Boarders' Corner - Girls on Board

Girls on Board is a proactive pastoral strategy which is being adopted by Godstowe as a whole school. Within boarding, it is hoped that girls, their houseparents and teachers develop specifically a far heightened understanding of the complexities and dynamics of girl friendships, as opposed to those experienced between boys. To that end, all senior house staff are currently undertaking a full day of training to help them facilitate this new approach to girls' friendship issues. 

 

Classically, girls who have fallen out with one another would tend to have an outpouring of their woes to a trusted adult. The adult in turn would investigate the issues raised and would very often, and very soon, get bogged down in the minutiae of claims versus counterclaims.

 

This relatively new approach empowers girls to solve their own friendship problems and recognises that they are usually the only ones who can. Girls on Board sessions are deliberately non-judgmental and reflective, but are rather designed to raise empathy amongst the girls. It is that empathy that fuels the search for restored harmony and a definitive resolution. By helping the girls to realise that they have the power to find their own solutions, houseparents will need to worry less! Godstowe's teachers can focus more on the curriculum and the girls themselves start to learn more effectively, because they are happier!