Godstowe News: Summer Term 17/6

Godstowe news

Summer Term 17 June 2022

Key Dates for next week 20th June ABRSM Practical and Theory exams 21st June ABRSM Practical and Theory exams Transition outing to Wendover Woods 22nd June Main School Sports Day

Some of our Lodge athletes

A letter from the Headmistress Dear Parents,

23rd June IV Form Leavers' Celebratory Dinner 24th June Lodge and Main School Induction Day 4.30pm Student Recital

What a wonderful summery week it has been!

Last weekend saw the Fourths enjoy the dinner and dance at Caldicott School with their Year 8 boys. Thanks so much to Caldicott for hosting such a fun event.

On Sunday the Fourths departed with great excitement for their amazing trip to Wales and immediately after that we welcomed some of the new boarders to spend a day and night with us to acclimatise to what will become their home from home, from September. Everyone settled in well and I am pleased to say that there were no farewell tears. Well done girls.

On Tuesday I spent a wonderful day with the Middle Thirds at their campsite and surrounding woodlands. On that particular day we learnt how to make fires. We then made our own bread, cooked it on the open fire and then ate it! The relaxed and fun environment was brilliant and I would like to thank Miss Bennett for organising such a great adventure as well as Mrs Scragg, Mrs Baker and Ms De Villiers for taking the girls. Thanks too to those staff who accompanied the Fourths to Wales and I am sure we will hear much more about that trip in next week’s newsletter.

The Recital concert on Wednesday was a joy especially with the younger girls performing, some for the first time and I know that today’s Lodge Concert and Sports Day were a great success too.

I hope that the sun continues to shine and I wish you all a wonderful and restful Exeat.

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Boarders' Corner Claire Gillett, Head of Lodge

Hannah Smart, Head of Nursery

This has been a very busy and exciting week for all of Nursery and Lodge as we have been preparing for our Summer Concert and Sports Day. The children have all worked extremely hard and the staff have been very impressed with how they have performed in all the various activities. We have heard some wonderful songs and watched some amazing feats on the field. It has also been lovely to see how supportive the children are of each other. Our hopes for good weather have maybe been answered slightly too well, but it has been lovely to share this day in the sunshine with parents, as of course this has not been possible for the last two years.

This week, Beginners, Kindergarten and Transition also enjoyed an assembly led by Robin from All Saints Church, about moving on to new things, in preparation for our Induction afternoon next Friday. Kindergarten and Transition are also looking forward to their Recital Concert on Monday, whilst Transition have another exciting day next Tuesday with their trip to Wendover Woods.

Scroll to the end to see more photos of the Lodge Summer Concert and Sports Day

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Whilst the Fourths have been away on their adventures in sunny Pembrokeshire, the week back in the boarding houses has flown by. On Monday morning we waved the Middles off on their three day residential trip to Path Hill Outdoors leaving us with a very quiet Senior House.

Spending time with just the Uppers has been great fun and we have thoroughly enjoyed their company.

The weather this week has been incredibly kind to us so we seized the opportunity to spend as much time as possible in the garden, sometimes relaxing on the picnic rugs enjoying chatting and eating ice lollies and at other times the music has been playing whilst gymnastics, tag and fun water fights have been the norm.

On Saturday, Middles and Uppers from Highlands and Turner as well as all of Walker walked down to the Rye Lido where we took advantage of the sunny day and spent most of the day in the swimming pool. Those who didn’t get in the water read a book or sunbathed. Later we all got some ice cream to cool us down and relaxed at the Rye and soon headed back to school for a delicious supper to end this perfect day.

Boarders Video 11th and 12th June

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Weekly Awards Boarders of the Week Highlands Turner Walker

Mencia AdE Annabelle B Leona W

Sports Stars of the Week Juliette W Freya W

Hettie T Athena L

Friday Badges IC IH IM

This week in Music..

Form II learning Gamelan

"We have been learning about Gamelan music, which is music from Indonesia.

We've been playing some pieces on big xylophones and making music on the computer.

On Thursdays and Fridays we have choir. We are currently learning 'Colours of the Wind' from Pocahontas and 'La Bamba'.

We also both play the piano and play in the student recitals and assemblies.

It's really fun!" - Naomi and Anna, Form II

Nancy S Yasmin S Grace B

100% AR Readers Lower School Charlotte L

House Points 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

We are going to include updates each week of our girls lessons in Main School.

Franklin Seacole Pankhurst Adlington

Uppers' World Music Lessons

Form I learning songs

"We are learning about World Music and at the moment we are learning African music. It's lots of drumming and different parts of Africa have different beats that they drum.

"In our music lessons, we are learning sign language for "Do Re Mi". It's been really interesting learning it off a poster. We also get to perform in our lessons. Mr Button will ask if there is anyone who has been learning something that they would like to show their friends and then we get to perform." - Poppy and Taliya, Form I

It's been really interesting to listen to the different music and see the expressions on the musicians faces." Alice G, UIII

Lowers' keyboard skills "We have lessons with Mr Button and Mrs Martin. In Mr Button's lessons we are learning about the different periods of music. We do quizzes and it's interesting and fun. In Mrs Martin's lessons we are learning how to play "New World Symphony" on the new keyboards. This is funny because we are all playing out loud with no headphones so it can get quite noisy.

I also play the trombone and am in Orchestra and Wind Band. I'm also in the Lowers' Choir and learning "Anything you can do I can do better" with actions to be a bit more theatrical." - Lily-May, LIII

Student Recital

Melanie Martin, Director of Music

Our Godstowe Musicians treated us to a wonderful student recital on Wednesday. With the Fourths and Middles away, our musicians from Form I, Form II, Lowers and Uppers took over. We enjoyed music performed on violin, flute, piano, clarinet, saxophone and singing with music by Vivaldi, Haydn and Tchaikovsky amongst others, as well as lots of traditional folk music. It was lovely to see so many first time performers and as always, a supportive smiley audience!

Well done girls!

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Sports Results

Rebecca Turner, Director of Sport

Athletics It was a busy day in the Sports Department on Monday 13th June. Not only did we have the rearranged Field Finals for the UIII and LIII’s but we also had 6 girls out to compete in the London Prep Schools Athletics Competition.

Having had their Field Finals postponed due to the weather the girls were eager to show off their sporting prowess in the beautiful sunshine. It was lovely to see the girls get into the house spirit and cheer each other on.

Everyone gave their all in the event that they were participating in to win points for their house and it was lovely to see the girls thrive. Sadly no records were broken during the UIII and LIII finals but we are hoping that they are saving themselves for Sports Day. While the UIII’s were competing in their Field Finals Anushka, Gabby, Isla and Emily were crossing the finish line with a personal best in the 4x100m relay to finish 3rd in the London Prep Schools Athletics Competition. The day saw a number of successes for the Godstowe girls who had been selected to compete due to meeting the qualifying times and distances in their events. This is a huge competition with x amount of schools in attendance. If you finish in 1st place you progress to the National Finals in Nuneaton.

Our cross country team has been very successful this year so we had high hopes for the two girls competing in the 1500m. Emily ran up an age group (U14) and finished in 1st place by 100m and Lucy finished a very respectable 3rd place having been pipped at the line in the U13 race.

Gabby had a great day too. She qualified for the 200m finals!

Gabby was up against 4 athletes and she ran a superb race to finish 2nd in a time of 31s94. A fantastic time considering how hot it was.

The final event of the day saw Emily run the 800m in the U13 category. Again, she ran this race to perfection and had put nearly 100m between her and 2nd place. Emily achieved a personal best of 2m34s!

Well done girls. You were a credit to the school! A special well done to Emily who is representing the London Area in the 800m in Nuneaton on 4th July.

Tennis On Wednesday the U12A,B & C Tennis Team played against Wycombe Abbey U12B,C & D. 9 pairs played 3 matches each on a very hot summer’s evening. Our A team drew 4-4, our B team won 9-0 and our C’s 7-1. The team have really improved over this term and can be very proud of their performance.

Our lower school girls welcomed High March girls to the tennis courts this week for a friendly match. The sun was shining and our girls did very well, winning most of their matches. For some of the girls it was their first time representing Godstowe so a big well done at being such an amazing ambassadors for our school. You made us proud!

Isla and Scarlett were then competing in the afternoon in the shot and javelin competition. Both of these girls have only been specialising in these events for a very short time so it is fantastic that they made the qualifying distance.

Scarlett threw well and achieved a personal best of 18m.

We all thought she was Nationals bound but she was beaten by 4cm! We are awaiting the final results to see if she has made it to Nationals - fingers crossed. Isla threw a respectable 6m15 in the shot putt competition which saw her finishing in 3rd place.

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Sports Results

Rebecca Turner, Director of Sport

Swimming Saturday 11th June was the day for the girls to compete at the iconic London Aquatic Centre at the Swimming IAPS Finals. With each year the girls and boys swap on who swims first. On this occasion the girls were afforded a nice lie in with meet up at 1:30pm Once in and settled the girls went through the warm up and getting their bearings. With the Relay heats divided in 2 heats and fastest time taking the title the year 6,7 and 8 girls got to work. With some excellent swims and improved times all the girls improved on their entry ranking with the year 7 girls taking a well deserved bronze!

With the relays completed the individual events were up next. With 13 girls swimming it was so pleasing to see that all girls improved on their entry ranking and times and did not let the occasion get the better of them. With the day drawing to a close it was brilliant to watch Emily Hughes take the title in the 50m freestyle with another personal bonus of two PB's on route!

It was great to see swimming of a high standard and Godstowe making sure to be ones to watch with a 5th place overall finish in the girls category.

Well Done to all who took part and to all the parents for their support on the day.

It was lovely to welcome High March to Godstowe to compete against our U8,9,10 and 11's on Wednesday 15th June.

With 4 girls representing from each year group and 39 races with IM, 25m sprints and relays it was a very entertaining and positive event with all girls cheering on each other and enjoying the atmosphere.

After all results were collared it was narrowly won by High March with Godstowe pushing them all the way. We look forward to more close swam contests in the future.

Well done to all the girls involved, what a great finish to our penultimate gala of the year with the ESSA finals taking place Saturday 18th June.

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On May 10th Girls from year 4,5 & 6 took part in gala 1 of a 2 part final. The other part of the girls final took place on the 19th May with all times collated and winners announced at the Div 10 AGM. With all results added up Godstowe did amazingly well by placing 2nd in year 4. 1st in both year 5 and 6.

Well done to all swimmers that took part in the prelim rounds and finals it was a great collective effort!

FOG invites you to "Godstowe by the Sea" On Saturday 2nd July, from 12pm - 4pm, you are invited to experience "Godstowe by the Sea".

There will be food and drink, jewellery making, tombola, face painting, bouncy castle, ice cream, circus skills, live music and much, much more.

Tickets are available to buy on Classlist.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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Lodge Sports Day

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