THE SHIELD LENT 2021
www.stdunstans.org.uk
WELCOME TO THE LENT EDITION OF THE SHIELD 2021 The Great Hall Covid-19 testing centre
LOCKDOWN Back to School...
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ollowing the announcement from the prime minister, we were delighted to welcome back all students and staff to the College site on Monday 8 March for the first time since December. Once again, it was lovely to see students arriving and reuniting with their friends following the three-month lockdown.
Welcome to the Community
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or a fifth year in a row, we were thrilled to have record numbers accepting a place at St Dunstan’s. Due to the current circumstances, postoffer events went online this year with families having the opportunity to hear about our academic future, sustainability goals and scholarship programmes.
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THE SHIELD I LENT NEWSLETTER 2021
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head of the full school reopening on the 8 March, all Senior School students and staff were tested in the Great Hall, which was transformed into a testing centre. Thank you to the brilliant Covid-19 task force who have been working around the clock preparing for all students and staff to return. More than 2,500 tests were carried out in the first 10 days.
Rethinking the importance of education
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St Dunstan’s wins International Marketing Award
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he Headmaster discussed the future of education following the pandemic in a special webinar on Wednesday 24 February. Speaking during the virtual live event, which was attended by nearly 500 people, Mr Hewlett called on education leaders to be brave in their decision making following Covid-19. The webinar is available to watch on our YouTube channel.
he College was delighted to win a 2020 InspirED School Marketers Brilliance Award for its recent fundraising video.
The five-minute feature titled ‘Be a part of our future’ was awarded bronze at the prestigious awards, which celebrate marketing in education around the world. The film was produced last summer by Inspired Films, and focuses on the College’s upcoming plans and future fundraising appeal. The Brilliance Awards are sponsored by InspirED School Marketers, a website that provides ‘brilliant ideas and brain food’ for independent schools. The entries were judged by a volunteer panel of 69 marketing experts from around the world who are professionals in private schools or businesses that specialise in school marketing. The entries were scored on creativity, persuasiveness, design, copy, photography and overall appeal.
Academic Scholars Virtual Tea
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ur Academic Scholars found time in their busy schedules to meet virtually with Mr Burke for a Scholars’ Tea.
National Day of Reflection
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he College paused to reflect on the last 12 months on Tuesday 23 March which was a National Day of Reflection. In a special video, the Headmaster spoke about the challenges of the last year and those that will remain long after the pandemic. However, he recognised that there was finally light at the end of the tunnel and looked ahead to the future when we will again be able to join in an all school assembly in the Great Hall.
Success at the British Physics Olympiad
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ongratulations to our eight Year 12 students who entered the British Physics Olympiad Senior Challenge. Mr Ford was delighted to see all receiving admirable marks with special recognition to Cameron and Eric who earned Silver Awards.
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Year 7 design logo for STEM Block
NEW BUILD:
COLLEGE PARLIAMENT & YEAR 11 TOUR
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s our moving date draws closer, College Parliament and Year 11 students were given a tour of the new build. This included visiting the Junior School, STEM Block and Sixth Form Centre, which includes a dedicated study space and Sixth Form Café. Next term, students and staff will move in and a special opening ceremony is being planned!
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ear 7 have been tasked with combining science and creativity to design a logo for our brand-new STEM block, opening in Trinity term of this year. See their colourful and inspired designs!
Friends of St Dunstan’s Quiz
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eventeen teams of parents across the College took part in our annual Friends of St Dunstan’s quiz night on Friday 5 March. True to tradition, the event was highly competitive with very close scores and only one point separating our top three teams. Our winning team ‘Final Answers’ finished with 57 points, just pipping ‘The Gumps’ to the post in the final round. The first remote quiz was a great success, with parents having some much needed ‘catch up’ time in breakout rooms. So far a total of £2,700 has been raised for Lewisham Foodbank. For those who have not yet donated, it is not too late! Please use the link: https://www. justgiving.com/transform-network and make sure to add ‘sdcompassion’ in your message so we can track any additional donations. A huge ‘Thank you!’ to our quizmasters Sonia and Justin for a thoroughly enjoyable and well-organised evening.
MFL mark Bangladesh Independence Day
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n Friday 26 March Bangladesh celebrates 50 years of independence. To learn more about the history, Year 7 and Year 8 students took part in a Bengali language workshop taught by Mr Willoughby, learning basic phrases and words. They also listened to the Bangladeshi national anthem, Bengali folk songs and some examples of native speakers. The MFL department wishes all Bangladeshis around the world a happy Independence Day!
Careers in STEM seminar
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s part of our celebrations for STEM Week, our Careers team invited a bumper panel of professionals to speak at a virtual event.
We heard from professionals in careers such as Engineering, IT, Tax, Fintech & Patent Law. Hopefully the students found this inspiring and informative for potential future careers in STEM.
Online Seminar from the Freud Museum
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his term, A Level Psychology students received two special talks from the Freud Museum in London. The first was an online seminar about Schizophrenia and Psychoanalysis. Stefan Marianski from the Freud museum, delivered an extremely engaging session covering some characteristics of schizophrenia, some problems with diagnosing schizophrenia in terms of the symptoms that patients exhibit as well as the differences between primary and secondary psychosis. Students’ questions covered topics such as the effectiveness of therapies for schizophrenia, the biases of our society regarding schizophrenic
patients and other explanations of schizophrenia aside from the psychodynamic theory. The second seminar guided students through Freud’s theory of dreams, using plenty of real life examples that he had gained from his experience as a psychoanalyst. Students learnt what dreams could tell us about our minds and were very engaged throughout the session, getting involved in a very thought provoking question and answer session at the end of the lecture. Many thanks to Stefan at the Freud Museum and to the fantastic A Level Psychology students!
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Year 7 Geography
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ear 7 Geographers have been getting to grips with a constantly changing environment – no, not that one! Speaking about the lessons, Head of Geography, Dr Preece explained: ‘As they’ve started their new unit of work on Weather and Climate, we’re encouraging them to get on to some great online resources to make
their own weather forecasts. ‘Using tools like earth.nullschool.net, students (and their parents, if they want!) can get live and instant access to all the world’s weather data, and now we’re starting to explain and understand what those shifting patterns and swirling winds might mean and cause. So, if you want to know what’s going on in the skies, and whether it will snow ... talk to our Year 7 students!’
SENIOR SCHOOL ONLINE
Year 8 Vampires Year 13 English Analysis
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arly this term, Year 13 completed reading their final set text for A Level Literature: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In one of their virtual lessons, the students ably presented their analysis of the seventh and final section of Coleridge’s spellbinding Romantic narrative poem. This was followed up by a lively debate in which they considered to what extent the shooting of the famous Albatross constitutes a true crime. Ms Butler explained: ‘It was brilliant to hear the students apply their knowledge of Eco-Literary Criticism when considering Coleridge’s presentation of humankind’s relationship with nature, in light of today’s climate crisis. The class have since followed up by writing an examination style essay which I look forward to reading. I have been so impressed by our examination classes’ resilience and adaptability when moving back to remote learning. Well done, Year 13!’
Year 10 Engineering & Year 12 Design Engineering
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his term, Year 10 Engineering students have been developing their own sensor circuits.
In Design Engineering, Year 12 have been completing their recycling projects.
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ear 8 have been learning about vampires in Gothic writing. After reading a description of Count Dracula, the students then put their artistic hats on and drew their impressions based on the writing, with some excellent results.
Year 10 Chemists
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ear 10 Chemists have been learning about metals and alloys this term, and to support their virtual learning they were asked to make replicas of the structures out of materials they could find at home.
Year 8 Digital postcards
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s part of a project on Digital Artwork, Year 8 have been learning about ‘Digital Compositing’. This is the practice of putting different images together into layers to create new images. The students learned how movie studios use compositing in special effects, such as using ‘green screens’ behind presenters to make adding new backgrounds easier. They then used an online graphics program – PIXLR – to select images, remove their old background, and collage them together into new images. The students were tasked with creating a postcard as an example project, and were encouraged to use their imaginations. To facilitate home learning as best as possible, the students all used free online tools, so the software could be accessed equally and only required a computer.
Virtual Music Concerts
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n Music, Key Stage 3 have been honing their composition skills using online sequencing software. Year 7 worked on their own Samba pieces, incorporating polyrhythms and ‘call and response’ into their work. Years 8 and 9 have been creating music using Soundtrap, with some students recording their own playing live and including these audios as part of their compositions. Throughout the remote learning period a number of successful virtual concerts have been compiled with outstanding submissions from Years 7 and 8, as well as a Scholars and Exhibitioners Concert and a Guitar Concert. If you missed these, all our concerts are available to watch on the St Dunstan’s YouTube channel. With performances involving drums, harp and guitar amongst other instruments, as well as some compositions by the students themselves, there is sure to be something for everyone!
Our GCSE and A Level students have been hard at work finalising their composition coursework. Students have used either Logic, Soundtrap or Sibelius to produce pieces in a range of styles including a String Trio, a Musical Theatre ballad, a piece for Latin-Jazz ensemble and a Drum and Bass track. Music Appreciation Club was formed at the beginning of the remote learning period and proved to be a roaring success. Students shared their favourite artists and composers and discussed the benefits of making and listening to music. In the final club meeting the students collaborated to produce a thorough and thought-provoking presentation on the power of music and provided listening recommendations to suit any mood. These can be found on our Instagram page, @stdunstansmusic.
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ART Celebrating Year 11 Artwork
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he art department is buzzing with our talented Year 11 GCSE students who are nearing the end of their course. They have been enthusiastically working towards final outcomes which truly reflect the diversity of our student body. It’s been a challenging year for them with lockdown and remote learning, but we’re proud of the resilience and progress our students have shown. Featured here are some of the fantastic work our Year 11s have been creating and a little bit about the concepts they are exploring in their own words. Aimie’s project about relationship has
focused on portraiture of her and her mother. Her expressive use colour and texture reflects her experiences and emotions around family relationships. Bella has been developing a textiles project around the use and design of Steam-Punk inspired PPE clothing and the concepts of escaping from reality. She has designed and printed her own fabrics using screen-printing and embroidery. Jay’s project revolves around the mixing of nature and technology, the real and the surreal. Their ultra-detailed drawing skills show reality with skewed details hidden throughout.
Women in Art ‘I was inspired by my focus on Cindy Sherman, to critique British society through prevalent stereotypes surrounding teenage girls, as this is most personable to myself. To do this, I developed 13 characters based on popular stereotypes, eg, “the party girl” “the nerdy girl”, “the sporty girl”, etc.’ – Megan, Year 13 ‘Society uses race to organise and justify systems of power, privilege, and oppression. Silence on race keeps us all from understanding and learning. Thus my investigation is to break this silence and transcend racial prejudices and stereotypes that society has constrained.’ – Zoe, Year 12 ‘I experimented with the use of scanography as a way of exaggerating the effects of distortion and deforming of a face to portray and communicate the suffocating effect of self-perception experienced through body dysmorphia.’ – Sophia, Year 13
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LAMDA
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eading from the front, a group of 30 girls in Years 10-13 have begun working remotely on a devised piece of altruistic devised theatre, which seeks to explore the challenging issues surrounding domestic violence. Reflecting upon the recent surge in cases as a result of lockdown, the students are working alongside a local charity and making use of Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale as their stimulus material. This is one that you won’t want to miss, with the production being directed by a year 13 student for the very first time. Keep your eyes and ears open for upcoming updates regarding performance dates.
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ver the lockdown period, LAMDA classes have been continuing remotely and all students have adapted wonderfully to working over the camera.
Lockdown Clubs
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ith the constraints and challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic proving no match for the resilience of the students at St Dunstan’s College, we are proud to state that progress in the Drama department continues at quite a pace!
DRAMA
Dance
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his term in Dance Year 7 & 8 have been developing and improving their confidence with picking up choreography, executing timing and making bold choices with improvisation. Not only have they worked on different dance styles, but they have also focused on stretching, flexibility, mobility, toning and strengthening along with improving stamina, ready for our return to the studio! Obviously dancing online has its limitations, but as a team, they have powered on through, had lots of fun and made lasting memories. Now, they are all looking forward to getting back into the studio so they can make use of the space for leaps and jumps!
At the start of the Lent term, Junior School pupils were introduced to a wide variety of new poetry including the works of Michael Rosen, A.A. Milne .. and Emily Bronte. After discussing and analysing their selected piece in detail, the pupils then began work on their performances. The children explored a variety of skills needed to engage an audience and practised using facial expressions and vocal expression (including pitch, pace and pause) to convey the different moods in their pieces. Over the half term break, pupils then recorded their performances for the LAMDA Showcase Video which will be shared with the wider school community at the end of March. The children have now begun selecting their chosen poems for the LAMDA examination in June. For the Senior (Grade 1-5) LAMDA Acting students, January began by reading through a selection of exam monologues from the ‘LAMDA Acting Anthology’. The scenes in here range from ‘Private Peaceful’ and ‘The Kite Runner’ to ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ and ‘His Dark Materials’ and all allow learners the opportunity to practise different techniques and explore a variety of characters and stories. Medal grade students, meanwhile, read through and explored a variety of modern ‘own choice’ exam monologues. After choosing their favourite pieces, all students began creating character profiles and scrutinising their scripts. All learners used Stanislavski’s 7 questions (Who am I? Where am I? What time is it? What do I want and why? How will I get there? What do I need to overcome?) to help understand their scenes in more depth. Once lines were learnt and characters established, students began staging their pieces in the performance space and bringing their scenes to life. This week, the Seniors have had lots of fun hot seating their characters in order to deepen their understanding of their characters even further.
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Year 3 Storyboards
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ear 3 have been working on storyboards, and investigating the world through shapes. ‘Year 3 practised their visual storytelling skills this week by creating impressive storyboards of Little Red Riding Hood. The children also investigated the world around them by experimenting with 2D and 3D shapes. Well done everyone!’ Miss Collard
JUNIOR SCHOOL ONLINE Reception Online
Mindfulness
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his term in the Junior School, pupils have been taking some time to relax and be mindful. The pupils onsite spent some time unwinding in the Drama studio, working on some yoga poses.
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upils in Reception enjoyed a wide range of virtual activities during the lockdown. They practised their number bonds with games like ‘Bears in a Cave’, answered Maths questions in the form of a quiz show, found time to go surfing during virtual ‘swim school’, built dens outdoors, and prepared for Chinese New Year.
Year 1 Houses
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fter learning about different types of houses from around the world in their IPC lessons, Year 1 have been super creative and made their own! The children used a range of materials and were able to recreate stilt houses, tipis, igloos and much more!
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Year 5 IPC Existing, Endangered, Extinct
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he Year 5 IPC topic for this half term is ‘Existing, Endangered, Extinct’, and as part of this topic pupils have been learning about the classification of living things. After studying the platypus, which stumped taxonomists for many years as it displays features of a mammal, a reptile and a bird, the pupils were tasked with designing and making their own ‘Curious Creatures’ with some wonderful results. From an ‘EleFish’ to a ‘Girroctopus’ we had some brilliantly creative designs and makes.
Year 3 & 5 Instrumental Concert
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rs Smith was really impressed with some of the artwork that was produced during virtual learning. The creativity of pupils was fantastic and some super pieces in a whole range of media were produced from salt dough snakes in Year 3, to 3D cardboard portraits in Year 6 as well as artwork made from rubbish inspired by contemporary artist, Simone Spicer. Children also practised their drawing and painting skills. A fantastic effort!
e had a great selection of performances from our pupils in the Junior School, Year 3 & 5 Instrumental Concert. The event showed off some serious lockdown practice and I am sure brightened many people’s days! As we all know by now, performing in front of a video camera can be daunting, but our lovely performers took this in their stride, looking smart and playing confidently. Well done to all those involved!
Year 1 Vegetable Art
World Book Day
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ear 1 pupils have been creating colourful artwork inspired by Giuseppe Arcimboldo. Arcimboldo was an Italian painter who was best known for his imaginative portrait heads that were made entirely of objects such as fruits, vegetables and flowers.
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he College celebrated World Book Day with a variety of fun virtual activities. Ms Collard created a ‘Shelfie’ Quiz as part of Literacy Week; the students had to guess which teacher the bookshelves belonged to. In the Junior School, the pupils had a House competition where they were asked to make a book trailer promoting a favourite book of theirs to encourage others to read it. Year 4 had a fun emoji book title quiz, where they had to guess the names of the book the set of emojis represented. Year 1 enjoyed dressing up for Form Time. They showcased their favourite books through their outfits, using props, and bringing clues. Later, the pupils enjoyed a masterclass by illustrator Lydia Monks. Inspired by her work, they created their own picture book theatres based on their class book Man on the Moon. They then used the picture book
The Pre-Prep pupils had a great time making their portraits with the fruit and vegetables including apples, oranges, carrots and peppers.
theatres to perform the alternative ending to the story that they had written in their English lessons that week.
Head of Pre-Prep, Mrs Rogers said: ‘We were so impressed with these fabulous pieces made from fruit and vegetables the children had found at home.’
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‘Worms’ lesson
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tilising their woodland classroom, our Nursery pupils have been learning all about worms.
NURSERY ACTIVITIES Nursery Woodland Classroom
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ith most of the College working and learning from home, our Nursery pupils made the most of having the site to themselves. The pupils have been enjoying their woodland classroom, making dens and menus for their mud kitchen cafe.
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Nursery pupils began to brighten up the woodland classroom. The pupils created colourful flowers which are on display in the woodland area. The children were also very excited to find frogs, frogspawn and newts in the pond.
In the classroom they have been talking about worms and reading about worms. They also got the chance to go outside and search for worms, looking under logs and digging through the dirt to find their hiding places. The children have progressed from finding and observing them to picking them up and finding ‘safe’ homes for them. They have also been writing a book about worms, using lots of describing words. Back inside, the children made their own wiggly worms using pipe cleaners and sticks, and took them home to share with their families.
Learning about Birds
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hen the snow melted, our Nursery pupils continued to enjoy a variety of lessons outside. The pupils noticed that the woodland classroom was a bit noisier ... some birds have started to move in. They found a magpie building its nest, and this led to a discussion about different types of birds. The pupils then made a class book about some of the birds they know.
Fun in the snow
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n January, Nursery pupils traded in playing with mud for playing with snow. They had fun making snowballs, drawing pictures in the snow, and enjoyed painting the snow different colours. They were particularly fascinated by the physical changes in the pond as it froze over. They experimented with throwing snow onto the top of the pond and watching how the snow changed.
Nursery Hair Salon
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f anyone has been despairing at the state of their lockdown locks, the Nursery children have a solution: The St Dunstan’s Outdoor Salon. The children created their own
However, worms were still high on the agenda for the Nursery pupils. After learning how worms move, the children became very concerned about their welfare in the snowy weather. They did some investigating and learnt how the worms keep themselves safe and warm on cold days.
hairdressing salon, discussing how they want their hair to be styled and making appointments among themselves.
World Book Day
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ursery pupils had a fantastic time celebrating World Book Day. The pupils came well prepared to go on a Bear Hunt, with nets, binoculars and magnifying glasses. They started the day with a bear-themed Music lesson with Mrs Marcinkiewicz. They made their very own bear ears, and then set off for an adventure. The pupils acted out the story across the field, stopping to search for bear prints and clues. The day was concluded with some bear face painting and the pupils enjoyed the opportunity to roar their way through the afternoon. www.stdunstans.org.uk
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VIRTUAL FORDER ACTIVITIES House Baking Competition
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ouse Events took a remote twist in the Lent term, but that did not stop the Junior School pupils getting stuck into the House Challenges more than ever! In the Junior School House Bake Off challenge, pupils were tasked with making cakes and bakes that represented their House by colour, shape or other creative manner. The efforts were fantastic and with over a hundred entries, the results were very close. However, with the most entries Forder came out on top after dazzling us with a variety of red creations. Well done to everybody who entered!
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Forder Photography Club
ONCE ON THIS ISLAND The KS3 Musical
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espite lockdown, snow and the challenges of performing online, the key stage 3 musical, ‘Once On This Island’, launched with a splash of Caribbean sunshine during the Lent term. Over 50 students from Year 7– 9 took part in workshops via Microsoft Teams to learn dance, singing and acting selections from the show ready for the College’s first ever virtual auditions. By the time of publication the cast list for the production, which will be staged as part of this year’s Festival, will have been announced.
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ver the course of remote learning, students kept up their creative flair through KS3 Photography Club, producing such wide-ranging, exciting images. Students were asked to respond to a different theme each week, from The Great Outdoors to Rainbow, and encouraged to explore the possibilities of lighting, colour and composition. Lockdown limitations were no barrier in creating experimental and imaginative photographic work.
‘Once On This Island’ is a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Little Mermaid’, set in the islands of the Western Antilles. The show is energetic and colourful but most importantly, explores the concept of what makes us
different and how love and compassion can cross all boundaries between us. Rehearsals are taking place as part of the Summer Forder Programme and are introducing students to new styles of music and dance. The production is a collaboration between the Drama and Music department, directed by Mr Gregg, Musical Direction by Ms Money and Choreography by Mr Everson. We are so excited to be staging this show as it is a real ensemble piece of theatre where the whole cast really gets to tell the story. The talented cast are supported by an equally talented group of students who are working on the technical aspects of the show, from lighting and sound to props and costumes. Tickets will be on sale shortly and we look forward to performing once again to live audiences.
Junior School Drama
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upils across the Junior School have not been deterred by lockdown and have continued to express their theatrical and creative talents. As part of the Forder programme, children have practised performance poetry, re-imagined their favourite story in two-minute masterpieces, honed their puppetry-making and costume design skills, as well as rehearsed the art of storytelling. Rehearsals are about to start in earnest for the showcases across Years 3, 4 and 5, not to mention the Year 6 production, which is getting up on its feet ready for the fabulous opening night of the St Dunstan’s Festival. www.stdunstans.org.uk
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VIRTUAL TRIPS & EVENTS Red Nose Day The College marked Red Nose Day on Friday 19 March. To celebrate the annual event, students and staff wore the colour red and raised £575 for the charity.
Creative Earth competition
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e have now received all Junior School entries for the Creative Earth Competition, which runs across the College. The pupils were asked to design and draw their vision for the world of the future, focusing on the environmental changes they would want to see. These have been sent into the UN Climate Change Conference competition to be in with the chance of being shared with world leaders when they meet in Glasgow in November. Junior School teacher, Mr May, commented: ‘Fingers crossed someone from the College may be chosen!’
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"Clearer skies, more wildlife and no plastic in the sea."
Virtual Amazing Animals day
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o mark Virtual Amazing Animals Day, Year 5 pupils travelled (virtually) across the world to learn about animals. The first stop was Edinburgh Zoo, where the pupils did live animal sketching at feeding time. Then it was a hop over to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California where they peered through the glass into the shark lagoon and the tropical underwater caverns. Pupils came dressed and ready for their day ‘out’ in their finest animal costumes and joined in all the activities, including the snack time challenge and furry form time, with so much enthusiasm. The wonderful day ‘out’ was rounded off with a hilarious quiz. Let’s just say if you ever get trapped in the wild and need to identify animals by the droppings they leave behind, just call on Year 5.
Pre-prep Virtual Legoland
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n Friday 12 February, at the end of an enormously successful half term of remote learning, children in the Pre-Prep enjoyed a Virtual School Trip to Legoland. Despite the restrictions, the pupils packed their bags and their imaginations for a day ‘out’. The children started their day with a virtual tour and treasure hunt, before having the opportunity to choose from a range of exciting, creative activities set by all of the Pre-Prep teachers. From Lego inspired bakes, art and code breaking, to design and build challenges and stop-start animations, it was an absolutely fantastic day (unsurprisingly, seeing as ‘everything is awesome’ at Legoland!).
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SPORTING HIGHLIGHTS Here are some of our highlights and sporting achievements this term:
Over 90 hours of Strength and Conditioning delivered to students across Years 7-11, getting all of our students moving well and staying healthy, active and happy! 40 morning ‘move and groove’ fitness sessions delivered to the whole Junior School. Over 55 Forder sessions delivered to students in Taekwondo, Aquatics, Strength and Conditioning and GCSE PE, providing the breadth of which we are so proud! Over 30 minutes of inspirational talks from our Student Athletes, as part of our ‘Life as a student athlete at SDC’ series on Instagram. Over 70 hours of online netball and football resources produced on Firefly for games. Over 30 Netball, Hockey and Cricket fun lockdown activity videos produced, to further our students’ skillset, alongside 8 Beat the Desk mobility sessions to support their health and wellbeing too. 6 weekly HIIT videos produced to keep all students active and engaged during games sessions. 28 International Athletes got involved to send messages of motivation and inspiration to our community. 14 Runners entered into the London Schools Athletics Association Cross Country. 18
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STRAVA RUN
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uring the first half of the Lent term when the country was in a national lockdown, St Dunstan’s pupils, parents, family members and pets took part in our community wide walk/bike/run competition. Although we set our sights on getting to St Dunstan’s College in Johannesburg, SA, via different places that we had visited on various sports tours over the years, our real goal was to help motivate the St Dunstan’s community to keep physically active during this time. Our journey travelling 12860.6km took us from: Week 1. London > France > Belgium > Holland > Belgium > Luxembourg Week 2. Luxembourg > France > Andorra > Spain Week 3. Spain > Morroco > Algeria (In Salah) Week 4. Algeria > Niger > Nigeria (Kano) Week 5. Nigeria > Cameroon > Republic of Congo (Liouesso - near Odzala-Kokoua National Park) Week 6 and over Half Term. Republic of Congo > Democratic Republic of Congo > Angola > Namibia > Botswana > South Africa (Johannesburg) The challenge saw members of the St Dunstan’s community exercising individually or encouraging other family members to join them, in walking, running or cycling for their school House, for the College, for their family and for themselves. On the journey, we saw a huge variety of achievements such as: • • • • • •
Seeing people go for their first ever run and managing their first km without stopping. Completing distance challenges like couch to 5k, or even a half marathon. (Sam in Year 11, who completed his first ever half marathon in a fantastic time of 1h 40m.) Learning to ride bikes, or going for long cycle rides with family and friends. Using long solitary walks to get some headspace away from home after a long day. Pupils asking family members to accompany them on walks, runs or cycles. Family members returning the favour when pupils needed some motivating.
We saw the competition snowball in popularity as increasing numbers of people learned the indisputable value of exercise for physical and mental wellbeing, at a time when we have needed it the most. We sincerely hope that these levels of exercise and good habits do continue after lockdown ends and we thank everyone for their efforts in engaging in this huge challenge. And for all those competitive people out there, here are the final standings of the walk/bike/ run competition: Forder - 3752.3km
Usherwood - 3432.5km
Hecker - 3371km
Stuart - 2304.8km
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WEEKLY THEMES LGBTQ+ WEEK
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n early February we celebrated LGBTQ+ week as one of our weekly themes, recognising February as LGBTQ+ History Month. We celebrated with a variety of virtual events, including a special assembly on diversity and inclusivity from the Headmaster, themed lessons, such as Year 12 Spanish students giving presentations on the LGBTQ+ community in the Hispanic world, and an LGBTQ+ Art competition. For LGBTQ+ week, students in the Senior School were challenged to create their own rainbow-themed artwork, using the Pride flag as their starting point, with the aim of celebrating diversity and inclusivity. There were in keeping with the theme, ‘no rules, just inclusivity!’ We received dozens of entries across the College and commend the efforts of all who took part. We are delighted to announce that the winner of this competition is Joe, in Year 9 (top left), and the runner-up is Julia, in Year 8 (far right).
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International Women’s Day
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n March, the College marked International Women’s Day. In the Junior School, pupils started the weeklong celebrations with a special assembly led by Mrs Carmichael-Line, introducing the origins of International Women’s Day and reminding pupils that the smallest action can be the start of something great. The assembly featured a number of Junior school teachers sharing stories of inspirational women including members of our families alongside more famous faces.
STEM week cake competition
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or STEM week, the College hosted a virtual cake competition. Students were tasked with creating scientifically themed cakes – the more real the better! All the entries displayed incredible creativity and scientific knowledge. First prize went to Myriam (top left), whose cake was a cross-section of the skin and even had blood vessels in the form of jelly sweets. Second prize went jointly to Florence (top right), whose cake represented a strand of DNA, and Misty (right), whose cake was Chemistry-based and represented elements of the periodic table. Well done to all!
Meanwhile, in the Senior School, the achievements of women were celebrated on the video wall. Students and staff submitted images and information about women who inspired them and we have shared their stories as a community. This included wonderful stories of family members, activists, politicians, writers, artists, musicians and women in STEM. One of our Year 12 students told us about his mother; her work as a nurse, her life as a single black mother and how she has inspired him to see that anything is possible with a resilient and positive mindset. Mrs McLellan led Senior School assembly and spoke about how we can choose to challenge gender bias within politics and leadership.
Nursery Rainbows
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ursery children at St Dunstan’s arrived at school on the Monday following the news of Headmaster’s senior assembly with colourful rainbows.
big thank you. I was really touched to hear how parents wanted to show their support, and I have been truly overwhelmed by the response.’
Speaking about the kind gesture, Mr Hewlett said: ‘It was absolutely lovely to receive the photos of the Nursery children arriving to school with their rainbows. I can’t wait to be back on site properly and attend one of their morning assemblies to say a
Nursery teacher, Ms Kirsty Leane added: ‘It was such a heartfelt and kind gesture, and I felt rather emotional seeing the children arrive with the rainbows. We had no idea it was going to happen and shows the impact of the Headmaster’s assembly.’ www.stdunstans.org.uk
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Stanstead Road, London SE6 4TY Charity number: 312747 A co-educational, independent College for ages 3 to 18 www.stdunstans.org.uk 020 8516 7200
THE SHIELD I LENT NEWSLETTER 2021