Community and Covid-19Together, even when apart

Our inaugural 2020 outreach Bridge programme quickly moved on-line during the pandemic with nearly 40 primary state school students logging-on to the google platforms and continuing the sessions via live google meets. Pupils were provided with iPads if required. We have doubled the number of children attending the 2021 programme and are looking forward to welcoming them on-site from April.

Our Higher Education Undiscovered Subjects 2021 programme for students in Years 10-12 was a great success in its new remote format. The evening event covering university subjects not traditionally taught in school was relaunched as a series of 30 – 40-minute lectures delivered remotely throughout February and March and was supported by a large number of leading academics from UK universities. As always the lectures were well attended by students from our state partner senior schools: West London Free School, Sacred Heart, Lady Margaret’s, Greenford High School, Cardinal Vaughan and Kensington Aldridge Academy.

Debating continued to flourish and we hosted a debating workshop for Year 7 and 8 pupils from local state schools: Avanti House, Orleans Park, Sacred Heart and Twyford Academy. Our teams regularly competed remotely against other schools and we were delighted to host the online London Debating Tournament for twenty teams from ten schools, including three from the USA – two from California, and one from Connecticut.

The Ancient World Breakfast Club has over 200 members from the local West London community and since March 2020 has moved online which has allowed us to introduce speakers from across the world. Our weekly AWBC Podcasts have received over 4000 visits.

Our Friday Lunchtime Recital Series went virtual on Soundcloud and has received over 40,000 plays.

Students, staff, parents and alumnae all took part in our Weekly Wellness Workout challenge during the second site closure and, although apart, together we ran, cycled and scooted via land and sea all the way to Australia!

The Godolphin and Latymer Christmas Bazaar is always a highlight of the West London Christmas calendar. Unable to welcome visitors on-site for Christmas 2020, the Bazaar went virtual to provide a festive shopping experience for our regular Stallholders and the wider community and £5600 was raised for our bursary programme.

Quiz Nights have been even more popular (and just as fiercely contested) during the lockdown with a record number of parents signing-up to take part on-line.

Our alumnae newsletter was published weekly during the first lockdown sharing lockdown recipes, workout of the week, book reviews, music reviews, and news from Old Dolphins on the front line.

Christmas and School Birthday Cards were sent out to some of the oldest members of our Old Dolphin community.

We linked up with Certitude, one of London’s leading adult social care providers, to supply our protective laboratory goggles to staff in care homes in Hounslow.

1^st XI Hockey Squad ran 3000km in 30 days to raise over £9000 for NHS Charities Together.

Students made face masks for the local community, laundry bags for the NHS ‘Rapid Response Appeal’ and volunteered with local community groups to support vulnerable people; one student was featured on the BBC News Report, Corona Kindness.

DofE students were awarded a certificate of social value for donating 3,224 hours of voluntary service worth over £14,000 to our local community.

Our school community collected and donated food to the local foodbank.

During the first lockdown we supported Power to Connect launched by Battersea Power Station and Wandsworth Council by donating used laptops and tablets for children who didn’t otherwise have access to the internet.

Our Head Girl set up Mentor Jr and recruited fellow Sixth Formers to provide a free online mentoring and tutoring service to local primary school pupils.

Lower Sixth students set up the online Pulsar Science Magazine for primary school children to support their interest in science and help with their learning.

Toys and gifts were collected and donated to the Salvation Army 2020 Christmas Collection for children who might not otherwise receive a Christmas present.

Students raised £2,900.

Year 8 students linked up with Ready Tech Go and organised a collection of essential IT and computer equipment for local children who were missing out on online schooling and couldn’t access remote learning. They also raised £5,200 in cash donations from local businesses.

Through the Annual Fund Appeal the school was able to provide help and support with school fees to Godolphin families in financial difficulty due to the pandemic.

Godolphin musicians have partnered with Together with Music to share the joy of music with a local care home in Chiswick. Initially collaborating virtually, our Year 7 Glee Club sent a recording of ‘A Little More Homework’ from the musical ’13 with handwritten notes describing how much fun they had in making the video.