EYFS Best Practice at Castle View

Castle View Primary School and Nursery have recently featured in Nursery World Magazine as a case study for EYFS Best Practice. You can read the article in full at Nursery World

QEGS receives accolade

Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School has been named ‘The Sunday Times East Midlands State Secondary School of the Year’ based on the top grades achieved at both GCSE and A-level. Read more

Charity Fundraising

We’re supporting the charity ‘Cardiac Risk in the Young’ and raising money for the ‘Bethany Mycroft Memorial Fund’ which will help to fund screening events, and allow us to host our own local screening event for 14-35 year olds. (More info about CRY: www.c-r-y.org.uk)

Student and staff runners are taking part in the Wirksworth Tunnels and Trails 10K run along the High Peak Trail, or the 2.6km Fun Run. Schools are also running their own fundraising events in school on the 12th June.

QUESTION: how much can we raise together for charity? How can we do it? EXPLORE the options – will it be a 10K, a fun run, a cake sale, a sponsored silence?! GIVE it your all, and we’ll SUCCEED!

Donate via our Virgin Money page:https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/QEGSMAT


Bethany’s Memorial Fund

Bethany’s cause of death was described as a young sudden adult death. Following a post mortem and enhanced testing through the support of Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) and Specialist CRY Centre for Inherited Cardiac Conditions at St George’s Hospital in London cascade family screening was carried out and it was identified that her Maternal Grandfather, Mother and Maternal Auntie have Brugada Syndrome. Therefore, as a result of the family history now being known, Professor Sharma (Consultant Cardiologist for the CRY Centre) has concluded that this was the cause of Bethany passing away.

We have now held 8 screening days since 2017 and on receipt of recent information Bethany’s Memorial Fund has now screened 907 young people and 75 young people have been referred on wards for further investigations. Due to data protection and confidentiality we do not receive any further information.

The process involves us liaising with CRY to book screening dates. Due to demand for screening dates the lead in time for this is often 12-18 months.

Once we have secured a date/dates and secured a venue we spend time liaising with CRY’s screening coordinator regarding the suitability of the venue. Once this has been confirmed we then have to arrange floor plans and venue audits to be returned to the CRY coordinator.

We then get informed when the appointments go live (usually 2 months before the event) and then these are promoted via Bethany’s memorial fund. As a fund we choose to lock down the appointments so that local people have access to making appointments. The appointments are monitored very closely and usually depending on uptake they may get promoted nationally by CRY.

On the run up to the event the screening coordinator liaises with ourselves regarding the practical arrangements (opening times, local facilities etc) for the team.

The CRY team comprises of a driver, a screening manager, 5 screeners and a cardiologist. It is important to highlight that the team is made up entirely of volunteers with the exception of the driver and cardiologist who are the only funded personnel. The volunteers are NHS staff (trained in ECG/Echos) who donate their time.

The evening before the event the CRY team usually travel up to Chesterfield and stay in Chesterfield for the whole weekend. The Driver (transports all of the ECG machines and equipment) liaise with ourselves to inform us that the CRY van has arrived in Chesterfield.

On the day of our events the CRY team meet the fundraising team at the venue.

When young people arrive for screening they are greeted by the screening manager and booked in. Their height and weights are recorded and they are then taken through for their ECG test. Every young person’s ECG is interpreted by The Cardiologist on the same day. The cardiologist will decide if a cardiac echo is required. If an echo is required the young person will receive an echo on the same day and the results of this is also interpreted on the same day. Every young person leaves our event knowing if their tests are normal or whether an onward referral is needed. The events run from 09.00hrs to 16.30hrs.

During our screening events we also do some fundraising to help raise funds towards hosting our next event.

Waterhouses CE Primary Academy hits the Gold Standard!

We are delighted to announce that Waterhouses CE Primary Academy have achieved the School Games Gold Mark Award for the 2017/18 academic year. This builds on the success of the Silver Award achieved in 2016/17.

The School Games Mark is a Government led award scheme launched in 2012, facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust to reward schools for their commitment to PE and Sport and the development of competition across their school and into the community, and we are delighted that Waterhouses have been recognised for their success.

With a total of 62 young people from the school competing in local inter-school competitions this year, we are extremely proud of the pupils for their dedication to all aspects of school sport.
The school have been strong contenders in a diverse range of sporting competitions throughout the year including Tag Rugby, Hockey, Football, Benchball, Rounders, Cross Country, Tri-Golf and Athletics. Waterhouses are also proud winners of the KS2 Inter school Cricket competition.

Part of the application was to fulfil criteria in the areas of participation, engagement, competition, workforce and clubs, and we are pleased that the hard work of everyone at the school has been rewarded this year.

A special thanks to: Mr Walker for all his hard work in taking the lead on this, ably supported by Miss Hall, Mrs Bradbury and Mrs Lockey, and all other staff who have helped with the sports activities; inter school sports organisers Ms Batigan and Ms Jennings and the young volunteers, leaders, and officials from Senior schools who make our competitions possible; and our coaches who deliver our excellent after-school clubs: Peter and Helen Johnson, Adrian Warwas and Darren Gordon.

We would also like to thank the parents and carers for their continued support.

Springfield Spring Half Term

There’s been lots going on at Springfield this half term –  Download our photo round-up

CoDA Spring Newsletter

CoDA celebrate the many successes from the Spring Term.  CoDA-Newsletter-March-2018

QEGS March Newsletter

Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School – read the second edition of QEGS Press! Having been relaunched – a new team of dedicated Sixth Form students write and edit the pressing questions of this publication QEGS-Press-March-2018

CoDA Debating Team Success

City of Derby Academy win the Derby and District Law Society Debating Competition

We are delighted and immensely proud of our City of Derby Academy Year 10 debating team who have won the Derby City debating competition. The team of Connie S, Amrit A, Simran A and Mohsin A fought off tough competition in the final to remain unbeaten for the whole year.

The final was judged by John Whitby – Mayor of Derby, Simon Stevens – President of Derby and District Law Society (DDLS) and Sue Jennings who is Head of Law at Derby University and they were all impressed with the quality of the preparation, research, logical reasoning and delivery of the debate.

The team are a credit to the school and themselves and they have made us all so very very proud.

Welcome to Castle View

Springfield Autumn Half Term

There’s been lots going on at Springfield this half term –  Download our photo round-up