​DCPS Matters
​Issue 21
​15th September 2017

Headmaster's News

Women’s Sport

Like me I am sure that many of you picked up on the significant increase in the coverage of women’s sport over the summer holidays.  Just to recap on the achievements of our ladies over the past two months, they won the cricket world cup, were runners-up in the rugby world cup, finished third in the Women’s Hockey World League and reached the semi-finals in the UEFA Women's Football Championship.

If the men were to achieve all of this success over one summer there would probably be a national holiday and too many open top bus tours to mention, but gradually women’s sport is starting to catch up and the recent coverage has been quite exceptional.  Interestingly, when I asked the children, it was the boys rather than the girls who could recount these successes to me, but there is no doubt at all that women’s sport is on an upward curve at present and this is really good to see.

Over the past few years you may be aware that we have offered rugby and football to the girls as an after-school club and while we really do need to stick to one sport per term as far as matches are concerned (in order to be able to have the time to reach the standard where we can compete against other schools), I am always looking to provide different sporting opportunities for both boys and girls. So on the back of the success of so many ladies’ teams over the summer I very much hope that we can continue to encourage our girls to try as wide a variety of sports as possible and I would urge everyone to give some thought to their daughter joining a local sports club if she is developing an interest for the sport. 

This obviously goes for boys as well.  A combination of what is covered in school as the main sports for each term, together with opportunities in after-school clubs and the chance to join clubs outside school all combine to provide children with a really wide variety of sporting options.  There is a sport out there for everyone and it is up to us as parents and teachers to help our children find the ones that are right for them.

Internet Safety Talk at Denstone College

Please note that the Internet Safety Presentation at Denstone College will be on Monday 22nd January 2018, and not on the 29th as previously stated.

DCPS School Video

We are pleased to launch our new school marketing video. This is currently available on our Youtube page, and will also soon be on our website. It was made by 3 students from Denstone College, who filmed and edited it entirely alone over the Summer. We think it's a great portrait of our fabulous school! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmP-OH0pju8

Jerry Gear

MacMillan Coffee Morning

On Thursday 28th September we will be hosting a Macmillan Coffee Morning in the School Room from 8.15am. All parents, relatives and friends are welcome. Please bake/fake some goodies for sale on the day if you can but this is not a requirement for entry! It would be great to see as many of you as possible to support this worthwhile cause. If you cannot attend but still wish to donate, please send cash/a cheque payable to “Macmillan Cancer Support” to the school office marked for my attention. Please provide house number and postcode for gift aid if applicable. Thank you and see you on Thursday 28^th September.

Melanie Gear

Pupils of the Week

Year 3 - Rosie Carroll
Year 4 - Sebastian Burrows
Year 5 - Emily Forster, Joe Green, Richard Morris
Year 6 - Izzy Warrilow, Uma Rolland-Cooper​

Election Day for Pupil Parliament

​On Wednesday 13th September children took part in our class ballots to democratically choose a member of their class to represent them within the Pupil Parliament.  Our Pupil Parliament have one or two pupils from each class who will discuss, decide and debate on all topics that involve the children in the school.

Each child in the class was given the opportunity to put themselves forward for election and those who wanted to stand were asked to provide their classmates with some sensible reasons why they would be the perfect candidate for the role.  There were some brilliant speeches, some of which were long and laboured others short and to the point and then it was in the hands of the children!  The voters came through the privacy screens to cast a vote, an X against the name of their nominated pupil and the votes were counted.

STOP PRESS!!!

​Pupil Parliament 2017-2018 Results are:-

• 6B Oscar
• 6L Archie
• 5G Stan
• 5M Richard
• 4EF Holly and Tilly
• 3H Rosie and Imogen

It's All For Charity
​Massive congratulations to the Carroll Sisters, Rosie and Ellen (yr 3 and yr 4) for raising £1000 for the Winston's Wish charity. Over 8 days in the summer holiday they walked the length of Hadrian's Wall, which at 84 miles was a huge undertaking. On one of the days they walked over 14 miles! Winston's Wish is the UK’s first childhood bereavement charity – supporting bereaved children since 1992. The girls chose Winston's Wish as they have seen the terrible events recently and want to help bereaved children. For more information please see https://www.winstonswish.org.uk/about-us/

Pre-School News

Squirrels Room
It has been a busy start in the Squirrels room, we have all enjoyed making new friends and engaging in lots of fun activities!

Owls Room
We welcomed many new faces in the Owls room this year and we have all been busy getting to know each other and painting self portraits.

We have enjoyed our Spanish taster session to the surprise of some parents informing us that their children went home that day counting in Spanish.

Pre- Prep News

Reception
​The children have settled well into the Reception Class.  They all come in happy and they are learning new routines.

Pre-Prep 1
Pre-Prep 1 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.

Pre-Prep 2
​The children of Pre-Prep 2 have been settling well into their new class. They have had a great time starting their Topic work about Island Life and Katie Morag. They have been identifying where the different countries that make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain are and also finding where the Isle of Coll can be found.

Main Prep News

Years 3 & 4

Our Game:  After break today Years 3 and 4 got together again to work with their buddies.  They played a great warm up game of “1,2,3 Where Are You?”  This is where the children scatter themselves all over the grounds to find the best hiding place; The seekers count to 30 then race around to find as many of the hiders as they can.  It was a great game and they just HAD to play it again because they loved it so much!!

Our Craft:  Then came the tricky bit … concentrating and working within an hour to find and decorate a wand.  The children really got into this project and, as you can see from the photos, each wand design was very different and unique.

Our Help:  The Year 4’s were brilliant at helping our Year 3 children with some tricky sticking and bending, and our Year 3’s were great at asking their buddies for help where they needed it … just what these sessions are about!

Our Wishes: The last thing that was needed was a wish … the teachers asked the children to make just one personal wish for their future at Denstone Prep, their wish would remain private if they so chose and they could wish for anything. Some examples from last year’s wishes were: to get into a certain team; to win an art prize; to get into the choir; to learn a musical instrument or get 20 credits and (hopefully!!) 0 debits.

Let's hope their wishes this year come true!

Year 5
Year 5 have settled into their new groupings brilliantly and all children have started the year working very hard. The first week back was all about settling into the routines of year 5 and getting to know each other. We completed a number of activities, but the one that stands out is the team-work game. We set the children a challenge to create a container that holds water using only a piece of A4 paper and a roll of sellotape. The children worked brilliantly in their pairings and listened carefully to each other’s ideas. The end result was a whole host of bizarrely shaped objects covered in reems of sticky tape! We tested each container to see which held the most water and for the longest amount of time. Some fell apart immediately, whilst others were constructed well and actually managed to hold water for a considerable amount of time.

Year 6 have settled into the Michaelmas Term extremely well and have made an excellent start to their studies.  In English we have started our text Skulduggery Pleasant and 6L have been doing some descriptive writing involving tasting some interesting flavoured sweets for inspiration.  In Mathematics we have introduced pupils to MyMaths and each child now has their own username and password to access this fantastic resources at home for both homework and fun as there are plenty of activities and games to keep them busy.  In Science we have been investigating sound and created our own mobile disco where salt and pepper performed some groovy moves to the beat on a clingfilm dance floor! PSHE has involved thinking about the difference between and a fixed and growth mindset and we will be exploring this over the next couple of weeks and how adopting a growth mindset will can enhance the way we approach our learning.  

Sport's News

U11 A & B Girl's Hockey

Result: The Elms 1 - Denstone Prep 'Team Gunners'  1

Denstone Prep's very own U11 'Team Arsenal' took on The Elms in their first competitive fixture of the school year. 

Despite The Elms starting with the ball, 'Team Arsenal' were soon getting into the opposition with Esther and Isabel C absolutely solid in midfield from start to finish. They were full of running throughout the game meaning the ball was very often moving towards the opposition goal. A superb display of teamwork from them ensured Team Arsenal were always solid in midfield and on the rare occasion The Elms made attacks forward, the defensive team of Caoimhe who make some terrific clearances out to the wings, Cleo who put so much effort into continuously running up and down the wings, Su Shan excellent at holding her position on the wing, pushing up and dropping back when required and Phoebe who held her position on the wings well stood firm. However, the ball spent a lot more time in 'Team Arsenal's' attacking D and Emily F and Uma making their debuts at centre forward did very well; a little more time and composure could have seen a different score but Isabel C, Esther, Emily and Uma always looked dangerous. In the third quarter Isabel C managed to break the deadlock as she was first to the ball and was able to push it over the line for a 1-0 lead to Denstone Prep. However, the one time Denstone defenders pushed up too far leaving Eloise, making her debut in goal who had played very well on the occasions she was called upon was left vulnerable at the back leading to The Elms immediately pulling the score back to 1-1. Despite more pressure throughout the match from Isabel C and Esther who constantly looked dangerous Team Arsenal were unable to get the ball over the line for a second time as The Elms put more and more players behind the ball. A final result of 1-1 was a good solid start to the term for the girls. Shooting practice with former Olympic bronze medalist Lisa Prince and current England Masters European silver medalist on Monday will hopefully see Denstone Prep a little more clinical in their forthcoming games. 

Girls of the Games:

Isabel C and Esther B for their tireless work in the midfield and Cleo for her effort and movement up and down the wings.

Results: The Elm's 1  Denstone Prep The Potters 0

The first fixture of the season was a tricky match on astro at The Elms. From the outset, Darcie and Tilly were making some strong runs and they looked really confident in taking on the opposition players. The home side were obviously used to the playing surface and they were passing the ball around with composure. Eventually this led to them scoring a well worked goal.

We initially looked a little hesitant to tackle, however, the second quarter saw Mia and Georgina commit to some fantastic challenges and the rest of the side drew inspiration from this. Grace and Evangeline grew into the game and they worked really hard up and down the pitch.

Daisy and Hannah were starting to look a real threat up front and we started to pepper the opposition goal. Darcie was having a storming game and nearly set up Isobel on a couple of occasions. The Elms always looked dangerous on the break and whenever they approached our goal some fantastic clearances from Mia and Georgina ensured we didn’t concede again. A special mention must go to Verity in goal who has really improved her clearances to the wings.

Girls of the game were Georgina and Darcie

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

Don't forget for all you Fitness Fanatics, Gareth’s Bootcamp is every Monday at 8.30-9.30am on the Sports Field.All levels of fitness welcome £7.50/session.

Future Dates​

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