Category Archives: Deep Creek Middle School

IS Alumni Parents Host DCMS Alumna Attending US Boarding School

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DCMS appreciates the help of our Island School alumni families who look out for our students when they are stateside attending boarding school. DCMS alumna, Curchara Taylor, recently graduated from Garrison Forrest School in Baltimore, Maryland. Curchara couldn’t have done it without her Maryland Mom, Susan Naeny, Island School parent of Rob (F’01) and Stuart (F’04). Susan was a great support for Curchara, hosting her on long weekends and cheering at her softball games. In fact, Susan recently hosted a birthday party for Curchara at the Naeny’s home:

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Hosting DCMS alumni while they are away from home on class trips, summer camp, at boarding school or college is a great way to stay in touch with Eleuthera. If you are interested in being a home-stay family, please contact Dr. Joanna Paul at joannapaul@islandschool.org.

 

Community Outreach Cancer Plastic Awareness Night

Last Saturday, May 18, Island School and Deep Creek Middle School students put together a cancer plastic awareness night. This picture shows the Deep Creek student leaders and their teachers that helped coordinate the event.

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From left to right we have Kristal, Shawnea, Breanna, and Mr. Simmons. The night was a big success and raised money to help the cause.

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This picture shows the students in the plastic awareness group presenting their project. They are from left to right: Tyrin, Matt, Peter C, Kylisa, Jack, and Garric. They presented their project and showed the harmful effects of plastic on both people and the world. Both the cancer group and the plastic group prepared amazing videos to demonstrate the goals of their project. Excellent work by both groups! At the event, Continue reading

DCMS Students Head to Camp this Summer!

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IS alumnus Tom McDonough (S’08) was a counselor to DCMS student Lance Pelecanos at Camp Dudley in Summer 2012.

Every summer, a few lucky Deep Creek Middle School students have the opportunity to attend summer camp in the states and Canada. This year, students will spend the summer at Camp Chewonki in Wiscasset, Maine and Camp Deerwood in Holderness, New Hampshire.

Part of what makes these experiences possible for the DCMS kids is help from Island School alumni families. If you are interested in helping or finding out more about our summer camp program, please email alumni@islandschool.org.

Class Boat Ride with Ms. Alison Derrick on Layla

by Ashley Mackey, Dashae Clarke, and Trevonya Pinder (Grade 7)

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Our class received the least number of yellow cards than any other DCMS class, and we were able to go on a boat ride! At Deep Creek Middle School, you get yellow cards for doing something bad like forgetting homework or being out of uniform. We were the best class of the quarter and Ms. Paul says we are the best class in the history of DCMS!

The boat that belonged to Ms. Allison, was a big and bronze goldfish. It was named Layla, and moved very fast. The name Layla came from a song that Ms. Allison’s husband liked. There was a chair inside, a TV, and four bedrooms. The captain was up on top and he had a GPS so he wouldn’t get lost. We were also able to look at how deep the water was by using the instruments, and we were able to see how they use the boat to fish. It was nothing like we expected. It was much better! It was an adventure! We were excited! Ashton caught a big yellow-fin grouper! At the end, the boat drove to the cape and we went back to school.  We hope that we will have a chance to go again sometime.

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DCMS Early Act Service Club Cleans Ocean Hole Park for Earth Day

The Early Act students of DCMS have committed to doing a community clean-up in each of the settlements in South Eleuthera. Last weekend, the group did an extra special cleaning of The Ocean Hole Park in honor of Earth Day. The park, famous for its blue hole, was having a fair that evening. Students cleaned the paths and bushes of trash before realizing that there was a lot of floating debris in the actual blue hole. Not to be deterred, seven students jumped in fully clothed and recovered 2 bags of Styrofoam, miscellaneous plastic bags, a sinking kayak and chunks of wood!

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DCMS Brings Home Gold!

Deep Creek Middle School has a long history of being a track and field legend. Although small, DCMS students earn more medals on average than competitor schools. This year was no different at the All-Eleuthera Track and Field Meet. Our talented team of 12 students took home 21 medals:

  • Track athletes (2)Keniesha Pinder – Gold in 400m, Gold in 200m, Silver in 100m
  • Destinee Outten – Gold in Shot Put, Silver in Long Jump,
  • Khristian Outten –Silver in 4x100m, Bronze in 1500m, Bronze in discuss
  • Elgin Gibson – Gold in 800m, Gold in High Jump, Silver in 4x100m, Bronze in 400m
  • Ashton Symonette – Gold in Shot Put
  • Petron  Knowles – Silver in Shot Put
  • Tyler Leary – Gold in 200m, Gold in Discus, Silver in Shot Put, Silver in 4x100m, Silver in 100m
  • Shanice Symonette – Bronze in 100m
  • Cameron Thompson – Silver in 4x100m

Four of these students made it to the National Track and Field Meet and two received medals:

  • Destinee Outten – Gold Medal in Shot Put
  • Elgin Gibson – Silver Medal in 800m

Many DCMS alums are currently at school in  the US and also collecting the wins.  Congratulations to Anna McCartney (DCMS ’10, Wilbraham and Monson ’14), Treshae Clarke (DCMS ’11, Wilbraham and Monson ’15), Benjamin Williams (DCMS ’10, Pennington ’14), and Lionel Johnson (DCMS ’11, Woodberry Forest ’15).  Benjamin currently holds the Class B high jump record in the state of New Jersey. Keep your eye out on all these students in future years.

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Lacrosse, Not Just for New England & Maryland!

 

On a cold and rainy day in Eleuthera, the DCMS PE teacher decided to teach the students of Deep Creek Middle School a little cold New England sport called lacrosse. The first hurdle was the spelling of the sport, but students are giggling with delight as they practice holding the sticks and gain throwing skills. Thanks to Island School alum, Elliot Wellenbach (F’11) who donated the equipment to the students after running the first Eleutheran Lacrosse Camp last summer. Elliot and his sister Lilly will return to Eleuthera this August to continue to build upon the students’ skills.

DCMS 8th Graders go to Boston

During their trip to Boston, 10 DCMS students from the 8th grade got to take part in many new and exciting experiences. The class participates in a school exchange every year. Grade 8 students alternate visits between The Brookwood School in Gloucester and Burgundy Farms Day Country School in Alexandria, VA. These schools then come to Eleuthera to complete the exchange. Below, Ms. Emma Sparrow (Social Studies and PE teacher) gives her account of the trip:

When we first arrived students met up with their buddies from The Brookwood School in Beverly Farms, MA. Instantly, the students got to chatting about themselves and the things they were interested in while sharing a pizza dinner at the school. Parents soon arrived and the students went home to meet their new families for the week and finally get some rest after a long travel day. The next day was business as usual and the students got to sit in on English and History classes, got learn how to play instruments during music class and even got to explore the “science gym.”

That afternoon, the DCMS students headed to the Science Museum to stay the night. Activities here included a planetarium show, which was a group favourite and an IMAX movie about Jane Goodall and her work with chimpanzees. Students got to explore all the exhibits, make models and sleep next to a full triceratops fossil. The teachers and students fell asleep thinking, “What if things really do come alive in the museum at night?”

On Friday, we headed back to class at Brookwood where we spent the afternoon in the science gym building structures and learning about the Brookwood’s beekeeping project. The next morning it was off to the Farm School in Athol, MA. Once everyone got their warm gear on it was off to chores. Everyone was up for the challenge Students helped do everything on the farm: from cutting wood to walking, feeding and cleaning up after different animals and of course helping the kitchen prepare our meals. The food was outstanding; especially the wood stove pizza, with almost all of the ingredients coming right from the farm. This was the one place the students also saw snow for the first time, wasting no time before making snowballs and having fun.

The remainder of the trip was spent exploring the Boston area with homestay families on Patriot’s Day. Although many students went to see the Boston Marathon, everyone was safe. Our last outing of the trip was visiting a local boarding school to see what may be in store for some of our students next year. We want to extend a huge thank you to all the staff from our various adventures for their excellent job and another huge thank you to the Brookwood School and families for opening their school and homes to us. We wouldn’t have been able to make this trip what it was without you and can’t wait to welcome you to South Eleuthera soon!

DCMS Early Act Club Gets Chartered

On Thursday, 20 students from Deep Creek Middle School were chartered as the first Early Act Club on Eleuthera. Early Act stands for “early action” and is a service club for primary and middle school children in the family of Rotary International. The students were awarded their charter and pins in front of an audience of about 100 students, family members and guests from The Island School. Read more here.

DCMS Nature Trail Tour

In partnership with the Bahamas Reef Environmental Education Foundation (BREEF), the students of Deep Creek Middle School (DCMS) has installed the firsts student created native plants nature trail. Watch as our local DCMS kids give a history of the project and a tour of the trail.  They will soon have a laminated field guide for the trail, so feel free to drop by for a self-guided tour or spend time learning from one of our student experts.