​DCPS Matters

Headmaster's News

Father Brendan Clover

It saddens me to have to pass on the news that Father Brendan’s wife, Diane died last week.  She had been ill for quite some time and died peacefully on their 28^th wedding anniversary.  Our thoughts and prayers are with Father Brendan and his family at this time and I am delighted that he will be joining us for Eucharist on Saturday.

Sporting Success

Congratulations to our A team who won the inaugural Woodard U11 cricket tournament last week.  Our girls lost in the final by just half a rounder, so it really could not have been any closer, but they did return the player of the tournament in Darcie Wilson, who is still only in Year 4, so this really was a remarkable achievement for her and a great effort by the team.

The cricketers did not win a match in the group stage, finishing bottom of the league which meant that they had to face the strongest team in the semi-finals and came to their final over needing 23 runs to win the game.  Amazingly, Charlie Meads, with a little help from “Mr Extras” managed to get the required runs and they won the final to claim the trophy.  We shared the Woodard Shield with Ellesmere College as they won the rounders and came second in the cricket, but it was a wonderful afternoon’s sport, thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Camping & Survival

Last week saw the Year 5 Family Camping evening, which was great fun and as I write, Year 6 are just about to start their 24 hour survival course.  The course varies each time, but they will be learning such skills as to live off the land, fire lighting with sticks (no flints allowed!), making twine to help them build shelters, outdoor first aid, food preparation & cooking.  They will also be assembling their own tents and playing some night games.  I am sure that they will have a great time!

Speech Day

We look forward to seeing everyone on Saturday morning.  The children should come into school in winter uniform including blazers.  If it feels too hot we’ll make sure that the blazers and ties are removed before they go into the theatre, or even while we are in there if the temperature is rising.  I think rain may be coming in the afternoon and this would obviously mean that the matches will be cancelled, but if this does prove to be the case please feel free to eat your picnics inside somewhere – just make sure you don’t leave anything behind!

Jerry Gear

Photos from the Year 5 Family Camping night

Pupil of the Week​​

Week 7
3D Josephine Brutton for fantastic piano playing in chapel
4EH Will Vickers for a great performance in the Summer Serenade
5Mc Oscar Marsden excellent maths work during Maths Day
5G Harry Moore for settling in very well
​6L James Polmear for excellent maths work
6B Jack B-P for enthusiasm in English lessons

Week 8 (Years 4 & 5 were on trips)
3D Tilly Marsden for fantastic effort and amazing progress in mathematics
Y6 Will Brister for fantastic enthusiasm in Maths and super leadership skills for the cricket team. 
Y6 Lola Blake for confident work on fractions in mathematics.

Cadet Programme Certificates
The following children received certificates from PCSO Carroll for completing their Junior Police Cadet programme:-
Su Shan Woo, Jonathan Fitzpatrick, Oscar Barton, Ben Kirwan, Tom Cooper, Louis Cholerton, Anton Woo, Jess Bee, Sophie Hotchkiss, Izzy Belton, Tyra Leake and Stan Davies

Pen Licences - well done to Henry Hotchkiss, Su Shan Woo, Caiomhe Crawford, Stan Davies and Zach Ireland, who all received their Pen Licences last week. They are the first children this year to receive them which makes it even more of an achievement.

Pre- School News​
Our pre-school children had a fabulous time visiting the animals at Twycross Zoo yesterday.

Pre-Prep News

Special Visitors in PP1

PP1 were very excited last week when Harry’s grandparents came to talk to us about Australia. 

Mr & Mrs Pikes (AKA Nonna & Bumpa) had a wonderful time travelling around parts of Australia at the beginning of 2017.  They showed us some amazing photographs and shared some of their exciting experiences with us, including coming very close to a Tasmanian Devil!! 

Thank you for visiting us, we really enjoyed your presentation.​

​Pre-Prep 2​

PP2 have been investigating the weather as part of their topic, they have created a weather diary and have looked at extreme weather conditions.  The children have created their own tornados in a bottle.

PP2, PP1 and Reception have had a wonderful time at Ash End House Farm.

​They have learnt about all the different animals and have had fun feeding the sheep and goats.

The children were treated to a birds of prey demonstration and some even had the opportunity to take part and feed the owls.

Reception fed lots of animals and even held newly hatched chickens.  We collected our own egg to take home for tea!

Main Prep News

Year 3​ ​​
As part of our Science topic on Rocks and Soils, year 3 became rock detectives around school. The children were challenged to find rocks, identify what it was being used for and why. They found a surprising amount of rocks, including slate, sandstone, limestone, marble and granite. Well Done Year 3!

Year 4
Wow what a scorcher! Year 4 are taking part in the John Muir Award Initiative which encourages children to share their wildlife exploration and discoveries with others, and PP1 were excited to be asked to join them on the walk today.  Year 4 luckily planned a much smaller walk than their walk last Monday knowing that there were younger children joining us.  After toilet trips, lots of checking of sunhats, sun cream, water, lunches and backpacks 46 children were ready to begin their walk together.

As we walked in the glorious sunshine, we had quite a few stops in the shade to take in the wonderful views and to drink water and eat a snack prior to lunch.  The PP1 children were helped over some of the trickier stiles by the helpful Year 4 children and the sharing and caring happening as the walk went on was apparent: There were children carrying rucksacks for other children, hand-holding, lots of encouragement, as well as explanations about road safety and the country code.  A well earned lunch break gave us all time to rehydrate again and the packed lunches gave us the energy burst needed to make it from the church back to Smallwood Manor.

Before we got back into our classrooms, we played a great game of sleeping lions under the shade of a large oak tree they were so good at this game that I believe some of the children may have actually been sleeping (I also think that a few of the teachers wanted to join in!)  Many thanks to the Teachers and TA's for coming along on this walk, I'm sure that we will all sleep well after so much exercise!

Year 5 - R.E.

Some of our Year 5 were providing a fun dramatic production of the Good Samaritan during their RE lesson. 

​This type of learning is great fun as you can see!

Year 5 visit Warwick Castle

Year 5 were very excited to visit Warwick Castle this week where they first solved the riddle of the Horrible Histories maze, before venturing off through the castle entrance and into the central courtyard. The children got to 'ooooh' and 'aaaaah' at the sight of the Birds of Prey show as they saw one of the largest eagles in the world fly a little too close for comfort to Mr Harrison.  They also got to view the splendour of the Great Hall and smell the re-enactment of King Richard preparing for battle. The children were fascinated to learn of old punishments and were able to take cover from the best of British summer weather in the castle’s gaol. They explored the highs and lows of the buildings and had a terrific time exploring the various areas of the buildings.

Year 6
​
​Year 6 have been working on their ICT programming and some amazing computer games have been produced.

“We’ve been making games in ICT then sharing them with our friends. It takes about a week for us to make a game then we get to test it out. That’s a koala … its going to try to kill me!!”   Austin H

Whole School

Cross Curricular Maths Day

In addition to the wonderful Summer Serenade a few weeks ago, DCPS held a cross curricular mathematics day across the school.  The children really enjoyed taking part in activities that involved investigating mathematics in different subject areas. 

Reception created some fantastic pictures using 2D shapes.

PP1 focused on symmetry in art and symmetry in nature and produced some beautiful butterflies and carefully sketched self-portraits.

​PP2 had a design technology theme and crafted some well-constructed 3D shape models. 

Y3 investigated circles and combined them to create an artistic 3D mobile now hanging proudly in the 3D classroom – be sure to check it out! 

Y4 had lots of different activities going on throughout the day including games, outdoor area and perimeter investigations, angles and lines inquiries using natural objects and an Estimating & Measuring Distance of 100m Competition - Sebastian was the overall winner. He managed to place a tennis ball 100.9m away! 

Y5 had an artistic approach to their day investigating patterns and Islamic art. 

Y6 took part in problem solving activities.  Mr. Duerden, Head of Mathematics at Denstone College, came down to meet his prospective Y7 pupils.  He set them a range of challenges that some of the Y10 and Y11 college students are presented with.  He was highly impressed with our pupils!  A lot of our children successfully completed the puzzles: William was super speedy beating Mr. Duerden on the multiplication game and Pippa and Celeste solved an extremely difficult puzzle that only a handful of students at the college have ever been able to complete.

I would like to say thank you to all the teaching staff for getting so creative and making the maths cross curricular day a great success and well done to all the pupils for producing some amazing work and demonstrating excellent mathematical thinking skills.

​Mrs Lea 

Sport's News

U12A Cricket v Denstone College U12B's

One of our most anticipated fixtures of the season took place on Wednesday as we entertained Denstone College U12 ‘B’ side. It was great to see a few familiar faces in their team.

Will’s perpetual losing of the toss continued and we were asked to bat. Despite the loss of a few early wickets we batted well on the whole and made 135 from our 20 overs. Chief run-makers were Oliver with 25 and he was ably supported by James and Will. Our running between the wickets has really improved and even if a few of our batters got out cheaply, those runs are proving decisive.

From the outset we bowled really well. Archie E opened the bowling and was getting some turn and drift. Every player bowled and it is clearly evident that our accuracy and line and length have really improved. Charlie and Charles fielded magnificently and inspired the rest of our team.

Archie F had the honour of the last over as the pressure was intensifying. As long as he didn’t bowl a succession of wides the game was ours. Despite the look of abject horror on his face before every ball, he bowled an impeccable line and we won by over 20 runs.

Another fantastic team performance in which every player bowled, batted and fielded well. Our fine results this season continue.

Woodard U11 Rounders tournament

The Under 11A and Under 11B girls played King's Hall School from Somerset and Ellesmere College from Shropshire in the inaugural Woodard Rounders tournament. The Under 11A's got off to a poor start with a loss against King's Hall School while the Under 11B's lost to Ellesmere. The Under 11A’s then played Ellesmere which they also lost and the Under 11B’s played and lost to King's Hall School. Finally the Under 11A’s recorded their first victory of the afternoon beating the Under 11B’s whilst Ellesmere won their third game of the day over King's Hall School.  As a result, the semi finals saw King's Hall School play the Under 11A’s and the Under 11B’s play against Ellesmere College in a repeat of the first games of the day. On this occasion though the Under 11A’s beat King's Hall School to earn a place in the final, whilst the Under 11B’s lost to Ellesmere to play King's Hall School for the 3^rd/4^th place play-off.

The final and 3^rd/4^th place play off were mirror images of each other. Both matches finished 8-7½, the Under 11A’s losing to Ellesmere College to finish a respectable 2^nd place and the Under 11B’s narrowly losing out to King's in their final. The final scores showed how much the teams had improved throughout the day and with our very own Darcie Wilson of year 4 declared girl of the tournament, a tremendous day of rounders was had by all.

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

Future Dates

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