DCPS Matters

Issue 12
10 February 2017

Headmaster's News

Another Fantastic Set of Exam results!
Year 6 have produced a superb set of exam results in their entrance papers to Denstone, returning an average mark of 71% in their exams and being awarded sixteen scholarships and exhibitions. They have all worked really hard and thoroughly deserve their success. In particular I must mention Henry White, who has missed a great deal of school due to illness over the past year or so and yet was awarded an academic scholarship, an art scholarship and a music scholarship. Mr Derbyshire can seldom remember three scholarships being awarded to the same child and for Henry to achieve these results when he was so ill is truly remarkable.
The list of scholars are as follows:

Amber Dunning: all round exhibition
Amelia Lee: art exhibition
Celeste Lee: academic exhibition
Daniel Parrans-Smith: music scholarship
Harry Fryer: all round exhibition
Henry White: academic, music and art scholarships
Jessica Bee: music exhibition
Lola Blake: all round exhibition
Matthew Douglas: academic exhibition
Pippa Ball: all round exhibition
Sebastian Lee: academic scholarship
Sophie Hotchkiss: academic exhibition
Sophie Tweddle: all round exhibition
William Brister: academic scholarship

We work so closely with Denstone, and indeed any other school that we send children on to, that we know they are ready for the challenge of the entrance process, but it is still a very demanding experience for such young children and I am really proud of their achievements.

Mandarin Chinese
We are hoping to introduce this as an after-school club next term for both adults and children. It will be a combination of culture, language, artwork, history and traditional dishes. There will be a demonstration on Tuesday 28^th February @ 1600 hrs in the Year 3 classroom at the top of the main staircase. Everyone is welcome.

Diary Date
The next PTFA event is Bangers and Bingo on Friday 24^th March. Everyone is very welcome, so please note the date in your diary.

February’s Values are Honesty and Teamwork. Please stress the importance of both of these with your children at home.

Jerry Gear

Pupil of the Week - (apologies only managed to snap Week 5 Pupils this week!)

Music News

1000 Woodard Voices at Birmingham Symphony Hall

On Saturday 11th February several hundred Woodard pupils, primarily from Years 6, 7 and 8, will come together for a choral Master Class at Birmingham Symphony Hall, culminating in a 90 minute concert performance. Our Year 6 choir members will be going along with Years 7 & 8 from Denstone College.

The Master Class will be led by internationally renowned choral conductor, Dominic Peckham, regarded as ‘one of the UK’s finest dynamic orchestral and choral conductors of his generation’.

Something Arty!

The Year 4's have been practising Insect Symmetry by artist Alex Konahin. Jimmy Spooner's scorpion and Phoebe Austin's butterfly are shown below to give you an idea of the creative work that has been done.

Pre-School & Pre-Prep News

The Circus comes to town! Here are some photos of our pre-school & reception children enjoying the circus skills workshop.

Pre-Prep 1
Pre-Prep 1 are having great fun learning about dinosaurs. This week they have been finding out about fossils. They really enjoyed making their own fossils. Next week they will all be palaeontologists!

Pre-Prep 2
Pre-Prep 2 have worked hard in ICT, learning how to use algorithms, coding and debugging. They then challenged themselves to create a fish tank screen saver using Purple Mash. Well done PP2.

The children are well and truly enjoying the topic about ‘Famous People’ from the past. They have enjoyed taking on the role of a newspaper reporter covering the ‘Great Fire of London’, including interviewing Samuel Pepys, Elizabeth Pepys and Thomas Farynor for their newspaper reports.

Oscar Genders and Tommy Dalton have also achieved their silver certificates alongside Theo James who achieved his Bronze certificate for effort within the classroom. Well done boys!

The circus rolled into Smallwood Manor last week giving the children of Pre-Prep 2 the opportunity to experience a wide variety of skills, including juggling, stilt walking, hula hooping, miniature bike riding and a whole host of other carnival activities. The children of PP2 had an absolutely fantastic time and showed great determination and skill.

Main Prep News

Year 3
Mrs Davies set Year 3 a Science challenge, to investigate what makes objects shiny. The children held each object up and asked whether or not it was shiny. They decided that the shiny ones are not sources of light, since light is reflected off them and then enters our eyes. We can’t see them when there is no light or when it is dark.

Together we agreed that reflection is the returning of light from a surface – a ray of light shines on the surface and it is reflected back into our eyes so that we can see the object/material. Shiny, smooth objects are good at reflecting light and rough, bumpy surfaces appear matt or dull. Who knew that Science could be such fun!

Year 4
Forest School - Year 4 have been enjoying their Forest School. This week they’ve been busy using tarpaulins to make some great outdoor shelters. They have learned how to tie a reef knot and a timber hitch. We have seen some terrific teamwork with the children working together to solve problems and to face challenges. They have worked independently and sensibly to produce some great spaces. In our second session the children even had time to furnish their spaces with a few luxuries such as a jacuzzi and an ice cream parlour!

“The best classroom and the richest cupboard is roofed only by the sky” (Margaret MacMillan circa 1925)

“The Best Science Lesson Ever!” (Year 4 pupil quote)

Last week we had a very special science lesson thanks to Mrs E-F’s father-in-law. He was able to collect some very interesting specimen for the children to dissect. Mrs Emmerson-Friend talked to the children about owl pellets and we learnt that an owl will eat its prey whole and digest the flesh and nutrients. The waste that it cannot use, such as fur, feathers and bones is regurgitated and spat out as an owl pellet. Luckily Mr Emmerson had found a few within the near vicinity of a barn owl’s nest so Year 4 were able to work together in small groups to dissect their own pellet. After watching a short video on how to dissect pellets, Year 4 used tweezers and cocktail sticks to find all sorts of bones from which they had to tear away the fur and feathers. The children then matched the bones to small mammals and birds on a chart. We were all fascinated at how many tiny bones were found in one small pellet. The children were able to identify most bones which included various skulls, ribs, pelvis, vertebrae to name but a few. We believe that one group were lucky enough to find a rat’s skull in their pellet. Year 4 had a brilliant Science Lesson and one that a lot of them will not forget! Thank you Miss Hart and Mrs Emmerson-Friend – these science lessons are such fun.

Nathan Tweddle from Year 4 brought in some special grapes for us to try that have never been tried before! They were special Inia Grape's that are being grown in India, Chile and Greece for his parent's fruit and vegetable company. It is a new variety of black seedless grape which is a premium product and is being grown in large scale in order to provide a year round supply.

Everyone had a really nice time trying them, so thank you to the Tweddle's.

Year 5 Historians Prepare for a World War II Gas Attack

As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure and in Great Britain in September 1939 some 38 million gas masks had been given out, house to house, to families. However, they were never needed but nothing could be predicted about what was going to happen in war, and nothing can be predicted as to what will happen during the year 5 children’s study in the history topic of World War II.

World War II gas masks were made of black rubber, which was very hot and smelly making it difficult to breathe when wearing a gas mask. When the wearer breathed in, the air was sucked through the filter to take out the gas, and when they breathed out, the whole mask was pushed away from the face to let the air out. The smell of the rubber and disinfectant made some people feel sick. There was a special gas mask for children called the ‘Mickey Mouse’ and even one for babies.

Due to modern day health and safety regulations the year 5s had to use much safer black card, laminated pouches, bubble wrap and elastic to create their gas masks.

The children had much fun as they learned all about the importance of gas masks and the results of the children’s efforts was rather impressive.

Year 6 Geographer's Experience ‘Polar Exploration’

Year 6 Geographers have been finding out what it feels like to be polar explorers – going into the unknown, with only a guide…. and a sense of humour. The day in question couldn’t have mirrored the realities of Polar Exploration any better as the mercury plummeted and the children were met with genuinely freezing conditions in which they had to explore new land.

In order to experience the unknown, the children wore hats, scarves, sleep masks....in fact anything that we could find to cover their eyes. Then the guides were tasked with directing their sensory deprived partner who had to put their full faith in their sighted guide to lead them safely to a destined new land, where they had to discover what was waiting for them. Some of their adventures took them up and down unchartered territory (secret passages) and into benches and across Headmaster’s Lawn as they struggled with knowing their left from right and this way from that way (although we never really did find out which way is this way, to a blindfolded person!)

Much fun was had with the many different directional styles – some children opting for the clear, careful and concise directions whilst others adopted a ‘clap and follow the sound’ way of communicating, and finally some resorted to ‘scream at their partner as loud as they possibly can’ approach!

The children, through the experience, were able to recognise that even when in surroundings they recognised, they were very much slower and unsure of their steps, allowing them to have a better understanding about what ‘going into the unknown’ actually felt like for polar explorers all those years ago.

Sports News

Netball

Under 9 Netball v Edenhurst School 31.01.17

Denstone Prep 6
Edenhurst School 7

In a match where both teachers from Denstone Prep and Edenhurst School agreed that a draw would have been a much fairer result and a truer reflection of the game, Denstone College Prep School was very unlucky to lose a very closely fought game of Under 9 netball to Edenhurst School. The game had been end to end throughout and despite Edenhurst taking an early lead, Denstone Prep was able to snatch the lead back in the third quarter, before Edenhurst managed to finally fight back in the last quarter and scored a late winner to secure a 6-7 victory over the Under 9s.

The narrowly defeated team were very pleased with their ability to work as a team as well as communicating and fighting for the ball but highlighted the need to work on quicker passing of the ball and being a little more confident in their abilities in their next game.

by Phoebe A, Under 9 netball captain and Miss Bennett

Under 11 Netball v St Bedes School 01.02.17

Denstone Prep 11
St Bedes 2

On a gloomy afternoon, the Denstone Prep U11A girls netball team went to St Bedes with their usual enthusiasm and high spirits and played an action packed game. Amelia as Captain, won the toss and elected to play the first centre pass.

The game of four exciting, ten minute quarters saw the team rotated into different positions and excellent performances were demonstrated by all.

The published team list started the game and St Bedes provided some excellent defence but there was no stopping our players as the goals kept coming. Amelia, Pippa and Hannah scored 11 goals between them and pleasingly the majority of shots were on target.

The centre position was shared between Sophie H and Lola and what a strong centre pairing we had.

There was amazing defending by Jess, Georgina, Imogen and Faith and we saw many leaps through the air to grab the ball and outstanding interceptions from all. Tyra and Grace provided us with brilliant wing support and we thoroughly deserved such a good win as all girls played to their best ability.

By Amelia Lee, Captain of Netball

Football

U10s Football v Wolverhampton Grammar JS - 1.2.17

Result 3-1 (win)

The U10s Football against WGJS saw both teams produced a really good level of football on a very difficult pitch. There wasn’t much at all between the two teams, with both sets of attackers having good chances early in the game to put the game out of sight of the other team. Having conceded after 10 minutes, our midfield started to play the ball out wide with more purpose and this allowed us to equalise before half time. The second half did become a real slog as the pitch really cut up in the centre and it sapped all of those working hard. We defended very well and scored again early in the half. We did hold on for the next ten minutes or so before settling the game with a late third goal to earn a well- deserved, narrow win. Well done.

Martin Genders

PTFA Notice
We are always extremely grateful to any new parents who would like to volunteer to join us. Many hands make light work! Please contact Rebecca Waterfield if you would like to help us.
r.waterfield@platinumpropertypartners.co.uk

Our next event 'Bangers & Bingo' is on Friday 24th March. Please put it in your diaries now, it's always a popular event. Sausages and bingo...a brilliant combination!

Mums' Supper

On Thursday 2nd February, 25 mums and their friends enjoyed an evening at Hoar Cross Hotel. As a first time visitor to this venue I was greatly impressed by the grandeur of this beautiful property and its interior design; perfect for our Mums’ Supper! The evening began with a short Clarins beauty talk on achieving a great look in under 10 minutes which was extremely useful and a little bag of treats to accompany it. The meal that followed was superb and we all enjoyed exclusivity of Sally Bee’s dining room. It was a super evening with lots of chat, laughter and a break from home life for a few hours. Maybe we should include the spa next time?! Don't forget it's Dads' Supper on Thursday 16th March.

If anyone has any ideas for future Mums’ Supper Night venues/speakers/themes, please do get in touch - melanie.gear@denstoneprep.co.uk