Autumn Term
11th JANUARY 2021 Issue 1 : 4th September 2020
Dear Parents, I hope that this finds you all safe and well. Another week of online learning draws to a close, but we have a group of girls living at school during lockdown in boarding and a varied group of key worker girls who make their way to school each day. We also welcomed some of our Year 11s back for the afternoon as they sat their iGCSE Mathematics examination this week - not all external exams have been cancelled! It has been lovely seeing more and more girls confident enough to turn their cameras on during lessons - it makes such a difference. We have also tinkered with our provision, being judicious about homework in KS4 and above, and setting only voluntary activities in KS3 - spending yet more time in front of a screen is not ideal and the need for a daily walk greater than ever. The remainder of Year 11 have also been grappling with the mock exams, mostly set via exam.net. This website is secure and locks the candidates out if they roam from the exam page. In order to regain access, they must type the reason they left into a box which is monitored by an invigilator. I await the inevitable 'My cat wandered across my keyboard and locked me out of the exam.' A definite sign of the times. The logistical burden of turning the mocks into something completely different by Monday was enormous, but Miss Nelson, our Examinations Officer has, as ever, weathered the storm with characteristic poise and calm. Only once have I heard her utter: 'Oh, to be in Mairlot Hall!' Sentiments felt by us all. My thanks to all staff members who are invigilating. It was a real pleasure interviewing the Year 6 girls in the Prep school this week, as part of their entrance examination for the Senior School. I met some very articulate and enthusiastic young ladies, and I look forward to welcoming them in September. If extra-curricular activities can go ahead online, they are, and I draw particular attention to Enrichment Society currently drawing huge crowds. With best wishes for the weekend. Dr Claire McShane
ART WORK OF THE WEEK COMPETITION Our winner of this week’s art competition is Libby in Year 13. Please do send your entries to n.menzies@stteresas.com Dear Parents and Guardians, I wanted to bring a few things to your attention regarding protecting your daughter over this lockdown period: please be aware that with the increased online access inevitable while virtual learning, when your daughter is online, she is not necessarily “in school”. Please keep a close eye on her internet history and ensure you have age-appropriate restrictions on your internet. For help and advice, please go to https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/ This week we have spoken with all the girls about Safeguarding and secrets ; we have reminded them that they must never promise to keep a secret if they are concerned for their own or another’s safety. The safeguarding team at St Teresas is listed in their planners but for your information we are: Mrs V Low v.low@st-teresas.com Mrs P Cawley p.cawley@st-teresas.com Mrs J Graham j.graham@st-teresas.com Mrs Z Wragg z.wragg@st-teresas.com Miss C Pitchford c.pitchford@st-teresas.com Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any safe guarding concerns. On Tuesday 26th Jan in the afternoon, we will be running our next pastoral check-in. Your daughter, will be allocated a time for a 1:1 chat with her form teacher or a member of her year team on Teams, to discuss how everything is going with lockdown and online learning. Please note that in the morning she will have lesson activities away from the screen, and there will be no lessons that afternoon so, as far as possible, she can have a screen-free day. The school nurses, form teachers and Heads of Year and I are available if you have any pastoral concerns, however small, at any time. Please do let us know, we are always happy and available to help. Take care and have a lovely weekend, Paula Cawley
ENRICHMENT SOCIETY
Enrichment Society continued this week with a presentation by Deacon Simon marvellously entitled ‘Illusions, Confusions and Peculiar Conclusions’. Deacon Simon explored whether our eyes always tell the truth, including the missing square puzzle, Matsuyama’s Paradox, and pointed out that sometimes our brain does peculiar things to us!
Girls from all years are welcome to attend Enrichment Society. Each session will be broadcast live on Teams on Thursdays at 4:30pm. A reminder that Academic Scholars from years 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12 are requested to attend a minimum of 3 Enrichment Society sessions each term. Scholars should ensure that they have completed the relevant survey for each session that they have attended. Once again, if any parents, guardians, or other family members, are interested in delivering a talk at Enrichment Society via TEAMS during the year, please email Mr O’Farrell on j.ofarrell@stteresas.com. All areas of interest and expertise are welcome! ART STUDENTS We would like to take this opportunity to wish good luck to all the students applying for art universities as at the moment they are putting together their portfolios. We look forward to seeing their finished portfolios in the near future.
E-mail equestrian@st-teresas.com
Visit our website www.st-teresas.com/ equestrian Or find us on Facebook “St Teresa’s
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!
We have had a lovely Christmas and New Year’s, we got to spend lots of time in the field eating and sleeping. I love coming in during the day and having a nap in my lovely big bed and getting fed by the nice hooman’s!
The hooman’s have been working hard to keep us fit and with lots of hacking and work in the school, although I’m not so keen and try to run away! I’m missing all the small hooman’s who come to ride, I hope you all come back soon! Love Twinkle xxx
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!
This Week
Every year Nurse Graham purchases twelve large tubs of cough sweets to use through the year. To her surprise, however, so far this year she has not even used one tub. She puts it down to the fact that people this year are taking much more care to wash and sanitise their hands, so that the normal coughs, colds and sore throats are not being spread so easily. We certainly are washing our hands more frequently - perhaps more than ten times a day. This, of course, is good for our health, but it also reminds us that no sooner have we washed our hands than we pick something up and our hands are dirty again.
This is a good reminder of sin, that is, those things in our lives that separate us from God. Jesus, of course, was without sin. He certainly did not need to have any sins washed away in the water of the Jordan. So why did he get baptised? When Jesus was baptised he took this simple action of washing and transformed into what John described as being baptised in the Holy Spirit. This was a single act that once and for all times would wash away all that separates us from God. As we reflect on this feast day we are reminded that in the same way that the voice from heaven declared, ‘This is my beloved child in whom I am well pleased!’, God delights in us and, through the actions of Jesus, every barrier between us and God has been removed.
We give thanks that we too are God’s beloved children.