A Musical Run-up to Christmas!

Over the past couple of weeks we seemed to have moved serenely from one event to the next, each with a Christmas feel to it and each, at least in part, involving music.  In a sense, this is what makes this time of year so special, both for our children and for every adult connected with the school – in whatever capacity that may be. 

Rehearsals for the Pre-school and Pre-prep nativity play have been gradually gathering momentum as the second half of term has progressed, culminating in their performances at the end of last week, firstly to the main prep and then to parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, godparents and family friends on the Friday.

For the second time, we had not one, but two nativity plays, a double bill with Pre-school and Reception kicking things off with “The Christmas Star” before Years 1 and 2 rounded things off with their version of “The Sleepy Shepherd”.  What really impressed me about both performances was just how confidently the children spoke and sang.  They were clearly really enjoying themselves and the end result was two hugely entertaining performances that really lit up our afternoon.  I must thank the Pre-school and Pre-prep staff who worked so hard over such a short period of time to help the children reach such incredibly high standards.

As soon as the nativity plays had finished I jumped into the car and headed off to Waitrose where our choir were helping to instil some Christmas spirit into the shoppers with some carol singing.   This is the first time we have done this and I am very grateful to Mrs Warrilow for organising the event with Waitrose. Needless to say the choir sang beautifully and it was a joy to hear them.

Just two days later the same group of children were up at Denstone College, rehearsing in the afternoon and then performing in the carol service in the evening.  This really is a magical evening, bathed in candlelight with a mixture of beautiful carols and readings.  I was incredibly proud of the contribution our choir made to the service and it was wonderful to see so many of our former pupils performing as well.

The final week of term saw the choir back on the road again, this time to Denstone Hall Farm Shop, where they performed for the third year running, entertaining customers to more Christmas carols.  I would like to thank Mr & Mrs Evans at the Farm Shop for inviting us to come along and welcoming us into their shop.

The final “home” fixture was our own carol service.  Every year the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as we process into chapel by candlelight and this year was no exception.  Once again, it was a beautiful service, with the choir performing to the very highest level, the readers speaking with great clarity and the congregation playing its part too.  The choir could be forgiven for feeling exhausted after such a hectic few days.  I must pass on a big thank you to Mrs O’Brien for organising the choir so well over such a busy time and for ensuring that they managed to perform to such a high level. We also had the lovely Christingle service for the Pre-prep and Pre-school to bring term to a close.  Frankly if we’re not ready for Christmas now we never will be! 

Thank you all for your support this term.   Melanie, Charlie, Joe and Annabelle join me in wishing you a very relaxing Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Jerry Gear

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

Certificates - The following children have been awarded their Matheletics certificates :- Ellen Carroll, Devon Naylor and Isabella Furness. Well done!

There were also First Aid Certificates given out to the following people: Jessica Bee, Seb Garratt, Alex Greenwood, Charlie Gear, Isabella Love, Evangeline Plaza, Tom Cooper, Hannah Willis, Georgina Baggaley and Emerson Garratt.

Gymnastic Skill - Henry Hotchkiss (8) recently took part in the West Midlands Floor & Vault Regional Final at Fenton Manor organised by the British Schools Gymnastics Association on 3^rd December 2016. He competed in the U11 category and came 4th, which considering he is only 8 years old, is outstanding! He was amazing on the floor routine as you can see from his arabesque and bridge pictures.

Food Committee News
Congratulations to Izzy Warrilow (5MC) who won the Mini Menu competition to design the cover of the menu. All pupils have their own copy of this menu to refer to each day. All the children who entered were given a gift by the judge, Mrs Stone. Well done to all entrants for creating some beautiful artwork!

The Chapel Choir carol singing at Waitrose & The Denstone Farm Shop - if you'd like to hear us please go to our Youtube Channel and subscribe!

Art Exhibit at Waitrose

Mrs Belcher prepared an art exhibit of the winners of the NOA Competition earlier this term, the Draycott Show and the Alrewas Show. 

She also showcased some fabulous work from Years 5 and 6 Landscapes, and Year 4 Printmaking and Digital Manipulation.

The exhibit was displayed for 2 weeks in order to promote our school in the local community.

Pre-School & Reception Nativity - The Christmas Star

Pre-Prep Nativity - The Sleepy Shepherd

Pre-Prep French
​PP1 spent last Friday speaking French and role-playing a French café scene.  They ate camembert, brie and pâté on their baguettes and drank sparkling grape juice adding a preference of 'rouge' or 'blanc' to their order.  Dressed in red, white and blue outfits they amazed Madame Moran with their impeccable manners and delightful attempts to communicate their likes and dislikes.  When the children were enjoying the food they gave a thumbs up and said 'J'adore ça!' and when the food was not to their taste they had learned to say 'Je n'aime pas ça'.  The snails on offer were a big hit but mostly because the shells were filled with sweets.  PP1 practised 'merci' ,'s'il vous plaît' and counting to 10.  It was a very exciting morning but the children behaved beautifully, helping to clean up and remembering to say 'merci Madame'.  Fantastique!

Pre-Prep's Christmas Craft including Christmas Snowflakes, Elves and Christmas Tree Cards

Pre-Prep's Visits from Santa and Miss Sparkles

Pre-School & Reception had a fantastic time on Monday when we went to the Adventure Farm for a special Christmas treat. The children dressed up as kings, shepherds, angels and donkeys as they helped to retell the nativity story in the barn amongst the straw and animals. They also underwent Elf training and are now all suitably mischievous and ready to be Santa's helpers!

Pre-Prep & Reception Christmas Lunch

Main Prep News

Year 3 Victorian Assembly - What a fantastic performance 3D gave this morning. They all worked so hard on their lines. In the process the children also learnt much about the experiences of Victorian children, that we will build upon together in our History lessons. Well Done 3D, Mrs Wason and I are very proud of you.  Thanks must also go to our wonderful parents for supplying a varied range of costumes.

Year 3 Christmas Hats - After a beautiful Christmas dinner and chocolate dessert, Year 3 enjoyed the tradition of showing off their Christmas hats. What a creative bunch! Well Done to Devon who won the prize for the best hat!

​Year 3​ - Tooth Decay Experiment
Year 3 have had an exciting lesson in science and they were lucky enough to be able to use the lovely new science classroom.  Following on from their lessons about healthy eating and teeth, the children have designed an experiment to try to determine what may lead to tooth decay.  The children have discussed ideas of how they can test the effect of sugar and plaque on teeth using an egg in their experiment to represent their teeth.  Some children came up with some great ideas and the majority suggested putting an egg in sugar water, an egg in water with yeast (representing plaque), an egg in both sugar and water, and finally they decided to put an egg in water.  They discussed how to make the experiment “fair” by using the same amount of water, substance, time, and equipment and had lots of discussion about how long they should leave the experiments for.  The children were asked to predict what would happen to the egg in each beaker and their prediction varied from the egg cracking to nothing happening at all to the egg.  Luckily no eggs were dropped, smashed or cracked in the experiment and we now have to wait to see if their predictions were correct.  What a hands-on brilliant lesson they’ve had, as you can see from some of the photos.

Christmas Hat Competition The Christmas Hats this year were fantastic! Well done to the following hat designers:- Yr 6 - Pippa Ball, Yr 5 - Hannah Willis, Yr 4 - Cleo Nesbitt and Yr 3 - Devon Naylor.

Year 4 ​
​Walk to Marchington Woodlands Church
​Year 4 endured a cold and misty walk up to Marchington Woodlands Church linking with their work in Geography and History.  The children were tasked with looking out for historic clues connecting Smallwood Manor to Marchington Woodlands Church.  Some of them started the adventure with a scavenger hunt outside the church, looking for historic clues about when the church was built and linking it to Smallwood Manor; they also looked for the oldest grave and linked it to the date that the church was built.  The children were beautifully behaved and showed respect when walking around the graveyard.  Inside the church were more historic clues about the former owner of Smallwood Manor, Thomas Webb and the memorial to his wife Lucinda, the children (and I) found it fascinating!  The church was warm and cosy, so toes and fingers were thawed as they looked inside the church. They enjoyed chocolate biscuits and a drink from the volunteers in the church for which we were very grateful.  We had a brief walk back to school and had a 10 minute stop off playing 40:40 at the bottom of the playing fields, even the teachers joined in to keep themselves warm.  The children were jolly and happy chanting Christmas songs on the way home and had an enjoyable morning out.

Dissolving Solids into Liquids
​Year 4 have had a brilliant term experimenting with solids and liquids and this week they were looking at whether sugar dissolves faster in hot or cold water.  They planned their own experiment and made their experiment “fair” by using the same amounts of sugar, water and equipment.  The only thing they changed was the temperature of the water.  The children worked in groups and put the same amount of sugar into a beaker of water (each beaker had a different temperature of water).  They took the temperature of each beaker of water and timed how long it took the sugar to dissolve.  The children took all the results from the experiments and deduced that the hotter the water, the easier the sugar dissolves.  It was brilliant that they were able to work this out for themselves creating their own experiments. What amazing scientists we have here in Year 4!

Year 5 - having fun at Christmas time!

Year 6 Well it has been an extremely busy Michaelmas Term in Year Six!  All the children have been working very hard these past few months and studiously applying themselves to their revision and extra-curricular work to ensure that they are fully prepared to give their best at the forthcoming entrance exams and interviews in January.   We will only have nine school days before the exam next term and all children have been given papers and revision resources that they can work through over the Christmas break to help them prepare towards this.  Each child was given a detailed revision guide in November, which we asked them to keep because it is relevant to the English and Science papers they will sit in January.  A further revision list has been sent home for mathematics. The websites below are detailed in the revision guide but are listed here again for your reference.  We hope that Year Six have a fantastic Christmas and prepare well but it is important that they achieve the right balance between work, rest and fun at this magical time of year.  Have a wonderful Christmas!

Mrs. Lea and Mr. Bettaney

Mathematics:https://www.mymaths.co.uk

Science:http://www.compare4kids.co.uk/learn.php

http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/science/​

Sports News​

Girls Hockey News

Resounding success for girl swimmers

Denstone College Prep School hosted St Bedes in girls swimming and the event is memorable, not only for the effort and achievements of the girls but for the spirit the event was held in.

St Bedes arrived with little support but this did not matter one bit as the girls of years 5 & 6 screamed and cheered for every stroke every girl made in the pool whether they be a competitor for St Bedes or Denstone Prep. The pride of the teachers from both school was evident on their faces throughout the event as time after time swimmers entered the water and those on the side cheered, clapped and roared the effort being made. 

The team captained by Sophie H performed immensely well throughout and even those not swimming, instead workers as helpers displayed the best possible attitude making the event a terrific success. 

U11 and U10 Girls battle against Grace Dieu

The year 5 & 6 girls ended their hockey season on a high with a closely fought defeat against Grace Dieu. The girls separated into 3 mixed teams, playing in their favourite positions and worked wonderfully well together. Whilst the overall score may have been a loss, the teamwork to continually work together always impressed as did the positive approach that every girl took to give their best effort for the school. 

Strong performances in goal from Sophie T and Jess B kept the score low and equally strong defences from Captain Imogen, Amber, Georgina, Izzy Chester and others ensured that attacks by Grace Dieu were dealt with swiftly and competently. Amelia, Hannah, Sophie H, Grace, Abbey, Mia, Pippa and Tyra worked tirelessly throughout to try and win the ball in midfield and attackers Izzy Warrilow, Fran and Lola never stopped trying to get the ball into the back of the net for Denstone Prep. 

U9 and U8 unlucky to lose against Grace Dieu

With some girls making their debut for Denstone College Prep School hockey team, the unlucky loss to Grace Dieu was hard to take. The girls split into three teams as they mixed together to take on Grace Dieu. Captain Verity B in goal was excellent at preventing goals and Belle going in goal for the first time did superbly well coping with attack after attack as she was left quite exposed. Still the effort and positivity displayed by her throughout was terrific. Defender Isabella F and Beatrice were just immense making tackle after tackle again and again for the first time which was wonderful to see. Caoimhe, Cleo and Katie continued working the entire match to keep Denstone Prep strong in defence. Midfielders were all over the pitch with Daisy, Darcie and Tilly D working selfishly for the team to ensure every teammate made valuable contributions to the team effort. Isla, Evangeline, Verity H and Phoebe were  constantly on the go up and down the wings working hard on developing positioning and Lottie always looking dangerous in attack. A wonderful effort by all.

Helen Bennett

U11 Rugby Review
We started the Autumn term with a two day rugby camp, which in man hours was an extra five weeks of contact time in school terms. This put the team in a good position at the start of the season in that we were well drilled and had a good game structure. In terms of matches we played seven in which we won six and drew one giving the team an unbeaten season. There were thirty five tries for and twelve tries against, most of the tries against were scored in the first match against The Elms. After that match there were only four tries scored against us in six matches.

We were by no means a big side but we played with a big heart and our defensive tackling was fantastic, led by the awesome tackling of Harry Fryer, George Hough and Charlie Meads probably the smallest trio on the pitch in most of the matches. Thirty five tries for, demonstrated that we were good in attack as well as defence with the strength of James Polmear and Austin Harrison taking the ball forward into contact. We also had plenty of pace with Will Brister and Archie Fenton running in tries. Evan Blurton and Sebastian Lee adding pace with guile and Jake Watson, a very cool player under pressure. Let’s not forget Oliver Makepeace whose phenomenal work rate both in attack and defence played a big part in the team’s success. Well done to all of you.

Next year we do not have a big squad in year 5 however our year 4 squad certainly makes up for it and the future of rugby at the school looks bright. The under 11A team will probably be a mixture of years 5 and 6, there will be a U11B team as well, also a U10A team. Thanks go to everyone involved in the rugby, all the coaching staff, the catering staff and all the parents who supported the school teams.

Many thanks.
Geoff Kelly - 1^st Team coach​

PTFA Notices

We raised £240 for Children in Need this term with our Own Clothes Day, thank you very much!

School Notices

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

Uniform Update
Waterproof Clothing
From January 2017 we would like ALL pupils to have a pair of waterproof trousers and a waterproof coat in school every day. This will allow us to make full use of our fantastic outdoor provision in all weathers and ensure that the children can all enjoy break times and lessons outside in all weather. John Lewis stock the following item http://www.johnlewis.com/unisex-storm-suit-in-a-bag-navy/p281354 which we are including on our uniform list for your convenience but you may source these items from any retailer. There is no regulation colour and younger children in Pre-School may prefer an all–in–one splash suit or similar. Please ensure all items are named. We have found that the new style school coats that John Lewis are selling already are sufficiently waterproof but if your child still have the old style, then an outer shell may be beneficial. Having waterproofs in school is compulsory and they will be needed. Not having the correct clothing may result in your child missing out on an outdoor session. Many thanks for your support.

Boys’ Grey Trousers
With immediate effect boys throughout the school may wear long trousers as part of their uniform. The boys may wear shorts or trousers throughout the year. Again, John Lewis are our preferred stockist of this item. However, please give them time to actually place it in the DCPS school wear section online. The following styles are acceptable http://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-the-basics-adjustable-waist-boys'-school-trousers-pack-of-2-grey/p1115932 and http://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-boys'-easy-care-adjustable-waist-regular-fit-school-trousers/p1115981?navAction=jump
​Trousers should be grey as defined in these images and have no pockets on the legs (cargo style), just slanted front pockets.

Swimming Hats
Please note that we have removed the old branded swimming hats from the JLP website. They are to be replaced with just a plain navy hat. Girls may continue to wear the old style  “Smallwood Manor” swim hat if they already have one, until it wears out.

Any queries regarding uniform should go to Melanie Gear melanie.gear@denstoneprep.co.uk

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

Future Dates

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