We were blessed with a beautiful sunny day to enjoy Year 7's first whole-year trip this week. Students travelled by coach to the brilliant Hampton Court Palace. This term Year 7 have been learning all about the Tudors, with a special focus on Henry VIII, so it was awesome to see his state apartments, the Great Hall that he built to impress Anne Boleyn and the huge kitchens needed to cater for all of the Tudor feasting. The palace gardens were a particular highlight of the day and all groups were able to enjoy their packed lunches in the glorious sunshine. Mrs Rimmer was very impressed with the students’ behaviour throughout the day and our historical guides commented on their knowledge and engagement. 

Our Year 9 Duke of Edinburgh students completed their Bronze expedition this month. Having completed their practice expedition earlier in the week, they were well prepared when they gathered to begin their journey. The qualifying expedition went from Ashridge Estate to Phasels wood, where the students camped for the night before continuing through Sarrat and finishing back at school. Although some groups got a bit lost, everyone made it back to school in good time and high spirits. Thank you to Miss Northridge, Mrs Fenner, Ms Brun, Mrs Maher, Ms Platt and Mrs Cox, as well as lots of parents for their help during the expedition to monitor groups and man checkpoints.

During Mental Health Awareness week, staff and students supported the Mental Health Foundation’s ‘Wear it Green Day’ campaign, with all donations going towards important research and fighting the stigma surrounding mental health. The theme for this year’s Mental Health Awareness week was ‘anxiety’ with Mrs Richards and Miss Bhalla organising a fun and engaging Wellbeing Fair at school where students were able to enjoy various activities and learn ways to look after their mental health. The fair proved to be a great success, with student and staff feedback being nothing but positive. 

Students have had the opportunity to earn Respect Merits this term with a prize being issued to the form who wins the most by the end of each fortnight. This incentive is being led by Miss Marsh and Ms Hanway, who have been looking at how we can make the Croxley Danes values of Excellence, Respect and Trust more explicit to students, with the long term goal being to help them leave school as well-rounded individuals. Starting with Respect, there’s been a different focus each fortnight - respecting the learning environment, respecting the speaker, respecting school staff, respecting your work and respecting those around you. By breaking it down into different ways you can demonstrate and be rewarded for respect in school, students can begin to internalise these values. It’s been great to see the students putting in the effort to gain their merits, in particular 7M who have been the overall winners twice, earning them a non-uniform day for just their form. 

A select group of Year 7 and 8 girls enjoyed an exciting trip to watch Saracens Mavericks, our local premier league netball team. The students were lucky enough to be invited into the fanzone and be involved in some mini competitions ahead of the match along with some fun activities at half time with the U16 team. It was a thrilling game that was fast paced and very close throughout and the whole event was a great way to celebrate the end of English international netball player Sacha Corban’s time on the netball court. 

At the end of last month we were visited by the Quirky Bird Theatre company who performed THE IT by Vivienne Franzmann, a darkly comic state-of-the-nation play exploring adolescent mental health and rage within. This is the next set text for the GCSE Drama written paper and the current Year 10 Drama students (and some of the potential GCSE Drama students from Year 9) were lucky enough to be able to watch this lively and very dynamic performance of the play. Not only were the students treated to a fabulous example of ensemble performance, they were also able to ask the cast questions in a Q and A session after the act.