St Teresa's Prep Bulletin 10 December 2021

Issue 12

Autumn Term

8th February 2021 10th December 2021

Message from Mrs Conrad It was a real joy welcoming so many of you to school this week for our two carol services. Gary set the scene with a festive selection of refreshments including salted caramel hot chocolate and mulled wine; the maintenance team helped to create an atmospheric back drop for our nativity scene complete with stars and a stable; and the girls rehearsed a selection of contemporary and traditional carols along with scripture readings and a dramatic tableau. Both services were absolutely delightful and were a wonderful reminder to us of the real meaning of Christmas. Huge thanks must go to Mrs Yalden, Mrs Gibson and the staff team who worked so hard with the girls in order to achieve such polished performances.

The festive celebrations will continue next week with our school Christmas lunch, Christmas jumper day and a pantomime - it certainly is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!

Key Diary Dates: Sunday 11th December

Cherry Trees Carol Service—Hatchlands

4.00pm—6.00pm

Monday 13th December

Toddlers Frozen Fun, Cranmore (see details attached)

9.30

Monday 13th December

Advent Evensong, Chapel (all are welcome)

5.30pm

Wednesday 15th December

Santa Dash, School field (parents are welcome)

8.45am

Wednesday 15th December

Open Book Afternoon POSTPONED (new date to follow)

Thursday 16th December

Prep School Christmas Lunch

Friday 17th December

Pantomime; Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs, Henderson Hall afternoon Wear A Christmas Jumper (optional) Term Ends

Monday 10th January

Staff INSET Day

Tuesday 11th January

Term Starts

Tuesday 11th January

Drama Scholarship assessments for Year 6 (entering Year 7)

Tuesday 11th January

Music Scholarship assessments for Year 6 (entering Year 7)

Thursday 13th January

Entrance examination for Year 6 (entering Year 7)

Thursday 13th January

Art Scholarship assessments for Year 6 (entering Year 7)

Friday 14th January

Sports Scholarship assessments for Year 6 (entering Year 7)

am

Golden Book Well done to all of the girls in our Golden Books this week: 2EB

Thea B-H for her sustained concentration throughout all of the nativity rehearsals.

Esther H for giving lots of thoughtful ideas in RE about how to be more like Jesus.

3RN

Sophie B for fantastic work in Maths this week using her 8 times table to solve problems.

Sophia L for excellent diary entry as one of the shepherds, retelling the story of the Nativity with fantastic range of vocabulary.

Sophia S-S for excellent effort with her presentation and spelling during our English lessons on The Iron Man.

3KC

Poppy E for always showing super teamwork when working with her peers.

Lottie F for an amazing improvement in her Rainbow times tables and her multiplication and division work in class.

4BB

Matilda R for her fantastic smile, poise and focus in all carol concert rehearsals as well as the performance itself.

Flori H for her fantastic participation in Maths lessons and brilliant application of knowledge.

4CR

Syna S for her brilliant inputs in English learning about reporting clauses and using effective synonym for 'said'.

Stef v E for her excellent contributions in Maths this week learning about angles and turns.

5MK

Amelia S and Paris C for super work in English writing a poem about space with great use of alliteration, similes and personification.

Natalia O for retrieving information from a text about the planet Mars and answering her comprehension questions beautifully.

5HC

Evie B for her fantastic poem about space which was full of many examples of figurative language.

Saskia H for her excellent work in Maths this week showing super resilience to solve some tricky area and perimeter problems.

6KH

Jemima P for her consistent high standard of work in every subject and her conscientious attitude towards her learning.

Beth B, Katarina B and Rosie H for their excellent reading in the Carol Service.

6JG

Lily E for keeping smiling whatever the circumstances.

Grace H for her organisation and commitment to her studies.

Esme T for her continued positive attitude to work.

6LD

Emilia E for pleasing progress in all learning areas.

Isobel S for always being a caring and wonderful friend.

This week you should have received: Whole School

Covid arrangements for next week

Whole School

Santa Dash information—please complete this form if you would like to attend.

Year 3

Year 3 rescheduled party information

Please contact the School Office if you need a copy of any of these letters—prepinfo@st-teresas.com

Christmas Jumpers—Friday 17th December We would like to invite the children to wear a ‘Christmas jumper’ with their school uniforms (if they would like to) on Friday 17th December. This is the last day of term, so it should help us all to get into the festive spirit!

Christmas Post Box We will be running a Christmas post service for the children from 6th December. If the girls would like to send cards to their friends they should write the name of the recipient and their class clearly on the front of the envelope. The post boxes will be in the girls’ classrooms and the cards will be delivered at the end of term.

This Week In The Prep School Year 3—The Iron Man In Year 3 we have read the story of ‘The Iron Man’ to go with our topic ‘Mighty Metals’.

After detailed planning and using the text to help us, each class in Year 3 worked together to make a huge Iron Man. We used recycled cardboard, tin foil, cardboard tubes and lots of felt tips to decorate!

Some of the girls were isolating during this time and they made their very own Iron Man with materials from home!

Swimming Success Well done to Alice in Year 6 who came 3rd overall in the 50m and 200m breaststroke at the Level 3 county qualifier. She swam brilliantly and shaved off up to 20 seconds off her personal best times in some strokes!

Great swimming, Alice.

Year 5—Poetry In English, Year 5 have been learning how to use figurative language in their writing. Exploring the feelings and movements of being in zero gravity, as well as contemplating the visual wonder of space, the girls wrote their own free verse poetry.

Year 2—Forest School Year 2 had fun today at a chilly Forest School. They used pine cones they collected in the Autumn to make beautiful Christmas tree decorations. They will look fantastic hanging from their trees.

Year 2—Special Delivery The girls in 2EB were delighted to receive a letter from a lady-in-waiting at Windsor Castle today after writing individual letters to the Queen during their ‘Towers, Tunnel and Turrets’ topic.

Music News Musicians of the Week Congratulations to the following girls who have been awarded certificates this week: Olivia L Year 2 for very good singing in the Carol Service rehearsals.

Natalia T in Year 3 for good singing in We Three Kings.

Isabella K in Year 4 for showing determination and resilience with her piano playing.

Coey L in Year 5 for an excellent contribution to the Carol Service.

Phoebe R in Year 6 for her outstanding solo singing in the Carol Service.

Music Exams Congratulations to Layla who has recently taken a piano exam.

Piano Grade 1 Layla Shier Merit

Carol Services Congratulations to all the girls who sang and played so well in the Carol Services yesterday. What a fantastic job you all did!

Special mention to Phoebe R for her solo, the Year 4 string quartet – Jessica T, Olivia P, Stef VE and Searlait W, and the Year 6 trio – Beth B, Evangelina P and Alice C.

Easter Music Course 2022!

Next year’s course will take place from Monday 11th to Thursday 14th April. This will be the 10th anniversary of this course at school directed by Mrs Yalden. The course is open to girls and boys from all schools in Years 3- 6 who have passed Grade 1 on their instrument. Please email Mrs Yalden on c.yalden@st-teresas.com for

This Week This week, as we marked the Second Week of Advent, we concentrated on the Biblical account of the Visitation; that occasion when Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth with the news that she is pregnant (Luke 1:39-56).

This short passage is packed with significance. In the first instance we have the words of two of the most famous Christian prayers found on the lips of Elizabeth (’Hail Mary, full of grace’) and Mary (The Magnificat—’’My soul glorifies the Lord’).

There are two exchanges in this account. On the one hand we have the two pregnant women providing support and comfort for each other. But even more significant is the meeting between Elizabeth’s child, John, and Mary’s child, Jesus. We are told that John leaps for joy at meeting the Saviour Jesus. Images, like the one opposite, show the two babies greeting each other from their mothers’ wombs.

For the people of Israel, the Ark of the Covenant, the golden box that sat at the centre of the community, at first in the Tabernacle in the wilderness and then in the Temple in Jerusalem, was a symbolic reminder that God is always with his people. Famously, King David, in an act of humility, danced before the Ark of the Covenant as it was processed into the Temple.

In our Gospel reading today we are to hear echoes of this Old Testament account as we recognise John dancing for joy at the very presence of God in the person of Jesus— the Word made flesh, God incarnate, Emmanuel, God with us. Mary is the new tabernacle, the new bearer of God’s presence to the world. And we in our turn are reminded that we too are asked in our own way to bear that presence to the world and to sing out with joy with Mary:

My soul, glorifies the Lord!

Thank you for the amazing support for our 2021 virtual Christmas Fair. A special word of thanks and acknowledgement to all in our school community who worked incredibly hard to make this virtual Fair such a success!

Our advent calendar winners were:

Christmas Jumpers Christmas jumpers can be worn by all on Friday 17th December. FOST is still collecting (via collection boxes in both Prep and Senior reception) all unwanted or outgrown jumpers. Christmas jumpers will be on sale in the Prep School reception on Monday next week. *The jumpers will be for sale for £4 to £5 - cash only please*

Mufti Day Support for Oasis Approximately £480 was raised for the Cobham based Oasis Childcare Charity from the recent mufti day – thank you!!

School Uniform Shop Open Mondays & Fridays 8.30am-9am and the first Saturday of every month 10am-10.30am during term time

Please follow us @fost_st_teresas_effingham

Christmas Fair Bake Off FOST would also like to thank all the girls who entered the Christmas Bake Off competition for their fantastic entries. We think that all of your bakes looked fabulous and would therefore like to give you all a prize for your hard work.

Our sponsor, Afternoon Crumbs, had a very tough time choosing the 1st, 2nd and 3rd places for each category. You will receive an extra prize in addition to the one from FOST. The results table below shows a collage of all the fabulous bakes. Congratulations!

Visit our website www.st-teresas.com/ equestrian

E-mail equestrian@st-teresas.com Call

01372 750257

Or find us on Facebook “St Teresa’s Equestrian”

Booking System st-teresas-equestrian.ecpro.co.uk

We’d like to thank everyone who rides with us for their patience recently to any changes to lessons and instructors that we’ve had to make this term. We are doing our best to accommodate everyone’s preferences, but we do have a more instructor changes this term so ask that you bear with us a bit longer.

Please do let us know as soon as you can if you will be unable to attend a riding lesson. It means that we don’t have the ponies tacked up and waiting around, and we can offer other jobs to the instructors to make the most of their time.

If 48 hours or more notice is given for a cancellation, then the lesson will be credited and a catchup lesson can be offered if we have the availability. It also then gives us the chance to offer the slot to another rider to have a make-up lesson.

We still have one or two tickets going for a trip to the International Horse Show on Thursday 16th December 2021.

ALL ARE WELCOME!

Please contact the office to find out pricings if you are interested.

Spring Term 2022 Riding Dates Lessons run from: Monday 10th January to Saturday 12th February Half term week – Monday 14th February to Sunday 20th February Lessons run from: Monday 21st February to Saturday 26th March

NSEA Competition Reports On Saturday 4th December, a team of three girls headed to Felbridge to compete in the Grass Roots Show Jumping Championships!

Everyone rode brilliantly! All three competed in the 60cm and the 70cm classes as a team.

In the 60cm, the team - Lilly S, Lottie B and Sofie S - came 1st with three clear rounds! Lilly also placed 5th as an individual!

In the 70cm, the team came 3rd with two clear rounds and one unfortunate four faults. Lottie then placed 5th as an individual and Lilly placed 8th!

Well done to everyone who participated!

Menu—w/c Monday 13th December Hot lunches include a selection of family favourites and suitable alternatives for children with allergies and intolerances.

Christmas Tree Festival Come and see St Teresa’s Tree at the Christmas Tree Festival at St Martin’s Church.