Godstowe News - Summer 2021 25 06

Summer Term 25 June, 2021

Some enthusiastic support at Sports day on Wednesday!

Headmistress' Letter Dear Parents, We’ve had a very busy and exciting week at Godstowe. It was so lovely to finally see the whole of main school together for Sports Day on Wednesday, with each girl taking part with such energy and enthusiasm. I particularly want to thank our Sports department for their flexibility and resilience in dealing with the change of plans in the lead up to this event. We have had lots of positive feedback from the Live Stream, which was a first for us, and we hope that you enjoyed watching the event, even if it was not quite the same as being there in person!

The weather looks as if it is going to continue improving into the weekend which bodes very well for the boarders’ bushcraft

On Thursday and Friday, my colleagues and I very much enjoyed meeting parents and pupils who are joining the school next year

and big camp out. This is always a highly anticipated weekend of fun in our boarding community, and we look forward to hearing all about it next week.

via our Induction Teams meetings. We look forward to welcoming our new intake in to the school at the start of the next academic year to meet with their teachers and class mates in person. It is exciting to look ahead to what will hopefully be a return to normality next year!

The Fourths have been very busy rehearsing for next week’s High School Musical production, but they were able to take a very well-earned break on Thursday evening

Wishing you a wonderful weekend,

when we all enjoyed the occasion of the Leavers’ Dinner. This year, the event was Olympic themed, and it really was a pleasure to spend the evening with such an appreciative and fun group of girls.

Music Department End of Term Concert Thank you and congratulations to pupils and music teachers alike for yet another delightful concert, which will be the last one for this year. As always, pupils' performances are very well prepared, expressive and enjoyable.

We welcomed some of our ensembles back

Part One

Part Two

on stage and how wonderful it is to hear chamber music played so well!

- Mr Serpetti

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Boarders' Corner

written this week by Highlands House As I write, we are almost entering our penultimate week of the school year and what a year it has been! As we reflect on the many periods of lockdown, self-isolation, social distancing measures, virtual school - it very much occurs to me that these expressions were part of the English language that were hitherto unused and for many of us, unknown!

As the academic year draws to a close, it is timely to congratulate all our girls on how well they have adapted to the many changes of the last year, as they have shown great resilience and tenacity both throughout the long winter months of virtual school, not to mention the return to our boarding community at the start of March. Every one of our boarders can be proud of her approach to these changes and they have all hugely impressed the boarding community!

Since our return to boarding, the girls in all three Houses have had great fun, whether it be on a sunny hike to Hughenden for that mouth-watering ice cream or falling out of a kayak while learning water sports on Bray Lake! Much fun has also been had splashing about in the house paddling pools and enjoying a leisurely game of tennis after evening prep. All the girls have worked very hard for their Common Entrance or school examinations, and many have been delighted with their phenomenal results.

Looking ahead to what the next days bring is an exciting mix of residential trips, camping, High School Musical, fundraising, orienteering, BBQs and many end-of-year events, that we hope will be enjoyed by all our boarding community.

Library Books wanted As we approach the end of the school year, please could everyone look at home for any library books which need to be returned?

Please look in unlikely places as well as bedrooms and bookshelves. There are still over 40 books outstanding from before lockdown, and it is particularly important to bring these back to avoid a bill.

Thank you!

Fourths' Celebratory Dinner

Sports News Well done to our U9 & U10 Tennis players on their match against Maltmans Green. Our U9’s had some very tough games and Maltmans were the victors. The U10’s had some very close matches with Godstowe winning 2-1 overall. It was a great experience and the girls did themselves proud.

Sports day records Despite some brilliant performances this year, no records were broken, but there were some errors on the published record sheet. Please click here to see an up to date version.

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Claire Gillett, Head of Lodge Hannah Smart, Head of Nursery This has been a challenging week as many of Lodge have been learning from home. Staff have all been impressed at how well the children have been coping and how hard they have been working. Well done to everyone for your resilience!

This week in Nursery our topic has been 'moving up'. We have been thinking about the next steps in our school journey and how exciting next year will be whether the children are moving up or getting ready for their second year in Nursery. The children have chosen some of their favourite activities from their time in Nursery to have out for their final week next week. A highlight of the week was Sports Day on Tuesday. We had a wonderful time running the Teddy Bear race and the children were delighted to have some Main School girls cheering them on from a distance.

In Beginners this week we have been able to explore our Pirate theme by listening to Pirate stories and thinking about what we need to be a top Pirate . We have seen some excellent writing, drawing and making and it is great to see so many children getting in the mood. In Maths we have even managed to tackle the challenging concept of halving and sharing, thinking about how we can share treasure fairly, so that no Pirate feels hard done by. We have more Pirate fun planned for next week when we are all back in school, so we are really looking forward to seeing everyone and carrying on our fun learning.

In recognition of the Euro 2020 tournament, Transition has been researching different European countries this week, creating fact files, and finding out about the climate, landscapes, wildlife, food and traditions of each country. We have been very impressed with the high standard of slide shows, booklets and posters that have been created. In Maths, our topic has been volume and capacity, and some of the children managed to find a variety of containers at home, to compare their different capacities. In Art, the children were learning how to draw a self-portrait and tried very hard to position features correctly.

We are really looking forward to seeing everyone back at school next week, for an action-packed week!

Kindergarten children have spent this week learning about Fractions in Maths, creating halves and quarters of shapes and quantities. In Literacy, they were very creative and composed some lovely Acrostic and Shape poems based on the theme of summer and holidays. Using the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf in PSHE, the children were very expressive and clear about the importance of honesty and truth. Making the most of the sun at last showing its face, the children used their imagination and anything they could find in the great outdoors, to make Nature Art and then enjoyed sharing these compositions with their classmates.

My aim is to achieve sustainable change, not just a cute little make-over Jamie Oliver

This week’s challenge encourages seasonal, local eating.

Making changes to our lifestyles rarely happens overnight, and may require several attempts, trials and possibly a degree of perseverance. Achieving ‘sustainable change’ and not just a ‘cute little make-over’ can take much longer. It is hoped that Young Climate Warriors challenges sow the seeds of real sustainable change by encouraging small manageable actions and stimulating debate and discussion both within the classroom and around the kitchen table.

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