Daneshill Diary 05/02/16
Headmaster’s Notes
This week we congratulate two of our Year 6 pupils who have successfully passed into their Senior Schools. Henrietta Boyle will be joining St. Swithun’s and Poppy Evans will be joining Sherborne Girls. Well done to you both!
Many pupils in Years 6 and 7 have been attending interviews at Senior Schools and / or taking pre-tests for transfer in 2017 or 2018. I will publish a list of their future destinations after half-term. February is also the month for scholarship candidates to be tested and a number of our Year 8 pupils have undergone this process or are imminently awaiting the opportunity to demonstrate their obvious ability. We are proud of the achievements of all of our pupils who transfer to Senior Schools and we know that they will be excellent ambassadors for those who follow in their footsteps.
During these periods of intensified academic rigour we become increasingly more aware of our pupils’ wellbeing and the need to monitor their physical and mental health. Child Protection is a very significant part of our role and mental health issues are increasingly prevalent amongst quite young children who become anxious and over-stressed by the accountability of important examinations. Mrs Passmore has an important role to play within our provision of Pastoral care and she has been attending training days specifically designed for those working with young and adolescent children. I am pleased to report that Kevin Collins; the Second Master at Bradfield College, who for the last three years has been championing staff training in mental health awareness and counselling skills, will be visiting Daneshill in March to help train our staff and increase their awareness of this very sensitive area for educators.
Mr Spencer
Year 4 Maths Challenge at St Gabriel’s
On Monday, six Year 4 children went to St Gabriel’s to test their Maths against thirty six other schools! They worked in pairs to answer a variety of questions from dominoes to ‘add to 24’. Year 5 children will be doing the same on Friday 5th February and the results of both these events will be published in next week’s diary.
Good luck to Year 5 and well done to Year 4!
Mrs Caratelli
News from the Pre-Prep
It has been a busy week with Mathematics in Reception. Recently we have been learning to count in 2’s with socks. Now we are starting to count in 10’s. We have been counting blocks of 10, 10 pence coins, and ordering the numbers. We have also been working with the balance scales to see how many teddies balance with our shoe or an apple. In English we have been busy with our writing, sounding out independently, writing sentences, and making story books on the writing table. Afterwards we compared the work we completed at the beginning of Reception and what we are producing now. This caused lots of giggles as (thankfully) we have improved so much!
The Year 1 children took their topic of ‘Pushes and Pulls’ to The Lookout Discovery Centre on Wednesday for some hands-on Science exploration and learning. The children enjoyed taking part in a workshop where they learnt how forces make things move, change direction, change speed, and change shape. During the talk the children applied their prior learning from the classroom and extended it further by learning new facts and information. They were amazed to learn that there is six times more gravity on the moon than there is on earth, although there is no gravity in space. A fun-filled day was had by all the adults and children. This has yet further sparked the pupils’ inquisitive nature about Science and how the world works.
One of the highlights this week has been Year 2 earning their black belts in ‘Kung Fu Punctuation’! We have used this fun chant to inspire more advanced use of punctuation in the children’s creative writing. We are looking forward to seeing who will rise to the challenge of incorporating the physical actions onto the page.
We are also exploring the various parts of speech and how they are used in our work and reading. Why not have fun this weekend and see how many nouns, adjectives and verbs you can find. Bonus points for finding some adverbs!
Pre-Prep Teachers
Nursery Corner
The children have been thoroughly enjoying our new role play, which has changed to the Three Bears Cottage. We have different sized bowls, spoons and beds, and with the help of some super headband masks we are witnessing some fabulous role playing of the Goldilocks story. The intonation that some of the children are using as well as the different voices they are creating for the characters are just a joy to hear and witness!
Everyone has had a chance to make the character puppets as well and these will be coming home soon so that hopefully you will get to hear their gorgeous re-enactments! We were very lucky to be visited by Reception on Thursday afternoon who very much enjoyed our performance! Well done Nursery – super story telling!
We have learnt the ‘l’ sound this week and have been ordering numbers between 1-10 as well as doing some verbal counting down from 10-1. We love playing around with numbers in the Nursery in simple games and activities.
Have a super weekend.
Mrs Beeching
Sporting Fixtures
Wednesday 3rd February
HOCKEY
U.13 A vs. Amesbury W 3 – 0
U.13 B vs. Amesbury W 3 – 0
U.11 A vs. Rupert House L 0 – 1
U.11 B vs. Rupert House W 4 – 1
U.10 A vs. Rupert House W 2 – 0
U.10 B vs. Rupert House W 3 – 0
RUGBY
U.13 A vs. Brockhurst W 42 – 12
U.13 B vs. Brockhurst L 12 – 28
Colts A vs. Brockhurst L 1 – 7
Colts B vs. Brockhurst L 2 – 5
Colts C vs. Brockhurst L 1 – 8
Friday 5th February
HOCKEY
U.9 A vs. Dolphin W 5 – 0
U.9 B vs. Dolphin W 4 – 0
NETBALL
U.9 C vs. Holme Grange L 0 – 4
U.9 D vs. Holme Grange L 0 – 6
U.8 A vs. Holme Grange W 4 – 1
U.8 B vs. Holme Grange L 1 – 4
RUGBY
U.9 vs. Brockhurst L 3 – 9
U.8 A vs. Brockhurst W 13 – 10
U.8 B vs. Brockhurst L 13 – 15
The U.9 girls’ hockey teams welcomed St Andrew’s to Daneshill with our A, B and C teams all playing. Despite being 0-3 behind, the A’s battled back in a thrilling second half, just being edged out 5-6. Imogen Dyer scored 3 of the goals and Katie Lee-Smith the other. The B’s had a tight affair, drawing 0-0 whilst the Cs scored late on through Martha Beeching but unfortunately lost 1-2. Meanwhile the U.8’s had two close games, with the A’s narrowly losing but the B’s recording their second victory.
On Wednesday the U.13’s headed to Amesbury for fixtures and both teams picked up impressive 3-0 victories over their respective counterparts. Georgie Brooks-Ward scored twice and Felicity Young once for the A’s whilst Freya Withinshaw scored twice and Sienna Fowler once for the Bs. The U.10 A team picked up their second victory of the season with a 2-0 victory against Rupert House. Grace Thomas and Saskia Lea both scored, whilst the B’s picked up a great 3-0 victory over the same opponents, Felicity Waldmann, Candida McNair Scott and Lilias Hoare Nairne with the goals. The U.11 A team suffered a narrow 0-1 loss at home to Rupert House, in a game where goalkeepers were at the fore front. Meanwhile the B’s had a storming 4-1 victory with Grace Ruffell and Maddie Woodcraft both scoring twice.
The U.9 A&B team are off to Dolphin today for their matches, whilst the U.8 A&B and two teams from Year 4 are playing netball before even more fixtures next week. Good luck to all of the girls playing in those games!
Mr King
It was great to have some challenging fixtures this week. Win or lose, all of our sides showed great courage and resilience. Every team gave 110% until the final whistle and demonstrated admirable qualities that will ensure we improve week on week.
The U.13 A’s put in a strong performance against Brockhurst and dominated the match after a strong start. The front five worked very hard especially in the scrums, winning the ball against the head five times with William Toosey hooking a lot better this week. Harry Stevens carried the ball very well throughout the match and Angus Leech kept up a high work rate for the entire game. Strong carries and quick thinking got him a deserved hat-trick. Jack Pocock at 9 kept running and distributed consistently well all game. Sami Virji grew into his role at 10 the longer the match went on and showed moments of brilliance with his footwork and passing. Riley Darragh and Will Wyatt worked tirelessly and had a great connection in the centres. Both showed their experience in the side; changing from inside to outside centre and vice versa. Good handling and big carries meant that at times it took three boys to take them down. The back four of Sam Jefferson, Tom Swart, Oli B-D and Harry Hare linked well together when the ball was spread. All four kept the ball well and stayed away from the touch line. Most pleasing was our huge improvement in fitness, defensive structure and one-on-one tackling from our first game.
The U.13 B’s started slowly with a few of the boys looking like they were still on the bus. We struggled to support runners and bunched in defence so the quick lads on the opposition flanks could easily run around the side. Thankfully the second half was much more positive. Jake McGregor scored two tries showing fast feet and good hands. Jack Kellard offered some good kicking and tackling. Luke Z-F came back hard and hit the rucks superbly, dominating the drive and upending several of their players. Hal Gavin showed some good running and commitment also. We couldn’t win the match but there were some very encouraging signs for our next match.
The Colts A suffered a 1-7 defeat, going down against a very strong Brockhurst outfit. When big Harry Burleton hit the deck after his first carry we knew it was going to be a long afternoon. Brockhurst put four tries on the board in the first five minutes and Daneshill were left looking a bit bewildered. At this point we began clawing our way back into the match and grew together as a team. Our line speed increased, led by Lucas Darragh and Harry Burleton. This led to some fantastic tackles being put in by all members of the team. Tommy Guy in particular put a couple of Brockhurst players to the floor in quick succession and Joey McGregor, the smallest boy in our side, went in hard against the biggest on their side! Oscar Petersen showed great commitment but unfortunately he was concussed as he put his body on the line for our side. All this effort took both guts and determination in a losing effort. For me, the fact that the boys were able to show such resilience was a victory to be proud of, despite the score line.
The Colts B started slowly and found themselves up against a lethal Brockhurst side who were physically imposing and technically good. As the scoreline went up, our heads went down, and we were 0 – 5 in the red at half-time. Mr Webster gave a rousing half-time talk though and Daneshill returned to the pitch a different side. Arthur Toosey clattered a Brockhurst player and we had our head’s up! Alex Harker scored a great try and we began to go forward. We drew the second half 2-2 and again, if we can start strongly then hopefully we can see an improvement next week.
The Colts C also improved as the match went on. A lack of match practice was probably a key factor in this. Robin Rattray and Harrison Cleaver pinned their ears back and ran diligently and with skill, getting our side moving forward. Constant chat at the ruck helped but unfortunately we lost the ball too many times in the tackle from poor presentation or not going to ground. We showed great team spirit though and Harry Aldred captained well.
So plenty to work with and plenty to improve on but a great Wednesday in the life of a Daneshill pupil!
Mr Baldwin