Denstone Preparatory School Newsletter
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Headmaster's Blog
Children and young people’s engagement with podcasts before and during lockdown
A survey by the National Literacy Trust has found that listening to podcasts can help children discover an interest in a range of topics and encourage them to engage in further reading. Listening during lockdown Nearly 1 in 4 (23.7%) children and young people said...
Extraordinary Times
It is a very long time since I last posted a blog and no one could even have begun to imagine how our lives would have changed over the past four months. None of us will have lived through anything like this before and inevitably we have all had to make significant...
Swimming the Channel!
This term we are going to raise money for Operation Orphan by swimming the channel! I should stress that this will take place in the school pool and in order to achieve this we will have to cover at least 1,408 lengths. The children will be playing their part in...
School News & PTFA
Obituary John A. Shouksmith Old Smallwoodian 1942-2020
It is with much sadness that we remember the life of a past master of 33 years at Smallwood Manor. Please read his eulogy written by his son Paul, a past pupil at Smallwood. Thank you for sharing this with us. "Mr Shouksmith, Sir, JAS, Shoukie (usually behind his...
Obituary of Malcolm Green, Old Smallwoodian 1936-2020
Taken from The Telegraph 21st September 2020 Malcolm Green, who has died aged 84, was Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at Oxford University, responsible for a wealth of contributions to organometallic chemistry – the study of compounds containing, and reactions...
2019-2020 Year 6 Prizewinners
The following Year 6 pupils were awarded prizes during a private ceremony over lockdown. Massive congratulations to them all, and we wish them well at their new schools. The Cann Performing Arts Award: Holly Cundall & Chloe Brister Littlewood Art Cup: Emily Hurst...
Pre-Prep Blog
The Great Fire of London
It has been a very busy few weeks down in PP2 this term, with the children developing their historical knowledge. We have investigated Queen Elizabeth’s rise to the throne and have now moved on in time to find out all about the Great Fire of London and the people who...
PP2 – Outdoor Learning
PP2 have been working on shelter building skills over the last few weeks. They started by building a new home for the Elves. They had to make sure the new home had a bedroom with beds, a kitchen with pots and pans, a garage big enough to fit a snail car inside and a...
PP1 – Maths & Geography
PP1 have been busy measuring in Maths this week. They were finding different ways of measuring including using their hands and feet, strides, cubes and rulers. The children have also been estimating and are now really good at making sensible guesses. The children...
Year 3 Blog
Magnetic Madness!
What is attracted to a magnet? Metal? Is all metal attracted to a magnet? These are some of the questions that Year 3 have been investigating in their science lessons. We’ve had lots of fun starting to learn about our new topic of magnetism this week. The children...
Year 3 Poetry Festival
Year 3 have been busy this week practising their poem for the Poetry Festival. This is a big thing for Year 3, they are performing as individuals in front of the class whilst being assessed so there are quite a few nervous children. They have been brilliant whilst...
Year 3 Midnight Man
Year 3 have been working on their letters to the Midnight Man (an imaginary mysterious character who “visited” the classroom leaving a box containing stars, a horse shoe, a cloak and an explanatory letter.) They have been considering how to improve their letter...
Year 4 Blog
Science – Owl Pellets
In Science Year 4 are learning about the jobs that the skeleton does, how it is structured and how it moves. We studied some fascinating skeletons in miniature that we found inside an owl pellet. Owl pellets are the regurgitated remains of mice, voles and shrews. They...
Climate Change Assembly
Year 4 Climate Change Assembly ‘No one is too small to make a difference’ was the message we were conveying during our year 4 assembly last Wednesday. We hope it gave everyone something to think about and ideas about how they can act to make a difference to climate...
Diwali
This term Year 4 have been finding out about winter festivals in R.E.. We have been looking at the Hindu celebration -Diwali and the story behind it. Diva lamps are used to guide Rama and Sita home. We enjoyed making our own lamps out of clay and then painting...
Year 5 Blog
Prince and the Pauper – Review
Our school went to the New Vic theatre to see our yearly play. We enjoyed it deeply. Here are our thoughts: We adored the maypole dancing and were pleased to see their inclusion of young actors and actresses. The thing we weren’t expecting from the play was...
Dramatic Language!
The Year 5 community was in awe this week when they learnt how to use dramatic language in their newspaper reports. It is alleged that all children have made great steps of progress and are now using fantastic journalistic descriptions in their writing. According to...
Denstone Drama Workshop
A huge thank you to Mrs. Abson, who ran an amazing drama workshop at Denstone College for the children in 5Mc on Monday. The children enjoyed doing a variety of activities which included: body as prop, freeze frames, miming, slow motion, and improvisation. The...
Year 6 Blog
Levers and Pulleys
As well as exciting excursions outside school, Y6 have been busy building levers and pulleys in science using K'Nex. The science behind it is all to do with forces and how simple machines can multiply forces to make shifting a load easier. Next week we are looking...
Year 6 Lifesaving
As part of our work on the School Swimming and Water Safety Charter, we had a clothes/pyjama session. The children were split into three groups and completed three different activities. All the activities were designed with falling into open water in mind. After a...
Year 6 Round Up
Year 6 Round Up Mr. Bettaney, Mrs. Wilson and I would like to say thank you and well done to each and every pupil in Year six for a fantastic term of learning and, to those who took the entrance exam, congratulations on all securing a well earned place at Denstone...