Godstowe News: Summer Term 16/6

Our Lodge and Nursery Sports Day 2023

A letter from the Headmistress

congratulating others on their successes, teamwork, practising skills to improve, trying hard to be the best they can be and good sporting behaviour Our youngest members of the school are always eloquent, and they had some wonderful suggestions, all of which they tried hard to put into practice on the field today. What a wonderful day of music and sport and it was good to see so many of you enjoying the progress your children have made over the year and relaxing in the sun with picnics – this has certainly been a highlight for me this week

I am sure you have seen the photographs I have posted this week of the IVths Leavers’ expedition in the Lake District and we are looking forward to welcoming them back today after their adventures, which have looked idyllic They have certainly had the weather on their side and my thanks to the intrepid staff team who accompanied the girls every step of the way They will have made memories, they will never forget in the last week, what with a successful Celebratory dinner and disco last Friday, their Caldicott Year 8 Social last Saturday and this residential away in a beautiful part of the UK. It was very good to share these events and photographs in my Monday Assembly with Years 3 to 7, giving them a real taste of things to come for them one day – there were lots of inspired and excited faces for what lies ahead in Year 8!

Have a good weekend, everyone!

This has been a very busy and exciting week for Lodge! We enjoyed an assembly on Tuesday from Miss Bailey, reminding us of the values that are important at Sports Day, such as trying our best, supporting others, being proud of our achievements and of course, having fun! This stood us in good stead for our Sports Day and Summer Concert today All the children, from Nursery to Transition, can be very proud of themselves They sang, played and spoke beautifully in our concert and ran, skipped and jumped with great enthusiasm at Sports Day. Congratulations!

Next week will be another busy week, with the Transition trip on Monday, our Recital Concert on Wednesday and Induction Day on Thursday to look forward to.

A big thank you to FOG for raising £170 at their book sale last week. We will be buying some exciting new books for our Library

Claire Gillett, Head of Lodge Hannah Smart, Head of Nursery

MainSchool

Well without our Fourths, you would have thought the school would be quieter this week. This has definitely not been the case.

The sunshine has brought happy, smiley, and sometimes sweaty, girls to Main School and they've been enjoying the weather during their time outside. With this warm weather does come a request from the school to bring sun hats, water bottles and sun cream to school

Our Uppers have been leading the school this week and they've done a fantastic job Monitors during assembly and ensuring everyone is in the right place at the right time during break times and lunch times. A big thank you to the girls for stepping up We look forward to your leadership next year

On Thursday the school were treated to a preview of the Summer Concert. Wow! The music department has outdone themselves once again We are looking forward to parents experiencing the concert on Monday Just wait for 'Lollipop!'.

Key Dates for next week

19th June

8 15am Upper School Coffee Morning, Sports Hall Gallery

Transition outing to Woodrow High House

2pm Main School Summer Concert

3.15pm U10 tennis vs Maltman's Green (home)

20th June

ABRSM Exams

21st June

ABRSM Exams Lodge Recital Concert

3pm MIII's Outdoor Shakespeare Performances

4.30pm U13 Athletics Relay at Wycombe Abbey (away)

22nd June

Induction Day for Lodge and Main School

Last day of Summer Term Enrichment Curriculum

23rd June

Main School Sports Day Supervised prep available in Main School until 5 30pm

25th June

Boarders: "Swim the Channel"

HonoursReaders

The girls from 8R participated in the AR Honours Award this year; they were challenged to read books from different genres including one Classic and one Non-Fiction book and achieve at least 85% in their AR quiz All of the girls enjoyed a welldeserved tea party on Walker lawn in the sunshine whilst those who really excelled at this challenge received the Godstowe Honours Award

DoveDiploma

Our Dove Diploma is coming to an end for this year and the girls are working hard to achieve their Bronze, Silver or Gold status

The Uppers presented their "Dragon Den" ideas which included a warming Bento Box, a water bottle that turned your liquid fizzy with dry ice and a clothing company for teen/tweens. Well done girls on your research and presentations. There were some great ideas

Two of our Uppers have also been working towards the 'charity' element of the Silver Diploma Natasha C and Poppy H walked around Richmond Park in London and raised money for Cancer Research, a charity close to both of them Their aim was to raise £150 but they smashed this target with over £1000! A huge congratulations to Natasha and Poppy

Key Dates for next week

19th June

8 15am Upper School Coffee Morning, Sports Hall Gallery

Transition outing to Woodrow High House

2pm Main School Summer Concert

3.15pm U10 tennis vs Maltman's Green (home)

20th June

ABRSM Exams

21st June

ABRSM Exams

Lodge Recital Concert

3pm MIII's Outdoor Shakespeare Performances

4.30pm U13 Athletics Relay at Wycombe Abbey (away)

22nd June

Induction Day for Lodge and Main School

Last day of Summer Term Enrichment Curriculum

23rd June

Main School Sports Day

Supervised prep available in Main School until 5 30pm

25th June

Boarders: "Swim the Channel"

On Saturday, we enjoyed a lie-in until 8:00am when we got dressed in shorts and t-shirts before going to have a delicious breakfast After prep, the musicians had time to pratise their instruments and then we got ready for our afternoon trip to Wycombe Rye Lido After lunch, we walked down the hill to The Rye where we enjoyed having the pool all to ourselves. As soon as we arrived we jumped in, making a huge splash and cooling down from the heat. We had great fun playing in the pool and chatting to our friends We even persuaded some of the gaps to join in! After a bit of sunbathing (and for the Fourths some skincare in preparation for their social at Caldicott) we got changed and wandered across The Rye to buy ice creams and a drink from the ice cream van.

The Fourths headed back to school first to get ready for their social and the rest of us were very excited to see how they looked As they came downstairs to leave, we all stood stunned, open mouths as we saw them in their gorgeous dresses!

After such a busy day on Saturday, we were all quite tired and enjoyed a calm lie-in until 9:00am on Sunday We had a bit of time to watch TV and went to breakfast. Afterwards we went back to Walker to have our TEAMs calls with our families and then had some free time before getting ready for the New Boarders' Induction We had a thrilling afternoon with the girls who will start boarding in September As it was so hot we really enjoyed the refreshing cold water in the paddling pool, splashing and squealing with joy under the sultry sun.

Later, as the music boomed out across the field we changed into our swimming costumes and took turns to slide across the water slide. It was such great fun and we roared with laughter at all the funny shapes we made as we flew across the slide Soon it was time to have lunch and we all gathered on the astro for a yummy barbecue The mouth-watering smell of the barbecue had made us very hungry so we quickly tucked into chicken, sausages and corn on the cob, it was so delicious! We spent the rest of the afternoon playing tennis, relaxing on the field and having a crazy water fight. We could have continued for hours but thick, grey clouds had slowly crept across the sky so we quickly packed up and headed inside for a nice, long shower

We had a brilliant supper in the Sports Hall Gallery There was all sorts of amazing food to choose from including sandwiches, scones, quiche, sausage rolls, oreos, jelly beans and so much beautiful fruit Fortunately, the rain stopped not long before the ice cream van arrived and we all raced out to choose our ice creams The cold lollies and milky ice creams were a cool relief to the hot sticky day

On Thursday afternoon, a group of U8 and U9 girls travelled to Maltmans Green to compete in an athletics competition against RMS and Maltmans The sunny afternoon included long jump, javelin, sprints and relays. The girls gave it their all and did very well, especially in javelin as for many of them it was their first time throwing one Well done to all that took part and special mention to Anjola for placing third in her age category, winning herself a bronze medal!

On a very hot Friday afternoon, our U10 cricket teams were welcomed to Pipers Corner Our ‘A’ team battled hard, demonstrating excellent bowling and fielding skills. After a very positive start with the bat, we were on track with two overs remaining Sadly, we just couldn’t get the ball away, and came up a few runs short Our ‘B’ team were resounding winners, with some almighty batting, including Bikman launching the ball out of the ground, as part of many boundaries in her innings. It was pleasing to see the girls put in such a great all round effort despite the heat, and enjoy the matches Well done to all!

On Monday a group of U11 and U12 athletes travelled to the Thames Valley Athletics Stadium to compete in the London Prep School Athletics meet. The girls all did exceptionally well, despite the blistering heat, and achieved many superb results Special mention must be made to Juliette, Katie and India who won gold in 1500m, 800m and long jump respectively, and are through to the National Finals in July Huge well done and good luck!

On Monday some of our U10 and U11 athletes travelled to Maltman’s Green School to compete against them and The Royal Masonic School. All of the girls ran, jumped and threw really well. Lots of them tried shot put for the first time, and showed great determination and resilience when faced with something new

We welcomed two teams of U9 cricketers from Pipers Corner on Tuesday afternoon in the sunshine. We saw some great batting and fielding, specially as for some girls this was their first experience of a competitive match We narrowly missed out, with Pipers coming away with two wins, but lots of new experiences gained

Some of our U12 Tennis team travelled to Dr Challoners on Tuesday for their next tennis match. We were grateful for some shade on the courts! Our A’s won 7-0, our B’s Drew and our C’s lost 8-0 So overall we drew with Dr. Challoners.