Ditcham Newsletter - Friday 15th December 2023 Dear Parents The Autumn Term has finished on a high with a beautiful carol service in St John's Cathedral, it was lovely to see such large numbers of parents and family supporting us. Parents with a child in Juniors should now have access to end of term reports via School Base. End of term grades and reports for Year 7 and 8 will follow next week for parents with a child in Seniors. Wishing you all a restful Christmas and look forward to starting our Spring Term 2024 on Tuesday 9th January. Best wishes Graham Spawforth Headmaster
Junior Merit Winners Congratulations to all the Junior merit winners for this week!
Headmaster Awards
Congratulations to the Seniors who have been given a Headmaster Award!
Dragonflies
Festive Fun For Dragonflies! This week, our smallest members of the community have been very busy little bees (or should that be dragonflies?!) getting ready for Christmas, having our party AND a trip out to see Father Christmas too! We've got oodles of photos to share from our adventures so grab a cup of hot chocolate and enjoy taking a look at our fun. Wishing you all a peaceful and merry Christmas! Kylie and Claire
Juniors
Christmas with Middles It has been a joy to see Middle Juniors embrace the spirit of Christmas and showcase their creative talents. •
Advent in Religious Education (RE): The pupils have been actively involved in learning about advent in RE lessons. They have explored the significance of the season and its traditions. It has been a wonderful opportunity for them to deepen their understanding of the holiday season.
•
Foraging for Advent Wreaths: One of the highlights of the week was when our students went foraging in our school grounds for evergreen plants, holly and ivy. They used these materials to create stunning advent wreaths. It was a hands-on experience that allowed them to connect with nature and create beautiful decorations.
•
Festive Friends: Our favourite activity of all was turning lollipop sticks into a range of Christmas characters. From snowmen to reindeer and Father Christmas himself, these adorable creations brought smiles to everyone’s faces.
We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful holiday and a very Happy Christmas. Jane O’Hara & Kerry Vaughan-Carpenter
Spirit of Christmas in Lowers On Thursday, LJT had a fantastic morning, having been commandeered by Santa to be honorary elves for the day! They honed their skills with paper and tape, wrapping presents for the children who will find themselves being looked after by the Women's Refuge, this Christmas. There was lots of merriment amongst the compassionate conversations. It was a privilege to be a part of this. A huge thank you to the Friends who donated some items from the Christmas Fayre and to all of you who have donated presents too. Have a lovely Christmas! Mrs Tanner
Prep Photographers! Prep have had a busy week learning about 2D and 3D shapes in Maths. We have learned some special Maths terms and have been set the challenge of finding out whether our grown ups at home know what they mean! In Computing, we have been learning about photography. We talked about the different devices we can use to take a photo and how these have changed and developed since the adults were their age. Then we discussed how to take a good photo, concentrating on framing the picture and making sure the tops of heads weren’t chopped off. We also discussed landscape and portrait and how the content of our photo will dictate the orientation we select. We loved going on an adventure in the school to find different things to photograph and made sure we asked permission from any people who featured in our pictures. When we returned to class, we worked in groups to select our best and worst photos and explained the reasons why. I think we have some budding photographers in Prep!
Mrs Witte and Tracey
Uppers Outside This week, the Uppers have been making the most of some bright, dry weather to draw outside. They have been studying David Hockney and so were creating their own artwork in his style. Some beautiful pieces created and they really enjoyed learning outside the classroom! Helen Drake Head of Art
#DitchamBobbleHat After a bit of a social media frenzy, our fantastic new limited edition Ditcham Bobble Hats have sold out! Thank you to all who bought one and for those who were not able to get their hands on this must-have winter head-wear, fear not - we will be ordering a second batch in the New Year. They do take quite a long time to be created and delivered (over 10 weeks....!) but we will let you know when they are back in stock. From the Uniform Shop
Seniors
ISA Poetry Competition Form 1 have been working hard on creating poems for the ISA Poetry Competition. After some tough judging in-school, we are now submitting three for the main competition. Well done to all who took part and best of luck to: •
Rafferty Metters
•
Harry Saulet
•
Nancy Scutt
We will let you know how they get on after the closing date in February. In the meantime, please enjoy the poem written by Nancy!
Julie Mothersele
Maths Magicians! Students at Ditcham are turning into festive maths wizards! Using the magical powers of Desmos and their graph-tastic skills, they've conjured up Christmas Trees that would make even Santa's elves jealous. Picture this: equations of circles transformed into adorable baubles and snowmen, and the base of a parabola becoming the radiant strings of lights that would make Rudolph's nose blush with envy. Ditcham Mathematicians, you've officially sleighed the graph game! Well done on making maths merrier than ever!
The DESMOS 2023 Global Math Art contest is OPEN for submissions. This is a worldwide competition open to 13-18 year olds. Details can be found here https://www.desmos.com/art Wishing you a very happy Christmas! The Maths Department
French Exchange Hot off the press - the French Exchange students have just returned to Ditcham! A full report will follow but we just wanted to share these teaser photos with you. Suffice to say that it was a brilliant week and we can't wait to tell you more about it in the New Year. Joyeux Noel!
Spanish Christmas Party You can't say "Navidad" without saying "fiesta". So we did, and partied in true style with an array of offerings brought in by the Year 8s. And I think you'll agree, they look pretty good in their Christmas jumpers! We had homemade tortilla and churros, guacamole and salsa, olives and baby tomatoes to name but a few. Thanks to all the parents who stocked their children up with festive fair and even cooked various items for the occasion. We hope you enjoy looking at the photos! Heather Bond
House News!
House Christmas Tree
This year the House Christmas Tree competition was a tough one to judge! But only one house can be victorious and this time it was Buriton who took home the mince pies and glory. Well done everyone, there's a been a really lovely #ditchamcommunity vibe as the trees were decorated
Notices and Events
Winter Wellbeing Workshops
In early January, there will be two free workshops for parents to attend to gain a little more insight into child development and how best to help your child navigate the highs and lows of growing up. Our lovely Wellbeing Coordinator, Juliette Barnes, has created two workshops, one aimed at parents of younger children and the other for parents of teenagers. Both are free to attend and you can reserve your place by clicking here1 The workshops are: •
How to help your child to thrive -
•
Junior parents' workshop on Wednesday 10th January at 8.45am
Finding the balance with your teenager -
Senior parents' workshop on Friday 12th January at 8.45am
Refreshments will be available at 8.45am after drop-off and the workshops will then run from 9am to 10am. Please do come along if you can!
1https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=D5BdCimEWUu9HT6TVH_9GtEaDtclp7BDrsZrHd7fu2t
UQTZZVDczSVBZQTI4SjhaQUgyRlRQWDkxTC4u