Daneshill Diary 22/01/16
Headmaster’s Notes
The start of the week saw two pupils in Year 6 sit their 11+ CE transfer examinations and I’m sure there is a sense of relief and delight for both Poppy and Henrietta after a job well done.
With many of the fixtures falling victim to the weather, we have shifted our focus this week to the ‘Cosmic Classroom’. Mrs Pursell has challenged the pupils to submit their questions via video link for Tim Peake who is currently orbiting the Earth on the International Space Station for Expedition. We now await confirmation from the powers that be to see whether or not any of the children’s suggestions have been selected. If successful they will have the chance to speak LIVE to Mr Peake on 2nd February. What a great idea!
Our after-school clubs programme is up and running and we are delighted to welcome back Mr Nick Pert who will be hosting a chess club. Mr Pert is a Grand Master, who is currently the head coach for Juniors in the English Chess Federation. Mr Pert was the World U.18 Chess Champion in 1998 and British Rapidplay Chess Champion in 2004. He has represented England at the highest level, including the Chess Olympiad of 2006 in Turin and is now regarded as one of England’s leading Grandmasters and a coach of some of England’s most promising new talents.
Given the significant interest we have had in the club we will definitely be exploring the possibility of entering Daneshill into some national school chess competitions.
Mr Spencer
General Knowledge Quiz
On Thursday 21st January we took our general knowledge quiz team, made up of Archie Baugh (Y3), Dominic Wynne Williams (Y4), Amelia Ralls (Y5) and Guy Stevens (Y6) to Elstree for the first round of the National Inter-School General knowledge competition. We chatted through our team tactics in the car on the way there and the children all identified their specialist subjects! Nine other schools were also taking part in the quiz including St Neot’s, Holme Grange, Papplewick, St Gabriel’s and not forgetting Elstree who entered two teams.
As we walked into the hall the children were incredibly excited to see possibly the biggest screen they have ever seen and interactive keypads, one of each, which they would use to select their answers. We got off to a super start leading the first part of the competition for the first 15 questions. The teachers and parents at the back could see when the keypads had been activated and it was wonderful to see Daneshill taking their time, working as a team, and discussing answers before they made their selection on their keypads.
Unfortunately for our team as the competition progressed we began to fall behind the leaders, Holme Grange, who eventually went on to win the quiz. However, in true resilient Daneshill fashion we scored maximum points on the last question, which only one other team managed to do. The children were a real asset to the school and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, ending up in 5th place by a mere 5 points.
Mrs Blomfield
The Daneshill Weekly Maths Challenge
The length of a rectangle is four times its width.
If the area of the rectangle is 100 square metres what is the length of the rectangle?
Mrs Caratelli
News from the Pre-Prep
This week in Reception we have looked at the story ‘The Gingerbread Man’. It was extremely exciting cooking our very own Gingerbread Men. We all had the opportunity to tell an audience the story too. There has been much discussion in class talking about the similarities and differences between the Runaway Pancake and the Gingerbread Man. Each of us is able to talk about the various characters now.
We took the Year 1’s learning outside of the classroom this week and went down to our very own ‘deep dark woods’ to hunt for The Gruffalo and his friends. The children’s’ imaginations came alive during this activity, which sparked wonderful ideas for writing setting descriptions. It was a joy to see the children’s reactions to what they believed lived at the bottom of their ‘school field’.
This week in Maths the children have been learning about finding ‘more than’ and ‘less than’ a given number. We discussed that when finding ‘less than’ the number gets smaller because you count back and when finding ‘more than’ the number gets bigger because you are counting forward. Following this the children looked at 2-digit numbers, where they enjoyed choosing a number card and using a bead string to make their number. The children have developed their ability to identify 2-digit numbers on a 100 square and we have discussed how to partition these numbers into tens and units. A busy week of Maths learning was had by all!
There is lots of rhyming and rhythm taking place in Year 2 with the children looking at poetry in their English lessons. We have had lots of fun putting actions to the poems we have shared in class and it is exciting to see both performers and poets in the making!
Maths has been busy this week looking at adding and subtracting two-digit numbers. The children have risen to the challenge of completing column sums and concentrating on their ‘tens and units’. Very well done Year 2 for all your hard work – keep it up!
Pre-Prep Teachers
Nursery Corner
The cold and frosty mornings that we have had this week have been amazing and have certainly got the children talking! Everyone has contributed to our new ‘Let’s keep warm’ display and smiling faces can be seen with wonderfully decorated hats and gloves all covered in a sprinkle of glitter – a super addition to our entrance hall.
We have been using our Numicon resource in our maths and number sessions this week and the children are becoming more aware of their shape and colours and what they represent. The children can’t help to engage with them particularly if they are doubled with small sparkly stones to support their 1:1 counting.
Outside we have been enjoying collecting all the ice that the children can find – looking at the different thicknesses and feeling how chilly it is in our hands. Inspired by our very own science teacher Mrs Pursell we took some of the ice inside to watch how quickly it melted in our cosy classroom!
Have a super weekend.
Mrs Beeching
Sporting Fixtures
Wednesday 20th January
HOCKEY
U.13 A vs. Dolphin W 8 – 0
U.13 B vs. Dolphin W 3 – 0
U.11 A vs. Highfield L 0 – 4
U.10 A vs. Highfield W 1 – 0
RUGBY
U.13 A vs. Holme Grange Cancelled (Frozen Pitches)
U.13 B vs. Holme Grange Cancelled (Frozen Pitches)
U.11 A vs. Holme Grange Cancelled (Frozen Pitches)
U.10 A vs. Holme Grange Cancelled (Frozen Pitches)
U.10 B vs. Holme Grange Cancelled (Frozen Pitches)
Friday 22nd January
HOCKEY
U.8 A vs. Rupert House W 4 – 0
U.8 B vs. Rupert House W 4 – 1
NETBALL
U.9 A vs. Rupert House L 0 – 3
U.9 B vs. Rupert House W 1 – 0
RUGBY
U.9 vs. Dolphin W 8 – 1
U.8 A vs. St Mary’s D 2 – 2
U.8 B vs. Dolphin W 3 – 2
On Wednesday, three of our year groups had their first hockey matches of the term. Due to the freezing temperatures, a couple of the fixtures had to be cancelled, but of the four completed matches, we took home three victories.
The U.13 girls A & B beat their respective counterparts from Dolphin 8-0 and 3-0. Congratulations to those girls and to Georgia Lea who scored a hat – trick in the A’s match. The U.11 A team were unfortunately on the end of a 4-0 loss to a very strong Highfield team but there were lots of encouraging performances and a much better second half showing. Finally, the U.10 As took the spoils against Highfield with a 1-0 victory in a close game with Grace Thomas scoring the only goal.
Good luck to the cross country runners, the U.9 netball teams and U.8 hockey teams for their fixtures later today.
Mr King
This week has been a tough one as the big freeze came to town. This meant matches had to be cancelled for risk of injury and it was hard at times to find a place to train. Despite this we have managed to put some progressive coaching in place. We have looked at the pre-tackle and forming a defensive line. Last week saw us ship too many tries and hopefully we can fix this going into next week’s fixtures. On Wednesday the boys enjoyed a wide range of lessons, from strength and conditioning sessions to inspirational moments from England’s rugby past!
Mr Baldwin