DCPS Matters
Issue 38
13th September 2018

Headmaster's News

Staff News

Congratulations to Mrs Tina Wilson who has received a 2.1 in her BA in Education. This is a tremendous effort, particularly when you consider that she has been working here at the same time as completing her studies. This is not an easy thing to do and I take my hat off to her.

We have a new volunteer helping out with girl’s games this term. Mrs Elaine Wheat used to work at St Bede’s and knows our school well from the fixtures that the two schools have had over the years. Mrs Wheat is also running a multi-sports after school club on Monday evenings from 1615 – 1715, starting on 24^th September. If your child would like to participate in this club, please email Mrs Heron as detailed below. (N.B.There will be a cost of £50 for this club.)

Hire of Pitches and Children’s Parties

You may or may not be aware that our pitches and other facilities are for hire, either as one off or on a regular basis. This also applies to the site being available for a children’s party. During the week there is no problem at all. There can be clashes with the site being let at weekends, but do please contact our Business Manager, Mrs Jill Stone (jill.stone@ denstoneprep.co.uk) if you would like to discuss this further. I have a number of contacts who would be interested in running various theme-based parties as well, so do see me if this is of interest.

Meet the new Headmaster of Denstone College

On Tuesday 25^th September you are warmly invited to come and meet Miles Norris, the new Headmaster of Denstone College. Miles will be talking about his vision for the future of the College and giving an insight into the experiences that have brought him to the position that he now holds. Everyone is very welcome to attend and do feel free to bring any friends or relatives who might be interested in finding out a little more about Denstone College and its new Headmaster.

Please email Mrs Heron (helen.heron@denstoneprep.co.uk) if you would like to attend.

Caught Badges

Every week we like to give out caught badges to children who have done something exceptional the week before. This is usually an act of kindness, a display of good manners, or something that exceeds expectations. The children keep the badge for a week and then return it so that others can receive it for the following week. I am now running really low off badges because people are forgetting to give them back. Please could you check at home and see if you’re children have any lying around. They won’t be in any trouble, I just need them back!

House Badges

We are getting quite worried about the number of children who are losing their house badge. Please can you help us to encourage them to look after them. Badges lost in the future will incur a penalty of £2.50 for a replacement.

Reading

Just a reminder that parents are very welcome to volunteer to come in and read with children. This is always helpful so just come in and sign in at the office.

Pupils of the Week

Week 1

Y3 - Cecilia B - for her diligent approach to our lessons.

To all our new pupils for settling in so well this week:- Toby, James, Matthew, Ewan, Henry R, Harry D, Henry H, Isla, Ewan, Archie & Keatan.

We hope that they will enjoy their time at DCPS.

Pre-School News

A great start to the school year for the Squirrels. All the children seem very settled already and are enjoying getting to know each other. We are all looking forward to a great year sharing adventures together.

Reception

Reception have all settled well into school life. In the morning they come in happily and are learning the new routines.

Pre-Prep 1 News

Pre- Prep 1 have settled in to their new school routine well. They are really enjoying their new lessons, Spanish, ICT and PE, and are learning new songs in Music. They have all been given monitor jobs to do and they are carrying them out perfectly – well done PP1.

This week the children have brought in their special beloved toy and have enjoyed talking to the class about why their toy is so special. Great speaking and listening – good work.

Pre-Prep 2 News

Pre-Prep 2 have really enjoy being back at school and have settled well. They have begun to learn about 'Island Life' and have been finding out about the stories of Katie Morag.

The children have really looked forward to playtimes and have enjoyed using the new playground markings. What a great start to the academic year!

Macmillan Coffee Morning – Thursday 27 September, from 8.15am

Please do come and support our annual fundraising for this amazing charity. All you have to do is come along, eat some cake, drink some tea or coffee, make a donation and chat to your friends or make some new ones. If you are able to bring some cakes that is great but not a requirement. Everyone welcome.

Melanie Gear

Mums’ Supper – Thursday 11 October, 7.30pm for 8pm.

This term’s Mums’ Supper will take place at Mario’s Italian Restaurant, 36 Bridge Street, Uttoxeter. A three course set menu is offered at a cost of £25.95 and a pre-order is required. A detailed letter will be sent out shortly. New parents are especially welcome to attend.

Please email melanie.gear@denstoneprep.co.uk if you have any queries.

Drama News

Our year 5 pupil, Leo W, was awarded the Staffordshire regional Helen O’Grady drama award, known by the group as the ‘Imogen Award’ in memory of one of the children from the group who sadly lost her battle with cancer two years ago.

The award was presented to him in Uttoxeter Town Hall by the town mayor during their end of year performance and awards evening.

Well done Leo!

Match Reports

U11A Hockey v The Elms

Game 1: The Elms 0 – Denstone Prep 4

Game 2: The Elms 0 – Denstone Prep 2

Newly appointed Joint Captains of Hockey, Verity B and Darcie W, led the Under 11A’s out onto the pitch at The Elms School for their first game of the term. The team consisting of Goalkeeper Captain Verity B; Right-Back Caoimhe C; Left back Cleo N; Right Midfielder Tilly D; Centre Midfielder Captain Darcie W; Left Midfielder Daisy H and Centre-Forward Emily F, all looked impressive from the start. The Elms started with the ball but thanks to immediate tackling Darcie and Emily were soon winning possession for Denstone Prep and whilst The Elms were dogged in defence the deadlock was eventually broken by a well taken goal from Captain Darcie. Denstone Prep worked hard throughout the game with excellent teamwork from all and despite the heat on the pitch starting to tell as tiredness started to set in, the team remained strong. Verity was always assured in goal with some brilliant powerful kicking, Caoimhe and Cleo fantastic at covering each other at the back – with the three girls combing to ensure that any attacks were quickly and decisively cut out, selfless passing of the ball by Darcie out wide and forward to Daisy, Tilly and Emily who were holding their positions brilliantly. Eventually the onslaught of Denstone Prep became too much as further goals from Darcie (2) and Emily gave a final score of 4-0 to Denstone Prep.

In their second game of the afternoon, Denstone were immediately on the attack from the push back and again excellent movement and teamwork throughout saw them 2-0 victors with another goal for Darcie and one more goal with the dubious goal awards committee yet to rule who got the final touch as Darcie, Tilly; Emily and Daisy all went for the ball to ensure the ball was put over the line and into the net.

Girl of the Game: Darcie W for her selfless play

U11B Hockey v The Elms

Game 1: The Elms 1 – Denstone Prep 0

Game 2: The Elms 1 – Denstone Prep 0

The Under 11B’s, a mixture of Under 11’s and Under 10s played brilliantly well against The Elms A and B teams. Goalkeeper Ellen C (Under 10’s); Right back Phoebe A (Under 11’s); Centre back Su Shan (Under 11’s); Left back Isla Sp (Under 11’s); Right-centre midfield Charlotte R (Under 10’s); Left-centre midfield Katie W (Under 10’s) and Centre forward Tilly M (Under 10’s) combined brilliantly well together. Evangeline P (Under 11’s) also came on as a rolling substitute and made a great impact when she did. From the very back with Ellen playing in goal for only the second time, she took to the role naturally and Su Shan absolutely outstanding at the back along with great contributions from Isla who even threw herself onto the pitch to protect the goal (although, I didn’t mean quite literally leave it all on the pitch Isla!) and excellent running and teamwork throughout from Tilly M, Charlotte R and Katie W limited each team to only one goal. Given how early it is in the term and how superbly well the girls played this was a fantastic effort all-round from every girl who represented themselves and the school in exemplary fashion. A wonderful afternoon of hockey.

Girl of the Game: Su Shan for her outstanding defensive display

It's all for Charity!

Thank you to the Pre-Prep and Pre-School Grandparents for donating a very generous £302.69 for the Charity CHICKS which provides days out for local underprivileged children. To find out more about this charity please click here.

Year 3 & 4

Buddies and Clay Animals

Last Thursday Year 3 and 4 ventured into the Cedars to get to know their Buddies. They started with a warm up game of “egg, chicken, dinosaur” (please ask Year 3 or Year 4 if you’d like to know more about this game) and then went on to be with their buddy in the Cedars. They were given a large piece of clay and were challenged with making it into an animal of their choice; either making a large one with their buddy or sharing out the clay and making one each. The two forms used lots of natural materials from the Cedars such as feathers, pine needles, leaves etc. and produced traditional animals and some more unusual imaginary creatures. There were some creative creatures produced like dragonflies, hedgehogs, tortoises, porcupines to name a few! It was lovely to see the two year groups working so well together.

Year 5 Geography

Year 5 has made a fabulous start to the year in their Geography studies. To coincide with the return of rain to the Midlands, year 5’s topic of ‘Water’ this term seems very apt. To help them with data collecting and graphing, we decided to make rain gauges to collect the amount of rainfall around where we live. A rain gauge is an instrument used by weather forecasters (known as meteorologists) and water experts (known as hydrologists) to gather and measure the amount of rain (liquid precipitation) over a set period of time.

The first known rainfall records were kept by the Ancient Greeks, about 500 B.C and Denstone Prep pupils will be making their rainfall records during the course of Michaelmas 2018.

To make our rain gauges, the children tested various areas of their motor skills.

Using an empty 2 litre plastic bottle, we estimated about 8cm from the neck of the bottle – about 2/3 up the bottle and drew a line around the bottle;
pierced the bottle with a pair of scissors on the line that had been drawn, to make a hole for cutting the top off the bottle;
carefully cut along the line around the bottle and removed any sharp edges to make sure we didn’t cut ourselves!
drew a mm/cm scale on tape to be our measurement gauge;
carefully stuck the measurement gauge tape onto the bottle;
placed some stones into the bottom of the bottle to weigh it down so that it doesn’t fall over;
placed the cut off top half of the bottle upside down into the bottle to create a funnel for the water to go into the bottle and keep other things out.
placed the bottle in a safe place and now we are just waiting for it to rain!

Social Media

Don't forget we have an active Facebook page which is regularly used for communicating to parents, as well as a Twitter feed and the Teachers2Parents Text App. Please see the links below.

Please don't forget to show your children this newsletter, so that they can see the photos and news too.