A huge thank you to all our pupils and parent volunteers who will join our staff in what promises to be a record Open Morning this Saturday, with more visitors than we’ve ever had before. It’s great to have the opportunity to show our School off to so many interested people, and I know that staff, parents and pupils will do a fantastic job. We always hear so many positive comments afterwards about how friendly, polite and informative our hosts are – such genuine praise for the kind of people we help to grow and inspire here!
Lots of exciting events happened last week, and we’ve got more to come before half term, as you’ll read below.
Poet Laureate
Many congratulations to Ted from Year 8, our first ever Gosfield School Poet Laureate! Ted was crowned in Senior assembly on Monday, with his winning poem ‘The Door’.
The Door
The door is there, right in front of you
But it’s locked by a key made of the government
A key you must pay for to keep it locked via tax, so you may have comfort,
For you know what’s behind that door, yet you do not,
It is not comfort or fun,
It is not wealth in the sense you know,
For freedom is something you have never experienced,
Because you are scared to twist the key and open the door,
For behind is not comfort,
Oh no it is not,
To go behind the door is to be free
Ted has received his first commission, to write a poem for Open Morning, entitled ‘Welcome’. We look forward to reading this, and all of Ted’s commissioned poems for the next year. Congratulations, Ted!
Year 6 Taster Day
Although the school year is still new, we are already making plans for preparing our Year 6 pupils for the transition to Year 7 and so on Tuesday they all had a day as Year 7 pupils, with Mr Smith as their Form Tutor and a blend of Senior School lessons taught by subject specialists as well as their usual timetabled Food Technology and Forest School lessons. Feedback was very positive from the Year 6 pupils including: "it was amazing!".
Past experience has shown us that in the coming months many pupils, and their parents, begin to feel nervous and excited about this transition, wondering what differences there will be - both educationally and socially. We will be arranging more days like this throughout the year to ensure the transition to Year 7 is as smooth as possible.
Head Girl and Head Boy
Congratulations to Emily Bartlett and Anthony Brown who were announced as our Head Girl and Boy in Senior Assembly on Monday. Both were put through a rigorous application process which included a written letter, interview with the Principal, and perhaps most daunting, a speech to the whole of the Senior School.
Emily and Anthony will have a number of public engagements to fulfil over the course of this year, but will also make themselves available to all pupils to ensure that they can be the conduit for their voice to senior members of staff, along with their role assisting pupil parliament. We very much look forward to working with them.
Library Lectures
The student led Library Lectures for this term commenced this Wednesday lunchtime with a well-attended and fascinating talk, by Ted in Year 8, all about Stan Lee, of Marvel Comics' fame. Future lectures will feature presentations on: The Maze Runner Series, The Hunger Games and Cephalopods. Should any student or parent wish to give a specialist talk as part of the Library Lectures this year, please contact Mrs Bougeard (heather.bougeard@gosfieldschool.org.uk).
Impressive Achievements
Zak was featured in the Daily Times last Saturday
Zak, from Year 8, took part in the annual Shetland Pony Grand National at Newmarket Racecourse last Friday and won again with his pony Smokey Joe. He was then interviewed by ITV! The race was shown on a number of different TV channels including BBC Breakfast News on Saturday. This is a fantastic achievement, well done, Zak!
Congratulations to Heston from Year 8 on placing 3rd in the Jailbreak Competition with his Newport Scouts team last weekend. The event took place over 24-hours. This included waking up in the early morning and walking through torrential rain. Not an easy feat but showed great determination and resilience.
Skreens Park
On Wednesday 25 September last week, all 40 students in Year 7 set forth on their residential trip to Skreens Park Scout Activity Centre near Chelmsford. The day did not start as well as planned, with the students being rained on as they were boarding the minibuses!
On arrival at the site, the students were straight into their first activity rotation. Over the course of the three days, they took part in a sumo suit competition, crate stacking, visiting the cave bus, climbing the high ropes, raft building, tomahawk throwing, wheelchair agility course and a gladiator challenge. The students also had an indoor campfire (due to the rain) and took part in a widegame in the dark, with copious amounts of glowsticks. To finish on the Friday, they had a two-hour bushcraft session, where lots of students were able to demonstrate the talents they have learnt in Forest School at Gosfield.
When they returned to school, the students were full of stories about the exciting time they had experienced and lots of firm friendships have been made. A huge “thank you” must go to all the staff who organised and gave up their time to attend the event as they probably returned to school even more tired than the students!
We are planning to make this an annual event, so Year 6 students, watch out for your invite!
Cricket
Mr Stephens is now running 'out of school' cricket coaching every Wednesday night.
We are delighted to inform you that on Wednesday 16 October the Music and Drama department invite you to come and enjoy Autumn Fest. This will be a family friendly event with something exciting and entertaining for all ages. The evening will feature an array of Dance, Drama and Music with some special guest appearances.
Our entertainment will begin at 6:30pm and refreshments will be available courtesy of The Mongolia Expedition Team throughout the evening.
Tickets are free to all and places can be reserved via the form on ParentMail.
Performers are welcome to stay after school until the performance, and will receive refreshments and a chance to rehearse during that time, or if they go home, they must return in full school uniform at 5:30pm.
Please let the school office know if your child usually travels by school bus and will not require this service on this date. We very much look forward to welcoming you to what will be another exciting event.
Prep Harvest Festival
It is that wonderful time of year when we join together to celebrate Harvest Festival. We are delighted to invite parents to our Prep School service at St Catherine’s Gosfield on Friday 18 October. Because we know this event will be very well attended, we have taken the opportunity to allow more families to join us by running two services.
Service one will be led by Reception, Year 1, 2 and 3 and this will commence at 11:00am.
Service two will be led by Years 4, 5 and 6 and this will commence at 2.15pm.
As part of the celebration we would like to make a donation of tinned dried and long-life foods to The Halstead Food Bank who will then distribute the food to local families in need of assistance. All donations will be gratefully received and should be handed to your child’s class teacher before Wednesday 16 October. We can begin to accept these donations next week.
Please find below a list of suggested, suitable items.
Breakfast cereal Fruit (Tinned) Dried Rice
Sugar Meat (Tinned) Pasta Sauce
Long Life Milk Tomatoes (Tinned) Tea Bags
Long Life Juice Baked Beans (Tinned) Jam
Spaghetti (Tinned) ice Pudding (Tinned) Biscuits
Vegetables (Tinned) Dried Pasta Tuna (Tinned)
Cup a Soup Soup Coffee
Look out for the ParentMail communication next week, where you will be invited to indicate which service you would like to attend. We do hope you will be able to join us.
Prep Parents’ Evening and Senior Tutors’ Parent Evening – Tuesday 15 October
Please do ensure that you have let us know when you would like your appointment with either your child’s Prep Teacher or their Senior Tutor on this important Parents’ Evening, details of which were sent out by ParentMail. Please do contact the School if you have not received this information.
Prep Parent Invitation for Forest School from Mr Davies
Forest School has been a part of the children's timetabled learning at Gosfield for over six years now. Having initially introduced it to the Prep school children, their reaction was such that when the then Year 6 (this year's Year 10) moved into the senior school their enthusiasm and inspiration helped convince the school to have an outdoor learning Forest School slot included in the timetable for Years 7 and 8. At Gosfield this makes us quite unique as although the Forest school movement has seen a significant number of outdoor based nurseries opening throughout the country, we are in the select minority of offering learning in the forest to older children.
As soon as I began my Forest School leader training, I quickly realised that Forest School is not a set of activities offered, or a place, it is a specific ethos and philosophy. You can provide activities like those offered at Forest School, and you can go outside weekly, observing the children and documenting next steps in learning, all of which is wonderful current practice, but you cannot just ‘do’ Forest School: you have to learn it and live it.
I cannot put it all into words, nor define it as a learning programme which should be adhered to or adopted. However, I can say that words such as resilience, empathy, holistic development, self-actualisation, freely chosen play, creativity, wellbeing and a feeling of calm, are all important words that spring to mind. From what I have witnessed children gain a sense of freedom and belonging in an environment where nature provides the resources and endless time is gifted, allowing higher order thinking and deeper understanding to develop. Before you know it, imagination has manifested itself into a mud pie, a plateful of acorn olives and a tree bark baking tray that has been sourced to place them on. Time is less limited, therefore play has a chance to develop from imagination, to creation, to reflection, to recreation.
We would like to give Prep parents the opportunity to experience Forest School for themselves during their child's Forest School lesson. Please do contact the School to arrange this, and bring a coat and some wellies!
Week commencing 7 October:
Year 1 - Monday 1 - 2.50 pm
Year 2 - Thursday 9.40 - 12 pm
Year 3 - Wednesday 1.50 -3.50 pm
Year 5- Thursday 1 - 2.50 pm
Year 6- Tuesday 1.50 - 2.50 pm
Week commencing 14 October:
Reception - Monday 1- 2.50 pm
Year 4 - Wednesday 1.50 -3.50 pm
Prep Uniform
The weather has felt colder this past week and it has certainly been very wet. As you are all aware the pupils travel back and forth to the Senior school for their lunch every day and some children attend lessons there during the week. We also like the children to get outside in the fresh air as much as possible during their play times. Therefore, we would ask that every child has their reversible Gosfield fleece or their Gosfield duffle coat in school every day.
After half term, every child should be wearing their Winter school uniform to school every day.
If you need any items of uniform, please do contact Mrs Paisley on Jo.Paisley@gosfieldschool.org.uk
Sports News
Hockey
The U15 Girls Hockey Team suffered their first defeat this week to Finborough in a very challenging match. The team had to display resilience after a long journey. The backfield were all-stars, they were under constant waves of pressure but maintained composure and discipline. Every single person worked extremely hard and were excellent representatives of Gosfield School.
Netball
On Monday afternoon the girls in Year 3 and 4 played their first netball match of the term against Woodlands School. For many of the girls it was their first experience of a competitive netball game. They tried their best and stayed positive against strong and very tall opposition! Congratulations to Amy who scored our goal and was also voted 'Player of the Match' by the Woodlands team. Thank you to all the Gosfield supporters who watched the match and cheered from start to finish! The girls next game takes place on Monday 14 October at St Mary's School.
Culinary corner
This week in Prep Year 4 made herby vegetable crumble and Year 6 made a simple tart tatin. Year 7CLS studied sensory analysis whilst making fruit salad, 8LWS finished their Indian banquets with samosas and both Year 9 groups continued their work on bacteria using temperature probes to test their stuffed chicken breasts. 10 GCSE were working on vitamins making Thai salmon parcels with an orange, watercress and pumpkin seed salad.
Next week (also on SMHW)
7MFH Fruit salad
8MAS Samosas
Sports Fixtures
We will keep parents informed about all upcoming sport fixtures as and when they have been confirmed. A ParentMail will be sent to you as well as a reminder via the weekly newsletter.
Dates for your diary
Monday 7 October
Year 1 Parents Forest School visit 13:00 - 14:50
Tuesday 8 October
Year 6 Parents Forest School visit 13:50 - 14:50
U15 Boys Rugby - Home. Kick off: 15:30
Wednesday 9 October
Prep Assembly Year 3 08:50 - 09:40
Year 3 Parents Forest School visit 13:50 -15.50
U11 Hockey - Away at Bocking Hockey Club. 14:30 - 16:00
U11 Rugby - Away at St Margarets. 14.30 - 16:00
Thursday 10 October
U9 ISA East Football Tournament - Away at Alleyn Court. 9:30 – 15:30
Year 2 Parents Forest School visit 9:40 - 12.00
Year 5 Parents Forest School visit 13:00 - 14:50
Rec - Year 2 Swimming lessons
Friday 11 October
Year 7-13 Grades Home
Star of the Week
Year
Star
Reason
Nursery
Toby Tredinnick
For being a superstar in the Nursery.
Reception
Hazel Bougeard
For an excellent attitude to learning across the curriculum.
1
Samuel Wheeler
For trying hard with his writing.
2
Ethan Clarke
Much improved handwriting.
3
Florence Green
An excellent piece of independent creative writing entitled ‘The Secret’.
4
Harry Magee
For always being a great role model.
5
Poppy Brooks
For showing enthusiasm and perseverance whilst lighting a fire at Forest School.
6
Ivy Burns
Her consistently positive and enthusiastic approach to School life.
Mr Davies’ Star of the Week
Camille MacAllan
For being a delight in the forest and in the Prep School. She is always polite, willing and ready to learn, working with others and for having 'fun'! 'Happiness is a girl called Millie'.
And a reminder to everyone, next week is a Week 2 on our two-week timetable. Good luck to everyone with all their endeavours. As ever, my door is always open if you would like to book an appointment in advance via Mrs Bowles.
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