Although the weather was not promising in the morning,  the school was on fire with anticipation for the House football Gala in the afternoon. There were two pools with each House having 2 teams consisting of all of Yr 6 and guests from Yr 5.

In the pool matches there were some glimpses of scintillating stuff on the pitches with some of the girls showing up the boys. One pool match had to go to golden goal between Augustine Cherries and Paul's Bananas. Excellent and brave goal keeping by Katya kept the Cherries at bay. However some excellent lead up work Rebecca and Zoe saw Josh slot the goal that mattered. In the other pool Natalia and Rebecca H of the Chantal Marshes kept all other teams at bay to reach the final; and what a final it was.

The weather and pitch was poor. The team’s morale fair. Coach always grumpy and demanding. With these conditions how could the opposition fare against ACS. Alton started out in full command with Francesca having her shot squeezed passed the Dunhurst goalie. This was quickly followed by two further goals from Josh and Matthew. Solid defensive work by Harry “the Colonel” and Harry “Chippy” kept “Captain Jack” kicking leaves. Strong tackling, gaining possession and superb passing saw Alton with plenty of attacking moves. Sean White playing his first ever match played beyond his inexperience.

These games were friendlies but they are always competitive. The “Bs” charged gung-ho into the game with many chances did not score. Daneshill made a break and shot from a long distance and the ball squirted through Ivor’s legs to bring up the first goal. This made Daneshill confident, but the duo of Gabsie and Kiara knocked them back while Oliver and Tristan in the midfield fed Ben and Matthew up front. Matthew was tireless in his endeavour. However it was Ben who secured the victory with two well taken goals with final score Daneshill1 Alton 2.
The “A” fixture was a different story with Daneshill always in the ascendancy scoring a very good team goal.

On Tuesday 4th November, Mrs Parratt came to talk to year six about the second World War. she explained about all of the different types of gas masks for the different ages and about all of the different clothes. She had some volunteers: Eleanor and Harry got to dress up as poor evacuees. Sara was dressed as someone from WRVS and Grace had to dress in an evening gown. Izzy dressed as a bride in a dress made of parachute silk. Matthew dressed as a warden and had to put on a  big metal helmet and had a whistle for when he saw any light on at nightime and had to shout "put that light out". Mrs Parratt was great fun and told us a lot of history that we didn't know before. It helped us to imagine what it must have felt like to be a child in World War II.

Upper Prep children enjoyed some exciting art and design technology workshops on Thursday, when an inventor came to share his expertise with many of our pupils. The theme for the day was working mechanisms and models, and each class learnt about different ways of making things move or come to life. Year 4 explored designing and making through electricity, and were very proud when they got the opportunity to make their own working torches. Year 5 investigated moving toys from the past, before using levers and cams to make their own snapping crocodile toys.

On Monday, Mrs Bell (a former teacher at Alton Convent) came into school to talk to Y6 about her visits to St Joseph’s School in Varanasi, India. Like our own school. St Joseph’s was founded by the sisters of Our Lady of Providence. There are many other similarities between the two schools. For instance, they study similar subjects each day including two languages (we learn English and French; at St Joseph’s, they learn English and Hindi). They work very hard indeed, they wear school uniform and they enjoy art, drama and music. Just like us, they love chocolate! Mrs Bell brought us a selection of beautifully drawn cards and lots of photos showing the children dressed in their smart new school uniform and enjoying an open-air assembly.

Kingscourt have emerged as the "dark horse" of the Wessex League this year. We knew we could underestimate them. Well, all I can say is that they have been the most complete team we have played. In the first we have to admit Alton were asleep and they had scored 5 goals before half time.And they were well worked goals. Jack did a stirling restricting the scoreline. Josh R gave some respectability with a consolation goal, however it was a nightmare start.
It was a story of two halves as Alton started playing the football they are capable of with stout defending from Francesca and Josh P. Josh R increasing his workrate and seemed to be everywhere.

Open to teachers from other schools