Godstowe News Summer 2021 - 21/05

Spring Term 21 May, 2021

Weekly Awards

Turner House enjoying a day of Watersports at Bray Lake last weekend

Headmistress' Letter Dear Parents, Whilst the weather outside has been grey and wet, the sun has certainly been shining inside Godstowe! We are very excited about the Art and Design Exhibition and it seems a real landmark to be able to welcome you to the JK this evening and tomorrow. The artwork looks fantastic and I know that you will be bowled over by the standard! Thank you to Mrs Sloggett, and Mrs Lee-Metcalfe for all of their hard work as it is no mean feat setting it all up not to mention enabling all of the pupils to produce such excellent pieces.

The older girls are all preparing for exams and assessments and their approach and attitude is a credit to them. When I visited the boarders last Saturday, all of the Fourths were studying hard for their Common Entrance exams and I was reminded just how solid a foundation the CE curriculum is for GCSEs. Watching the boarders enjoy themselves at Bray Lake on the video in assembly, I was struck by the fact that we do finally seem to be on our way back to the Godstowe that we all know and love!

I wish you all a happy and relaxed weekend with hopefully some improvement in the weather.

In assembly this morning we took another step forward as Miss Hearnshaw read out some match reports from the fixtures at Wycombe Abbey. How lovely to hear about real matches again!

Artwork For everyone with fantastic work on display in the Art and Design Exhibition.

Accelerated Reader Reader of the Week: Kelly H

Boarders of the Week Highlands - Zara M Walker - Sophia Z Turner - Alba M Sports Stars FI Michaela FII Fernee LIII Chrissie

MIII Darbey UIII Annabel IV Yuiko

Friday Badge Valentina B Isabel C Zara O

School House Shield

Animal Themed Mufti-Day

Franklin

Thank you for your donations to raise funds to help towards the running costs of Mare's Community Care Farm in Amersham. The girls enjoyed wearing their own clothes with an animal theme today and we are so proud to have already raised over £1300 with online and cash donations. Thank you for your generosity. If you have not yet donated, the QR code for our fundraising page is here.

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Claire Gillett, Head of Lodge Hannah Smart, Head of Nursery It has been lovely to see the children in their animal-themed Mufti outfits today!

Nursery's Fantasy and Fiction topic continued this week with Unicorns. The children most enjoyed making unicorn pizza horns. It was very tricky to fill them up and twist them into a horn but it was worth the hard work as they were delicious! We also enjoyed making handprint unicorns, which were very pretty. Our sound of the week was W for whale and we made some amazing whales using paper plates.

Kindergarten children have been thinking about food all week! In Science they focused on identifying from which part of a plant (root, stalk, leaves, flower, seed) various types of food come, enjoying at the same time munching their way through carrots, broccoli, basil, radishes and celery. In Geography, the children were surprised by just how many of the items on the dinner table come from the rainforests but undoubtedly were most interested in the "chocolate tree". To continue their interest in this most favourite of ingredients, they then went on to design and create their very own chocolate bar wrapper in DT. Our Art lesson included looking at the work of Georgia O'Keefe, particularly at her detailed flower compositions, which the children then went on to emulate. A very busy week!

Transition has been looking at different ways to collect and display data in Science. Last week we carried out a survey of which type of pets Transition have, and this week we have been trying out different fruit juices to see which are our favourite flavours. We have drawn tally charts and bar graphs to show our results. In Literacy, we have been looking at 'The Diary of a Wombat' and have been considering how we use verbs and conjunctions when writing a diary in the first person. We have also been carrying out our own research into a variety of animals. In Maths, we are now moving on to our topic on 'Telling the time', using analogue and digital clocks, and any practice at home with this would be much appreciated.

Congratulations to all of Lodge for their beautiful art work in the Exhibition!

This week in Beginners we have been on a mission to find out about spiders. We learnt about how and why a spider spins its web in the story of ‘The very busy spider’ and we had a go at being very busy Beginners and creating our own spider webs in various different ways.

We used our number investigation skills to discover the pairs of numbers that add up to 8 as well as continuing to extend our knowledge of teen numbers. We are working hard on using our phonics in our writing and thinking about how to make our sentences more exciting. We have been to the woods for wet walks and spider hunting adventures. Happy to say it has been another marvellous minibeast week in Beginners.

Sports Results U13 Tennis v Wycombe Abbey: U13A won 5-3 U13B lost 4-5 U13C won 6-2 U13D lost 1-8 U12 Athletics v Wycombe Abbey Godstowe won 60 - 30

Ella’s County Cup experience - tennis The Bucks Swans got off to a great start and at the end of the singles round we were in joint first position with Hertfordshire.

As only one County could go through to the Nationals, this meant it came down to the wire and they had to have a doubles play off. Ella’s doubles went to a tie-break and despite playing brilliantly Hertfordshire took both matches and thus first place, with Bucks a very respectable second. More importantly, the girls were all so proud to represent their county and they were all amazing, supportive team members who shone on the day. (Report provided by Mrs Insley)

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Boarders' Corner written this week by Walker House

This weekend, our boarders continued to focus on the beauty and joy to be found in nature. Godstowe is only a short walk from the lovely, rolling fields of the Hughenden Estate so, on Saturday afternoon, the girls set off (with waterproof coats in their rucksacks!) for a countryside ramble. Turner, Highlands and Walker girls all headed out on this adventure together and, while we took care not to mix our house bubbles, it was great to be exploring the world and having fun as a whole boarding community again.

On Sunday, girls from Highlands and Turner houses visited Bray Lake. This was a very exciting moment for us as a boarding community as it was the first time this year we had been able to climb aboard the minibuses for a day out. The girls jumped at the chance to get into the water and really made a splash trying out canoeing and paddle-boarding. Spending time being playful and exercising in nature was an excellent way for the older boarders to relax after a week of dedicated revision for their upcoming exams.

Our walk took us along leafy pathways, through sun-dappled woodlands and across big, open fields. We made sure to take a break so we could have a snack and take time to appreciate our surroundings by cloud watching, picking dandelions and running down hills. Then, it was time to head back to Godstowe where there was a fantastic surprise waiting...The ice-cream van had paid us a visit! The girls were thrilled to be able to choose a treat, and it was the perfect reward after the long walk.

While the older girls were out on their trip, Walker house enjoyed starting their very own Fashion School, complete with a catwalk to show off the creative designs they had drawn, and the boarders who remained in Highlands made the most of the natural world close to home by creating a sunflower garden before getting active in the Sports Hall with Miss Hill. This was followed by the weekly swimming session, allowing those who did not go to Bray Lake, a chance to get involved in the waterthemed fun.

Appreciating the natural world has been shown to reduce stress, build confidence and contribute to overall well-being. It was lovely to see the girls smiling and laughing in such scenic surroundings this weekend, and we hope the weather allows us to get outdoors to make many more joyful memories before the end of term.

WEEKLY QUIZ! 1. What name has been given to the massive tunnelling machine that has recently started work on a tunnel for HS2?

2. Which two cities will the first phase of HS2 join up?

You don’t need to be a Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. politician; To make it your mission to conserve, to protect; To preserve that one and only home; That is ours; To use your unique power; To give next generations the planet they deserve.

Last week's answers: 1. Cats 2. Royal Society for the

The Young Climate Warriors weekly challenges help children to make small changes to the way they live to be part of wider efforts to tackle global environmental issues. Systemic and societal changes are needed to address climate change, but ‘we don’t need to be a politician’ – if we all work together, as communities, and ‘make a start today', we can all be part of the change. Taking action against plastic pollution is a very tangible way for children to be involved.

Excerpt from Amanda Gorman’s poem - Earthrise

This week children are asked, with your permission of course, to banish the clingfilm and the plastic bags – forever! We suggest the first step is for them to hide them in a different cupboard so you have to think twice before using them!

Older children might enjoy listening to Amanda Gorman reciting the entire poem ‘Earthrise’.

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