Miss Bailey's Blog - Week 9, 2023

It was such a pleasure to welcome everyone back from Half Term on Monday and it is hard to believe that we have reached November, and in rather blustery and rainy fashion! I love this time of year with the changing season and colours and your golfing Godstowe umbrellas will certainly be coming in useful at the moment, although they are more likely to turn inside out, if this week is anything to go by! On a less blustery and much warmer welcome front, our three new boarding girls have settled in well since their Sunday arrival and I’m delighted that they have started to make friends and find their places here in the truest sense of home.

There is so much to report back on and it was wonderful to see all members of Middles (Year 6) in netball matches this Wednesday against RMS and to hear of so many great results from play. Well done to all who took part and thank you to all parents who braved the autumn weather to watch and support your girls- it was lovely to have them all involved! On Thursday evening, we hosted the first of our Taster evenings for parents and children and the sessions for DT, Art, PE, Latin and Drama seemed like such good fun. Thank you for turning up in such good spirit and the ‘Come Learn With Us’ collective energy was really good to see!

Our Honours Boards and new engravings were updated early this week and this tradition always intrigues me. There is something rather humbling about the Recital Hall with its wall-to-wall record of all scholarship and award winners from over the years at Godstowe, simply because there are so many, and it is a magnificent record and showcase of talent and achievement for Godstowe. If you have yet to visit and see these boards, please do ask and we can take you down to the Recital Hall. We then welcomed an old friend and photographer to school on Thursday, who stayed with us for the day to capture some new images of the children at work and play. We look forward to seeing these once they are published next week and to sharing them to our school website and at events going forward. My favourite shot had to be the one surrounded by Nursery to Year 8 children, which we managed to take between heavy rain showers rather successfully!

However, today was the real showpiece with our new Library grand opening event. Thanks to FOG and your very generous donation, we now have a new state of the art Library in Main School. It was wonderful to welcome FOG members and Governors to the event and we were joined by the wonderful children’s author M.G. Leonard who gave a fantastic assembly to Main School children, the day after her latest book, ‘The Ice Children’ was internationally published this week. What a privilege to have her with us and for her to officially open our new space which will benefit all girls coming from Lodge through Main School to Year 8, going forward for many years to come. The fresh, light, peaceful yet invigorating space is most welcome and will bring our girls hours of pleasure and literary appreciation. If you have not seen the space and would like to visit, you are always welcome and we can arrange for you to visit and sit to enjoy the ambience and the wealth of books on the shelves for our girls and staff. Thank you from us all at Godstowe!