Alysia Orbell is the latest student from Vandyke to receive her Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award from Buckingham Palace this week. Alysia even had a brief word with the Duke of Edinburgh himself as he walked around the grounds and greeted visitors after the speeches! Alysia is currently in the middle of her second-year exams at […]

Congratulations to the 65 Year 10 students who completed their Bronze DofE Award! It was a wonderful evening celebrating their achievements with Mr Carroll, staff volunteers and family members. Thank you to award achievers Rian Austin, Nathanael Chilvers, Lizzie Hammond and Evie Olson who gave inspirational and uplifting speeches about their experiences completing the sections […]

The Easter holidays saw two coach loads of Year 9 students set off on a five day trip to the beautiful Rhine valley in Germany. Once over the shock of a 3.30am start, the students and staff settled down for the 500 mile journey. Last year’s border issues did not thankfully arise (until the following […]

36 students and 5 staff embarked on an adventure to Iceland over Easter. As the plane descended over Iceland, we were treated to fantastic views of ice caps and barren lava fields. On arrival at Keflavik airport we were met by our driver, Siggi who drove us out to the Gunnuhver; a fierce and eggy […]

Congratulations to the 36 Year 11 students who braved the challenging conditions in the White Peaks during their 3-day Qualifying Expedition. Day one was particularly wet, yet the students remained positive and completed routes with minimal navigational errors. Having travelled up to the Staffordshire Peak District in the morning, it was also a long day […]

Congratulations to Rhys Gallo in Year 10 who participated in the Elite 8 Under 18 Wheelchair basketball competition. After qualifying for the finals the team travelled to Nottingham to play in the Wildcats Arena. Rhys’ team finished in an impressive 6th position. An excellent achievement for such a young squad of players. Well done Rhys! […]

We are always pleased to report on student’s achievements out of school. We wanted to share some wonderful news about Josh. Recently he attended the St George’s Day Parade with Explorers. There was a service that followed afterwards at All Saints Church.  At the service Josh was presented with the Young Person of The Year […]

Vandyke’s first ski trip was to the Alps in the Milkyway circuit. The trip had many unexpected adventures due to some unfortunate delays at Dover and so the trip began with a lovely morning beach walk along Dover seafront. Once we made it across the channel students enjoyed a ‘Tour de Calais’ and morning walk […]

84 Year 10 students, 16 staff volunteers, 8 Sixth Form helpers, 52 tents, 7kg of pasta, a mixed bag of weather plus a load of mud and good fun… it could only be a Bronze DofE Assessed Expedition! Congratulations to all the students who took part. They can be really proud of their achievements over […]

On Monday 20th March 58 Year 9 History students were taken to the Imperial War Museum London. The aim of the trip was to visit the Holocaust Galleries that were established in 2019. On arrival students were greeted by the fantastic staff at the Imperial War Museum and were given a brief introduction to the […]