News @ The Dixie Christmas 2014

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From the

Headmaster

Dear Parents and Friends of the School,

he talk at the end of term, apart from Christmas lists of course, is inevitably snow,

and the Internal Concert. Snow can be a blessing as well as a curse, but thanks to

the extraordinary efforts of our Sixth Form the internal concert was a huge success – a

really fitting end to a long Term.

It was ably compèred by

Liam Reynish and Ben

Payne, and contained a mix

of singing, gymnastics,

video clips and ghost

hunting. It was my first

experience of what in the

past has been dubbed ‘the

infernal concert’, and along

with the rest of the School,

I enjoyed every minute.

Earlier in the week, we were

thrilled to welcome Mr Graham

Rowntree, England forwards’

coach to put our rugby teams

through their paces. Graham

took time out of his busy

training schedule with the

International Team to visit us,

to the obvious delight of the

pupils. More picture are

available on our new website –

www.dixie.org.uk .

Our Sport provision was recognised by an ISA

National Award last year, and the range and quality

of participation has been impressive this term. As

well as assistant coach Mr Rowntree (!), we have

also had Mr Paul Walsh (Director of Rugby at

Hinckley Rugby Club) coming into school to help

with the rugby development of our pupils. He will

also be running an after school session in the spring

term for any interested pupils.

Our Senior boys won the ISA Midlands swimming competition overall, a feat repeated

by the U15 boys. Our individual qualifiers for the Nationals at the London Olympic Pool

in January are:

Edward Dyer – Breaststroke, medley relay

Joe Grainger – Individual Freestyle, Freestyle relay

Joe Robertson – Individual Backstroke, medley relay

Ryan Gordon – Freestyle relay, medley relay (Fly)

T

News @ The Dixie Christmas 2014

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Eleanor Partridge – Medley relay (Fly)

Oliver Crane – has qualified for the

nationals through the junior ISA gala

Many congratulations to all our swimmers,

and we will be there in January at the

Olympic Pool to cheer you on!

Our after school sports training sessions and clubs continue to be really well attended

by boys and girls from year 6 to the Sixth Form - Monday football, Tuesday & Thursday

Hockey practices and Wednesday touch rugby.

Huge congratulations also go to Nathan Banton (year 10) who has recently been on

trial at Walsall FC Academy and has since been signed for their under 15s team. Ryan

Clark in year 7 has also been signed for the Burton Albion Under 12 Academy. It really

is fantastic to see our boys doing so well in their football outside of school.

The value added to each student at The Dixie is a real feature of the education here. All

pupils sit an external test in year 7 and the score in this test is turned into a series of

GCSE predictions against which our results can be measured. The tests are organised

by the NFER – National Foundation for Educational Research and the value we add is

compared to all schools nationally. Across the board, and on the basis of last summer’s

GCSE results we average +0.67 – taking into account ability, pupils achieve two-thirds

of a grade higher on average in every single GCSE exam taken compared to other

schools. GCSE AS and A2 results are available to view on our new website.

I hope you have taken the time to visit our

fantastic new website? If not, please do! Staff

email addresses are included on it, as a direct

response to comments in the parent survey and

can be found at

https://dixiegrammar.fluencycms.co.uk/Staff-

email-addresses, or under the ‘contact us’

section on the left hand side menu. The

website is continually updated and has a rolling

‘News’ section on the front page as well as

rolling ‘Images of the Week’. Pictures of the

Christmas celebrations at both schools are on

the website now, as well as pictures of the Year

Six Harry Potter trip! If there are any features

or information that you would like to see on

the website, please do pass your suggestions to

me – head@dixie.org.uk . AS a mathematician, I

always reach for numbers and since going live just

over a week ago, our website has had over 10000

hits across 22 countries!

One casualty of the new website will be the printed calendar. There will be no calendar

printed for next term and all dates are displayed on the calendars on the website. For

From the

Headmaster

News @ The Dixie Christmas 2014

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those who prefer the printed version, these will be available on request from

Reception in the New Year. Please note that important dates for parents are included

in this newsletter on the left hand side of the final page.

The musical culmination of the Term

were the two Carol services in St.

Peter’s Church in which the School

Orchestra and various choirs

performed and in which pupils and

staff read lessons. It was a magical

service and our thanks must go to Mrs

Ennis, Mrs Smaditch and all the

musicians in the school for giving us

such a wonderful musical treat.

We verymuch look forward to

‘Joseph’ next Term and it has

been wonderful to hear

rehearsals starting for what is

bound to be another knockout

Dixie musical event. The

retiring collection from the

Carol Service raised £250 for

Diabetes UK – a charity so close

to our hearts this year.

Whilst talking of Charity, the various fundraising efforts lead by the students and Miss

Fatima this Term have been outstanding. In total, we have raised over £1400 this

Term, including £685 for Movember, the money for which hhas been passed to

PROSTaid, a local charity. Many thanks to you all for your support.

Thanks also to Mr Mackley and Lucy Ibbetson for their photographic support this Term,

in the Carol Service and in various other events. Mr Mackley’s photographs can be

seen at http://www.photoluminati.com/dixie .

In my End of Term assembly I was able to reflect on the myriad of events and student

successes this Term and had so many awards to give out to students, we over-ran by

half an hour! I presented awards for music composition, sports, maths senior

challenge success, art, individual instrumental music exams, maths primary challenge

success, refereeing, but also awards to the form with the best average effort – 8S were

the lucky recipients of chocolate on this occasion!

From the

Headmaster

News @ The Dixie Christmas 2014

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From the

Headmaster

magnificently at the Parents’ Association Christmas Party. I received many emails

containing a similar sentiment to this one: ‘The students serving were an amazing

reflection on the Dixie’. Petra and I were at the evening and we too, left feeling very

proud.

The much awaited House update was also given at the final assembly – for sports this

term, Lancaster House receive 9 points and York House, 7. The average number of

credits in each section have been calculated by Miss Entwisle and her amazing

spreadsheet and York get 10 points, Lancaster 5. The overall totals for the Autumn

Term are therefore, York 17, Lancaster 14. We look forward to the new House event

early next Term – the House Quiz. As I suggested to students, if they do happen to get

a general knowledge quiz book for Christmas, they should consider getting in some

early practise!

Ruth Hope was presented with her

award for coming first nationally in the

ISA Art competition for her piece ‘Who

Killed the General?’. There is no doubt

that the quality of the Art in school is

amazing, but Mr Bailey and Mrs Knight

are always happy to have external

verification of the fact!

Also this Term the local round of

the Rotary Club Young Chef was

contested and Amy Hemsworth,

Rubie Milne, Emma Rudge and

Maddy Kirk made it through to

the final. Judges included Petra

and I, Mrs Mallard and Rotary

Club judges and the standard in

the four 2-course meals was

exceptionally high.

Many congratulations to Maddy,

who will go on to the District

Final to be held on Saturday 7th

February 2015 at The Samworth

Enterprise Academy, Leicester.

The top of the bench competition is organised by the Royal society of chemistry and

our team, Christian Smaditch, George Bacon, Eniola Awodiya and Zach Gauhar had

their spirits livened by an interesting car journey to the venue with Mr Hamson where

he profoundly broadened their knowledge of the histories of nearby mine and quarry

regions. We secured an amazing first placed beating Loughborough Grammar and

Ratcliffe college – and therefore the team move forward to the Regional Round to be

held on 10 January 2015 at Derby University. Congratulations to all team members!

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Our combined efforts and Mrs

Oliver’s and Mrs Scott’s wrapping

skills ensured that 90 shoeboxes

were sent to the Phillipines as part

of the shoebox appeal – our

biggest toal to date. Charlie Beck

in Year 7 deserves a special

mention for bringing in over 20

completed shoeboxes single-

handedly!

Next Term we look forward to visits from Hungarians from the Moricz Szigmond

School, Dunaujvaros, Hungary with whom we have long-standing links. There are 24

students coming over and we would be most grateful for offers to host. Several

parents have already kindly volunteered but we are still very much in need of host

families. If you are able to offer hospitality for one or two students please either reply

by e-mail to music@dixie.org.uk.

Steve Green and Leigh Chapman are very much in need of old towels with which to

wipe down their various machines at our Sports ground in Barton Road. If Father

Christmas brings you towels of any kind, would you please consider bring the old ones

to Reception? Steve and Leigh would be most grateful!

We will be running our very popular Sports Camps again in the February half term –

Wednesday and Thursday the 18th

and 19th

February from 8.30am until 4pm. To

reserve a place, please contact Martin Roe as soon as possible, at bursar@dixie.org.uk.

Our Entrance Examination will take place on Saturday 17th

January 2015 starting at

9am and the dealine for bursary applications is 31 December 2014. The dealine date

for Music Scholarship applications is Thursday 29 January 2015 and auditions will be

held on Thursday 5 February 2015.

We are always looking for ways to extend the

opportunities available to students here, and a good

example of that this Term is our new provision of the

Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award this term. I am very

keen that you as parents should be as involved as

possible in life at the Senior School. With your

collective expertise, the range and scope of the

experiences we offer can be massively increased. If

you are ex-Army, a lapsed mountain leader or climber

or canoeist, ex hockey, rugby or netball player, or just

have time to be involved and you would be willing to

help, please get in contact. If you run your own

business our Business Studies department would love

to hear from you.Whatever your particular interest,

skill or just enthusiasm, if you are willing to be involved

in a way that could enrich the experience of your sons

and daughters and their friends, please do get in

contact with me (head@dixie.org.uk).

From the

Headmaster

Sat 17 Jan

9 am

Entrance

Exam

Weds 28 Jan

7pm

GCSE info

evening

(Yr9)

Tues 3 Feb

5pm

Year 8

Parents’

Evening

Thurs 12

Feb

11.30am

House

Swimming

Gala

Thurs 5

March

5pm

Year 10

Parents’

and

Students’

Evening

Tues 10

March 7pm

Higher

Education

Evening

(Yr12)

Thurs 12

March-Sat

14 March

7.30pm

JOSEPH!

Tues 17

March

6.30pm

Year 6

Inventions

Evening

Tues 24

March

5pm

Year 9

Parents’

and

Students’

Evening

Fri 27 March Term Ends

Mr Burns, just before the

Movember shave off!

News @ The Dixie Christmas 2014

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From the

Headmaster

Sat 17 Jan

9 am

Entrance

Exam

Weds 28 Jan

7pm

GCSE info

evening

(Yr9)

Tues 3 Feb

5pm

Year 8

Parents’

Evening

Thurs 12

Feb

11.30am

House

Swimming

Gala

Thurs 5

March

5pm

Year 10

Parents’

and

Students’

Evening

Tues 10

March 7pm

Higher

Education

Evening

(Yr12)

Thurs 12

March-Sat

14 March

7.30pm

JOSEPH!

Tues 17

March

6.30pm

Year 6

Inventions

Evening

Tues 24

March

5pm

Year 9

Parents’

and

Students’

Evening

Fri 27 March Term Ends

We have all been most impressed by the standards of appearance during this first term

and thank you all for your support in ensuring we maintain such high standards. Please

do remind your sons and daughters to keep experimental hairstyles/colours etc to the

holidays!

For now, all that is left is for me to thank you for your support this Term and to wish

you all a peaceful, restful and very Happy Christmas.

With my best wishes,

Newly refurbished

6th

Form House

Tim Lockwood at the

PTA funded sound desk