Open Day 2011

Saturday the first of October was our first open day of the new school year. We were blessed with glorious sun with not a cloud in the sky.  We opened our doors to all newcomers and prospective pupils and displayed the school to its very best; it was a good opportunity to show off the school’s new facilities to the prospective parents, key among which are the learning support rooms.

There were a number of things going on throughout the day, among which were the art activities which included making clay faces to adorn the prep school playground. This is one of a number of decorative features in the playground, like the jungle artwork painted on the previously bland wall surrounding the friendship corner; a thoughtful place where people go if they have no one to play with and when others see them there, they invite them to play with them. There were a number of students helping the art teacher, Mrs Gwynne, make use of the art department’s plentiful equipment. 

In Science, there were a variety of experiments, mostly static, involving a Van de Graph generator and a bunsen burner.  Outside the science lab was a Trebuchet, a medieval catapult, which the students had to assemble themselves, based on experiments they conducted on a computer program first. Also on display in the lab itself were the new HP mini 100e laptops that the school recently purchased for use in the learning support centre.

In the Food Technology room, one of the three new rooms added onto the sports hall and opened by the Mayor of Halstead in 2009, the students, led by our Food Tech teacher in the senior school, Mrs Blamire, were making ice creams to sell to the prospective parents and pupils, with all proceeds going to charity. Other students were baking a variety of traditional products to entice people in to see them.

In English, there were many books on display as usual; we are very well stocked for books and have a medium sized library with many books and reference manuals. Mr Davies, our English teacher said this: “A sunny delight for all who’ve been. I would be nowhere else on a Saturday morning”.  Nearby are the maths rooms with many maths related games, which we use to make maths seem less strenuous.

I finish with a quote from Dr Welch, the principal:

“It was lovely welcoming so many visitors to the school and showing them all the advantages of a Gosfield education. As usual I was immensely proud of our pupils, who are excellent ambassadors for the school.”

Written by Simon Cummings and Emily Barlow, Year 9