St Teresa's Prep School Weekly Bulletin 26 February

8th February 2021 26th February 2021

Message from Mrs Conrad This week we have been thinking about rainbows as symbols of hope which happened to be coincidentally well timed!

The vaccination programme is making fantastic progress, the weather has made a turn for the better and last Monday brought us the news we had all been hoping for – the long awaited return to school.

The staff and I are absolutely thrilled to be welcoming back the girls on the 8th March and are busy getting the classrooms ready as you will have seen in our social media campaign – Countdown to Re-Opening!

We look forward to seeing you and the girls very soon.

Diary Dates: Monday 1st March

Book Week—all week

Tuesday 2nd March

Visiting author virtual session for Years 1 to 3—Catherine Vase

Tuesday 2nd March

Visiting author virtual session for Years 4 to 6—Abi Elphinstone

Thursday 4th March

Virtual ‘West End in Schools’ dance workshops for all year groups

Friday 5th March

Snuggle down with a book day—wear pyjamas!

Monday 8th March

Return to school

Friday 26th March

Term ends

Monday 19th April

Summer Term begins

This week you should have received: Whole School

Return to school letter and information document

Year 6

Leavers’ Hoodies ordering information

Whole School

World book week information and book token

RSE Survey and Parent Information Evening Thank you to those of you who completed the RSE Policy survey. The response was overwhelmingly positive with 98% strongly agreeing to all the questions – thank you! For those of you who have any particular questions you would like addressed, please contact Deacon Simon sp.conrad@st-teresas.com, Miss Brailsford e.brailsford@stteresas.com or Mrs Conrad – s.conrad@st-teresas.com.

Golden Book Well done to all of the girls in our Golden Books this week: 1BB

Jessica A for her impressive attitude in persevering with a difficult task, and a wonderful recount of her Enchanted Woodland Walk.

2EB

Darcy R for thinking carefully about the characters of George and Grandma from George's Marvellous Medicine and then writing interesting character descriptions.

Natalia T for approaching our work on mixtures in Science this week with enthusiasm and for carrying out the investigation accurately and independently.

3DI

Seren S and Perla L for returning to online learning with fabulous attitudes and working hard already on their next targets! An absolutely brilliant response to feedback, girls - well done!

3KC

Scarlett C for super enthusiasm in all she does during online learning especially her thoughtful comments in PSHE and her great understanding and presentation of maths this week.

Isabella K for continued good humour and always contributing during online learning as well as uploading quality work consistently to Firefly.

4RN

Florence B for making excellent suggestions in our English lessons this week. Flo has listened carefully to the grammar and applied this to her own writing, well done!

Elin S for her enthusiasm and participation in our English lessons this week on New York! Elin has produced excellent, detailed research about famous landmarks and chosen language for affect!

Felicity S for writing an imaginative and engaging story from our work on Journey before half term.

Felicity planned her own sequel and wrote the story independently.

4CR

Liliana O’D for her enthusiasm for her work this week, including fantastic effort with her Science experiment.

Harriet P for her super effort to use different strategies to help her to organise her work and ideas.

Natalia O for super effort with her work on homophones.

Amelia S for her positivity and effort to develop her sentences this week.

5MK

Abby B for excellent participation and sharing of ideas in our RE lessons this week on the Eucharist.

Sophia C for her positive approach to online learning, focussing on the quality of the work that she produces and taking pride in all that she does.

Ella J-B for her conscientious approach to online learning; always asking questions to clarify what she needs to do and striving to improve the work that she produces

5HC

Tamara B and Esme T for listening carefully in class when discussing a text about Elizabeth 1st, using what they had learned to answer questions about the text including evidence to support their work where appropriate. Excellent progress!

From Miss Phelan.... Erin C for such enthusiasm in the PSHE lesson and for completing all optional activities to a high standard. She also took the time to send a message saying how much she enjoyed the lesson.

6KH

Lavinia S for her excellent re-writing of the scripture Romans 12 v 310, so that younger children would understand its meaning.

Ava S for her continued hard work in all areas of online learning, and in particular her beautiful presentation of the 'Our Father' prayer in RE.

6JG

Pascale W for her positivity despite having an injury to her arm.

Daniella C for her lightning speed in Maths and excellent contribution in all lessons.

Half Term Fun! Cat Clean!

Alana gave Emmeline her cat the full pampering treatment including a thorough brush, bath and blow dry. Afterwards she was silky soft and floral smelling.

Holiday Cooking Steffi cooked a meatball pasta bake and an apple, cheese and thyme soda bread with her brother over the holidays.

Delicious!!

Half Term Fun Stef, Emma and Alex got up to all sorts in the half term break—mud walking; exploring nature; ice making; running; pancake day; castle building and dancing.

Periodic Puzzle!

Ruby and Harlow completed this brilliant jigsaw puzzle of the periodic table.

Irish Baking for International Bread Week Here are some Irish soda bread scones and a loaf of Irish soda bread that Caitlin and Searlait baked with Mamó (their Grandma) in Ireland instructing them over WhatsApp video!

French Baking More of you have been trying a little French baking over the past few weeks. Saskia made perfect madeleines with her Granny and Felicity made this wonderful looking (and, I am sure, tasting!) cherry pithivier.

Bravo Felicity & Saskia! Quels talents de pâtissières! Madame Chapman a adoré vos Pithiviers et madeleines. Un vrai régal! Miam miam!

Great Work!

Year 3—Shadow Puppets Year 3 all enjoyed watching each other perform shadow puppet performances before half term as part of their work on Chinese New Year.

Year 3 Maths Mrs Irons' Maths group have been focusing on fractions again this week, using the bar model (and our teddies!) to find fractions of amounts.

Year 2—Muck, Mess and Mixtures Year 2 began a new topic this week, 'Muck, Mess and Mixtures'. In Science, the girls were testing out whether ingredients found in the kitchen dissolved in water.

Great Work!

Year 4 Castles Year 4 finished their topic, 1066, in spectacular fashion creating their very own Motte and Bailey Castles. We researched the different features of the castles and then designed our own models using a range of materials. The girls were all incredibly creative using, Lego, cake, sticks and natural materials from their gardens, plastic animals and cardboard of all sizes! We were very impressed with the design and effort all the girls made, well done!

Year 5 Year 5 have been researching what life was like in England during the reign of Elizabeth 1st and have written about different aspects of this time in a fact file.

Year 5 Year 5 have also been thinking about the Eucharist, that it is a memorial of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. They ended their RE lessons with a prayer session reflecting on what they had learned and creating a piece of work to show this.

Year 1 Enchanted Woodland In Year 1 we began our new topic this week 'Enchanted Woodland'. We have had an excellent start to the topic, using our imaginations, and our knowledge of woodlands in our favourite stories, to create our very own Enchanted Woodland. The girls began the week by going on a 'woodland walk' around their own garden, or a nearby forest. They took photos along the way, and used their imagination to take these photos, and turn them into an imaginative and descriptive writing about a walk thought an Enchanted Wood. Take a look...

Great Work!

Year 6 This afternoon Year 6 celebrated the end of their topic, 'A Child's War' with a virtual VE Day party. The girls made decorations, baked war time recipes, recited war VE Day poems and memories, and played and sang war time songs. Fantastic effort ladies - 'We'll Meet Again'!

Music News Musicians of the Week Phoebe R for very good composing of Street Cries.

Felicity S for her beautiful piano playing of Largo.

Isabella M for very good work recognising pictures of instruments.

Instrumental Lessons Some instrumental teachers will be returning to school with us in the week beginning 8th March. Some will continue to teach from home until the summer term. If you daughter learns an instrument, her teacher will make contact with you regarding the arrangements for the remainder of the term.

Sports News This week, Years 3-6 have tried out a Bear Grylls workout and learnt how to dribble in football using different techniques to change direction. Year 1 and 2 have developed their agility and coordination, whilst dancing to Under the Sea music.

Welcome!

I am thrilled to announce that we have a new member of staff joining the Prep PE department to cover Miss Roberts whilst she is having her baby. Her name is Mrs Rowcliffe.

Mrs Rowcliffe was previously a PE Teacher at St Catherine’s and has just returned from living in Monaco. She has two sons at Cranmore. She loves all sport, but particularly enjoys swimming, netball and trampolining. She is really excited to be joining the St Teresa’s community and can’t wait to meet everyone.

We both look forward to teaching you lots of fun and exciting PE lessons at School as well as running our interhouse netball and football competitions. Full details of what you will need for which PE lessons will be emailed before school commences.

PE Star of the Week Our PE Stars of the week for outstanding effort are: Lower Prep: Maggie M in Year 1 Upper Prep: Arabella C in Year 6

Weekly PE Challenge This week’s PE challenge was alternate claps in a front support with a family member. The weekly PE challenge winner is: Felicity S in Year 4 with 2 minutes and 56 seconds

Outside School Lucia M in Year 6 is raising money for Cancer Research UK by walking 10,000 steps a day throughout March. If you would like to support Lucia, please checkout her fundraising page below: https:// fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/nadeges-walk-all-over-cancer-fundraising-page Isabella in Year 3 attended a football camp over half term through Fulham football club.

She learnt lots of new skills and was able to show us how to get round a defender.

Great work Isabella!

Layla in Year 5 has been working out at home, enjoying the sunshine in her garden. Well done Layla for keeping up with all the PE activities whilst you were abroad. A superb effort!

This Week This beautiful image by Charlie Mackesy perhaps, more than any other, sums up our feelings as we digest the news that we are on the road out of the COVID pandemic, with schools reopening in just a matter of days. His - or the horses - words of wisdom remind us that storms do come to an end. And it is no surprise then that the artist draws on the Biblical image of trust in God’s love, the rainbow, to announce the end of the storm.

Colour does raise our spirits and give us joy. We thought about the reaction to the opening scenes of the 1943 film version of The Wizard of Oz. As Dorothy sings her hopeful song, Somewhere over the rainbow everything is black and white. The original audiences gasped in amazement as the colourless screen burst into glorious Technicolor as Dorothy and her friends continue their journey of rediscovery. Colour does help to bring us hope.

Most recently we have all shared our genuine thanks for the NHS in a similar way. Hardly a house in the land has been without a rainbow giving thanks to the NHS and looking towards a time when the pandemic is gone.

In the Scriptural account of Jesus calming the storm (Mark 4:35-41) we hear how Jesus shows his power and authority over nature as he silences the storm. While this truly demonstrates His divinity, we shouldn’t miss the point that Jesus performs this act of mercy from within the boat. At every moment, while His disciples faced the storm, He was there among them. As we look forward in hope towards the end to the pandemic, we remember that Jesus is here beside us in the storms of our lives, and that this is the reason for our hope.

Visit our website www.st-teresas.com/ equestrian

E-mail equestrian@st-teresas.com Call

01372 750257

Or find us on Facebook “St Teresa’s Equestrian”

We hope that you are all well and are looking forward to the return of school in March. We have already been receiving emails asking what will be happening to the riding school. We are currently in contact with our governing bodies to clarify when we can open and what we will be able to do as unfortunately it’s not clear what step we come under.

We have sent out an email to you all that includes further information, if you have any queries we will do our best to answer them.

Take care and stay safe!

Lockdown Competition - Design your own cross country jump!

Thank you to everyone who sent in photos of their entries for our competition. They were all amazing and we had a difficult time choosing between them all.

But we have chosen one. The winner of the ‘design your own cross country jump’ competition goes to…

Drumroll please!

Holly C for her incredible model of a spread jump!

Well done Holly! A copy of Mary King’s ‘My Way’ is waiting for you in the office.

We have also awarded a second and third place.

Second place goes to Beth B. And in third place is Molly M.

Beth B

Congratulations to you both! We have some sweetie bags waiting for you.

Molly M

FREE RESOURCES FOR CHESS PLAYERS! It's been a long time since Chess Club has been able to meet, however many families have been enjoying playing during lockdown. For some, it's a new interest, and for many it's been an opportunity to develop their strategic play. Here are two links to excellent booklets that can be worked through by children learning the basics or improving their play. They are extremely useful for adults too, those wishing to revise the rules or to keep up with their children! The booklets have been created by a Chess Master.

Booklet One: An Introduction to Chess for Newcomers https://issuu.com/stcatherinesbramley/docs/chess_booklet_1_-__newcomers?fr=sYzA4ZDU4NTM5NA Booklet Two: An Introduction to Chess for Improvers https://issuu.com/stcatherinesbramley/docs/chess_booklet_2_-__improvers?fr=sZDYzYTU4NTM5NA Lockdown appears to have brought out some talented bakers amongst you!

If you are really keen, why not think about applying for Junior Bake Off??