St Teresa's Prep Bulletin November 26

Issue 10

Autumn Term

8th February 2021 26th November 2021

Message from Mrs Conrad This weekend sees the inauguration of Advent, the season when we prepare for Christmas and remember how the Christ Child came to bring light to the darkness of our world.

This week, has certainly had its fair share of dark moment - girls, staff and parents testing positive for Covid (some feeling very unwell), difficult decisions having to be made as a result of the pandemic, members of the school community upset as they can no longer visit relatives abroad and, to top things off, the Prep School boiler packing up - heating and ventilation are not a good combination!

However, out of this darkness came some very moving moments of light, kindness and positivity which reminded me of Martin Luther King’s beautiful quote, “Only in darkness can you see the stars”. All the staff covered for their colleagues taking on extra work and additional duties, parents volunteered to help with activities and answer phones in the office, Gary kept staff spirits up with regular chocolate treats, the girls were very kind and compassionate to friends online and looked after those who were the only ones in school from their class and FOST have been so generous with their time, working many hours to make the virtual fair a great success and rearrange Christmas activities for the girls.

All of this makes me very grateful to work in such a special place where there is such a strong sense of community. Thank you!

Key Diary Dates: Thursday 2nd December

2EB Class Assembly, Henderson Hall POSTPONED

Thursday 2nd December

Chapel Concert, Chapel (you will be invited to attend if your daughter is performing in the concert) 4.30pm

Friday 3rd December

Mufti Day for Oasis (see details on the FOST page)

Sunday 5th December

FOST Christmas Fair—moved to a virtual experience

Monday 6th December

Advent Evensong, Chapel (all are welcome)

5.30pm

Thursday 9th December

Years 2 to 4 Christmas Service, Mairlot Hall

2.45pm—3.45pm

Thursday 9th December

Years 5 & 6 Christmas Service, Mairlot Hall

6.30pm—7.30pm

Friday 10th December

Year 5 Trip to the Winchester Science Centre

All Day

Tuesday 14th December

Year 3 Party With Cranmore Year 3, Henderson Hall

1.15pm

Wednesday 15th December

Santa Dash (details to follow soon)

am

Wednesday 15th December

Open Book Afternoon POSTPONED (new date to follow)

Thursday 16th December

Prep School Christmas Lunch

Friday 17th December

Pantomime; Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs, Henderson Hall afternoon Wear A Christmas Jumper (optional) Term Ends

All Day

Message from the Local Authority Following guidance form our local authority, due to the increased numbers in Surrey, face coverings are now strongly recommended in communal areas (excluding classrooms) for Prep School staff and visitors, and Senior School pupils, staff and visitors.

This week you should have received: Whole School

Covid arrangements letters for Week 1 and Week 2

Whole School

Letter regarding the FOST Fair.

Years 4 to 6

British Schools Biathlon Championships Qualifier letter

Years 3 to 6

Letter regarding wearing PE kit on club days

Please contact the School Office if you need a copy of any of these letters—prepinfo@st-teresas.com

Message for Year 6 Parents If you wish to accept the place for your daughter to join the Senior School in September 2022, please return your completed Form of Acceptance to Mrs Charles as soon as possible but no later than Monday 6th December 2021 in order to guarantee the place.

Years 2, 3 & 4 Carol Service Invitation 9th December 2021 The Headteacher, staff and pupils have great pleasure in inviting you to our Years 2, 3 & 4 Carol Service on Thursday 9th December at 2.45pm in the Mairlot Hall.

Festive refreshments will be served in the Mairlot Hall from 2.30pm.

On arrival, please park in the Senior School car park and make your way to the entrance of the Mairlot Hall.

Years 5 & 6 Carol Service Invitation 9th December 2021 The Headteacher, staff and pupils have great pleasure in inviting you to our Years 5 & 6 Carol Service on Thursday 9th December at 6.30pm in the Mairlot Hall.

Festive refreshments will be served after the service.

On arrival, please park in the Senior School car park and make your way to the entrance of the Mairlot Hall.

Christmas Jumpers—Friday 17th December We would like to invite the children to wear a ‘Christmas jumper’ with their school uniforms (if they would like to) on Friday 17th December. This is the last day of term, so it should help us all to get into the festive spirit!

Christmas Post Box We will be running a Christmas post service for the children from 6th 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 post boxes will be in the girls’ classrooms and the cards will be delivered at the end of term.

Golden Book Well done to all of the girls in our Golden Books this week: 2EB

Lucy A for being such a wonderful helper to Miss Brailsford on Wednesday and for focusing hard on her work.

Rosalind D for her fantastic effort and concentration whilst learning online.

3RN

Emily W for her choices of strong vocabulary in English.

Eleanor B for an excellent online attendance and continued effort to achieve her best.

3KC

Eva M for her fabulous attitude towards her online learning.

Imogen S for her excellent sentence opener for her Iron Man work.

Eliza P for her enthusiastic and very helpful attitude in everything she has done this week.

4BB

Amaya H for her fantastic work planning an Anglo-Saxon poem and careful attention to detail.

Pascale E for her positive and hard-working attitude this week especially in English lessons and written tasks.

4CR

Isabel R for her use of imagination when creating the storyline for her Anglo Saxon poem.

Clementine H for her effort this week and and conscientious attitude when planning her Anglo Saxon poem and tackling Maths problems.

5MK

Maisy M and Florence B for their super engagement in Maths lessons this week and for working hard to calculate perimeters of shapes.

Peyton S for her excellent work in English using all the elements discussed in class to write a super character description.

5HC

Olivia K for her excellent and accurate work in Maths working out the perimeter of 2D shapes.

Saskia D for trying hard to extend her vocabulary for more ambitious choices and using figurative language when describing a character in English.

Tabitha St G for her fantastic and thoughtful poem about "waiting hopefully" in RE.

6KH

Isla N and Lilia N for impressive effort and perseverance with their learning recently.

Alice C for always being so helpful and for using her initiative.

6JG

Francesca B and Gabriella B for their positivity throughout the week.

Eliza B for working so well from home, in particular her Titanic timeline.

6LD

Allegra M or always adding excellent figurative language in her stories.

Nyang’ara O-C For demonstrating maturity and independence in her learning.

Music News

Easter Music Course 2022!

Next year’s course will take place from Monday 11th to Thursday 14th April. This will be the 10th anniversary of this course at school directed by Mrs Yalden. The course is open to girls and boys from all schools in Years 3- 6 who have passed Grade 1 on their instrument. Please email Mrs Yalden on c.yalden@st-teresas.com for further information.

This Week Every half-term this year we are thinking about one of the great characters - the great heroes - of the Old Testament. This time we are thinking about Noah.

What should you do when people around you are behaving in a way that you know is wrong?

This was the problem that Noah faced. Everyone seemed to have turned their back on God and sin had entered the world. But God saw the good that Noah did and gave him a special task - he asked him to build an ark, a huge boat. But even then the people made fun of Noah. He had built the ark a long way from the sea and everyone knew - or thought they knew! - that the ark would never float. Even Noah must have been a little puzzled, but he carried on building the ark because that was what God had asked him to do.

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before it began to rain. But this wasn’t just a light drizzle. This was torrential rain and it wasn’t long before the whole world was flooded.

God was washing the world clean once and for all.

After forty days, Noah sent birds to look for dry land.

At first they returned with nothing, but finally the dove returned, holding an olive leaf in it’s mouth. The flood was over and dry land appeared. Finally, God made a rainbow appear as a sign of his love for Noah and for the whole of creation.

As we remember the story of Noah and how God saved him from the great flood, perhaps we can remember how we are called to be like Noah. To choose to do what is right, to continue to do all that God calls us to do, and to always remember that God’s love surrounds the world, like a rainbow.

Unfortunately, the live in-person Christmas Fair has been cancelled and is being replaced by a fabulous online fair being launched this Sunday! Please look out for details contained in a printed Christmas Fair brochure which will be coming home in your daughter’s school bags! We look forward to your support to keep the Christmas spirit shining bright amongst our school community!

Christmas Fair Sweetie Jars Reminder for each girl to please send in their sweetie jars containing wrapped sweets or edible goodies (NO NUTS please!) or get creative with filling a jar with any other fun small items. These will be used for a Prep school mini Xmas fair event before the end of term.

Christmas Jumper Collection Reminder FOST is still collecting (via collection boxes in both Prep and Senior reception) all unwanted or outgrown jumpers. Any Christmas jumpers collected will be for sale for a small donation in the School Uniform shop.

Christmas Fair Bake Off

Mufti Day Support for Oasis Friday 3rd December 2021 Given that bottles/chocolates for the tombolas will no longer be required in the virtual Christmas Fair, we would be most grateful if you could please make a donation to Cobham based Oasis charity (here).

Your support will ensure vulnerable children living in our local community will receive a new gift under the Christmas tree and their families will be given a fresh food Christmas hamper.

Alternatively, Oasis also has a lovely Amazon Wishlist page where you can choose a gift for one of the children they are supporting (here).

School Uniform Shop BIG thanks to Eco Council for the gorgeous pink and white candy-striped bunting made from used St T’s summer dresses! A lovely festive and environmentally friendly addition to our newly revamped Uniform Shop.

Open Mondays & Fridays 8.30am-9am and the first Saturday of every month 10am-10.30am during term time.

Please follow us @fost_st_teresas_effingham

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”

Booking System st-teresas-equestrian.ecpro.co.uk

We hope that you are all staying safe with the recent wave of illnesses heading through the school!

Please do keep us updated if you are having to isolate and will therefore miss any lessons with us.

We are doing our best to keep on top of it all, but some things may get missed. So please do get in touch if a lesson has been cancelled when it shouldn’t have, or a booking is still running when it should be cancelled.

For those who have had to cancel their lessons and were given credit, the office will send out an email of the available spaces that we have for next week for catch up lessons. This will be first come first served. If you miss out not to worry as the office will make sure to keep sending out any availability that we have that can be filled. Any credit that is left over, if we cannot arrange any make up lessons for the Christmas holidays, will be deducted from next term’s invoices.

NSEA Competition Reports On Sunday 21st November, we had a selection of riders who travelled to Parwood to compete in a BSJA (British Show Jumping Association) competition.

For the Just for Schools League classes: In the 60cm League, Sofie S did brilliantly to come 1st in the class!

The 70cm League, Sofie S kept her winning streak to come 1st, Joe N rode great to come 6th, Lottie B came 7th and Chloe B came 8th!

The 80cm League, five out of the 12 riders were from Effingham Schools! They all rode brilliantly! Chloe B placed 3rd on one of her two ponies, Lulu S came 5th, Lottie B came 6th, Joe N came 7th, and Chloe B came 8th on her second pony.

Two of the riders then stayed to compete in the BS 80cm Pony British Novice class. Chloe B rode well and came 6th, and Lulu S placed 3rd!

And having a look at the BSJA Team’s League table, the St Teresa’s team is joint 4th in the 60cm and 3rd in the 70cm, with Jackson B placing 3rd in the Individual 60cm League table!

Congratulations to all who rode!

Menu—w/c Monday 29th November 2021 Hot lunches include a selection of family favourites and suitable alternatives for children with allergies and intolerances.

Frozen Fun Day Effingham Schools Trust are hosting a ‘Frozen Fun Day’ at Cranmore Nursery on Monday 13th December for boys and girls aged 18 months to 3 years. If you and your little ones or anyone you know with little ones would like to come along, please confirm your attendance with Annabel Charles (details above).