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Boarding

WESTIES ENJOY THE GREAT OUTDOORS

A recent weekend trip to Devon gave the Westies an opportunity to try teambuilding activities such as coasteering, caving and archery. We were split up into three groups with a mixture of L4 and U4, giving us a lot of time to bond.

YMakeda says:

“At first, coasteering was absolutely terrifying and I was afraid to even get into the water. Then soon enough I was progressing from small rocks to even bigger ones, until I jumped off the highest one! You must say this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so why not use it?

“It was the same with caving, which brought a lot of bravery to shine out of us all. ‘I can ’t do it, ’ or ‘I’ m scared, ’ were quotes from a lot of us. But in the end, we all made it through the underground spaces.

Candela adds:

“In the beginning I was very excited about caving, but also a bit nervous since this was very new to me. Then, I really enjoyed going through the tunnels and caves. It was one of my favourite activities!”

We also enjoyed paddle boarding and raft building. Archery was probably one of the most relaxing activities: we spent a nice afternoon by the campsite shooting arrows and playing fun games.

The camping was just amazing. Our site was surrounded by greenery and hills. In the evenings we would have a nice outdoor supper, followed by evening games. Once we were all ready for bed, our cosy sleeping bags would be waiting. In other words, we had a fantastic couple of days.

Makeda (L4) and Candela (L4)

Pupils from both Sherborne School and Sherborne Girls gathered on the SG sports pitches for a joint firework display on the evening of Saturday, 12 November. The show amazed and enthralled in equal measure, providing a welcome chance to celebrate the “Separate yet Together” ethos shared by our two schools. b

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BRIDGING THE GENERATIONS

The Peer Mentoring Scheme set up by last year’s U6, has been a great success, giving girls in all year groups someone to talk to whenever they need, and for whatever reason.

For U6 pupils like me, it’ s a great chance to build rapport with the younger girls in the School. I’ ve worked with West in particular, and I’ ve loved going back to the House and sharing my memories with the current girls, as well as hearing all their amazing stories so far. The scheme has been great for everyone in the School and will continue developing over the coming year.

Tillie (U6)

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SHOWING THEIR SPARKLE

REMEMBRANCE DAY THEME FOR KNITTING CLUBS

This term, the Crochet Club and Knit and Natter have been creating a display for Remembrance Day, featuring an array of different-sized poppies that call for the use of various techniques.

Both clubs are open to all abilities and give us the opportunity to sit down with friends and get creative. To start with, we master the basic skills by making simple squares that can be made into a blanket. Then we learnt to make the poppies for the Poppy Appeal to remember the fallen soldiers and heroes from the war. This project was super fun because once you grasp how to do a simple square, you can start to learn how to change colours and knit more than one stitch together. Poppies are an excellent way of putting this into practice.

Knit and Natter is one of the highlights of my week as I can get together with my friends, do something which I know we all love and learn a new skill.

Poppy (M5)

ALL THE RIGHT MOVES IN HOUSE DANCE COMPETITION

The School’s House Dance Competition has become a much-enjoyed fixture in the calendar, and 2022’s event didn’t fail to impress. The School community gathered in the Gransden Hall to support their housemates, who offered performances across a variety of genres.

Dances included Latin, jazz, ballroom, contemporary and street. Wingfield Digby emerged as the eventual winner, but it was hard to choose from a high-quality selection of energetic and well-rehearsed performances. Congratulations to everyone involved!

AN A-MAZE-INGLY SCARY EXPERIENCE

In October, U6 Drama pupils created a spook-tacular “Scare Maze ” to celebrate Halloween. The immersive experience was full of suspense and incorporated some truly terrifying “jump scares ” .

As one participant, Philippa Perrin (L5), remarked: “The storyline was quite eerie. It was really fun and even the people who said it wouldn ’t scare them screamed at some point!”

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MAKINGCOMMUNITY, ONESTITCHATATIME

– Art and Design Technician Benjamin Boa is the new Assistant Housemaster of Wingfield Digby. He maps his vision for the role and explains what motivates him each day.

This has been my first half term as Assistant Housemaster of Wingfield Digby and it’ s certainly been just as rewarding as I expected. Living in the House for a year as Resident Tutor, it quickly became my home and somewhere that I cherished. We have a great bunch of girls and an equally lovely House team that I’ m thrilled to be a part of.

When I became Assistant Housemaster, one of my goals was to celebrate each and every one of the wonderful Wingfield girls. To show off their successes, I set up an achievements board right in the main hallway so that every day we are reminded of the many academic, House, and community merits our girls collect. There have already been so many that applying the stickers to the charts has become a full-time job in itself! We ’ ve also introduced the b

“Wingfield Warrior ” award, to recognise one girl in particular each week. This could be for doing something incredible, for being brave during hard times, or for being a kind soul. I feel these new aspects to the House bring a positive vibe, helping the girls see just how fantastic they all are.

Coming from a background in Fashion Design, I know the importance of breaking the mould and striving to achieve your dreams. I love really getting to know the girls and finding out what they want to achieve in life. Every month I make a display about the y “Woman of the Month” that celebrates someone who ’ s succeeded in a male-dominated industry.

My love of fashion and sewing also comes in handy for our evening club: Mr Boa a group of girls to make bunting and other decorations for the House. This is a time where they relax, chat, bond, and maybe even learn new skills – all very necessary for wellbeing.

There always seems to be a competition or activity that the girls are preparing for, whether it is House Dance, Battle of the Bands, or the Glee Cup. Attending these events and cheering on the House brings a real sense of belonging and community. Seeing the Wingfield girls lift their many trophies makes me incredibly proud!

I strive always to be someone the girls can talk to, someone they can ask for advice, or a shoulder to cry on. All these things are my way of making Wingfield Digby a real home for the girls, and a home for me too.

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PAUSE FOR THOUGHT

Press Pause Day was just that – a day for the whole community to stop, relax, unwind, laugh, and reflect together, in the middle of our busiest term. Assistant Head, Pupil Aspiration & Wellbeing, Louise Troup tells us more.

PRESS DAY P A SE

I think we would all agree that wellbeing is increasingly hard to achieve in our busy world, despite the constant focus on it in the media and in our institutions. That is why we took the courageous step of putting everything on “ pause. ” We wanted to see what creating a truly genuine space in our working lives, and sharing it all together, could do for our pupils and staff.

So, how did it look? Well, that depended on everyone ’ s choices. Pupils and staff were given the opportunity to design their own perfect day, made up of six different sessions. On offer was an amazing range of activities, including creative workshops, inspiring talks, singing, cookery activities (or just the extraordinarily popular “tea-and-cake ” session), quiet reading, gentle colouring, yoga, mindfulness, dance and fitness classes, five- and 10-kilometre runs, golf, or whole-day walks for those who love exercise and the outdoors. Girls and staff also enjoyed a brilliant show by a standup comedian of Britain ’ s Got Talent fame, a dog psychologist, learnt how to self-hypnotise and experimented with Ballroom Dancing. breakfast chosen by our Food and Wellbeing Prefect Lily in consultation with fellow Prefects Kitty and Asha. Our student Wellbeing Team, drawn from L6 and U6, was instrumental in helping design the day and stayed on hand to show all our wonderful guests and facilitators to their “ stations ” and made sure the day was a success. They also designed beautiful “Press Pause Day ” spaces in House where the girls could snuggle up and wind down together.

House staff chose a special lunch for their girls and were, of course, helping to make the day happen by taking it in turns to stay at the helm. Many thanks to them, and to all the other support staff who sacrificed parts of their day to keep the School running smoothly and ensure our girls were safe and well looked after.

The day finished with a crazy and noisy sing-along Mamma Mia showing in the Gransden Hall. If music, laughter and friendship are indeed the ingredients for joy and happiness, I think we achieved the perfect recipe.

It is thanks to our Head, Dr Ruth Sullivan, that this extraordinary initiative happened. Let us hope we can

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