News Bridge 2021 Goes Live! 29.04.2021

On Saturday we were absolutely delighted to welcome our Bridge 2021 students through the gates of Godolphin and into our classrooms for the first time. Up until now the programme had been operating remotely but it was fantastic to see all of the children in person rather than through computer and tablet screens.

For the second year of Bridge we have doubled the number of children attending the workshops which include English and maths and two other subjects on rotation, and the Year 5 boys and girls quickly got stuck into some tricky maths problems developing new strategies for working with fractions. In English the children looked at metaphors and imagery in poetry and creative writing with particular reference to Ted Hughes’ poem, The Jaguar, inspired by the time he spent working at the London Zoo in Regents Park.

The children then took a more scientific approach to learning about the animal kingdom in their biology session when they learnt all about the platypus with its duck-like bill, tail resembling a beaver, and a main body that looks like an otter. Geography was the other rotation subject this week and the theme was plastic pollution in the oceans and how we can reduce, reuse and recycle. This was certainly a topic that the students felt very passionately about and they were full of ideas about how they, as individuals, could make a difference and in particular they explored alternatives to single-use plastic products like shopping bags and shampoo bottles. The children were given ideas and resources to expand their ideas which they can hopefully take back to their own schools.

While the children were in the Bridge sessions their parents joined Head, Dr Frances Ramsey, and Bridge Coordinator, Mr Golland, for a parents’ information session about bursaries, scholarships and the financial support that is available at Godolphin and Latymer, and at other independent schools across London. Our Registrar was also on hand to answer questions and parents left armed with booklets to help them navigate the means-tested bursary application process.

It was absolutely fantastic to meet the Bridge families and we are really hoping that the programme will continue without disruption for the rest of the year.