Godstowe News Spring Term 2021 - 12/02

Godstowe news

Spring Term 12 February, 2021

Weekly Awards

Chinese New Year celebrations this week!

Headmistress' Letter

We have spent time this week preparing detailed plans for reopening, ready for the 8th of March or whenever that maybe. Your feedback, positivity and support with regards to this has been valued tremendously.

Dear Parents,

Artwork

As half term approaches and I write to you for one last time before we all take a break, I am feeling fairly positive about the future. With the Sun shining, the vaccination program going well, the number of daily cases dropping and the week ahead at least slightly freer of screen time than normal, I Feel that all of us at Godstowe have many blessings to count.

In assembly this week our theme has been the environment and I really hope that we can all get outside and enjoy the beginning of spring.

I wish you all the best for a very happy and relaxing half term and look forward to seeing everybody soon.

Winners will be announced in the Friday assembly in the first week back after half term.

/GodstoweSchool

Boarders of the Week

1. Warm up first 2. Only run in a safe environment.

3. Try to run on flat ground. If you run downhill or uphill your results may be invalid.

4. You will need to provide evidence of your time and distance, especially if you are in the top 5.

5. Evidence should ideally be from something like 'Strava' or 'Map my Run' but parental confirmation of the route and time is also acceptable as we understand not all girls will use 'Strava' or have access to devices to track their route/time.

6. You have until Monday 22nd February to submit your google form with your best time.

7. We will contact you after you have submitted your google form if we need to see evidence of your time.

@GodstoweSchool

Accelerated Reader Jessica S

Highlands - OJ Walker - Charlotte Turner - Siana

Things to remember!

Task: Run 1km as fast as you can.

(This is optional)

Bella B Tae Yeon K Raphaella P Libby S

Sports Stars Haleema S Annika S Imogen B Tessa S Scout C Talitha G Gigi M Ella M Friday Badge Gracie B Georgina W Skye B-R

Typing Elodie Williams - Beginners Assessment Neeva Patel - Intermediate Assessment

School House Shield Seacole

@godstoweprepschool

www.godstowe.org

Claire Gillett, Head of Lodge , Hannah Smart, Head of Nursery For our final week of this half term, Nursery enjoyed a celebrations themed week. We have looked at both Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day. This year is the Year of the Ox, so the children made their very own ox, as well as Chinese dragons to help them celebrate. As part of our Valentine’s Day topic, we have been exploring symmetry with hearts and lots of counting and missing number games with a Valentine’s Day theme. We also made the most delicious looking Valentine’s jam tarts. The sound of the week this week was ‘o’ and the children made an o for octopus that put their fine motor skills to test too when it came to decorating it.

This week in Beginners, we have been finding out about a very special celebration, Chinese New Year! We enjoyed listening to the story of the Chinese Zodiac and we liked discussing and writing about the animals in the race. We also had fun making Chinese New Year cards, Chinese lanterns and some special red lucky envelopes too! In Maths, we have been doing lots of Chinese New Year inspired activities, including counting pennies and using ordinal numbers, and learning how to write our numbers in Chinese too! Happy Chinese New Year everybody, from all the Beginners!

/GodstoweSchool

To coincide with the Chinese New Year, Kindergarten children have been learning about the traditions and stories associated with this lovely celebration and have really enjoyed hearing personal accounts from some of their classmates. If only we were in the classroom to sample the delicious food that the children have described! As a fitting end to our topic on Antarctica, the children learned about a current day explorer, Jade Hameister, who has definitely inspired some of them to get their rucksacks and boots ready, to go out and about exploring. We are looking forward to hearing about their final DT Antarctica activity - making penguin shaped shortbread. We have been so proud of the Kindergarten children this half term and impressed by their quick and enthusiastic adaptation to virtual learning.

They definitely deserve their half term break and we wish them and their families a happy and healthy week.

@GodstoweSchool

We have had another good week in Transition. Our Literacy work this week has taken the form of some individual animal research to create a booklet or poster. The children have really embraced this task, and we have discovered some fascinating facts about a range of animals, from the Giant Squid, to the peacock! We are very impressed with the standard of the children's work. In Maths, we have been continuing our measuring topic with some work on weighing, discovering the difference between grams and kilograms. This has been a useful skill for our Food Tech task, where we have been grating and squeezing lemons for our recipe for Valentine’s biscuits. In History this week, we have been looking at the life of Mary Seacole and her impact on nursing, and why she is an inspiring role model today.

We hope that everyone at Lodge has a happy and restful half term break.

@godstoweprepschool

www.godstowe.org

Music certificates this week are awarded to:

World Book Day will be a little different this year because we will not be in school. Instead of dressing up themselves, Main School pupils are invited to dress a potato as a book character! Look at these examples to see what we mean.

You can use scraps of material, paint, icing - there are many possibilities. Use your imagination over Half Term to see what you can come up with. If you do not have a potato, a stone would work too.

If you would like to take part, please send a photo of your creation to Mrs Evans fevans@igodstowe.org by February 28th. The winners will be announced on World Book Day.

Chrissie Z for outstanding progress in Cello Poppy S, Saskia W, Kiana K, Zara M, Aryana T for outstanding progress in Piano Sofia W for outstanding progress in Flute Ella I for outstanding progress in Alto Sax Ikari I Eleanor E, Charlotte B, Libby S, Charlotte F, Elodie W Susie Y for their outstanding progress in Violin Jasmine S for outstanding progress in Harp Kelly H for outstanding progress in Oboe Rhea S for outstanding progress in Clarinet Kaka S, Lucy B, Maxine G-S, Gracie B and Naomy B for excellent progress in Piano and Curricular Music

Emily performs Benda

1. Which famous Jacqueline Wilson character was first created exactly 30 years ago?

2. Who illustrates Jacqueline Wilson's books?

Hector Bellerin is one of several international and Premier League footballers speaking out and taking action to tackle climate change.

Mesut Ozil tweeted last month that climate change was the only #10yearchallenge we should care about. Bellerin has also spoken often about how it was his experience of playing football outside as a child – in local parks and on the beaches near Barcelona – that got him interested in protecting the environment in the first place.

Elodie Williams performs music by Suzuki

People are always talking about how in 2050 we’ll do ‘this’ or ‘that’ but that’s not how it works. Way before then we are going to have to make big changes… My message to everyone is we have to protect the earth Hector Bellerin, footballer, Spain and Arsenal

This half-term Young Climate Warriors’ challenge encourages children to get outside and explore the natural world around them – how many keepie-uppies can they do? Can they practise their goal shoots? And when they want a break from football, can they go on a treasure hunt for a different sort of shoot? (clue: think springtime).

Don’t forget, we’d love to share photos of our Young Climate Warriors footballing skills and spring shoots on our website – please send them in by email to hello@youngclimatewarriors.org

/GodstoweSchool

@GodstoweSchool

@godstoweprepschool

www.godstowe.org

#VirtualGodstowe Showcase Thank you so much for sending in your photos and videos, we love seeing what Godstowe pupils have been getting up to as part of their remote learning! Please keep sending in your photos to marketing@godstowe.org, or tweet using the hashtag #VirtualGodstowe

Emilia (UIII) baking for her Upper School Unplugged afternoon.

Elodie (FII) performing in her online music class concert. The class listens for similarities and differences between pieces and identify musical features. The girls have all been really attentive our performers have enjoyed the opportunity to play for their peers.

Leila (FII) having fun baking and portioning her brownies during activities afternoon

Mia (FII) sculpting clay figures for her DT class

Hermione (FII) enjoying some off-screen time walking in the snow

Raychi (FII) spent her free time last week doing some rock climbing!

Georgie (LIII) Enjoying a snow trampoline session in her break time!

Grace (MIII) was lucky enough to have been practising her Lacrosse on the sunny but chilly beach!

Annabel (LIII) starting a new evening lockdown project - knitting!

Godstowe girls keeping fit and getting creative with their Sports Diaries this week

/GodstoweSchool

@GodstoweSchool

@godstoweprepschool

www.godstowe.org