DCPS Matters

Issue 9 25th November 2016

Leadership Sessions
You may have picked up from my last blog the fact that Years 2 and 5 are currently trialling a series of class-based exercises aimed at helping them to improve their leadership skills. The Duke of Wellington once famously observed that, “The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.” Children who attend independent schools are more likely to move into positions of leadership and responsibility in whichever field they choose to pursue when they leave school. I do not believe that the traditional subjects and opportunities that we provide for our children do enough to help every single one of them prepare for such responsibilities as they move through prep school.

This is why I was so excited when I heard Monty Halls outline his Leadership programme for schools at a conference I attended earlier this year. Monty is a fascinating character and although his background is based around time in the marines, leading scuba diving trips and basically being as active as possible, his ideas for the leadership tasks steer well away from these sort of activities. They are essentially class-based activities that challenge the children to work in groups and solve a variety of tasks, with various restrictions imposed that make the challenges that much more difficult and force them to work together and take the lead in different parts of the process.

At the time of writing we are the only prep school in the country trialling these activities. Monty needs feedback from us before the project is launched nationwide in the New Year. For me it is an incredibly exciting initiative and one that I am delighted to be supporting. Monty spoke to all of the heads of prep schools in our district yesterday in Leamington Spa and I have no doubt that his programme will take off and be embraced by both senior and junior schools across the country next year. For us to be at the forefront in such a stimulating exercise is a real feather in our cap. I know that the children are enjoying the challenges that are coming their way and their feedback will contribute to helping the programme to work even more effectively following the launch next year.

Our Values for December will be kindness and endeavour. Please could you reinforce these at home? We will be focussing on these values throughout the month. Thank You.

Jerry Gear

To read the Headmasters Latest blog please click here - "In Flanders Fields the Poppies Blow"

NOTICES

Change to Monday Assembly Time
For the past month we have been trialling an earlier start to Monday’s assembly where the children go straight in at 0820 rather than going upstairs for registration & then coming down again. We feel that this has worked well and will be
adopting it permanently from Monday 5^th December. If children arrive after 0820, please send them into the School Room via the door by the staff room and they should sit at the back rather than trying to sit with their classmates.
N.B. There will not be an assembly on Monday due to exams taking place in the School Room.

Art Exhibition on Saturday 26th November
Please note that there will be an art exhibition in the art room on Saturday whilst the Christmas Fair is going on. Please feel free to come and peruse our children's fabulous art work.

Carol Singing at Waitrose, Uttoxeter - Friday 9th December
The Chapel Choir will be singing at Uttoxeter Waitrose on Friday 9th December from 3-3.45pm, please come and support them if you are in the area. They will also be performing at Denstone Hall Farm Shop on Tuesday 13th December at 10-10.30am. This is a great chance to get into the christmas mood!

Missing Sports Kit - with the weekend upon us, please could you check your child's sports kit as there are a lot of items going missing. Thank you!

Smallwood Explorer's are now taking bookings for the Christmas Holidays. For more information please click here.

Pupil of the Week
Congratulations go to the following pupils:-

Caught Badges! (where a pupil has been caught doing something good!)

Congratulations to Verity Holdcroft, Oliver Makepeace, Bruce Hill, Christian Burrows, Sam Cross and Will Vickers who all received Caught Badges this week.

Remembrance Service
Here are some photos of our Heads of School, Henry White and Amber Dunning with Warrant Officer Gareth Voice who spoke to us about what this day means to him. It was a short but sweet service, with Harry Fryer playing a beautiful rendition of the last post and Pre-Prep children singing a song about Poppies.

Pre-Prep News

Reception have enjoyed learning about owls. They have found lots of facts and produced some lovely paintings of owls.They have also been busy measuring things around the classroom and outside.

Pre-Prep 1 have been learning about ‘Sound’ this week and have enjoyed experimenting with a range of instruments to make different sounds. They also enjoyed going on a sound walk and making their own musical instruments at Forest School. Well Done PP1.

Pre-Prep 1
Well done to Monty, Ruby and Archie for getting their certificates this week.

Pre-Prep Children in Need
Well Done and Thank You to all the children for raising money to support Children in Need. You all looked great dressed in your spotty theme.

Pre-Prep 2
We have three children, Heidi Blurton, Harry Rowcliffe and Freddie Fenton who have achieved their bronze Pre-prep certificates this week and one child, Sammy Emmerson who has been awarded his silver certificate for super work and excellent behaviour.

PP2 have also been reading the story of the Tiger who came to Tea. We have taken part in role play activities and have retold the story in written form.

Dance Class Assembly

A dance teacher who is setting up a new club at school came in to assembly to give us a demonstration. It gave the children a chance to 'throw some shapes'!

Main Prep News

Year 3
In History today Year 3 had a very special visitor, Mrs Edmonds, who spent the morning with us speaking about the Roll of Honour and the significance of the poppy, amongst lots of other things. The children discovered wonderful objects from Mrs Edmond’s special box, took it in turns to make a poppy and were enchanted listening to an exciting story about Flo. But most of all, the children and I were thrilled to have Mrs Edmonds with us for the morning. Year 3 then added a special poppy and poem to our Roll of Honour so that we always remember. Thank You Mrs Edmonds, we learnt so much.

This week we have been looking very closely at different animal skulls in our Science lesson. We were particularly interested in the animals teeth. We worked out what diet the animals ate, if they were herbivores, carnivores or omnivores? This information then helped us to decide what animal the skull belonged to. Can you guess? Ask your child to explain which animals the skulls belonged to and why they think that!

Yr 3 have also been having some brilliant violin lessons with Mrs Spears and learning how to hold their bows correctly. See the photos below.

Year 4 Solid Science!

After a bit of a muddle, Miss Emma had unfortunately managed to mix two different solids together in beakers; sand and gravel, paperclips and beans, sawdust and pasta and a variety of other mixes. Luckily Miss Hart and Mrs Emmerson-Friend’s classes were on hand in their Science Lesson to sort out the mess in a very participative lesson!

Miss Hart and Mrs Emmerson-Friend provided the children with a variety of equipment (sieves, colander’s, magnets, gravel sieves etc.) and they were asked to come up with some ideas to help separate the two solids in each beaker.

After a lot of fun discussing and choosing which apparatus they would use, they had a go at separating the solids, taking notes about what apparatus they used and how successful it was. Following their exploration and experiences, they discussed with their teachers which apparatus was best for which solids and why.

Thanks to the Year 4 children, by the end of the lesson all the solids had been separated and the children learned:-

that mixtures of solids can be separated and
that different properties of materials can help to separate them (such as the magnetic pull of a metal or the size of the solid)

“The good thing about Science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.”
Neil deGrasse Tyson

Year 5 Science
The Year 5s had an afternoon of problem solving to look forward to as we were kindly invited up to Denstone College for the afternoon. Our session involved Physics based problems whereby the pupils were asked to design a piece of equipment that would float and be able to carry as many glass marbles as possible before sinking! The winning design carried 46 before it ended up the same way as the Mary Rose! The second task saw the pupils presented with the problem of bridge building, using only newspaper, tape and a few pieces of string. The bridge was to span the distance between desks and the aim was to support as many 100g weights as possible before collapsing. Some interesting designs and fixing methods were applied to this open ended task. The most successful bridge managed to hold upto 6.2kg in total. Quite a result considering the materials used! A big thanks to the College Staff for organising this for us.

Year 6 DT
6B and 6L recently visited Denstone College for a Design and Technology workshop. It’s an important part of the Year 6’s transition to Denstone and the more they visit the more ‘at home’ they feel. The task was to make an acrylic model that has an LED light that works with a USB cable. The pupils had to work with a lot of equipment they had never used before: scroll saws, desktop drills and milling machines. We are extremely grateful to Mrs Plewes and Mr Oakley for their help. It was also great for the pupils to work with some of the 6 formers from Denstone – many thanks to Sam, Livvy, George, Anant, Alex and Jess.

The Year 6 have just finished a Comic Life Storyboard which illustrates the process which is shown below.

Sports News

U8 and U9 Rugby v Grace Dieu

The U8s had an opportunity to see how much they had improved as they had a reverse fixture against Grace Dieu. This time, we started off with real purpose and made sure we tried to move the ball quickly through hands, as well as defend well as a unit, moving up much more in the line. This worked very well and both sides began to run in tries with some great play rather than conceding through missed tackles. Eventually, Grace Dieu ran out winners by 12 tries to 11, but the game was played in a fantastic, enjoyable manner.

The U9s side for this match were playing together for the first time, with some of the boys experiencing a contact match for the first time in a competitive situation. Our boys started as I would have expected and missed a few early tackles, despite having a fair amount of possession in the first few minutes. Encouraging play saw us drive forward as often as we could and as the game progressed, tackles really started to stick and although Grace Dieu had scored three early tries, we rallied back so that by half time we were trailing 4-2. A much quicker start in the second half saw more of a stalemate in the early exchanges and play continued to flow from end to end, with plenty of tries from both teams. Final tries were scored in the last few minutes to see Grace Dieu come out on top by 13-6.

U10 Rugby v Terra Nova (Result lost 9 tries to 2)

The U10s came up against a very aggressive and pacey Terra Nova side that were extremely quick out of the blocks. A lack of real pressure and too much space in the opening four minutes saw the home side run into a 3-0 lead very quickly. The latter part of the first half saw us begin to compete in a 1v1 situation a little better, and look after the ball more effectively. We started the second half very well and had a little more possession of the ball than TN did throughout the half. The ruck was the one area in our play that on this occasion we were too slow to react to and they made the turnover ball count too many times in the second half to allow us to creep back into the game.

U11B Rugby v Terra Nova (Lost 12 tries to 11)

The U11Bs played extremely well and were unfortunate to lose a game that they were very much in control of during the early stages of the match. In contrast to the U10s, our boys tackled really strongly to begin with and made all the play, scoring four tries in the first ten minutes. Some strong, direct running and quick hands really saw us play some good rugby, but as the game went on, TN came back strongly and the early advantage gained was soon lost as towards the latter part of the game, missed tackles on the wing allowed TN to sneak back into the lead and record a victory by a single try. A great game for watching as the number of tries both teams scored reflected the effort both sides put into the game.

U11A Rugby v Terra Nova (Draw 2-2)

The U11As capped off an impressive term with a hard fought draw against a physically big side that, had we not been at our best in terms of defence, I’m sure they’d have taken advantage of. On another day, the result may well have been in our favour as we had plenty of possession, but TN stifled the ball and our passing. We didn’t move the ball away from the contact area quickly enough to break their line sufficiently to cause them more problems than we should have done. Overall, this was a solid performance and one that typified the team’s hard working ethic. Well done.

PTFA Notices

Don't forget it's the Xmas Fair tomorrow 11-3pm!