Daneshill Diary 16/03/18

Headmaster’s Notes

This week I am delighted to be able to report back on the superb scholarship results that have been shared with us over recent weeks. All of the children who attempted scholarship examinations did fantastically well and the feedback from senior schools has been exceptional.

In Year 8, Chi Chi Okafor has received an Academic Scholarship to Millfield, a Sports Scholarship to St. Swithun’s, and an Academic and Sports Scholarship to Talbot Heath. Lili Bryant has received an Academic Scholarship to Bradfield. Congratulations to both girls on these tremendous successes.

In Year 6, Isla Lock will benefit from a Sports Scholarship to Alton School. Octavia Hoare Nairne is an Art Scholar to Downe House. Eloise Henwood has earned a Drama Scholarship to Queen Anne’s and Hannah Legh-Smith has achieved an Academic and Arts Scholarship to Luckley House.

Every week Daneshill is an extremely busy and bubbly place where the children have a plethora of opportunities. This week alone we have had Voice in a Million, Netball tournament success and Cross Country; while the final touches are being put on the Year 7 production and Year 8 have completed mock exams. These results are a testament to the efforts of the children and the staff who support and guide them. I congratulate everyone involved in making these achievements possible.

Mr Griffiths

National Science Week

Research into the deep has been a tremendous success this week with pupils from all year groups pouring into the computer room each morning to discover the zones of the ocean. The children have learnt about new creatures, the units and patterns of pressure as we descend to the ocean floor, and some weird and wonderful adaptations for survival in such cold, dark, inhospitable conditions. The display is now complete in the Blue lab so do please drop in and have a look at what can be achieved by your children when their enthusiasm and excitement is nurtured and supported. We look forward to receiving lots of poster entries next week on their favourite scientific discoveries. Please remember entries to the science department by Friday 23rd March.

Mrs Blomfield

Primary Maths Challenge success

In November Year 5 and 6 took part in the National Primary Maths Challenge. Two of our boys got through to the Bonus round, which is an exceptional achievement in itself. The boys were Archie Baugh in Year 5 and Daniel Yu in Year 6. They completed the Bonus Round challenge for this in February and we have just heard that Daniel Yu has been awarded a Silver certificate and badge. Congratulations to Daniel and we look forward to Archie undoubtedly achieving similar levels next year when he is in Year 6. Well done both of you!!

Mrs Caratelli

Pre-Prep News

A wolf was on the loose in Reception this week! We enjoyed one of our favourite stories ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and decided to make wanted posters to find the wolf! The children focused on using adjectives to describe the nasty wolf. They drew detailed pictures and even used their numbers to create a reward if he was found! Reception were excited to display their posters in their classroom and await to hear of his capture…

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No! It’s our Year 1’s learning all about air travel and the famous Wright brothers. The children were fascinated to look at images and footage of the first aircrafts and remarked how wobbly and unsafe they looked. We were all in agreement that we would not want to travel in one on our summer holidays!

A magical egg found its way into Year 2 this week and proved to be the perfect stimulus for our creative writers. We discussed what could be inside the golden egg and what might happen if it were to crack open. Fantastic ideas were shared amongst the pupils; one child thought that there would be a potion to turn her into a queen and she would live in a splendid palace. All of the children seem very excited at the prospect of opening their own magical eggs on our Easter Egg hunt next Friday!

The Pre-Prep Teachers

Sports

Weds 14th March

NETBALL

U.13 A vs. Marlston House                             W 14 – 8

U.13 B vs. Marlston House                             L 4 – 11

U.13 C vs. Marlston House                             L 6 – 15

U.11 A vs. Marlston House                             W 6 – 5

U.11 B vs. Marlston House                             W 2 – 0

U.11 C vs. Marlston House                             L 0 – 3

U.10 A vs. Luckley House T’ment                   Won Tournament

  1. Oratory W 5 – 0
  2. Hallgrove W 5 – 0
  3. Dolphin W 6 – 0
  4. St Georges Windsor W 2 – 1
  5. Herries W 2 – 1
  6. St Georges Windsor W 4 – 3

U.10 B vs. Luckley House T’ment                   DNQ

RUGBY

U.13 A vs. Pangbourne College                       L 0 – 5

U.13 B vs. Pangbourne College                       W 13 – 2

U.11 vs. St. Edward’s                                       L 2 – 5

U.10 A vs. St. Edward’s                                    L

U.10 B vs. St. Edward’s                                    L

Thursday 15th March

U.9 – U.13 vs. St Neot’s Meeting                    Won Meeting

Friday 16th March

NETBALL

U.9 A vs Dolphin                                             W 10 – 5

U.9 B vs. Dolphin                                            W 12 – 0

U.8 A vs. Bishopsgate T’ment                         Tbc

U.8 B vs. Dolphin A                                          L 0 – 2

U.8 C vs. Dolphin B                                         W 1 – 0

RUGBY         

U.9 A vs. St Edward’s                                      L 7 – 8

U.9 B vs. St. Edward’s                                     W 12 – 4

U.8 A vs. St. Edward’s                                     Tbc

U.8 B vs. St. Edward’s                                    Tbc

St Neot’s Cross Country

36 of our finest runners travelled to St Neots on Thursday afternoon to compete at our final cross country meeting of the season. Pupils from Years 4 – 8 took on a number of schools, including St Georges, Yateley Manor, St Andrews, Thorngrove, Holme Grange, Reddam House and Bishopsgate in a series of races, each comprising of at least 60 competitors.

The competition started with our junior runners, the U.9 boys and girls. We managed to get an excellent start at the front of the pack and many of our runners maintained this lead throughout the race. It was incredibly exciting to see the boys emerge from the woods first and great to see Bobby Hart and Henry Terry in the top few runners through. Next the girls appeared and a roar from the spectators erupted as we saw Dinobi Okafor leading the way with Olivia Arnold in 3rd place and Rose Miles and Antonia Froom only a couple of places behind them. Once again we had 4 girls in the top 6 of the U9 race. Such a fantastic result for both the U9 boys and girls with the girls’ team winning the team event and the boys taking 3rd place.

Next the U11 boys and girls. Again, all got brilliant starts and managed to get to the front of the pack at the first pinch point. The U11’s had a slightly longer distance to run of 2km but as they had been training over a longer distance, this was no problem for our experienced runners. Brilliant results for our boys and girls with particular mention to our Year 5 pupils who ran against the Year 6’s in this this competition (Rupert Evans, William Brooks, Charlie Bird, Saffy Rougier and Tabitha Mayon White). Ben Kellard had a fantastic race finishing in a top 10 position, with Rupert Evans and William Brooks and we saw a thrilling finish by Jemima Froom who won the U11 girls race, by overtaking her opponent in the last 30m of the race – it was very exciting to watch! Isla Lock and Saffy Rougier ran brilliantly again, finishing just behind Jemima. The U11 girls won and the boys came 2nd overall.

Our final race was the U.13 boys and girls with a distance of 2.8km. Again, we had a perfect start and we took the lead in both races. Barnaby Calthorpe and Will Swart took the lead for the Daneshill boys with Chi Chi and Fechi Okafor leading the way for the girls. Special mention to Lily Moore in Year 6 who ran for the U13’s and did brilliantly and well done to the all of the girls who all finished in top 20 positions. Overall, the girls won the team prize and the boys came in 3rd position.

Daneshill were ecstatic to win the overall prize! Such a wonderful way to end a successful cross country season.

1st Daneshill

2nd St Georges

3rd St Neots

Mrs Cowd

U.13 A

The teams were quite evenly matched to start but some good rebounding at the post saw our shooters take a 2 goal advantage by quarter time. The Daneshill girls continued to build on this lead eventually winning comfortably.

POM: Attack – Grace Weedon    Defence – Saskia Lea

U.13 B

The Daneshill girls worked tirelessly against strong opposition. However, some wayward passing and several missed opportunities to score soon started to make a difference allowing the opposition to pull away for a convincing win.

POM: Attack – Sofia Carvosso    Defence – Jemima Beard

U.13 C

This game began fairly evenly but the opposition began to slowly build up a lead. Our girls tried their best but eventually, affected by position changes and injury, they were unable to match their opponents’ superior game play and score rate.

POM: Attack – Olivia Froom    Defence – Rachel Shippen Davies

Mrs Gill

U.10 A

The U.10 A team competed at the Luckley House Tournament on Wednesday afternoon. We started the competition strongly against The Oratory, winning our first game 5 – 0 and the success continued into the next match against Hallgrove, achieving another win of 5 – 0. With the team really settling into their flow, we won the following two matches against Dolphin and St Georges convincingly with scores of 6 – 0 and 2 – 1. We made it through to the semi-final and played against Herries Prep School in a nail biting match. Our girls won this game 2 – 1 which meant they were to meet St Georges for the second time in the final. We started well and with excellent interceptions all the way down court by Saffy Rougier and Emma Salter and strong defence by Martha Petersen, Alaya Cowan and Francesca McNair Scott, the St Georges attack struggled to have a shot at goal. In the second half, St George’s began to creep up on us and suddenly our 4 – 0 lead was under threat! Consistent safe passing and accurate feeds into goal by Tabitha Mayon-White meant that we are able to take our score to 5 and strong circle attack by Marina Antelme helped us to maintain our lead. We finished with a final score of 5 – 4 which meant we won the tournament! Well done to all of the girls. They played exceptionally well, the best I have seen them play all season. It really was a super afternoon of netball.

Mrs Cowd

The U.10 B team competed in an A team tournament at Luckley House School. They had some really tough matches starting with Herries school who went on to play our A team in the final. They fought hard against Waverley A, Hallgrove A and Dolphin A, never giving up. Caitlin defended superbly all afternoon and Ophelia and Florence really tried hard to link the ball from defence to attack. The closest game was at the end with a narrow defeat of 0-1 to St George’s B team. The girls enjoyed supporting the A team and competing in a tournament.

Mrs Barnes

U13 B

This was an excellent performance to round off a very pleasing season. I have been thrilled with the progress that all of the boys have made over the course of the term. They have: developed clearer patterns and structures in their attacking play; significantly improved their technique and understanding of the breakdown area; become more combative and aggressive in the tackle; and strengthened their tactical understanding of how best to retain and use their possession of the ball.

Seth, Freddie and Edward have marshalled the team wonderfully well. They have always led from the front, structuring the phases of play and organising the team’s defensive alignment. Conal, Jude, Oliver and Harry have been the squad’s engine room. They have tirelessly run the ‘hard yards’ in attack, and they have exemplified grit and determination at every breakdown. And Percy, Robin, Barnaby and Josh have used their fantastic footwork, elusive speed and great agility to carve through opposition defences on their way to the try line.

Well done to all of the boys – it has been such a pleasure coaching you this term.

Mr Kinsey

 U.11

This was a tough match but the team showed great individual and team qualities to make the game extremely close. The boys displayed commitment from the word go, making loads of tackles and putting plenty of pressure on St Edwards.

All of them should be proud of the way they approached the game and took the challenge to the opposition.

The St Edward’s teacher commented at the final whistle that this was the hardest game they had played all season year and that we were unlucky to not score more tries or even win. A fair reflection of the game!

Mr Baldock