Godstowe News: Summer Term 6/5

Godstowe news

Spring Term 6 May 2022

Key Dates for next week 9th May Start of 13+ CE listening and speaking exams 11th May 8.30am - MIII, UIII and IV form Parents' Coffee Morning 13th May Beginners outing to Mop End 6.30-8.30pm - Art and Design Exhibition, JK Theatre 7.30pm - Fashion Show, JK Theatre

Form II with England Rugby player Zoe Aldcroft

A letter from the Headmistress Dear Parents, It has been a short and very busy week at Godstowe.

We began the week by awarding the badges to girls who are the new Form Monitors and Deputy Form Monitors for the Summer Term, as well as to the new members of the Pupil Council. We spoke about these roles carrying a lot of responsibility and what it means to be responsible. Our Upper Thirds will be moving into the position of prefects after half term and we were also able to talk to those girls about the roles that they will soon be carrying.

Sports Fixtures

The girls asked many questions and also were able to spend more time with Zoe over the course of the day.

9th May U10 Tennis at Maltman's Green

At lunchtime today we enjoyed the sunshine and the girls were delighted to see Meg (the dog) out on the astroturf hunting for left over snack crumbs at the same time as entertaining everyone.

10th May 4pm - U9-U11 Swimming (Division 10 Haberdashers' Girls) (away)

A fire drill this afternoon for everyone in Main School went smoothly and the school was evacuated in record time!

I do hope that the sunny weather continues so that the boarders can enjoy their trip on Sunday and I wish everyone a happy and relaxing weekend.

In assembly this morning we all enjoyed hearing Zoe Aldcroft, English Rugby Union player, speak to the girls about her career including the challenge of playing for England with a broken foot!

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14th May 10am - Open Morning for Lodge and Main School

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11th May 4.30pm - U12 Tennis at Wycombe Abbey 4.30pm - U13 Athletics at Wycombe Abbey 14th May 12pm - U12 and U13 Athletics at Queen Anne's 15th May IAPS Cross Country Championships at Ardingly College

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Weekly Awards

Uppers' Trip to RAF Northolt

Boarders of the Week

Following on from the Careers Event run at school in March, our Upper Thirds girls spent Thursday at RAF Northolt, attending an ‘Inspire Women’ careers day. There were many exciting and informative facets to the trip, including the opportunity to sit in the cockpit of a Mark V Chinook helicopter. The girls were lucky enough to later see this undertake an impressive take off and fly past as it left the RAF base. There were stands where the girls could find out about careers in the military police, medical departments, fire and bomb disposal units. One of the most popular stands was the search team, including Dexter the sniffer dog.

Highlands Turner Walker

Stephanie J Mercedes C Alyssa S

Typing Awards Beginner Advanced

Lily-May M Felicity A Chimamanda I

Accelerated Readers Annika K Vivian Z Honor D Leona W Athena L Shukee W

Kimberley Y Amelia L-S Elyssia W Michelle M Rebecca S Aryana T

At the end of the afternoon, the girls were treated to a marvellous musical performance on the parade square and a chance to view Her Majesty’s Colour.

Friday Badges IC IH IM

Isabella B Cecily V Alyssa S

Sports Stars of the Week Phillipa P Donohkon K Katie M

The day gave the girls the chance to see the many varied careers that could be open to them in the future, from logistics, cyberspace and musicians to intelligence, engineers and flight crew. It was fantastic for the girls to be able to explore these roles, have their questions answered and learn about the exciting and varied roles careers that they could follow. They also had the opportunity to undertake Virtual Reality flying of F35 jets, sit in a fire truck and enjoy revving the engine of a new Aston Martin DBX.

Olivia C Luca S Annabel H

Overall, it was a wonderful day and the girls had an enjoyable time learning about possible careers.

We’d like to say a big thank you to all at RAF Northolt who made our day so pleasurable.

House Points 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Adlington Franklin Pankhurst Seacole

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Claire Gillett, Head of Lodge

Hannah Smart, Head of Nursery

This week in Nursery, we enjoyed sharing the story 'Rumble in the Jungle'. We talked about different sounds we heard in the jungle and how they compare to the sounds we hear around Godstowe. There were some very different sounds!!

The children enjoyed making a jungle display with all their favourite animals from the story too. In Maths, we made snakes with repeating patterns on their backs, which was quite a tricky skill to master. In our cookery session we made rainforest banana oat balls, which were delicious! In Phonics we have been listening to the sounds in words and trying to find words that sound similar. We have enjoyed sharing lots of rhyming books.

This week in Beginners we have continued our exploration of minibeasts, turning our attention to ladybirds. We read a story called 'The Bad-tempered Ladybird' and we talked about some of the things that might make us feel badtempered sometimes, and the things that make us feel happy. We made ladybirds and we drew and wrote about the other creatures in the story. In Maths we have been practising counting back, and we have also been looking at clocks carefully and talking about time. We continue to practice the tricky sounds we have been learning in Phonics and apply these in our sentence writing. We are all really looking forward to our trip to Mop End next week!

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Kindergarten were very excited this week to see that their sunflower seeds have germinated and are growing fast! The plant topic was further extended to finding out about the different parts of a plant and their function and the children thoroughly enjoyed pulling their very own tulips apart. Please continue (or start!) to practise counting in 2s, 5s and 10s up to 100 during car journeys, as we continue our Maths topic on Multiplication and Division (or Grouping and Sharing as we say in Kindergarten). In Literacy we have started to learn about Instruction and the children found the video on ‘What happens when you don’t follow instructions’ very amusing! Some of our Kindergarten children were also able to meet Zoe Aldcroft, England Rugby player, who was visiting Main School.

This week in Literacy Transition children have been looking at different quest stories, identifying obstacles to be overcome and goals to be reached. We have been planning our own quest stories, and we have also been focusing on proofreading our work carefully, putting in correct punctuation. Our Science this week has been about the lifecycle of a frog, looking at all the different stages of development, from an egg, to a tadpole and eventually to a fully grown frog.

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We are going to include updates each week of our girls lessons in Main School.

This week in RS...

Annabel and Bea learn about Islam "We've only just started a new topic with Mrs Humphries which is Islam and the 5 pillars that they follow. We learnt that Muslim people only worship one god, fast and give half of their savings to charities. It's been really interesting to learn about and we've been able to discuss it lots as a class."

Sumaiya and Oli have been learning about Moses Imogen B made a memorial pillow "We have been learning about the Holocaust and Mrs Lake asked us to create a memorial over the Easter Holidays. I created a pillow to represent the lack of comfort that the Jewish people had during the Holocaust. They had to wear a Star of David with "Jude" on to show that they were Jewish. I stitched "We must remember" along one of the sides as it's important to remember what happened so it doesn't happen again. Learning about the Holocaust was a bit upsetting but Mrs Lake encourages us to talk about how we feel; she really is inspirational!"

Annointed and the Environment "In 8Q, we are currently revising, but our last topic was The Environment. Mrs Lake asked us to pick a person who has helped and encouraged people to do something about the environmental crisis. I chose David Attenborough and created a poster about what he has achieved. I also put some interesting facts, for example he never passed his driving test and he applied for his first job at the BBC and got rejected!

Our lessons are a lot of discussion which helps us all and Mrs Lake encourages us to listen to other people's point of view and build on it. I am learning to be more aware of my decisions regarding the environment, including one-use plastic bottles and turning light switches off! But there's lots still to do."

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"We have Mrs Hornett for RS and we've been learning about Moses and the King. It's quite a sad story but it's got a happy ending. The King wanted to kill all the babies and feed them to the crocodiles in the Nile. But Moses' mother put him in a basket and asked his sister to follow him down the river. The Princess of Egypt found him and rescued him. The sister suggested to the Princess that she knew someone who could look after him and Moses was reunited with his mother. We've done lots of drawings of Moses in the basket, the Nile and the crocodiles. Mrs Hornett makes it really fun and we learn lots."

Evelina's interpretation of Adam and Eve "We have been revising the Adam and Eve story in 8S. They were told by God not to eat the fruit from the trees but a snake convinced them it would give them the power of God. They disobeyed their first instruction and ate the fruit. This teaches us not to disobey when someone tells us not to do something but also to not be tempted by something that appears better. It's been a really interesting story and very helpful to talk over. Mrs Lake makes sure we discuss everything so that we all understand and she's very good at making the stories interesting and relevant."

Elsie's suitcase for the Holocaust "For my memorial, I made a suitcase. It represents the suitcase that the children took with them. When you open it, you'll see some people I've made with barbed wire in front to represent the concentration camps. It's quite an upsetting topic to learn about but I found it really interesting. Mrs Lake showed us animated videos of people who lived through the Holocaust and they really helped us understand what they went through."

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A visit from England Rugby star Zoe Aldcroft On Friday 6th May, Godstowe welcomed England Rugby player Zoe Aldcroft to school. Zoe was welcomed into Main School Assembly where she told the girls all about her career in Rugby and even when she broke her foot! The girls asked some fantastic questions and some got the opportunity to have Zoe teach them some skills.

Welcome to Miss Turner, our new Director of Sport I’m Rebecca Turner and I am the new Director of Sport here at Godstowe and I am looking forward to getting to know you and your daughter as the term progresses. I have really enjoyed my first two weeks here and can tell that Godstowe is a really special place.

Prior to working here I worked at Lambrook, a coeducational prep school, for 4 years and Danes Hill before that. I have been involved with National success at both of these schools and I am looking forward to replicating that here.

Sport is really important at prep school. I believe you should be involved in everything as sports are so interchangeable. I have been involved in sport my whole life and have loved the opportunities it has brought me. I couldn't possibly pick a favourite sport but I do enjoy seeing children achieve something that they have been working on.

I’m really looking forward to meeting you on the sideline soon.

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Boarders Corner

Phillip Scriven, Turner Houseparent

One of the things which, as a parent, you might think would slip through the net if you allowed your daughter to board would be those impromptu conversations about the whole business of growing up.

Here in Godstowe, boarding staff liaise daily with both Form Tutors, as well as Heads of Department. One of the key liaisons is between the three houses and the Head of PSHE, Mrs Reynolds.

We are able to discuss upcoming topics, particularly those which might previously have been described as ‘off-limits’. When the government guidance changed in September 2021, the school arranged training for all staff in order that they would be well prepared to field questions about families and those who care for children, caring, respectful and online relationships and friendships, as well as being safe. In both of the senior boarding houses, one can add in intimate relationships.

Once updated on the new approach, boarding houses purchased much of the recommended, age-appropriate reading material for every dormitory, in order that the girls could find out some of the missing bits of the puzzle for themselves.

As well as being parents themselves, the lead house staff are a blend of qualified teachers and nurses, as well as an exparamedic. As such, they are able to handle these questions in a caring and clear fashion, providing well considered answers to the girls’ questions.

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