News and events

Open Days 2010-11

Friday 8th 2010 - 10.00am to 12.00pm and 1:30pm to 3:00pm

Saturday 9th October 2010 - 10:00am to 12:00pm

Wednesday 26th January 2011 - 10.00am to 12.00pm and 1:30pm to 3:00pm

Entrance exams

Wednesday 2nd February 2011

Sports Days

Junior and senior sports days took place this year in glorious sunshine.  Nursery and junior school children competed in a variety of traditional and fun races with their parents cheering them on.  It was a great afternoon and both children and parents rounded off the afternoon with a delicious tea prepared by Mrs Bevan and her staff.   Senior girls competed in track and field events with their points being added to the house totals throughout the day.   After exciting relay races Westwood House were victorious and the victrix ludorum award was shared by Heidi Fellows and Natasha Ratti. 

Splash Day

Kindergarten and Reception had fun in the sun with their splash day.  They cooled down with a variety of water activities: - swimming in paddling pools, escaping the water sprinkler and using our water cascade.  In addition they made boats to sail in the paddling pools making a very enjoyable day for all.

Junior Summer Concerts

Junior school children performed two wonderful plays for their Summer Concert; Kindergarten and Reception children performed Billy No-Buzz, a sad story with an important message and a happy ending.  Years 1, 2 and 3 gave a splendid performance of The Lonely Dragon teaching us to be open-minded and to think ‘green’ with respect to water.  All children and staff worked extremely hard for the concert and the audience thoroughly enjoyed their performances.

Junior maths challenge

1 gold, 4 silver and 9 bronze awards was this year’s tally for the pupils in Years 7 and 8 who took part in the UKMT Junior Maths Challenge.  The Challenge is aimed at the top third of pupils in England and Wales and involves completing 25 challenging and intriguing multiple choice questions in one hour.  Some of the successful pupils are pictured.

Fieldwork at the Wyre Forest

On Monday 28 June, Year 9 enjoyed a joint Biology/Geography fieldtrip to the Wyre Forest, a recreational and educational facility with many SSSIs (Sites of Special Scientific Interest) and wildlife habitats.  The day began with a presentation on the history of the forest and its development since being taken over by the Forestry Commission in 1926; the girls then had a guided tour of the forest and heard about ways of managing the forest.

After lunch girls worked in groups to collect data and measurements comparing deciduous and coniferous woodland and used mark-recapture techniques to look into wood louse numbers.

The weather was fantastic, perfect for fieldwork and It was a very successful and enjoyable day.

Kindergarten and Reception's Summer Visit

Kindergarten and Reception recently visited to the Bishop’s Wood Environmental Centre to study the story of the Three Billy Goat’s Gruff.   The day was a huge success and involved the children in lots of activities including making their own clay trolls, exploring the woodland and crossing the troll’s bridge, constructing a bridge for the goats to cross the river, building a boat in case the troll was still there, cooking supper for the troll so that he did not have to eat the goats and making him a den so that he had somewhere to live. 

It was a wonderful experience, all the children behaved very well and a lovely day was had by all.

Year 8 History visit

Year 8 spent the day at The Commandery in Worcester to develop their understanding of the Civil War.  They took part in a pike drill and learnt how to fire an artillery and musket gun. In addition the girls enjoyed hearing about Civil War surgery and what life was like for members of the baggage train.

Year 1, 2 and 3's Visit to Compton Verney

We went to Compton Verney and admired the beautiful buildings there.  The architect was Robert Adam.  We designed our own rooms using clay in just the same way as he did.

Butterflies

Year 1 have been growing butterflies from caterpillars as part of their science work on lifecycles. This term they released 5 healthy butterflies into the school grounds.

French Visit

Girls from Years 5, 7 and 11 spent the early May Bank Holiday staying at a chateau in Normandy.   The group enjoyed visits to the Nausicaa aquarium, Rouen, city of Joan of Arc, the market in Dieppe and Eu, home of William the Conqueror.  At the Chateau girls enjoyed a variety of activities - archery, fencing and climbing and some even found time to practise their French!

District Netball Champions

Dodderhill’s Y8 netball team - Phoebe Groves, Natasha Ratti, Annie Newland, Harriet Bytom, Sophie Condlyffe, Lucy Dayer, Lucy Kennett and Georgina Gibbs won the District Tournament and are now Bromsgrove and Droitwich District Netball Champions.  Congratulations!

Lego City Workshop

The Electric City Workshop returned to Dodderhill recently. Children from Y2 to Y6 worked in teams to create their own town, which they brought to life using an innovative miniature lighting system. The towns were further enhanced using electric Lego vehicles including trains and cars. The highlight of the workshop was then "Night-time switching on of the lights"

"It was a brilliant experience" Anya - Y4

"My favourite part was working together to design the our town."  Amy - Year 4

French Homestay

Paris was the half term destination for 28 girls and 3 staff. The group lived with French families during their stay, practising their French and enjoying French home - cooking! Days were spent visiting the sights, e.g. Notre Dame Cathedral, the Chateau de Fontainebleau, and the Eiffel Tower. In addition the ‘Musée d’Orsay’ and ‘Cité des Sciences’ provided girls with excellent artistic and scientific experiences. By our return on Thursday, the girls had become very comfortable in their temporary homes and their fluency in French had improved considerably.

Debating Success

Dodderhill School’s Debating Team of Sophie Harrison and Felicity Newland won the final of the prestigious Taylor Trophy earlier this week by opposing the motion proposed by Bromsgrove, ‘This House would make people work for welfare’. 

The Taylor Trophy was created by Bromsgrove School to provide Year 10 and 11 pupils with an opportunity for competitive debating, usually the reserve of the sixth form; around thirty schools from across the Midlands battled their way through two preliminary rounds to reach this week’s final where the two other debates concerned “The funding of IVF treatment” and “The penalising of Sports Teams when their members erred”.

STEM Ambassador

Congratulations to Dr Blackmore who was recently appointed as STEM Ambassador. The STEM organisation, headed by Prof Robert Winston aims to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics in schools throughout England and Wales. We are absolutely delighted at Dr Blackmore’s success.

Malvern Weekend  for Year 4 and 6

Girls in Year 4 and Year 6 enjoyed an exciting visit to the Malvern Hills Outdoor Education Centre. They participated in many adventurous activities including rock climbing, a high ropes course, walking on the Malvern Hills and flying along the zip wire.  For some it was their first time away from home and they all really enjoyed the experience.

Malvern Weekend for Year 11

Some Year 11 girls enjoyed an adventurous and challenging break at the Malvern Hills Outdoor Education Centre to recuperate from mock exams. They found the parachute jump challenging but wholeheartedly threw themselves into it.  Emily Farmer’s photograph of Priya, our Head Girl shows us how to fall with grace. 

Welcome to 2010

Despite the best efforts of the snow to keep us out of school, over a third of Dodderhill pupils made it in for the start of the new term.

The Westwood House snow rabbit was runner up in the snow competition at break; children also enjoyed playing in the snowy grounds at lunch time; click the link in the text below to see what our 'snow' timetable looked like.

First day back

Whilst Year 11 girls tackled mock examinations other pupils spent the morning in maths, English and ICT lessons where they did snow poems, winter word games and maths challenges. 

In the afternoon pupils enjoyed practical lessons in PE, DT, music and ICT. Click here to access their first day timetable.

Junior Christmas Concerts

The children of the Junior School demonstrated the true meaning of Christmas with their wonderful Nativity plays.

ISA National Swimming Championships  

Congratulations to Lydia, Annie and Claire who were selected to represent the Midlands Area at the National Swimming Championships in Coventry last month. Our three talented swimmers all won silver medals and the Midlands Area  teams - girls and boys - were the overall winners of the event.   

GCSE Presentation Evening

Rebecca Potter received the Rossiter - Meacham Prize for Excellence at last week's Presentation Evening for the GCSE class of 2009. This award is made annually to the girl with highest average GCSE points and Rebecca's averaged close to an A*. She is pictured here with Mrs Barbara Wardle, retired textiles teacher, who kindly returned to make the presentations.

Children in Need

On Friday 20th November Dodderhill had its own special rainbow to celebrate Children in Need. A giant conga around the school displayed the full spectrum of the colours of the rainbow with pupils and staff dressed in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and pink. Fund raising activities also involved cookies and treats made by Nursery staff and a lunch time variety show provided by Y11 girls. This year’s total is a fantastic £512.30.

Operation Christmas Child

This year thanks to the generosity of Dodderhill pupils over 180 shoeboxes of gifts will be sent to children in Eastern Europe through the Samaritan’s Purse ‘Operation Christmas Child’ project. 

These special gifts will touch the lives of the girls and boys who receive them and for many it will be the only present they ever receive.

Speech Day July 2009

We were very pleased to welcome Peter Luff, MP to our speech day on 9th July. Mr Luff presented prizes and made an enjoyable speech to the audience. Afterwards, he joined parents and pupils for lunch.

Parents can find a copy of our Head Girl Charlotte Wilson's moving poem on the Parents Area of the website.

GCSE Results 2009

The 2009 results are equal to our best ever with:

• 53% of grades: A* or A
• 25 / 25  girls [100%] gained 5 or more passes at C or above including English, maths, a modern language & a science
• 97% of grades: A* - C pass
• 7 girls achieved a* / a grades in 9 or more subjects
•  A*/ A average pass rate of 55% in the core subjects (English, maths, science and modern foreign languages)

Truck Safety Day - May 2009

The girls enjoyed a Truck Safety Day organised by DHL in Droitwich. They were very interested in the safety talk that was kindly given by DHL and we look forward to holding similar visits in the future.

GCSE Results 2008

The 2009 results are equal to our best ever with:

53% grades at A* or A

25/25 girls (100%) gained 5 or more passes at C or above including English, Maths, a Modern Foreign Language and a Science.

96% candidates achieved 5 grades A* to C

92% candidates achieved 5 grades A* to C including Maths and English

Speech Day July 2008

It was a pleasure to welcome so many pupils, parents and governors to Dodderhill on Thursday 17 July at our annual Speech Day, a great opportunity to celebrate the individual and team achievements of the previous 12 months.

GCSE Results 2007

Headteacher, Mrs Joan Mumby, comments: "These results, well above the national average, represent considerable hard work by our pupils and support from teachers and parents. The ability range in the current Year 11 means that there is cause for celebration across the board, with individual pupils exceeding their expectations and all achieving the grades they need for the VIth forms of their choice. 

The success of our Year 9 pupils, 12 of whom took and passed GCSE Music two years early, is particularly pleasing.

When so few pupils now take a modern foreign language I am delighted that 60% of our pupils who took French or German achieved A* to B."

Dodderhill’s GCSE highlights:

33% grades at A* or A

65.5% grades A* to B

96% candidates achieved 5 grades A* to C

92% candidates achieved 5 grades A* to C including Maths and English

83% candidates achieved 5 grades A* to C including Maths, English, a Science and a Modern Foreign Language.

12 Year 9 pupils passed GCSE Music (2 years early!) 83% grades were A* to B.

36% grades at A* or A in German and French

43% grades in the creative arts (art, music, textiles, catering) A* or A