Godstowenews
FRIDAY 16th January 2015
www.godstowe.org I Parents’ Area Login I Upcoming Events I Upcoming Fixtures
Photograph: Finem Respice award recipients at the end of last term. Congratulations to them all!
As I write the sun is shining although I gather there is some slightly iffy weather to come.Welcome back to you all and I have enjoyed hearing countless stories about Christmas, holidays, new year and all of the girls and boys seemed to have had thoroughly enjoyable breaks.
Artwork of the week
you need to discuss please feel free to do so sooner rather than later.Things are always so much better when nipped in the bud. Members of staff will always answer emails at the earliest possible opportunity (please remember that many of them teach all day and might not see an email immediately) and that you are welcome to call in before or after school to see me and any of the staff if something needs urgent attention. All the school email addresses are on the website and my own email address is headmaster@ godstowe.org.You can also in an emergency ring my home number out of hours - 01494 429018.
This is a busy term as many of them will be involved in further preparation for senior school and we have a number of internal exams, which begin on Monday. I wish everybody good luck as I know this can be a slightly worrying time for some. You may be interested to know that one of our primary themes this term involves the promotion of excellent table manners. Members of staff will be watching even closer to see that everyone does their best in the dining room and I would ask you all to be involved at home by supporting the very best practice. Clearly, many of the girls already display excellent skills when eating but there are others who need gentle (sometimes a little more than gentle) guidance!
And before signing off I would like to extend a particularly warm welcome to 14 new pupils, six new gap year girls from Australia, Mrs Gerry Rogers (our new Head of Computing) and Miss Lexi Straker-Nesbit (Deputy Housemistress in Turner).We will also be welcoming a new Science Technician very soon. I’m sure they will settle very quickly into the Godstowe groove. I look forward to seeing you periodically throughout the term. DG
I now look forward to an exciting Spring Term and I would remind you all that if there is ever anything
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Important Main School information School Registration
Now that the term is underway I am anxious to ensure that everyone arrives at school on time for registration at 8.25am where upon everyone should be in their classrooms with their form tutors. A close record will be kept of girls who are persistently late and we will contact you to try and help resolve the issue. Secondly, could I take this opportunity to remind all parents of Main School that their girls will only be dismissed from the form rooms after registration at 4.10pm. Only in exceptional circumstances, where permission has been expressly given, may anyone be allowed to leave before this time.
By: Lily Sokolova Lingsi Tse
Awards
Clearly, it could be argued that what children do at home is none of our business but I hope very much that Godstowe parents will see it as the school’s responsibility to pass on sensible advice where ever appropriate.We are happy to be blamed for any measures you may wish to take at home in pursuit of greater levels of safety and security. I see this as a problem that is going to get more dangerous in the years ahead and we are planning to hold seminars for the girls and for parents in an effort to make people fully aware of the pitfalls which inevitably follow careless and unsupervised use of the internet. Girls themselves sometimes come to us for advice because they are becoming increasingly concerned themselves. Anything any of us can do to help must be considered worthwhile and careful education is no doubt the best way forwards.
Internet Safety and Social Media
Monday Badge:
I will, in due course, write to you in more detail about this but for the moment I just wanted to be sure that all parents are aware of how much importance the school places on the safety of children when using the internet and their devices. Please could you be absolutely sure that, whatever access you allow via the internet or apps on devices, privacy settings are properly set. It is worth remembering that generally speaking the default setting for privacy is OFF. You want to be sure that this is changed as soon as possible.You may not even be aware how easy it is for data to
Ahjung Kim
Sport Results Netball 10th January: The U13 A team unfortunately lost their match against St Albans 23-17. Georgie Mercer was player of the match. The U13 B won their match 15-14 and Amelia Graham and Amelia Weir were players of the match.
Upcoming Fixtures 17 Jan (9.15am): U10 Netball Tournament at Maltman’s Green CANCELLED 17th Jan (2pm): U12 & U13 Lacrosse v Queen Anne’s (away) 21st Jan (4.15pm): U12 B & U13 B Netball v St Mary’s (home) 22nd Jan (4.30pm): U11 A & B, U10 A & B Netball v Maltman’s Green (home)
Lodgenews
Mrs Wylie
It is lovely to see all the children back in school after their very busy Christmas holiday. The topic of Mrs Wylie’s first assembly was of the countries that some of the children may have visited and the culture in those countries.
Beginners started their new topic on dinosaurs this week and are eagerly waiting for their eggs to hatch. They have discovered that they could fit a diplodocus on the tennis court.
In this cold weather may we ask you to be sure to send your child into school with their uniform hat, scarf and gloves as, unless it is wet, we go outside to play at break and lunchtimes.
Kindergarten started their Antarctica topic in Geography. They have learnt to locate this continent on maps and enjoyed carrying the topic over into other subjects, including making sliding penguins in DT.
The Lodge and Nursery children all enjoyed celebrating La Fete des Rois with special cakes this morning. In each class one child found a cherry in their cake and was crowned Queen for the day (see photos in the story below).
Transition children have been concentrating on multiplication in numeracy this week. Mrs Wylie and Mrs Hutcherson are very impressed with the children’s knowledge of garden birds. Thank you for your work at home helping them to identify British garden birds.
The Nursery’s theme this week was Fairies. They enjoyed making fairy cakes, fairy dust, wands and wings. A very glittery week!
Friendsnews Other useful dates 19th - 22nd Jan: IV Common Entrance Mock Examinations 19th - 22nd Jan: UIII School Examinations 23rd Jan (4.30pm): LIII Parents’ Evening in JK Theatre 23rd Jan (4.10pm): Fixed Exeat. No after-school clubs but supervised prep available until 5.30pm
friends@godstowe.org
A belated happy new year to you all, I do hope you all had a good break. We have had some great feedback from the Christmas Fair last term, thank you for your fabulous comments and of course for coming along on the day.
Cake Sales
Summer Ball
Merchandise
The FOG team met this week and it was agreed that as the term is so short, class reps are going to organise individual year group events. This will enable the larger FOG team to concentrate on our next big event which is the Summer Ball. This is a bi-annual event and will take place on Saturday 4th July 2015. Please do put this date in your diary now! Further details will be sent out in the next few weeks. This is a big event for the team to organise, so if there are any parents out there that fancy joining the Ball Committee, do please get in touch, it is a great way to meet many of the parents and to have some fun.
If you missed the opportunity to purchase the new Godstowe umbrellas and the Godstowe cards (below) and postcards we are setting up a system for you to be able to purchase these online. Watch this space for details on how to do this.
Cake Sales have been put in the diary for Friday 6th March with Beginners and Transition running Lodge. Uppers and Fourths will be running the sale in the Main School.
Finally a big welcome to the new parents and pupils that have joined the school this year, we do hope that your class rep has managed to make contact with you, but please do email us at friends@godstowe.org if you have not yet had contact and we will direct you to the correct people.
Pupils become queens for the day in celebration of La Fête des Rois As is tradition in many countries, including France, La Galette des Rois (King’s Cake) is shared and eaten to mark the festival of Epiphany at the end of the Christmas season.
To ensure a random distribution of the cake shares, it is traditional for the youngest person to place themselves under the table and choose the recipient of the share.
Today, every class in school received a cake, each containing a cherry - the girl who picked the slice containing the cherry became a queen for the day.
Pictured here are the queens (unfortunately there were no kings in Lodge!), wearing their paper crowns. Nursery and Beginners
Transition
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be passed and stolen across the internet and if privacy is not set correctly this, potentially, places the children at enormous risk. All schools I know of are becoming increasingly concerned, primarily because so many people are blissfully unaware of the underlining power of internet search engines and the alarming increase in trolling, the act of systematically hunting somebody down electronically and digitally.
The queens in Main School
Form II introduce role play into their maths lessons This week one of Mrs Baker’s FII maths sets enjoyed playing shopkeepers and customers in their lesson, to support their learning of addition and subtraction. They paired up and used pretend money to carry out the role play.
Royal Academy of Music event
Message from Sister
Recommended by a current Godstowe parent, the Royal Academy of Music are once again running their Alumni Network Family Workshop. Discover the scintillating sounds of Steve Reich’s minimalism with this creative workshop for families with children aged 7 and above.
We have been informed that there has been a case of head lice in the school. It is important to check your child for head lice on a weekly basis including school holidays.
Alumni Network Family Workshop: Magical Minimalism Saturday 14th February, 11.00am–1.00pm Dance Studio, Royal Academy of Music Tickets: £7.50 from the Academy’s Box Office: www.ram.ac.uk/events, Telephone 020 7873 7300
A document containing information on how to check for and eradicate head lice can be found in the Parents’ Area of the Godstowe website please click here.
Poems of the week The Listeners Poem inspired by The Listeners by Walter de la Mare By Katherine Wober MIIIL I hear my name My heart thumping like a hammer against a wall My hands shaking while my breath quickens I hear the teacher’s pen crawling across the page as I get closer to the front The cards in my hand going back and forth, back and forth from each hand Anxiously I get closer still My audience is growing increasingly impatient My eyes dart to each corner of the room watching my class I hear the radiator sighing sending out heat waves Pairs of eyes watching me everywhere I go “Almost there,” I say quietly I hear Bean bags crunching Chairs creaking Feet tapping I break the silence as I start my talk.
Quiz of the week
Week One
1. By which name is the Re
d planet better known?
2.Who wrote Charlie and
the Chocolate Factor y?
3.Which sea lies between
Egypt and Saudi Arabia?
4. Juno was the wife of wh
ich god?
5. How many millilitres are
there in 1.3 litres?
6.Whose tomb was discov ered by Howard Carter an d Lord Carnarvon in 1922? 7.What is the translation of the Latin phrase “exem pli gratia”? 8.To which musical family 9.Which three sports are
does the double bass belon
g?
included in the triathlon?
10.What is the national mo Answers revealed next we
tto of France?
ek!
Godstowe Preparatory School, Shrubbery Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire HP13 6PR. UK. Tel: +44 (0)1494 529273 Registrar Tel: +44 (0)1494 429006 Email: schooloffice@godstowe.org Registered Charity Number 310637. Company Number 68471.