A Look Back On The Christmas Season
Larissa - Year 11 International Student
As the days grow shorter and the temperatures dip, a slight fall in motivation can be natural. While a boarding school in the cold season might not sound as inviting as a cosy home during the pre-Christmas bustle, Rendcomb College ensures the Christmas spirit is alive and well within its walls. The Christmas season is something that Rendcomb College is very aware of in terms of guaranteeing an enjoyable and fulfilling experience for every student. Many activities, especially at this time of the year give a great sense of community and friendship.
During Christmas time, the boarding house but also the classrooms, the foyer and the dining room are full of Christmas decorations, that lead to the whole school embracing the Christmas spark together. One night, we came together as the whole boarding house, listening to our favourite Christmas music, drinking hot chocolate and decorating the common rooms. We have three Christmas trees in the boarding house and we all decorated them with beautiful Christmas balls and fairy lights. The main college has a huge Christmas tree in the foyer that is golden and red and big boxes of Christmas presents are prepared around the tree. The dining hall is full with fairy lights or santa figures and every day one new piece adds to the big picture.
Boarders Trips and Activities
On Sundays we always do trips to enjoy our time together and to leave the boarding school, either exploring beautiful English places, such as the Oxford or Cheltenham trips, or we all do an activity together. Last week we had a very nice trip to Bath where we visited the Christmas market. The market was really beautiful, people selling their homemade Christmas decorations and items such as colourful jewellery, and artists selling posters and prints of their work or cute other accessories such as hats and gloves. Of course, this was also a perfect place to do some Christmas shopping and the lovely little booths selling chocolate, tea or other treats were also a great place to do that. There was also a wide range of delicious Christmas market food for us to enjoy, such as pancakes, hot-dogs, pasta or candy canes.
Another activity that we all really enjoyed was the Christmas Disco planned and organized by our committed teachers and pupils. Divided in two-year groups, we all met in the Sports hall. The hall was full of dry snow, UV light, mirrorballs and even a professional DJ. Days before the disco we had the possibility to make suggestions for the music so that we listened to music that we all really enjoyed, Christmas hits too. We all had a very exciting time, wearing sparkling tops and celebrating the Christmas time together.
One activity that in spite of it being shorter and only an evening activity created a great feeling of enjoying the pre-Christmas time together was the pottery painting. One night we all came together and could, led by a professional, paint Christmas motives on cute pottery items. There were little figures, such as penguins, bells and stars that we painted in Christmas-themed colours while having a good conversation.
As a boarding house, we also used the opportunity that we have due to our TV room with a huge screen, and all came together to watch our favourite Christmas movies such as The Grinch or Home Alone. Either the houseparents or different students organized snacks such as popcorn, chocolate or ginger bread so that we did not even have to miss that! All the movie nights were a very peaceful experience together.
We also had the possibility to take part in baking sessions around this time of the year and bake cupcakes or cookies, and other night activities such as the cupcake decorating where we created Christmas-themed cupcakes. Both of these are activities that you might also do with your children around this time to create excitement for the beautiful time and you do not have to worry that they will miss out on these activities when boarding.
I really want to comfort all worried parents or new students by confirming to them that the students don’t miss out on all the nice enjoyable Christmas activities that they are used to just because they are boarding. Through all the festive things we experienced together, we all grew a lot closer and appreciated the cold time even more.
