Autumn Term
25th JANUARY 2021 Issue 1 : 4th September 2020
Dear Parents, A vignette of school life: the snow fell, steadily, and with intent, on Sunday. It accumulated to around seven inches across the entire site, rendering it quite magical. It was still and quiet, the peace shattered only by the merry sound of the boarders having a whale of a time. As you will be aware, one of the charming peculiarities of St T's is that it operates in a completely different climate to everywhere else. Where other places may only receive a flake or two, up on the hill we find ourselves facing a situation that resembles the ice planet of Hoth in “The Empire Strikes Back�, but with the regrettable absence of Han Solo and fewer tauntauns. So it was on Monday morning at 6am, as I met Alan, our indefatigable groundsman, who, with the aid of crampons, had made it to school. There was nothing down his way, he said, as he started up the snow plough. Off to the drive he went. At 6.30am, I had waded down the length of the drive to check on progress. On my way back up, I was surprised to hear the sound of a van coming up behind me. It was our meat delivery chap, clearly an intrepid fellow. He got as far as the turning for the Prep school before stopping; he could go no further. I had a quick, socially distanced chat with him; could he, perhaps leave the delivery with me? Yes, he said, it is only 3 kilograms of meat, and he energetically sprang out of the van and opened the doors at the back. As he was searching for the order, the van started to slide backwards on the ice, towards him, gathering pace. The gentleman assessed the situation rapidly; he was clearly not the sort to be overly troubled by this. He summoned the spirit of Geoff Capes and braced himself against the van. When both he and the van continued their slide back down the hill, he decided on a different tack. He said to me: 'Don't worry', ran back towards the driver's side door (van still in motion), opened it, jumped in, and jammed the steering wheel so that it came to a halt into a small bank of snow at the side of the road. It was, as I said to the girls in assembly about an hour and a half later, the most impressive thing I had seen in some time. But I also reflected, as I trudged once more up the hill with a bag of meat in my arms, on what an absolutely wonderful community of people we have here: for behind the meat delivery gentleman was Alison Craig, here in a 4x4 to feed the horses; behind her was Gary, braving the drive to come in and feed the boarders, and behind him, Marco and Steve of our Maintenance team, who had abandoned their car at the bottom of the drive and were sprinting up the hill to help the van driver out. They spent literally eight hours on Monday shovelling snow so that we could reopen to key worker children on Tuesday. This cross-section of our community, showing such dedication to St T's, surely illustrates that despite Boris Johnson's announcement that schools will not be returning until at least 8th March, St T's is still here, and we will continue to support your daughters with their education, their physical fitness, their mental health and general wellbeing until we are able to welcome them back. I hope this is as soon as is safely possible. Best wishes, Dr Claire McShane
BOARDING NEWS What a lovely weekend, we started on Friday by celebrating the Chinese New Year and on Sunday we woke to the most beautiful and magical sparkling scene where everything was covered by snow.
MUSIC NEWS ABRSM RESULTS JANUARY 2021 Candidate
Subject
Grade
Mark
Result
CHLOE R
PIANO
5
120
MERIT
FELICITY H
VIOLIN
5
123
MERIT
GABRIELLA DPG
VIOLIN
5
128
MERIT
JADWIGA K-L
PIANO
7
108
PASS
ISABELLE H
PIANO
7
128
MERIT
Well done to all the girls. Mr T Caister, Director of Music.
ART WORK OF THE WEEK COMPETITION Our winner of this week’s art competition is Lucie B in Year 8. Please do send your entries to n.menzies@st-teresas.com
Great Work from Art!
Alex’s current ceramic design incorporating home schooling and Face masks.
Parent Webinar You are very welcome to join a webinar from Elevate Coaching on Managing Student Stress & Wellbeing Date: Tuesday 9th February 2021 Time: 6:00 – 7:00pm Registration link: https://get.elevatecoaching.info/uk/register
GCSE REVISION Year 10 designed Cardiovascular and Respiratory t-shirts for their GCSE PE revision lesson. 1st place was Connie, 2nd place Louise and 3rd Rhiannon Well done ladies wear them with pride!
EGGSPERIMENTS
As part of Year 9 physics the girls have been looking at safety features in cars. To that end the pupils were challenged to come up with a vehicle to protect an egg from a 2m side impact crash. So using an egg box and one egg plus a few items these are some of the before and after results. Mrs Pearson
YEAR 7 SCREENFREE DAY Mrs Cawley set 7SG a challenge in PSHE during Tuesday’s Screen-Free Day. Their task was to look after boiled egg babies for a week. They look like they are having lots of fun.
ENRICHMENT SOCIETY
Our Music Scholars were treated to a fantastic presentation by Mr Caister, Director of Music on Thursday, who delivered an insightful talk on music and art of the early 20 th century, linking Monet, Hopper and Kandinsky with the music of Stravinsky and Ives.
Next Thursday at 4:30pm, Mr Mentz will present a session on the EnSoc Team on men of Jewish descent in the German military. A reminder that girls from all years are welcome to attend Enrichment Society. Each session will be broadcast live on Teams on Thursdays at 4:30pm. 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!
VIRTUAL CONCERT OPPORTUNITY This term we will be running a virtual concert and soiree! Please see instructions for recording: If your piece needs piano accompaniment, please scan the music to Mr Caister ideally within the next week, and he will record this and send it to you. Prior to your recording, you must change the efficiency of your camera phone to 720p HD at 30fps in settings (Settings>Camera>Record Video>720p HD at 30fps) Record yourself playing the piece, ideally with good lighting. The video needs to be in landscape. A phone will be perfectly sufficient. Have fun playing your piece! Once you are happy, please email the recording to Mr Caister and cc in Ella M and Lara A as we will be putting this together. Mr Caister will then be in touch as to whether you are in the concert or the soiree. ALL SUBMISSIONS MUST BE SENT BY 13 FEBRUARY We will be in touch with the dates of the streams after half term. Good luck!
ECO COUNCIL Join us this January and give back your old unwanted electrical items to help people in need. It might be children who need tech to do their homework, the elderly to stay connected with their loved ones, or households that need essential household electricals. Even broken items can all still be recycled.
Things like phones, laptops and cameras can be refurbished and put to good use via second-hand markets or charity shops. Could you donate yours? Take a look at this website for more information: https://www.recycleyourelectricals.org.uk/donate-electrical-goods/
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!
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 challenged him to ‘speak truth unto power’ to the people of Nineveh. As is the case throughout scripture, an encounter with God always leads to mission. And in Jonah’s case this was truly a challenge. God calls us in challenging ways. People often underestimate what it means to live a life that is selflessly dedicated to love,. The challenge felt too much for Jonah and instead of ‘going over the land to the city’, Jonah ‘went by sea to Tashish’, literally the end of the world, and in the total opposite direction to God’s challenge. We, like Jonah, all too often do the same. We react to God’s call and do the very opposite of what we are called to do. However, almost from the moment that Jonah set foot on the boat, things began to go wrong and before long the ship, along with Jonah and all the crew, were in peril of their lives. God doesn’t put barriers in our way. We put the barriers there! The moment we resist God’s call, things start to go wrong. We sometimes don’t like to recognise this, but it is true. When we become selfish, thoughtless or uncaring our whole world becomes a place of misery. Jonah’s solution was radical. He told his shipmates to throw him overboard. In this first act of honesty, Jonah begins to align himself with God’s call. The crew are saved. Indeed, in an incredible moment, Jonah is swallowed up by the whale and, over the course of the following three days, is transformed and prepared for mission. We wont be transformed overnight, and is may take longer than the three days it too Jonah, but when we begin to recognise God’s call in our lives, we will be transformed and will begin our vocation to complete the mission that God has planned for us.