Daneshill Diary 30/01/15

Headmaster’s Notes

As to be expected in January, the weather has certainly been a talking point this week with temperatures plummeting. Thankfully this hasn’t dampened the children’s enthusiasm for sport and this was particularly evident at the St. Andrew’s cross country event on Friday last week. Following rigorous time trials, forty eight Daneshill pupils from Years 3 – 8 were selected to run. If the elements were not challenge enough, many of those selected were also returning from illness. All of the runners displayed great courage and determination, and were rewarded for their efforts. Of particular note were the U.8 boys & girls and the U.10 boys who won their respective year groups. Daneshill finished second overall out of the six local schools in attendance. All of the runners can be very proud of their achievements and it certainly bodes well for future events. Please note that the individual results are currently being displayed on the Sports notice board at school.

Mr Spencer

News from the Pre-Prep

In Reception this week we have continued our books and stories theme by dipping into some traditional tales. The story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears inspired some postcard writing. The children then made honey flapjacks by measuring and listening to a set of instructions. We have been using bears to help with our subtraction story sums and doing some practical science work involving choosing a material suitable for the bears’ mattress. What an exciting week to be at school!

This week the children in Year 1 went to The Lookout Discovery Centre. The day was fun and enjoyable with lots of opportunities for hands-on science learning. There were many hidden facts around the learning zones. For example, did you know that whatever the size of a piece of paper it can only be folded in half seven times? The children were buzzing with new science knowledge when they returned to school and were keen to share their learning with their parents on collection.?

The Pre-Prep is brimming with budding scientists this week as Year 2 have also been on a trip to the Winchester Science Centre and Planetarium. The children were transported into outer space as they gazed up at the Planetarium ceiling. Gasps were heard as they compared the size of planet Earth to the size of the Sun. A starlit sky shone above us as we listened to Greek legends of how constellations were supposedly formed. The children also loved exploring the huge variety of scientific exhibits; they worked well together in their groups and were excited by their discoveries. Teachers and parent helpers were even more proud when a gentleman commented on how the well-mannered children spoke to each other and showed good team work – he was very impressed!

Pre-Prep Teachers

Nursery Corner

We were visited in the nursery playground this week by Edward, a friend of our dinosaur Jack. Whilst no one actually witnessed this, Edward managed to leave his footprints across the playground much to the excitement of the children – all 14 of them were able to fit into one print and they were so big that the children had to walk about six steps on average to cross each print. Together we worked out that it took Edward ten steps to travel across the playground but it took us fifty! Great fun with maths and measurement! Some of the children then did pencil drawings of Edward – do come and take a look – lots of smiles and spikes and all very friendly!

The children were introduced to ‘o’ this week and learnt to start writing it from the top working ‘all around the orange’ as they completed the letter. Thank you to all those who, by coincidence, sent in the vitamin C rich oranges that day as the children were delighted to be able to eat an actual one having spent the morning talking about them.

Mrs Beeching

         
Sporting Fixtures
Boys:                                                                                  Girls:
RUGBY TERM                                                                      HOCKEY
Wednesday 28th January                                                   Wednesday 28th January
U.13 A vs. Bearwood College        W 43 – 0                       U.13 A vs. St Andrew’s              L 1 – 6
U.13 A vs. Pangbourne College      W 43 – 5                       U.13 B vs. St Andrew’s              L 1 – 3
U.13 B vs. Pangbourne College      W 12 – 10                     U.10 A vs. Farleigh                      L 0 – 3
Colts A vs. St Francis                     W 40 – 15                     U.10 A vs. St Mary’s                   L 2 – 3
Colts B vs. St Francis                     W 50 – 40                     U.10 B vs. Farleigh                      L 1 – 4
                                                                                            U.10 B vs. St Mary’s                    W 2 – 0
                                                                       
Friday 30th January                                                           Friday 30th January
U.9 A vs. Holme Grange                 W 40 – 5                       U.9 A vs. St Andrew’s                L 0 – 5
U.9 B vs. Holme Grange                 L 15 – 10                      U.9 B vs. St Andrew’s                L 0 – 3
U.9 C vs. Holme Grange                 L 15 – 50                      U.8 A vs. St Andrew’s                W 3 – 1
U.8 A vs. Holme Grange                 W 17 – 13                     U.8 B vs. St Andrew’s                D 0 – 0
                                                                                            U.8 C vs. St Neot’s                     Training
                                                                                            U.8 D vs. St Neot’s                     Training
 

Weekly Sports Reports

The U.10’s enjoyed their triangular matches this Wednesday against Farleigh and St Mary’s. The girls showed lots of progress as the games developed throughout the afternoon and they focused on their training this week by taking the ball out to the right hand side when attacking and defending.

Despite playing two hard games the teams demonstrated an excellent work rate and tried hard until the final whistle. We struggled slightly with our power in the attacking D so we’ll look at executing some bigger hits in our training sessions next week. In the words of Mrs Barnes ‘they just need to give it a bit more welly!’

The U.13’s had some tough games against the notoriously strong St Andrew’s School. The A team worked extremely hard throughout the match and showed improved attacking skills, honing in on our training this week. The B team defended extremely well and made an effort to protect the goal and support the GK. There were a few breakthroughs in attack, which we struggled to convert into goals, but there was a real eagerness to score which was good to see.

Miss O’Neill

The Wednesday fixtures this week were a big improvement on last week’s efforts. Throughout the week we have been working on defensive line speed and implementing the theory that everyone is as fast as each other over two metres. In coming up quickly we are allowing the opposition less time to build momentum, making them easier to tackle, and minimalizing their attacking options. During the matches the boys were able to isolate attackers and effectively stifle the team attack. This added an extra dimension to our game as we were able to do this and keep our strengths from the week before; good ruck technique and aggression in defence and running forward with quick feet whilst always looking to keep the ball alive. The boys were rewarded for their efforts with some great results across all of the games.

This afternoon the Year 3 and 4’s will play against Holme Grange where they will look to put the main principles of rugby into practice; running forward and supporting their team mates to promote continuity of play in both attack and defence.

Next week sees fixtures against Brockhurst who are always a challenge.

Mr Baldwin