Senior Girls’ Boarding Blog

I hope you all had a lovely half term break and are keeping safe and well. I know not all of the girls made it home for the break, but they all arrived back on Sunday in good spirits and well rested (we miss you Austeja, Katie and Niamh!). The new huge kitchen table that seats all the girls is just fantastic and was pivotal in our birthday celebrations on Saturday. It is also a popular location for our new house craze: Monopoly Deal. A card game based on monopoly, that doesn’t take days to complete.

This week the girls have been getting used to boarding in lockdown. Trips to town are now limited to once a week for essentials only – per the Government rules. We are very fortunate to have border only access to the Sir Ben Ainslie Sports Centre and this has been utilised by the girls on their allocated evening slots. They’ve had football, badminton, fitness suite and swimming. Physical exercise is so important for their mental health and it is something that we strongly encourage.

On Wednesday we held our annual Remembrance Day service at School. For most of us it was viewed remotely, however some of our Sixth Formers took part in the presentation of a cross for each Old Truronian who had died during world war 1, world war 2 and more recent the conflict in Afghanistan. It is such a poignant service each year to hear the names of those fallen. Our Katie played the Last Post on her trumpet – well done Katie.

After a homemade pizza supper on Friday night it was back to the house to get ready for our fitness suite slot. The majority of the girls took the opportunity to expend some energy and those that didn’t stayed in the house completing prep work. Our older girls headed to Poltisco games room for a “bubbled” evening of chat, snacks and games. Whilst Charlotte was out of the way, some of the girls and I started blowing up about 30 or so balloons for the party. Once again, I was reminded that laughter is good for the soul and looking after these girls certainly makes me laugh.

Saturday morning dawned pretty early as Jess started her baking adventure making Charlotte’s birthday cake. We met for an early roll call so that we could wish Charlotte a very happy 18th birthday. Charlotte is such a positive presence in the house and there was a lot of love in the room when she came down to see her presents, cards and the girls. It is sad that she wasn’t able to share her birthday in person with her family, but we were thrilled to have her here with us to celebrate. Which other 18th birthday girl has a ready-made party living with her!

After brunch, most of the girls settled down to some activities that didn’t involve heading out and about as they would usually. Hattie wowed me with her embroidery skills and patience whilst she decorated her jeans and Isabella did some painting. Mid-afternoon we started with the party preparations in earnest. Charlotte had already chosen a James Bond themed party, so we went with a decadent black and gold colour scheme. We had balloons a plenty, banners, gold streamers, and a photo booth complete with a James Bond cut out. Hattie made a fabulous balloon arch over the “booth”. The new kitchen table was dressed with napkin art by Steph and Amy and looked beautiful. Not only did Jess bake the most delicious and gorgeous looking cake, but she was lead mocktail maker. She had the girls on a production line making virgin margaritas, Moscow mules and mojitos. Again, very tasty.

The girls arrived for roll call at 5.50pm dressed up to the nines. Stunning outfits all round and without planning most of the girls were in black and Charlotte arrived in red. Perfect! We ordered an Indian takeaway as our birthday meal – from the best Indian restaurant in Truro as far as I am concerned! Delicious vegan friendly starters and then plenty of curry, rice and naan bread. The girls were happy to see that we had leftovers for Sunday! The evening progressed with lots of laughter, dancing and singing/shouting right up until bed time.

The girls had a good lie in until roll call at 1050 and brunch. The day has been spent doing prep, laundry, going over the fun of Saturday night and clearing up. The amount of confetti we had on the floor in the common room was astonishing!

That afternoon we had a boarders’ swim session with floats, which was a good way to build up our appetites for Kath’s roast pork or lamb curry.