St Teresa Prep School weekly bulletin

Issue 1

Autumn Term

8th February 2021 10th September 2021

Message from Mrs Conrad A very warm welcome back to you all and a very special welcome to the new families who have joined us this September.

The new girls have settled in really well – it is as if they have been here for years! – and the other girls have returned with their usual enthusiasm and zest for life. It was a real joy to have our whole school family gathered together in the hall for assembly on Monday morning – the first time for 18 months – and the singing raised the roof!

Our Drinks Reception on Thursday evening was a huge success and I was delighted to be able to catch up with so many of you over a glass of wine and Gary’s delicious canapés. I hope you enjoyed the event and were able to introduce yourselves to the staff team and other parents.

The academic year promises to be packed with exciting fun academic, music, drama and sporting events and I look forward to seeing you at one of these very soon.

Diary Dates: Tuesday 14th September

Cross Country @ St Catherine’s U8-U11

15.00

Wednesday 15th September

Karl Hopwood eSafety Talks, Years 2 to 6

All day

Karl Hopwood eSafety Parent Talk, St Teresa’s

19.00—20.00

Thursday 16th September

Year 2 Trip to Windsor Castle

All day

Friday 17th September

Year 6 meet with Dr McShane—Headmistress

AM

Year 4 Netball (all girls)

16.15—17.15

Year 3 Hockey (club girls)

16.15—17.15

Saturday 18th September

U10A & U11A Hockey tournament @Downsend (A)

8.30 & 10.30

Saturday 25th September

Whole School Open Morning

10.00—12.30

Years 3 to 6 helping at Whole School Open Morning

8.45—12.00

This week you should have received: Whole School

Term Dates for 2021/2 and 2022/3

Whole School

Dance classes flyer

Whole School

Parents’ Evening Survey—click here if you would like to complete the form

Whole School

Homework and reading letters for each year group

Whole School

Class timetables

Whole School

Open Morning information

Whole School

Autumn Term calendar dates

Whole School

ICT Code of Conduct

Whole School

eSafety workshop and parent information evening—click here if you would like to complete the form confirming your attendance.

Years 3 to 6

Sport in the Prep School letter and SOCS access information

Year 2

Windsor Castle Trip Letter

Forest School Club

Forest School Club dates

Years 5 & 6

Puffa Jacket ordering details

Years 5 & 6

Art supplies letter

If you need copies of any of these letters please contact the School Office prepinfo@st-teresas.com

LAMDA Lessons We are currently scheduling the LAMDA lessons and hope to run additional sessions after school on a Monday as well as on the Wednesday. Please look out for further details from the School Office.

Pick-up Signs Your daughter will have come home with two name signs on A4 card. These are to place on your dashboard when you are picking up your daughter from school and will help us to identify you. Please do let the School Office know if you need additional signs—prepinfo@st-teresas.com

Absence From School To report an absence from school, please call the School Office before 8.30am and speak to a member of staff or leave a message on the school answerphone, stating the reason for absence—01372 453 456

Changes to Bus Schedules or End of Day Plans Please report to (or copy in) the School Office to any changes to bus schedules or end of day plans at prepinfo@stteresas.com

E-Safety Workshop—Wednesday 15th September Karl Hopwood will be running e-safety workshops for the girls across the school and for parents on Wednesday 15th September. Please see the letter for details. The parent session in the evening will take place at St Teresa’s School (exact location will be confirmed via email) and will be recorded if you are unable to attend. Please complete the form confirming your attendance.

Golden Book Well done to all of the girls in our Golden Books this week:

2EB

Thea B-H and Esther H - for a wonderful first week at St Teresa's. The girls have smiled throughout the week and quickly got to grips with the routines.

Sophie B for having an excellent attitude towards her work in Maths, fully focused on each task and trying hard to solve problems on her own

3RN

Eleanor B for settling so well into Year 3, coming in every morning with a smile and always contributing fantastic ideas in our lessons this week.

Matilda G for making such a positive start to Year 3, listening carefully and contributing excellent vocabulary during our English lesson.

3KC

Jena W and Imogen S for settling in so well and for being so enthusiastic in all their activities this week.

4BB

Scarlett C for her consistent politeness and kindness to her classmates and teachers.

Amaya H for her enthusiastic inputs in our Science and Topic lessons.

Flori H for being a wonderful friend to someone who had hurt themselves.

4CR

Rosie A for being really kind when someone needed a friend. A super start to St Teresa's.

Lottie C for working hard on her sequel to the story The Dot. Maysie R for her effort shown in her first week at St Teresa's.

5MK

Lily J, Coey L, Bella H and Maisy M for settling into life at St Teresa's so well and for showing so much enthusiasm for learning in lessons.

5HC

Clara R C for her hardworking and determined attitude to all learning this week - a fantastic start to Year 5!

Ailsa S for participating in all discussions and activities with enthusiasm and confidence - an impressive start to Year 5!

6KH

Jemima P for showing impressive perseverance and resilience during maths Lilia N for being kind and helpful to others and for making the new girls feel welcome

6JG

Tamara B and Amy L for demonstrating a mature and positive attitude to every task set this week.

6LD

Nyang’ara O-C, A Mason, Jasmin K for demonstrating perseverance and determination in solving a Maths problem and for working well in a group.

Great Work!

Year 4 Maths In Maths, we started off the week learning about how tackling challenges makes the synapses in our brains fire and even makes our brains grow. We were set the challenge to make single and even linked shapes by folding paper. Some were quite tricky!!!

Eco and Gardening Club The girls in Years 3 and 4 had a wonderful time in Eco and Gardening Club this week. We discussed the safety rules when using the metal gardening equipment and being careful to keep each other safe. During the lesson, the girls created a front cover for their file and started to weed the raised beds. We found some tomatoes that had survived the summer and still need to ripen and some courgettes that had turned into marrows! The wild flowers looked beautiful and some had grown as tall as us!

Year 3—Team Building Day Year 3 had a fantastic Stone Age Day to start their new topic Tribal Tales and to give all the girls to get to know each other. They started the morning playing team building games using the parachute. After reading Stone Age Boy and How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth, the girls made clay necklaces and their very own woolly mammoths out of milk bottles!

In the afternoon the went back in time by visiting the forest to take part in some Stone Age activities with Mrs Haymes. We made our own fires, whittled sticks, toasted marshmallows, built a shelter, and created our own bandana's using leaf printing. What a fun and enjoyable day we had!

Year 6—Polar Fun Day On Tuesday Year 6 were visited by a real-life polar explorer to kick start their topic, 'Frozen Kingdom'. Antony has done several expeditions to both the North and South poles and the girls were fascinated to hear of his adventures, particularly a close encounter with a polar bear and her cubs!

During the day, the girls learnt about the landscape and climate in the polar regions and, through experiments such as 'Blubber Gloves' and 'Gloopy Glaciers', they learnt how animals keep warm in the coldest regions on earth and how glaciers carve their way through the mountains. They also learnt about wildlife in the Arctic and created food chains to display in the classroom.

Year 4 Art In art, Year 4 began their lessons by taking a close look at mackerel, which links to their topic, "The Blue Abyss".

They rose to the challenge of capturing patterns, form and colours using a continuous line drawing and a "wet in wet" technique with water colour. In particular, the girls tried to explore different marks or effects that could be used to capture the essence of the fish.

Sports News It’s been a busy first week back and wonderful to welcome the girls back to sports clubs. There has been a terrific uptake, but if your daughter missed a club this week and wanted to join, that is fine, just let us know she’d like to come along—s.rippington@st-teresas.com

Upcoming Matches We are excited to be participating in fixtures and tournaments again – please do keen an eye on the sports portal for information on fixtures.

On Tuesday 14th September, there is a Cross Country event at St Catherine’s for U8 – U11. 4pm start and 5.40pm pick up. Unfortunately, no spectators are allowed at this event.

Sporting accomplishments It’s wonderful to see how sporty the girls have been over the summer break and to hear about their sporting endeavours. India C has tried a variety of sports including kayaking, archery, golf, mountain biking, tennis, cold water swimming and high zip wires!

Peyton S will be participating in the Future Stars programme for hockey for her club.

Eloise and Lyla S have participated in the SEAVIEW Yacht Club Jr Cadet week. Well done to Eloise, who achieved the Stage 4!

We love to hear what you have been up to outside of school and celebrate the girls’ achievements, so please do email the PE Department with any news.

Lottie Broom and Sofie Sherazee took part in a British show jumping event at Parwood, representing St Teresa’s.

They had a team win as well as coming 2nd and 3rd individually.

Reminder Please can all girls from Years 3-6 remember to bring in hockey kit for every lesson including shin pads, hockey socks and a mouthguard.

Music News Instrumental Lesson It has been wonderful to see and hear the girls playing instruments in school this week.

There are still spaces available for instrumental lessons. Please let Mrs Yalden know on c.yalden@st-teresas.com if your daughter is interested in starting lessons or having a trial session on an instrument.

It is important that girls learning instruments remember to bring their instrument and music to school on the correct day. Regular practice should be undertaken at home. All the instrumental teachers will be happy to advise on the amount of practice each pupil should be doing.

Associated Board Music Exams Congratulations to the following girls who took their exams at the end of the summer term: Grade 1

Piano

Poppy H

Merit

Grade 1

Violin

Susie Y

Pass

Grade 1

Singing

Isola R

Merit

Ella J

Merit

Grade 1

Guitar

Apollonia C-D

Pass

Grade 1

Flute

Isabella S

Merit

Grade 2

Cello

Eloise H

Pass

Grade 3

Trumpet

Poppy M

Merit

Grade 4

Violin

Lucia M

Pass

Extra-Curricular Music We are very pleased that our normal range of musical ensembles are now running as usual. Please email Mrs Yalden c.yalden@st-teresas.com if your daughter is interested in joining any of the groups.

A very warm welcome back to school from the FOST Committee. We hope you’ve had a lovely summer and that your girls have enjoyed their first week back at school. It’s been so wonderful to meet many of you at the recent uniform summer sales, drop offs and collections and the parents’ welcome receptions.

Watch This Space Please do keep your eyes on this newsletter, along with Classlist, for news of upcoming FOST events. With our fabulous network of class reps and our new Instagram page fost_st_teresas_effingham we’re pretty certain you’ll be fully informed!

In the coming weeks we’ll be sharing details of the events planned for this year so far. We’re a really friendly bunch of Mums and Dads, keen to support the school and to organise awesome events for girls and parents to enjoy, so please do get in touch if you’d like to volunteer at fostst@icloud.com.

Classlist We want all our communication to be as secure as possible so we ask all year reps to use Classlist (https:// app.classlist.com/) to communicate to parents wherever it’s feasible to do so. In the Senior School, this saves the creation of enormous WhatsApp groups, especially with up to 80 in some years! We have been working hard this week to update and organise the year groups for the 2021/2022 school year, so please take some time to check your details (update any contact details and add/or delete existing or past St T’s pupils). If you are new to the school, please create a profile for yourself including your daughter/s details. Please note that you can enter whatever details you are happy to share on your profile and this will only be visible to your year group. Your email address is hidden and you can only be emailed via the App. The best way to get to know Classlist is by logging on from a computer and clicking on all the tabs. Should you have a query or need help, please email classlistst@icloud.com for assistance.

Uniform *NEW LOCATION AND OPEN HOURS* Our new opening hours from the 13th Sept 2021 are as follows: Monday 8.30-9am Friday 8.30-9am And the first Saturday of every month: 10-10.30am The 2nd hand uniform shop is now located in a large hut behind the ESTA tennis courts.

(This is only temporary while we wait for our new uniform pavilion to be built.)

All information regarding the 2nd hand uniform (submissions and buying) is on the school website, under FOST. For any queries or urgent appointments, please contact: camilla2ndhand@gmail.com or Whipple.fost@gmail.com

EGM: An EGM has been arranged for the 5th October to finalise some outstanding accounts. If you would like to attend please email secretary.fost@icloud.com for more details.

This Week There are few more exciting things at the beginning of a new school year than a pristine, new pencil case. Following the example of St Ignatius, who tells us ’see God in all things’, our pencil cases formed the basis of our reflection in Chapel this week.

The pencils speak of excitement and joy - but they will do no good unless we plunge in and use them. May we use all our God-given gifts and talents through this year. As we fill innumerable empty pages with our work, may our lives be marked out with the record of proud achievements. With care let us work to make those permanent markings in our character that will be with us throughout our lives. Let there be plenty of moments that we can highlight as genuine progress and achievement, and let us not let those moments pass unnoticed. And when we make mistakes, as we surely shall, let us remember that our merciful heavenly father washes all our errors away, as if they had never happened. Instead, let us use those mistakes as times of reflection and learning. And then let us make amends, sharpen our focus and begin again, as if for the first time. Let us notice how we have grown along the way, those moments in life where we have changed directions and found another angle to solve a problem. And when we come across something new and unexpected, that we haven’t seen or used before, let us be inquisitive, as it may be the tool to unlock unexpected opportunities. Above all else, let us recognise the glue that unites us as a loving community where God’s presence is fully recognised and welcomed as we use all His gifts to become the people he calls us to be.

E-mail equestrian@st-teresas.com Call

01372 750257

Visit our website www.st-teresas.com/ equestrian Or find us on Facebook “St Teresa’s Equestrian”

Booking System st-teresas-equestrian.ecpro.co.uk

We hope that you have all had a lovely summer holiday and have had a great first week back at school!

We’re so happy to start our termly lessons next week, and have enjoyed the adhoc lessons and assessments that we have run this past week.

You may have noticed that we have a few new horses over here at the stables. Roxy, Oliver and Diesel came in over the summer and took part in some of our Pony Days as well as some lessons this week. They are still settling in to our routine and so we will be taking great care about who will be assigned to ride them in lessons.

This week, Sandy and Mouse have arrived. They are very new so if you see them on the yard please be nice and quiet if you want to say hello.

You may have seen our email, but if all our termly riders wouldn’t mind coming 5-10 minutes early to their lessons so that we can record what they’d like to aim for in their lessons for this coming term.

We will see you all next week, have a lovely weekend!

October Half Term Pony Days Dates are not out yet for the half term. We will send an email out to everyone one they are up on the system ready to book.

NSEA Competition Reports On Monday 23rd August to Wednesday 25th August was the Dressage and Show Jumping Championships at Hickstead! A group of riders who had qualified throughout the year headed out to compete in Show Jumping teams and did fantastically well!

On the Monday, in the 70cm Championship class, St Teresa’s Green team came 5th with two clear rounds and one four faults!

On the Wednesday was the Grassroots Show Jumping Championships where we had two teams in both the 60cm and 70cm classes.

In the 60cm class, the Navy team came 2nd and the Pink team came 4th!

In the 70cm class, the Green team 2nd and the Blue team came 9th!

Congratulations to everyone who competed at Hickstead!

Full results will be up on our website.

Menu—w/c Monday 13th September Hot lunches include a selection of family favourites and suitable alternatives for children with allergies and intolerances.

Items in Italic - Sourced from F Conisbee’s, our local butcher