Free Time & Weekends
Hanford Prep gives the girls plenty of time and space to play.
We provide entertainment in the form of trips, activities and films but we very much encourage them to entertain themselves. They quickly learn to play their own games without the need for adult encouragement or direction, although benign supervision is constant.
The grounds have endless potential for play and the only limits are the girls’ imagination.
Play
Afternoons are arranged so that each child will have at least one period when she may tree-climb or play with her friends – on the playground, on the lawns, or in special areas set aside for them:
Tumbledown jumps for the juniors, Chestnut village for the fifth forms.
Weekends
Just as with any child at home the weekend is a time for them to relax, play and become lost in their own thoughts.
The weekends are an important time for extended play and for the development of their imagination. Some children may be involved in matches while others may ride, look after the chickens, swim, climb trees, walk in the hills or play music. Others may get together and organise clubs which are entirely voluntary and are for their own diversion and amusement.
Hanford Prep also organises specific weekend activities, for example trips to Splashdown, the cinema or Christmas markets.
Tree Climbing
In the Hanford Prep grounds there is a big Cedar Tree with branches that touch the ground making it perfect to climb.
One of the first things a girl learns to do at Hanford Prep is how to climb this tree. Generations of Hanford Prep girls have scrambled up its open branches enjoying the exhilarating thrill of challenging themselves to do something unexpected and difficult.
Over time girls have given names to the various branches they use to climb up the tree. Below is a list of the names of branches, numbered from lowest to highest:
- Junior Bog Roll
- Worm’s
- Cheetah’s
- Sugar’s
- Senior Bog Roll
- Pony’s
- Three Fingers
- Fox’s
- Bunny’s
- Red Sea
- Cubby
- Badger’s
- Catapult
Tree climbing is always supervised by staff and the older girls show the new ones the appropriate route up the tree.
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