St Teresa's Prep Bulletin 02/12/2022

Message from Mrs Conrad

….and so the countdown to Christmas begins with a very busy final few weeks of term!

This week we have been rehearsing for ‘Holy Boy’ and look forward to seeing you on Wednesday evening for the girls’ performance which promised to be a very beautiful and moving occasion. Today we hosted the Glenangels Nativity in the Henderson Hall which was a delightful re telling of the Christmas story and next week, pupils from across the Trust schools will be hosting a special carol service in the Mairlot Hall to raise money for the children’s charity Cherry Trees; we hope some of you may be able to join us in supporting this very worthwhile cause. Amidst all of this, we have Advent celebrations, a festive concert, a Santa Dash, Year 3 entertaining the elderly in a local care home and Father Christmas himself visiting us!

It is perhaps an apt time to remind ourselves of Pope Francis’ Advent message: "Even on the busiest days, let's not neglect prayer," he urged, recommending an easy prayer to say during Advent: "Come, Lord Jesus, come."

Key Diary Dates:

Mon 5th Dec Cranmore Frozen Fun (see details attached) AM

Tue 6th Dec Chess Afternoon with Cranmore, Henderson Hall 16:30 17:30

Wed 7th Dec Prep School Christmas Service, Mairlot Hall 18:30 19:30

Thu 8th Dec Year 3, Trip to Felbury House care home afternoon

Thu 8th Dec Whole School Advent Evensong, Chapel (parents & girls are welcome to attend) 17:30

Wed 14th Dec Christmas Music Celebration Choirs and Music Ensembles, Chapel 17:30 18:30

Thu 15th Dec Santa Dash refreshments served from 8.15am AM

Fri 16th Dec Wear a Christmas Jumper (optional) All day

Prep School Christmas Lunch Lunch Time

Prep School Christmas Pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk Afternoon

Term Ends 16:15

No After School Care Study will run as usual until 16.15

Mon 9th Jan School closed for staff INSET day All day

Tue 10th Jan Term starts

Wed 18th Jan Year 3, Open Book Morning, Henderson Hall & Classrooms 8:15 9:00

Thu 19th Jan 4BB Class Assembly, Henderson Hall 8:30 9.00

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• Poetry Club Wednesday

• Problem Solving Club Wednesday

• Chamber Choir Wednesday

• Debate Club Thursday

Prep

The Headteacher, staff and pupils have great pleasure in inviting the Prep School parents to our performance of the oratorio, Holy Boy on Wednesday 7th December at 6.30pm in the Mairlot Hall

Festive refreshments will be served following the performance.

Christmas

Christmas Jumpers

Friday 16th

December We would like to invite the girls to wear a ‘Christmas jumper’ with their school uniforms (if they would like to) on Friday 16th December. This is the last day of term, so it should help us all to get into the festive spirit for our Christmas lunch and end of term panto!

Christmas Post Box

We will be running a Christmas post service for the children from 5th December. If the girls would like to send cards to their friends they should write the name of the recipient and their class clearly on the front of the envelope. The cards will be delivered at the end of term.

Prep School Open Book Mornings

We will be holding Open Book Mornings for each Year Group starting in the Spring Term. This is an opportunity for your daughters to show you their books and their classrooms. Refreshments will be served in the Henderson Hall from 8.15am and, once the girls are settled, you will be taken to the classroom from 8.30am until 9.00am. Please see the dates below. You will be sent a form to confirm your attendance nearer the time.

Wednesday 18th January Year 3

Wednesday 25th January Year 4

Wednesday 1st February Year 6

Wednesday 15th March Year 5

4BB—Class Assembly

Parents of girls in 4BB are invited to join us for their class assembly on Thursday 19th January 2023 at 8.30am in the Henderson Hall

Refreshments will be served in the Henderson Hall from 8.15am

Years 5 & 6—

RotaryYoung Photographer Competition

This is a three stage competition designed to support and encourage the development of photographic skills starting with a local heat in February, with the best entries going forward to a District competition and on to a National Final at the end of March. Entries are submitted in age groups for fairness. The initial task is to submit one photograph based upon the theme, “The Beauty of Architecture” with a sentence to explain the relationship to the theme.

Competitors will receive a certificate of participation with appropriate awards for the winners at all stages of the competition. Entries for the local heat, closing date Saturday 4th February 2023, are invited on behalf of the Mole Valley Rotary Clubs and should be submitted to Miss Shear s.shear@st teresas.com no later than Wednesday 1st February ‘23.

Golden Book

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

3RN Layla B Layla is putting in a lot of effort and contributing her answers. Anna R well and is working hard with new concepts.

3KC Victoria M Neolithic pattern. Jemima H class.

4BB Avery K Isabella M

4CR Ruby S Sophie B Eleanor B

5MK Pascale E myth in English this week. Tara S

5HC Alice F online relationships and digital citizenships.

5KH Elsie W for her excellent independent research on the planet Saturn. Syna S for always being the first to offer a helping hand and being kind to all her classmates.

6JG Kaiah C for her impressive non chronological report. Ailsa S for her positive approach to all aspects of Maths.

6GH Elin, Tabby D and Sophia A for their fabulous information reports on Antarctica. These were full of information and beautifully presented. Well done!

Eco & Gardening Club

Eco and Gardening Club had fun planting some new pots and hanging baskets for around the school today. They planted cyclamen, pansies and hanging ivy too. After choosing the plants they wanted for their pots, they used trowels to create holes for each plant, wriggled the plant out of its pot and planted it. The girls were amazing at tidying up too. A huge thank you to Alan, the gardener, for preparing all the pots and buying the plants for us too.

Musicians of the Week

Year 3 – Liberty C for super effort in music especially playing the xylophone

Year 4 Khrystyna H for wonderful reading from a music score Year 5 – Isabelle D for fantastic work in learning the ukulele chords so quickly Year 6 – Amelia S wonderful resilience and effort in learning Christmas songs on the keyboard

This Week in the Music Department

We have been having fun with barred instruments this week! All the girls have been practising pitch reading. We have played some Christmas songs and worked in pairs to play some wonderful harmonies.

ABRSM Exams

Good luck to all the girls taking their ABRSM grade exams at St Teresas’s next week!

No Chamber Choir—w/c 5th December

There will be no Chamber Choir on Wednesday 7th December due to the Holy Boy production.

Instrument Lessons

We still have some spaces for lessons and some instruments that can be hired from the school. If you would like to try out any instruments or need any more information, please don’t hesitate to contact Mrs Harris.

Music Clubs

Netball—Last Tuesday afternoon, the U11s played against Cobham Free School. The girls played extremely well with excellent results too! The As won 10 0 and the Bs won 9 2 very well done girls! Player of the matches were Kaiah and Ruby.

This week, the U11 teams played against Rowan. The girls played superbly and worked hard for some amazing results, all 5 teams won! The players of the matches were Kaiah, Ruby, Natalia, Maisy and Susie, really well done girls excellent work!

Hockey—Last Tuesday, the U11D team played an internal hockey match against the U10E team. It was the first time the girls have played indoors and they had great fun learning the different rules. The winners of the match were the U11s, winning 6 2. Players of the match were Viola and Ailsa.

On the same day, the U10A D teams played Feltonfleet. The A team finished their match with a 0 0 draw, playing a superbly competitive match. The B team conceded 2 goals in the first 2 minutes and then held off their opponents for the rest of the match, with some excellent shots at goal. The C team won 3 0. Elsie tried goalkeeper for the first time and saved a tough shot at goal, whilst Isobel C and Harriet demonstrated fast attacking skills. The D team had a strong start, winning 1 0 at half time. Feltonfleet then managed to get two extra goals, with a final score of 1 2. Players of the matches went to: Olivia, Sophia N, Harriet and Emilia Z. Well done girls!

On Monday 21st November, the U11A+B hockey teams took on Notre Dame. The A team demonstrated superb attacking skills, working well to get the ball up the pitch. Ella in goal dominated her area, making it hard for the Notre Dame team to get past her. The B team demonstrated some beautiful stick work when carrying the ball. The As won 2 1. The Bs were drawing 0 0 in the first half, with a very competitive match. In the second half, St T’s managed to score the first goal, however couldn’t keep Notre Dame at bay, as they managed to score another three goals. Players of the matches go to: Peyton and Clara. Well done girls!

On Tuesday, the U10+U11B teams had a great hockey match against Manor House. The girls were able to spend a good hour training beforehand in preparation for the match, practising their short corners and passing accuracy. The hard work paid off and the girls demonstrated superb passing and changing channels on the pitch. A huge improvement from everyone over the last two months. The final scores were a 2 0 win for the U11s and 3 0 win for the U10s. Players of the matches were India A huge well done to Laney for stepping up as goalkeeper and to Isobel for joining the U10 team as outfield.

On Monday, the U9 hockey club girls took part in a fun, Christmas themed hockey tournament at Downsend School. The girls wore their Christmas accessories and had a wonderful time playing lots of small sided matches. Payers of the tournament were Penny, Sophia L and Sophie B. Well done girls! Great work girls!

Pupil News—A special mention must go to Ella Johansson who represented St Teresa's in the ESSA Individual's Swimming Finals (East and South East regions) in Watford recently. Ella swam incredibly well in a highly competitive field, achieving personal bests in both of her races. Overall, she positioned 14th and 21st in the 50m breaststroke and 50m backstrokes races respectively, an incredible achievement! On the very same weekend, Ella also competed for Dorking SC at the Arena League in Amersham. She managed yet another personal best, this time in the 50m freestyle event, achieving a time of 40.17 seconds. Well done Ella, we are very proud of you!

This Week

In this first week of Advent, our minds turned wholeheartedly towards our preparations for the celebration of the birth of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. We were delighted to welcome Fr Stephen to our assembly on Monday. He reminded us that this seasons helps us to remember how Jesus comes three times into our world. We remember, of course, the birth of Jesus 2022 years ago when God sent his Son into our world to be ‘God with us Emmanuel.’ Likewise, every year we celebrate this season as we prepare for the ‘coming’ - that’s what Advent means) of Jesus into our hearts once again this year,. And finally, we recalled Jesus’ promise that he would come again and we pray together with all the Church ‘Maranatha Come Lord Jesus.’

To help us to prepare, in Chapel this week, along with lighting our Advent Wreath, we also reflected on the story of Zacchaeus. Over the coming weeks many of us will go to a pantomime. We all know how, when the villain comes on stage, we boo and hiss! Well, that is how the people would have reacted to Zacchaeus. The people hated him and, in truth, he only had himself to blame. He was dishonest and treated people badly. But he had heard about Jesus and he was curious. Even though he was just a small man, he climbed a tree to get a view of Jesus and that is where the surprising part of the story comes! Jesus walked straight up to Jesus and asked to spend time at his house. Despite the booing and hissing from the crowds, Jesus recognised that Zacchaeus wanted to leave his old life behind and to make a new start. And, after, meeting Jesus, that is exactly what he did, making amends to the wrong things he had done.

As we enter this season when we prepare for Christmas, we pray that we will welcome Jesus into the homes of our hearts just like Zacchaeus.

Thinking of Joining FOST?

FOST is always looking to increase its team size, especially with parents from senior school, so we can do more in terms of events and improvements for our school community! Should you be interested in assisting on an ad hoc basis or joining the committee, please get in touch with Cathy Hastoy, Deborah Whipple or Jo Clark via Classlist.

Booking System st teresas equestrian.ecpro.co.uk

Visit our website www.st teresas.com/ equestrian

Or find us on Facebook “St Teresa’s

We hope that you have all been well.

As the weather is so variable at the moment, please make sure that you come with a jumper (no hoodies!) and/or a coat to wear when it’s chilly out. As we are on top of a hill, we get a bit of a cold wind when riding in the arena!

A reminder that if you wish to cancel a lesson, we do require 48hrs notice or more in order to offer credit. Any later and we are unable to fill the slot with a rider for a catch up lesson or off the waitlist. Finally, while the weather is showing on and off rain, we’d like to remind our riders that we still run lessons in the wind and rain provided there is not a risk to anyone’s safety. As an alternative for those who don’t want to ride, then we do offer stable management lessons in the warm barn.

Christmas Holidays

The dates are available to book on the system! Please check out our online site to book your spaces now!

We also have spaces for private 30min lesson on the week of Monday 12th December.

Barney passed the license last week and had his first lesson at STE on Monday! An NSEA team also competed over the weekend and did well in jumping. The horse of the week is… Charlie!

~ Libby C

NSEA News

This weekend we had several riders representing STE at Berkshire College of Agriculture for the County Show Jumping Qualifiers. Lilly S had a great round in the 80cm with Griff for a clear round but just outside the placings.

In the 90cm we had two teams entered. The team of Lulu S, Antonia S, Izzy L and Lilly S finished up 7th with both Izzy and Antonia jumping clear rounds. The Blue Team of Chloe B, Amber B and Inde W didn’t have the easiest time as a team but Chloe did a brilliant round to finish 5th individually with a great clear round.

CherryTrees Christmas Concert—Sunday 11th December

Join us at our Cherry Trees Christmas Concert in the atmospheric Mairlot Hall at St Teresa's in Effingham on Sunday 11th December. Doors open at 15.45 with the performance from 16.30.

Expect a festive afternoon of fun filled, family entertainment including:

• Nativity & Carols from pupils at St. Teresa's & Cranmore.

• A rousing medley of Film Favourites & Christmas Classics from Fitznells Concert Band.

• Special performance from Britain's Got Talent winner, Colin Thackery.

Bring friends and family to this wonderful afternoon of Christmas magic with all proceeds supporting Cherry Trees and the children and families that rely on our support.

Get your tickets here: https://www.cherrytrees.org.uk/Event/christmas concert

Hot lunches include a selection of family favourites and suitable alternatives for children with allergies and intolerances.

Prep School

Main Beef lasagne with crusty bread Southern fried chicken fillet burger with shredded iceberg & piri piri mayo

Honey roast gammon with Yorkshire pudding

Mild beef chilli nachos, grated cheese, guacamole, sour cream & salsa

Lemon & basil chicken breast served with marinaded olives

Traditional battered cod fillet or fish fingers with tartare sauce

Seafood & chilli spiced linguine with roasted green peppers & fresh herbs