Godstowe news
Summer Term 13 May 2022
Congratulations to all the artists and designers for their display in the Art and Design Exhibition!
Key Dates for next week 17th May Class and Team photos
Part of our Carnegie judging team, The Shrubs
19th May Whole School photograph
A letter from the Headmistress Dear Parents, As the third week of the Summer Term at Our plans for Godstowe to celebrate Her Godstowe comes to an end, the school is Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee are well underway and we will be writing to you feeling very purposeful! with more details about that next week. I am sure that many of you enjoyed Final details are being put into place for watching the Lemon and Amaretti trifle the Art Exhibition and Fashion Show this become the official pudding for the event, evening and I was delighted to see so many hands go up in assembly from those on television last night and on Monday we will have our very own final to decide on girls who are coming with parents this Godstowe’s Platinum Pudding winner! evening. Walking around school, the classrooms feel very focused as girls in Main School prepare for their assessment week in the week before half-term, and for the Fourths for CE and exam week in the week immediately after the break. The girls do take their assessments seriously at the same time as looking forward to the fun end of term events which will follow.
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I was pleased to see so many of you this evening at the Art and Design Exhibition. The girls all did brilliantly in the fashion show and it was great to see all the artwork displayed in the JK Theare. In the meantime I think that the sun is going to shine and I wish you all a happy, fun and relaxing weekend.
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18th May Class and Team photos Kindergarten outing to the Oxford Botanic Garden UIII trip to the Wycombe Swan Theatre
20th May LIII Boarding trial
Sports Fixtures 16th May Years 4 and 5, 6 and 7, 8 Athletics at Stowe (away) 17th May U7-U10 Swimming at Lambrook (away) U11/(U12) Tennis at Maltman's Green (away) 18th May U9-U11 Athletics at Royal Masonic School (away) 21st May U12 and U13 Athletics at St Mary's School, Ascot (away)
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Weekly Awards
Boarders' Corner
Boarders of the Week
It’s that time of the week again where we reflect on all the fun of the last week in Boarding. It was a slightly different start to the term as our exeat fell on the first weekend. As much as we missed the girls on the bank holiday, we certainly made up for any missed fun this week!
Highlands Turner Walker
Claire L Wendy J Hikari I
Typing Awards Beginner Immediate
Reese N Bikman W
Accelerated Readers Gracie B
Friday Badges IC IH IM
Freya P Lara C Juliette W
Sports Stars of the Week Poppy D Emily McP Muyu I
Freya J Francesca M Carmen M
House Points 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
Pankhurst Adlington Seacole Franklin
Lucy Allan, Walker GAP Assistant
The girls returned to the boarding houses with tennis rackets in hand, all prepared for the delightful chaos of a Godstowe Summer. After a few weeks getting back into the swing of boarding life, it was finally time to unwind at the weekend. On Friday night, Walker welcomed their first group of trial boarders who we hope had a fabulous time at their movie night. Saturday morning was a little more mundane as the girls all completed their prep before a terrific afternoon of tennis and rounders - see the boarder’s video for some footage of the girls' sporting skills! The real star of the weekend was Sunday, when we headed off to Cotswold Wildlife Park. The sun was shining and the girl’s faces were glowing with suncream as we departed the bus. It was a lovely day out, filled with giraffes, penguins, otters, meerkats, rhinos and even lions! A particular highlight was the train which you could take round the park - if quintessentially English safari was a thing, this was it… We treated the girls to an ice cream in the afternoon before looking round some more in our groups. There was also a petting area for some of the farmyard animals which was particularly cute. All in all, it was a glorious day filled with lots of squeals and giggles under the summer sun. Hopefully the sunshine will return in time for this weekend as the houses have some gardening planned to brighten up the site!
Boarders' Video 7th - 8th May /GodstoweSchool
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Claire Gillett, Head of Lodge
Hannah Smart, Head of Nursery
Lodge is very excited about the Art Exhibition this weekend and it is very impressive to see their creative work exhibited in the JK Theatre. Next week, Lodge children will be having their class photographs taken on Tuesday and the whole school photograph on Thursday. Please ensure that they are wearing the correct summer uniform including red cardigans and plain white ankle socks. All the girls will need their school boaters for an activity on Jubilee Day, so please make sure your daughter’s is clearly named and in school. This week in Nursery we have been exploring the concept of life cycles. We have looked at the life cycle of humans and animals and thought about what we need to do to care for them. The children enjoyed matching baby animals to their parents and we are excited to try to spot some of these animals at the farm on our trip in a few weeks time. In cookery we made ladybird biscuits, requiring us to use our fine motor skills to carefully place their spots on. In Maths we have been focusing on counting the correct amount of objects from a set. We made sure that all the ladybirds had the right amount of fingerprint spots on their back. Our sound of the week was 'z' and we made zebras. We have also been learning to sound out words using sound buttons during our phonics sessions. This week in Beginners we are learning about spiders. Using the text called 'The very busy spider' we are finding out all things spider. We are looking at how and why spiders spin their intricate webs and are discovering how many different spiders there are in the world. We are making our own little information books to illustrate our learning and we are creating our own webs using different materials and techniques. We are also spending some time looking at the teen numbers 11,12,13,15 this week noting how they are made up of tens and ones. Our Mop End trip creeps ever closer and we are keeping our fingers crossed for good weather. We are all getting super excited about our ride on the minibus...what an adventure to come!
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This week, the children in Kindergarten enjoyed delving deeper into their Rainforest topic by finding out about the various animals which live in each layer. They used these creatures as inspiration for a fantastic T-shirt design, which they completed using fabric paint. Kindergarten also had great fun during a Literacy lesson, in which they were required to give their partner clear instructions for making a jam sandwich; sandwich consumption was of course obligatory! Kindergarten and Transition had an assembly this week on 'Being Confident'. We were looking at examples of famous people who believed in themselves and went on to do great things, and we saw that even when others knocked their confidence, they kept persevering. This week, in their Science lessons, Transition children have been continuing their work on lifecycles, and have particularly been considering the lifecycle of chickens. They enjoyed looking at and labelling all the different parts of an egg when it has been broken, using magnifying glasses. In Art, we have been looking at the Pointillism style of painting and the work of George Seurat. Transition were able to use pens to create their own Pointillism pictures.
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We are going to include updates each week of our girls lessons in Main School.
This week in History.. Fourths Revision of Topics "Mr Emm is an amazing history teacher, he is super organised and knows everything, and I mean everything, there is to know about History! At the start of the year, we revised the Slavery Act that we learnt in Uppers. It's an interesting but sad subject. In October, we starting learning the Crimean War, I found this tough but Mr Emm explained it very well. We also learnt about the Suffragette Act and what those women went through in order to be able to vote. Now we are coming up to our CE and Internal exams so we are spending our lessons revising with Mr Emm, who is our own personal History Encyclopaedia!" - Evelina W, IV
Freya, Phillippa and Alexander the Great We've been learning about Alexander the Great with Mrs Cox. He conquered many countries, the first one was Persia. He rode his horse into Persia and there was a big battle. Unfortunately his horse, Bucephalus, died then Alexander the Great named a city after him. A Persian King didn't want to be captured so he kept running away and left his army, which wasn't a very good thing for a King to do. We've been able to watch some videos, and draw pictures. Mrs Cox also asks us to describe how the different people would have felt during this period."
Grace and Lowers' have been discovering Tudors "Mr Emm has been teaching us about the Tudor Kings and Queens. Some that we have been learning are Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I and what they achieved during their reign. I found Elizabeth I the most interesting as she reigned for a long time and was really clever about saving her money. It's a good topic so far!"
Uppers' and the Chartists "This term, we are learning about how England was between 1838 and 1848 and how only rich people could vote. Chartists wanted everyone to be able to vote and sent their 6 demands to Parliament. I really love History and Mr Emm is a great teacher. He explains everything really well." - Mercedes, UIII
Middles' and the German Elections "In History, we have been learning about Elections in Germany during the time that Hitler was in power. We've been looking at majorities and how Hitler managed to take power and the ways in which he convinced people to vote for him. Mr Emm puts it in a way that's easy to understand. We have a Middles' booklet with a document that contains everything we need to know. He then breaks it down and explains what we've read about. It really helps us understand the topics better." - Georgie B, MIII
Elissia, Leela and Theseus and the Minotaur "Mrs Moore teaches us History and we've been doing lots of different things. Our favourite is Ancient Greece and Theseus and the Minotaur. Theseus has to be very strong and clever to kill the Minotaur, which is half bull and half human. We got to act out the stories which was really fun. We also wrote letters from the Princess Ariadne to Theseus and Mrs Moore burnt the edges to make them look really old!"
Form II and the Vikings "We've been learning about Vikings. We watched some videos on how Vikings invaded the monasteries. When they attacked the monasteries, they took all their possessions and then sold them back to make some money. We also learnt that they don't have horns on their hats! Mrs Rycroft is our teacher and she always makes it fun and interesting to learn about." - Michaela and Freya, IIS
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Carnegie Awards
Sports Results Rebecca Turner, Director of Sport On Monday our U10 Tennis team played at Maltman’s Green. Ella, Libby, Una and Jessica did themselves and Godstowe proud with their skilful playing. The final scores were Maltmans 1 and Godstowe 7. On Wednesday our U12 Tennis team played against Wycombe Abbey, just managing to dodge the rain. The girls performed well in their first game of the season and the final results were very close. Godstowe won 6 matches and Wycombe Abbey won 8.
Super Swimmers This week our Super Swimmers have been involved in lots of competitions. Last Saturday, 7th May, Amy CD, Bella O, Jessica S and Poppy D competed in the second round of the ESSA Relay Championships having successfully come through round one.
With a very strong swim in the heats, the girls qualified second fastest to place in a favourable lane. In the finals, the girls swam very well and finished second by a very close margin. This means that Godstowe has qualified for the finals in Sheffield in June which is a great achievement and a credit to the girls and coaches.
Victoria Harris, Librarian
The Yoto Carnegie Medals are the UK’s longest running and bestloved children’s book awards, recognising outstanding reading experiences created through writing for young people. The Yoto Carnegie Medal is awarded by children’s librarians for an outstanding book written in English for children and young people. A national (and international) reading for pleasure initiative, the Carnegie Awards Shadowing Scheme engages thousands of young people in reading the books on the shortlist via reading groups in schools and public libraries with dedicated educational reading resources and promotional materials to support each shortlist. Each year young people who take part in the scheme are invited to vote for their favourite books to win the Shadowers’ Choice Awards, which are announced alongside the Medal winners at the annual winners’ ceremony. The Medals are awarded annually by CILIP, the library and information association and the Youth Libraries Group. This year, Godwstowe is entering a team for the first time, they will compete under the name of The Shrubs. They have been avidly reading the books on the short-list over the half-term and will continue to use their library lessons to discuss the books using the same judging criteria as the main judges. They will post reviews on the Carnegie Awards website and we will also include these in this newsletter over the coming weeks. I will keep you posted on how the team does, but if their enthusiasm is anything to go by, they will do very well!
On Thursday 24th March 2022, our swimmers took part in the IAPS qualifiers at Crosfields School. With 40 other qualifiers going on, the results have now been collated and published. We are very pleased to say that 13 swimmers have qualified for the finals and look forward to supporting the girls at this prestigious event. Congratulations to the following:
On 10th May, we had another Division 10 Gala with Godstowe girls winning almost all 32 races. As this was one part of the finals, with other schools taking part in part 2 on the 19th May, the girls knew it was not about placings but times and all swam very fast!
Juliette M Jessica S Amy CD
Poppy D Bella O Emily H Isla H
Sienna R Evie vR Bella B
Lucy B Annabelle W Ava P
The Division 10 Galas have been a great experience for all the girls who have been involved throughout the rounds, especially in the finals. Well Done Girls!
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