Godstowe News: Summer Term 26/5

Congratulations to our Form I to Uppers’ girls who navigated their way through exam week successfully and it was lovely to see them all relax in the bright sunshine today, as they waited for class and boarding photographs Thank you to FoG for arranging the Parent and Staff Rounders match last night which was another success! I’m sorry I had to miss this one due to meetings, but I shall certainly be there for the next one, especially as the serving of Pimm’s had gone down so well! The Transition to Form II Kindness Workshop on Tuesday this week went down exceptionally well with girls and staff, very happy with the strong message and lasting impact this had made

As you will have noticed, we are forging ahead with changes for September and there is a real sense of optimism in the air as we break for half term today Plans for Speech Day, Leavers’ events, residentials, workshops and speaker visits are all in place for our return on 5th June, and we are primed to make the very most of our time together before we break up for the summer on 4th July Have a wonderful half term holiday and enjoy the predicted sunshine and good weather if you are here in the UK I am off to visit my new young puppy, Arlo, on the final Sunday of the break and I look forward to introducing him to you all after I have collected him on 15th July!

Happy holidays and the break together and see you on 5th June

A letter from the Headmistress

Our Godstowe culture

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

It’s been an exciting week in Nursery this week as we have enjoyed a ‘under the sea ’ topic We have been using our fine motor and maths skills to thread the right amount of small beads onto the jellyfish’s tentacle’s We also enjoyed making rainbow jellyfish using our cutting skills In Phonics, our sound of the week was ‘ y ’ and we made yo-yo pictures, using cupcake cases. In cookery we made the most delicious courgette and lemon cake It was great fun learning how to grate the fruit and vegetables Finally, we much enjoyed a trip to the pond to gather some pond weeds for our tadpoles, who are growing quickly!

This week in Beginners we have enjoyed learning all about bees! We read a story called The Very Greedy Bee and thought about how the bee in the story could have been a better friend by sharing the nectar with the others. We also learnt lots of interesting facts about bees. In Maths we have been learning about sharing and halving and working really hard to practice these skills. We also really enjoyed making some delicious honey biscuits at the end of the week! Have a lovely half term everyone

Hurray for Arrays! Kindergarten have been working hard in Maths, identifying equal groups and building arrays in rows and columns in order to support multiplication The discovery that chocolate comes from the depths of the rainforest in their topic work, ‘The history of chocolate’ inspired their chocolate wrapper designs in Art and chocolatey surprise in DT!

Transition and Kindergarten had an assembly this week about being responsible - for ourselves, our belongings and our choices. On Wednesday, Transition joined with Form I and II for a Kindness Workshop run by Greg from 52-lives org After looking at real life examples that showed that being kind means to be friendly, generous and considerate, the girls had opportunities to create a card or other object to show kindness to a person of their choice. A very inspirational morning!

After our amazing artwork on display at the Art Exhibition recently, Transition have been busy creating more spectacular pieces of work in their Art lessons! Each pupil chose half of a painting by Henri Matisse They then had to complete the other half of it, as accurately as possible, trying hard to match the colours and improve their painting skills

We hope that all Lodge families have a wonderful Half Term break and we are looking forward to an actionpacked second half of term

MainSchool

This week, Lowers, Middles and Uppers completed their exams. The girls have all worked very hard and we are very proud of them Form I and Form II also had some assessments this week Congratulations to all those girls

Transition, Form I and Form II had a visit from Greg from 52-lives org The girls were encouraged to speak kindness to each other and made some fantastic cards to give to their loved ones.

Key Dates for next week

4th June 5th June

5 30pm - 6 30pm Boarders return

6 30pm - Boarders Supper

Term recommences for Day pupils in Lodge and Main School

Field Finals for FII and Lowers

Mrs MacDougall and the Godstowe Litter Pickers went out into High Wycombe and collected 3 full bags of litter Well done girls for your efforts

This morning in Assembly, Miss Bailey spoke to Lowers, Middles, Uppers and Fourths about Godstowe's Culture She encouraged girls and staff to come forward with their thoughts on our culture. There were some incredible suggestions including integrity, loyalty, acceptance of others, celebrating differences, happy, and many, many more

We are looking forward to building our culture upon everyone ' s return after half term

GodstoweStaffvsGodstoweParents

Thursday 25th May saw the first Staff vs Parents Rounders Match.

There was a healthy level of competition and some fantastic playing. Staff, parents and spectators enjoyed a relaxed game and some Pimm's.

The final score saw the staff ultimately winning 10-6, but the parents say "Bring on next year " .

Well done to all the players and thank you for coming and supporting our school.

6th June 8th June 9th June

Common Entrance and IV Form exams until Friday morning

3 15pm U9 Tennis vs Maltman's Green (home)

4 30pm Tennis vs Queen Anne's (away)

4pm U8 and U9 Athletics vs RMS and MGS (away)

3pm U10 Cricket at Pipers Corner (away)

2 30pm FI and FII Drama Showcase

Field Finals for Fourths

4.30pm Student Recital

6pm Fourth's Leavers' Celebratory Dinner

Boarders'Corner

Highlands House and the Boarding Community had a magical weekend

Our weekend started off with yummy breakfast followed by prep, where we worked super hard to revise for our exams this week We all did so well and are proud of our hard work! In the afternoon we had a Great Highlands Bake-Off, where we all became master chefs and baked delicious and colourful cupcakes! To finish off our ‘sprinkletacular’ day, we wrapped ourselves in blankets and enjoyed our own creations the cupcakes!! They were super delicious.

It’s Sunday we have all been waiting for!! Time to go to Brighton! Our bags were already packed for the day. We munched on our Full English breakfast and we were Brighton bound Once we arrived at Brighton, we managed to get a beautiful picture with all three of the boarding houses although we did seem to hold up the foot traffic. We broke off into our groups, and we went shopping! There were so many amazing things we wanted like soft toys, bracelets, candy and many more We all had some pocket money and enjoyed the ice cream and candy floss!

As our tummies started to rumble, we found the perfect spot to enjoy our welldeserved lunch, and no seagulls stole any of it! We had a whale of a time dipping our feet into the cool water, so much fun that a shoe managed to get lost into the waves! But we managed to rescue it. The best bit of the day was definitely the Brighton Palace Pier We had such a big adrenaline rush going on all the rides and even a little scare while going through the haunted house! And we can't forget the classic merry-goround, both girls and staff had so much fun!

Soon it was time for some supper We had huge smiles on our faces the whole time and on the way back home, there was chatter in the air for some while some were off in dreamland It was an amazing weekend!!

ArtandDesignExhibition2023

Every year the Art and Design Exhibition is a cause for celebration. A piece of art, or two, from each child at Godstowe really is an enormous feat We hope you were able to come and enjoy it with us, and a thank you must go to the staff involved; Mrs Sloggett, Mrs Lee-Metcalfe, Ms Mushtaq, Estates Team and the backstage hands of the Fashion Show Something Special really is happening at Godstowe.

With the weather picking up, we ' ve had the perfect opportunity to get outside and practise for Sports Day. Lodge have been working hard on their sack race skills, as well as their running on the athletics track Main School have been hurdling and passing batons ready for the relays on Sports Day We hope to see lots of Main School parents at the field finals after half term.

Last Thursday, 18th May, our four U12 Tennis pairs took played a set against John Hampden’s boys’ team. Our girls were really tested as they had to get used to playing against more powerful and experienced players A lot of games went to Deuce but the boys won all four matches For the second set, they played mixed doubles, where they had to learn to communicate with a new partner and figure out how to work together. These were very competitive matches and our team benefitted greatly from the whole experience Well done girls!

Some of our athletes enjoyed a beautiful afternoon at Queen Anne’s competing in a friendly athletics match Many girls showed real strength of character by ‘facing the fear and doing it anyway ’ , by pushing themselves out of their comfort zone. Some girls competed in events they had never done, and surprised themselves with how well they did. This was certainly true in the Discus We were grateful to those girls who showed commitment to the school when other events outside of school were clammering for their time Well done to all those who competed and a special thank you to Mrs Western-Kaye and Miss Smythe, without whom this event would not have been possible

A perfect afternoon for cricket gave the MIII A and B team the opportunity to compete against Piper’s Corner The skills learnt both in lessons and at Cricket Club were applied well in two competitive matches The A team bowled and fielded well, but were unfortunate to face some large hitting on a small ground The B team showed good batting skills, backed up by tight bowling to win both of their games All girls played well and enjoyed their afternoon’s cricket matches

On Thursday our U13 tennis team played possibly their last ever match for Godstowe and what a way the end their time here They played some of their best tennis of the season and can be proud of their progress. The opposition was John Hampden Grammar school boys and some of the long rallies and fantastic volleys were a joy to watch. Over all, Godstowe won 5-3, a great result Well done team!