Godstowe News: Summer Term 27/5

Godstowe news

Summer Term 27 May 2022

Key Dates for next week 6th June MIII and UIII Online Safety talks MIII and UIII Parents' Online Safety Talks 7th June Common Entrance and IV Form School exams

Our celebratory 70

A letter from the Headmistress Dear Parents, What a wonderful way to end this penultimate half term of the year! Our Platinum Jubilee celebrations went brilliantly today and all of the boys and girls threw themselves completely into the celebration spirit.

The day began with an assembly about the emblems of the United Kingdom followed by a whistle-stop tour of monarchs from Mr Emm. The whole school then congregated to make a giant number 70 in honour of the queen’s reign. After break we enjoyed our concert of the decades and it was a trip down memory lane for many of the staff as each year group took us through each decade of the last 70 years. Then we were on to the quiz before all going to the field for our street party and lunch.

At the end of the afternoon our two Elizabeths planted our jubilee tree on the Walker Lawn. I do hope that you enjoy hearing all about everything and looking through the photos. The best thing about the day was the sense of fun and joy which every single person experienced.

It only remains for me to wish you all a lovely half-term and perhaps further fun jubilee celebrations!

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8th June Common Entrance and IV Form School exams Nursery and Lodge Parents' Coffee Morning 9th June Common Entrance and IV Form School exams 10th June Common Entrance and IV Form school exams (am only) FII Presentation to Parents Head's IV Form Leavers' BBQ 11th June IV Form Social with Caldicott

Sports Fixtures 8th June 3pm U11 A and B Cricket at Pipers Corner (away) 4.30pm U12 Athletics at Wycombe Abbey (away) 9th June U8/U9 Tennis Maltman's Green (home) 11th June U9-U13 Swimming IAPS Finals

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Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee Celebrations Friday 27th May was the day that Godstowe celebrated the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. We had everything from a Jubilee Concert, where each year group were assigned a decade, and Platinum Jubilee Quiz, Street Party and lots of stalls to play games at. We finished the day with a tree being planted by Ms Green and our two 'Elizabeths'. Keep an eye out over half term for our "Platinum Jubilee Bumper Newsletter" with drone footage and lots more photos.

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Claire Gillett, Head of Lodge

Hannah Smart, Head of Nursery

There has been great excitement this week at Lodge in preparation for our Jubilee Day. Kindergarten and Transition have been busy preparing their 'Sweet Gingerbread Man' song which they performed in the concert, and we have all been learning about the Queen and why we are celebrating. It was so lovely to see all the children in their red, white and blue outfits, and the decorations that magically appeared on the playground!

The street party lunch, ice creams and games on the field have all been great fun today.

Nursery have had a week long Jubilee celebration this week. We started the week with learning lots about Queen Elizabeth and shared lots of royal stories. On Tuesday we loved making the Queen some scones (although we ate some too!) and on Thursday we enjoyed more baking as we made red, white and blue cupcakes for our Royal Tea Party. We then had great fun celebrating together, learning some dances from each decade of the Queen's reign. We enjoyed making lots of red, white and blue bunting and flags to decorate Nursery with. This week our sound of the week was v for vase. You may have seen the lovely vases we created, filled with pretty flowers.

In Beginners we celebrated the special Jubilee week using the fabulous book ‘The Queens Hat'. It is a wonderful tale of how the wind whisks the Queen's hat away and she and her royal guards have to chase it through London during which they encounter lots of London landmarks in an attempt to catch it. We recreated the story by making models of some of the landmarks and then using mini me figures, we took our own journey visiting the famous sites.

We made hats for our mini me figures and we wrote about our adventures in our own little red, white and blue books. We also got into the Jubilee party spirit by making some gorgeous crowns, decorating some royal cakes and painting giant bunting. We enjoyed singing the national anthem with gusto to round off a jubilant week in Beginners.

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Kindergarten children have enjoyed a "Celebration of Chocolate" this week. Following our visit to the Oxford Botanical Gardens, where they saw the source of chocolate, the Cacao tree, the children have now learnt how chocolate is made and its history, and how we are all indebted to the Aztec emperor Montezuma. To aid their concentration in the lesson, they each enjoyed a small bag of chocolate buttons! The chocolate theme continued into DT with the children making Rocky Road, which we hope you parents got to enjoy too. Our week ended on a regal note, with some beautifully made crowns, fit for a Jubilee Street Party.

Transition and Kindergarten enjoyed an assembly led by Ms Green this week, all about the importance of listening.

Focusing on the bible story of Mary and Martha, the children learnt that there are times when listening is more important than speaking or doing, and that to be a good friend, you need to listen to others.

This week, Transition has been looking at the importance of healthy eating in their Science lessons. We have been sorting foods into their food groups, in order to make sure that we are having a balanced diet. We also tried different flavours of fruit juice to find out our favourites, and showed this information on a bar graph. We have also been enjoying observing some tadpoles and newts!

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Sports Results

Rebecca Turner, Director of Sport

Athletics It has been a busy but successful week for the sports department. Not only are we preparing for Field Finals but we have had 109 girls represent Godstowe over three athletics meets.

On Saturday 21st May, 28 girls travelled to St Mary’s Ascot to take part in their annual athletics competition.

For some this was the first time they have competed which was fantastic to see. There were 10 schools competing over various age groups. We saw personal bests achieved which I hope will turn into records broken on Sports Day. Our U12 team and U13 team finished in second place respectively with Godstowe finishing in 7th place overall. A fantastic achievement considering the senior schools that were there competing.

On Wednesday 25th May, Wycombe Abbey hosted their first relay competition for our U12 and U13 A and B squads.

Despite the weather and the 4x800m the girls had a fantastic afternoon. Well done all that took part.

Thursday 26th May saw Godstowe host an U8-U11 athletics festival versus Maltmans and High March. The afternoon was particularly exciting for the U8’s as this was their first athletics meet. The girls competed in long jump, ball throw, 65m, 160m, 600m and 65m hurdles. It was lovely to see so many girls on the field and I cannot thank our Sports Monitors of Grace, Orissa and Tabby for helping us. Well done to all the girls that were involved. It was a great event. We are already looking forward to hosting it again next year.

Tennis On Monday, 23rd May, our U13 Tennis traveled to Royal Masonic School, hoping that the rain would stay away. Our girls produced a strong performance winning nearly every match.

Our 1st VI won 7 - 2 and our 2nd VI won 8 - 0. Well done girls!

Lottie's raising money for her brother Lottie, has set herself the challenge of completing a two-day endurance event in memory of her brother Joshua, who was stillborn four years ago.

Lottie will be taking on a 50m swim, 2km cycle, and 1000m run in the Henley Kids Triathlon on Saturday 9 July, followed by a half-mile open water swim in the River Thames the next day.

“I wanted to fundraise for Chestnut Tree House as they helped me do arts and crafts when I visited my brother, Joshua, as it was very emotional,” says Lottie. “The people at Chestnut Tree House were all really nice and helped me stay calm on my visits. I always left knowing my Mum and brother were in good hands.”

Find out more about Lottie's challenge and donate at this link

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