Daneshill Diary 19/05/17
Headmaster’s Notes
Gardeners rejoiced this week with several downpours bringing the Spring drought to an abrupt end. There was little rejoicing in the Games department however as rain stopped play on Wednesday. Conversely, we didn’t mind getting wet on Monday when Years 5-8 travelled to Bradfield for their annual swimming gala. I’m always amazed at the children’s commitment in the pool, each of them focused on producing their personal best, irrespective of position. Luckily, the water theme ended there and tear ducts remained dry as the Year 8s successfully navigated their initial CE experience with their Mental Maths assessment and French listening and oral exams. Bonne chance to all of you with revision and exams over the next few weeks. From Common Entrance to caterpillars. A big thank you from the Nursery staff to the Pre-Prep children who’ve been collecting little furry friends to help them teach our youngest about life cycles. All of the above provide just a collection of colourful snippets from our wonderfully busy school. Next week looks set to be as jam packed as it can get.
Mr Webster
Chess Success
On Saturday 13th May, the Daneshill Chess team travelled to Bristol Grammar school to participate in the semi-final of the National Schools Chess tournament. The venue was the Great Hall of the School which was a magnificent setting, accommodating the 36 school teams competing on the day.
Daneshill entered a team of six; Daniel Yu (Board 1), Ciaran Churcher (Board 2), Percy Zhang (Board 3), Manny Lumsden (Board 4), Nick Legh-Smith (Board 5) and Hedy Jiang (Board 6). The tournament comprised of 5 games for each team member.
As expected, the tournament was extremely tough and the level of competence and concentration displayed from all participants throughout a long day of competition was truly inspiring and commendable. The games were played out respectfully and in a great spirit.
Special recognition should go to Daniel Yu playing on Board 1, who achieved 4 wins and 1 draw from his 5 matches; an amazing achievement in a competition of such high standard.
Overall, Daneshill scored 11.5 points which merited a Silver award. The team were given individual medals and a team trophy for the school.
Well done to all; you are a credit to Daneshill school
Pre-Prep News
This week in Reception we have extended our skills in Maths by learning how to count in tens. We have grouped them, ordered them and are beginning to say the number names out in sequence too. We have even started to use a 100 square! We have also had another week of critters! Snails graced our classroom. Funny little creatures that you think they are slow but the children took great delight in hunting them out when they disappeared! Let’s hope for some sunshine next week so we can do our minibeast hunt.
Co-operation and teamwork have been top of the agenda in Year 1 and Year 2 as our little athletes start preparing for the highlight of the Summer Term calendar… Sports Day. For many, the obstacle race and various others, can make for high octane action so ensuring that the children are prepared and armoured with determination and resilience is key. As always, it’s the taking part that is the most important thing and the children are already getting excited about the events ahead. In anticipation of this, please can we remind parents that full summer kit is now needed in school.
Finally, across the whole Pre-Prep we have been focusing on the children’s table manners in the dining hall. Please be aware that pupils are encouraged to use their knife and fork ‘properly’ to cut their own food, so any further practice at home with this would be beneficial.
The Pre-Prep Teachers
Sports
On Monday 15th May Years 5 to 8 competed in the Inter-House Gala at Bradfield College. The children started with the individual strokes and after the front crawl races Calthorpe were strongly in the lead on 63 points with the other houses all at least 15 points behind, after some great swims from Milla and Henry Horniman, Imogen Dyer, Anna Bryant, Robin Rattray, Marios Gialvalis and Candy McNair-Scott. Back crawl next, with Wellesley slightly closing the gap and after the breast stroke the scores had really levelled out, Nightingale 96, Austen 100, Wellesley 105 and Calthorpe 113. All houses performed well in the butterfly races, with Isla Lock, Harrison Cleaver and Tilly Scott-Knight winning their races. The relays were double points and with 15 races anyone could win. Wellesley and Calthorpe started to push ahead, and with 4 races to go Wellesley were in the lead for the first time and managed to stay there until the end of an enjoyable gala.
Final points:
1st Wellesley 203
2nd Red 194
3rd Green 184
4th Yellow 180
Mrs Barnes
On Wednesday afternoon, we welcomed Julia Bose form English Lacrosse, to lead a masterclass session for all girls in Years 5 to 8. Julia started the session by recapping the basics of lacrosse such as, how to hold the stick, collect the ball from the floor, guarding the ball and passing and catching. Julia was impressed by how quickly the girls picked up the skills and soon moved onto more competitive drills and small games. Despite the poor weather conditions our pupils had a great afternoon and worked exceptionally hard throughout to improve their skill set. We look forward to welcoming Julia back to Daneshill in the near future.
Mrs Cowd