Miss Bailey's Blog - Week 6, 2023

This week has been filled with personal highlights, with so much to share and be thankful for.

Occasionally, I receive emails which make me smile. I woke this morning to a message of thanks from Mrs Lake who wanted to share her celebration and highlights from the trip that Mrs MacDougall had organised with her Community Club to a local care home, yesterday. The experience clearly celebrates all we are at Godstowe and I'm proud of the girls who took the time to spread some love and joy yesterday afternoon.

Dear Miss Bailey,

I have just arrived home and felt I needed to let you know about this afternoon's visit to a care home which had been planned by Mrs MacDougall.

Members of the 'club' comprised girls from all parts of the school. Together they had planned entertainment for older people. They performed humorous poems, hymns chosen by themselves and then some girls performed solos.

The girls loved their ready-made audience, and the audience was entranced and delighted by what they heard. It was so obvious with their faces lighting up. There were oohs and whoops of delight as the audience were introduced to each piece. We even sang Happy Birthday to a resident who confessed she was 92.

With everything that is going on in the world, the girls' honesty and openness in their performance touched me. I am heartened that you can still find kindness and genuine affection between strangers. I was touched by what I saw and the warmth from the girls, who just wanted to entertain.

Mrs MacDougall was just the right person to be co-ordinating this. What a wonderful experience for all.

With best wishes,

Mrs Lake

Another highlight revolves around our excitement to join the 'Big Live Assembly' on Tuesday with 200,000 other students across the UK to mark Black History Month. Led by Dr Krish Kandiah, it was fantastic to join this special event and the girls and staff were pleased to be part of it. Many more of these are to follow, and we shall most likely join the next event in November to mark National Children's Day. We have enjoyed two inspiring assemblies celebrating famous black 'sheroes' and we are looking forward to welcoming a special speaker on Monday for our finale assembly, before half term.

On Wednesday, I enjoyed another visit to Headington in Oxford, and I was toured by our three charming alumnae who started in September. I am pleased to report that they are happy and settled and loving their time there. I know Headington well, but this time I was taken to the Food and Nutrition Centre (unbelievable), the Hive to see their Fashion design centre and to their tech and engineering pod, where the girls were hard at work, demonstrating use of the high-quality machinery and tools for us. Knowing that our Library is being renovated I was keen to re-visit their library space, which is a tranquil modern, yet classic space and experience. I was impressed! I had the chance to learn more about the Headington Rye merger plans for September 2024. These are exciting propositions and I feel this will work well in the long term. I wonder how many more prep and Senior schools will follow suit across the UK in the coming years.

As you know, we've been focusing on communication across the school in recent weeks. Having spoken with our team, we are now going to launch a big focus on manners going forward. When I look back to my first ever visit to Godstowe, the deciding factor for me in terms of headship were the girls. They were polite, good company and went out of their way to ask how you were. Godstowe girls are renowned for this and many visitors and senior schools will comment on this precious trademark. We need to preserve and celebrate this.

So, we look to reinforce and model these key life skills, embedding them deep into the heart of our school community. Manners, are by definition one of the key things that get us noticed in life, the small things we do that make a difference and help us stand apart, in all the right ways. A polite thank you or good morning, holding the doors for each other, listening respectfully when someone else is speaking, the choice to respond to all situations with thought and care, acknowledging visitors, and making people feel welcome, eating at the table in a civilised way and treating the dining room with respect and the care it deserves. Taking the time to collectively focus on these key areas turns a school and its community from 'very good', to knock out impressive. As your Head, I want us to be nothing short of impressive.

Have a good weekend- the weather is certainly turning with autumn and half term beckoning. Next week, the Autumn Concert is waiting in the wings- lucky us!