Spring 2018 js chronicle single page

Junior School Chronicle Spring 2018

Year 6

World Book Day

Year 5

Our snow-delayed celebration of World Book Day took place on 9 March, and what a wonderful array of costumes and characters we saw, from staff and pupils.

Mrs Monk also announced the winners of Share A Story.

9 March, 2018 The day raised £52 for International Book Aid.

Share a Story, Highly Commended’s and the overall winner, Iósaif.

Year 4

Costume winners

Year 3

House Carol Competition Wednesday 13 December saw a full house gather for the annual Junior School Carol Concert, which also included the hotly contested House Carol Competition. Always an eagerly anticipated event by parents, pupils and teachers alike, the concert is the culmination of lots of practice by each of our four Houses.

Whilst the judging panel of Mrs Reynolds, Miss J Devine and Ben Mandale (the Music and Drama Prefect) deliberated, the audience was entertained by the Junior Band, Junior Choir and the Guitar Ensemble.

The winner was announced by Mrs Reynolds who said: “We had such a difficult time judging the four entries as they were all so good, so different and each had a certain special ‘something’. But there can only be one winner, and this year it was Atkinson.”

House Events

House Rugby

We had a very exciting House Rugby competition at the end of last term.

Year 3 and 4 had a touch rugby competition which Bemrose won.

Atkinson and Blackton drew in second place. Year 5 and 6 had a contact rugby competition. Bemrose won all of their matches and the competition. Derby were in hot pursuit with two wins.

When all of the scores were added up, the final result was: First place

Bemrose

Second place

Blackton

Joint third place

Atkinson and Derby

Bemrose, winners of Y5 and 6 rugby.

Everyone played well and we are now looking forward to House Hockey at the end of Spring Term.

House Prefects

Rosie sending pics

Being a House Prefect is fun, you are depended on.

In House Carols and Poetry I can pick what we perform.

Oliver Derby House

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Being a House Prefect is a fantastic role!

Christopher Blackton House

Being House Prefect is a privilege. My House counts on me and I need to think of good strategies.

Roj Atkinson House

It is thrilling to lead a House, especially in the House competitions.

Hadi Bemrose House

Junior School Chronicle | Spring 2018

Year 3 - Healthy Meals

Year 4 - Going Bananas

Year 3 have been learning all about healthy eating in science this term. Here are some of their comments from lunchtime on Tuesday 6 March:

Year 4 have learnt about the digestive system this term.

“I had chicken and egg roll for lunch with some raw carrot, cucumber, lettuce and green pepper. For pudding I had strawberry yoghurt. It was great!” Daniel “I had chicken curry with rice, some tuna (I love tuna!), sweetcorn and naan bread. For my pudding I had a slice of cake. My lunch today was delicious!” Kian “Today at lunch I had a chicken wrap and for pudding I had a chocolate and caramel shortbread! I have to be careful not to eat milk because I’m allergic to it.” Ollie

Year 5 - Forces

We put the food in to a pop sock representing the small intestine. We squeezed out all the liquid, then we cut a hole in the pop sock and pushed the dry food out, representing the faeces.” Iósaif and Spencer

Curriculum

Tom and I really love science because of all of the amazing educational experiments.

Recently we have been studying forces and have been doing experiments on the effects of gravity, water resistance and air resistance.

Our favourite experiment was water resistance. We enjoyed it so much because it allowed us to design our own superboat and test it in water to see if it would reach the end of the gutter. Tom & Teo

Junior School Chronicle | Spring 2018

“We made a banana and chocolate spread sandwich and chopped it into tiny pieces showing the job of the incisors. After that we mushed it up with a masher, adding soapy water to show the saliva. Then we put it in a plastic bag, which was the stomach.

Year 6 - Biscuits

As part of their DT topic this year, Y6 split into teams to research, develop and design their product, and then pitch to a panel of judges.

The winning team was Street Dawgz which consisted of Jay and Christopher who created the biscuit Pawsome Pugs. The judges scored the biscuit 9 out of 10 for taste, and commended their presentation.

Jay said: “We both love dogs and wanted to create a biscuit for dog-lovers.” Chris added: “It was tricky at first doing the sums for the profit. We were quite nervous about the presentation, we didn’t expect to win, but when we found out we had we were really pleased.”

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Rev Paul’s Ramblings...

Meet Julie, our new Chef

I look forward to the Spring term because it is when I work with the Y6 boys on Fairtrade.

What were you doing before you joined DGS? I was the Corporate Catering Manager at Rolls-Royce.

We visited Littleover Co-op to research Fairtrade items in store. Tania then brought two members of Co-op staff into School to play the Fairtrade game where the boys represented farmers, companies or supermarkets and had to sell their beans for the best price.

What is your favourite meal?

It has to be rib-eye steak with a black pepper sauce.

By raising awareness of Fairtrade in school and in their community, young people are able to make a real difference to the lives of the farmers and workers who grow the things we love.

What is the most popular meal at school?

Wednesday’s roast dinner is a firm favourite for the pupils, but they also love pies and wraps.

Which Chef do you admire the most, and why?

It’s Tom Kerridge as he is an inspiration for clean eating and a healthy living approach.

What is your favourite memory of school?

Winning a trophy for my school, for cross country competing against all other schools in Derby.

School Life Music Competitions and Tuneful Recorders After the rush of Christmas, all seemed quiet at the start of term - but how wrong I was! The Junior ‘Glee Club’ Choir has been entered for the Derby Arts Festival in early April and preliminary rounds have started for the instrumental part of the House music competition. The finals will take place as part of the Junior School Arts Evening in the last week of term. Places in the final programme are keenly contested.

Year 3 have taken delivery of their recorders. Their lessons will cover basic note and rhythm reading skills, finding the right notes on the recorder and making a pleasing sound! All of these skills are transferable to another instrument whether they are already playing, or they take up an instrument at a later date.

My thanks to Chris who, as Music Prefect, has done a sterling job of rounding people up, organising music stands and generally being on the front foot with everything. A very useful attribute to have in all walks of life! Mr Wilford

House Music auditions

Introducing Music Prefect, Chris Being Music Prefect is an honour as you are the person being looked up to.

Music is a great subject. Personally I think music is just as important as maths and English, and it’s a great subject at Derby Grammar as you can learn so many different instruments. Chris, Year 6

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Junior School Chronicle | Spring 2018

Bring and Buy Sale On Friday 26 January we had our annual Bring and Buy sale.

All of the money, as you may already know, goes to the Tanzania Project.

For the whole Friday afternoon the Hall was crammed full of people buying and selling toys, books and DVDs. The list goes on and on.

The Year 6’s all ran their own stalls which involved quizzes, competitions, Lego contests and the new craze, Warhammar contests. Chris was extremely successful, raising £64 for Tanzania on one stall alone!

In total the Junior School raised over £500. I think lots of children came home with mountains of books, toys and DVDs, or in my little brother’s case, teddies!

Will, Year 6

Bring and Buy Sale

Junior School Chronicle | Spring 2018

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Hockey Fixtures This Term This term the boys have been working hard on battling the weather as well as developing their hockey skills.

Sports Update

Despite the cold conditions, our U10’s and U11’s got off to a good start with two strong performances against Foremarke. This was followed up with an impressive team display against Worksop College with the U11’s showing great endeavour within a strong attacking performance, creating lots of scoring opportunities. Our U9’s also enjoyed their first hockey fixture away to Worksop College, working hard throughout with Mrs Sly being particularly impressed by George and Benedict.

The season was rounded off by our U10’s and U11’s against St Edwards, with the U10’s finishing the season in style! Mr Smythe

Tomás Teaches Us All About Healthy Exercise In January I ran an Assembly on keeping our muscles and bodies healthy when we exercise. I wasn’t scared but a little nervous. It took me a weekend to do and I was really happy when I had finished it.

I want to thank my mum for supporting me, and Charles, Rachel and Kyle for their activities. Thank you Mrs Sly for letting me have this opportunity. Tomás, Year 6

Disco

Junior School Council

Junior School Disco went successfully and I really enjoyed it as there were fun challenges, from Irish dancing to drinking juice out of a baby’s bottle.

Junior School Council are always brimming with ideas.

At the meeting on February 20, Julie, our new Chef, joined the Council where they agreed that:

Dave Dee ran the disco and all of the challenges this year. However, the dance-off was my favourite part where Mrs Genders and Mrs Sly danced-off to win. Mrs Genders emerged victorious. It was a great night and one of the best Junior School discos.

Jay, Year 6

- Once a month in summer term we will introduce ‘Tropical Friday’, where we have fruit juices at breaktime instead of squash or milk.

- The weekly menu is to be put up in each classroom - For breaktime snacks we will sometimes now have toast instead of cookies

Reehan taking part in the dance-off

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Junior School Chronicle | Spring 2018

LAMDA Exam Success

Achievements

January saw yet another set of fabulous LAMDA results! For many boys this was their first exam. The results were very high, with some achieving Distinctions. Jeona entered his Acting Grade 4, a very high grade for his age which demanded a high standard of acting and detailed understanding of his character. He was rewarded with a Merit grade - well done!

By the time the Chronicle goes to print another group of Juniors will have taken their LAMDA exams.

What’s next? We’ll be busy preparing for Derby Arts Festival with our biggest group of entrants to date.

Mrs Simpson

Golden Table - November to February from top left, clockwise

Well done Tom who has a part in Derby Theatre’s production of Two.

Well done Tomás for earning a place in Derbyshire Cricket’s Under 11 squad.

Primary Maths Challenge Derby Grammar Junior School Year 6 pupils Hadi and Roj did fantastically well getting through to the second round of the Primary Maths Challenge. We are nervously awaiting results.

“On 7 February we took the second round of the Primary Maths Challenge. After a hard first round we were quite nervous to find out what the second round would hold. When we took the exam it started off easy and gradually became harder, but now we have become quite optimistic for the results.

We are proud of this once-in-a-lifetime achievement and will never forget it.” Hadi & Roj, Y6

Honour Points Honour Point race for this term: 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bemrose Derby Atkinson Blackton

Congratulations to our class high scorers:

1777 1678 1425 1397

Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6

George F Harjan N Dhruv M Jai S

180 131 136 130

(Results as at 09.03.18) Junior School Chronicle | Spring 2018

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A Final Word From Mrs Sly I begin preparing for the Chronicle many weeks before the end of term, which is why we have some House events from last term in this edition. Our annual House music and poetry evening along with the Easter Egg competition will be featured in the next Chronicle, even though we are working hard on preparations now.

The Spring term is never my favourite due to the weather. I’m quite a ‘nesh’ person (a good Derbyshire term which I hope you all understand!) so playground duties and long waits for the buses on the turning circle are not my favourite.

We are all looking forward to getting back on the playing fields as soon as the weather is fit. But the Junior boys all find plenty of games to play on the Quad, with daily football and cricket rotas in place and equipment used in all sorts of creative ways.

I must thank PTA who have spent over £300 this term on new playground equipment and a new outdoor storage shed to keep it all in.

The Junior School Council, through a very successful School Disco in February, are also choosing to spend the profit on more playground equipment.

The term seems to have whizzed by and a short second half term, including two snow days (unknown in DGS history) have contributed to this effect. However, we still have so much to fit in!

I wish you all a Happy Easter and a restful holiday.

Mrs Sly, Head of Junior School

Using Minecraft to Improve Computing Skills Minecraft is popular in Junior School, and so we are absolutely delighted that Year 9 pupils Alex and Rohan have stepped forward to run the Monday lunchtime club.

Junior pupils feed in ideas of the types of activities they would like to play, such as building or parkour, then Alex and Rohan build Minecraft maps so that the pupils can play the games. But not only are they enjoying playing the game, they are testing their skills - developing fine motor skills and creativity, and improving keyboard skills.

Reminders about Summer Term 

Please ensure uniform is up to date. Uniform can be purchased from Morleys or the PTA run a Second Hand Uniform stall - further information available from Reception.



Summer games lesson is cricket.