Ditcham Newsletter - Friday 13th October 2023 Dear Parents As we round off another busy week, we've just had the fantastic news that four of our children have won the Regional ISA Schools Art competition with a further two being Highly Commended across the Juniors and Seniors. Those four winners now go forward to the National Finals and we wish them all the best. Our Year 7 and 8 students have had an exciting residential at Calshot and this weekend, another group of staff and students head off to Barcelona for a few days of immersive Spanish culture. Giving our children the opportunity to experience life beyond Ditcham is a key part of preparing them for the future which is one of our underpinning aims and whether its a walk through the woods, a theatre trip or a journey overseas we are always finding ways to enrich the curriculum. Wishing you all a restful weekend
Best wishes Graham Spawforth Headmaster
Headmaster Awards, Merits and Results Congratulations to all the Junior merit winners and Senior Headmaster Awards this week. Well done everyone, some really great work being rewarded. Keep up the hard work.
Pen Licence Awards Huge congratulations to Emmy B in Middles for achieving her pen licence!
Dragonflies
Getting Cosy in Autumn This week, our Dragonflies have been enjoying lots of indoor activities as the weather has taken a distinct turn for the Autumnal! They have such great imaginations and being able to tap into that as part of our play-to-learn emphasis has been great fun. From making indoor 'fires' so that we could toast marshmallows to creating spooky meringue gools with bobbly eyes - the children have thoroughly enjoyed getting stuck into everything. We have also enjoyed our lessons in the Big School - taking part in music, PE and some Drama too. Looking ahead we have the Creation Station coming in on Tuesday morning from 10am to 11am for some hands-on activities. It is free to attend but just register online so that we know how many children will be joining us! We are hoping to welcome some children from the local community as well so places will fill up quickly. Have a great weekend!
Mrs Harding & Claire
Juniors
Brilliant Butser Trip for Transitions As part of Transition’s learning about The Celts, the children visited Butser Ancient Farm for a fun filled day. We were met off the bus by our wonderful guide for the day ‘Sally’ who took us to a Saxon house where we were able to store our bags and coats. Whilst sitting around the fire Sally discussed the day ahead and began to tell us facts and information about The Celts. We then headed outside to make Celtic fences using the weaving technique shown to us. This activity turned into a competition between TRL and TRN to see who could build the best fence. I have to say both fences were fantastic. Throughout the day the children explored many different parts of Celtic life and they undertook a number of activities including; chalk carving, pottery and jewellery. The day also included a visit to a Celtic Roundhouse which certainly brought all of the learning undertaken in school to life. I think the children would agree that this was a worthwhile and fantastic learning experience for all.
Mr Livingston and Mrs Newton
Space.. The Final Frontier.... As part of our study of Space, Middles took a trip to Winchester Science Centre. When we got there we were launched into outer space in the planetarium where we learnt about the relationship between the Sun, Moon and the Earth and looked at all the different constellations that can be seen in the night sky. We then zoomed through space to look at every planet. After exploring the centre, we then attended a workshop where we tested which materials reflected the most heat and challenged ourselves by tackling a range of laser mazes. We even managed a trip to the shop too! Thank you to all our parents who gave up their time to help with the trip.
Journey Into Space with Prep On Wednesday, Prep had an exciting day out at South Downs Planetarium in Chichester. We learned all about the stars we can see in the skies at night and also about the famous space explorers, Neil Armstrong and Tim Peake. Inside the planetarium, it felt like we were whizzing through space to arrive at the International Space Station and we found out what it was like to stay there. We also did a space themed treasure hunt around the museum and then we were given some information about meteorites. We all loved having the opportunity to hold some of them! It was a fabulous day out. Huge thanks to Tanya Hitchins for accompanying us on this trip.
A busy week for Uppers! From National Poetry Day to our very own Uppers’ assembly shown to parents, pupils and staff we worked, played and laughed. Our assembly focussed on the residential trip to Osmington Bay and we all took a part acting, speaking and even completing a rap – please see the photograph! Our three days at Osmington Bay were action packed and we could not fully explain all the activities in the assembly, but we hope many of you enjoyed sharing some of the fun aspects and also learnt about the rules against which we had to abide which kept us safe.
Please enjoy some photographs from the assembly.
Julie Mothersele
Top Marks for Pre-Prep This Week In Maths this week, the children have been learning about addition and subtraction using Part Whole Models. They learnt that a whole object can be split into two or more parts in many different ways. They learnt that parts might look different, that each part will be smaller than the whole, and the parts can be combined to make the whole. They then practiced using Unifix cubes to secure this knowledge before they started to make number sentences for their Part Whole Models.
In Geography they have learnt about Human and Physical Geography Features and went for a rather windy walk to go and investigate. They especially liked seeing the sea and spotting a train making its way through the countryside and they were all very accurate with their choices for each group. Mrs Somerville and Emma
Lowers Open wide! There are lots of budding dentists in Lowers who have successfully recorded, canines, incisors, premolars and molars for their patients on a dental record. We have learnt about the functions of different teeth and what we generally use them for when eating different foods. As we need to break up food at the start of the digestive system we found this interesting and enjoyed the teeth quiz which tested our knowledge. How to brush our teeth was a fun activity which made us think about brushing our mouth in sections so as not to miss any teeth and not forget our gums. Well done Lowers, keep looking after your teeth!
ISA Regional Art Winners! I had the great pleasure of taking some of our very talented Art students’ work up to Norden Farm in Maidenhead to display their work for the London and West ISA Regional art competition. It was fantastic to see their work on display next to other schools’ work. Huge congratulations to the following children in our Juniors Department who were selected as winners or highly commended: •
Freddie B WINNER with Tree Top Timmie in the KS2 3D category.
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Grace P WINNER with The Great Fire of London KS1 2D category.
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Natalia M HIGHLY COMMENDED with Jingly Jangly Jungle KS2 2D category.
The Winners’ work will now go forward to the National stage of the competition and we wish them luck. Helen Drake
Seniors
Residential Fun for Y7 and Y8 We arrived excited and ready on Wednesday. After a brief safety talk, fire drill and packed lunch we were all set. Since then it has been a whirlwind of adventure! Skiing, Kayaking (with capsizing), climbing, the hugely enjoyable velodrome have all been firm favourites. Archery, problem solving and orienteering have also created opportunities for team work. The hotly anticipated ringos have been a real winner. The pupils have been superb giving everything a go and just as importantly looking out for each other! Huge thank you to the staff and team at Calshot who have worked hard to make this trip so much fun. I think everyone will need a bit of a rest over the weekend...
Coasteering and Climbing Adventure Trip We clustered in the pre-dawn darkness of the school car park, trying to remember why signing up to a 6:30am leave time was a good idea. A few miles down the road, however, the sun began to rise and the groaning from the back turned into coherent and wakeful speech. We were on our way to the Swanage seaside. An early arrival saw us meeting our fantastic instructors: Jason, Tom, Erin and Stu. They soon had us kitted out in wetsuits, buoyancy aids and helmets, and leading us to our first sight of a shining sea, at the beautiful Dancing Ledge. We could not have wished for better conditions in which to coasteer; the sun was burning brightly, the wind light, and a long heavy swell was running to make the sea state a little more exciting. Within minutes we were leaping off rocks and swimming through caves, into deep darkness and out into the light again. The culmination of the coasteering is a progressive cliff jump, with four possible launching points, each a few feet higher than the last. Every member of our Ditcham squad opted for the loftiest leap and faced it with a mixture of excitement, trepidation, and determination. The faces of the pupils as they resurfaced after the plunge was a joy to behold. After a sun-drenched lunch on top of the cliffs, we swapped wetsuits for climbing harnesses and immediately found ourselves leaning out over the limestone steepness for an exciting abseil. This brought us to the bottom of the cliffs we were trying to scale during our afternoon session. We started easy and ended on some lines which were distinctly tricky. Once again, Ms Snow and I were tremendously impressed by the determination shown by everyone in their approach; each climber looked more assured by the session’s end. There is a long, steep hill to climb at the end of the day and the pace of the team as they made their way up it showed how hot and weary they really were. A little cajoling though saw them back at the bus and the conversation soon slowed to a contented mumbling as we headed home with the sun setting behind us and with fine memories in our heads. A big well done to all who made the trip and a huge thank you to Ms Snow who stepped in at the last moment to ensure that the trip could run.
Mark Philips
Adventure Sports Coordinator
ISA Regional Art Winners! I had the great pleasure of taking some of our very talented Art students’ work up to Norden Farm in Maidenhead to display their work for the London and West ISA Regional art competition. It was fantastic
to see their work on display next to other schools’ work. Huge congratulations to the following children in our Senior Department who were selected as winners or highly commended: •
Paulina K - WINNER – Portrait KS3 2D
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Holly M - WINNER – Seed sculpture – KS4 3D
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Rose S - HIGHLY COMMENDED – Mask sculpture
The Winners’ work will now go forward to the National stage of the competition and we wish them luck. Helen Drake
Celebrating The European Day of Languages Our seniors have been getting creative and either drawing, making or baking elements of European Countries for a little light-hearted competition. It was really tough to select stand-out winners - everyone had gone to such incredible effort! Well done, Bravo!, Dobrze zrobiony! ¡Bien hecho! Brillante! Strålende! геніально! Loistava!
Heather Bond
Sports News
Winning Streak for Ditcham Netball Teams
U14/15 Netball Fixture vs The Royal School A group of 8 girls from Form 3 and 4 travelled to Hindhead to play a netball match against The Royal School. During the quarter the match was pretty even with the girls working well as a team to get the ball down into their shooting third. However, at half-way we were drawing with The Royal 6-6. After a quick team talk, we decided to take more time before passing and try to anticipate which side of the
court our teammates would be looking to receive the ball. This resulted in some better game play and allowed us to move ahead. Well done to all the girls. Final result: Ditcham 17 - 7 U10/11 Netball Fixture vs Dunhurst On Wednesday, all the Middle and Upper girls took part in a netball fixture against Dunhurst. This was a fantastic opportunity for all the girls to represent the school. They all took part in several games so had the chance to put into practise what they've been learning in their Games sessions. Thank you to the team captains who looked after their teams, organising who would be a substitute and choosing the positions of each player. U9 Netball Fixture vs Dunhurst A small group of lowers also got play against Dunhurst under 9's. It was a very friendly game with lots of coaching to support the girls in their learning. Well done to the Ditcham girls for winning 1-0.
Miss Small
Swimming Success for Oscar Huge congratulations to Oscar (LJA) for swimming with outstanding success at the Havant Swimming Club Champs! He is definitely a star to watch for the future.
Prep Schools' Lions Development Football Squad We were delighted to hear that a few of our Junior boys have been selected to play for the prestigious Prep School Lions' Development Squad following the recent trials at Wellington College, Crowthorne. They will have the opportunity to attend the Gothia World Youth Cup in Gothenburg and play alongside the players selected for the A District Team. With 60,000 people at the opening ceremony and teams from 90 countries, this really is an opportunity and experience of a lifetime! Well done to George and Kobi and another from Middles (we didn't have his name at the time of publishing the newsletter, but let us know and we will put in an amendment next week!)
Junior House Cooper Run This afternoon, despite the strong winds and horizontal rain, our Juniors from Reception to Uppers braved the weather to take part in the Junior House Cooper Run on the tennis courts. The children ran lengths of the tennis courts for a given period of time, counted runners and cheered their Houses on. There were a number of children, before the start, who were not keen on running - it is fair to say they forgot that once the whistle blew and they all ran further than they thought possible.
We are very proud of every single child, they gave their everything they had and demonstrated true House spirit. Distances run (averaged using number of children in each House etc - to make it fair!) were as follows: •
Nyewood - 16, 131m
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Harting - 16,793m
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Buriton - 18,209m
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Chalton - 20, 052m
Congratulations, one and all. See you at the next event!!!
Mountain Biking Club This term we've been practicing core skills on the grass, using cones, poles and split logs to learn the Ready Position, good balance over obstacles, threading gaps and different types of corners. This week we had a quick warm up including a small 'roll-in' down a slope, and then took these same skills into the woods. We set a courses over a slippery bridge and through corners between trees and over tangles of roots - practicing the very same skills but in a much less controlled environment. This is real mountain biking, so it was great to see our riders hitting everything with such confidence.
Fergus O'Loughlin (Ride Leader and Coach)
Notices and Events
Spook-tacular Disco!
The Friends of Ditcham Park are really looking forward to welcoming all of the Junior School children to their spine-tinglingly exciting Halloween Disco on Thursday 19th October. There's still time to reserve your party bag if you haven't yet done so! The deadline has been extended over the weekend.
In terms of timings of the Disco, it will be split into three groups for all the children, as follows: •
Dragonflies, Reception and Pre-Prep Halloween Disco in the SDH – 2-2.25pm
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Prep, Transition and Lowers Halloween Disco in the SDH – 2.30-2.55pm
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Middles and Uppers Halloween Disco in the SDH – 3-3.25pm
Thank you to everyone who has brought in Halloween Costumes for the Swap Shop - there was plenty of choice and a great way to re-purpose outfits that have shrunk in the wardrobe since last year. A massive thank you to Tess and her wonderful FDPS team for organising this boooooo-tiful event for our children!
Half Term Holiday Club! Looking for a holiday club for the upcoming Half Term break? Look no further! Active8 Minds are holding three days of sport and creative fun for Ditcham children here at school. Prices £24pp and £20 for siblings. Book using the QR code on the poster or email bookings@active8minds.co.uk
Local Charity Christmas Fair! I've said it.... I've mentioned the 'C' word in October.... But this is a charity event NOT to miss. Come along to the beautiful Tithe Barn at the bottom of our North Drive on 7th and 8th November (the week we return from Half Term) from 9am to 4pm and grab a couple of early christmas presents in aid of a very good cause. Run by volunteers from our own Ditcham Community, the Watoto Trust runs and supports an orphanage in Kenya for children who have lost their parents to Aids. All profits from the fair go straight to the orphanage. No need to dig out the christmas jumper or dust off the tinsel just yet, but come along and get ahead of the christmas rush.
Treading The Boards Another of our very talented children has been cast in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at The Point, Eastleigh through Spot On Productions. Come and see Laila-Rose (UJA) as Jemima in this performance from 22nd to 25th November - tickets available now!
Art Exhibition by Nicola Rose Our very own resident artist, Nicola Rose is exhibiting her current work, The Age of Stars at St Benedict's Centre, West Malling. Admission is free and it starts tomorrow with dates to the end of October. Please do go along and take a walk through the Universe with these stunning pieces.
Adventure Race at Ditcham Park The popular Questars Adventure Race Series is coming to Ditcham on Saturday 11th November. There are options to run, bike or run and bike over a scenic trail route. You can enter as a team or individually and you can even borrow a bike if you don't have one suitable for the terrain! For Ditcham staff, pupils and parents they are offering a 20% discount on entry fees. For more information, visit the Questars website
Head of Lost Property Our newly appointed Head Of Lost Property - The Ditcham Park Bunny (DPB for short) - has a few items that he would like to return to their owners. If you recognise any of the items under his care, please come along to the reception desk to reclaim them. Any items still without a home by the end of each Half Term will be recycled or filed in a special place*
*- this is the bin, for the avoidance of doubt.