On the second day of Purbeck activities, students from the sixth form engaged in a ‘Ten pounds for ten miles’ sponsored walk in support of the charity Dorset MIND. Organised by head of year Mr Smith, the party headed out into Wareham Forest equipped with sunblock, water and biscuits, and walked the route in four hours.

As buzzards soared in a cloudless sky, we agreed that we live in a beautiful part of the world and are pleased to have raised around £300 for a charity close to our hearts. Many students stayed on to enjoy an informal barbeque and picnic on the rear lawns. Well done to all those involved!

Our Environmental Leadership course pupils have been working hard on one of their projects which has involved canvassing their peers on their experience of nature in the local vicinity.

They assisted in preparing questionnaires which they presented to their tutor groups, one being qualitative in form and the other quantitative.

They worked extremely hard in collating the results at speed and presenting them in a visual display, ready for a visit from a group of representatives from local conservation and wildlife charities.

They presented their findings to the visitors, both in an informal chat around their displays, and a more formal Q&A panel style discussion.

Through this project they have learnt a variety of skills, including data collection and presentation, and been taken way out of their comfort zone in developing their public speaking skills.

This project was a huge challenge and the pupils rose to it admirably. Many thanks to our visitors for coming along to enable our pupils to share their findings with you.

The National Trust Level 2 Environment Leaders enjoyed a double whammy of visitors in their session this week, in preparation for their participation in the Ocean Day at Studland on June 8^th. Clare Meaden of the National Trust and Oly Rush of Project Planet Earth came to help us prepare and plan for the event, thinking about why we are involved and what we can do to raise awareness of sea pollution, both on this day and beyond.

Dear Purbeck families,

As you are probably aware we had a visit from Ofsted this week. Three inspectors visited across the two days and they looked at all aspects of the school. They completed an ‘ungraded’ inspection (which is what they often do with schools that are rated ‘Good’) this means that they can not officially change the grading of the school at the end of the inspection but they can make recommendations.

We are not allowed to share the official outcome of the inspection just at the moment as the report has to be moderated. However, what I can tell you is that the inspectors were exceptionally impressed with what they saw and that the overall outcome could not have been better!

The Purbeck School is working with the National Trust to pioneer the first ever Leadership Course for KS3 pupils. Following the success of the level 3 course with sixth formers, we are now delivering a level 2 course to some KS3 pupils.