3rd February 2021 — ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY- FIVE HEAD TEACHERS CALL FOR CHILDREN TO RETURN TO SCHOOL VACCINATING ALL TEACHERS TO IMPROVE CHILDREN’S LIVES

This letter has been co-ordinated by William Goldsmith, Head Master of St George’s School, Windsor Castle and was printed in The Times today:

Sir, As Head Teachers, we are heartened by the progress that has been made with the coronavirus vaccinations and encouraged that the target of 15million people is likely to be reached by 15 February. This is saving lives, bringing light to a dark period for many and giving hope that pupils will be back in their schools without any further delay. To support this mission, we urge the Government to vaccinate all teachers and school staff, along with other priority groups of workers. The emotional and social wellbeing of young people is a significant concern to us, and every day we see the need for pupils to be in school; with each hour that passes the need to be back with their peers and teachers grows stronger. Teachers have demonstrated that they are ready for the challenge ahead; without neglecting anyone’s safety, reopening schools from 8 March should be the priority under any circumstance.

NOTES:

The majority of the signatories are Independent Prep School Head teachers. Some are leaders of state schools.

The letter is not making a political point, but a child and staff welfare one. The need to address the educational health, the mental health and the societal health of our children is acute and urgent, and there is a route to making a safer return to full time, in person schooling more likely to succeed, by vaccinating all teachers and staff from all educational settings as soon as possible. The signatories are in the attached PDF.

CONTACT POINT:

William Goldsmith is available for interviews during Thursday. Please co-ordinate with Clare Davis at this email address: clare.davis@stgwindsor.org or call her on 07931 630093.

ABOUT WILLIAM GOLDSMITH:

William is the Head Master of St George’s School, Windsor Castle. He has held the post since January 2019. He is presently Vice Chair of IAPS the Independent Association of Prep Schools.

1st October 2020 — We are delighted that William Goldsmith, Head Master at St George’s School Windsor Castle, has become the Vice Chair of the Independent Association of Prep Schools (IAPS) from 1 October, and Conference Director for the 2021 Annual Conference in Bournemouth.

The IAPS represents over 650 schools both in the UK and globally and supports them in their mission to prepare young children for the future. IAPS provides its member schools with a national voice, raising awareness of the benefits of a prep school education and the amazing work that takes place in this sector every day.

The role of Vice Chair is to act as a conduit between the IAPS and its member schools, to represent their views and to help shape the organisation as its members seek to emerge from COVID-19 with a continued strong and purposeful educational offering.

By working together with other IAPS members, William will be able to bring the very best of preparatory education to St George’s and will ensure that the school remains at the forefront of innovation.

2nd July 2020 — 11 young St George's pupils worked together to produce protective masks for Basingstoke Hospital using material supplied by Technology Supplies. The Head of DT, Mr Giani downloaded a file from WF Education, which was used to cut out the headband on the DT Department’s state-of-the-art laser cutter. They made the face shield from acetate and used a hole punch to fit the headband. Once the masks were assembled, a third team disinfected them. 42 masks were created and delivered to Basingstoke Hospital.

The BBC Radio Berkshire interviewed our Head Master, William Goldsmith about the project and the sound clip was played repeatedly throughout the day.

https://bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08brj1c… and https://bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08brj1m… (respectively 2h 47m and 45m into each programme).

1st July 2020 — To complement the school remote learning programme, St George's produced a series of inspiring podcasts from a wide range of speakers. The interviews covered various aspects of physical and mental health, leadership and motivation. The podcasts included Oliver Soames, Tom Alsop and Ajeet Dale, from Hampshire County Cricket Club, Andy Hope a.k.a Dr Happy, author of the SpyDog series and Trevor MacKenzie, award winning Canadian author, educator and speaker who champions inquiry based learning in/and out of the classroom.

To hear these and other informative interviews, see the school website www.stgwindsor.org/news-events/podcast/

1st July 2020 — As part of the new St George's Award, Years 5 and 6 wanted to raise money for a global charity. As they are currently looking at environmental awareness, they decided on the WWF as the charity of their choice. On Wednesday 17 June, they held a sponsored silence on Google Meet for 20 minutes, followed by by 30 minutes of continuous exercise such as trampolining, keepie-ups, walking up and downstairs, cycling and tennis. They finished the challenge by doing household chores including hoovering, dusting, laundry and gardening. Some parents were especially pleased with this part of the challenge! They raised over £1,000 for the charity.

6th November 2019 — St George’s School are teaming up with The WCDP – made up of local volunteer community groups Windsor St George Rotary Club, Windsor Street Angels, The Town Partnership, Thames Valley Police and Windsor Lions to raise money install more Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) around Windsor.

We have raised £300 towards this worthwhile cause in our first initiative: ‘Guess the Number of Balls’ defibrillator challenge.

On 21 November between 2pm-4pm, we will be undertaking a second fundraiser. St George’s Young Leaders, Windsor Girl volunteers, local PCSCO David Bullock and our Year 4 teacher, Richard Wilson will be completing a ‘Three Peaks Challenge’. We will be simulating climbing the combined height of the three highest mountains in the world by going around the triangle in Home Park Private. We will be completing this in as many unique ways as we can, such as hopping, dancing and perhaps even ‘moon-walking’.

This will be a crowd-funded event, which will be open to donations from both school communities, friends, family and the local community.

Organiser at St Georges School, Mr Wilson said 'the young leaders at St Georges School as well as volunteers from Windsor Girls School are looking forward immensely to raising money for such a worthwhile cause.'

'We are going to run, walk, hop and use other inventive ideas to cover the distance of the three peaks challenge’.