The Royal Masonic School for Girls Senior School Weekly News Update
Friday 15th September 2017
SCHOOL INFORMATION Mindfulness Course for Parents
This Term’s Events at a Glance… Here are just a few important
This is the last chance to register for the Mindfulness course
forthcoming events—for our full
being run by Gayle Creasey on eight Thursday evenings from
calendar, click
28th September until 23rd November (excluding Half Term)
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and a full day on 11th November. Gayle will run a Foundation
calendar
programme that is one and a half hours each evening and the
Monday 18th September
amount of home practice suggested is more manageable than
School Photographs
some approaches. You will have heard me say before how
Friday 22nd September
helpful I believe Mindfulness can be, and work in School with
Amsterdam Information Evening
Year 8 girls and more recently Year 6 girls has been valuable; this year we are teaching Year 10. It is really beneficial to
Saturday 23rd September
parents as well, and will also give you a well-earned adult
Senior Team Leadership Day
break after the long holiday!
Sunday 24th September
Some members of staff did the same course last Term and
Chapel Choir to Essex Knights Templar
feedback includes:
Service
I found this course to be the starting point of a lifelong skill
Monday 25th September
which I can carry forward into all aspects including work
Year 7 to Woodrow
Really enjoyed it thank you, definitely making a difference and
Thursday 28th September
looking forward to continuing the practice
Whole School Focus Day
Gayle is a great instructor and the group was very friendly
Friday 29th September Year 11 Geography to Slapton Ley
I found it a very worthwhile and enjoyable course, which was
EXEAT Weekend
extremely well led and enabled by Gayle
Monday 2nd October
I have been able to put mindfulness into practice in different
Life Skills Evening “Supporting your child
areas of my life particularly when feeling anxious. On the
with Exam Stress”
other hand I am aware of the moment and am allowing myself
Tuesday 3rd October FORMS Meeting Wednesday 4th October Year 10-13 PARTS Trip Friday 6th October Ski Trip Information Evening Sunday 8th October WHOLE SCHOOL OPEN DAY Compulsory attendance for ALL pupils
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to present in it If you are ready to book please go to http:// gaylecreaseypsychotherapy.co.uk/rms-parents-course-sept2017/ for detailed information and the booking form. By all means address any queries to me or contact Gayle direct on 07941 279177 g-a-creasey@hotmail.co.uk. Rev'd John Quill School Chaplain jquill@royalmasonic.herts.sch.uk
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FOCUS DAY THURSDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER Today in Great Hall Assembly Focus Day 2017 was launched and we are delighted to announce that the theme for this year’s Focus Day is The Great Outdoors…. learning unlimited… beyond the classroom. The aim of the day will be for students to experience learning in different environments and understand how we all continue to learn through life in whatever situation we find ourselves. The range of activities across Ruspini, Cadogan House and Senior school are varied and exciting. To give you a flavour of the day, Ruspini House students will be exploring the School Grounds on a mini beast hunt and creating journey sticks. Cadogan House students will be using the Forest School, the School grounds for orienteering and learn some coding as well as other surprises. Senior students will have opportunities to take part in external visits to Phasels Wood Activity centre, Bletchley Park, London Zoo, Chess Valley walk, Indoor sky diving, visiting a local stable and a canal walk. On site activities such as Earth, wind and fire Jewellery, Art in the Grounds, Minecraft, an outdoor literary festival, a Sing OUT, a gardening project are just some of the activities on offer. Information for Senior School Parents In the Senior school, students will be able to rank their preferences for the activities. This will be via CHQ. Based on this information CHQ will allocate activities which is not on a first come first served basis. With limited spaces in some activities not everyone will be able to have their first choice, but I am sure you will agree that the range of activities are all so exciting anyway. Some activities will take place for the whole day, some for half a day and some for 2-hour session blocks. Some activities will involve a cost, so it is important to read all the information provided on CHQ and then discuss the activities with your daughter when they rank their preferences. The day is cross curricular and your daughter will work with students in other year groups in many of the activities. They will wear their own clothes and more details of specific requirements for each activity will follow once selections are made. Packed lunches will be provided and it is hoped students within school will enjoy these with a picnic theme, whereby they can bring rugs and use our stunning Dining Hall Quad with decked area and the School grounds (weather permitting). I am sure we will all wish for a beautiful day. Mrs Bloomfield-Proud, Senior Teacher—Community
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FOCUS DAY THURSDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER How your daughters sign up for Focus Day Activities This will be done using CHQ. (We have uploaded the PP shown at the recent CHQ Parent Information evening- if you need guidance with this). They can sign up from Saturday 16th Sept from 9.00am – Tuesday 19th Sept. It will close at 2.45pm on Tuesday to allow the system to make student choices. It is not a first come first served, but it is important to sign up before Tuesday’s deadline. As a reminder: They can access CHQ via two methods: A) Clicking on the CHQ desktop icon on school PC's and entering their normal computer login B) Remotely, using their iPad or a home PC via https://mychq.net/royalmasonic and entering their normal computer login Once logged on, they click on My Activities and "view/submit activity choices" It will read as follows: Welcome to Focus day sign-up! Below you can see the activities available to your year group. Please have a read of all information available by clicking on the "i" button. Please rank ALL activities using numbers 1, 2, 3, etc. and note that you MIGHT not get your first or second choice as allocation will be random, based on preferences. Please also note that some activities last all day while others up to 2 or 4 hours, so you may need to plan carefully what you will want to do. Make sure you discuss your choices with your parents, especially since some involve extra cost. Confirmation emails on your activities will be sent after Tuesday, 19th September. See you all in the "Great Outdoors"! The Focus Day team. For any information about Focus Day please contact Mrs Bloomfield-Proud at rbloomfieldproud@royalmasonic.herts.sch.uk For particular queries about using CHQ please refer to the PowerPoint here
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YEAR 7 TRIP TO LONDON ZOO After an early start, the vast majority of Year 7 were on the bus to London Zoo. Excited about the animals, we spent the entire drive bouncing in our seats, eager to start the trip. After splitting off into forms, my group made our way to Africa, first seeing the pygmy hippos before viewing beasts such as giraffes, zebras and the unique okapi, which appeared to be a cross between a brown horse and a zebra. More African animals followed before we crossed into Tiger Territory. 7R were lucky enough to be in time for the feeding of Jae Jae, the father of twin tiger cubs! After following the majestic cat to the edge of its enclosure, we decided to test the waters of Penguin Beach. Jumping, splashing and overall having fun, the penguins barely had time to entertain us before a handler came and gave us a talk on the black and white birds, which included Daisy from 7G dressing up as a penguin complete with furry waistcoat, wings, a black beak and awesome penguin feet! Did you know that the colouring of a penguin's feathers actually works as camouflage when they are swimming? The white looks like snow and ice and the black looks like the depths of the ocean! We had an hour for lunch before proceeding to the aviary. A range of brilliantly coloured birds swooped about the aviary. Although one did manage to poo in my hair, I still found the sight of birds such as a flock of peafowl breath-taking. After exiting the fluttering aviary, we saw a line of birds featuring three species of owl, harrier hawks and blue throated macaws. Attempting to imitate the owls led our group into hysterics as many impressions ended up looking like constipated ducks. Following the birds to the rainforest habitat led some of the less confident girls into worry at a sign claiming there were fruit bats that may crash land onto our heads, however, although I saw a sloth, a shoal of piranhas and a lot of monkeys, I didn’t end up seeing any bats.
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YEAR 7 TRIP TO LONDON ZOO The rainforest spat us out by the lemurs, so in we went. Did you know that lemurs adopt almost yoga-like positions to soak up the sunlight? Again, our impressions had everyone in stitches. Exiting the lemurs took us to the gorilla enclosure. Apparently we share most of our DNA with gorillas! One of the such apes there, Zhaire, had been hand-reared by famous conservationist and author, Gerald Durrell. Impressive, and apparently her favourite hobbies were walking around and collecting things in a sack, so perhaps she does take after him! The only problem with the gorilla enclosure was that it was just too big, and we ended up losing our teachers! All's well that ends well, don’t worry, they weren't lost for more than five minutes although we did manage to panic.
Next up - a Piglet Squid? Some of the fish in the aquarium were very cool, some slightly freaky, but hey - we found both Nemo AND Dory! After leaving the fish behind, we entered the Land of the Lions. Modeled to look like an Indian town, we saw monkeys climbing over a 'construction site' but we had yet to see the real reason for the "Gir National Park". Exploring the lower level of the town, we soon came to see the felines we expected! Indi, one of the lionesses, along with her friend Heidi were asleep on the patio. Indi seemed so close you could touch her - except you couldn’t, there being glass there and all. After nearly losing the group due to staring too long at the lion, I hurried back to join my form in the Reptile House. Snakes, lizards and amphibians lined the walls. An absolutely HUGE python snaked around its enclosure, whilst iguanas and tree monitors hung out on branches. I found a friend in a black mamba - as I started to hiss at it it lifted its head and slithered towards me! Maybe I'm actually part snake! In the amphibian wing I managed to find a poison dart frog among the mess of leaves. After dashing back once more to take a picture of the Harry Potter sign, as that was where they filmed it, we headed to the shop. Once I had browsed the many shelves of zoo merchandise, we met back up again for one last roll call before heading to the coach. We had spent a very sunny day peering at majestic animals with our friends and taking photos to share with our family - what could be better? Alexa W
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SCHOOL NEWS Congratulations to Amelia During the Summer, Amelia (Year 10) competed with her team from Heathrow Gymnastics Club at the British TeamGym Championships at the Liverpool Echo Arena. After finishing runners up in previous years, this year the team won and Amelia, as part of the team, is now British Champion. The team won with the highest floor score of the competition , and the second highest tumble score. In addition to this achievement, Amelia has also now been selected by British Gymnastics to attend training clinics where she will be working with the top TeamGym coaches in the UK. We wish Amelia luck in the forthcoming European Cup in Gran Canaria later this year, and will let you know how she gets on.
Charity News Today in assembly our Senior Team announced the School Charity for 2017-18 After a week of voting by pupils, the chosen charity is SANE, a mental health charity that works to improve the quality of life for anyone affected by mental health problems, including family and friends. To find out more about the charity, visit their website http://www.sane.org.uk/ We look forward to bringing you news of charity events in the coming year.
Keep in Touch! Please note that our school website address has changed to www.rmsforgirls.org.uk The old website address will automatically redirect you. Keep up to date with school news, events and more by following us on social media: Twitter: @RMSforGirls
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