Daneshill Diary 23/05/14
Headmaster’s Notes
Showing prospective parents around the school last week in the glorious sunshine was a real joy. Our pupils were everywhere in the grounds enjoying practical learning, playing sports or simply reading books under the shade of the oak trees. Summer is an exciting time to be at school when everything seems possible but just as we were beginning to hope that this was the start of something good the wet weather has returned with a vengeance.
I hope that things will improve for half-term and that families will be able to take advantage of a few days break. Some pupils will be slightly anxious about the prospect of examinations on their return to school but it is equally important to maintain a healthy balance between recreation and revision.
Mr Spencer
Greece is the Word
Year 5 whisked their parents away to Ancient Greece this week as they staged two lively concerts inspired by their current history topic. As well as enriching historical and literary knowledge, the performances gave the pupils the opportunity to develop self-confidence, with many being drawn out of their comfort zone to experience their first solo performance.
Mrs Mannion
Year 6 Theatre Trip to Carrie’s War
Chicks
A big thank you to all the children, in particular Year 3, 4 and 8 (as well as Eddie and Charlie Bird) for looking after the chicks. They very much enjoyed their stay at Daneshill and the female chicks (and one male!) have all been re-homed with volunteer families; thank you to the Harker, Froom, Limbear and Savage families for providing onward homes for our chicks and we look forward to hearing their progress in the future.
Mrs Blomfield
Football Fun Day
It has been fantastic to see the children’s efforts this week in designing a poster for our much anticipated football fun day. We have had more than 50 entries and these are now on display at school. Well done to all of those who took part.
Saturday 14th June is fast approaching and I hope the day is firmly in everyone’s diary. Mrs Lock will be sending home instructions on Tuesday as to how the children can create their own Headdress for the Samba parade. So please keep an eye on your e-mails.
News from the Pre-Prep
Nursery Corner
What fantastic achievements we have seen in the Nursery over the last couple of weeks with some of the older children starting to write their first sentences – ‘I can whizz’ (I can wiz) and ‘four bees buzz’ (for bees buz)! At this point we are not looking for perfect spelling but an understanding of the sounds they have learnt and it is fantastic to see them putting them into action with limited support. Preparing the Vikings for reception is key at this stage and we are very proud of how many of them have now mastered their name writing. We will continue to develop this and their other literacy skills over the second half of term. The Fledglings are also making excellent progress with more of them joining in with our sound and action songs, which is a solid foundation for next year.
The Hungry Caterpillar topic has allowed us to continue with our counting and sorting exercises. All children, regardless of their age have been able to work with our fruit games and share the joy of learning through play. Little do they realise that they are in fact being introduced to the concepts of addition and subtraction.
Each child’s achievement is precious and we continue to enjoy recording these special moments in their Learning Journals.
And finally……they are growing! The tiny signs of life have split through the soil to great excitement here in the Nursery and the regular watering, sunshine and conversation that they are receiving has certainly worked wonders as slowly, but surely, we begin to see them appear. Not all the seeds are ‘awake’ yet but fingers crossed they enjoy a peaceful half-term and are here to greet us on our return! We wish the same to you and look forward to seeing you back on 2nd June.
Miss Flood
Weekly Sports Reports
It has been a great week for the Daneshill rounders teams with victories over Amesbury School and The Oratory School on Wednesday. The U.13 A team roared to glory with their best game of the season so far. It was a truly exciting contest with big hits from both teams and lots of rounders being scored. The Daneshill team went down to just two players in the first innings but Kitty Munn and Lily Dekic held on to ensure we played all of our allocated 27 balls, demonstrating real grit and determination. The game was won through outstanding fielding by Daneshill though. Balls were flying through the air and the Daneshill girls caught ball after ball after ball. Their throws were accurate and despite great batting, Amesbury struggled to score. Amesbury were all out for 17 balls and Daneshill won 15-8. A truly thrilling game to watch!
The U.13 B team were hugely successful too on Wednesday, with a win over Amesbury of 24-16. Daneshill dominated their opposition from the start and batted brilliantly scoring most of their rounders from big hits alone. They all fielded well and ensured they backed up each on the bases securely, which prevented Amesbury scoring half rounders at second base.
The U.10 A team had a tough game against The Oratory. Daneshill were trailing after the first half but after a good pep talk at half time the girls were raring to go and managed to secure a final score of 20.5 – 18. Well done girls!
The U.8 A & U.9 / 8 B team had a couple of great wins over St Neot’s last Friday (16th May) too with final scores of 10 – 7.5 to both teams. I am really impressed with how the girls are starting to grasp the fundamentals of the game and it was good to see how it’s all starting to come together. It is a relatively new game to most of them so they are doing incredibly well.
Miss O’Neill
The boys had another tough week against some strong Papplewick teams. The First XI, in particular, had a great game. Papplewick batted first scoring 127/9. Some great bowling at the end really limited them as they got on top of us in the middle overs. We made a fantastic start with bat. Alex Brown and Sam Steele put on 67 runs for the first wicket and were both retired with 10 overs to go. Unfortunately we could not chase the final 60 runs needed but valuable experience was gained from the performance.
The Colts teams had some tough matches where batting proved our downfall. We were able to bowl very well but just couldn’t score the runs. This is an area that we will be working for the remaining weeks. I must say, any hitting of cricket balls that can be done at home all helps towards the 10,000 hours of practice theory!
Mr Baldwin
With over thirty pupils now playing golf at Daneshill it has been good to see so many play in competitions already this term.
Last week 8 pupils played against Papplewick at Wellington College. Sam and Alex winning their pairs match comfortably over their best two players. All the other players contributed well and the match finished 2 games all.
Oliver James did particularly well at the Bradfield Prep School tournament, finishing 3rd in the U.11 category.
After half-term Sam, Alex and Billy will be representing the school at Royal Lytham. They will be playing two rounds and will compete for individual and team prizes against the best Prep schools in the UK. Good luck to all and do try and find time for some practice over the half-term break!
Mr Soper