Godstowe news
Spring Term 11 March 2022
A Middles 'Hungry Caterpillar' and a 'Mary Poppins' Duo
A letter from the Headmistress
Key Dates for next week 15th March
Dear Parents,
FI and FII Parents' Evening
What a brilliant week we have enjoyed here at Godstowe. We have celebrated a real variety of successes across all areas and it has been wonderful to see so many children involved. Lodge received some visitors this week from Main School when the Middles went to read to them as part of their English and Drama lessons. One lucky group even enjoyed their stories out in the sunshine.
16th March Lodge Interactive Theatre Experience 17th March Lowers' Production: Splash! 18th March Lowers' Production: Splash!
In Main School, we were focussing on Careers Week. The girls in the Upper Thirds and Fourths were part of a fantastic afternoon, organised by Mr Adams. Some parents had volunteered their time to come and speak to the girls about their careers, and then the girls were able to ask questions and even take part in a couple of activities. This was an enjoyable and informative event for everyone, including staff members and visitors!We also celebrated World Book Day in Main School this week and there were some very imaginative costumes from both children and staff. I would also like to congratulate all of our sportswomen this week. From Cross Country at the weekend, to netball and swimming, there have been medals, certificates and trophies to award.
Sports Fixtures 14th March U13A Netball IAPS National Finals 16th March U12A IAPS National Finals at Rugby School U13A&B, U12B Netball District Tournament at Wycombe Abbey 17th March U12C Netball District 'B' Tournament at St. Michael's
Wishing you all a very happy and restful Exeat.
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Claire Gillett, Head of Lodge
Hannah Smart, Head of Nursery
Thank you so much to everyone who brought in flowers this week to display in our classrooms. They look beautiful and along with the sunshine, have really made us feel that Spring is on its way! Lodge children have also enjoyed having visitors from MIII this week, who came to read them stories as part of their drama lessons. It was so lovely that it was warm enough to do this outside and we appreciated the opportunity to have year groups mixing again. This week we have continued our theme of ‘our favourite books’. We have enjoyed using patterns to make our own alien underpants and in Maths we have been using dice to decide how many jewels we would decorate the princess crowns with. We were able to add the 2 different amounts on the 2 dice to count the correct amount of jewels. In cookery we made Gruffalo crumble cakes, which were delicious. The sound of the week this week was u and we made underwater fish tanks. This week in Beginners we have continued to think about growing and changing, and looked at the new signs of Spring which we notice every day. We have been reading the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, and we have made our very own little books re-telling the story in our own words. Our artwork has been inspired by the story. In Maths, we have started our new topic all about Subtraction, and we have enjoyed looking at how when you subtract items, the quantity gets smaller.
Kindergarten children continue with their mission into Space, having created their very own planets and aliens in Literacy, in preparation for next week's fantasy story writing task. They have begun a Solar System project , which will culminate in a zigzag booklet about the planets. Using the marbled paper that they made in Art at the start of this half term, the children enjoyed applying some of the techniques of paint and collage to compose a picture of our galaxy. In Maths we are continuing with numbers to 50, focusing this week on sequencing, ordering and comparing. Finally, thank you for your generous donations of spring flowers that are making our classrooms look and smell beautiful! This week in assembly, Transition and Kindergarten were thinking about Mindfulness, and explored different strategies for when they were feeling cross or worried about something. Following this, in their PSHE lesson, Transition talked about some of their worries from their worry boxes, including some of the things they have been hearing about in the news. In our Literacy lessons this week, we have been looking at how to set out a playscript or interview, and we had fun writing an interview with a fairytale character, giving some very imaginative answers! In Maths, as well as continuing with times tables, we have been looking at 3D shapes, trying to name them and identify their properties. We have a very exciting and dramatic week next week as we are watching the Lowers Production of Splash! on Monday and are having a visit from Interactive Theatre on Wednesday. Then, of course, we have our Wellie Walk on Friday 18th March. We hope to raise lots of money for Comic Relief so please remember to wear red Mufti clothes and bring wellies!
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Weekly Awards Boarders of the Week Highlands Turner Walker
Chrissie Z Mercedes C Nesia O-O
Typing Awards Beginner
Arabella T Raphaella P
Accelerated Readers Charlotte L Charlotte P Sofia M Haleema S Alexandra L Ally Z Isabella C Duchess N A.R Honours Neeva P
Friday Badges IC IH IM
Arabella B Eloise H Tamara O
Sports Stars Fifi H-C Valentina B Sofiya S
Camilla P-W Kate K Wendy J
We are going to include updates each week of our girls' lessons in Main School.
This week in PE...
Stella Berens "We get to do all types of sports in our lessons. In Netball, we do lots of drills and getting fit. We play lots of matches in lessons which is really fun because then everyone gets to play. For Lacrosse, we are practising our ball work and skills ready for our tour to USA. I'm really looking forward to getting to travel. I love team sports. The teachers are really good, they give lots of feedback to help us improve." - Stella B, IV
Sofiya - Lowers "At the moment we are playing lots of 5-aside netball. We get to play every position and my favourite is GS or GA. I'm enjoying doing breastroke in swimming because it's calm. In Dance, we are putting together a cheerleading routine. Some of the girls do their gymnastics skills and some dance with their partner." - Sofiya, LIII
Franklin Pankhurst Seacole Adlington
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"In Netball, we are doing overhead and chest passes. We are in pairs and one of us sits down with our legs up in a 'v' shape. Then the person standing throws a chest pass and the person sitting throws an overhead pass. It's quite tricky when you are sat down. In swimming we are learning proper breastroke, which I'm really enjoying. We do one lesson on arms and one lesson on legs." - Adiya, IH
Thisbe "Mrs MacDougall teaches us Netball and we do lots of drills and match play. She helps us identify when the drills can be used in games. We get to do proper lacrosse this year which is really fun. Mrs Reynolds explains it well and we are doing spacing and passing. In Dance it's fun to explore new ways of expression, but I'm not the greatest dancer. Miss Hearnshaw teaches us swimming and I love swimming. I've recently stopped competitive swimming but it's nice to be able to be in the pool here." - Thisbe M-J, MIII
Sam Cook, England Netball The MIII's were very lucky to have a special visitor come and coach them in their double netball lesson on Wednesday. Sam Cook is an exEngland player who now works at Cheltenham College as their director of netball and is also Assistant Coach at the Superleague team Severn Stars. She met all of the girls and then led them in an inspiring coaching session followed by her watching them involved in some match play. She was very impressed with the Godstowe girls and really enjoyed her visit.
House Points
1st 2nd 3rd 4th
Adiya
Bella O said, "It was so cool having Sam here with us. She taught us so many things. One thing I'm going to try and implement in my game is to think about the overall game, so don't run in too early but think about the next coming moves. She also talked to us about reaction times and we did some really cool exercises to improve our reactions. It was great fun!"
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Music Events
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Melanie Martin, Director of Music
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National Children's Orchestra for Eleanor and Lily-May Last weekend, Lily-May M and Eleanor E, rehearsed and performed in the National Children's Orchestra of GB. It was an exciting weekend working with talented young musicians from across the country, performing a wide range of music, including music commissioned especially for the NCO! Both girls played brilliantly and are excited to rejoin their new friends for the next weekend of NCO music making in June. Well done girls!
Student Recital Last Friday, 23 girls, (ranging from form I to IVs) performed in the student recital. The audience, which included staff, parents and students, enjoyed music performed on brass, strings, woodwind and percussion instruments, as well as piano music and singing. They performed music from the Baroque period through to pop music and the standard of performance, as always, was excellent. Well done girls!
Chesham Arts Festival Godstowe String Quartet
During Half Term five Godstowe girls took part in the Chesham Arts Festival.
On Tuesday 1st March, the Godstowe String Quartet performed in the South East Chamber Music for Schools Competition at Wycombe Abbey. After their performance of Haydn’s Quartet Op.1 No.4, they received coaching from the adjudicator, Michael Dussek, a renowned pianist and professor at the Royal Academy of Music. We are delighted that they have been selected to perform in the Finalists’ Concert in London, alongside chamber music groups from schools including St Paul’s Boys, Harrow, North London Collegiate and Wycombe Abbey.
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All playing their violins, Georgina E, Chizuru Y, Michelle M, Elodie W and Eleanor E performed exceptionally well and enjoyed themselves performing on stage to a new, large audience.They received encouraging reports from the adjudicator, with many commendations. Congratulations to Eleanor who was invited back to perform again in the final prize winners' concert at the Elgiva Theatre on Sunday 27th February. In addition to performing again, Eleanor was awarded three trophies; The Jordan, The Oakwood (piano playing) and The Endeavour, plus a music voucher.
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Sports Results
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Rachel Hearnshaw, Director of Sport
Cross Country
Netball
On Saturday 5th March, Godstowe had a Cross Country match at Gayhurst School against 15 other schools. All the Godstowe girls ran brilliantly and we were really proud of their amazing running. At this race we even had a large penguin mascot who warmed the girls up before each race! Individual medal winners were: In the Under 8’s race the form 1 girls were particularly impressive. Coco came 1st, Holly 2nd, Isla 3rd, Ingrid 5th and Elodie 8th. This meant that we had 5 girls in the top 10! In the Under 9s race Mala came 2nd, Honor 5th, Anna 6th and Xanthe 9th. Again 4 in the top 10. In the Under 10’s race Juliette came 1st, Ella 2nd, Elysia 6th and Theordora 7th. Again 4 in the top 10. In the Under 11’s race Katie came 3rd. We also achieved many excellent team medals which were awarded to the top 3 runners in each year. The Under 8’s – Coco, Holly and Isla won the Gold team medal The Under 9’s - Mala, Honor and Anna won the Gold Team medal The Under 10’s - Julliette, Ella and Elysia won the Gold Team medal The Under 11’s - Katie, Kiana and Poppy won the Gold Team medal This means that we won every year group!
Saturday 5th March Our U10A team travelled to Oxford on Saturday to play in the Teddies Fives Netball Festival at St Edward's School. It was a cold, wet day and the girls played some excellent netball and showed true resilience in the conditions. They won the tournament and came home with some well deserved silverware. Monday 7th March On Monday we welcomed 3 teams from High March to play our MIII's. All 3 games were competitive and it was great to see so many girls out on the courts enjoying their netball. Tuesday 8th March "The U13C Team performed exceptionally well at the U13B District Tournament on Tuesday 8th March. They played each and every match with focus, true grit and determination. Their attacking play was open using effective set piece moves and their defence was excellent, so good in fact that it forced their opposition to make errors on many occasions. They are worthy silver medal winners and I am so proud of every single player. The whole team deserves Player of the Match." - Mrs Western-Kaye
Swimming On Tuesday 8th March 2022 Form II, Lowers and Middles competed in the Divisional 10 League gala. All the girls were a credit to Godstowe in and out of the pool. With a lot of excellent swims, the girls ensured that their performance kept them in the hunt for a 1st on the evening. With one round to go it has been a great experience for all those involved and look forward to building on previous round results and topping the leader board after the final event. Well Done Girls! Also a big congratulations to one of our swim team swho won the Wycombe Abbey final on Wednesday and the other who came second. A special mention to Sienna R, Emily H and Isla H for breaking records in their finals!
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Boarders Corner
OG Olivia Thomas needs your help!
Shrove Tuesday, Hina Matsuri, Netball, cinema trips, Kidzania and movie nights it was a week to remember in the boarding houses. On Tuesday, we all kicked off the week with pancakes after our supper, topped with fresh berry compote and honey. Many of the houses also had pancakes as their house treat later on in the week so it really was a pancake extravaganza. On Wednesday, Walker House celebrated Hina Matsuri - a Japanese doll festival where the health and happiness of young girls is prayed for. Walker decorated the whole house from top to bottom and had some Japanese puffed rice snacks after school.
Olivia Thomas has been selected for the Senior England Women's Lacrosse squad, which she has been working towards since falling in love with Lacrosse during her time at Godstowe. However, the team are fully selffunded, and pay for all expenses, including kit, training venues, coaches, physio and even travel. For this reason, she is asking to partner with sponsors who would be willing to support their journey next summer in Maryland, USA. If you would like to sponsor, please email EWNT@englandlacrosse.com to find out more. Any sponsorship is appreciated by the team. They have also developed a website, England Women's Lacrosse where you can buy some merchandise to support the team.
Walker House
The weekend was equally exciting with Saturday seeing the senior houses going off to watch the Netball Super League at the Copper Box Arena. It was a fab day out and I’m told the girls even managed to get some autographs and selfies with the players! Meanwhile, Walker House went to watch Clifford the Big Red Dog at the cinema - choc ice in hand of course. On Saturday evening, the houses all settled down for a relaxed evening in. Walker watched Freaky Friday in a nod to children being adults before our trip to Kidzania. Speaking of Kidzania, after a hearty brunch on Sunday morning, we boarded the coach and went off to Westfiled. It took a little while to get there but all the girls were really good at keeping a smile on despite the London traffic. Once we arrived, we checked in at the airport before walking into what felt like another mini world. From fire-fighting to cleaning out the air vents - the girls have tried their hand at a myriad of careers this weekend. They even managed to earn some Kidzoz in the process which we have saved up for our next trip. A personal highlight was watching the Walker girls perform in the theatre and admiring some impressive window cleaning from lots of the fourths. The Boarding Team are busy planning lots of exciting trips and activity days for the Summer Term so there’s certainly lots more fun to come in the boarding community. We hope you all have an excellent exeat and we look forward to welcoming the girls back on Sunday!
Boarders' Video 5th-6th March 2022 Follow us on Instagram @GodstoweBoarding /GodstoweSchool
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Photos of our Week
Book Review from Elsa W and Annabelle T-P, Form I Book Name: Animal Abilities Octopuses Book Author: Anna Claybourne Our rating:
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"This book is good for learning about sea animals. It is very interesting if you are bored because your mind wants to be interested; the book is funny! It won't be long before you know lots of Octopus facts. There are also things to know about saving the environment. You learn octopuses are very clever. I won't take long to read even though there are over fifty facts!"
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