World Book Day special

DCPS Matters

8th March 2019

Issue 47

Message from the Custos

A warm welcome back after the half-term holiday.

The Board are delighted to announce that work on the new astro turf is scheduled to start on the first Monday of the main summer holidays. Getting planning permission has been a very long, slow process but we are now just weeks away from the final stamp of approval.

The refurbishment of the swimming pool is progressing well and should be completed in time for the start of the summer term.

It is hoped to continue with the Early Years unit during the next academic year.

We have been working closely with the Woodard Corporation behind the scenes to implement the interim management plans which are working well.

Wishing you all a very happy and successful term.

Matthew Elias
Custos

School Reading Challenge

Congratulations to all our Reading Challenge prize draw winners. The year group prizes went to Jasper Y3, Rosie Y4, Eve Y5 and Joe Y6. The gold award prize went to Joules in Y3.

A very special congratulations also goes to Year 3 who won the overall class prize for the most challenges completed.

Well done to everyone who took part!

Hot chocolate in the Head's study on World Book Day!

Pre-School News

Squirrels News

The topic this term has been Nursery Rhymes and the children have been learning all about Humpty Dumpty falling off the wall and Incy Wincy Spider climbing up the drainpipe!

The children enjoyed eating pancakes on Pancake Day then they dressed as their favourite book character for World Book Day.

Owls News

The Owls have had so much fun today. We all came dressed up in wonderful outfits and have enjoyed lots of our favourite stories.

We made some gruffalo pictures and had fun acting out the Peter Rabbit story.

Smallwood Explorers is running holiday club from 1st - 18th April 2019

To book please click here to go to the online Booking Form.

Pre-Prep News

Pre-Prep have enjoyed dressing up for World Book Day. The costumes and boxes were great. Well done everyone.

Early Years Spanish Club

Early Years have been learning animal words with actions!

‘El conejo’

(rabbit)

‘La serpiente’

(snake)

The Early Years Club with their Spanish cheeky money, Chico.

Children from Owls and Reception have also been using games from ‘Caramba’, the elementary section of Linguascope to help them to remember their animal words. These little ones have really impressed Señora Greene and Chico with how much they can remember!

Pre-Prep 2 have also been making use of Linguascope in their lessons. They have been consolidating numbers 1-31 as well as learning days of the week in Spanish. As you can see, Spanish days of the week are linked to the names of the planets which they were also able to learn the names of in our lessons.

Main Prep Spanish

Year 4 and Year 6 have recently broken free of their classrooms in order to learn their Spanish. In the ICT room, they have used the beginner’s section of Linguascope to consolidate the topic being studied this half term (Year 4 – weather and Year 6 – food and opinions).

Please encourage your child to use Linguascope at home – it has a free app to download and your child has the login details in their homework diary (reading guide if in PP). It really is the best way to help them remember vocabulary and extend their sentence writing independently. Plus, they’ll tell you – it’s fun!!!

www.linguascope.com

Year 3 Aztec Food

Year 3 has had a real ‘taste of history’ this week; whilst studying this term’s topic of ‘The Aztecs’ we decided to have our own Aztec banquet! After guessing which foods made up the Aztec diet we decided that we ought to try some of their more exotic varieties. Did you know that the Aztecs ate dogs but not cats? Thankfully, there weren’t any of those on our menu but some of the children were brave enough to try dried crickets and mealworms!

Year 4

Years 4 & 5 go to the Think Tank

Yr 4 & 5 had a fascinating day out at the Think Tank Science Museum, Birmingham. We took part in a lesson in their Lego Lab, using Lego WeDo technology to build and program lego robots. It was a brilliant day out.

Year 4

Visitor to Year 4

Evie's Grandad is a brilliant scientist. He came in to tell us about Arthropods, specifically their exoskeleton and how these creatures have been so successful all over the word. We learnt a lot about these animals with jointed feet. We enjoyed the talk which included a spider model that moved by itself! Thank you for coming to visit us Mr Manning.

Denstone College Memorabilia on Bargain Hunt!

Eagle-eyed Mr Eley noticed a Denstone College Drum on BBC's "Bargain Hunt" (series 43, episode 27) recently.

You can probably download the program on BBC iplayer if you wanted to hear all about the history of this item for yourselves!

PTFA News

We are pleased to announce that we have a new PTFA committee:-

Chair – Julie Foster
Vice Chair – Lizzie Bull
Treasurer – Sally Cundall
Secretary – Sak Bagraith
Teachers – Jerry Gear, Vanessa White, Zoe Chadwick

The next events are:-

Cupcake Friday Friday 22nd March
Easter Egg Hunt Wednesday 27th March
Bangers & Bingo evening Thursday 28th March

We are also holding a Spring Fair on Saturday 18th May after the Activity Morning. We would be extremely grateful for any offers of help or raffle prizes for this event.

Nearly New Shop Reminder

The ‘Nearly New’ shop sells a wide variety of good quality second-hand uniform and the opening dates are on the school calendar. It opens in the morning at drop off times (8.15-8.45am) and then again in the afternoon at pick up times (3.15-4.45pm).

It will be open on Fri 15th March and 28th March 2019.

We rely on clothes donations and customers so please support us by bringing in your childrens' old uniform.

Sports News

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, twenty of our boys and girls took part in U9s and U11s Cross Country events at Twycross House School, competing as teams against 6 other schools over two demanding courses. All of the children on both afternoons ran incredibly well, scoring very well both individually and collectively. Every child finished their courses, with some even managing a smile as they came across the finishing line!

Extremely notable performances from the girls saw Darcie Wilson finish 3^rd in her race on Monday for the U11 girls, whilst Sammy Emmerson won the U9 Boys race on Tuesday. These two were supported brilliantly by the rest of their teams. It would be unfair of me to further single out any of the rest, as all runners ran superbly well. The nicest surprise at the end of Tuesday came when the U9 Boys team won their race by scoring the lowest combined overall total with their 5 runners. A big thank you to all of those selected to run. Well done everyone.

Year 5 - Think Tank Trip

Year 6

Year 6 celebrated World Book Day with some fantastic costumes. From Alice in Wonderland to Gangsta Granny, from Skulduggery Pleasant to Harry Potter and Gimlet Goes to War, the children excelled themselves. They also produced some outstanding story boxes. We really appreciate all the effort that went in and the detail was amazing. During the day, all the pupils talked about their boxes and entered a national competition to design a book token. Some of the pupils also designed a book mark in the ICT suite. Well done Year 6!