Daneshill Diary 15/01/16

Headmaster’s Notes

The first, full week back at school has proved difficult for outdoor activities but fortunately a reprieve from the relentless rain on Wednesday allowed the first inter-school rugby matches to be played. Mr Lowe (Rugby) and Mr King (Hockey) have made an immediate impact whilst Miss Lynch, who is deputising as Head of Girls’ Games, has been her usual enthusiastic self.

Indoors, Miss Stacey has made an impressive start as our Gymnastics Coach and she is clearly a very accomplished teacher.

There is much to be positive about and we look forward to battling the elements as well as the opposition in the weeks ahead.

Mr Spencer

Ski Trip

On 27th December eighteen pupils, Mrs Harker, Mrs Barnes and Mr Soper embarked on an energetic one week ski trip to Aosta, Italy. The weather was bright and clear for most of the week, displaying some of the most incredible mountain views of Switzerland and France, including Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn.

We skied for five long days in three groups with enthusiastic and encouraging instructors. Anna Bryant was awarded the most improved skier award and Ollie James the top skier. The Interski Star Awards are from Level 1 to 6. All of our children earned either a Level 3, 4 or 5 certificate; skiing superbly all week.

Our evenings were full of entertaining activities too. We went to a local pizzeria, wandered around the Christmas market, enjoyed bowling and a relaxing swim. The hotel also offered table tennis and table football and we played Bananagrams, Yhatzee, Beetle and Uno; our favourite games.

After a memorable week of skiing, and with bags packed, all that remained was the long journey home but thankfully everyone was so tired that we slept most of the way. It was a truly fantastic trip, made even more successful by the positive and happy pupils. Thank you for such an enjoyable time!

Mrs Barnes

The Daneshill Weekly Maths Challenge

As many of you may have noticed, last week was the first of the weekly Maths challenges set for the children to attempt. The children put their answers (one per child!) in the box in the front hall near the French Room. At the end of every Thursday the first name out of the ‘hat’ with the correct answer is awarded a super house point, which is awarded in the Friday assembly.

Why don’t you all have a go too?

Week 1:

A bow and arrow costs £21.00, the bow costs £20.00 more than the arrow, what is the cost of the arrow?

Week 2:

Sally went to the stationery shop and bought some pens and pencils. The pens cost 15p each, the pencils cost 10p each. She was given £2.50 by her mum and she bought four times as many pens as pencils. She had 40p change.

How many of each did she buy?

Looking ahead to the rest of the term, there will be an Inter-House Maths Challenge on Tuesday 23rd February. This will take place during Maths lessons and it will test the children’s knowledge of their tables. So please get practicing!

Mrs Caratelli

News from the Pre-Prep

In Reception we have been looking at the story ‘The Little Red Hen’. The Hen has to do all the work to make bread by herself with no help from others. We have linked this story with helping others and sharing. The children have been learning to retell the story with actions. This has prompted fantastic writing and independent sounding out. The children also made bread and retold the story in assembly.

Shiver me timbers! The pirates and mermaids have arrived in Year 1 this week to kick off their new topic. It has been wonderful to get an insight into the children’s imaginations through both role play and storytelling. Our text focus has been Giles Andreae’s famous children’s book Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs which we have used as a stimulus for their work on character descriptions. This has enhanced the children’s prior learning about adjectives and the use of descriptive language in their written work.

This week’s Maths in Year 1 has focused on measuring and comparing the length of different classroom objects. The children were amazed to learn that a metre stick is made up of 100cm. They have thoroughly enjoyed using rulers to accurately measure the length of everyday objects; it would be fantastic to hear that the children have been applying this learning at home.

In Year 2 we are discovering the importance of open communication. We are growing into independent learners that are able to ask interesting questions, which spark exciting conversations. As a result of this we are also finding out how respectful it is to listen to each other as well as sharing our own ideas. In ‘Show & Tell’ all the children are encouraged to bring in and share information they have found whether it be from a book, magazine, the Internet or from a personal object. It is always wonderful to see enthusiastic children who have created an illustration or hand written some facts to share with their friends.

Pre-Prep Teachers

Nursery Corner

What a wonderful start to the New Year we have had. We have welcomed 5 new children into our Nursery and all seem to have settled happily and are enjoying joining in with our exciting activities as well as learning about our routine.

This week we have been looking at shapes all around us – spotting them both in our classroom and in the outside area. Many of the children have been drawing shapes with chalks on our playground and telling us all about their properties – ‘It’s got 3 pointy bits’ ‘It’s got long long side and then short short ones too’. Fabulous to see little minds busy at work!

The children were introduced to the ‘g’ sound as well making ‘Greedy Goats’ as their craft activity to support their learning. They had such fun making them eat ‘gold, glasses, guitar, grapes and a ghost’.

Can I please ask that all those that have not done so yet provide a pair of named water proof trousers for their child – it allows us to get outside, whatever the weather!

Have a super weekend.

Mrs Beeching

Sporting Fixtures
Boys:
RUGBY
Wednesday 13th January
U.13 A vs. Thorngrove L 20 – 40
U.11 A vs. Thorngrove L 5 – 35
U.10 A vs. Thorngrove W 40 – 25

Friday 15th January
NETBALL
U.9 A vs. Holme Grange W 8 – 0
U.9 B vs. Holme Grange W 4 – 0

The girls have been getting back into the swing of playing hockey over the last week and a half since term began. Coaching wise, we have placed great emphasis on improving the girls’ core skills and training has helped to prepare the teams for their first matches of the term starting next week. The effort and enthusiasm across all of the year groups has been really pleasing to see with everyone eager to learn and develop new skills.

Mr King

This week saw a tough opening round of fixtures against Thorngrove. With so much rain it meant that all of our home fixture were cancelled so those boys enjoyed a 2 hour session with the ironically named Mr Lowe (he is very tall), our rugby coach from London Irish.

The U.13 A’s began strongly as they powered their way to a 15 point lead. The power of both Riley Darragh and Angus Leech saw us make some great yards up the middle of the park. We were quick to support ball runners early in the half and tore into the rucks which allowed us to make the most of the early chances. However, fitness began to take its toll as Thorngrove clawed their way back into the match. As we became fatigued we began to drop off tackles and struggled to contain a Thorngrove side who used their pace out wide very well. After building phases against us and sucking us into the middle of the park, some quick ball wide saw them use the ‘hand off to great effect and score some good tries. There were plenty of positives, however, as our scrum went well and we showed that we could compete admirably in most phases of the match; we simply need to do it as a team, with consistency. Plenty to work on for the boys in Blue and Red and we look forward to next week. Result: L 20-40

The U.11 A’s worked hard in their match against Thorngrove. Led by Lucas Darragh they faced a side who contained some very strong ball runners and out matched us in size. We were plucky in our efforts and made some good yards with ball in hand. Special mention must go to Oscar Petersen who stepped up for the absent Harry Burleton and, as a Year 5 playing a solely Year 6 match, he certainly did himself proud. Thorngrove were able to get their offloads in contact going and this created the continuity that we struggled to stop. We are going to have to work on our decision making at the ruck and also our ability to chop tackle as bringing the opposition down as quickly as possible has to be the aim of our tackling. A real learning curve is how I would describe this match. We will look to start next week’s matches with more verve and vigour! Result: L5-35

The U.10 A’s played a great game. The teams were equally matched in skill levels but the Daneshill U.10’s were able to dominate the contact area and win good possession. Some great turnover tries from Solomon Arbib were the result of this as he ran in four. Thorngrove kept possession well and really tested our defence. Often we had to make 5-6 tackles in a row and await our opportunity for the turnover so a huge congrats must go to the side for their determination and team work. We showed that we have plenty to work with over the season as there were standout performances across the board, although we did lose our intensity with five minutes to go. Result W: 40-25

Mr Baldwin