Around the School

STEM Week

During STEM Week in March the girls took part in a range of activities including STEM quizzes; House Pi challenges; STEM Family Challenge; Biomed Society talk on cloning; talk on sciencefiction in the Physics and Engineering Society; chromatography in Chem Club. The week began with the annual STEM ‘Nightclub’, where students from Year 8 slept over in school with an assortment of creepy crawlies and slithering species from the animal kingdom. The week concluded with fireworks in the Hall from the Science Museum during their theatrical scientific demonstrations.

STEM Week also heralded the arrival of our newly-hatched ducklings - Count Quackula, Duckleberry Finn, James Pond, Moby Duck and Egg Sheeran.

Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards in British Physics Olympiad

Our Year 10 and Year 11 physicists once again took part in the British Physics Olympiad which aims to encourage the study of physics and recognise excellence in young physicists. Our Year 11 cohort won Bronze medals in the Intermediate Physics Challenge in March, and at the beginning of May, 90% of our Year 10 students achieved Bronze, Silver or Gold awards in the Junior Physics Challenge which took place remotely.

The Institute for Research in Schools (IRIS)

Students continued their work on the IRIS project which aims to classify sources and identify potential targets for the James Webb Space Telescope. Students from Godolphin and Latymer, Kensington Aldridge Academy, and West London Free School completed phase one of their training together before progressing to phase two as individual schools. The training involved data management and analysis and live webinars with scientists. Their classifications and notes were then passed onto the scientists who work with the James Webb Space Telescope who will determine whether the targets identified are worthy of further investigation.

Silver Crest Awards

Congratulations to Charlotte, Isha, Nadia and Aurelia in Year 11 and the Lower Sixth who achieved their Silver CREST award, for their science research projects. This year the Physics department supervised two very exciting student-led projects, ‘Investigating the effectiveness of sunscreen when changing their thickness and prices’ by Charlotte, Isha and Nadia, and ‘Testing water quality in London’ by Aurelia.

International Women in Engineering Day

On International Women in Engineering Day we were delighted to be joined remotely by Hazel Selby, Senior Engineer at Max Fordham, and her colleagues Sara and Suzanne. They spoke to our aspiring engineers about the wide range of careers in engineering and the different requirements to get a foot on the ladder. The girls were given insight into the day-to-day work of an engineer (lots of equations and drawings of electrical and heating systems) and the different roles - from architects to structural engineers - that come together to work on a project. Although our annual Sixth Form trip to CERN was sadly cancelled due to coronavirus, the Physics department used International Women’s Day to arrange a Google Meet with Dr Virginia Azzolini, Particle Physics Researcher and Machine Learning Manager at CERN, who shared some of the exciting work and the amazing discoveries being made on a daily basis at the Geneva Institute. Our Year 11 and Lower Sixth physicists were joined by students from partner schools Sacred Heart and Kensington Aldridge Academy, and the standard of questions posed to Dr Azzolini after the talk highlighted just how inspired the students were.

UK Mathematical Olympiad for Girls

We were delighted to see our UK Mathematical Olympiad entrants achieve such impressive individual and overall results. This year, 23 students entered, and they achieved an average score of 22, with a top mark of 37 and there were four distinction awards for Upper Sixth student Sophia and Lower Sixth students Ines, Jasmine and Margaryta.

Challenge Your Limits

Our theme for this year’s Challenge Your Limits Week was ‘Dare to Care’ with a focus on environmental, personal, social and economic well-being. We had a huge number of events, activities and inspiring speakers running throughout the week to encourage our school community to #DaretoCare! We welcomed Jo Fairley, co-founder of Green & Black’s, to our opening assembly. A journalist and editor with a strong social conscience, Jo described how she dared to care and ‘went to the edge of the diving board, jumped off and never regretted it’. Other speakers included Suruchi Saxena Bansal, from Country Leader for Treasure Truck UK and producer, director and Old Dolphin, Zara Balfour, who spoke about her career and award-winning documentary, Children of the Snow Land. Old Dolphin Sarah BarfieldMarks (Class of 2012), also spoke about her work with climate change charity, Possible.

Our popular ‘Dare to Care’ panel event was chaired by LJ Silverman, creator of the Generate programme and leader of the development and growth of entrepreneurial activity at the London School of Economics. We also welcomed Laura Wallis from the charity Debating Mental Health for a session with Debating Club members in Years 9-11 to explore issues around mental health and the promotion of mental well-being.

We were delighted to welcome Alice Aedy (Class of 2012), activist, documentary photographer, and film-maker to speak at the closing assembly about her journey from a volunteer at a refugee camp to successful photo-journalist. Alice inspired the girls with her advice to ‘trust your instincts and you’ll never know where Iife will take you’.

Challenge Your Limits Activities

Challenge Your Limits activities included gardening workshops, jewellery making and cupcake decorating. Students worked up a sweat on our smoothie bikes, practised synchronised dancing at ‘Just Dance’, and took part in the Taskmaster challenge event which tested the girls’ initiative and lateral thinking skills to complete a series of bizarre tasks to earn House points.

The excitement was palpable on Friday as small, friendly and furry animals – from dogs to guinea pigs, rabbits to chicks – visited the school.

Geography Geography Society

The Geography Society continued to

Aspect be enthusiastically supported during

New life was breathed lockdown with the into the student girls ‘meeting’ every

Geography magazine, Wednesday lunchtime

Aspect, with the Lower and with some fabulous

Sixth editorial team presentations including - Amy Bartholomew, ‘Rewilding’ by Sophie,

Audrey Upton, Sophie Lower Sixth, Lettie’s

Price, Maddie Chin ‘Food Insecurity’, and a and Alice Barder visit from Old Dolphin - producing two Sophia to talk about bumper issues: climate justice and

Oceania (including human rights.

Australia) in the

Spring Term, and

Asia in the Summer Term.

Geography Film Festival

The Geography Society hosted its first Geography Film Festival: six brilliant short films highlighting the relationship between humans and the environment. The evening was led by Upper Sixth geographer, Amy Jiang, and the programme was curated by ‘We The People’, a non-profit organisation that has screened more than 200 films on human rights, development, security and the environment.

Languages Week

In November Godolphin celebrated its annual Languages Week. Students spent lunchtimes debating in French and Spanish, earning House points in language quizzes and spelling bee competitions, and finding their equilibrio with Spanish yoga. Year 7 Spanish students learnt the steps to Flamenco dancing, Years 8 and 10 learnt the ancient art of Tai Chi and Year 8 French students had a taste of immersive French theatre from foreign language theatre group, Onatti Productions.

Masterchef With the whole country seeming to turn its hand to baking and cooking during lockdown, it was no surprise that our Masterchef competition was more hotly contested than ever with some absolutely fabulous dishes presented by our students. The winners of the Year 7 competition - which took place during lockdown - were Abigail Harris with sushi; Elena Jiang with Chinese dumplings; and Serena Brookes with chicken and risotto - proving that our taste buds could travel to far-flung places even when we couldn’t leave our homes.

Drama

Senior Production:

Digby Delorium’s Theatre Emporium

Held over two nights in the Bishop Centre and devised entirely by the school’s Drama captains - Amy, Savannah and Rosa - parents were treated to a unique and memorable Senior Production of ‘Digby Delorium’s Theatre Emporium’. The production was an immersive theatre experience in a promenade style, with the audience guided by their student hosts through three ‘rooms’. In each room, a short performance took place involving students from Year 10 to the Upper Sixth. The production was quite a feat to pull off, as the small ensemble of actors played several parts that required quick costume changes between the rooms. Actors would be members of an Elizabethan court one minute, before appearing in the next room as a scientist in a lab full of chicks. The quick changes and work backstage were extremely well rehearsed and flawlessly managed by the students in the backstage crew.

Year 7 Christmas Play

An audience of over 300 family members enjoyed a colourful and energetic adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory from Year 7 students for our annual Christmas play. Over the course of the rehearsals, the girls learnt the benefits of collaboration in theatre, and the basics of putting on a production. For some of them, it was the first time they have performed in front of a large audience in a theatrical production. The production was a wonderful celebration of collaborative work and such a cheerful way to end the term.

Young Shakespeare Company

We were delighted to welcome the Young Shakespeare Company back to the school to work with the whole of Year 7. Students took part in a series of creative and engaging workshops in the morning where they analysed Shakespeare’s use of language, learnt lines and took on some of the parts in ‘Macbeth’ before watching the company’s modern twist on the Scottish play in the afternoon.

Little Shop of Horrors

Our Spring Term school production of Little Shop of Horrors wowed our audiences with fabulous singing, acting, choreography and staging. Stand-out performances included incredibly versatile and moving acting and singing from Evie, Year 9, as Audrey; Katie, Lower Sixth, as the hapless Seymour; Issey, Lower Sixth, as a funny and over-bearing Mrs Mushnik who gets her comeuppance in the end!; and Millie, Year 11, as the sadistic dentist, Orin. The voice of the monstrous Audrey II was brilliantly performed by Upper Sixth, Aimee. A very special mention should go to Dr Vicenik and Father Sam McNally Cross who took it in turns to operate the rather heavy puppet known as Pod 3!

Music

German Orchestral Exchange

The orchestral exchange between Godolphin and Latymer, Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums and Latymer Upper schools has been going for an amazing 39 years and this year it was the turn of Godolphin to host the final concert. The programme of orchestral music featured Dvorak’s American Suite, Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A Minor, a Dittersdorf Double Bass Concerto, Vivaldi’s Bassoon Concerto, and Sibelius’ beautiful Andante Festivo for strings. The rousing finale, featuring music from some of Richard Rodgers’ beloved musical scores – The Sound of Music, Carousel and Oklahoma – was a triumphant finish to what was a true celebration of music and friendship, and we very much hope to return to Hamburg in two years’ time.

Autumn Concert

We welcomed the school community to our annual Autumn Concert that showcased the sublime musicianship of our school orchestras, a selection of instrumental ensembles and our choirs. Playing to a packed Bishop Centre, Godolphin musicians displayed a dazzling variety of repertoire that ended with an uplifting finale performance of Rhythm of Life sung (and choreographed!) by the Year 8 and 9 choir.

Women Composers Concert

At the beginning of March, Godolphin held its first ‘Women Composers Concert’ to honour International Women’s Day.

Clarinet and Piano Concert in Aid of the Refugee Council

In October we enjoyed a wonderful clarinet recital from Sixth Form student Mia and pianist Lynn Arnold that included works by Schumann, Kovács and Brahms. The concert was in aid of the Refugee Council - a cause close to Mia’s heart - with over £1000 raised for the global charity.

Friday Lunchtime Recital Series

Despite the lockdown the musical life at Godolphin and Latymer continued to thrive and we launched our incredibly successful virtual Friday Lunchtime Recital Series that received over 14,000 plays. There were some amazing performances across all the musical idioms from our youngest students to the Upper Sixth, music scholars, and even members of staff.

Scholars’ and ABRSM Concerts

The school community were treated to the great virtuoso and technical skill of our music scholars at November’s Scholars’ concert. Students performed pieces for flute by Mozart and Kohler, arias by Handel and Purcell, a Scriabin piano piece, virtuosic violin and cello pieces and Schumann’s energetic Fantasiestucke for clarinet. Parents, staff and friends enjoyed pieces from Mozart to Haydn, Tchaikovsky to Hedwig’s Theme by John Williams at the ABRSM Concert, which gives students the opportunity to perform a piece in front of an audience ahead of their ABRSM examinations.

Art & Design

Lower School Art and Design Exhibition

At the beginning of March we held our annual Lower School Art and Design Exhibition which this year showcased arthropod artefacts created by students from Years 7, 8 and 9. It was a multisensory experience as leaf-cutter ants marched across the floor and millipedes climbed the walls of the Bishop Centre to the sounds of the Amazon rainforest.

GCSE Art and Design

The standard of Art and Design created by this year’s students was outstanding. Project work was imaginatively explored and demonstrated a strong command of technical skill. The Art and Design department is able to offer students openended opportunities to explore a broad range of techniques and specialist processes of making such as painting, drawing, textile design, photography, ceramics, printmaking and cold glass. The innovation and originality seen in the work was inspiring.

A Level Art and Design and IB Visual Arts

The quality of work produced by this year’s A Level students was superlative. The breadth and depth of creative making was of a consistently high standard and an impressive range of media and processes such as large-scale drawn and painted studies as well innovative use of 3D pens and latex-reliefs, were rigorously explored to communicate ideas with sophistication and refinement. The IB Visual Arts students exhibited their artwork in The Hall for assessment of their course but also to celebrate an impressive body of work they had made, and there was much to celebrate. The impact of the exhibition was a visual treat; high levels of technical skills were evidenced in a wide range of media, processes and ambitious use of composition, as well as how sophisticated the girls were in their creative and critical thinking and comment on social and cultural issue and topics.

Debating

Oxford Schools’ Debating

Thursday 6 February was a historic moment for Godolphin and Latymer debaters, with two teams – Upper Sixth students Isabel and Anna, and Linnea and Catherine – making it through the gruelling round of Oxford Schools’ Debating to win a place in the finals. There was further cause for celebration as our Lower School debaters – Dilia, Rohin and Roxanna – won the first round of the English Speaking Union Public Speaking Competition, and Roxanna received the award for Best Questioner.

Lockdown Debating

Lockdown did not render our large and passionate cohort of debaters silent. Our first and successful online debate against Latymer Upper was followed by more remote debating against Putney High School, Benenden and South Hampstead High. Our lunchtime debating clubs continued to ‘meet’ every week and were better supported than ever.

In the London Online Debating Competition at the end of June, Godolphin hosted an online debating tournament featuring twenty teams from ten schools, including three from the USA - two from California, and one from Connecticut.

Model UN

We welcomed 200 guests from eleven different schools for a Model United Nations Conference, organised by Sixth Formers Sophia, Ailbhe and Caroline as part of their IB CAS project. Students debated a range of issues such as Child Marriage, Foreign Interventions in Civil War, Gun Control and the crisis in Yemen. Following three sessions in committees, the students came back together in the Bishop Centre for a General Assembly Crisis discussing how their country proposed to resolve the (fictional) kidnapping of the Dalai Lama. In March fourteen students from Year 10 to the Lower Sixth took part in the annual Model United Nations Conference. It was our most successful conference yet, with an extraordinary number of prizes awarded to the Godolphin delegation Well done to Maia, Isabelle and Georgina for receiving ‘Honourable Mentions’ from their Committee Chairs, to Ozzy for the prize of ‘Highly Commended Delegate’ and to Ines and Issey for their prizes for ‘Most Improved Delegate’, as well as to all our students who spoke eloquently and worked very hard on their preparation for the conference.

Sport & PE

Despite many of the sporting competitions being curtailed due to the pandemic, the U16 netball team reached the Sister in Sport national final, our U19s made it through to the quarter finals and the U14s made it to the fifth round. In hockey, the U15 team reached the semi-final of the Independent Schools’ Hockey Cup and had a very tight 3rd and 4th place playoff, narrowly losing 4-5; an incredible achievement to be named the fourth best team in the country. Our U19s were quarter finalists and the U13s reached the semi finals of the plate competition. In cricket, the U15 and U13 made it through to the regional finals having won all their matches in both the London Schools’ round and county finals. The U12s also picked up silver medals at the London Schools’ competition. Our fencers won gold and bronze at the British Schools’ Fencing championships and, over the Christmas holidays, Magnolia in Year 9 won two fencing tournaments in the US and as a result was selected for the U14 England squad. Magnolia took part in the Fairfax Challenge in Maryland where she won the Y14 women’s epee, placed 6th in Junior’s (Y20), 9th in Cadets (Y16), 3rd in the Austin Challenge (Y14), and she won the (U14) Elite Epee Millfield School event. In Flaine our skiers won gold, silver and bronze at the Ski Championships. We successfully represented Hammersmith and Fulham at the London Schools Athletics Association’s Cross Country Championships. The U13s were victorious in their age group and the U12s finished 5th. Millie and Maya finished first and fifth respectively. During the summer holidays we received the fantastic news that rower, Aurelia, had won bronze at the Ottensheim Linz Regatta in Austria.

Sport in Lockdown

During lockdown, PE lessons were geared towards the summer sporting programme with sessions in coordination and footwork for tennis and cricket, as well as Zumba and fitness. Our Sports department provided our hockey, netball, cricket and rowing squads with strength and conditioning training and technical drills to keep them on their toes for the seasons ahead. Students were regular visitors to the dedicated micro-site for the Godolphin Sports department, where their teachers and coaches regularly updated the site’s content with plenty of ways to keep them fit and healthy. Instructional videos provided girls with opportunities to learn some new skills, with everything from juggling to Tai Chi, football ‘keepie uppies’ to learning to do the splits. The micro-site also included podcasts, documentaries and articles that focused on the mental health aspect of sport and students were encouraged to ‘kick back and relax’ with breathing exercises, meditation and yoga. Extracurricular sport was also still on offer, with netball sessions, Zumba and yoga available to everyone, and our House events saw students running, walking and cycling as a House to reach their collective 85-mile goal.

Upper Sixth Pre-University Enrichment Programme

With the news that their A Level and IB examinations were cancelled, our Upper Sixth embarked on a pre-university enrichment programme, consisting of a series of lectures, workshops, tasks and seminars to prepare them for undergraduate study. They participated in seminars with specialist teachers across no fewer than twenty subject fields – a testament to the remarkable expertise and enthusiasm of our staff, who devised an astonishing array of materials and tasks for the students.

Robot Revolution: Year 9 Cross Curricular Day

Our Year 9s took part in ‘Robot Revolution’ run by Bright Futures for a Cross-Curricular Day. With a growing appetite amongst Godolphin students for computing and coding, girls tried their hand at coding with sensors, building and coding their own robots and got acquainted with FEZ and Big Trax models from the eighties.

Year 11 Citizen Science

With their GCSEs cancelled, our Year 11 Biology students took part in the ‘Citizen Science’ projects as a real-world extension to their GCSE syllabus work. Students chose the project they wanted to volunteer for, from transcribing handwritten specimen labels of plants as a part of ‘Notes From Nature’, to identifying types of white blood cells in the ‘Monkey Health Explorer’ project, to observing mouse behaviour in ‘The Secret Life of Mice’ project. The aim was to enhance the girls’ scientific skills, to give them real insight into novel approaches to data collection, and to involve them in projects that raise the public’s awareness of the importance of protecting and conserving these ecosystems and the species that rely on them.

Green Team Launched ‘Project Pollution’

The Sixth Form Green Team launched ‘Project Pollution’, an initiative that aims to raise awareness of the impact of car use in London and reduce car pollution and traffic around our school. Throughout the year, students earned ‘Green Points’ for sustainable actions – such as walking, cycling or taking public transport to school – to improve the health and well-being of our community.

Spotlight on Well-being Week

Organised and run by the Student Well-being Committee, Godolphin enjoyed its second ‘Spotlight on Well-being Week’ to raise awareness of the importance of looking after our mental, physical and emotional health. The school took part in a wide range of activities, with everything from relaxation and meditation, to reflection and mindfulness, to cookie decorating and talks from Childline professionals with practical tips for dealing with mental health issues and caring for ourselves.

Houses

During the lockdown our programme of House events really took off as students were keen to connect with their friends outside their virtual classrooms. The Lego challenge was won by Sheppard, and girls who didn’t have sets of Lego gathering dust at the bottom of a cupboard showed amazing ingenuity by using tins, crockery, minecraft and all sorts of other household objects. Maathai were winners of the Lower School Bletchley Park codebreaking competition but the best supported event was the Star Jump ‘live’ competition with over 42,000 jumps from students and staff in living rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, gardens, studies, hallways and patios across the country.

House Activities Afternoon

The girls celebrated the final week of the academic year by taking part in our inaugural House Activities afternoon which included athletics drills, charades, juggling, book making, and challenges inspired by the TV show Taskmaster.

In House debating, our two remaining House competitions were completed online. In the Lower School final, Frida Kilmer and Antara Martins carried off the trophy for Maathai by successfully proposing the motion ‘This house would make it compulsory for all students to do an hour of sport every day’ against Ella Bareham and Imogen Walkden for Naidu. In the Middle School, Ruby Alexander and Daisy Studd for Sheppard were crowned champions, opposing the motion ‘This house would make it compulsory for all students to study science in the Sixth Form’, proposed by Cecilia Colao and Yun Losson for Quinn Brown.

House Composition Competition

Chloe, Lauren and Josie won the Music department’s House Composition Competition, where Godolphin musicians were tasked with writing and performing a short piece for a solo instrument.

Junior House Music Festival

The Remote Junior House Music Festival was a huge success and featured over seventy solo and ensemble performances with pieces from musical theatre, jazz and folk songs amidst the classical solo and ensemble performances. House points were awarded for taking part as well as for the winning performances: Sheppard House was triumphant and Charlotte Moore was the highest scoring student.

School Birthday

In February we celebrated our 115th Birthday with a thanksgiving service that featured choral singing, readings from the Head Girls Team and an ode to former Headmistress Dame Joyce Bishop before an afternoon of assault courses and cake.