Daneshill Diary 10/03/17
Headmaster’s Notes
We have all enjoyed another active week at school. On Tuesday the Author / Illustrator, Chloe Inkpen, visited the Pre-Prep and inspired the children with her illustrated books. The Year 3 and 4 girls competed at a Gym Competition on Wednesday at Prior’s Field. On Thursday, the Year 5 children enjoyed a wonderful afternoon at Wellington College taking part in a ‘Chemistry Spectacular’ whilst our Year 7&8 pupils headed to London to watch Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘School of Rock’. Today the Year 7 pupils have headed to Rendcomb College to take part in a Rough Runner, which will see them navigate their way around a 2.5 km obstacle course. A great way to end a busy week!
I do wish you a happy and relaxing weekend.
Mr Wansey
Celebrating Science
Last Friday four of our Daneshill boys represented the School at the National Finals of the Science Quiz Championships held at The Natural History Museum in Oxford. Harry Aldred and Alex Harker knew exactly what to expect as they reached the finals last year. This time around the team was completed by Ciaran Churcher and Monty Cross from Year 5 and what a display of bravery and brilliance they put on. The boys made a confident start deploying 50:50 tactics early on to ensure their points tally remained high. After 30 questions the boys were in second place. In the final ten questions the boys remained right up there as one of the top four teams but unfortunately for the last few questions were incredibly tough, which saw our boys finish in 4th position. This must be celebrated as an incredible achievement as it means they are the fourth best team in the country. We are immensely proud of you boys!
On Thursday all of Year 5 pupils travelled to Wellington College for their ‘Chemistry Spectacular’ trip. This term Year 5 have been working hard to gain their bunsen burner badges as well as their experimenting and equipment badges as they are studying reversible and irreversible reactions. The trip was full of whooshes and bangs, flames and sparkles from start to finish. The children watched in amazement! The Chemistry Spectacular took us on a journey through time, focusing on the different elements of the periodic table. It really was a super addition to the Science topics that have been studied in class.
Next week the annual National Science week commences. The theme this year is ‘Change’ and you will have already seen each year group in the school have adopted an animal. To compliment the theme further we have two sets of eggs arriving, which the whole school is extremely egg-cited about! One set will be down in the Pre-Prep and the other set based in the Year 3 classrooms. We look forward to our fluffy friends starting their lives with us at Daneshill and watching them change and grow over the 11 days they will be with us.
The Science department are also hosting a Wacky Professors days on Tuesday 14th March. Year 4-6 will be supported by the Year 7 and 8 pupils and will be building zoo enclosures using recycled materials. Pupils will be put into teams to research, design and build an enclosure for their adopted animal; ensuring that the enclosure is enriched and suitable for their animal. Pre-Prep will also be undertaking an exciting science based challenge of their own.
And lastly as if all of that wasn’t enough, we are urging pupils in all year groups to take part in the National Science week poster competition, details of which can be found around school or on the school website. Entries must be submitted to the Science department no later than 24th March.
Mrs Blomfield and Mrs Pursell
Pre-Prep News
The early signs of spring have certainly made the week in Pre-Prep particularly enjoyable! The children have loved whizzing off outside without having to wear their coats and we very much hope that the sun is here to stay!
The highlight for all of us has to be the visit from the famous author Chloe Inkpen. She arrived with stories of ‘Fred’ and ‘Zoe’ and all the children from Nursery to Year 2 enjoyed an incredible hour of story-telling and drama with her. She captured her audience perfectly and the children were totally engaged for well over an hour with her. We even created our very own Pre-Prep book character – an alien called Bob!
Year 1 have been busy learning how to construct questions and had a wonderful time asking Julia Donaldson’s ‘Superworm’ all about his adventures. Year 2 have been detectives this week, gathering data for their own pictograms of the Pre-Prep’s favourite animals. There was also an eruption of fun as they acted out the functions of a volcano; from bubbling away in the magna chamber to the explosion!
The Pre-Prep Teachers
Sports
Wednesday 8th March
NETBALL
U.13 A vs. Holme Grange W 12 – 9
U.13 B vs. Holme Grange W 6 – 0
U.13 C vs. Holme Grange W 6 – 3
U.11 A vs. Eagle House W 11 – 5
U.11 B vs. Eagle House L 3 – 8
RUGBY
U.13 vs. St. George’s
U.11 A vs. St. George’s L 2 – 7
U.11 B vs. St George’s
U.11 C vs. St George’s W 6 – 3
U.10 vs. St George’s
Friday 10th March
NETBALL
U.9 A vs. St Andrew’s L 8 – 13
U.9 B vs. St Andrew’s W 5 – 3
U.8 A vs. St Andrew’s W 3 – 2
U.8 B vs. St Andrew’s L 1 – 3
RUGBY
U.9 A vs. St George’s
U.9 B vs. St George’s
U.8 A vs. St George’s
Reports
U.13 A
Daneshill hit the ground running this week in their fixture against Holme Grange. The girls started strongly with an early exceptional goal from Emily Goor which marked the start of a great quarter for the team. Our attacking play was particularly impressive as we moved the ball at speed through Holme Grange’s defensive players, converting almost every shot into a goal. The team executed superb ‘clear and drives’ which created space and clear lines of attack down the court and it was good to see our shooter’s circle rotations coming into play. Overall, it was an outstanding game to watch. The girls enjoyed every second and the increased level of ‘contest’ with the opposition, enabling them to raise their game in response.
U.13 B
The girls had an excellent start to the triangular, with a strong win against Holme Grange. Overall, possession was evenly matched but pressure was put on the opposition with an early goal. Eleanor and Claudia worked well together, they had good communication and confident goals. The defence also worked well to intercept where available and clear the ball efficiently up the court and into attack. The final quarter was particularly impressive with confident passing and dominance of the ball.
The next game was much more challenging, they had to work particularly hard to keep up with the slick passing of the opposition. The girls now need to focus on precision of the final feed into the attacking circle so that their hard work of getting the ball into the attack is not wasted. However, with one win and one loss the team should feel proud of their achievements.
U.13 C
After a slow start with no goals in the first quarter the team settled and improved their movement and marking. Two nil ahead at half time they then went from strength to strength ending 6 – 3 up at full time.
POM: Olivia.
U.11 A
Daneshill took an early lead and maintained their effort in the second quarter to be 7 – 2 ahead at half time. Changes made by the opposition restricted our shooting in the third quarter and only one goal was scored compared to their tally of two. However, our strong defence play then managed to contain their shooters whilst we continued with some excellent feeds into the circle from centre court. This game ended with a well -deserved 11-5 win for Daneshill.
POM: Attack –Saskia, Defence – Fetchi.
U.11 B
The U.11 B team played Eagle House this week. The team started well and matched Eagle House goal for goal in the first quarter with accurate passing and dominant drives. The girls demonstrated a strong work rate and communicated well with their peers. Once the girls were confident to give the ‘long ball’ into the circle the pace stepped up and there was some excellent court play. Overall, a good game for the team with a few things to work on for next time.