DISCOVER 2025

 

Blackfen are pleased to announce the return of our annual Discover program of enrichment opportunities for your children to take part in.

 

The Discover Program

Discover is a program unique to Blackfen, in Bexley. Our staff kindly offer to lead on a variety of external and internal activities, and students get to choose which activities they would like to participate in. Previous Discover activities have included; trips to The London Dungeons, Southend Adventure Island, rock climbing, street dance instruction, sign language tutoring, and lots of other exciting experiences. Our aim is to offer our students opportunities to try something new, look to their future, or learn a new skill, all within a safe and supportive environment.

Discover takes place during the school term. Therefore, attendance and participation are expected of all students in Year 7-9. Discover is not optional. Any planned absence on the Discover days should be reported to the school well in advance so that your child’s name can be removed from the Discover lists.

 

Paying for Activities

Discover 2025 will be taking place on Wednesday 16^th and Thursday 17^th July 2025. It may seem that our contacting you now is slightly premature. However, we have made the decision to bring the choices process forward to allow parents/carers a longer period of time over which to pay for their child’s chosen activities. We hope that this will go some way towards alleviating the pressure on parents during the current cost of living crisis.

Therefore, please note; payment for activities is not required at the time of choosing. We have allowed for three salary cycles to pass between activity allocation and the payment deadline. You may pay in instalments if you wish.

The deadline for payment is 1^st May 2025.  We are now a cashless school, so payments must be made via Wisepay (our on-line payment portal). You can access our school payment system by:

• Wisepay Website – Please visit Wisepay.co.uk and enter Blackfen School for Girls in the Parent Log in Area. 
• Wisepay App for mobile phones - This is available for parents to download. Please note the Blackfen organisation code to download the App is 66447546. All this information can be found on our school website (blackfenschoolforgirls.co.uk). 

In cases of financial hardship, please contact the school via email to finance@blackfen.bexley.sch.uk, so that help may be offered. Even if help is provided, a contribution towards the cost of the trip will be expected.

All monies paid for the Discover activities are non-refundable. This is because we have to pay for the venues, providers, equipment etc. Your child’s participation in any of the activities is at the school’s discretion and is based upon their behaviour and any risk we feel they may pose when partaking in an activity.

Choosing your activities

Please take the time to go through the Discover 2025 brochure and planning document with your child before completing the online application form. These documents can be found on the school website under the following tabs: News and Events, Discover 2025. All activity costs are in the brochure. You should consider the total costs before making your choices. Use the planning document to structure your child’s choices according to activity times.

To submit your child’s choices, you must fill in an online form. A link to the online form will go live on the school website (News and events\Discover 2025) and in Years 7-9 Year Group Teams.

The link goes live at 6.00pm on Monday 27^th January 2025.

These timings have been chosen to allow parents to complete the form on their child’s behalf/with their child.

If you know that you will be unable to access the online form, please contact Mrs Dunsdon before Monday 27^th January to make alternative arrangements - discover@blackfen.bexley.sch.uk.

 

Each activity has a limited number of spaces. If your child wishes to participate in a specific activity, it is advisable to complete and submit the form early, to avoid disappointment. The software that we use will remove each activity from the form when the number of spaces available has been reached. Therefore, the number of available activities will be reduced as time progresses. Please encourage your child to be resilient. If their preferred activity is no longer available, they should choose a back-up activity. I’m sure that they will still have fun.

There is a section on the form where you can type in an activity that your child wanted to choose but was unable. This is so that we can have waiting lists for each activity should any spaces become available at a later date.

Once your child’s choices form has been submitted, changes can only be made by contacting me, Mrs. Dunsdon via email. Only submit one form per student. By submitting the completed form, you are agreeing to pay for the chosen activities and are giving permission for your child to participate.

Students are not required to wear school uniform for the Discover days, but should ensure they are dressed appropriately (i.e., no shorts above mid-thigh/ripped jeans or crop tops, and no false nails or lashes). If students decide to bring electrical items with them, the school will not take any responsibility if anything is lost or damaged.

 

Confirmation of activities

You will receive a letter in February 2025 that sets out your child’s allocated activities. It is at this point that Wisepay will open for you to begin making payments. While every attempt is made to ensure that your child is allocated the choices they submitted on the form, this is not always possible. This will be explained to your child in an assembly.

Letters containing detailed information for each activity will be available on the school website. You should take the time to read through these letters with your child to familiarise yourselves with the specific requirements and plans for each activity.

 

Medication

Specific medical conditions will be advised to the staff member overseeing the activity prior to your child attending. However, if you wish to discuss this further, please contact me on the school number 0208 303 1887.

Having read and understood all the information about the activities, and by paying the sum required in full via Wisepay, you have agreed for your child to take part in all relevant activities outlined. The school will continue to use all medical and contact information that you provided upon admission for this activity/trip if and where required.

If you have any queries in connection with Discover, please contact me via email. 

 discover@blackfen.bexley.sch.uk.

 

Yours faithfully,

Mrs. D. Dunsdon

Student Coordinator