Newsletter - Summer Term - 22.05.18

Cottesmorians have been learning out of doors and away from school in the past week with a Geography field trip and a Science Festival. The Pre-prep are also joining in with their trip to Hampton Court Palace this week. As well as learning and sport, there have been lots of fun activities, including dorm cricket and football – and was that a teddy bear on the prowl? Read on!

Geography Field Trip to Tillingbourne

The 4th Form trip to Tillingbourne river was a great success as pupils collected some excellent data for use in their CE Geography Coursework. The students measured the width, depth and velocity of the river at three different sites along its course, including one with many tight meanders and even an ox-bow lake. The pupils immediately started to type up their projects and are making pleasing progress.

Science: Salters Chemistry Festival

There was a fascinating day ahead for our attendees; here’s their report:
“Fourth form students went to St Mary’s University at Mile End to take the Salters Chemistry challenge; the representatives were Charlotte, Aurelia, George, Gleb and Mrs Perry. There were roughly 20 schools competing, we settled in and were given a briefing of what the day would hold. The place was big and had a large chemistry lab along with a lot of other resources.

The first task had a number of selective problems like testing how different substances react in solutions. Near the start of the experiment there was also a code breaker part which we did separately while the others started the practical. During the practicals we had to test how chemicals, alphabetically sorted, reacted in distilled water and silver nitrate. We also had to add universal indicator to test their PH. After that we had to do a chromatography section which George and Charlotte excelled in while Gleb and Aurelia wrote down and solved riddles which we had to do, based on our results.

After a well-earned lunch, the hosts informed us of our next task: we had to make as many coloured solutions as we could with the chemical powders given in the time we had (45 minutes). We managed to make twelve different solutions in that time. We all thought task two was the more challenging of the two, although we thought that in the previous task we were going behind on time.

The second assignment ended, we were shown to the auditorium where the participants were given a practical lecture and displayed different ways to use liquid nitrogen. We were openly asked questions, if we got them right we were awarded a piece of confectionery! The professor was very funny and informative in showing and explaining to us the meaning of chemistry. After the talk finished prize giving began in the auditorium. We didn’t receive a prize but I think it was a huge effort from all of us.

We all concluded that it was a very fun and informative experience and that we learnt a lot. Everyone agreed it was a worthwhile experience and we hope that next year’s representatives enjoy it as much as we did”.

Sports Round-Up

Cricket

1st XI v St Christopher’s: lost by 10 wickets
Mr Walker reports: “This was the first time we’ve played St Christopher’s. I had no idea what to expect, other than they generally beat the other sides on our circuit.

Batting first on a wicket that actually had some pace and carry (for the first time this season) and against 9 very tight bowlers, I thought we actually did pretty well to get ourselves to 89 after 20 overs. We received 23 balls before we managed a scoring shot forwards of square.

It was a shame that this was a T/20 because, had it been a 30 over time/dec game, we managed the innings very well. All of our wickets lost were as a result of attempting to push the run rate, and the two run-outs were in the last over, which I have no problem with.

After tea the temperature seemed to drop 10 degrees and, although we were in the game for the first 15 overs (we were ahead at this point), we started to lose concentration with the ball and in the field. St Christopher’s, without really offering us a chance, won with 7 balls to spare.

There’s no shame in losing to a better team if you put in a good performance, which we did on the whole. This will have been excellent practice for the game we’d really like to win, versus Brambletye (A) on Saturday. The game also featured best efforts so far from Bert and Yode”.

1st XI v Brambletye: won by 9 wickets
“Despite bowling poorly in spells during the first innings the fielding, and notably the catching, restricted Brambletye to 80 runs off the bat, plus 32 extras, in 30 overs.

Bert conceded 14 byes, which in no way reflects his performance – such was some of the bowling he had to contend with. I would consider it his best performance with the gloves for the team.

Will bowled two tight spells to finish with figures of 8-3-14-1, and quality catches were taken in the field by Harry (2), Fred & Branton.

Following the early departure of Will, Harry & Sam built a measured partnership of 110 to see the team to victory by 9 wickets.

This was the 4th highest partnership since 2005:

203* - 8th June 2016 v Pennthorpe (H) (Marcus Rawlings & Melchiorre Compostella 35)
120* - 27th April 2016 v Dorset House (H) (Marcus Rawlings & Alex Stanyer)
118 - 3rd May 2017 v Handcross (H) (Will Pollington & Ollie Mordaunt)
110* - 19th May 2018 v Brambletye (A) (Sam Hardwicke & Harry Wingfield Digby)

My only disappointment is that the middle & lower order have again missed out on having a bat. I need the 4th formers to have some time at the crease before next year!

We have a 10-day break now for athletics, before two more games before Exams, Sports Day & Half term”.

2nd XI v Brambletye: Cottesmore 87 ao; Brambletye 53-8: match drawn
“A hard-fought game”, was Mr Butler’s view. “Both sides played well. We need to be more aggressive in the field as a few key chances were missed. A fair result overall”. Men of the Match were Isadore and Christopher.

3rd XI v Brambletye: won by 5 wickets
The Mighty Thirds played away at Brambletye and were chosen to bat second, which suited us. We bowled steadily in the blazing sun and they declared at tea for 104 for 8. There was a spell mid-afternoon when Rafferty took two wickets with consecutive balls and he and Matt bowled a six over spell for the loss of only two runs.

We started batting after tea and lost John, our opener and captain to the second ball. This was not a good sign but the third batsman (Tomas) steadied the ship and we started to chase the runs down. Mika was settling well when he was run out, but the rest of the batsmen played well, each adding to our score. With ten overs to spare before the end of play we had surpassed their score for a comfortable victory.

Nevertheless, the match was significantly harder than the first match against Duke of Kent and the steep learning curve continues as most of the boys in this team have not played cricket before this season. Having lost our inspirational captain to the seconds, John did an excellent job of marshalling the team and keeping them focused. The man of the match award was shared across the team for the positive fielding and all-round improvement.

Girls’ Cricket

1st team v Lancing College: 24-6.5 declared
2nd team v Lancing College: won 41-2
There was great excitement in the home fixtures against Lancing Prep, when the 1st team won 24-6.5 declared and the seconds won 41-2. Girls of the Game for the 1st team were Emily C (fielding) and Lilia for batting. The partnership between Tierney at backstop and Leonor was superb.

Mrs Watkin commented that overall the 1st team’s batting was sound, with Lilia contributing 6, Clara 5 and Isobel with a further 3.5. Every girl scored, completing our total of 24. Fielding was slick throughout, with some breath-taking catches from Emily, Abigail, Maria, Isobel and others. Lancing began to feel more comfortable as the match progressed and it was played in a sporting and happy atmosphere throughout.

Rounders

U10 v Lancing College: won 9-6
After a shaky start the girls refocussed and performed much better. “A lesson in concentration!” said Miss Flower afterwards. Girls of the Game were Layla and Rosie.

Pre-prep news

More excitement is brewing in the Pre-prep as they head to Hampton Court Palace for a packed and interesting day out on Wednesday. There will be a slightly earlier start to their day and a picnic lunch — not forgetting the essential and sun cream and waterproof jacket to cover all weather-related eventualities!

Here’s a reminder of some important diary dates:
8th June Pre-prep concert
19th June Move up morning
20th June: Swimming gala
22nd June Trip to Goring beach
29th June Sports Day

Let’s catch up on classroom news:

Reception

The children will be learning a little about Hampton Court Palace before the trip on Wednesday and their theme this week will be Castles. They will be pattern making, building a paper castle, writing about their trip, designing a coat of arms shield and discussing what times would have been like 500 years ago. The children will be continuing their number practice and learning about the signs <,> and =. They will add to their bean diaries and plant out beans in some soil.

Year 1

This week in Creative Writing Year 1 will be starting their knights and castles writing, in preparation for their visit to Hampton Court Palace. They will also be starting some Summer poems.

Phonics Play on the computer will help to revise initial sounds and spellings will be words ending in ‘th’. The children will continue to revise doubles and work with numbers to 100. They will also be weighing using non-standard and standard weights. In Science they will be finding out about dragonflies and other creatures that live around the pond. They all look forward to making 3D castle models.

Year 2

This week the class are going to start studying the painter Claude Monet, starting by looking at the text ‘Katie and the Waterlilies’. The children will be using adjectives to describe what they can see in the Monet painting ‘Bathers at Grenouillere’ as well as writing a story about their adventures ‘inside’ a Monet painting.

In Maths they will be using doubles and number bonds to add three 1-digit numbers; using number facts to 10 and 20 in number stories; finding complements to multiples of 10 and understanding subtraction as difference and find this by counting up. In Science Year 1 will continue to look at the growth of their plants as well as starting to paint their own ‘Monet’ in Art.

Year 3

Year 3 are super excited to be going to Hampton Court this week! While there they will explore the palace and will also participate in a workshop focusing on the differences between ‘upstairs and downstairs’ living in the palace during Tudor times.

During Maths sessions the children will revisit fractions. They will learn to identify, calculate and record eighths, compare halves, quarter and eighths and recognise simple equivalences and will also order fractions with differing denominators. During their English lessons they will write a newspaper article detailing this weekend’s royal wedding. They will also finish writing their own Robin Hood tales. In Science the children continue to investigate shadows, this week learning how their size changes throughout the day. In Art they will continue to design their Tudor houses.

Sunday Fundays

This weekend it was the turn for the Seniors to enjoy the adrenaline-packed games at Ultimate Laser. Twenty-one pupils braved the heat to capture enemy flags and their bases.

Dorm Doings

On Monday evening, the Dorm Monitors were rewarded with a stay-up, watching a movie and enjoying some treats. During this time, the remaining boys had many amazing and ingenious versions of dorm cricket and football using everything from foam bats, dodge balls, table tennis balls/bats, pillows and even slippers! There was even a bear on the prowl as Calixte and Timor decided to find a new use for an old, large teddy bear and managed to squeeze inside it’s ‘skin’ and wander the corridors, much to everyone’s amusement!