St George's Ascot eNews Issue 72

eNews Issue 72, Friday 25 January 2013

Georgians on their way from Ascot to Australia!

Two Georgians have jetted off on the trip of a lifetime to spend a term at one of Australia’s top schools. Third Year girls Alannah Horswell and Georgiena Woodward set off on Wednesday 16 January bound for St Catherine’s School in Melbourne, Australia.

Alannah and Georgiena applied to be part of the exchange by writing a letter of application before being interviewed by a panel of Governors, Headmistress, Mrs Owens and Housemistress, Miss van Ravenstein, who will accompany the girls to Australia for the first 2 weeks. This is a new initiative for St George’s and the exchange is set to be a regular opportunity for two Third Year girls.

Arriving at the airport

The First Day Pre-Season Rowing Camp

Alannah and Georgiena will be attending lessons and taking part fully in the life of the school. They will return at Easter when they will be joined by two girls from St Catherine’s, who will spend the Summer Term here in Ascot.

It is an ex­traordinary opportunity for the girls to travel the world, explore new cultures and make new friends and we are thrilled to have made links with such a prestigious school in Australia.

We hope to receive regular updates and will keep you posted with their news and photos on the website and via eNews.

Alannah and Georgie on the River with the School Rowing Team

Snow Fun! Luckily the recent snowy weather only closed the school for one afternoon. Over the slightly extended weekend, some of the boarders made the most of the thick blanket of snow on the hill, and had great fun sledging and having an interhouse snowman competition run by the RTs!

First Year Music Trip

Prep School Sport Coaching

The First Years were treated to an afternoon out at the Ballet on Tuesday 15 January. The girls travelled with Mr Hillier, Miss May and Mrs Jones to see The English National Ballet perform Sleeping Beauty at the London Coliseum.

We were delighted to welcome girls from Coworth-Flexlands Prep School and St George’s, Windsor Castle to Sport Coaching afternoons organised by the PE Department. They were coached in Netball and Lacrosse respectively, and thoroughly enjoyed the sessions.

Some of the comments from the girls: Sophia Lyons 1Y: “I thought that it was fantastic! The way that they moved was unbelievable. They were so graceful and the music was so good, I could listen to it all day. It was amazing!”

Georgia Walker 1X: “I thought that the costumes were stunning and I loved the Lilac Fairy because her dancing was effortless.

Overall the ballet was AMAZING!” Edina Green 1X: “I really enjoyed the ballet. The dancers were so elegant and the music described the scene so well. I was really fascinating.”

St George’s Parent Association Raffle Congratulations to Sophia Lyons and Victoria Wyatt, both in 1Y, who won the super hampers in the St George’s Parent Association Christmas Raffle.

NVQ Award

Gordon Eggleston 1931-2012 We were sad to hear of the death of our former Bursar, Gordon Eggleston, on 29 December 2012. He was Bursar of St George’s from 1983-1996. His Funeral took place on 16 January and was attended by several current and former staff. We sent our sincere condolences on behalf of the entire St George’s community.

Snow & Travel Thank you to everyone for your patience in dealing with the recent inclement weather. Hopefully the worst is over and I think that the system in place for snow updates worked well. We will continue to review the status as needed. Our thanks go to Mr Rayner, father of Victoria, who kindly assisted with the clearing and gritting of the quad and carpark after the heavy snow.

Whilst on the topic of travel, may I remind all parents that there should be no parking on Wells Lane at any time, in particular outside the IT Rooms. This prevents residents opposite from having enough space to turn into their driveways.

Congratulations to David Juhos who has successfully completed his NVQ Level 2 Diploma in Food Production and Cooking.

David is one of the Catering Team at St George’s and he has been training here under the guidance of our Head Chef Graham Garnett, helping to produce our wonderful lunches and suppers.

David’s mentor, Fiona Cornley, from Farnborough College of Technology was delighted to visit St George’s to present David with his certificates alongside Mrs Owens and Domestic Bursar, Steve Cornish.

Σinstein Club!

Solution (Part 3) (Please see previous editions for Parts 1 & 2)

Last time, as we worked towards solving Einstein’s famous puzzle, we ended with the following two possibilities.

Blue

Green

Pink

5 Minutes with …

Name: Mrs Jenny Major

Job Title: Assistant Head (Head of Sixth Form)

N America

or Blue

Green

Pink

N America

What did you do before St George’s?

I was the Head of Geography at Malvern St James School in Worcestershire.

What is your greatest achievement?

Flying solo when I was 18.

We can use fact #1 that the European lives in the Red house. There is only one place we can fit them into each of the two tables above.

Blue

Green

Pink

N America

Red Europe

or Blue N America

Red

Green

Pink

Europe

Now, we can use both fact #5 (Green house drinks coffee) and fact #7 (Yellow house plays hockey). Note: The only remaining house has to be the yellow house.

Yellow

Blue

Green

Pink

N America

How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

Conscientious, cheerful and indecisive (but I’m getting better!)

Who is/was the most influential person in your life?

I have a huge amount of respect for my Nan (‘Peggy’) who turned 90 last year. I just hope I have her sense of humour, resilience and kindness if I reach her age.

What was the last book you read?

I’m half way through ‘Topkapi’, by Eric Ambler which is the book being read by the Book Club this term. But before that, I read ‘The Girl You Left Behind’ by Jojo Moyes – A good holiday read!

Europe

What would you do if you won £2m in the Lottery?

Give some to my family and friends, donate some to saving the tiger (I saw one once in India and fell in love!) and buy a fast car, a big house and travel the world.

Pink

If money was no object where would you travel to?

I’d love to drive around Botswana and Namibia in a 4x4 doing my own safari – or go back to Thailand where I went on my honeymoon – or go back to New Zealand – or travel around South Africa. Tricky question for an indecisive Geographer!

Red

Coffee Hockey

or Yellow

Blue

N America

Red

Green

Europe Coffee

Hockey

Next, we use fact #8 that the owner of the centre house drinks milk. This eliminates our first possibility because each person can only drink one drink, so we see that it must be the second possibility and the European drinks milk.

Yellow N America

Blue

Red

Green

Pink

Europe Milk

Coffee

Hockey

To continue the solution take a look at fact 11. Then consider fact 3 followed by fact 2. Remember you may need to consider multiple possibilities so create a table for each one and keep working until you get to a clue that eliminates one of them.

What is your ultimate Desert Island Disc?

My friends tease me about this, but I have lots of Country and Western music on my iPhone – and so it would have to be something like ‘One Friend’ by Dan Seals.

Which person alive or dead would you most like to spend a day with?

Hmmm…David Attenborough? I could listen to his voice all day – plus I’m sure he’d take me somewhere really interesting!

What makes St George’s so special?

Easy one – the Sixth Form of course! But the sense of community comes a close second.

Sport Life Lacrosse v Benenden Saturday 12 January was a great day for the St George’s Lacrosse teams, with wins across the board.

The U14 team won their match 18-1, with great play seen by Alice Robbins and Sophie Maclean in defence, as well as Zoe Scott on attack. Stephanie Bankole was named player of the match.

The U15 team won their game 10-3, with great play seen by Ellen Kloster and Olivia Haig each having 2 goals and 1 assist, as well as Anna Mason in goal making 2 saves! Emma Sedgwick also came up with 2 interceptions and 2 ground balls.

Finally, the first team won their match 17-0! Great play was seen by all including Emily Hancock in attack, as well as Darcy Winter and Gabriella Davis, both coming back off injury. Great job to all who played.

U13 & 1st Team Netball v St Mary’s Ascot On Tuesday 22 January the U13 and 1st team played Netball against St Mary’s. Due to the snow, both games were played indoors in the Sports Hall.

The 1st team played well, and at half time they were trailing St Mary’s by just three goals. Unfortunately the St Mary’s shooters were on a roll and scored most of their shots after half time.

The girls kept their heads up and defended well throughout the game despite losing 28-10. Special mentions must be given to Helen Sale, Lavinia Jones and Kate Beckitt who defended well against strong opponents.

The U13s were up next and played a slightly shorter match due to it beginning to snow outside. St Mary’s had a strong first half and were winning 8-4 at half time.

However, the girls remained positive, and within a few minutes of the second half starting, they had equalled the score 8-8. From this moment on the teams were equally matched with the final score resulting as 13-13. Anna-Lily Kenworthy was named player of the match by St Mary’s.

A special mention must also be given to Isabella Loughlin who’s feeding into the circle was excellent. Well played girls!

U12 & U13 Netball v St George’s Windsor On Wednesday 23 January, the U12 girls faced what was going to be a strong St George’s Windsor side due to them playing a mix of U12 and U13 girls. This didn’t worry the team and they all approached the game with excitement and enthusiasm. This saw us leading 4-3 at half time.

The girls remained focused and listened well at half time and as a result won the game comfortably 10-5. Very well done to all girls for their excellent play. Kelsey Lujan was awarded player of the match; however, a special mention must also go to Edina Green who scored some excellent goals.

The U13s also faced tough opposition but remained positive throughout the game. In the first half we struggled to make accurate passes and this resulted in St George’s Windsor leading 7-3. However, the girls were not deterred by this score, as in their match the night before they had made a comeback against a similar score.

Unfortunately, St George’s Windsor’s defending in the circle was extremely strong which made it difficult for our shooters to get the ball in an appropriate place to shoot. The final score was 16-4 to St George’s Windsor. Special mentions must go to Ella Davis and Scarlet Arbib whose defending was excellent.

Netball Camp at St George’s over Half Term

Ascot Schools’ Netball Tournament On Tuesday 15 January the St George’s U15A and B teams took part in the Ascot Schools netball tournament hosted here at St George’s.

The A team took a while to warm up and unfortunately lost their first game against Heathfield 5-3. They realised that it was their passing that was letting them down and therefore focused on more accurate passing in the next game against LVS. This focus paid off and they won 9-1.

Their winning streak continued as they won their next game against St Mary’s Ascot 9-6. The girls then came up against a strong opponent, Charters, and played exceedingly well. It was a tight match throughout, with each team scoring after the other!

Unfortunately time wasn’t on our side and we lost 7-6. Our final game was against The Marist. This was another tough game and the girls had to work hard to beat the opposition’s defence. Their

hard work paid off and they won 10-5. This meant that overall the girls came 3rd in the tournament. A special mention must go to Anna Mason whose feeding into the circle was excellent.

The B team started well with a 4-2 win against Heathfield’s B team. Unfortunately, the girls then lost 12-2 against St Mary’s Ascot B team (who eventually went on to win the plate).

Determined not to be disheartened, the team pulled together and worked really hard in their next game, against LVS, but unfortunately lost out by one goal. For the final match of the tournament the girls faced the Marist B team and lost 8-2.

Overall the St George’s B team finished 4th. Well done to all the girls that played. There were some great moments of netball, and everyone worked extremely hard despite the very cold weather.

Jade Agnew worked particularly hard as centre and Abigail King did some excellent defensive work as goal keeper.

Looking Forward...

Sunday 27 January 2013 Headmistress’ Dinner for Parents of Girls in the Fourth Year 7.00pm Thursday 31 January 2013 Lower Sixth B House Dinner with the Headmistress 7.00pm, Garden House Sunday 3 February 2013 Candlemas 7.15pm, Chapel Tuesday 5 February 2013 Compline 9.00pm, Chapel

Sunday 24 February 2013 Boarders Return by 8.30pm Monday 25 February 2013 School Resumes

OXBRIDGE EXPLAINED DiSpellinG the MythS oF ApplyinG to oXBRiDGe A pReSentAtion FoR FiFth yeAR & SiXth FoRM StuDentS & theiR pARentS

By DR Joe oRGAn, BRASenoSe ColleGe, oXFoRD & Ruth holMeS, neWnhAM ColleGe, CAMBRiDGe

REVISED DATE: **Saturday 9 February 2013** Churchill House Party 7.00pm Monday 11 February 2013 Concert 7.30pm, Sue Cormack Hall Thursday 14 February 2013 Lower Sixth C House Dinner with the Headmistress 7.00pm, Garden House Friday 15 February 2013 Fourth Year Parents’ Meeting 4.15pm, Sue Cormack Hall Half Term Begins 4.00pm

School Website

Sportsboard

Wednesday 27 February 2013 7.00pm-8.30pm in the Chapel, St George’s, Ascot

Scan the QR codes below using your smart phone to go directly to the web page you need.

Citrix

School Email