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SIXTH FORM NEWSLETTER NATHAN M & ANNA K | JUNE 2021
INTERVIEW HEAD BOY AND HEAD GIRL An interview awaits you on what has been acheived from the Head Boy and Head Girl.
BONDING DAY Even without a trip to Porto, Year 12 and 13 bonded for a day with activities wonderfully conducted by teachers.
In these hard and unprecedented times we hope that this newsletter shows how life in St George’s is full of excitement. This newsletter details the events that occurred this year.
“Be strong now because things will get better. It might be stormy now, but it can’t rain forever.” Roy T Bennet
Violence Against Women and International Men’s Day The Equalities Committee worked hard and promoted what the school is all about; respecting and being aware of each other . 1
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HEAD BOY AND HEAD GIRL INTERVIEW 1. What inspired you to apply for Head Girl? What change do you think you brought to the school? Head Girl: There were so many things that motivated me to apply for Head Girl, but I think the biggest one was how much I could learn and experience from it. I think the biggest change I implemented was to have more student involvement within the learning process itself, mainly through the student mentoring system. Head Girl Rashi M
2. What is your aim in life? What are your future plans after St Georges? Do you plan to go to university or have a gap year? What career would you like to follow? Head Boy: I plan to go to the UK to study economics and geography at university. I really enjoy combining the human element of geography with economic theory. At the moment, I’m not 100% sure exactly what career I would like to go into, however I’d like it to be related to economic geography.
Head Boy Lieuwe T The enthe careers library has been.
3. How have you organised school events with the current COVID situation? Head Boy: A virtual event happened during Christmas, where students could speak to alumni and ask questions on any aspect of university e.g. applications for year 12s, social aspects or settling into university for the year 13s. Unfortunately, the Christmas Fair was cancelled this year, however the Entertainments Committee came up with alternative events such as the Spirit Week.
4. What have you achieved as Head Boy and Head Girl? Head Boy & Head Girl: : We’ve set up the student mentoring system with Mr Stenton. The entertainments team have created fundraising events, the careers library has been fully updated. Furthermore, the equalities team hosted multiple events. Like underlined previously, a virtual event was organised for sixth form to help prepare further for university. Closer to the end of year we’ve focused on trying to help Year 9s and Y11s transition into the next key stage. 2
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5. How well do you believe you have managed the Student Leadership Team this year? Head Boy: Everyone in the Student Leadership Team has been working hard and taking their own initiatives, meaning that managing the team has not been a problem. Head Girl: For me managing the SLT has been a pleasure. Everyone has clearly taken their roles seriously and they’re all willing to put in the effort and do their part, so they’ve made our jobs quite easy.
6. How hard is it to balance your studies with your duties as Head Boy and Head Girl? Head Girl: Initially there was a bit of a learning curve, especially with managing university applications, studies and extracurriculars, but overall, it has worked. Obviously, there are moments where you have to think and prioritise certain tasks, but it’s totally manageable and really rewarding.
Head Boy: Balancing my studies with my duties as Head Boy hasn’t been an issue. Although it requires additional effort to be put in, this is certainly manageable, especially since I do enjoy it.
7. With the current COVID situation will there be a Prom? If yes where will it be and when? Head Boy & Girl: We do plan on having a prom and the Entertainments Team is putting in their best efforts to make it as enjoyable as possible. 8. How well do you think Years 12 and 13 have bonded? Head Girl: I do think there’s been quite limited bonding, since we couldn’t have our trip.
9.What would you have liked to improve in the Sixth Form? Head Boy: Although we receive lots of this already, my initial goal was to further increase the support for universities, particularly focusing on the elements many students will miss from not being able to attend open days in real life. Furthermore, it think trying to bond the Sixth Form more in this year, would also have been great, since we missed our trip. 10. How have you made sure that students in school are fully aware of, the student voice? We have tried to pop into some assemblies for all the Key Stages, just to let them know who we are and what we do, and we do plan on continuing that. We are definitely open to suggestions, so if any students want to come chat with us about an idea, or just general questions, they are always more than welcome. 3
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BONDING DAY Unfortunately, due to the current COVID - 19 situation, the St George’s Sixth Form was unable to attend their planned bonding trip to Porto at the beginning of this academic year. However, the KS5 staff were quick to come up with replacements for this experience, one of which was the Bonding Afternoon that was held on the 27th October. Both years 12 and 13 were split into mixed teams, representing various political parties, and were set to complete a series of tasks in different areas. These consisted of a geography challenge - pinning images of places onto a map, a photography challenge - taking pictures of places and people in the school, and a rosette challenge - designing a creative and unique rosette to represent the team -. Whichever team completed these challenges the best within the time of the double period won. In this case, the winners were the Pirate Party with Georgia C, Victor l, Idil K, Maddie C, Andrzej B, Amy C and Charlotte N. Overall, the afternoon was a fun and enjoyable experience and brought the Sixth Form closer together.
“It was an entertaining afternoon and I got to socialise with students I wouldn’t have normally socialised with.” Andrzej B.
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“Bonding day was really well organised and the teachers came up with fun, interactive activities for us to do.” Naim N.
All these photos were taken by Alexander D in Year 12.
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Equalities Committee This year the Equalities Team worked very hard to promote what the St George’s community is all about; helping everyone with different backgrounds to work together and make life enjoyable within the school. They focused on a number of areas; Women’s History Month, Men’s Mental Health day, LGBTQ+ History Month, Black History Month, Transgender Awareness Week and the day for raising awareness of violence against women. In December they raised awareness for various days, for instance putting up posters and sharing information about World AIDs Day, International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, Human Rights Day, and UN Day of Persons with Disabilities. Furthermore, an informative PowerPoint and Kahoot were put together by Amin N for men’s mental health day, which all forms participated in, promoting men seeking help for their mental health and certain charities which we are encouraged to donate to. Similarly, Transgender Awareness Week included a Kahoot and posters by students, which were put around the school to show alliance. The day for awareness of violence against women was also advocated by having everyone wear orange to display unity. Overall, the Equalities Team worked extremely well under Equalities Prefect, Amelie M, to work to make the Sixth Form, and the wider school, a safe place for everyone, especially demonstrating support for the LGBTQ+ community. For example, throughout February they worked with the Secondary Arts Department to produce artwork from students spotlighting and celebrating various LGBTQ+ icons for LGBTQ+ History Month.
They also organised other events such as: • International Women’s Day • Women’s History Month • UN International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination • Stress Awareness Month • Deaf Awareness Week • International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia • Pride Month They have also decided to make the committee open to Year 11 as well as sixth form.
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UKMT Maths Challenge
Y13 A Level Chemistry
Even with COVID 19 the A level students were able to conduct an experiment. Which involved the titration of a weak acid (ethanoic acid) against a strong base (sodium hydroxide).
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Spirit Week On the last week of the Spring Term, Abby K the Entertainments Officer organized Spirit Week. The week was initiated to boost the morale of the Sixth Form in these stressful times approaching the exams. On Monday, it was suit and tie day, and everyone dressed smartly, which was quite unusual for some people! On the second day of the Spirit Week, Sixth Form students were asked to come to school as if it were a beach day. We got to see amazing colour coordination from both the students and the teachers, some even came with their towels! Wednesday was origin day; this was probably the most interesting day of the week, as we got to observe how diverse and unique our school is. Some dressed in their traditional national clothing and others, dressed in their national team football shirts. Thursday was 80sday, which students observed by raiding their parents’ closet, whilst, teachers simply searched for their own old clothes! Finally, Friday which was the last day of school, saw everyone in secondary where pyjamas. Everyone was exhausted after a long term and wearing pyjamas was a great idea to de-stress the entire school. As Press Officers, we would like to underline how well run this event was by Abby K. We know how hard it’s been organizing events with Covid rules! Well done, Abby!
“Spirit week really raised our spirits and brought us all together with a sense of community, not to mention the fun we had!” Emma S
“It was a great week, it was fantastic that so many students and teachers in the Sixth Form got involved. It was great to see how creative people got with their outfits.” Lieuwe T
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“It was wondeful to see how imaginative people could get, even in these hard times.” Jonty
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Contacts
St George’s International School Luxembourg ASBL 11, rue des Peupliers L-2328 Luxembourg.
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