Daneshill Diary 13/03/15

Headmaster’s Notes

On Thursday we hosted several local primary schools for an U.8 Netball Masterclass in conjunction with Surrey Storm. This proved to be a great afternoon and an opportunity for the girls to further enhance their skills under the watchful eye of Amanda Davis. Amanda has represented England at U.17, U.19 and U.21 levels and is a Level 2 Netball coach so they were certainly in good company! We will be looking to emulate this next week for the boys with an U.8 Tag Rugby tournament taking place at Daneshill in partnership with London Irish.

I’m sure the majority of you do not need reminding that it is Mother’s Day on Sunday. I very much hope you have the chance to spend some relaxing time with your family.

Mr Spencer
 

News from the Pre-Prep

This week Reception pupils have explored the topic of ‘Around the world’. There have been many aeroplane flights from country to country. We have had a long stay in Australia watching the Aborigines playing on their didgeridoos and seeing all of the animals, especially the hungry crocodiles and the hopping kangaroos. On returning to England, we have been busy making a lovely surprise for our mummies! What fun we have had this week!

In Year One the children were challenged to find the missing number in a number sentence; for example 6 + _ = 10. The children were taught two strategies to find the missing numbers. Either start with the answer (10) and take away how many you already know (6) and then the amount left is the missing number, or to start with the number you know (6) and count on until you get to the answer (4). This may be something the children would like to practise at home. If the children are challenging themselves with bigger numbers, they may want to use a 100 square for support. The children are glowing with excitement about surprising their mummies on Mothering Sunday and showing them what they have created whilst developing their fine motor skills.

Following on from the children making a superb effort in the handwriting competition, we have been working on the presentation of our work in Year 2 this week. There are so many things to remember when producing a final draft of written work, from capital letters to full stops and tall and short letters. Their increased concentration has paid off with beautifully written Kennings and really special cards that will be admired on Sunday and hopefully treasured for many years.

Pre-Prep Teachers

Nursery Corner

Our spring weather has meant that the children have spent much of the week enjoying the outside playground. The water tray has been in constant use with children pouring between jugs, through funnels and over wheels as well as tipping it down the length of the drain pipes! All great fun and it was fascinating for the children to explore how the water moves.

Cookery this week gave the children the opportunity to taste a number of different cheeses which then went into our spinach and cheese pastries – the smell as they cooked was delicious and proved hard for the children to resist!   I hope that they enjoyed them, even with something ‘green’ in!

The sound of the week ‘ai’ was a real hit with many children making a little boat to ‘sail in the rain’ – with perfect timing at pick up, the clouds delivered a little shower much to the excitement of some as they set off to test them out.

Little surprises should arrive on Sunday – if they don’t do check the book bag!

Mrs Beeching

Sporting Fixtures
Boys:                                                                             Girls:
RUGBY TERM                                                                  HOCKEY
Wednesday 11th March                                                  Wednesday 11th March
U.13 A vs. St. George’s             L 22 – 40                       U.13 A vs. Amesbury                 L 0 – 3
U.13 B vs. St. George’s              W 49 – 27                     U.13 B vs. Amesbury                 W 2 – 1
Colts A vs. St. George’s             W 20 – 5                       U.11 A vs. The Abbey                W 2 – 1
Colts B vs. St. George’s             L 30 – 50                       U.11 B vs. The Abbey                D 2 – 2
                                                                       
Friday 13th March                                                          Friday 13th March
U.9 A vs. St. George’s                L 2 – 5                          U.9 A vs. Dolphin                       W 9 – 0
U.9 B vs. St. George’s                W 11 – 5                       U.9 B vs. Dolphin                       W 8 – 1
U.8 vs. St. George’s                   W 11 – 7                       U.8 A vs. Rupert House             W 15 – 1
                                                                                        U.8 B vs. Rupert House             W 5 – 1
                                                                                        U.8 C vs. Rupert House             W 4 – 2
                                                                                                                                   

Weekly Sports Reports

During training this week there was a great emphasis placed on continuity and we discussed the continuity ladder with all the boys. Running forward, passing before contact, offloading in the tackle and then popping off the ground being the rungs on the ladder. Training was focused around using these skills and making the correct decisions on when to use them.

The matches reflected our training with great decisions made, and skills shown, around the break down, which promoted continuity. The U.13 A’s came up against a big strong St George’s side and at this age, sometimes size can be the difference. In terms of our rugby we made great decisions and went forward in both attack and defence, just not as often or as far as we would have liked. The U.13 B’s had a wonderful 7’s match in which they dominated possession and were able to avoid the breakdown for most of the match as they strung passes together.

The Colts A had a great game and they showed they have progressed as a side in terms of the overall skill set. Unfortunately the Colts B & C had some tough games but can certainly hold their heads high as they too never gave up with some wonderful tackles made and tries scored. They have also shown a considerable amount of progression over the term.

Special mention must go to the U.10 A’s who took part at the St George’s 7’s tournament on Sunday. After a tough start the boys responded positively and went onto win the Plate tournament. Well done them!

Mr Baldwin