Godstowe News: Autumn Term 9/12

Godstowenews

Our Middles Choir in the Carol Service

A letter from the Headmistress

Our Lodge Nativities signalled the start and our wonderful weekend Christmas Fair brought the entire community together two weeks ago After all the hard work, I am delighted to announce that the grand total of £5,500 was raised and thank you once again to our dedicated FoG team Our temporary chef, Chef Richay hosted his sushi pop-up on Friday last week which brought the house down Since then, the Christmas Countdown has been in full swing My congratulations to Caroline W for her beautiful 2022 Godstowe Christmas Card design, which is now wending its way to you all and to the mailboxes of many schools around the country! The adoption of the Godstowe reindeer was a favourite, known affectionately to all now as ‘Dasher’, as was the hot chocolate and Santa hat Main School Assembly

Having been up to Lodge to share the enjoyment of Christmas Lunch yesterday, and having attended the three Main School Christmas lunches since Monday, I am delighted to say that our new chef, Chef Adrian has done himself proud in his first full week at Godstowe. We are delighted to welcome him to our school and culinary family and he brings with him a wealth of experience and the heart and soul that is most required in a school kitchen and community

The Great Santa Run on Monday was a real feat of fun and organisation and well done to Mrs Rycroft for championing this unique school event around our grounds With our Carols by Candlelight for boarders, Lodge Perriss Knight Awards, Lower School Christingle and beautiful Carol Service at All Saints Parish Church this morning we have ended the term on festive form and true style. As I type, we are gearing up to our staff Christmas celebration tonight and I am looking forward to sending this exceptional team of caring educators home for their well-deserved holidays

All that remains is to wish you all a happy, fun and restful holiday and we look forward to hearing all your stories on our return on Thursday 5th January

Lodge have enjoyed their last week of term, taking part in many Christmas related activities They enjoyed receiving a Santa hat and having hot chocolate on Monday, and loved cheering on Main School girls as they took part in the Santa Fun Run In many of the classrooms this week, decorations, cards and Christmas treats have been made. Transition were lucky enough to get together with Form I for a Christmas Scavenger Hunt at Main School, which ended with a chocolate treat We have also been singing some Christmas songs and carols. On Thursday morning, we had our termly PK Awards, and it was lovely to be able to welcome parents to this ceremony and to celebrate some of the pupils' achievements this term. Our term ended with a wonderful Christmas lunch and visit from Father Christmas!

We hope you all have a restful and joyful Christmas break and we look forward to welcoming the children

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

Thank you to everyone who helped make our fair a wonderful success this year! It was a return to the traditional with mulled wine, mince pies, cakes, reindeer and much more more. It wouldn’t happen without the volunteers who manned stalls, baked cakes, donated raffle prizes and contributed in any other way! We raised an amazing £5500 which we couldn't have done without you !

A big thank you to all members of FoG who work to achieve amazing events for our school

If you would like to be part of the team, please email friends@igodstowe.org.

We're looking forward to seeing what else they come up with this year!

Happy Christmas from FoG

FinemRespice

Godstowe's motto is "Finem Respice' meaning 'Reach towards your goal', Every term, in the end of term assembly, girls in Lower and Upper school are chosen by teachers to receive an award As you can see from the photo, each pair of girls is awarded a "letter", with a meaning behind each one. Congratulations to everyone who received an award this term

Someone with a willingness to give or share. Giving more of something that is strictly necessary.

Someone who is hopeful and confident about the future or who sees the positive side of things Someone who wants to do something very much and refuses to allow anyone or any difficulties stop them

Someone who is kind, caring and gives emotional help and encouragement.

Someone who plays or works well as a member of a team They care more about helping a group succeed Someone who makes arrangements for something to happen

Someone who is sympathetic and kind, and gives without expecting recognition.

Someone who is fluent or persuasive when speaking or writing, can give a clear, strong message.

Someone who behaves in a pleasant and kind way towards others and likes to be with other people Someone who is good at thinking of new, original and clever ideas.

Someone who keeps themselves and their possessions in a tidy way and well arranged Someone with the ability to understand and imagine (and share) how someone else feels Someone who demonstrates the socially correct way to behave.

Someone who does the things they are supposed to do and accepted the results of their actions

Someone who feels strong excitement about something and has an eagerness to be involved.

Someone who shows resilience to recover from setbacks and continues to try their best

Someone who remains calm and measured when faced with a difficult problem or circumstance

Someone who has the ability to do things independently and without prompting.

Someone who is polite and caring and who thinks of people and treats them decently and with respect Someone who tries very hard to do or achieve something

MainSchool

A selection of pictures from our exciting festivities this week:

Turner, Director of Sport

Last night the U13A&B teams played Pipers Corner to the delight of the girls in the Sports Hall! These were very competitive fixtures and the girls played so well The games were so close with the A team losing 6-5 and the B team winning 4-3.

Well done all on a fab start to the netball season

Last Saturday our U12 and U13 lacrosse teams travelled to Marlborough College on a chilly but bright day The U12’s played St. Mary’s, Calne and won 6-0, Player of the match was India B.

The U13’s played two gruelling matches back to back The first against St Mary’s who beat us by 2 goal and the second against Marlborough College U14 team which we lost by 1 goal. The match teas went down very well! The players of the match were Anushka B and Sofia M

Boarders'Corner

Click here to watch the Boarders' Video

On Saturday we had a lovely lie-in followed by a delicious brunch to prepare us for the coach journey to The Hexagon Theatre in Reading to watch the pantomime ’Jack and the Beanstalk’ We were treated to a wonderful variety of ice creams during the interval and had lots of laughs at the fabulous performance put on for us, there was even a very special ‘shout out’ to Godstowe Prep School at the end of the show After arriving back at school we tucked into chicken for supper and celebrated Hikari’s birthday before watching a festive film whilst finishing off our tuck before falling into bed for a much needed sleep

We had a relaxing Sunday morning, finishing off packing and prep in our pyjamas and then went to the dining room for brunch At 1 30pm our Christmas festivities began! Fun-filled House parties were organised for us with lots of exciting games, from Pass the Parcel and the hilarious Chocolate Game to Musical Bumps and Christmas Bingo before we all headed to the fabulous Christmas Tea Party laid on for us by the kitchen staff Adorned in festive jumpers and headgear we all had a fantastic time singing along to Christmas songs and eating all kinds of treats before heading back to our boarding houses to excitedly open our Christmas stockings, this marked the end to a wonderful day of Christmas fun

We had a really fantastic final weekend of the term and we would just like to reiterate our thanks to all the members of staff involved in making this weekend such a wonderful experience, from the incredible planning by the house staff to making sure everything was perfect, to the cleaners who were able to perform miracles and get the houses back to their original state after all of the weekend events We hope you all have a lovely Christmas and a very happy New Year!

Rebecca