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams and the Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks joined faith leaders from Islam, Sikhism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Bahai and Zoroastrian for the visit – the first time all nine leaders had been together in the same place.
The faith leaders, pupils, MPs and journalists were taken in convoy from Krakow airport in coaches to the town of Oswiecim which, until the Second World War, had been a relatively normal town where Jews and Gentiles co-existed happily.
The groups stopped first at the site of a Jewish cemetery where the traditions and values of the Jews living in the town were celebrated even in death.But this was a far cry from the shameful deaths, torture and shallow graves the groups were to experience next at the concentration and death camps of Auschwitz – a name which has become synonymous with the Holocaust.
An estimated six million Jews were “exterminated” during the war as the Nazi ideology pushed forward its strategy to solve the “Jewish problem”.When firing squads became too costly and time-consuming, they came up with the idea of using gas chambers where up to 2,000 Jews at a time could be extinguished in one go, using gas that had been used to kill insects. The pupils walked in the footsteps of the millions of Jews that experienced the harrowing existence at Auschwitz.
Today an exhibition at the site tells the story of the prisoners through the objects they brought with them, but which were stripped from them as they came through the gates.Prayer shawls, glasses, shoes, crutches, graters, shoe polish tins, wooden legs, suitcases and human hair are piled high in room upon room – the only remnants of the millions who lost their lives.
By Chine Mbubaegbu
19/11/2008
Evening Post (Edited)
24/10/2008
Rugby Coaching at Denefield
On Wednesday 22 October Denefield School’s PE department was joined by rugby coach Martin Heart. Martin currently works as Director of Sport at neighbouring school Pangbourne College, but has also coached England A at under 16 level. During the day Martin led a number of rugby coaching sessions, assisted by Denefield staff, for Year 10 and Year 7 students. After school Martin ran a two hour session for 30 of the school’s best players to prepare them for forthcoming fixtures. Martin commented, ‘I was impressed with the enthusiasm and talent of many of Denefield’s young rugby players, and would like to work with them again in the future’
23/10/2008
Yr12 Shakespeare Workshop
About twenty A Level English Language/Literature and Drama students from Denefield School in Tilehurst recently took part in a Shakespeare workshop provided by the Education Department from the famous ‘Tobacco Factory’ Theatre in Bristol. The students, who are studying Hamlet for their A Level examination in January, were lucky enough to be coached by Chris Donelly, the education co-ordinator from the theatre, who engaged them in the stagecraft of Shakespeare; he made the transfer from reading the play into acting out scenes enjoyable, lively and instructive.
The Year 13s threw themselves into the action and a very tragic Hamlet, Gertrude and Polonius (Josh Jewkes, Olivia Foster and Jack Buckner), were wonderful in their interpretation. All the very willing students agreed the workshop helped a great deal in bringing the play alive and wanted to thank Chris for making the morning a truly enjoyable and successful event.
09/10/2008
Denefield Challenges for Success
Year 12 Physics students from Denefield School recently took part in the AWE
A Level Science Challenge at Aldermaston. After a day of tight competition they were delighted to be placed second out of the 10 teams competing and win £250.00 for the school.
The competition, which was essentially for Year 13 students, consisted of a series of challenges to deliver three objects to their targets with precision using three different methods of propulsion. The Denefield students, Alice Davis, Tom Howell-Jones, Jonathan Lang, Robert Organ, Matt Robinson and Ben Uzzell, made an impressive team, even if they did keep everyone on the edge of their seats with tension. After the last round, Denefield were tied for second place and a play off was needed. It was only after a stunning final run off under pressure that success was guaranteed bringing a runners-up cheque and trophy.
Denefield physics teacher, Warren George, said: ‘Today was a very successful day for these students and an extremely proud day for me. They were a delight to be around. It was a good day to remind ourselves that we have many bright and talented scientists here at Denefield’.
As reported in the AWE magazine