Godstowe News - Autumn 2020 04/11

Godstowe news

Autumn Term 4 December, 2020

Weekly Awards

Headmistress' Letter Dear Parents, We have enjoyed another Christmassy week at Godstowe. With our countdown days ranging from snowflake making, a Christmas quiz, and Christmas costumes today, what a week at it has been!

Artwork Sophia S I would like to particularly thank all of those staff who have been teaching remotely this week; it is not always straightforward, and certainly very intense. Well done also to all of the girls who have been self isolating either at home, or in Highlands house. Although spread slightly further afield than normal, the sense of community at Godstowe has most certainly prevailed!

Wishing you all a relaxing and happy weekend.

It was wonderful in our online assembly this morning to zoom in on those teachers who had really gone to town including Miss Bennett's turkey, Mrs Lee Metcalfe's Christmas tree, Miss Hill's Father Christmas, and Mrs Smith's fabulously festive Mickey Mouse. The girls’ costumes were brilliant as well!

Godstowe's Christmas Appeal 2020 in aid of Wycombe Refugee Partnership Thank you for your generosity in supporting this initiative. We have received so many gifts, and more are coming in all the time.

We are proud this year to be supporting refugee families in the local area with The Wycombe Refugee Partnership by buying Christmas presents for children who might otherwise not have any gifts to open.

Monday Badge Zsofia Annabel Rosie

Accelerated Reader Alice B Boarders of the Week Walker - Eleanor Turner - Abila and Precious Highlands -The whole house!

Sports Stars Grace C Ella I Jemima S Emily C Martha H

Boarders' Corner written this week by Turner House A Day in the Life of a Boarding Gap As the school prepares to enter its final week of 2020, our thoughts quite rightly turn towards friends, family and holiday celebrations. However, when the school shuts next Friday, our Australian Gap Students will remain, to spend their first Christmas 10,500 miles away from their family homes in Melbourne, Australia.

COVID-19 has prevented them from flying home until the New Year.

This year in particular, Turner is indebted to its hard-working stalwart, Miss B. In the 12 months since her arrival, Miss B has transmogrified from a shy, quiet fish somewhat out of water, into a highly efficient, confident and competent young lady. She is now almost entirely responsible for the day-to-day administration within the house and commands the upmost respect of the girls. Miss B has her finger on the pulse, spotting subtle changes of behaviour early on. The girls enjoy spending time with her and consequently, Miss B will come to us as Houseparents, often armed only with a sense that something is not quite right. Upon further investigation, she will be proven to be correct, as there has been a falling out in school.

We are sure that Miss B is looking forward to the end of term along with everybody else. We also know that there will be tears before the end of this weekend, where the girls say their formal goodbyes. We in Turner have been blessed this year; Miss B made a decision to spend her gap year in England and at Godstowe.

We thank you for all you have done for us, for the girls and we wish you a safe return to Australia. When you are a little older, 2020 will certainly be a year to look back on!

a lot like Ch k ris loo Today was Christmas costume day and we enjoyed seeing the pupils and staff really going to town with their amazing outfits!

/GodstoweSchool

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Often the unsung heroes of a smooth running boarding house, our Gap Students have given selflessly of their time to act as big sisters to the girls, as well as PAs to the Houseparents and Housemistresses. They perform a vital administrative role within each house and are the reason that the girls have clean uniform, a snack and cut up fruit

when they return from school in the afternoon, their photographs on the display boards in school‌the list is endless.

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Claire Gillett, Head of Lodge Hannah Smart, Head of Nursery It has been another Christmassy week at Lodge!

We have been enjoying listening to extracts from 'The Nutcracker' each morning, and joining in with the Christmas Countdown. It has been lovely to see the children looking very festive in Christmas Mufti today! Thank you also for your generosity on our Christmas Gift Day, bringing in some wonderful presents for refugee children. At Lodge, we also chose to thank other members of our community on that day, making cards for the kitchen staff, cleaners, maintenance team and swimming pool manager, as we remember that Christmas is about giving as well as receiving.

The sound of the week this week has been h for horse and the Number Zoo character has been Tiger 10. Tiger 10 is a tiger who likes to show off his 10 stripes and 10 whiskers. Our room in Nursery has been turned into a Christmas grotto with lots of magical decorations made by us. We have been practising our number formation with paint brushes in green sand. We really enjoyed the Christmas countdown this week, especially the day where we thought about others, making cards and decorations to give to different people who have helped us.

A very busy week in Beginners as our Christmas offering of ‘Let's celebrate’ was filmed ready to be shared with our families in the next few weeks. All the children have been brilliant as the storytellers of the Nativity and have astounded us with their singing, acting and dancing. We have continued to get creative for Christmas, filling the classroom with sparkle and cheer whilst keeping up our phonics and maths learning. We have been working hard to find pairs of numbers that add up to 5 and starting to work on the challenging digraphs ch and sh. We have enjoyed marking the beginning of December with some advent activities, particularly counting down the days until Christmas Day. In Beginners it definitely is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Kindergarten have been revising numbers to 20 learning to spell the names correctly, and to order and compare them. In Literacy, the children wrote letters to Santa explaining how they have been good during the year and describing what they would like to receive. The subject of gifts was also our RE/PSHE topic, when the children focused more on the importance of giving, rather than receiving. Art was devoted to making ‘thank you’ cards for our wonderful maintenance team.

Young Climate Warriors

Every time you spend money, you are casting a vote for the kind of world you want Anna Lappé

Transition children worked very hard this week, creating their filmed version of the Nativity on location around Godstowe.

Everyone was amazing, remembering all their lines and looking wonderful in their costumes. They enjoyed making snowflakes and watching 'The Snowman' film. We have been consolidating our work on division this week. We will be having our bumper bundle spelling test next Wednesday on all the spelling word families covered this term, so rather than a Maths homework this weekend, please encourage your children to practise their spellings!

Approximately half of packaged supermarket products contain palm oil, including many bathroom products – shampoo, soap, shower gel, shaving foam, make-up, deodorant, toothpaste... Whether as part of our routine shop, or as Christmas gifts, we all have many opportunities to ‘cast our votes’ when buying bathroom products.

This week’s Young Climate Warriors challenge encourages children to become detectives in their bathroom – to see how many products contain palm oil. It is not always easy to spot – so some clues are provided!

If you’d like to find out more about palm oil, this CBBC Newsround video is excellent. or take a look at this interactive page produced by WWF. Please remind children to ‘HIT THE RED BUTTON’ when they have completed the challenge.

/GodstoweSchool

@GodstoweSchool

@godstoweprepschool

www.godstowe.org