DET Dispatch - January

Dear Colleague,

In this edition of the DET Dispatch, we are pleased to welcome Paul Snell, who took over as Chair of the Danes Educational Trust Board at the end of December. Paul succeeds Martin Day, who has concluded his tenure following a handover period. We are deeply grateful for Martin’s support, challenge, and impactful leadership during his time as Chair, which has significantly strengthened the Trust’s operations. We wish him all the best for the future and look forward to working with Paul as we continue to grow and develop as a Trust.

This edition also highlights the wonderful variety of activities taking place across our Trust. Jupiter Primary School has earned the School Mental Health Award, demonstrating their commitment to student and staff well-being. Onslow St Audrey's School celebrated the opening of its impressive new sports facilities, which will provide excellent opportunities for students.

St Clement Danes and The John Warner Schools have been giving back, with a successful Charities Week and a visit to a local care home. Croxley Danes School hosted its annual Prize Giving Awards Evening, celebrating the achievements of over 50 students. Meanwhile, Chancellor's School welcomed 70 external employers to a Careers Day, helping students explore future pathways.

These stories reflect the hard work and dedication of our staff, students, and communities. Thank you for your continued efforts to support and inspire our young people.

With best wishes,

Josephine Valentine, CEO
Danes Educational Trust

Making the difference together

Message from the new Chair of Danes Educational Trust Board

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Martin Day, our outgoing DET Chair, for his leadership, guidance and support to the Trust over the past three years. Whilst Martin leaves big boots to fill I am personally delighted to have been appointed as DET Chair and through this role I will continue to support the ongoing evolution and development of the Trust as I have as a DET Trustee over the past two years.

Throughout my Non Executive & Executive career in health and social care my focus has always been on vision, values and keeping individuals at the heart of everything we do - all of which transfer across well into the education sector and compliment the broad range of skills, knowledge and expertise within the DET Board. Added to this I am personally committed to bringing independent and external perspectives, alongside skills and challenge with a focus on values, quality, innovation, organisational development, stakeholder engagement, community building and effective communication. I also recognise how essential it is for there to be good and effective working relationships between the Chair, CEO, Trustees, Governors, Directors, the wider DET staff team and external stakeholders and I am fully committed to ensuring that these continue and develop.

I am very much looking forward to us all working together (and taking opportunities to meet up as often as we can) as we develop our next strategy taking DET further forward on its journey for the benefit of our current and future learners and the wider education sector as a whole.

Paul Snell, Chair, Danes Educational Trust Board

News from accross the Trust

The John Warner School

Students from The John Warner School took part in the school community project at Broxbourne Nursing Home in December.

As well as creating beautiful Christmas cards and baubles with residents, the students also read stories and sang festive songs. The session was a huge success.

Jill Bertolone - Community Project Coordinator is very proud of the students. “There are really no words that can express how immensely proud I am of the students that I took to the Broxbourne Nursing Home, each and everyone of them brought a lot of joy, happiness and laughter to the residents accompanied by their thoughtful interaction, while guiding and encouraging them to take part in our arts and craft session. They were a real credit to the school and their parents. I cannot put into words how highly valued and thought off they all are by everyone at the home.”

Onslow St Audrey's School

Onslow St Audrey's School has officially opened its state-of-the-art all-weather football pitch, marking the culmination of a decade-long project to enhance school facilities. Football legend and former Tottenham Hotspur FC captain Ledley King joined students, staff, and guests for the ribbon-cutting ceremony, underscoring the school’s ongoing partnership with the club since 2024.

The pitch is part of a broader investment in the school’s PE offerings, including a new sports hall and dance studio. Headteacher, Julie Jones called it "a new chapter for OSA" celebrating the community's efforts to provide world-class facilities that inspire health and fitness.

The event featured a frosty training session led by Tottenham Hotspur FC's global development coaches, with Ledley King praising the pitch's quality and potential.

Read more about the partnership and the opening on Tottenham Hotspur FC’s website and in Welwyn Hatfield Times.

St Clement Danes School

During the final week of term, we celebrated our annual Charities Week, an event filled with festive cheer and fantastically organised by our Sixth Formers. This year, the school proudly supported three causes: Chiltern Neuro Centre, Mission EmployAble, and Pumpkin’s Wildlife Hospital.

The week’s 'Advent' schedule was packed with exciting activities, including student-led lessons, Santa's Grotto, an Elf Auction, Sponge the Teacher, and Beat the Keeper, along with a variety of competitions. The grand finale took place on the last day of school with the highly anticipated Sixth Form Revue.

Thanks to the incredible efforts of students, staff, and the school community for their donations, a remarkable £15,973.23 was raised. This success subsequently meant that Mr. Sutherland was nominated for the ice bucket challenge.

Jupiter Primary School

Jupiter Primary School has achieved the School Mental Health Award which is delivered by the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools. The Bronze standard School Mental Health Award reflects Jupiter's outstanding mental health and wellbeing provision.

A wide range of activities are provided by the school to boost the wellbeing of pupils and staff, including mindfulness sessions for whole classes, groups or 1:1, mindful cuppa sessions for parents, wellbeing pupil ambassadors, a staff wellbeing committee and working closely with professionals to signpost families to support.

Jupiter Primary School headteacher Karen Armstrong said: “Mental health and wellbeing has never been more important and as a school we made it a priority in recent years to prioritise our mental health and wellbeing provision. I am extremely proud of this accreditation and this will stand as a constant reminder and motivation in ensuring we continue to have a positive impact and promote good mental health and wellbeing throughout our school community”.

Read the full story in the Hemel Today

Croxley Danes School

It has been another busy but purposeful period at Croxley Danes School, with a number of highlights.

On Thursday 9 January, the school hosted their annual Prize Giving Awards Evening, celebrating the achievements of over 50 students. The event recognised students for various accomplishments, including excellence in academics, making a positive impact in their year group, or demonstrating exceptional dedication to a particular subject. Special awards were presented to Subhan R and Joseph G for the best GCSE performance and Yousuf S for the best A Level performance. The Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire, Robert Voss CBE CstJ, was in attendance to present the awards and deliver an inspiring speech focused on the key drivers of collaboration, determination, and self-belief.

The school has also continued its partnership with the University of Hertfordshire’s BootStRaP Project, which explores the impact of problematic internet use on the mental health of young people. Year 8 students Zac J and Neve B were selected as Ambassadors and attended a Bootcamp in Porto, Portugal, alongside Ambassadors from other schools across the country. There, they contributed to the development of the project’s app and were interviewed on the BBC Radio 5 Breakfast Show, where their articulate responses were highly praised by the presenters. The study will involve tracking students’ internet habits and well-being over six months and aims to provide a much-needed evidence base for developing strategies to address this pressing issue.

Chancellor's School

On Friday 17 January, the annual Careers Day was held at Chancellor's. All students were engaged in a rich range of careers related activities and the day was enormously successful. With over 70 external employers attending, it was certainly an extremely busy day but gave students a real breadth of the local labour market. Chancellor's staff engage each year with our 'Bring Your Friend to Work Day' and support their friends/relatives, who give talks about their industry and the specifics of their roles. The school had a large number of alumni attend this year to share their professional success with current students. Work shadowing, CV building, Unifrog launch, mock interviews, personal branding and body language are just a few of the workshops that Chancellor's students enjoy on the day, not to mention the huge number of employer encounters. The day is a real team effort and is a valuable experience for all.