Mrs Copp (Deputy Head of Junior School)

Year 6 pupils from BGS enjoyed a day of challenge, team-building and developing skills in communication as they partnered with their Year 6 counterparts from Bedford Prep School on Friday 19th November.

Over the course of the day, the pupils were tasked to create and construct structures with marshmallows and spaghetti that needed to possess strength and creative design, problem-solving along the way when parts of the structures collapsed. The pupils had to show strategic thinking and planning to cross a ‘river’ with their team using limited resources and, in another challenge, they had to use strategy, speed and cunning to take the shortest time to solve a number problem, working as a team and with logical and systematic thinking. Another challenge involved using the whole team to create structures that could support themselves, using only tape and newspaper, aiming to design the tallest structures.

Back in the classroom, the pupils have been writing a journal of the day, from the imagined perspective of a Bedford School student. The girls showed real empathy, understanding that there may have been apprehension and nervousness on the part of the visitors and referred to their own initial worries before the day. However, after a very short time, most of them became more comfortable working with the Bedford Prep School pupils and began to share ideas and strategies for approaching the tasks. 

Siya in 6BC said ‘that she had to be open-minded when they shared ideas’. Noa from 6I explained that ‘there was the real need to be good listeners when trying to work in a team’ and Francesca from 6C said ‘that you had to develop trust and depend on your team-mates to see a task through successfully’.

Overall, it has been a fantastic and worthwhile experience for all involved. BGS would like to extend their thanks to Bedford Prep School for hosting a variety of fun and challenging activities – the climbing wall in particular was a real hit. We hope that the boys enjoyed their time in the Girls’ School and we look forward to future links and challenges.

View photos here.