Godstowe Platinum Jubilee Celebrations May 2022
An English Rose, Scottish Thistle, Welsh Leek and Irish Shamrock made up Ms Green's United Kingdom Bouquet which she presented to the "Queen"
On Friday 27th May 2022, we celebrated Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee at Godstowe School. As you'll see throughout this booklet, everyone had a fantastic day. It was packed full of Jubilee related activities including a quiz, concert and stalls at our street party. It was great to have all children from Nursery, Lodge and Main School involved. Wishing you, your families and Her Majesty a long and healthy reign.
Sophie Green, Headmistress
We started our day with an Assembly from Ms Green about the emblems of the United Kingdom. Then Mr Emm gave us a whistle-stop tour of the British Monarchs. At 10am, the whole school gathered near the tennis courts for our '70' formation. Every child from Nursery to Fourths were involved.
A big thank you to Annika S, Arabella dQA and Mrs Kenyon's IV Maths group for their hard work and data collection that contributed to such a fantastic photo. Click on the photo above to see a timelapse of our 70 or the link below to see our 70 from space. Godstowe's 70 from Space
Some of the fantastic outfits on display from staff. Clockwise from top left, Mr Adams, Mr Whitworth, Mrs Reynolds, Miss Troth and Miss Sellers, and Mrs Western-Kaye and the Queen
After our Queen's Jubilee Cupcakes at breaktime, the Main School children split into their School Houses for the Platinum Jubilee Quiz. Thanks to Mrs Drury and Mr Hanson for creating some really fun questions including a music round.
1st: Franklin 2nd: Seacole
3rd: Pankhurst 4th: Adlington
Our last activity before lunch was the Jubilee Concert in our JK Theatre. Each year group were given a decade to choose a song, or songs, from and perform with as much gusto as possible. In true Godstowe style, everyone got involved including some of the teachers... Click on the images below to watch the videos.
1952-1962: Lowers
1962-1972: Lodge
1972-1982: Form I 1982-1992: Uppers
1992-2002: Form II 2002-2012: Fourths
2012-2022: Middles
We then moved onto our Street Party on the sports field. We started with a fantastic fanfare from our brass band and the whole school sung the National Anthem with pride. We even heard the new song for the Commonwealth sang by our Lowers and Middles Choir. With long tables, lots of bunting and games, the children partied until home time.
Click here to listen to our Lowers and Middles Choir singing "A Life filled with Grace" which was written for the Queen's Jubilee and sang by choirs all over the Commonwealth.
Some photos of the children enjoying the stalls.
We finished off our celebration by planting a silver birch tree. Ms Green was helped by our two 'Elizabeths', Elizabeth B and Libby S. Ms Green also announced some of the winners of the games, including the joint winners of the Platinum Pudding Competition, Juliette and Martha.
Left: Audrey and Rosilina, the winner of the "Name the Corgi" competition.
Right: Sasha, the winner of "Find the Corgi" competition.
We are very lucky at Godstowe to have such an amazing support staff. A big thank you goes to the kitchen team for a fantastic lunch and some wonderful cakes; to the Estates team for setting up our street party, and to all the teachers who created the fun and games. The biggest thank you must go to Mrs Kenyon who, through her eye for detail and meticulous planning, created a fantastic and memorable event for every child at Godstowe. Head girl, Georgina E, and the youngest boy and girl from Lodge presented Mrs Kenyon with a beautiful bouquet of flowers as a thank you.
From all at Godstowe, we wish Her Majesty a long and healthy reign. God Save our Queen.
Juliette's Royal Raspberry Balmoral Tart The inspiration for this dessert came from the Queen’s family home in Scotland (Balmoral). It contains many Scottish ingredients and is decorated with 70 raspberries to celebrate the Queen’s 70 years on the throne. Serves 8 Ingredients 500g frozen raspberries 160g shortbread biscuits 80g oats 1 small tin sweetened condensed milk 4 egg yolks 60g brown sugar 60g butter Fresh raspberries to decorate Method Preheat the oven to 180C. In a food processor, blitz the biscuits, butter and sugar until they make a crumb texture. Stir in the oats. Press the base into a tin. Make sure it is pressed up round the edges. Bake for 10 minutes. Defrost the raspberries and make a puree. Sieve out the seeds. Stir the egg yolks and condensed milk into the raspberry puree. Pour the raspberry mix into the biscuit base. Bake for 10 minutes at 160c. Allow to cool before decorating with the extra raspberries.
Martha's Elderflower Fool with a trio of shortbread Serves 2 The shortbread 1. 60g unsalted butter, softened 2. 25g caster sugar 3. 90g plain flour To add the flavouring 1. For England - Freeze dried strawberries (1 tbsp) 2. For Scotland – Heather Honey (1 tbsp) 3. For Wales – chopped Stem ginger (1 tbsp) The fool 1. 60ml of whole milk 2. Half a vanilla bean pod, split length ways, and seeds 3. 1 medium egg yolk 4. 2 teaspoons of cornflour 5. 15g of caster sugar 6. 1 ½ tbsp of homemade elderflower cordial 7. 100ml double cream 8. Strawberries for crown decoration Method: Firstly, make the shortbread. Pre heat the oven to 190C/170C fan. Beat the butter and the sugar together until smooth. Stir in the flour to get a smooth paste. Divide into 3 equal portions. Add the freeze-dried strawberries and the stem ginger to two portions, making sure it is well combined. Turn onto a work surface and roll out all 3 balls until the paste is 1cm thick. Cut into 6 equal fingers. Now take the heather honey and brush onto the two fingers without any filling. Chill on a baking tray for 20mins Whilst the shortbread is chilling. Pour 60ml of milk into a saucepan and add the vanilla pod and seeds. Warm over a low heat until gently steaming, then set aside. Beat the yolks and cornflour together in a heatproof bowl. Pour the warm milk over the yolk and whisk until smooth. Return to the pan and heat gently, stirring all the time. This is important as it might go lumpy! After about 10 mins, stir in the caster sugar, then pour into a bowl. Pop some cling film on top to stop a skin forming. Put aside. After that, take the shortbread out the fridge and pop into the oven for 12-15 mins. Whisk the cream with an electric whisk until soft peaks appear. Stir through 4 caps of elderflower cordial, taste and change to suit. Fold the cream into the custard. Place the fool into a glass serving bowl. Chop strawberries into triangles and place around the serving bowl to create a crown effect. Decorate the shortbread using ribbon to represent the colours of the nations. Dip the shortbread into the fool and enjoy the summery taste and the flavours of English strawberries, Scottish heather honey and the Welsh fire of the dragon!