ROUND UP

SPRING TERM 2014

Danes Hill School

DANES HILL SCHOOL

Leatherhead Road, Oxshott, Surrey, KT22 0JG | 01372 842509 | www.daneshillschool.co.uk

This has certainly been a rain-soaked term but one lled to over owing with a whole range of activities both in and out of the classroom.

Pre-test and scholarship results to date have been most gratifying and no less than forty-four awards have been given for academia, sport, music, art, drama and all-round performance at a diverse range of prestigious senior schools including Wellington College, Cranleigh, Epsom College, St Catherine’s, St John’s Leatherhead, Guildford High School, St Teresa’s, Woldingham, Box Hill, King’s Ely, St Edward’s Oxford, Reed’s, Seaford College, Sevenoaks, City of London Freemen’s and Royal Grammar School Guildford. Competition for these scholarships is extremely erce and congratulations are due to all our winners and also to those boys and girls who did not pick up an award this time but who tried their best and came so close.

Despite the poor weather, the impact on sport (particularly girls) has been relatively slight. We have had an excellent season in Rugby, hockey, netball and rowing, picking up a host of trophies and medals. Furthermore, our ski team comprising forty children aged ve to thirteen performed spectacularly well in the annual IAPS Downhill Ski Championships in Italy, winning awards at all levels on highly competitive slopes.

Congratulations to the Science Department for organising a great Science Week packed with informative talks, exciting experiments and countless volcanic eruptions! At Danes Hill we nd that the best scientists are open to experience and the idea that anything is possible. It was such a pleasure to witness so much enthusiasm from the children during the week.

Demand for places at Danes Hill remains strong, enabling the trustees and school management to continue to drive forward our very exciting rebuilding of Ravens which is, thankfully, on schedule. This will bring enormous bene ts for the whole school community. Despite these and other enhanced facilities, and whilst there is no intention of increasing the number of pupils on the school roll, we are nevertheless at the mercy of the demographic vagaries of the local community and this does lead to a certain degree of movement within the form allocation of particular year groups. Therefore whilst we will not now be creating an additional form in Year 4, I am pleased to announce that ve form entry which historically commences in Year 3 will be in place for Year 2 in September, with a corresponding increase in sets for Maths and English, the essential components of Key Stage 1.

I would like to wish all Danes Hill families a very Happy Easter and to thank you for your support in enabling us to provide boys and girls with the best possible education and experience.

WD Murdock, Headmaster

ONE DIGRESSION

DANES HILL SCHOOL ROWING SUCCESS

Over 20 Danes Hill staff from both the Main School and Bevendean undertook a

musical challenge in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support

and The Stroke Association. They made the commitment

to learn a new musical instrument from scratch, and took their Grade 1 exams on

1st February.

Everyone passed! 13 distinctions and 7 merits. What talent abounds at

Danes Hill!

Including gift aid One Digression have raised over £8500!! They would like to

thank everyone who supported this challenge and

these two wonderful charities.

The rowers had great success this term despite the weather making it very difficult to get on to the river. Both boys and

girls have competed and returned with gold, silver and bronze medals in both the South of England Rowing

Championships and the English National Indoor Championships. The rowers are also currently in gold and

silver medal positions for the 8 x and 4 x Concept 2 National Rowing League. A fantastic achievement!

IAPS Skiing ChampionshipsOver 180 children attend this event. With 40 Danes Hill pupils participating, they had phenomenal success at the IAPS skiing championships. The results are as follows:The Cup: U9 Boys, Girls & Mixed Teams, 1st. U11 Mixed Team 2nd. U13B Boys, 3rd. U13 Mixed Team, 1st and overall Fastest Team.The Championships: U11 & U13 Girls, 1st. U11 Boys, 2nd. U13 Boys, 3rd. Every Danes Hill Team finished on the podium, and every child received a medal.Fastest Individuals: Parallel race: Winner Sophie Foster. U9 Girl Zoe Lawrence, U11 Girl Sophie Foster, U13 Girl Olivia Foster who also gained the fastest individual time in the championships.A truly fantastic set of results!

Epsom College held a textiles workshop for 30 Danes Hill

pupils. They enjoyed an afternoon of designing,

sewing and creating their very own bag. It was a delight to see how many

children could thread their own needles and the children’s imaginative

designs! Thank you Epsom College for a fantastic

afternoon.

World Book DayChildren (and teachers) from Bevendean and the Main School made a tremendous effort dressing up as their favourite hero or villain to celebrate World Book Day. Danes Hill was filled with ‘Harry Potters’, ‘Gruffalos’ ‘Wallies’ and ‘Minions’ amongst others! The children were also really excited about the school book swap and many have discovered a new author!

The U13 hockey team has had a phenomenal season. Building on the success of winning the IAPS Hockey for the 3rd year in a row, the team has also been crowned Surrey

champions and went on to represent Surrey in the South of England hockey tournament at Reading Hockey Club. After scoring some fantastic team goals, the girls won their pool

and went on to face an extremely tough team from Kingston Grammar School which, Danes Hill won, 1-0. The girls then

met old rivals St George’s College in the nal, which Danes Hill won 2-0.

Having been crowned South of England Champions, the girls will be heading to the National Hockey Finals in May to compete against regional winners from the West, East, Midlands and North. Well done, girls, on a fantastic

achievement!

SPORTS NEWS Y8 Life Skills

Sutton Life Centre is the country's first super

classroom. Part movie set, part learning experience, it is designed to bring PSHE to life

using the latest cinematic technology. Our Year 8 pupils navigated their way through a street, a railway station, the rooms of a house and a 360 degree virtual reality theatre.

They were asked to make tough choices on real-life

subjects like teenage drinking, internet and re safety, bullying and green living. It proved to be a fascinating experience for the

children.

Year 7 visit Salisbury CathedralYear 7 visited Salisbury Cathedral to support their current work on King John. The children enjoyed activities such as a Magna Carta role play, tour of the cathedral and completed a crime

scene investigation using evidence from the cathedral’s medieval archives to solve a mystery. It was a fantastic day and has certainly enhanced their studies!

Ski trip to SuperDévoluy, FranceA party of 30 Danes Hill children and staff travelled to SuperDévoluy in the French

Alps to take part in this year’s skiing trip. Every day our young skiers spent four hours under the expert tuition of the École Ski Française instructors, and many chose to go for extra skiing with friends and staff. The snow conditions were excellent and the

weather was, in the main, kind to us. Everyone had a fantastic time and even managed to practise some French on the slopes! After many years’ absence, next

year we expect to return to Austria.

YEAR 3 MEXICOLORE DAY

In February, the Year 3 children were immersed in the fascinating world of the Aztecs. Highlights of the day were playing drums, Aztec basketball and dressing in Aztec costumes! The children were totally captivated by the whole experience and are really looking forward to

furthering their studies on the Aztecs in humanities lessons.

Eco Commi ee News

This term, Lower and Middle School Eco Committee members have been working in the vegetable garden. They have planted over 185 tomato plants!

The Eco Committee has been working on a British Council International School Award scheme. This involves Danes Hill participating in an international project

with Apeejay School in Delhi, India. Selected Year 7 and 8 pupils have been working on a collaboration with Apeejay School on a waste management in the UK

and India, communication links between both schools have been made via the internet.

Chelsea Football FunIn March an amazing 120 pupils took part in the Lower School Chelsea Football Fun day. During the tournament, Chelsea Football Club coached and refereed the matches and also held a training session for the children, full of fun games and football skills. Congratulations to all those who took part and on their superb football talent and fantastic team sprit!

Future Schools Fair at Danes HillDanes Hill held a Future Schools Fair in March. Over 30 independent Senior Schools were represented at this event, providing valuable information to parents. Feedback from both parents and schools was very positive and many useful contacts were made.

Intermediate Maths ChallengeSelected pupils from Years 7 and 8 took the Intermediate Mathematical Challenge this term. Their results were excellent, especially as this challenge is aimed at pupils in Years 9–11. Gold awards went to Tom Eves, Hyungbin Kim, Juliette Imbert and Charlie Buckingham with Tom gaining the Best in School certificate. All these pupils, and Sophie Howard, have qualified for the follow-on paper, which they will sit at the end of March. Congratulations also go to all the pupils who gained Silver and Bronze awards.

Year 2 Tradi onal Tales DayYear 2 had an superb Traditional Tales day in March. They made gingerbread cookies, attended an acting workshop, decorated their own shoes and took part in a musical story. They did all this dressed up as their favourite traditional tales character!

Year 7 Road Safety talkYear 7 enjoyed a very powerful performance about road safety in their recent PSHE lesson. The children understood the importance of the storyline and the acting and visual effects were superb!

Year 5 Paper SculptureSelected Year 5 pupils enjoyed a morning at St John’s School for a Sculpture Workshop.

The children had an amazing time and produced some fantastic work!

Science WeekScience Week this year went with a crash and a bang. We started the week with a visit from Chris Lloyd who spoke about scienti c inventions and how they changed the world in which we live. The children participated in various activities from making a fully functional glider from only a paper plate to designing and making a balloon powered supercar. Molecular models were created from marshmallows and raisins were taught how to dance in front of the children’s eyes! In addition, the children had a visit from a volcanologist who showed the most magni cent photos of volcanoes at night. The children enjoyed the week greatly and realised that there are many di erent ways to solve a problem.

Y6 Chamber Choir sing at e Royal Fes val HaCongratulations to the Year 6 Chamber Choir which sang magnificently in the Royal Festival

Hall as part of Reed's School's Bicentenary Celebrations. The concert began with a world premiere of a piece by Will Todd, and the second half was given over to a hugely exciting

performance of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. It was an unforgettable experience for audience and singers alike. Well done indeed.

Lower School assembliesYears 2 and 3 amazed their audience with fantastic Form assemblies this term. Each class delivered its own theme

with clarity and confidence. Parents were invited to watch the children followed by refreshments in the conference room.

The children displayed a huge amount of enthusiasm and they should all be very proud of themselves.

Transition had a fantastic morning visiting Waitrose in Cobham. The children learnt about all the heathy foods in the store. They also went behind the scenes and tasted various foods. The children planned to make pizzas the following day, so at the end of their visit they bought their ingredients. Thank you to Waitrose for a very

entertaining morning.

Transition visit Waitrose in Cobham

Bevendean is a wonderful place to be at playtime! The children’s faces say it all. Their imaginations

ran wild while they were playing pirates and making ‘mud pies’!

Oh to be aged 4 again!

Bevendean playground fun!

Year 4 had a superb day celebrating Chinese New Year. They enjoyed a fun

packed day filled with Chinese activities. They

made Chinese lanterns and wrote their name in Chinese writing amongst many other

workshops. The children had a wonderful Chinese lunch, equally enjoyed by

the whole school!

Y4 Chinese DayYear 5

Produc onYear 5 displayed superb acting and singing abilities in their production of The Pied Piper. Their dedication in rehearsals paid off with an outstanding performance on the night. Each child in Year 5 had a part to play in the production and it was evident that they all throughly enjoyed the experience. An amazing performance, well done Year 5!

Sport Relief

Danes Hill School had a very exciting Sport Relief week. Not only did all the children participate in a fancy dress mile run, but they also had the opportunity to spend the afternoon packed with sporting activities with some amazing sporting celebrities. The atmosphere was electric on the sports field. A huge thank you to everyone who made the event such an wonderful success!

CHARITIES DAY 2014

Charities Day was a huge success again this year.

Teachers and children enjoyed the wide variety of stalls set up in classrooms around the school. The children took great pride in taking turns to run their stall.

This year, on the morning of Charities Day there was a Bounce-a-thon in the Ark. Each child had to record the number of bounces they could achieve within a specific time. Danes Hill children raised an amazing £7,118.60 for Sport Relief which is a Charities Day record!