Daneshill Diary 18/03/16

Headmaster’s Notes

In the penultimate week of term it has been reassuring for the teaching staff to receive such excellent results from our internal academic examinations. Our senior pupils in Year 8 will be taking their 13+ transfer examinations with a renewed confidence that is a combination of hard work and outstanding commitment from their subject teachers. Throughout the School the commitment of our teachers provides the type of opportunities that broaden the educational experiences for all pupils and I would like to applaud them for their efforts as always!

This week we have had Gym Displays, Pianists’ Recitals, Swimming Galas, Author Visits, Book Sales, Play Rehearsals and Rugby Tournaments in addition to the normal schedule of weekly events. It really is remarkable how much goes on at the School and how wonderfully choreographed it appears to be.

Our sports teams have battled the elements this term but finished the season strongly. Congratulations to the Sports teachers, Minibus drivers, Referees and all those who accompany teams at every level of the School. Yesterday our U.8 boys won the London Irish TAG tournament. The U.9 and U.8 girls also recorded notable victories against Eagle House; winning four out of the five fixtures.

Mr Spencer

Book Events

Last week we had the book fair visiting on Tuesday and we welcomed author, Elen Caldecot (17th March- Years 4-8) this week to speak about her books and her career as an author.

Kaye Umansky (22nd March- Nursery – Year 3) is coming in to talk to the pupils about her work next week. Kaye will sell signed copies of her books at 3.30p.m. So all in all, a busy programme of book events!

Next week we will announce the winners of our writing competition. Everyone took part from Nursery all the way up to Year 8. The pupils made a fantastic effort and I am delighted with their level of achievement.

Miss Clegg

Subject in the Spotlight News

We celebrated National Science week this year by opening the new science library. The Friends of Daneshill were delighted to provide the science department with almost 100 science books covering a range of topics to enhance the curriculum learning. They were able to fund this project from the proceeds of the first payment from their new initiative of www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/fodsbasingstoke. Whilst technology changes on an almost daily basis, I am passionate about not losing the art of researching from a book and am thrilled to see this project come to fruition this week. A big ‘thank you’ to the Friends of Daneshill for supporting this initiative.

Many of the pupils have been busy completing the National Science Week quizzes in form time this week whilst others have been designing posters from which we will select 10 to send off to represent Daneshill. The winners of the poster competition will be announced in due course.

Mrs Blomfield

News from the Pre-Prep

It has been a fun packed week in Reception. The week began with a mystery letter from a Pirate who told us all about our new topic called Imaginary World. He sent us on a treasure hunt looking for his tricky word coins. A naughty pirate had stolen them and hid them in our classrooms. After that, we wrote stories about our favourite characters including fairies, princesses, pirates and much more.

Time ticked by in Year 1 this week as the children learnt to tell the time using both analogue and digital clocks. The children recorded o’clock and half past times and discussed where the minute hand would sit on a clock face. We talked about how many hours there are in a day and pupils investigated all the different things that they could accomplish in a minute; one of which being an impressive fifty six star jumps! In English the children explored non-fiction texts about famous pirates, paying particular attention to the meanest of them all; Captain Blackbeard! They recorded what they had learnt on a fact file which was then shared with their peers. There were gasps of amazement when the children found out that Captain Blackbeard came from England and was born in Bristol, as many of them had heard of or visited this place before.

As it is National Science week, the pupils in Year 2 have been set the challenge of designing and creating a ‘Science Poster’. We have had fun revisiting topics that we covered in both Year 1 and 2 and surprising ourselves by how much we have learnt and remembered! We look forward to seeing the finished articles and showing Mrs Blomfield and Mrs Pursell, when they come to the Pre-Prep block to look at the work of our future scientists. Whilst the Prep school are in the depths of their House debates, we thought that Year 2 should also get a chance to understand what goes into a good debate. Our first attempt was to debate whether carrots or oranges are the best ‘super food’. This week we are in two teams fighting for what to wear at school: school uniform or home clothes? Year 1 will act as the voting public next week.

Pre-Prep Teachers

Nursery Corner

What a fun week we have had in the Nursery! Our role play has become the Giant’s Castle at the top of Jack’s Beanstalk but unlike in the story we seem to have the most gorgeous princesses living there as well as a few pirates and a knight! Everyone has loved dressing up and building different stories around the costumes and characters.

We have also been looking at what the beanstalk needed in order to grow and have been planting beans and growing flowers in our outside gardening tray. It is always lovely to witness the children enjoying outside learning and getting mucky!

This week the children were introduced to the ‘oa’ sound and some of them made junk model boats – ‘it is a speed boat and a house boat and it speeds up to Edinburgh!’, ‘it can go really fast in case there are sharks’, ‘mine can go super fast and it had the rowers to make it go whizz!’.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Beeching

Sporting Fixtures
Wednesday 16th March
HOCKEY
U.13 A vs. Alton Convent W 1 – 0
U.13 B vs. Alton Convent L 0 – 5
U.10 A vs. Dolphin W 2 – 0
U.10 B vs. Dolphin W 4 – 0

NETBALL
U.11 A vs Farleigh L 2 – 5
U.10 B vs Farleigh L 0 – 11

RUGBY
U.13 A vs. Pangbourne L 12 – 14
U.13 B vs. Pangbourne W 44 – 30
Colts A vs. St. Piran’s W 55 – 5
Colts B vs. St. Piran’s L 20 – 25
Colts C vs. St. Piran’s TBC

Thursday 17th March
HOCKEY
U.9 A vs. Eagle House W 2 – 1
U.9 B vs. Eagle House W 3 – 0
U.9 C vs. Eagle House W 5 – 0
U.8 A vs. Eagle House W 2 – 0
U.8 B vs. Eagle House L 1 – 3

RUGBY
U.9/8 A vs. St. Mary’s W 18-11
U.8 B vs. St. Mary’s L 12-14

So the last week of hockey matches for the term was upon us this week, with 9 of our teams playing. We ended the week with a record of: Played 9, Won 7, Lost 2. This is a fantastic achievement for all of the girls whose constant effort and determination made these results possible.

On Wednesday, the U.10s played Dolphin School. Despite illnesses leaving us with only 10 players available, we still managed to play 4 quarters of hockey with each girl playing at least half of the overall time. Daneshill dominated both games with some lovely passing and moving and solid tackles denying Dolphin on their ventures forward. Emily Baugh stepped up to play in goal and made a couple of very useful saves to ensure that she kept a clean sheet throughout both matches. In the end, the As won 2-0 with goals coming from Grace Weedon and Lilias; whilst the Bs came out 4-0 winners, with Natalia amazingly scoring all 4 goals and deservedly winning girl of the game, whilst Saskia Lea won this accolade in the As match.

Later on in the day our U.13s came up against Alton Convent. For the Year 8 girls this was to be their last hockey match in Daneshill colours and they wanted to go out on a positive note. From the push back in the As match we could tell that it would be an exciting match, with excellent skills being showcased by both schools. The passing and moving made this the best fixture we have witnessed this season, with none of the girls giving an inch, tackles flying in and lots of goal mouth action. With the scores locked at 0-0, Mr King questionably disallowed a Daneshill goal for a lifted ball. Undeterred, the girls pushed forward again and a lifted ball into the ‘D’ found India Fulford, who got the faintest of touches to divert the ball through the legs of the opposition goalkeeper. A great goal, which saw Daneshill ending up as 1-0 winners and Georgina Brooks-Ward picking up girl of the game.

Meanwhile the B team came up against a very strong Alton Convent side, who started the game on the front foot, creating chances and denying Daneshill any time on the ball. The girls kept battling throughout the game, with Freya constantly running to retrieve the ball, Ellen and Sienna giving control across midfield and Isla making a number of saves in goal. The girls came away with an unfortunate 0-5 loss from the game, but their attitude and desire was exemplary throughout and they could have scored a goal or two on another day.

On Thursday, the U.9s travelled to Bracknell to play Eagle House. Injuries and illness again meant that we travelled with depleted squads but all the games were played and some excellent hockey was showcased. The As had a very competitive game against their opponents. After a solid opening period, Daneshill took the lead through Imogen Dyer, powering a shot into the goal. The girls dominated from the start and we could have been a few goals up were it not for some strong defending from Eagle House. As the game wore on, Eagle House improved and starting showcasing excellent skills; forcing Daneshill deeper into defence. The girls stuck to their task though with Claudia, Isla and Jemima all making crucial saves and tackles to keep us ahead. Eventually, Eagle House did break through and got a deserved equaliser with a well taken goal. In a frantic last couple of minutes, an Eagle House chance was thwarted in defence and the ball fell to Imogen who ran half of the pitch before slotting the ball home with less than a minute to go. The girls put in a tremendous effort to take home the spoils, and Jemima was awarded girl of the game for some superb defending when Eagle House were looking dangerous.

Meanwhile, the U.9 Bs and Cs both ran out comfortable winners with Martha, Alice and Flora all scoring for the Bs in a 3-0 victory. Alexandra, Daisy, Hedi, and a brace from Carys culminated in a 5-0 victory for the Cs. Girl of the game went to Martha and Daisy respectively.

Finally, the U.8s hosted their counterparts from Eagle House. The As came away with a 2-0 victory, thanks to goals from Emma and Alaya, whilst the Bs played well but lost 1 – 3.

A big ‘thank you’ to all of those who have helped drive, coach, and support the girls throughout the term. We have had highs and lows, but it is been an honour to coach the girls and see them improve throughout the season. Good luck to you all of those girls leaving us. I very much hope that you carry on playing this great sport and keep working on your skills!

Mr King