Daneshill Diary 19/09/14

Headmaster’s Notes

The Scottish referendum slogan of “Better Together” proved to be the case as a majority voted against independence. Certainly at Daneshill we know that our pupils are at their best when their efforts are combined as was illustrated by this week’s trip to Ufton Court.  Mrs Fevrier remarked that Year 4 were an excellent group of pupils whose behaviour collectively was exemplary.

Mr Baldwin’s History in the Limelight has been enjoyed by pupils of all ages particularly the sections about “Today in History” and “Who You Share Your Birthday With on this Day in History”

Friday 19th September has provided some very significant new material not least of all that ladies will now be allowed to join St Andrews Golf Club.

This day in history also marked the very first Glastonbury Festival in 1970.  In New Zealand women were given the vote in 1893 and David Seaman, the former England goalkeeper, was born in 1963.  He celebrates his birthday with one Daneshill pupil.

Mr Spencer

Year 4 Explore Ufton Court

On Monday 15th September, Year 4 visited Ufton Court’s beautiful, secluded grounds, which include medieval fishponds and extensive unspoilt woodland. The children took part in photo mapping, orienteering, team challenges, a Tudor banquet with dancing, campfire, net sweeping, pond dipping and visiting Ufton Court’s own farm animals. The peaceful setting gave the children time out from their action packed lives and provided them with opportunities to explore the natural world in an adventurous, stimulating environment. Certainly a fun filled trip to be remembered, with Year 4 stronger and working well as a team!

Year 4 Tutors

News from the Pre-Prep

We would like to start by saying a great big “well done” to every child in Year 2 for working so hard and becoming the most grown-up children in the Pre-Prep building. It is a big jump up from Year 1 and they are doing very well.
Our topics this term are ‘The Celts’ and ‘Our 5 Senses’ and several of the year group have been so inspired by what they have learnt so far that they have brought in information and pictures that they have researched at home to show their friends. Keep up the good work Year 2!
 
Year 1 have been enjoying lots of artwork this week, which is helping to develop their fine motor skills. They particularly enjoyed learning about primary and secondary colours and which colours are the ingredients for orange, purple and green. The children were keen to get messy and used their hands to mix the colours. One hand was painted in one primary colour, the other in a different colour. Then as if by magic a third colour began to appear when the hands were rubbed together. Their eyes lit up with surprise.
 
It has been a fabulous week in Reception. The children are doing a topic called “I am special”. Each child has brought in a shoe box full of their favourite things. They then spoke about their shoe box in front of their class. The other children had the opportunity to ask questions about these items. All of this was shared enthusiastically with one of the most popular items being a Russian doll. The children couldn’t believe the dolls kept getting smaller and smaller, and loved that smallest doll was a size of a tiny pea.                                                                                                                                                   
 
Miss Bull
 

Nursery Corner

The children have been enjoying their second full week back and it has been special to watch the younger children from last year take on new roles as the senior members of the Nursery – The Vikings! It is incredible how over the summer the Fledglings that were with us last year have developed and matured and they are a huge asset, providing us with such excellent role models for the new children. We are fortunate in Nursery to have children with us for more than the 3 terms and it has been a pleasure to have such happy, confident children return to us this term.

This week we have been enjoying the story of The Gruffalo, which is familiar to all and allows us to start with some lovely creative activities that the children have all participated in. We had thought that maybe we might see him in the woods around school but fortunately, ‘don’t you know there’s no such thing’…..!

We have also been exploring shapes and continue our circle and square hunting both inside and out whenever possible. This week the children have been introduced to the Jolly Phonics sound ‘a’ which may well explain why they keep scratching their arms singing ‘a, a, ants on my arm’!

Have a fabulous weekend and we look forward to seeing you all next week.

Mrs Beeching

 
Sporting Fixtures
Boys:                                                                           Girls:
FOOTBALL TERM                                                         NETBALL TERM
Wednesday 17th September                                       Wednesday 17th September
1st XI vs. Dolphin                     L   0 – 1                         U.13 A vs. Farnborough Hill      W 22 – 12
2nd IX vs. Dolphin                    W 3 – 0                          U.13 B vs. Farnborough Hill       L 5 – 16
Colts A vs. Lambrook              L 2 – 0                           U.11 A vs. The Abbey               W 8 – 0
Colts A vs. Papplewick           D 1 – 1                           U.11 B vs. The Abbey                W 6 – 0
Colts B vs. Lambrook              L 1 – 0                        
Colts B vs. Papplewick           W 3 – 0                          U.10 A vs St Joseph’s                W 3 – 1
Colts C vs. Lambrook               L 1 – 0                          U.10 B vs. St Joseph’s                L 1 – 7
Colts C vs. Papplewick            W 3 – 0
                                     
Friday 19th September                                                 Friday 19th September                                                       
U.9 A vs. Bishopsgate    D 0 – 0                                    U.9 A vs. St Andrew’s                L 4 – 8 
U.9 A vs. Brockhurst     W 5 – 0                                     U.9 B vs. St Andrew’s                W 3 – 2
U.9 B vs. Bishopsgate    D 0 – 0                                     U.8 A vs. St Andrew’s                W 10 – 0
U.9 B vs. Brockhurst     W 2 – 0                                     U.8 B vs. St Andrew’s                W 3 -1              
U.9 C vs. Bishopsgate    L 6 – 0 
U.9 C vs. Brockhurst     W 3 – 0                        
U.8 A vs. Brockhurst     W 6 – 0
                       

Weekly Sports Reports

A great week for the Daneshill netball teams with superb wins over Farnborough Hill, The Abbey and St Joseph’s on Wednesday. The girls have shown improved focus and determination in their lessons and have started to settle into their new squads nicely. The U.13’s have demonstrated how versatile they are by changing positions with ease allowing me to experiment with different combinations. The girls really shone against Farnborough Hill and oozed confidence as they dominated play from the start.

The U.11’s secured convincing wins over The Abbey too this week. Both teams demonstrated an excellent work rate and communicated well; something we have been working on in the past few weeks. Circle play was also good as the attack linked up with the shooters well and it’s good to see their circle rotations improving.

The U.10’s did extremely well against St Joseph’s too and the team are really showing great potential. I have been very impressed with them in training as the squads seem very settled and have bonded well. It’s been fantastic to see the girl’s getting some extra practice on the netball courts at break times too; they really are a committed group of girls.

Miss O’Neill

It’s been another very good week in the Football sphere. With emphasis changing this week in training from skills to game shaping we have been practicing game scenarios and they proved their worth on Wednesday. In the Colts we were up against two very strong schools in Papplewick and Lambrook. I am pleased to report that we proved more than a match, winning most games against Papplewick and coming a narrow second to Lambrook. The most pleasing aspect of the afternoon was the football we played as we showed great movement and situational awareness to produce some outstanding goals and sublime passing movements.
 
The 1st’s and 2nd’s played in a triangular against Dolphin with the 1st XI going down by 1 goal and the 2’s winning by 3 goals. Some nice football was played but it is clear that there needs to be an improvement in the way we defend and the work we do off the ball as we are too one dimensional at present. So onwards to next week which sees fixtures against Holme Grange and Dolphin.

 

Mr Baldwin