St Teresa's Prep School Weekly Bulletin 8 December 2023

Issue 11

Autumn Term

8th December 2023

Christmas Celebration Invitation Monday 11th December Parents of girls in our choirs and music ensembles are welcome to attend our informal Christmas Celebration, where they will perform a variety of festive pieces on Monday 11th December at 5.30pm in the School Chapel Festive refreshments will be served afterwards.

Key Diary Dates: Mon 11th Dec

Christmas Music Celebration—Choirs and Music Ensembles, Chapel

17:30—18:30

Tue 12th Dec

Prep School Santa Dash PLEASE NOTE REVISED DATE

AM

Tue 12th Dec

Year 3, Visit to Felbury House Residential Home

Afternoon

Wed 13th Dec

Year 5, Museum of Egyptology, Henderson Hall (Year 5 parents are welcome)

8:30—9:00

Fri 15th Dec

Wear a Christmas Jumper (optional)

All day

Prep School Christmas Lunch

Lunch Time

Prep School Christmas Pantomime—Cinderella

Afternoon

Term Ends

16.15

No After School Care—Study will run as usual until 16.15 Mon 8th Jan

School Closed—Staff INSET

Tue 9th Jan

School Resumes

Mon 15th Jan

Year 6, Lifelab commences

Wed 17th Jan

Year 3, Open Book Morning, Henderson Hall and Classrooms

8:15—9:00

Young Voices Choir at the O2 Arena

Afternoon

Young Voices Concert at the O2 Arena

19.00

Mon 22nd Jan

Years 5 & 6, Young Shakespeare Co. A Midsummer Night's Dream Workshop

Afternoon

Wed 24th Jan

Year 4, Open Book Morning, Henderson Hall & Classrooms

8:15—9:00

Thu 25th Jan

6JG Class Assembly, Henderson Hall

08:30—9:00

Mon 29th Jan

Children's Mental Health Awareness Week

All Week

Prep School Open Book Mornings We will be holding Open Book Mornings for each Year Group starting in the Spring Term. This is an opportunity for your daughters to show you their books and their classrooms. Refreshments will be served in the Henderson Hall from 8.15am and, once the girls are settled, you will be taken to the classroom from 8.30am until 9.00am.

Please see the dates below. You will be sent an online form to confirm your attendance nearer the time.

Wednesday 17th January—Year 3 Wednesday 24th January—Year 4 Wednesday 31st January—Year 5 Wednesday 21st February—Year 6

Clubs and After School Care—w/c 11th December Most extra-curricular clubs and squads will not be running before, during or after school next week apart from the following which will run as usual: •

Study (Monday to Friday until 4.15pm)

•

After School Care (Monday to Thursday until 6.00pm)

•

Tennis

•

Gymnastics (Monday)

•

Forest School (Lunchtime)

Please note that school ends at 4.15 on Friday 15th December, with the 4.30pm buses departing as usual. There will be no After School Care or late buses on Friday.

Spring Term Clubs List The Spring Term Clubs list will be sent out next week. The majority of clubs will remain the same, but there have been some small changes, so please do check the timetable carefully. You will need to re sign up for some clubs as priority will be given to the girls on waiting lists.

Schoolblazer will be running a January Flash Sale from Thursday 4th – Friday 5th January 2024.

There will be up to 1/3rd off selected in-stock items at schoolblazer.com during the sale period, while stocks last.

Farewell Mrs Nelson!

Huge congratulations to Mrs Nelson who has been appointed Admissions Officer (Sixth Form) at Charterhouse School! She will take up her new post in January and so we will be saying goodbye to her next Friday.

Mrs Nelson has given 10 years of dedicated service to St Teresa's Prep School. You and your daughters will all have experienced her warm, welcoming presence in the school office.

Nothing is ever too much trouble and she has always approached every task and situation with positivity and professionalism. We will all miss Annie greatly but wish her every happiness and success for the future.

Christmas Jumpers—Friday 15th December We would like to invite the girls to wear a ‘Christmas jumper’ with their school uniforms (if they would like to) on Friday 15th December. This is the last day of term, so it should help us all to get into the festive spirit for our Christmas lunch and end of term panto!

Christmas Post Box The Christmas post box is up and running! 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 cards will be delivered at the end of term.

This week you should have received: Whole School

Club details for the last week of term

School Bus Users

Transport letter

Please contact the School Office if you need copies of any of this information—prepinfo@st-teresas.com

Effingham Reading Challenge We have now launched our Effingham Reading Challenge 2024. The challenge involves reading five books by May half term.

There is one member of staff allocated to each book who will quiz the girls once they have read the whole book.

Certificates and a prize will be awarded to all the girls who manage to complete the challenge by May half term.

We have a small number of each book stocked in our library at school. However, if there are a large number of girls wishing to participate, it may be useful to borrow copies from your local library.

COMPETITION . COMPETITION . COMPETITION. COMPETITION Art & Photography Competition The Rotary Young Photographer and Young Artist are well-established and successful annual competitions promoted by Rotary International in Great Britain.

Last Year we were extremely proud to have a runner up and a national winner from the Prep School and we hope to be successful again this year!

Entries are submitted in age groups for fairness.

Please see details below.

Art Competition— ‘Rebuilding’ The competition aims to encourage young people to be creative and develop skills in using traditional, contemporary or digital media.

The girls should submit a 2-dimensional, up to a maximum size of A2, unframed, piece of artwork based upon the theme, ‘Rebuilding’, with a sentence to explain the relationship to the theme.

The judges will be looking for technical merit, content and composition, and imagination and style.

They welcome artwork in any medium: For example – pen & ink, paint, collage, printmaking or digital formats.

Plagiarised or 'close-copied' images are not permitted.

At all stages of the competition, competitors will receive a certificate of participation and there are prizes for the winners of the age groups for the National Final.

Photography Competition— ‘Rebuilding’ The competition aims to encourage young people to experiment with photography, use digital and/or traditional methods of photography, demonstrate interpretation of the topic and express personal ideas through the medium of photography.

The girls should produce one photograph based upon the theme, ‘Rebuilding’ with a sentence to explain the relationship to the theme. Mobile Phones or cameras may be used. The photograph must be submitted via Digital Format and be at least 1500 pixel in size on the longest length. The entries and supporting information sent electronically must not exceed 15Mb per email sent.

The judges will be looking for technical merit, content and composition, and imagination and style Plagiarised or 'close-copied' images are not permitted.

At all stages of the competition, competitors will receive a certificate of participation and there are prizes for the winners of the age groups for the National Final.

Entries should be submitted to the School Office no later than Tuesday 16th January 2024, accompanied by a completed entry form. Any entries submitted after this date cannot be accepted.

Entry forms are available from the School Office.

Please ensure that all entries are carefully labelled with your daughter’s full name and age.

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

3RN

Annabella H for excellent effort this week in English using similes and metaphors to describe the Iron Man. A fantastic Wanted poster, using the story to help with her ideas.

Kitty N for contributions during our English lessons this week. Kitty listened carefully to our class book The Iron Man and thought of different adjectives to describe him. Well done Kitty!

3KC

Vivienne W-S for fabulous effort in her phonics and written work this term especially when she wrote the wanted poster for the Iron Man. Well done Viv. Arabella N for wonderful contributions during class discussions throughout the week and for excellent 2D and 3D shape knowledge. Well done Arabella.

4LH

Isla S and Jessica A for your wonderful solos at the Carol Concert this week. You sounded fantastic!

4AB

Victoria M for trying hard when writing an informative non-chronological report about the Anglo-Saxons.

Jemima H for being a super singing solo stand-in for an absent friend.

4CR

Sophia H for her excellent effort to make inferences.

Lucy A for her inferences and consideration when exploring Sutton Hoo.

5HC

Mira M and Matilda G for their brilliant work and insightful observations about William Holman Hunt's painting "The Light of the World" in RE. Anna P and Jasmine N for their detailed and informative work about the importance of the River Nile to the Ancient Egyptians.

5KH

Ruina Z for her continued careful and sensitive artwork, creating a repeated pattern in the style of Rachel Parker.

Imogen S for her excellent effort and achievement in maths this week.

6MK

Syna S, Lilia-Anna H and Amaya H for their incredible solo singing in the Carol Service last night.

Elsie W for her wonderfully clear and measured reading last night.

6JG

Chaeah H and Jessica T for fabulous detail and content in their Shackleton work Amelia L for an excellent attitude to classwork this week, catching up brilliantly on work missed.

6RW

Isabella Chan and Bella Zhang for designing beautiful icons of Mary in RE.

Year 5 Cleopatra Visit This week, Year 5 met Cleopatra, the last active Pharaoh of Egypt. Ancient Egypt was a civilisation unlike any other and Queen Cleopatra was an exceptional leader. This powerful lady had brains as well as beauty, she taught the girls lots of interesting information about life in Ancient Egypt and their lasting legacy on our modern world.

Little Sunbeams Well done to some of our Art Club girls who created ‘little sunbeams’ to sell for Charity at the Christmas Fair. We raised £25 and it was just lovely to see them come and find their creations, and explain who they might give them to. We are going to make a donation to the Brain Tumour Society on behalf of St Teresa’s.

Music News Musicians of the Week Year 3 – Ellie F for playing so beautifully on the chime bars.

Year 4 – Jemima for being so kind and helpful and always singing from her heart.

Year 5 – Serena for beautiful singing and wonderful enthusiasm!

Year 6 – Maysie for playing some lovely Christmas songs on the keyboard.

Prep School Christmas Service Mrs Harris would like to thank everyone for being a wonderful audience on Thursday evening. She is very proud of the girls for their hard work and joyful performance.

Christmas Chapel Concert We are very excited for our Chapel Concert on Monday and looking forward to welcoming you to listen to our extra-curricular music groups.

Please ensure the girls have their instruments in school on Monday for our rehearsal. Many thanks.

Assembly Performance and Congratulations Congratulations to Apollonia who passed her Grade 3 piano with merit! A great achievement – well done Apollonia!

This week, due to a pupil absence, Apollonia also stepped up and played a beautiful grade 3 piece on her guitar in assembly.

Extra-Curricular Music Groups Extra curricular music groups have now finished for the term and will resume next term.

Sports News Netball It was a cold and wet afternoon on Tuesday 5th December and the U10s travelled down to Manor House for a netball match. All the girls were excited and ready to take on their opposition. Unfortunately, we didn't come back with any wins, but we were able to learn throughout the match. The players of the matches were Sybella, Amelie and Imogen. Well done to all the girls who played! Keep coming to shooting club.

Well done to the U10ABC team who played against Tormead in wet and windy conditions this week. Eliza P scored a hattrick and Penny C received player of the match— great work girls. As usual the team spirit and sportsmanship were outstanding.

Well done to the U9A&B netball teams who played Manor House on Friday before the Christmas fair! The girls were super excited and they absolutely smashed it.

They showed some great play, especially in the shooting circle. The A team won 3-1 and the player of the match was Elizabeth. The B team won 8-0 and the player of the match was Olivia.

Hockey The highly anticipated U11 Interhouse hockey took place on Tuesday 5th December and, despite the cold temperatures, the girls came out to the pitch with enthusiasm and energy! They warmed up brilliantly in their squads and couldn't wait to get going. All the houses played in a round robin style tournament and every game was a competitive match with lots of goals being scored by all, along with some unbelievable saves from our house goalies.

Anyone not participating became team coaches and awarded merits at the end for hard work, team support and energy.

1st place - St Ignatius

The girls had a brilliant time and thoroughly enjoyed it! Well done Year 6!

Gymnastics On the 4th of December, the U9 and U11 Gymnastics teams travelled to Seaton House School for a gymnastics competition. The girls performed their individual routines. They demonstrated their ability to learn complex routines and confidently perform them in front of a crowd. Well done to all the girls who competed, with a special mention to the U9 team who placed 3rd overall and the U11 teams who placed 3rd and 4th overall in their age categories. Zoe G and Elsie W both placed 1st overall in their age group individual rankings!!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

We hope you have a lovely Christmas break and keep on exercising!!

This Week

This week we marked the first week of Advent, that four week period when we prepare for the Great Feast of Christmas. In Chapel this week, we reflected on the conversation between Jesus and the rich young man. This sincere individual came and asked Jesus what more he needed to do to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Despite doing all that the law required from an early age, he sensed that there was something missing. Jesus gently agreed and pointed out that one thing was a barrier in the young man’s life. This season of Advent provides us with an opportunity to reflect in our lives on what it is that we need to change in our lives. It can be a bad habit, an unhelpful attitude, a relationship that needs to be restored—everyone will have something different. This Season gives us the opportunity to respond to the prompting to make a change and address that One Thing in our lives that is preventing us from being the person we are called to be. Like the young man, we can be assured of God’s gentle encouragement and persistent help!

Today we also mark the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, remembering the unique grace given to our Blessed Mother Mary at her conception so that she could worthily bear God’s Son

We wish all our Jewish families ‘Hanukkah sameach’ as they celebrate the Festival of Lights this week!

CHRISTMAS FAIR A huge thank you to FOST and all of the external stallholders, those who donated raffle prizes, as well as all the volunteers for such an incredible Christmas Fair on Friday! It was wonderful to see the school filled with such a Christmassy atmosphere, what a fantastic turn out!

E-mail equestrian@st-teresas.com Call

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

01372 750257

Booking System

Or find us on Facebook “St Teresa’s

st-teresas-equestrian.ecpro.co.uk

We hope that you have had a good week and are looking forward to the end of term!

A reminder from us that this week has been our last week of timetabled termly lessons.

The week commencing Monday 11th December is for adhoc private and catch up lessons that need to be booked in separately. Unless you have booked in for a ridden adhoc lesson between Monday 11th and Saturday 16th then we will not be expecting you for a riding lesson, the Pony Stars sessions or the Challenge Awards.

Christmas Holidays The Christmas Holiday Activities are available to book on the online system!

There are still some spaces left, so have a look on our booking site or email the office to find out what availability is left.

Topic of the week: Groundwork Groundwork is a useful activity to do with your horse as it improves the communication between you and your horse and can be considered as a time to bond. Improving communication and your relationship with your horse allows for a better partnership whilst riding. You could lunge your horse, teach your horse new tricks, show them new items that they may be unsure of to improve their confidence, or even just walking round with them on and off the lead rein. ~ Libby C

Menu—w/c Monday 11th December 2023 Hot lunches include a selection of family favourites and suitable alternatives for children with allergies and intolerances.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Soup of the day

Tomato & basil

Lentil & sweet potato

Winter vegetable & lentil

Leek & potato

Prep School

Pork sausages & mash

Creamy chicken curry & rice

Pasta Bolognese & crusty bread

Creamy Chicken pie & diced potatoes

Xmas lunches

Main

Locally sourced pork sausages & mashed potato

Chicken tikka masala with rice & poppadum’s

Spaghetti Bolognese with crusty bread

Chicken & sweetcorn pie with new potatoes

Xmas lunches

Eat healthy choice

Roasted red pepper, tomato & turkey coated wholemeal pasta with house salad

Oriental style noodles & vegetables

Spanish style chicken, chorizo & roasted vegetable ragout with wholemeal rice

Paella with crusty bread

Vegetarian

Cumberland style vegetable sausages & mashed potato

Macaroni cheese

Ratatouille & mixed bean filled roasted peppers

Red lentil & vegetable tikka masala with rice

Sides

Mashed potato Broccoli

Rice Mixed vegetables

Crusty bread Peas & sweetcorn

New potatoes Carrots

Dessert

Chocolate brownie

Strawberry milkshakes

Peach & raspberry crumble & custard

Rice pudding with a selection of sauces

Additional

Salad Bar Summer Fruit Platter

Salad Bar Summer Fruit Platter

Salad Bar Summer Fruit Platter

Salad Bar Summer Fruit Platter

Items in Italic - Sourced from F Conisbee’s, our local butcher

Friday

Festive Jewell cake