Danes Hill School
UP
ROUND
SPRING TERM 2015
As a short but distinctly productive term is now drawing to a close, I reflect on the many
outstanding achievements in our boys and girls both in and out the classroom. Our extracurricular programme continues to grow offering an incredible range of activities and
challenges to the children. Well deserved success has also been noted in sport, drama,
music and art this term and the range of awards won at senior schools is testament not
only of the ability and talent of the children, but also of the excellent preparation they
have received from their dedicated teachers.
Our newly opened dining room has certainly enhanced the lunch experience for all our
boys and girls and we are certainly looking forward to the completion of the new library
which is scheduled for May.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all colleagues and families a restful Easter
break and to invite parents for coffee and pastries in the Main School dining hall from
8am- 9am on the first day back of the Summer Term.
WD Murdock, Headmaster
Danes Hill School
Leatherhead Road, Oxshott, Surrey, KT22 0JG | 01372 842509 | www.daneshillschool.co.uk
Orchestral Play Day
Over 120 prep school musicians came together at St John's
School, Leatherhead for the annual Orchestral Play Day.
Following an afternoon of sectional and then full orchestra
rehearsals, families and friends of the musicians congregated for
a spectacular concert.
Fourteen Danes Hill pupils from Year 7 took part in the concert,
all delivering note perfect performances. This was all the more
impressive as until their arrival at St John's, they were sightreading.
SNOW FUN!
Pupils could not hide their
delight as they were greeted
at school by a blanket of snow
at the beginning of February.
They all had an exciting break
building snowmen whilst the
teachers had their hands full
making sure all the children
wrapped up warmly.
Catering staff were on hand to
warm things up with a
delicious roast beef lunch
before everyone headed back
outside for another eventful
break in the snow!
Outstanding Girls’ Hockey
Danes Hill hockey teams have continued to be a force to be
reckoned with this term. Our U11 A team were crowned
Surrey champions and progressed through to the South of
England finals, where they achieved 3rd place. We are
extremely proud how much these girls have improved this
year. Our U12 B team also showed excellent determination
and hockey skills to be placed 2nd in their Surrey
competition, and our U13 A team have wowed us with some
exceptional, mature hockey. They have also been crowned
Surrey champions and Regional Champions! The U10 girls’
team achieved 2nd place in Surrey. All the girls have played
outstanding hockey this term and the games department are
extremely proud of them! Well done!
Year 7 Visit Canterbury
Cathedral
Breakfast Club
In support of their recent studies of Henry II and the murder
of Thomas Becket, former Archbishop of Canterbury, children
in Year 7 undertook a very educational visit to Canterbury
Cathedral.
During the morning, volunteer staff gave the pupils insightful
tours of the building, which was originally founded in 597 and
now forms part of a World Heritage Site. The children’s
knowledge was then put to the test in the afternoon as they
worked together to complete booklets, which encouraged
them to look closely at different aspects of the building and
its history. It was a pleasure to see each pupil give the
famous building the respect it
deserves and their behaviour was
impeccable.
Kerrie Elliot, the School Visits
Administrator for Canterbury
Cathedral, said, “We would like to
tell the teaching staff at Danes Hill
how much we appreciated their
obvious interest and engagement
with the students as well as with
us. They did a great job, picking up
on their previous lessons and
provoking intelligent questions from the students, or relevant
information from the guides. I would look forward to leading
them again. We look forward to welcoming you to the
Cathedral again in the near future.”
Danes Hill Breakfast Club, which
has been running since January,
is proving a big hit with children
and parents alike.
Running every weekday morning,
the Breakfast Club offers pupils a
healthy and varied meal as well
as lots of entertainment. Children
from a variety of different year
groups bond over games of
tiddlywinks, draughts and other
board games.
It has proved equally popular
with parents too, helping them to
beat the rush hour traffic in the
morning and also giving their
children additional time to
complete their homework.
Edible Anderson Shelters!
Inspired by Mrs Judi Wolstenholme, who brought in
a model Anderson shelter that her daughter made
when she was at Danes Hill, Kate Bevan, Head of
History, set 6JCM the task of building their own
model air-raid shelters.
The children put their creative skills to good use
and produced some excellent and very accurate
constructions.
Henry Symonds
even made an
Anderson shelter
cake, which the
children deservedly
tucked into at the
end of their History
lesson. Sir John
Anderson would
have been proud!
Readathon and Charities Day
raise thousands for charity
The Danes Hill Readathon and 2015 Charities Day have raised a staggering
£8,000 for charity to date, and the money is still coming in!
Not only did the two events raise a significant amount of money, but they
also had a hugely positive impact on the Danes Hill pupils. The Charities
Day, which was held on the last day before half-term, was a huge success as
the children set up and managed a number of fundraising ventures,
including cupcake decorating stalls, movie venues, hair styling salons, a
pizza stall, tombola and guess the name of the teddy.
The Readathon, an event run by Lucy Keat (Senior Librarian) in which the
children are sponsored to read, with all funds raised going to charity, was a
similarly big success. The children’s enthusiasm for reading for a good cause
was a joy to see. One pupil in Year 7 said, “It is a great way to raise money
for charity as I love reading. Mrs Keat has a great selection of books for us
in the library and she is always on hand to guide us to which book we
should read next based on our personal interests."
The funds will be donated to an exceptionally worthy charity, Mercy Centre
UK. Mrs Rosie Wood was presented with the cheque in assembly and will
pass it to the chosen charity. Mercy Centre UK is a charity set up to support
the work of the Mercy Centre in Thailand. Carers at the Mercy Centre in
Bangkok do invaluable work for abandoned and vulnerable children,
responding to emergencies within the slum communities and offering
shelter, protection and loving care to street kids and orphans, as well as to
children and adults suffering from AIDS.
Thank you to everyone in the Danes Hill community who have yet again
been incredibly generous with donations and this contribution will make a
huge difference to people in need.
Outstanding Netball Success
U11 team
The U11 Netball team have had a fantastic netball season. The
girls travelled through the group stages of the Surrey Netball
Tournament with ease producing some phenomenal netball.
Moving into the knockout stages they faced Caterham. This
was a tense match with the match going to golden goal. Danes
Hill were victorious and moved on to the final against Guildford
High School. This is always a competitive match, but Danes Hill
managed to pull away and were crowned U11 Surrey Netball Champions. This success continued
into the IAPS where again the girls were unbeaten throughout the whole tournament and are
going to the National IAPS Finals ranked in first place as Regional IAPS Champions.
U12 team
The U12 Netball team have had a great season coming runners up in the first round of the Surrey
Netball Tournament losing only one game in the entire tournament. This sent them through to
the Surrey Finals where they were unlucky to just miss out progressing through to the knockout
stages. In the IAPS Regional Tournament, the team had a fantastic day playing some impressive
netball. Overall the team was ranked 4th in the region, narrowly missing out by golden goal to
progress to the National IAPS Tournament.
U13 team
A brilliant season for the U13 Netball team. The girls came
runners up in the first round of the Surrey Netball Tournament
progressing them through to the Surrey Netball Finals. The team
had an incredibly tough group and came 5th in their group stage.
In the Regional IAPS Tournament, the U13’s came 3rd in their
group moving on to the knockout stages. After two very tense
matches, the team secured a National place. Two matches followed to
see what place the team would finish. These matches were against
the two teams they had lost to in the group stages Cranleigh and
Westbourne House. This time round the girls played some superb
netball beating them with ease to secure 1st place ranking into the
National IAPS Finals as Regional IAPS Champions where they went
and achieved 3rd place!
Book Swap!
Children were in their element in the Danes
Hill School Book Swap. Each child was
encouraged to bring an unwanted book to
school to swap. The response was fantastic
and children from all year groups went away
delighted with their new ‘purchase’.
Eggstended stay for some
unusual guests
Ten eggs were delivered to Danes Hill on
Monday 16 February, three days later ten brand
new chicks were welcomed to the school. The
chicks, five male and five female, had a very
exciting first two weeks of their lives, enjoying
the attention of adoring teachers and pupils.
They remained at the school until the end of
February, at which point they were returned to
a free range
chicken farm.
Needless to say
we were very sad
to see them go.
Senior Book Club
visit Anne
Frank’s House
Upper School Latin Trip
Years 6, 7 and 8 Common Entrance Latin pupils visited the town
of Verulamium, better known as St Albans.
Verulamium was a town in Roman Britain and many of the
artefacts from that time have remained in the area to this day.
The pupils were lucky enough to see a special piece of British
history as they visited the museum to see the spectacular
mosaics and a large range of real Roman artefacts.
They also visited the Roman theatre, the only one of its kind in
Britain, which is situated on land belonging to the Earl of
Verulam.
All in all, it was a very enjoyable and educational day which will
certainly benefit the children in their classical studies.
At the pre-trip meeting, Mrs
Keat (Senior Librarian)
confidently stated “The
forecast says it will be cold
but there’ll be no snow”. So,
at 6am on Tuesday, 3
February, the senior book club
was huddling together by
reception watching the snow
fall. Gatwick was clear and
without delay, the group
arrived in Amsterdam to visit
Anne Frank’s house. Well
acquainted with her diary, the
Year 7 and 8 boys and girls
had a fascinating couple of
hours immersed in Anne’s
claustrophobic and dangerous
world. A particular highlight
was the sight of her actual
diary; another, somewhat
different, the pancakes and
chocolate sauce in a proper
pancake house! The boys and
girls were really moved by
what they saw and
experienced and were able to
discuss it in an impressively
mature manner. They were
great company throughout
the day.
Year 6 in the eyes of the pupils
Year 6 is very different to Year 5 in many ways. Now in Upper
School, you get a lot more responsibilities like being allowed in
classrooms on your own and fun things like being awarded
house point tokens. There are also uniform changes, such as
trousers and a skirt instead of shorts or a
pinafore. In the Upper School we also have
tutors. In these groups we can discuss our
worries, debate current affairs or discuss school
issues. It is also a very important year as we
take our exams and choose our future schools.
This year, as we did so well, we were treated to
a trip to see Billy Elliott in the West End which
was fantastic! We are also looking forward to
this year’s trips week as we are going sailing in
the Isle of Wight.
By Alexander Corbett
“Science experiments
are even more fun in
Year 6”
Renee Gibbons
“I love meeting in our
small tutor groups”!
Andrew Franco
Success at the National Science Quiz
Over 400 prep schools around the country took part in the National Science Quiz competition this
year. Just four days before the finals, Danes Hill, as the highest scoring runners up, were invited
to compete.
The team performed outstandingly from the very start, with a 100% score after the first 15
questions. They kept up that level of performance throughout and were unfortunate to lose out in
the end to Westminster School by a narrow margin. Danes Hill achieved an exceptionally well
deserved 2nd place at the competition.
The team managed to answer questions
such as the name of the inventor of the
Rabies vaccine, what Oppenheimer was
known for, the distance from the Earth to the
Sun in kilometres and the number of bones
in the human body. They have all been
working extremely hard to prepare for the
quiz at home and in their lunchtimes. They
demonstrated superb team strategies and
kept their nerves throughout. A huge well
done to Arthur van Grondelle and Usman Ali,
Year 5, and Andrew Lees and Eddie McInally,
Year 6.
Year 5 Production
Into The Woods
Year 5 delivered a fantastic production which
had everyone in the audience captivated.
The children acted out James Lapine and Stephen
Sondheim's fractured fairy tale Into the Woods
exceptionally well. The story details a couple,
cursed with childlessness by a witch, and
their journey to breaking the spell. It
ultimately provides a moving lesson
about community responsibility.
Teachers had clearly worked very hard with
the cast in the build up to the production
and their efforts were rewarded with a
flawless performance. The costumes were
wonderful and the standard of acting was of
the highest order.
YEAR 3 ENJOY
MEXICOLORE DAY
Mexico was the theme of the day as
children in Year 3 enjoyed a morning
learning all about the South American
country and the Aztecs.
The session was organized for the pupils
by staff from Mexicolore, who made sure
everyone got fully involved with lots of
audience participation. The children had
the chance to dress up in some fantastic
Latin clothes and clearly learnt a lot
during the session as they displayed an
excellent level of knowledge at the end.
Lower School Footba Fun Tournament
Boys and girls in Years 2 and 3 put on a feast of football at the end of February in the Lower School
Fun Football Tournament.
The children were split into ten teams, each named after
chocolate bars, of nine players each with an even mix of
boys, girls and abilities. The tournament kicked off at
9am and the drama did not stop until the final kick
almost three hours later.
The youngsters made light work of the rain which
blighted the early matches, displaying some wonderful,
flowing football. Clearly the half an hour they had all
spent with the Chelsea coaches that morning had paid
dividends. A huge thank you must go to the Chelsea
coaches in attendance, who also refereed the matches, as
well as Miss Gibson (Games teacher) and Miss Peckham (Head of Girls’ Games), who did a fantastic
job organising the event.
A day in the life of a Danes Hill
Pre-Prep child
Due to the superb opportunities in the prep school, the many
wonderful things that occur every day in the pre-prep are
often overlooked. However, life is certainly no less exciting for
the younger members of Danes Hill.
Just a few examples of the sorts of things children have been
getting up to recently are making gruffalo cakes, playing with
dinosaurs, putting on a puppet show, learning about Chinese
New Year, writing their names in ‘gloop’ and playing in the
dressing up area. And that was just in one morning!
After a delicious beef curry lunch (with the children displaying
fantastic table manners) the children then got dressed into
their all-in-one suits, ready for a trip to the paddock!
This is a typical example of daily life for children in the preprep. The multitude of opportunities on offer help to prepare
them for the senior part of the school in the best way possible.
This term, Pre-Prep welcomed Mini Transition to Danes Hill.
All the children have settled in exceptionally well, their
confidence is outstanding considering they have only just
turned three years old. We will look forward to seeing their
personalties flourish next term.
A taste of the Orient for Year 4
Year 4 children at Danes Hill School celebrated Chinese New Year - the Year of the Goat - on
Wednesday 18 February by taking part in a range of oriental activities.
The day started with a period of meditation in the Ark, accompanied by relaxing Chinese music,
before the children split into classes to try their
hand at traditional Chinese dancing, making
Chinese lanterns, calligraphy and spinning plates
on chopsticks.
Meanwhile, the whole of the Main School
enjoyed a full Chinese banquet for lunch
comprising hot and sour vegetable soup, hoisin
beef, chicken chow mein, vegetable spring rolls,
egg fried rice and prawn crackers, followed by
lychees and Fortune Cookies.
"It was fantastic to see all the children embrace
the different activities," said Mr Jim Cater, Head
of Year 4. It was a superb day and a big thank
you goes to Maggie Kwan, who taught the children Chinese writing, and Sin Wan Yue, who taught
the Chinese dancing.
Science Week
Science week has once again proved very successful and fun. The
children all carried out activities relating to the eclipse theme. They
made pin-hole cameras using Pringle tubes and were given eclipse
glasses. The entire school from Transition to Year 8 viewed what
they could of the eclipse from the school grounds. Unfortunately,
it was quite cloudy but everyone did notice the drop in
temperature and light levels. The activity was followed up using
the BBC web-site which had a plane at 20,000 feet where all
was sunny. In addition the Year 2 and 3 children all made lunar
buggies using egg boxes and explored the surface of the moon.
The Year 4 and 5 children all made and raced balloon rockets
along string run-ways which proved to be very exciting as how
often are children allowed to blow up balloons as big as possible
and let them go in a classroom!
Danes Hill Enter First Basketball Tournament
Danes Hill boys made history this week as the school entered its first ever basketball tournament.
The U13s competed in the National IAPS Tournament at
Bradfield College in Reading. The team made some great
improvements throughout the course of the tournament
and were very unfortunate to miss out on a place in the
knock-out stages of the Plate competition following a
superb display in their final group match.
Victory in that final game secured the boys a 9th place
finish, which, given the fact that they have only been
playing the sport since November, is a fantastic
achievement.
Danes Hill’s U11 and U13 girls have had a sensational cross country season,
with a series of excellent performances at both team and individual level.
At the Danes Hill cross country
competition on Thursday 26th February,
the U13 girls’ team had a fantastic run,
finishing in first place overall, with all
eight runners in the top 11 positions.
The U11 girls’ team also performed
strongly to take third place overall.
At the annual Epsom College Prep Schools’
Cross Country event on
Wednesday 4th March, the
U13 girls took first place in
their race, with all six runners
finishing in the top 10. The
U11 girls finished second overall at Epsom and went one better
at the Guildford High School Cross Country Competition on
Monday 9th March, leading the field home in first place.
A great finale to the season came at Malvern College on
Sunday 15th March when the U13 girls’ team took first place in
the National Prep Schools Cross Country
Championships.
Outstanding individual performances for the U13 team
came from Darcy Bourne, who finished second in the
Danes Hill competition, third at Epsom and fourth in
the Nationals, and Roos van Druten, who came third
at Danes Hill, second at Epsom and fifth in the
Nationals.
The standout runner this year, however, has been
Pippi Spawforth for the U11s, who won all four
competitions, culminating in being crowned U11
National Preparatory Schools Cross Country Champion
at Malvern.
The Animal Man
Reception children in Bevendean had a special visitor this week as
'The Animal Man' stopped by to entertain them with some weird
and wonderful animals.
‘The Animal Man’, or Nick Spellman as he is more formally known,
brought a huge range of creatures with him, including a Mexican
spider, a hermit crab, an armadillo, a meerkat, various reptiles
including a pancake tortoise and a bearded dragon and last but
not least, a Florida Indigo Snake which was 170cm long! Each
child had the opportunity to hold one of the animals Nick brought
in.
It was a very educational visit as the children were taught an
array of facts about each of the animals such as how many legs
each has and whether they were herbivores or carnivores. Nick
even taught the children the animal
clap, which is a
silent clap
designed not
to alarm the
animals.
New Dining Room Open for Business
The first day of the new term brought with it the opening of the school’s brand new dining room,
prior to the official opening later that afternoon which was conducted by Geoff Toms, Chairman of
Governors, and Mr Murdock, Headmaster. Parents were invited to join staff for coffee and pastries
after dropping their children off in the morning. They were clearly very impressed with the new
facility and there were even requests to make the coffee morning a regular occurrence at the start
of each term.
Control was then handed over to the kitchen staff to serve their first meal to the children in the
new dining room. The food was certainly befitting of the occasion. The children say the food tastes
even better; however, just as in the old kitchen, the food is cooked from scratch every day. The
catering team continue to delight us on a regular basis with themed lunches such as Chinese Day,
and we are looking forward to our BBQ’s each Wednesday on the newly restored Headmaster’s
lawn in the Summer Term.
Maths
Challenge
A Fond Farewell
Sally-Anne Shelton
Sally-Anne started her career at
Danes Hill 25 years ago as a
Year 1 teacher, she was
promoted to Deputy Head and
subsequently took over as
Headmistress in Bevendean in
2008.
Sally-Anne has been a much
valued colleague, friend and
mentor to the Danes Hill
community for so many years.
To quote a Year 1 girl recently
“she is the best person in the
whole wide world”. We will all
miss Sally-Anne and we wish
her the best for her retirement.
Primary Maths Challenge
Bonus Round. Congratulations
to Andrew Lees, Declan McGrath
and Toby van Mook who have all
achieved Bronze Medals in the
Bonus Round papers.
School
Council
A Rare
Opportunity
Year 8 pupils had a rare opportunity to hear on first hand
about the horrors of the Holocaust. Following a thought
provoking workshop delivered by the Holocaust Educational
Trust, Rudi Oppenheimer spoke eloquently for over an hour
about his youth growing up as a German Jew in Amsterdam
and time spent in the notorious concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen.
Intermediate Mathematical
Challenge Congratulations to
Kush Christie-Verma, Harry
Maddox, Max Lawrence, Rohan
Rastogi, Zayn Rajan and Fin
Marshall, who have been invited
to take the Intermediate
Kangaroo Paper following their
excellent performance in the
Intermediate Mathematical
Challenge. A special mention
must also go to Charlie
Buckingham, who gained the
award of Best in School and has
been invited to take the
Intermediate Olympiad Paper; a
two hour paper containing six
challenging questions.
School Council
The school council have been meeting weekly in order to discuss
some fantastic ideas that have been put forward by pupils in their
tutor groups. They have used this forum to discuss ideas for the
new library, as well as debating the strengths and weaknesses of
changing certain reward structures within the school. The school
council will also be helping to organise a cinema evening in the
summer term.
Boys Hockey
Boys hockey at Danes Hill has enjoyed a very positive season this year. Over 140
boys have represented the school from the Upper School. For the first time the
boys entered the IAPS and also the EGHA tournament in which
the senior boys qualified to the Plate competition from their 5
group matches undefeated. Sadly they were unable to match
the schools in the plate and bowed out following 2 defeats.
This year we are proud to have nominated 26 boys for
Surrey's Junior Development Centre.
The Colts made a significant impact on both IAPS and EGHA.
Progression to the IAPS finals was halted in the quarter finals
of the regional round with the boys’ first ever experience of
penalty shuffles, and some fantastic performances in the EGHA
resulted in a place in the semi-finals. On another day, the teams
would have progressed further in both tournaments and I have
no doubt that they will continue to make great progress in the
years to come.
Phenomenal success at the IAPS Skiing
Danes Hill pupils swept all aside at the IAPS Skiing Championships at Passo Tonale in the Italian
Alps.
All of the competitors performed exceptionally well, with the result that
Danes Hill secured first place in three of the individual competitions and five
of the team overall standings.
The results were as follows:
Individual Races
U9 Boys: Jack Weeks, 1st
U9 Girls: Annabel Bohn, 1st; Harriet Coughlan, 2nd; Amber Drake,
3rd
U11 Girls: Ella Weeks, 2nd; Opheila Vesely, 3rd
U13 Girls: Sophie Foster, 1st and fastest overall skier; Miranda
Vesely, 3rd
Team Races
U9 Boys: 1st
U9 Girls: 1st
Mixed Team: 1st
U11 Girls: 1st
U13 Girls: 1st and fastest
overall team
U11 Mixed Team: 2nd
U11 Boys: 3rd
It is great to see such considerable success in
one of the school’s non-core sports and long
may that continue. Well done to all that took
part.
YEAR 5
RS WORKSHOP
WHY NARNIA?
Children in Year 5 experienced a unique
Religious Studies workshop, provided by
Barnabas in Schools.
Based on the Chronicles of Narnia story, the
workshop, titled ‘Why Narnia?’, used
interactive storytelling and drama to help the
pupils explore key themes such as
temptation and encouraged them to compare
and contrast with stories from the Bible.
The instructor further encouraged the
children to try to find possible links between
the fictional land of Narnia and our own
world.
All in all it was a very insightful and thought
provoking session and a big thank you must
go to Barnabas in Schools.
Year 1 visit e Natural Hisry Museum
In support of recent work conducted in the classroom on dinosaurs, Year One spent an exciting and
educational day at The Natural History Museum in London.
The children took particular interest in the exhibits of some of the dinosaurs they had learnt about in
school. Whilst that was the focus of the trip, classes also had the chance whilst at the museum to
see the blue whale and other mammals and even travel through the centre of the world! Pupils and
teachers all left with a mountain of knowledge and a keen desire to learn more.
The fun and learning did not stop there either. Back at the school paddock, the children continued
their studies by laying out dinosaur bones.
Year 2 Assemblies
The children in Year 2 delivered some superb assemblies this
term. There were prominent messages in each of the
assemblies which were based on popular children’s books.
The pupils brought the stories to life wonderfully as they all
performed with confidence and a clear sense of enjoyment.
The dancing on show was full of energy and everyone in the
audience could not help but be impressed by the enthusiasm
of the children.
Well done to all of Year 2, both children and staff. You should
all be very proud of your performances.