Junior Girls' Boarding Update – 16 October

This week has been busy once again.

On Tuesday Anne and Amy were out all day for an Art Workshop and on Thursday the 4^th and 5^th years attended the Cornwall Careers Show and World Skills UK event at the Royal Cornwall Showground in Wadebridge. On Thursday Anne represented the school in her first netball match against Pool Academy helping her team to a convincing 37-2 win and being crowned ‘man’ of the match. Well done Anne! Thursday also saw our Geology students out of school doing fieldwork and on Friday the whole school came together in their various competition houses for one final rehearsal ahead of next week’s House Song Competition. Who will be crowned winners this year? Will it be Smith with Bohemian Rhapsody, School with What shall we do with the drunken sailor, Vinter with I would walk 100 miles or Wickett with Fast Car? I know where my loyalties lie but I am a little biased!

The weekend came about very quickly and it was somehow Friday once again. For Helena and Cherry the start of the weekend was to be somewhat delayed as they headed off to perform in the annual Concerto Concert at St Agnes Methodist Church. For the rest of the girls the weekend began at 3.45pm as normal. School uniforms were changed out of and the girls made the most of chilling out in the house before supper. After an hour of prep Anson and Tung walked up to the Sir Ben Ainslie Sports Centre for their usual Friday night badminton session, Caroline and Lena headed up to the Senior Boy’s House, Trennick, and for the younger house members the pool table, table football table and snug were enjoyed.

On Saturday morning the junior boarding school girls enjoyed a lie in before brunch. Amy left to spend the weekend with her family and the rest of the day was to be a free day for all. Despite the threatening weather that saw thunder and lightning and some heavy rain downpours in the afternoon the girls visited town and Tesco’s. A hearty brunch of pork cutlet, chicken or minute steak with all the trimmings was enjoyed at supper time and then the usual Saturday evening of Strictly Come Dancing with snacks in the Common Room was planned. This week’s combination of ‘anything meat’, cucumber, pizza, lettuce, crisps, dips and sweets was as strange as ever but these girls know what they like and not a crumb was left at bedtime.

On Sunday morning there were no lie ins! An earlier than normal, 8.45am, breakfast was eaten and then the girls joined the boarders form Poltisco, Trennick and Malvern for this weekend’s main activity, a Teambuilding and Leadership Day at Trenowth Woods, near Grampound Road. A lot of fun was had, fires upon which lunch was cooked were made and the girls surpassed themselves with their effort and willingness to get involved and take the lead. The pictures below will give a flavour of the day.

Upon arrival back at the house and after supper the girls completed homework and prepared themselves for the final week of school. This week Miss Hope and I will get our first glimpse of the girls’ progress reports and over the half term break we will be analysing the grades more carefully with individual targets in mind. On Thursday we will come together as a house to celebrate Anson’s 15^th birthday with a meal at Chantek, a Thai restaurant in the city centre.

And so…that is it, the final blog of the half term! All that remains for me to say is ‘happy holidays’. I hope the girls, whether they are returning home or staying with guardians closer to Truro, have a resting and relaxing two week break. It is hard to believe that this particular group of girls have only been with us for seven weeks…they have all done so well in such a short space of time and Miss Hope, Mrs Kenward, Mrs Chanter and I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them and watching them grow and develop.

When the girls return it will be November and the next half term will be just as busy. One of the main highlights will include watching this year’s full school play, The Fiddler on the Roof, in which a number of our girls are involved. There is the small matter of mock examinations for our 5^th year students and towards the end of the term there will be Christmas shopping trips to Exeter, the Truro lantern parade, ice skating at the Eden Project and of course the end of term Christmas party and celebrations.

I hope you all have a very happy half term and we will look forward to welcoming the girls back to Pentreve House on Sunday 6^th November.

Mrs Sarah Mulready (Housemistress, Pentreve House, Junior Girls’ Boarding)