News Bridge Outreach Programme 16.10.2019

Last week, girls were given an update on the imminent launch of the Bridge programme in a whole-school assembly. This programme will see Godolphin teachers and pupils working with fifty talented Year 5 and 6 students from local primary schools on a Saturday morning each month.

The girls were reminded of Godolphin’s history as a state grammar school, open to students of academic ability in the Hammersmith area, until 1977 when there was a change in government policy. At this point the school became independent and a bursary fund was set up to provide fee assistance to bright girls from families which could not otherwise afford them. This bursary fund has grown over the years, thanks to generous donations, and the Bridge programme aims to widen access to schools such as ours in keeping with our historic ethos.

Mr Golland and two of our Lower Sixth Bridge supporters explained how the primary schools were recruited to the programme and exactly what the Saturday School would entail. One of the Lower Sixth students, Zoe, was then able to tell the girls of her own experience as the recipient of a full bursary and how it ‘changed the course of my education’.  Zoe’s eloquent testimony was wonderful to hear, and we are hoping that the Bridge programme will, in the future, help to create many more such stories of life-changing opportunity.