Daneshill Diary 07/02/14

Headmaster’s Notes

One of the most positive outcomes during this period of incessant wet weather has been that more children have made their way to the School Library during indoor breaks. Hopefully, by making a virtue of necessity, they will have been reminded of how much fun can be had from reading a good book. The ability children have to amuse themselves when faced with long periods of confined play is a most endearing quality, especially when they manage to fill their time with creative and imaginative activities. In particular this week I have been most impressed by the young children who use the “Early Bird” facility, the majority of whom are able to sit quietly, occupying themselves by drawing a picture or simply enjoying a chapter or two of their reading book. 

There is no substitute for being outside in the fresh air, a fact we were reminded of when the sunshine made a most welcome return today so that pupils of all ages were once again able to amuse themselves by running around, letting off steam in the school grounds. Enforced confinement due to bad weather is a frustration not even the eldest children in the school find easy to bear, but, to their credit, they fulfil a very useful role in helping the staff to supervise the younger pupils and thereby enhancing their opportunities to busy themselves during wet break sessions.

Mr Simon Spencer

News from the Pre-Prep

Around the world in a day!

What an adventure the Pre-Prep had on Monday with each class spending the whole day learning about their chosen country. There were so many fun activities for all the children from painting to cooking and dancing to traditional story telling.  The highlight of the day was certainly when we were able to enjoy a tour of all the classrooms looking at the art and craft that had been created and sampling a delicious taste of local cuisine.  I would like to extend a very big thank you to all the staff for their hard work and imaginative planning to make the day such a valuable learning experience.

The weather has not helped us plan our NSPCC circuit training; fingers crossed we will enjoy drier conditions at the beginning of next week as we would, of course, like to enjoy this activity outside.  We are hoping to challenge the children to have some fun exercising in order to help raise a small token of money for the NSPCC. If you have any family or friends who would like to sponsor your child for this good cause please ensure that all money is in school by Friday 14th February.                                                                                                                                                            

Miss Bridget Bull

Nursery Corner

We are not having too much luck with counting birds this week and have come to the conclusion that they are all hiding in the trees away from the rain … and who can blame them!! We will try to complete our tally chart again next week and will, therefore, be leaving our bird hide up for another week or so.
This week the children have drawn some lovely pictures of birds which will be on display in the Nursery soon. They have also been colouring birds using a programme on the computer.  These designs have been printed and will also be on display soon.  
 
Over the course of next week all of the children will be given the opportunity to take part in this activity, which is excellent for ‘mouse’ control, on the computer.  We will also be spending time undergoing more bird-based art and craft projects as well as introducing the sound /f/ and reinforcing numbers to 5.
 
Miss Kate Flood
 

Love is in the … Library

With a nod towards Valentine’s Day, combined with inspiration from the current ‘Subject in Spotlight’: Geography, our Year 7 Librarians have cleverly combined the themes of Travel Writing and the Romance genre in the Library this week. Having decorated the walls with some wonderful map-inspired butterfly bunting, suitcases and Paddington bears, they are now beavering away cutting out hundreds of hearts.  These hearts will become a big display of "Books we Love" in which the pupils will get a chance to write the name of their favourite book in the centre of a heart.  The librarians are also hoping to draw attention to a number of books that contain these themes by putting them on display in the hope that visitors to the library will be inspired to try something new.

The library continues to be a very popular place, and I would like to send thanks once again to all those who donate their books to the school – they are very much appreciated.

Mrs Suzy Dixon

 
Sporting Fixtures
 
Boys                                                                                     Girls:
RUGBY TERM                                                                        HOCKEY TERM
Wednesday 5th February                                                      Wednesday 5th February     
First XII vs. Brockhurst             L  5 – 54                                U13 A vs. St. Andrew’s             Cancelled
Colts A vs.   Brockhurst           W 49 – 17                              U13 B vs. St. Andrew’s              Cancelled
Colts B vs.   Brockhurst           W 45 – 12                              U11 A vs. The Abbey                 Cancelled
Colts C vs.   Brockhurst           L 20 – 30                               U11 B vs. The Abbey                  Cancelled
 
Friday 7th February                                                           Friday 7th February                                  
U9 A vs.     Brockhurst             L 0 – 10                                HOCKEY            
U8 A vs.     Brockhurst             Cancelled                             U9 A vs.     Dolphin                  L 1 – 7
U8 B vs.     Brockhurst             Cancelled                             U9 B vs.     Dolphin                  L 1 – 7
U8 C vs.     Brockhurst             Cancelled                             NETBALL
                                                                                              U8 A vs.     Dolphin                  W 6 – 0
                                                                                              U8 B vs.     Dolphin                  W 5 – 3
  

It has been a disappointing week for the Daneshill hockey teams as torrential rain swept across the South of England resulting in all fixtures sadly being cancelled this week. This is extremely frustrating for the players who have worked so hard in lessons during the past week. Fingers crossed the weather is kinder to us next week.

We did, however, have some success indoors as Daneshill held the first of two Inter-House Gym Competitions on Monday evening. Parents of the Year 6-8 gym squad witnessed a fantastic display of somersaults on the trampette, body rotations on the vault and floor routines that produced some stunning movement. Each child’s scores on the floor, vault, and trampette were added together to form a house team total.   

Particular effort and achievement was demonstrated from Alex Spiers with his dynamic and powerful half twist off trampette.  Harry Stevens, Cressida Kennedy and Sienna Fowler also deserve a mention for successfully completing their first handspring on the vault; Tom Swart and Anna Swart were commended for their victory and consistent performance on all apparatus. 

The overall 1st place result was awarded to Red House. Blue House was 2nd with Green House 3rd and Yellow House in 4th place. Mrs Doyle and the PE department are extremely proud of all those who took part.

I would like to wish all those competing in the Year 4-5 Inter-House Competition next Monday the very best of luck – we are looking forward to seeing them in action.

Miss Kate O’Neill

It was wet weather rugby this week as we transferred all games away to Brockhurst.  It was only once we got there we discovered their pitches were almost as wet as ours!  It meant a concentrated brand of Rugby was in order. We had to make sure we went forward, that we kept in close support of any ball carrier and really looked after the ball in any contact situation.  With bits of mud stuck to faces and jumpers alike all the boys came off the pitch knowing they had experienced something different to the norm.  It was great to see the boys get down and dirty and stuck into their work.  The Colts age group are flying along and there are too many special mentions to comment upon them all.  I must, however, mention Joe Stickland, who is finding his rugby legs and scored 4 tries for the C’s this week. Also, the First XII, who found themselves up against a big, physical Brockhurst team, performed admirably.  After losing the first 10 minutes 24-0 they showed the Daneshill spirit and fought very hard to draw the last 10 minutes 5-5.  I was very proud to be coaching the boys that day: a day in which the saying ‘sometimes you learn more about yourself in defeat than you do in victory’ was most apt.

Mr Scott Baldwin