DSMS as an Acadamey: One Year On

This time last year as nearly everyone will know is that they were some radical changes to the school.

The main one which took place was that the school became an academy. With this came new advantages and connections for the school. The type of advantages I am talking about is that the school is now free from the government to make more decisions concerning both us and the school. Also due to becoming an academy we became a part of Longfield Trust. Longfield trust has developed from the school which at the same time as us became an academy. This academy was name Longfield sports Academy. Since we were made into an academy our results have improved and where once we were in special measures we have now achieve beating even Carmel to the top spot on the Value added League for schools in Darlington and into the top one hundred in the country. This is an improvement for nearly everyone in their eyes which is well deserved thanks to both the hard work of the staff and pupils of DSMS.

By Katie Appleyard

Enrichment Week 2013

Update 1 - 12/3/2013
Yesterday it was the beginning of Enrichment week 2013 and a number of trips departed. The trip to the Hancock museum at Newcastle left at nine thirty and a class of pupils went for a tour around the museum where they learnt about animals that camouflage. There was even time for a walk around Newcastle before the day was over.
There was also a delicious trip to the Cadburys factory in Liverpool where pupils went to see how the famous Dairy Milk is made.
A 3 day trip to London also departed early this morning and so did adventure trip to Kingswood in Yorkshire.

Update 2- 13/3/2013
Yesturday the LSB (Learning Support Base) finally went to Namco Funscape in the Metro Centre. This trip was open to all years but mostly years 7-9 went on the trip. They left at 9.00am and came back at 3.10pm. During their visit they had 2 games of bowling and a buffet. Folowing that they had a game on the bumper cars and then on the amusements. Finally they went shopping with those with remaining cash and then they came back to Darlington. This evening the london trip people arrived back in Darlington
By Adam Plumb

Update 3
The Kingswood Trip are still in Yorkshire doing fun activities and are due to come back on Friday the 15th of March.
By Adam Plumb

Photos from Enrichment Week 2013 here: https://plus.google.com/photos/104890124515565752627/albums/5855524995857598897

BBC School Report Practice Day

On Friday 15^th February 2013 it was a practice day for BBC School report.

If you don’t already know, BBC School report is a day where schools around the UK produce a school news show for the BBC and publish it on their school website.

Instead of filming the standard Wyvern TV format we decided to do a new style where we all sat around a table and discussed topics in the news.

We started off the day with a meeting where we decided who was doing what jobs and who was reporting on what and then at 10:30am we started filming. This continued for the next 2 hours. Unfortunately we didn’t realise that the microphone James was wearing was turned all the way up. This meant that even when we reduced the volume of his voice in post-production it was still extremely muffled and almost impossible to understand.

Nevertheless we kept James and his lines in the show but they sound disappointing due to the technical difficulties.

Since we had a strict timescale to finish the episode everything wasn’t perfect meaning that we hadn’t checked through it all which unfortunately meant that the transitions are not smooth and there are random bits where nobody is sure what is going on.

Despite all of these problems the format and set of the show were outstanding, everyone knew in detail what they were reporting on and almost everybody was extremely comfortable on screen.

In conclusion, all the Wyvern team learnt a lot from this practice news day and our filming skills will be perfected by the actual school report day in March.

Wyvern TV #9

Wyvern TV #8 Outtakes

Chris Cook Interview

Chris Cook, an athlete who competed for us in the 2008 Olympics, came into school in 2012 to hold a private fitness lesson with selected pupils and open the brand new swimming pool. He is now an ambassador for a Sky Sports campaign set up to change sports throughout areas for students. I interviewed him when he came into school.

Q. So Chris, what inspired you to become a swimmer?
A: When I was younger, I watched the 1988 Olympics and after that, parents, friends and teachers were a big part of it.

Q. Have you always wanted to be a swimmer, or did you have another career in mind?
A. When I was younger I had family members who were bus drivers, and I thought that was really cool at the time, so I wanted to do that first, but then watching the Olympics, I was inspired by the athletes and I wanted to be like them.

Q. Do you have a favorite stroke, and if so, what is it and why?
A. My favorite stroke is the breast stroke, because I had a fun time swimming it, and it was also the only one I could do.

By Rebecca Parkinson

The Wyvern in 2013

Wyvern TV #8

Christmas

Now as you will all know we have just exactly seven days until we break up for the holidays. But until then we have a few things left here at DSMS to look foreward to. One of them is Christmas dinner next Tuesday lunchtime. We have a menu for it which will make everyones mouth water however we will be releasing it onto the blg later on with reviews form both students and teachers on there. Also we will be releasing the next episiode of the Wyvern which will be full of 2012 cheer and liam's bad christmas jokes.  Now we hope that you have enjoyed the last year with the Wyvern and we hope that you will continue following us over the christmas as we have some great things to come. If not we hope to blog to you when we come back in January.

We Wish you a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year! 

DSMS Prize Giving Evening

I recently attended the DSMS awards giving evening, a night when a number of awards were given out to past and present students. Martin Grey was the award-giver and also the guest speaker. Students of all year groups won awards and GCSE students who were also present, received their certificates. The event was well attended with many parents and governors as well as the staff and pupils and the Mayor and his wife. Refreshments were also served by the kitchen staff. Overall, it was an entertaining and enjoyable evening.

By Poppy Hutchinson

Matthew Currey's Review and View on 'Full of Life'

The Darlington “Full of Life Day” in my opinion was a great idea. For people who don’t know what this is it an annual event aimed at elderly people on the fourth of October. Although not all of the things there were a great success it still helped a lot of people fill in their day. There were things like and NHS stalls to check people’s blood pressure and things like that.

 When we first got to the hall our first task was to set up tables and chairs. When I asked Sam Wears what he thought of this he replied “No well, well, well it’s not bad”. After that we were set about the task of setting up a projector, which is considerably hard to do when you don’t have all of the cables. In the end we decided to ask a man with a computer to set up the projector as at the time me, Sam and Bradley didn’t know we were short of some leads. The problem was nobody dared ask him. After around ten minutes of rock, paper, scissors and bagsy not me it was decided that Sam should ask. After half an hour of setting up a projector we were informed that it was technically impossible to do.

After that me and Sam sat down together so I could repeatedly beat him at dominoes. Sometime into the fourth game the mayor arrived (or just somebody with a massive gold necklace). When I went to speak to him I was side-tracked by a member of the council. In the end I ended up talking to an elderly lady called Jean. She was very appreciative of the service provided; the people from the NHS informed her that she had high blood pressure and helped her with the treatment.

I then spoke to a man called Harry Longmoor, an old Branksome caretaker. He was a member of GOLD, (Growing Old Living in Darlington) although he was mainly there to meet a friend. After talking to him for some time I realised none of what I was writing down was of any great importance, so I decided to go back and talk to Sam and Bradley. After a quick chat we realised that all we had done was set up tables and play dominoes, so out of boredom we decided to try something new.

So Sam and I tried just Dance 2. We got really good at it, but sometime around the third game we realised that half the room was looking at me and Sam dancing to M.C Hammer’s’ Can’t Touch This’. In humiliation we sat down and made a really big domino run.

After that it was time to go back to school. The Darlington “Full of Life Day” was ok, but I don’t think it lived up to the expectation of the council or any of the people setting up. Many of the stalls were unused and not many people that I spoke to visited the market. I also don’t see the point of the school going, but I still had a good time.

New School Reward System

The previous award system at DSMS meant that if pupils behaved, did well in lessons or deserved a praise they would get achivement points which would build up until they wanted to spend them on a DSMS Mug, a pen, pencil or even iTunes vouchers if they got enough points. However this system has been scrapped.

The new system is called Vivo and they currently have 1,172,578 users around the globe. Pupils build up their points the same way and they get logged on a computer however the main difference is that it is an online system so pupils can see how many points they have from home. When the points have built up, pupils then use them to buy prizes of the Vivo website. They have loads of options of things to do with their points including getting phone top-ups, donating money to charity, buying footballs and even buying camping mats. All of the options will be available for pupils to see when they log in.

Planet Leisure Review

A few months ago I decided to go to planet leisure with a couple of my friends. We all had a great time, and got to experience multiple facilities’ it had to offer. It is a great place with a fun and exciting atmosphere. The furniture was all really comfortable with a great colour scheme to match. The only down side was it still felt strangely like the owners other business rough and tumble, so after a while you started to feel a bit childish and out of place. But apart from that the place itself was really nice.

One of the things that I really enjoyed trying out was the bowling. It was great fun with an easy to learn start up system, so you weren’t standing around idle for 10 minutes waiting for someone to set up the scoring and barrier system.  When you started bowling it was really great fun. The pins set up really quickly so you weren’t standing around waiting for your next shot, whilst the pins got cleared out of the way. Whilst other people are taking their shots there are sofas around the alley, so there is a place to sit (instead of stood up or on wooden seats). Overall I thought that the bowling was great and I would certainly do it again.

The best part of going there was the food. It was really tasty. It was as good as the food that I had when I was little in rough and tumble. It was really nice but it still felt strangely like rough and tumble so again it felt weird. It still tasted really nice though.

The final thing that I did there on my visit was the ice skating. That was brilliant fun and great to learn. The ice there was a sort of plastic which had a slippery liquid sprayed on it which was weird. I had gone ice skating before but that was on real ice so it kept you cool. But here though with special ice you got tired quicker. The spray that was on the ice was annoying. When you fell over it got stuck to your clothes, so I wouldn’t wear anything good to go in. All in all, I thought the ice skating was absolutely amazing.

There were a couple of other things that planet leisure had, that I didn’t get to try out. A high wire sort of thing had been built above the ice rink. A sort of obstacle course suspended in the air which you had to work your way around whilst being help by a rope. It looked quite good although in my opinion it was definitely overpriced. Also there was an arcade there. It looked ok but it wasn’t amazing, it definitely didn’t live up to the standards of the rest of the place.

Also there is a laser tag opening up. I’m not sure if it is open now but it will defiantly be something to look into if you are thinking of going. It should probably tell you on the website so check it out on the internet if you have some spare time.

Simple Chicken Caesar Salad

As we are getting nearer the holidays I thought you would like a simple dish for one of those summer days!

 

Ingredients

For the salad

• 4 slices of speck (or prosciutto)
• 2 cornfed chicken breasts, bone and skin removed
• 1 tsp butter
• 2 thick slices white bread, cubed
• 2 cos lettuces

For the dressing

• 2 garlic cloves
• 75ml/3fl oz white wine
• 2 eggs, yolks only
• 1 anchovy fillet
• 75g/3oz parmesan cheese, grated
• 150ml/5fl oz extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard
• salt and pepper

Preparation method

1. Preheat the grill to high.
2. Place the speck or proscuitto onto a baking sheet and place under the grill for 3-4 minutes, or until crisp. Remove speck and place on a plate lined with kitchen paper to drain.
3. Cut both chicken breasts through the middle, without cutting through, to form one large flat piece. Season, to taste, with salt and black pepper and brush with olive oil.
4. Heat a griddle pan until hot then place the chicken breasts on it and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, or until just cooked through.
5. Heat a frying pan until hot and add the butter and then the cubed bread. Fry until golden brown, then remove.
6. Separate the leaves from the lettuce and cut into chunky pieces.
7. For the dressing, in a medium saucepan, bring the garlic and wine to a boil and simmer for about 5 minutes, until the cloves have softened. Leave to cool.
8. Combine the wine and garlic with the egg yolks, anchovy and cheese in a mixing bowl. Blend with a hand blender or food processor until smooth. Drizzle in the oil in a thin steady stream, taking care not to add it too quickly, otherwise it could split and curdle. Stir in the mustard and add seasoning to taste.
9. Add the crisp-fried speck, croutons and lettuce to the dressing and toss to combine. To serve, place salad on plate, top with chicken and pour the dressing over.

School Awards 2012

Earlier on this month we went to theNorth east school awards. We were nominated for the school newspaper award and Mr Kipling for the head teacher of the year. They were presented by Metro radio presenters Steve and Karen. Our newspaper was shortlisted in a list of two schools. The other papers name was Hetton headlines. It was a great day out and both us and Mr Kipling came runners up in our categories.