Godstowe News - Autumn 2020 27/11

Godstowe news

Autumn Term 27 November, 2020

Weekly Awards

Artwork Sophie P Monday Badge

Headmistress' Letter Dear Parents, It has been an exciting week at Godstowe. The Christmas Trees arrived on Tuesday and the spirit of Christmas has been sparkling down the corridors ever since! Wednesday saw the girls decorating their classrooms whilst Reception was magically transformed into a Christmas scene complete with fireplace and seasonal stockings. On Thursday the School Houses decorated the corridors with colour themed bunting and the results were announced in assembly this morning.

Today, on Day 10, the elves announced the arrival of a hot chocolate and rocky road at break time and we were then lucky enough to enjoy some sunshine whilst enjoying these delicious treats. It is so lovely to have the whole

Brilliant Book Fair!

Throughout last week, the Reception area was busy with girls visiting the Book Fair. We were so pleased to be able to hold our Fair in these difficult times.Thank you to everyone who bought books: you helped us raise a very welcome ÂŁ2,627 in commission to spend on books for school. Some titles have already been sent to the Boarding Houses, and others will be put into the Library and classrooms over the next few months.

school, including Lodge children, in our Teams Assemblies to see and hear the elves every morning! I passed a pleasant hour with Meg judging the virtual pet show and thank you so much to Mrs Sayles for putting this all together. It was great fun and very difficult to choose, with entrants ranging from Guinea Fowl to smiley horses, as you will see below.

The Christmas Hamper bidding was a tremendous success and raised a remarkable amount of funds for FOG: thank you to everyone who has helped with these events which have helped us to manage our disappointment about the lack of a real Christmas Fare this year.

I am looking forward tremendously to our very own Winter Wonderland which we shall be setting up for the boarders this weekend and in the meantime wish you all a happy weekend.

Amaya Emma Emilia

Accelerated Reader Melody H House Shield Franklin Boarders of the Week Walker - Duchess Turner - Mofe and Mini Highlands -Honor

Sports Stars Saskia Georgia Charlotte S Nicole Alice O Farren C

Christmas Bunting House Competition Winners!

Form I - Adlington Form II - Franklin LIII - Pankhurst MIII - Seacole UIII - Pankhurst IVs - Seacole

Boarders' Corner written this week by Walker House As our favourite festive holiday approaches, our Boarding Community have welcomed our girls back from Exeat with plenty of Christmas cheer. We’ve spent the week decorating our Christmas trees, taking our annual Christmas card photos and this is only the beginning! The Walker Girls decorated the tree with red and gold baubles on Tuesday night to the sound of “All I Want for Christmas is You” in the background. Walker also lit up their common room with metres and metres of fairy lights which can be seen by all from outside our window.

During the week, Highlands have started their celebrations in their Christmas jumpers, taking a beautiful house photo.

They have also hung up wreaths around the boarding house and decorated their Christmas tree, adding to the festive environment all the houses are creating.

One cold winter afternoon, girls were also treated with hot chocolate during Snack time. On the other side of the school, Turner House girls began writing their Christmas cards to continuous Christmas music. They also put up their tree with the most important decoration, the star, on top.

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Alongside the school’s 12 Days of Christmas, Boarding Staff have organised an extravaganza of Christmas activities which we hope will create special memories for our girls this year. We hope to share with you our special Christmas moments in the coming weeks.

In addition to all the Christmas fun, we are excited to welcome a group of Day Girls to our boarding houses as part of a Short Term Boarding Experience for the next two weeks. In these last weeks of term, these girls will get to experience what boarding is all about from the community that makes up boarding to the fun weekend activities. We know that new friendships will be formed and lots of fun is to be had.

The School is feeling very festive, as our '12 Days of Christmas' Countdown to the end of term started this week. Each day there will be a special Christmas treat or activity for the girls to enjoy.

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Claire Gillett, Head of Lodge Hannah Smart, Head of Nursery There has definitely been an atmosphere of excitement at Lodge this week, as preparations for Christmas continue! On Tuesday, the Christmas tree arrived, and by Wednesday it was beautifully decorated in Lodge Hall. Other decorations have appeared in all the classrooms and buildings, and on Thursday, a great deal of fun was had making some Christmas bunting. It was also lovely to enjoy a special hot chocolate snack on Friday.

We look forward to seeing what Christmas surprises will happen next week. Please remember that it is the Christmas outfit day next Friday and that any gifts for refugees need to be brought in on Tuesday.

Nursery have been enjoying lots of Christmas crafts this week. They enjoyed making tree decorations as part of the 12 days of Christmas that we are celebrating. We have used them to decorate our Nursery and it looks amazing! On Friday the children dressed up and performed the Nativity play. We have filmed it and look forward to sharing it with you soon. The children have done a fantastic job of learning their lines and lots of songs.

Our number of the week was Naughty 9, an elephant with 9 wrinkles on his trunk. Our sound of the week was 'e' for egg.

This week in Beginners we have been thinking more about the story of The Nativity. We have been practising our storytelling and our singing, and we have been doing some reading and writing about the special story of the first Christmas. In Maths, we have been thinking about different numbers which can be added together to make 5.

We have also been enjoying lots of exciting Christmas art and starting to feel very festive!

Things have started to feel distinctly festive in Kindergarten this week. In Literacy the children have enjoyed learning the nativity story by sequencing, acting it out and writing sentences. They have also made some beautiful Christmas decorations and listened to extracts from the Nutcracker. We are delighted to have Mrs Archer back from her maternity leave and, since October, have welcomed Mrs Kiri, who joined us full time in October supporting children in both Kindergarten classes in a variety of curriculum areas.

Young Climate Warriors

This week, Transition pupils have been very busy rehearsing their lines and songs for our Nativity, 'The Grumpy Innkeeper'. We have been trying to rehearse parts of this outside in various locations, and are learning about the difficulties this brings, competing with the noise from the nearby traffic and trying to avoid all the other year groups and activities happening at Godstowe! In the classroom, we have been working on our x5 table, as well as applying our knowledge of our tables to division questions. We have also had the glitter out, preparing various pieces of Christmas artwork!

Please may we ask that if your child requires lip balm in this cold weather that they should only bring one plain lip balm into school which should be clearly named.

Hey Young Climate Warriors!

When you hear the word ‘amazon’ what do you think? … Toys, books, presents, internet shopping – or do you think of the South American rainforest that is one of our carbon-storing, climate changefighting powerhouses?

Your challenge this week is to stop and think about our rainforests, our animals, our planet before you ‘click’. Gift giving is a part of Christmas, but sometimes ‘less is more’. Would you like to ‘adopt’ an endangered animal (check out www.wwf.org.uk ), or go on an outing with your relatives instead of receiving a new toy? Could you gift a ‘helping-hand’ to grandparents? Or think about some homemade presents that you could give to family or friends? Could you go to a second-hand shop to find the gifts you’re looking for? Whilst you’re heading to the second-hand shop, could you donate anything that you no longer need, or toys you no longer play with? If you need to buy new – can you think about buying something that will last and can you look out for environmental, fairtrade products?

Look out for Forest Stewardship Council (paper) Soil Association (food) and the Fairtrade accreditation for many other items.

Don’t forget to HIT THE RED BUTTON when you have stopped to think - less is more - what can I do differently?

/GodstoweSchool

@GodstoweSchool

@godstoweprepschool

www.godstowe.org

Friends of Godstowe Christmas Hamper Virtual Auction 2020 Winners announced!

The Big Sleepout at Home!

Pet competition winners ANNOUNCED!

The Big Sleep Out At Home in aid of Wycombe Homeless Connection was a triumph this year.

Girls were incredibly creative and found all sorts of nooks and crannies where they could snuggle down for the night and raise money. Congratulations to Team Kane who raised over ÂŁ1,110 by spending a chilly night on the trampoline! So many girls did magnificently and so far our total is a magnificent ÂŁ3,455 and climbing. There are some great photos coming in which are displayed on the Charities Board. Many many thanks to all who took part.

Rosie Lake

Fumes from cars at drop off and pick up times Thank you to all parents for turning off your engines whenever it is possible during drop off and pick up, especially when stationary and when your child is getting out of the car. Please continue to help us to look after the health of our pupils and staff.

WEEKLY QUIZ! Last week's answers...

1. White Giraffe 2. Ossicones

/GodstoweSchool

@GodstoweSchool

@godstoweprepschool

www.godstowe.org