1st February 2021
Message from Mrs Conrad Last weekend, I couldn’t help but be enchanted by the snow transforming the dull grey world into a magical sparkling land of wonder and possibilities; another sign of hope that we all need at the moment. St Teresa’s looked enchanting and I really enjoyed seeing all your photos of the fun that our girls had in the snow, some of which we have included in this week’s bulletin. I must extend my huge thanks to the maintenance team who shovelled snow for 8 hours on Monday so that the site was safe to re-open on Tuesday; it was a real feat of endurance and perseverance! More snow is forecast for this weekend so make the most of it and remember the words of J B Priestly:
The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event.
You go to bed in one world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?
This week you should have received: Years 1 to 6
Parents’ Evening booking information
Years 1 to 6
RSE Parent consultation letter
Years 5 & 6
RSE parent information evening information
If you need copies of any of this information, please contact prepinfo@st-teresas.com
Diary Dates: Wednesday 3rd February
RSE Parent virtual information evening for Years 5 & 6, 5.30pm
Wednesday 10th February
Years 1 to 6 virtual Parents’ Evening, 4.30pm to 7.00pm
Thursday 11th February
Years 1 to 6 virtual Parents’ Evening, 4.30pm to 7.00pm
Friday 12th February
Half Term begins
Monday 22nd February
School resumes
Parents’ Evenings— 10th & 11th February Formal parents’ meetings for the Prep School will take place virtually on Wednesday 10th and Thursday 11th February from 4.30pm until 7pm (7.30pm for Year 6). A letter has now been sent out with further information, including booking details.
Snow Day! Over the weekend, some of us were lucky enough to be able to enjoy some fun in the snow. We loved seeing your photographs of snowmen and women, igloos, sledging, snowy scenes and smiling faces!
Good News! Reading to Grandparents Olivia has been regularly reading with her grandparents via Zoom. It’s been a great way for her to keep up her reading and also a wonderful way for her to connect with her grandparents who’ve felt quite isolated this lockdown.
Baking & Art for the NHS Stef, Emma and Alex have been doing some baking and artwork to send to NHS staff at hospitals to say thanks for the great work they’ve been doing. This is today’s box of Cheese & Chive muffins.
Art Lessons Steffi in Year 4 has been having Art lessons at the weekend. She has created some beautiful sketches along with these pieces of artwork using acrylic paints and different techniques such as foil painting. Well done!
Clay Modelling In her spare time Scarlett modelled this figure of her mythical beast ‘Bionell’ out of clay.
Dashing Diggy Mrs Bishop’s daughter has taught herself to crochet during lockdown. Lucky Diggy the dog is now sporting some new scarves in a variety of colours—and very pleased with himself he looks too!
Golden Book Well done to all of the girls in our Golden Books this week:
1BB
Amelia H for her incredibly detailed, accurate and beautifully written retell of the story of Little Red Riding Hood.
2EB
Sofia G for working hard in all of her online lessons this week. Isabella M for her thoughtful contributions to our English lesson this week whilst reading The Pirates Next Door.
3DI
Jessika R for her fabulous attitude in understanding new concepts in Maths this week. Stef v E for her excellent attitude towards improving her English work and responding to feedback.
3KC
Amaya H for her super work in maths on subtraction using Frog. Tabitha P for completing all work to a great standard and for uploading all work onto Firefly on time.
4RN
Isla B for all her hard work and fantastic attitude since working online. Isla listens carefully to what is expected of her and puts in 100% effort with everything she does. Ella J for her hard work and participation in our lessons this week. Ella wrote a detailed and well researched diary entry, empathising with life as a serf! Susie Y has made fantastic contributions to our lessons this week, listening carefully and producing excellent work. Well done!
4CR
Poppy H for her super attitude and her fabulous diary showing effort and good empathy for the character. Iola M for her super empathy and effort to use subordinate clauses.
5MK
Alice B for super participation online and for working hard offline too, particularly in English, focusing on spelling. Ella J-B for excellent enthusiasm and participation during a group research project on Catherine Howard. Rosie H for her amusingly written, empathetic letter from King Henry VIII to Pope Clement asking for a divorce from Catherine of Aragon.
5HC
Laiya A and Summer C for their excellent ideas when writing a balanced argument about the trial of Anne Boleyn for treason, and for their enthusiastic participation in all lessons. Lily E and Esme T for their hard work in Maths this week, completing all tasks to an excellent standard and applying all their new knowledge to other areas. Keep up the fantastic work!
6KH
Phoebe C for impressing me with her hard work in maths lessons and for always contributing to discussions and having a go at questions. Arabella C for her commitment to online learning and consistent hard work in all lessons, in particular, her writing in English and RE
6JG
Anna H for her patience when technology has failed this week and her enthusiasm for learning. Pippa T for her perseverance and hard work so far this term.
Great Work! Year 2—The Pirate Crew Last Friday, the girls in 2EB donned their finest pirate attire and met a real pirate, Captain Swashbuckler, via a Teams call. She told the girls how they should act, what they should wear and what weapons they would need if they were to join her crew and jump aboard a pirate ship to look for coffee beans, sugar cane and spices - more valuable treasures than gold!
Year 1—Maths In Year 1 this week, the girls have been thinking about 3D shapes. We have begun to learn the different names of 3D shapes along with all their different properties, like how may corners it has, edges, faces and all those confusing things! The girls have worked so hard thinking about the difference between the 'face' of a shape and the 'edge' of a shape. Lots of the girls have enjoyed finding 3D shapes in their own homes and matching the correct shape to its name. Great work!
Year 4—Comic Strip As part of our Topic 1066, we have learnt about the Great Battle of Hastings! One of the activities was to create a comic strip using our knowledge of speech and onomatopoeias. Felicity created a fantastic comic strip with excellent illustrations and all the main points of what happened during the battle.
Great Work! Year 6—Science Year 6 are looking at the impact of acid rain. Using home made indicators, the girls looked at the acidity of collected rain water and also snow and then they compared both of these to tap water. They also made their own acid rain by blowing into water with a straw. Here are some of their results.
Year 2 Science The girls have been working really hard in Science this term. After learning that salt makes ice melt quicker than leaving it alone to melt, the girls carried out the investigation, Can you find the treasure? The girls thought about the quickest way to release their treasures and used a range of tools and materials. This week, the girls all joined together in a lesson to investigate floating and sinking and learnt some new vocabulary: buoyant and dense.
Great Work! Year 4 Diaries Last week, Year 4 took on the role of a serf (a peasant in the times of 1066) and showed empathy for their difficult lives made harder by those with power over them such as Lords and Barons. They wrote some fantastic diaries thinking about the setting, their feelings and using subordinating conjunctions to link ideas. Well done!
Year 5 Year 5 have started their new RE Topic by thinking about memories and what feelings they evoke. They read a beautiful story about a young boy helping a lady find her memories by making her a memory box. The girls then thought about their own memories and how they keep them alive. In complete contrast to this, in their Topic "Off with her head", Year 5 have been learning all about the illnesses and diseases that affected the Tudors and learnt about some gruesome remedies. The girls were then challenged to come up with their own Tudor remedy for the coronavirus!
Great Work! Year 3—Mythical Beasts The girls have been working on descriptions of their imaginary mythical beasts. They included adjectives, adverbs, similes and fronted adverbials to name a few. They brought their beast alive with their descriptions.
Music News Musicians of the Week Summer C and Olivia G for good participation and enthusiasm in music lessons. Ruby A for perseverance with her Tudor instrument poster. Lucia M for using her musical skills to bring joy to her family abroad.
Lockdown Performance Lucia M in Year 6 has been very busy preparing pieces on her violin and piano to perform for her family in France. She has brought much joy to her grandparents by giving them regular concerts (sometimes twice a week!) through Facetime. What a great idea. Well done Lucia! Please let Mrs Yalden know if you’ve done anything with your music to lift the spirits of friends or members of your family.
Lockdown Music Competitions Well done to the girls who have already submitted their entries. Please encourage your daughter to enter. Details are on Firefly and the closing date for entries is Friday 5th February. We look forward to seeing the results.
Sports News This week, the girls have been working on their agility and muscle strength. Year 5 and 6 learnt the importance of inversion in Yoga and Year 3 and 4 worked on their lateral foot movements. Year 1 and 2 continue to work on their coordination, this week, using pieces of paper to play tennis.
PE Star of the Week Our PE Stars of the week for outstanding effort go to: Lower Prep: Olivia P in Year 3 Upper Prep: Kay L in Year 5
Weekly PE Challenge This weeks PE challenge was to stand on one foot with your eyes closed and arms straight out in front of you. This weekly PE challenge winners are: Upper Prep: India Rose C with 49 seconds Lower Prep: Perla L in Year 3 with 56 seconds. Well done to Lucia C, Jessica T, Emilia Z, Tamara B, Alex E and Olivia L for taking part too !
School PE The IAPS weekly PE challenges continue to be popular. Zara in Year 5 has enjoyed completing them—I love the look of self-care Saturday with a chocolate pancake! Zara is also enjoying the Swimming weekly workout available on Teams.
Outside of School It looks like you all had a fantastic time in the snow last weekend, with a few of you working on your running. Kaiah in Year 4 and Kacey in Year 6 have been working on their sprinting and practised sprinting short efforts in the sand. Meanwhile Steffi in Year 4 completed a 2.5mile run in the snow. Great effort girls! Tabitha and Jemima enjoying the snow and working on their balance at the same time!
Useful Information Children’s Mental Health Week Children’s Mental Health Week is taking place on 1st-7th February 2021 and this year's theme is 'Express Yourself'. Now, more than ever, protecting our young people's mental health is of paramount importance. Class teachers will make reference to the week during PSHE next week, but if you would like to access a wellbeing journal for your daughter which has the aim of giving her a chance to reflect and express herself through some fun drawing and writing exercises, please click here. Miss Brailsford—Director of Pastoral
Lockdown Booklists To support parents and carers, BookSpace have worked its way through all the lists of recommended books published in 2020 and have created two booklists for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 pupils. The booklists include links to activities suitable for home learning and online videos of authors reading from their books. You will find these reading lists here - Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 Miss Hilder—Head of English
Ready Reads—Surrey Libraries We know that many of you have missed visiting the library and borrowing physical books. So Surrey Libraries have launched Ready Reads, a new book collection service, where their teams handpick a selection of books according to your preferences, and you can collect them from your nearest open library. Their teams are experts at choosing good books and they are looking forward to using their experience and knowledge to help you discover your next great read. We hope signing up for Ready Reads will give you a chance to try something new. Who knows - you may just discover your next favourite author! You can find out more and sign up for Ready Reads here.
Activities
RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch 2021 It was great to see so many of you joining us for the St Teresa’s bird watch on Wednesday. Bird watching can be very rewarding, however it does require a lot of patience. Miss Rippington was very impressed with your bird ID skills and loved the bird feeders you put up. Here is Scarlett in Year 3’s bird feeder. Don’t forget the main reason we had our St Teresa’s bird watch on Wednesday was to get ready for the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch this Saturday. Please send your results from Wednesday or Saturday to Miss Rippington by Thursday 4th February, when we will find out which class has the most wildlife in their garden.
This Week The account of the life of Jonah, particularly his strange encounter with ‘the whale’ is one of the best remembered episodes in the Old Testament. In our Chapel Service this week we reflected on how we are sometimes like Jonah. God spoke to Jonah and gave his the important task of going to the great city of Nineveh and preaching there. But Jonah was reluctant and, in fact, went in completely the opposite direction. Sometimes when God challenges us we too can be reluctant to do what God asks us to do. Like Jonah we sometimes head off in a completely different direction.
Almost the moment Jonah set off, things started going wrong and it wasn’t long before the ship on which he was travelling hit a terrible storm. Jonah realised that he was the cause of the storm and, so save the others on the boat, he asked them to throw him overboard. Perhaps you have noticed that we stop living in a way that God wants—when we stop being thoughtful, caring for others or become selfish, perhaps—things start going wrong. Like Jonah we need to recognise these times and make a change. We would have expected Jonah to drown in the sea, but that doesn’t happen. Instead, God makes the impossible happen! Jonah is swallowed up by the great whale and, over three days, God changes Jonah’s heart completely. By the time that the whale spits Jonah out on the beach, he has been transformed and he heads straight for the city where he does exactly what God wants him to do. We can become the loving people that God wants us to be. It may take a little time. It may even take more than three days, but God is always calling us and encouraging us to become his followers. This week we pray that we too will be transformed by God’s love and will become his messenger to all those we meet.
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”
While we’re counting down the days until we can open again, we’ll do our best to keep you all updated with what the horses are up to! We’ll also be updating our page on Firefly with information and activities for you to do at home. Check out Resources —> Sport —> Equestrian to find us!
Hello everyone, I can’t believe the amount of snow that fell! It was a bit cold… and deep… and slippery, but really fun and pretty!! The humans looked like snowmen in all of their coats, and we were all nice and warm in ours. Luckily we didn’t have to be ridden so spent our time sleeping and playing in the snow. It’s sad that it’s all melted now. How were your snow days? Did you have as much fun as us? Love Mickey x
Lockdown Competition - Design your own cross country jump! Along with our updates, we’re also including a small competition where you can design your own cross country jump. Be it a water complex, a brush, a log, or something you’ve made up entirely on your own! The deadline is Monday 15th February, email in your designs to equestrian@st-teresas.com and the winner will receive Mary King’s latest book ‘My Way: How I train for success’
Good luck to you all!