Daneshill Diary 02/05/14
Headmaster’s Notes
Mr Nigel Wright has joined the School maintenance team to assist Mr Syckelmoore. As a young man Nigel trained at Hampton Court Palace Gardens before becoming a police officer. Mrs Melissa Debont, formerly a Director of Music at Daneshill, has returned in the capacity of Peripatetic piano tutor this term. Miss Katie Alder, who coaches the National Children’s Choir of Great Britain, has also joined the music department as a Peripatetic singing tutor. I am sure all of these appointments will prove valuable additions to school life.
Mrs Neophytou, formerly Head of English and Deputy Head, has been blessed with identical twin boys. Jacob and Theo were born on Thursday 27th March and are in good health and voice! With three grandchildren now under the age of 7 months I can confirm that Mrs Spencer is having to call on all of her Norland Nanny training to keep the ship afloat (so to speak).
I very much hope that summer joins us soon and that the pupils can take full advantage of all the opportunities that are on offer in this action-packed term.
Mr Spencer
Year 7 & 8 Taster Day
Year 5 had a wonderful day on Monday. They were treated to glimpses of the types of activities we offer in the senior years at Daneshill and they were not disappointed. They spent an hour scuba diving and firing underwater torpedoes at one another with Andark Diving School in our own pool. They then experienced Bush Craft, lighting fires, and learning about wilderness survival down near the pond with Mr Champness before heading to the Science block to submerge fruit, walk on eggs, and try to blow up the lab with Mrs Blomfield. Before lunch, we held a brief Q & A session with Year 8. It was wonderful, as a teacher, to sit back and allow the discussion to take on a life of its own. The Year 8’s gave a very honest and positive view of their recent experiences at Daneshill with the overall picture being one of a good balance between privileges and responsibilities. After lunch, Year 5 and Year 8 teamed up for Mr Mikurenda’s Great Egg Race in which they were asked to build a working water tower, out of paper, with a flashing warning light to warn air traffic – all within a strict time limit. Remarkably, most of the groups completed their task!
A good day was had by all and a big thank you to all of the teachers and children who were involved.
Mr Webster
News from the Pre-Prep
It has been lovely to welcome back the children and hear how much they enjoyed their holidays. Now, however, it is time to get down to work with an action-packed summer term planned. As you can see from the calendar there are lots of activities arranged to engage and inspire the children.
After-school clubs are being well attended this term so please can we remind you to bring in a healthy snack and a drink to ensure your child has enough energy to enjoy their club. Thank you very much.
Miss Bull
Nursery Corner
We have welcomed four new children into the nursery this term. They have settled well and are enjoying playing with all of the toys and playing alongside their new friends. We have taken every opportunity to play outside this week, which has given all of the children the opportunity to explore the garden and to make use of the new resources that we have.
We have been looking at the story of ‘The Jolly Postman’ and have turned the role play area into a post office. There has been much writing of cards and letters, and delivering of parcels around the nursery. Some of the children have sequenced the story of ‘Goldilocks and The Three Bears’ whilst others have ordered, by size, pictures of The Jolly Postman. Next week we will continue with this theme and we will make a plan of the postman’s route for the Bee Bots to follow.
This week we introduced the sounds ‘ee or’ and next week we will move onward to /z/.
Miss Flood
Weekly Sports Reports
The U.13 girls enjoyed a spectacular start to the rounders season with our A team beating Yateley Manor and St Andrew’s on Wednesday. Daneshill displayed some strong fielding, which prevented both St Andrews and Yateley Manor scoring a number of rounders. Accurate passing was shown by deep fielder Holly Smith, who passed the ball long distances, accurately and under control. Elysia Rougier and Ella Heffner demonstrated some superb catching skills with Lily Dekic and Anna Swart adding a number of rounders to the final score.
The whole team were consistently strong throughout and supported each other brilliantly, backing up the bases and communicating well. It really was a tremendous victory for the School. A great team effort by all, which should be high commended. Our winning scores were 3.5 – 3 against Yateley Manor and a whopping score of 10 .5 – 3.5 against St Andrews. Surely there’s no stopping us now!
Miss O’Neill
Unfortunately the weather has not been kind to us and this has hindered the smooth transition from Rugby to Cricket. We have done our best in the circumstances and have managed to get a little bit of work done focusing on SAQ, striking the ball, and building our bowling actions. Hopefully the sun will return soon and with it the cricket season can begin in earnest!
Mr Baldwin
Golf Match vs. Windlesham House & Rustington Golf Club
Six boys set off early on Saturday morning to head to Sussex and play in the first match of the season. With plenty of time before teeing off, we made good use of the driving range and putting area. Early season golf can sometimes be disheartening but all of the boys seemed to be striking the ball well and were looking forward to playing.
More than half of our opponents were playing off less than 18 but thankfully this didn’t deter our boys who recorded some good scores. A special mention must go to Alex Brown who came in with a particularly strong score card. Although we finished 3rd it was a respectable start to the season and we look forward to plenty more fixtures.
Mr Soper