During our final week of Autumn term, Wakefield Girls’ has been buzzing with festivities.

Over the weekend Sixth Form students from across the Foundation had a social at Stockeld Park, a Grade-I listed country house and estate in North Yorkshire. They revelled in the illuminations, went ice-skating and got lost in the giant maze. Despite the frosty temperatures, students warmed up with hot chocolates and bought gifts from the Christmas Shop. To round off their evening, they enjoyed a sing-song on the coach on the way back to school.

There have been lots of festive activities during lessons. For Year 7, during RPE lessons they created their own Christine’s. They discovered the fascinating symbolism of each part of the Christingle, and of course, enjoyed eating the sweets that were left over. For Year 8 students in their final latin lesson, the festive highlight was a game of ‘latin bingo’. Consolidating their knowledge of Latin numbers, they listen eagerly as Mr Hargreaves read out Latin numbers. When the winning pair ticked off all of their numbers, they had to shout ‘Linea plenus domus!’ – full house! 

Year 10 Food & Nutrition students have been getting Christmas ready by developing their knife skills in the kitchen. They learnt how to debone and skin a chicken leg quarter. We hope this practice has empowered these students to help their parents with cooking preparations for their Christmas dinner! Also, thank you to our caterers Holroyd Howe for sourcing the Halal chicken for us.

Lunchtimes have been no less festive! In our German Language club, led by language assistant Julia from Austria, students discovered and researched German Christmas traditions and decorated Lebkuchen. These honey-sweetened biscuits are a popular treat sold at German Christmas markets.

On Wednesday after a lively and brilliant Masseoke, we had our delicious Christmas lunch, turkey with all the trimmings plus a veggie option, made by our caterer Holroyd Howe, while listening to festive music and wearing Christmas jumpers. The pudding cups containing shortbreads, decorated brownies, mince pies and mini Christmas puds were very popular!

Excitingly, our Year 7 students enjoyed their Christmas party! An annual tradition, this event includes games, quizzes, a secret santa present-swap and even a visit from Father Christmas! We love this event every year as it is a brilliant bonding opportunity for our youngest Senior students to make connections with peers from across their year group who might not be in their form. 

We are also looking forward to the final day of Autumn term tomorrow where we will be having our final assembly of the year: celebrating all of the accomplishments our students have achieved since September. Our Staff Band will also be making a guest appearance during the morning’s activities to perform a rendition of Take That: ‘Shine’! Afterwards we will be enjoying the entertaining ‘Christmas Revue’ performance by our Year 13 students, who have been meticulously planning their show for months.

Mr J Harris

Deputy Head: Pastoral