THE PigeON 2nd december 2016

FROM THE HELM

A successful week closes with the Christmas Fair and many thanks to our FoP team for all their effort and hard work towards the event. ‘The Merchant of Venice’ was a triumph and staff and children are to be congratulated on their outstanding efforts. The staff are now clean-shaven having raised £1,200 for Cancer Research. Thank you for all your contributions. Next week is jam-packed with events so keep the calendar and Pigeon to hand.

PJH _________________________________________________________________________________________

THE WEEK AHEAD

Follow us on Twitter @pinewoodprepsch & Instagram pinewoodprepschool or

click on the links on the website.

Monday 5th Music Exams

Early Years Nativity Rehearsals (am)

Lower School Concert (4.30pm)

Tuesday 6th Music Exams

Early Years Nativity Rehearsals (all day)

Lower School House Matches (2pm)

Wednesday 7th Early Years Fun Day

Years 1 & 2 to “Sleeping Beauty” at the Watermill Theatre (10.30am)

Rugby v Cothill

Hockey v St Andrew’s, Pangbourne

Thursday 8th Early Years Nativity Dress Rehearsal (10.30am)

Friday 9th Early Years Nativity Play (10.30am in the Theatre)

Lower School Christmas Party (4-6pm in the Theatre)

Year 8 Parents’ Academic Meeting (4.30-6.30pm)

Saturday 10th Exeat

Sunday 11th Exeat

NOTICES

SCHOLARSHIP NEWS

Congratulations to Alice Vyvyan–Robinson, who has been awarded a Sports Scholarship to Cheltenham College.

MOVEMBER

A big thank you to everyone who supported the Pinewood staff who became hairy for ‘Movember’. We are thrilled to have raised nearly £1200 for Cancer Research UK, exceeding out target of £1000. You can,

however, still sponsor us through our JustGiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/PinewoodMoNe.

ASSEMBLY NOTICES

Team of the Week: U10B Girls Hockey & U10B Boys Rugby

Points Up Cup: Postbridge

SCHOOL SHOP OPENING TIMES IN

THE LAST WEEK OF TERM

Please note that in the last week of term, the shop opening times for will be as follows:

Monday 12th December: 8-10am

Thursday 15th December: 8-10am

The Shop will be closed on Wednesday 14th December and Friday 16th December.

SCHOOL SHOP OPENING TIMES

Week beginning Monday 5th December

Monday: 8-10am Wednesday: 8-10am

Friday: 8-10am

Please email shop@pinewoodschool.co.uk to check stock availability.

READING AWARDS

Congratulations to the following, who have completed their Reading Awards this week:

Bronze: Hamish Ogilvy, Zara Lawson & Matilda Richards

For more information on the Reading Awards Scheme, please speak to your child’s English teacher or Mrs Matthews in the Library.

FRIDAY 9TH DECEMBER

Children in Years 5-7 may go home at 3.15pm on Friday 9th December. There will be a programme of activities/games for those who remain at school, but there will be no prep set that evening.

CANCELLED MUSIC ENSEMBLE

REHEARSALS

The following ensemble rehearsals have been cancelled this week: Monday 5th December: Senior Strings & Brass Band Tuesday 6th December: Wind Band

MUSIC EXAMS

Don’t forget – music exams are on Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th December!

Please make sure children do lots of practice this weekend.

Please make sure your children bring their instruments and music to school

on the day of their exam.

The exam timetable can be found on the school website under Parents

Information/Music Lessons.

YEAR 3-5 TRIP TO THE WATERMILL

THEATRE Please note that the return time for the Year 3-5 trip to see “Sleeping Beauty” on Monday 12th December is

5.30pm, so there will be no 4.30pm pick up that day.

LOWER SCHOOL CONCERT We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the Lower School Concert at 4.30pm on Monday 5th

December. There will be a retiring collection in aid of Brighter Futures.

MR DOWNE’S WEEKLY MATHS

CHALLENGE Congratulations to families French, Wilson, Garrett-Ryan, Gedney, Kumar, Edwards and Bird for correct answers to last week’s problem. The correct solution is 7/15.

Here are this week’s problems:

1) Mr Prowse show his class three chests.

“In one of the chests,” says Mr Prowse, “are gold coins. In another chest are silver coins. And in the third chest are bronze coins. The chests are labelled “gold”, “silver” and “gold or silver”, but all the labels are wrong. Now tell me, which chest contains which coins?

How can the class work out what is in each chest?

2) A man has brought 81 rubies to a gemmologist for a valuation. The rubies are all the same size, but the man knows that one is fake. He also knows that the fake weighs slightly more than the real jewels, but are otherwise identical. Using this information, how can the gemmologist identify the fake ruby using a pair of scales by making just four weighings?

Correct answers to samdowne@pinewoodschool.co.uk to win a point up for your child.

BACK TO NETBALL

Back to Netball is a UK wide initiative to encourage new players who may not have played

netball for a while – or at all. There is a ‘Back to Netball’ club running at Pinewood and new

members – male and female are always welcome. Ours is an informal netball group of

mixed abilities and ages. It’s organised by parents with sessions led by a qualified umpire.

It’s a great way to develop and improve skills whilst having fun and getting fit at the same

time. We meet on Tuesday nights at 8pm in the Pinewood Sports Hall. If you have any queries or would like

to join the regular distribution list, please contact Steph Sharp on sharp.steph@btinternet.com.

Religious Studies Department Christmas Quiz

Answers via email to Andrew Caird – andrewcaird@pinewoodschool.co.uk By Tuesday 6th December. Prize for the first correct answer sheet!

Answers will be published in next week’s Pigeon.

Question Number

Question

1

Give another meaning for the name Messiah

2

What is a Magi?

3

Who was Jesus’ cousin?

4

What part did the Angel Gabriel play in the birth of Jesus?

5

In which book of the Old Testament is the coming of Jesus

announced?

6

Which country did Mary, Joseph and Jesus flee to after Jesus’ birth?

7

What did the angel Gabriel say would be the name of Mary’s son in

the book of Matthew (be careful)?

8

Who was Joseph?

Friday 2nd December 2016

Reception

Chicks Ducklings

Laya El-Asmar James Sargeant

Wilfred Makin Tristan Haggard

Ozzy Sturgiss

Year 1

Robins Sparrows

James Sefton Claudia Thompson

Oliver Vigors Eva Pownall

Bertie Smail Esther El Fakhry

Year 2

Owls Ospreys Kestrels

George Berlanger Thomas Preston Amy Jephson

Gus Lopes Olivia Kalen Olive Jevons

Cara Barne Monty Marriott

PRE-PREP MERIT AWARDS

Match Reports for the Week Ending Friday 2nd December

From the Director of Sport:

Unfortunately frozen pitches curtailed our mid-week fixtures; however, that did not stop Middle/Upper School staff and children getting out to burn off a few calories, get the cheeks puffing with a Pot Lid run, followed by an awesome Inter-House “smash and grab relay” up the terraced bank. Lower School drew the “ace” and headed indoors for a cracking circuit session to a few tunes; including those old Christmas shopping favourites. What is Christmas without a little Boney M and George Michael?

Tomorrow, it is the mighty House Matches with all to play for. It will be a “humdinger”, expect a few upsets. My neutral advice is:

Answer to last week’s question: England Rugby’s last amateur Test Match was played on 22nd June in Pretoria in 1995. Dewi Morris and Ian Hunter made their final England appearance, thus earning the title of “England’s final Test Rugby amateur players”.

This week’s question: How many calories does the average Christmas dinner contain? What exercise could one do the next day to “balance the books?”

James Siebert

MATCH REPORTS

Monday 14th November

Fencing v St Francis

Pinewood's fencing teams were at home to St Francis in their last match of the term with a number

of more experienced fencers rested, including Elliot, Tom and Ben. This was to match the teams as

evenly as possible, though in the end one match went away from us towards the end by solitary

hits. The other was a thriller......

1st Team Lost: 5-11

Captain Randeep started the match off, concentrating on defence and taking opportunities when

they came. Up against the most experienced fencer from St Francis, he came back from 0-3 down

to win. He would go on to take two victories from four and was unlucky not to have had a third

win. Tom took the fight to all his opponents, registering an important 4-2 win and coming close on

another occasion. Giving himself time and space to think through his attacks would have brought

him more wins. Atticus had a most encouraging day, stepping up to the first team and scoring two

wins from four. At one stage he gave Pinewood the lead with a very entertaining contest. Behind

after the first point, the match went to time and he lost priority. Composing himself he took the

initiative and went after his opponent, winning the contest with an excellent disengage attack. A

gritty display of fencing from Angus saw him score hits in all his contests and he almost won his last

fight, going down 3-4. He will come again and should take a great deal of heart from this

performance. The team went down fighting.

2nd Team Drew: 8-8

The lead in this match changed no less than four times in what was a very entertaining clash

between two evenly matched teams. Captain Grace Hoskins gave Pinewood an early lead with a 4-

0 victory. Her sense of timing and defence has greatly improved this term and more can be

expected from her this season. She would go on to win three from four bouts, only losing the last

one by one hit. Her brother Seb, who was not going to miss out on the action, stepped up with a 4-

2 win, using his reach to his advantage to great effect with disengaged attacks. He won two from

four, though could have won a third, but again lost on the last hit. Arthur then came up against an

opponent who kept moving his blade, body position and doing everything he could to make life

challenging for Arthur. Despite losing his first bout by one hit, he too would go on to win another

two bouts in a great display of precision fencing. Joao, in his first competitive outing for the school,

restored the lead for Pinewood with use of his footwork and counter-parry riposte. Three times he

feinted an attack only to score with a perfectly timed counter-parry riposte. This is a blade stroke

he is now mastering with deadly accuracy. Joao almost won a second bout, but lost on the final hit

and should be very proud of his performance. With the scores at 8-7 to Pinewood, it was a

question of whether a deserved draw could become a valuable victory. This responsibility fell to

Grace who fought incredibly valiantly and brought the score to 3-3. With priority against her, she

rightly went pressed to get the last hit. Sadly she fell victim to a well-timed counter parry riposte as

the match ended in an 8-8 draw. Grace should feel very proud of herself as should the whole team

who contributed to this result. Very well done!

NB

Thursday 1st December

U11A Rugby v Summer Fields

Lost: 0-5

Just one try separated these teams in a bruising encounter on a stunning winter’s day. Both teams

had beaten The Down’s, Wraxall by a similar margin, so we knew it would be tight and after 25

minutes the game was still very evenly poised at 0-0. In the end it came down to some stronger

running from Summer Fields and some disappointing handling errors from Pinewood that meant

we couldn’t make that decisive breakthrough. Despite the result we lost in the knowledge that we

had tried our best and gone down to a very good side. Next week we must focus on our handling

and steeper lines of attack – if we can get this right we can round off the season in style at Cothill.

EB

Do you have something to sell/are you looking to buy something or rent

a holiday house etc?

If so, why not post a notice or take a look on School Notices and join a

vast community of parents who are also selling or buying everything

from holiday homes to school shoes, ponies to violins.

Why not have a look now to see what you are missing?

It’s free to use!

www.schoolnotices.co.uk

To place a free advert for items for sale or wanted, or to place a paid-for ad for your

business, please sign up to www.schoolnotices.co.uk.

A percentage of the proceeds from paying ads will go to Friends of Pinewood. Please

remember to take down your ads once you have sold/bought the item.

NB The more parents who sign up to School Notices (even if you don’t buy or sell anything),

the more money we raise for Friends of Pinewood, as we receive a proportion of all

advertising revenue based on how many members we have — so why not sign up today?

LOGS

The School Estates team can supply high quality hardwood logs that have

been air-dried and seasoned for 2 years. We will deliver to the local area

(charges may apply depending on distance).

Please contact our Estates Manager: garyvaughan@pinewoodschool.co.uk