Dear Parents
Thankyou to all parents and pupils for your support for a very successful Open morning on Saturday. We have enjoyed welcoming back several former pupils this week. Holly Budge left several years ago and has pursued an exciting career as an adventurer. She has raced across Mongolia on horseback and has climbed Mount Everest! On Tuesday this week she returned with a Ranger from South Africa to talk to our pupils about an education programme to help protect endangered animals in South Africa. On Thursday we welcomed back Oliver and Miles to our Star Gazing event organised by the Science Department. Oliver left last year with outstanding GCSEs and is now studying A levels at Portsmouth Grammar School. Miles is at College and has joined the Royal Navy as a cadet. Three weeks ago we welcomed back Sacha and Florence who are studying Modern Languages at Oxford and Newcastle Universities. It is good to see our former pupils doing so well.
Wishing all our families a restful and enjoyable weekend.
Best wishes
Graham Spawforth HeadmasterHeadmaster Awards, Merits and Results
Congratulations to all the Junior and Senior Merit winners this week - there are too many to display in colourful tables so we have returned back to the the function (not stylish) presentation!
Well done everyone, some really great work being rewarded. Keep up the hard work.
Dragonflies
Exploration and Survival Theme
This week our Dragonflies have been out and about in the grounds of the school, looking for bugs, finding basketball hoops to play with, exploring the Ditcham Dragon and hugging a few trees along the way. We've definitely made the most of the good weather and love to go outside when ever we can. The bug hunt was a particular highlight as the children learnt about the different habitats that bugs can survive in - and even braved the shed to find a VERY big spider clinging to the door! Suffice to say that the Dragonflies were super brave but some of the adults had to take a few steps back....
Mrs Harding & Claire
“I’m a star because ”
We all have different strengths and talents and Middles have enjoyed celebrating this. They each thought of one thing that they are especially good at and shared this with the group. We were excited to find out about the diverse range of skills in the year group and equally enthralled to find out that some people share common interests. These ranged from cricket skills and dog training to baking and gymnastics!
We enjoyed celebrating Dyslexia Awareness Week and the theme this year was “ What makes you uniquely you?” The aim was to show that our brains are as different as our fingerprints. We each used our thumb print to create a character and created a collage of all our fantastic little characters.
Jane & Kerry
Junior Tug-of-War
This week the and Uppers Middles competed in the annual house tug of war competition. It was an extremely tense affair and all the students showed fantastic house spirit. Every single match was very even and the students had to give their all.
For the Middles, the eventual winners were Harting house who beat Nyewood in a best of three battle narrowly coming out on top. Well done everyone the behaviour and attitude was first class
Fir the Uppers it was a one-sided affair and Harting house came out on top with an excellent display, they mixed clever tactics with grit and determination to come out on top.
Well done to all students who took part - some great team work!
Mr Walton
Marvellous Marwell Zoo Trip
On Tuesday Pre-Prep excitedly boarded the coach and set off to Marwell Zoo. We made our way through the Zoo, seeing the penguins, flamingos and a hippo before we reached the Giraffe enclosure to meet our Ranger for the day.
She told us she was Sue from the zoo but she did not pick up poo! First of all Sue told us about the giraffes at Marwell and showed us a resin model of a giraffe’s skull. The children learnt some interesting facts about giraffes, one was that a giraffe's tongue is about the same length as the children's arm!
Sue then explained animal classification to the children and told them a mnemonic to remember them, FARMB. Fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds. She showed us skulls of animals in
each group and the children had to guess what animal they were. We discussed predators and animal diet, thinking about carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. Sue told us that Marwell uses all the herbivore's poo to generate the heat and light for the Tropical House.
After our workshops with Sue, we went exploring and found so many interesting animals in all the animal groups: fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds.
One of the children’s highlights of the day was their delicious picnics! We found a good spot and tucked in and were entertained by the ravens who wanted to eat our crumbs!
This trip was a wonderful opportunity to see some of the animals we have been learning about in our Animal Topic this term.
Uppers Captains Announced
This week pupils in Uppers have been given their Role of Responsibility for the term, and in the case of House and Academic Captains, for the academic year. All pupils rose to the challenge of putting together a curriculum vitae to support their application, and gained many skills during the process.
‘When I decided to be house captain I was very nervous because my old school didn't do house Captains but I gave my best shot; All my hard work paid off and I am now happy to be Harting House Captain.
’ Seren Bowen-Perkins
We are proud of every pupil for their focus and engagement with the task.
Julie Mothersele and Roly AinsworthNational Poetry Day 2023
Thursday was National Poetry Day and Ditcham celebrated in style by sharing our most favourite poems, which covered topics such as Goblins, Highway Men and pets, plus many more. Pupils in UJM enjoyed talking about their poems and we all had pleasure sitting back and being entertained. What is your favourite poem and why? Please share with your child over the weekend.
Mrs Mothersele
Autumn Poetry Inspiration for Pre-Prep
Pre-Prep have enjoyed listening to and joining in with poetry to celebrate National Poetry Day. We discovered the poem My Treasures by Kate Wakeling and discussed the treasures that we have, and ones that we could get on an Autumn walk at the weekend. We listened to a range animal inspired poems which link to our Animal Topic this term, enjoying the rhymes, rhythms and movement.
A busy week for Prep!
Prep have enjoyed finding out more about animals in Science. Our focus this week was on amphibians and what they need to survive. After learning about what makes them different from other classifications of animals, we got wellies and coats on and went out to the pond to hunt for amphibians in action! Unfortunately, they were a little shy, but we definitely enjoyed the hunt!
In Maths we have been finishing our unit on Place Value and as part of this we learned about estimating. We found out that when we estimate, we look for clues and then make a sensible guess. We used this new skill to estimate where numbers would go on a numberline. We had fun using a clothes peg and a strip of paper to practice this before completing some challenges in our books.
It was National Poetry Day on Thursday and we enjoyed performing, analysing, planning and writing poetry about the moon this week. We all contributed to a class poem, before setting off to write our own. We would like to share our class moon poem:
The Moon, by Prep
On the moon, we may find Craters deep and dark
We might find Laika space dog, But we will not hear her bark.
Meteors shooting by Across the glittering sky
The sun burning oh so bright Even when it is midnight.
Aliens big or small, We might not see them at all.
Glorious, golden sparkling stars, Twinkling high above red Mars
Dusty, grey surface of the moon, We hope we’ll be back very soon!
Lowers' Passion for Poetry
For National Poetry Day Lowers have been writing ‘In the Ocean of Dreams’ poems. They learnt how to structure each verse so their poems have rhythm, describing ocean creatures with interesting adjectives and how they move using ‘wow’ verbs. Here are some photos of Lowers sharing their poems with children in their class. There are definitely lots of budding poets in Lowers!
Seniors
RSE and PSHE in the Senior School this week
This week as part of our extended RSE/ PSHE programme in the Senior School, Talk Consent - after delivering workshops during 'freshers -week' at Oxford and Cambridge - came in to work with our senior pupils.
Workshops comprised discussion-based activities around healthy relationships, communication, respect, tolerance, rule of law and consent. The sessions were led aptly and sensitively by Dan
Allchurch who created a positive environment for pupils to question and debate this important issue. Each session was carefully crafted for each year group and age appropriate.
Creative Photography Masterclass
Diana Mantis who is a photographer/director and writer based in LA/NYC came to the school to run a photography workshop on 21st September with a small group of pupils. Amongst the group were some of the Art Scholars and a range of other pupils who were interested in photography or who had already taken part in the photography club with Tina Knowles (after school club).
The pupils learnt about using 33mm and 120mm Medium format cameras and Light App and how to work with film. Diana taught the pupils about creating double exposure photographs on film and then they went out and about composing images of both landscapes and portraits.
The results are pretty impressive!
Y11 Trip to Chichester Cathedral
The year 11s excelled themselves at Pallant house, Gallery and Chichester Cathedral this week, working on their own individual projects. They gathered information, looking at artists in the gallery, particularly the renowned artists, Gwen John famous for her beautiful portraiture, and in Chichester Cathedral, looking at the incredible architecture and learning about how to structure a drawing and deal with perspective.
The students worked really hard and we complimented upon their drawing skills and their behaviour by Gallery staff. It was a fun day enjoyed by all.
Ms Rose & Mrs Drake
Lunchtime Concert, St Peter’s Church, Petersfield
On Tuesday, 15 of our senior musicians from years 7, 8 and 9 performed a short lunchtime concert at St Peter’s Church in Petersfield. A good-sized audience of parents and visitors came to hear what turned out to be a very smooth, confident display of our talented musicians.
Every pupil who took part should be very proud of their contribution to this concert and I hope they enjoyed the experience. They made a lot of people very happy indeed.
Thanks to Mrs Leighton for her support.
We hope to see you at our next musical events after half term, some of which are as follows:
• Wednesday 22nd November: 6.30pm: Guitar Concert in the South Downs Hall
• Friday 1st December: 7.30pm: Senior Musicians perform at the annual Petersfield Combined Schools’ Concert in aid of the ‘Save The Children’ Fund at Churcher’s College, Petersfield
• Thursday 14th December: 2.15pm: School Carol Service at St John’s Cathedral, Portsmouth
Upcoming Sports Fixtures!
We have some exciting fixtures next Wednesday and lots of our junior students will be involved so please do come along and support us if you can :
• U11 A vs St Edmunds @ St Edmunds 2:30pm start, back at 4:15pm
• U11 B vs St Edmunds @ Ditcham 2:30pm start, finish at 3:45pm
• U10 B vs St Edmunds @ Ditcham 2:30pm start, finish at 3:45pm
• U11- U10 vs Dunhurst @ Ditcham 3:00pm start, finish at 4pm
James WaltonU10/11 Netball vs Portsmouth High
On Wednesday, Middles and Uppers travelled to Portsmouth to play against Portsmouth High School. Both teams worked really hard, making progress throughout the match. Uppers marked their players really well and as a result made lots of great interceptions. Middles managed to keep possession of the ball throughout most of the match but must continue to work on marking their opponents. Both teams won their respective matches - well done to all the girls.
Miss SmallDitcham Triumphant over Royal School Football Teams
On Tuesday the Ditcham Under 14 took on there Under 15 counterparts from The Royal School. Despite the size difference between the sides it was soon clear that Ditchams footballing ability was more than a match for The Royals more physical efforts. In an entertaining game played in good spirt Ditcham ran out winners 10-1. Notable performances included Finn R in goal and a hat trick for Will B, both boys were making their debuts.
On Wednesday The Royal bought two teams for the U13 a and b fixture. Goals galore ensued in both fixtures with some cracking shots. Nancy S was a standout and Jack H and Alex L also performed well on debut. The a team won 8-4 and b team ran out 5-0 winners. Well done to all involved
Graham VaudreyU10 Football
On Thursday the U10 football team travelled to Great Ballard for another football fixture and yet again the team showed how difficult they are to beat.
We competed in a triangular and created two Ditcham teams, who had to play against each other which was a very exciting affair.
The Ditcham teams both beat the Great Ballard team and then Arlo W's team beat Piers T's team 1-0.
A real highlight was cousins Jacob and Ruby M playing on the same team for the first time and combining for an equaliser against Great Ballard. It was like watching prime Crouch and Defoe at Fratton Park in the 2000's.
It was a great afternoon and the Great Ballard staff mentioned how polite and well behaved the team were which is a credit to them.
Well done all
James WaltonCross-country at Seaford
Last Friday the U12/U13 cross country team competed in the annual Seaford College cross country.
The route was 2.5km long and the students had to face some brutal hills and uneven terrain. The students did fantastically well and we achieved some great results. The U12 girls performed exceptionally well, Sophie P-H ran incredibly well and came in 2nd out of 55. Matilda J came 5th and Arabella H came 23rd. The U12 boys ran well, led by Rupert P who came 7th out of 66, Max J ran hard for a 15th place finish and Joe O'D came 28th .
The Year 8s also placed well Mackenzie G and Elsa R came 12th and 17th respectively and the boys Ethan T, Finley H, Tom R and Finley C all finished in the top 40 out of 76 runners
All the students did so well and showed great resilience on the course they should all be very proud.
Mr WaltonMountain Biking Club
On Thursday MTB Club focused on 'looking ahead' in their skills training. The faster you go, the more important it is to look ahead down the trail so you are ready for what's coming up.
We set our riders a series of linked corners with the 'exit' of each corner also the 'entry' for the next one. But to make things a bit more challenging we added our poles and split-logs in between the corners, so every 'exit' presented two challenges - negotiating an obstacle while at the same time setting up for the following corner. Usually we practice individual skills in isolation, with a straight 'run in' and a straight 'run out': all you need to focus on is the specific skill we are practicing. This exercise, though, gave our riders no time to relax and get ready. If you missed your line you had very little opportunity to reset, so any mistake would be costly. Once our riders started to focus on their line through the corners, aiming from apex to apex and trusting in their core skills to manage everything else, they really started to find their flow.
Fergus O'Loughlin (Ride Leader and Coach)
