Daneshill Diary 05/06/15

Headmaster’s Notes

The weather at the start of the week was certainly conducive for indoor examinations when everyone from Year 3 to Year 8 was gainfully employed in demonstrating how much they had learnt this academic year.

Next week pupils from Years 5, 6, 7 & 8 are away from school on trips ranging from the Gredos Mountains in Spain, the Three Peaks, field study work in Dartmoor and La Grand Ferme in Normandy. Fourteen members of staff will be accompanying Daneshill pupils and taking responsibility for their wellbeing in what can be quite extreme and difficult circumstances. Often the prerequisite of some people, who have never accompanied a school trip, that it is some kind of jolly that gets them out of the classroom. I have enormous respect for all the staff without whose commitment none of these trips would be possible.

Mr Spencer

News from the Pre-Prep

In Reception we have started our new topic of ‘transport’. We have been exploring vehicles which travel by land, air or water. We have been labelling different types of vehicles too. We have also been on a vehicle hunt finding different pictures of vehicles around the classroom and making a bar graph of the vehicles we have found. In RP we have made rockets which count backwards from 20. What fun!

The Year 1 children have come back after their half term break with enthusiasm and are keen to learn. They enjoyed sharing the rainforest fact sheets they had created at home during the holidays and it was great to see the children beaming with pride when reading their facts to the class. During ICT this week the children drew some beautiful rainforest animals, which will be appearing on display in the classroom very soon.The children have come back after their half term break with enthusiasm and are keen to learn. They enjoyed sharing the rainforest fact sheets they had created at home during the holidays and it was great to see the children beaming with pride when reading their facts to the class. During ICT this week the children drew some beautiful rainforest animals, which will be appearing on display in the classroom very soon.

Year 2 have worked together really well to create and perform an assembly for the whole of Pre-Prep on Friday morning. Their assembly was all about this wonderful world we live in and how we need to respect and celebrate the wide variety of different nationalities and cultures, from food to fashion. Within Year 2 we feel incredibly lucky to have four bilingual children.

Pre-Prep Teachers

Nursery Corner

We have continued with our animal theme this week which has produced some super writing from our Vikings. Capitalising on our recently learnt sounds they drew a ‘bee’ and labelled his ‘wings’ and his ‘buzz’! It is so rewarding to see the progress that all of the children have made this year and to see how they are preparing for the move into Reception.

The children have also made fabulous clay crocodiles and beautiful parrots. Taking a line of zebras up to lunch and back has to be a highlight of the week!

With the sunshine allowing us more time outside the children have been putting on ‘shows’ on a regular basis which usually involve a wolf or two! They have also been enjoying our outside balance equipment which is a new challenge for some.

Mrs Beeching

 
Sporting Fixtures
Boys:                                                                             Girls:
CRICKET TERM                                                                ROUNDERS
Wednesday 3rd June                                                     Wednesday 3rd June
U.13 A vs. St. Neot’s                 L by 14 runs                 U.12 A vs. Farleigh                                 L 3 – 16.5
U.13 B vs. St. Neot’s                  W by 7 Wkts                U.11 A vs. The Abbey                            L 11.5 – 19.5
Colts A vs. St. Neot’s                 L by 1 run                    U.11 B vs. The Abbey                            W 22.5 – 20
Colts B vs. St. Neot’s                 L by 4 Wkts                  U.10 A vs. Daneshill Tournament           2nd       
Colts C vs. Papplewick              L by 7 runs                   U.10 B vs. Daneshill Tournament            6th       
                                                                                               
Friday 5th June                                                               Friday 5th June
U.9 A vs. St. Neot’s                   L by 2 runs                   U.9 A vs. Alton Convent                           W 10.5 – 4.5
U.9 B vs. St. Neot’s                   W by 54 runs                U.9 B vs. Alton Convent                            W 13.5 – 11
U.9 C vs. St. Neot’s                                                         U.8 A vs. Farleigh
U.8 A vs. St. Neot’s                                                         U.8 B vs. Farleigh
                                                                                        U.8 C vs. Farleigh
 

On Thursday afternoon seventy two children from Year 3 to Year 8 travelled to St Andrew’s School to join four other schools for an afternoon of athletics.

The weather was beautiful and, having not attended many of these events outside school, I have to admit that I was bowled over by the exhilaration of it all. I also would like to congratulate all of the children for their enthusiasm and for the effort that they put into every event they competed in. They were also so supportive of each other and it was lovely to see the older children looking after and guiding the younger ones.

There were some really impressive performances by Daneshill pupils throughout the afternoon. All of the Weedon girls have to be mentioned for their astounding running and Alex Spiers was over the moon with his high jump achievements. All of the relay teams did so well too. Many of these children have been coming in to school before lessons each morning this week to do training so that they could get to the levels they are now.

Well done to all of you, I felt very proud to be part of such a wonderful group of children, and thank you to the parents for their support. I really think that boosts the children too.

Daneshill finished second overall. Miss O’Neill has posted the results on the sports board so that everyone can see how they got on.

Mrs Caratelli