eNews @stgeorgesascot
Issue 94, Spring 2015
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A unique opportunity On Thursday 5 February, a selection of girls and staff experienced an exciting opportunity to make a contribution to the construction of the new Library building. Despite the very cold weather, fourteen girls each laid a brick in a wall of the building in their high visibility jackets, protective hard hats, gloves and glasses. The girls’ efforts will be recognised in due course, with their names being laid into the floor of the Library building.
Well done girls! Congratulations to the girls below for being awarded a Scholarship. The girls worked very hard and should be very proud of their achievements. Third Year scholars Sixth Form scholars Tejasvi Muvvala - Academic scholar Emily Hughes - All Round scholar Seojin Park - Mathematics scholar Alannah Horswell - Academic scholar Sadhvi Subramaniam- Creative Arts scholar Antigonie Wainwright-Parker - Drama scholar Sophie Griffin- Drama scholar Zoe Scott - Performing Arts scholar Alice Wiggin - Art scholar Hawa Al-Najjar - Art scholar Esme French - Sport scholar Sixth Form Titular roles Rosie Fisher (Lacrosse Ambassador) Devon Mather (Athletics Ambassador) Alice Robbins (Netball Ambassador)
Awards
Fantastic Achievements Form Captains and Deputy Captains The Form Captains and Form Deputy Captains have been voted in by their peers for the Spring Term. It is an important role to fulfil, as each girl will canvas the views of her Form Group and feed these into the School Council meeting. The girls will also play a lead role in Form Group planning and events.
Form 1MM 1EC 1CL 2AF 2AT 2NA 3LJ 3JC 3MJ 4KS 4SR 4SJ 5PW 5RB 5IH
Form Captain Georgia Morris Olivia Clouting Avah Rustomjee
Deputy Captain Lucy Rigby Ella Walker Eve Hayward
Sadhvi Subramaniam Tejasvi Muvvala Sophie Macfadyen
Susanna Jeffery Louisa Hughes-Penney Helina Herh
Second Year Form Captains and Deputy Captains
Fiona Allen Rebecca Zeng Isabella Brudenell-Bruce Catherine Lee Jessica Bennett Punch Suwannakit Olivia Aluko Charlotte Coates Amy Webber
Hannah Chahal Elise Pullinger Jade Pusey
Stephanie Bankole Robyn Saxby Alice Robbins
Emily Hughes Ellen Sweeney Lemonia Koutsabeloulis
Third Year Form Captains and Deputy Captains
Fourth Year Form Captains and Deputy Captains
First Year Form Captains and Deputy Captains
Fifth Year Form Captains and Deputy Captains
This new feature for eNews, will be to showcase the girls who have been awarded a Headmistress Commendation. So far this term, 22 girls have been awarded a commendation. Congratulations to all of the girls for this excellent achievement.
Name Alannah Horswell Annabel Cunningham Ella Davis Emily Hughes Fiona Allen Isabella Brudenell-Bruce Isabella Stanford-Harris Katie Sedgwick Kiera O'Hare Laura Beaumont Lauren Pryer Lily Corckchi Lizzie Shegurova Lolade Aluko Lucila Obregon Rosie Fisher Sophie Karl Sophie Lyons Sophie Ross Sophie Ross Tare Etifa Tejasvi Muvvala
Subject History Latin Tours, reading in Chapel and announcing sports results Magazine Latin Winning significant battles competitions in their classes Latin Winning significant battles competitions in their classes Latin Latin Latin Latin Latin Latin Distinction in Cambridge PET exam Magazine Latin and Greek Tragedy Winning significant battles competitions in their classes Latin Winning significant battles competitions in their classes Latin Latin
Awards
Headmistress Commendations Mrs Owens awards a Headmistress Commendation to girls who have excelled at a subject or activity within school.
Academic
Mathematics Third to Fifth Year girls in the top sets of Mathematics have been sitting tests to be entered into The Intermediate Maths Challenge, organised by the UK Mathematics Trust. Over 50 girls will be put forward to be entered into the competition along with many other UK schools. The top 40% of students nationally recieve a gold, silver or bronze certificate and each institution receives a Best in School certificate. The annual challenge involves answering 25 multiple choice questions in one hour and takes place under normal exam conditions. Good luck to all of the girls who have taken part!
Academic
Students sitting Mathematics test at St George's
Philsophy & Ethics Trip to the New College of the Humanitiies Dr Naomi Goulder is Head of Faculty and Senior Lecturer for the Philosophy degree at New College of the Humanities. The St George's Lower Sixth Philosophy & Ethics girls had a unique opportunity to attend a private tutorial with her on a topic that they have been studying. During the tutorial, Dr Goulder discussed the ethics of John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism, engaging the girls with interesting questions and moral dilemmas for debate. It was a unique opportunity for the St George's Sixth Form to experience a tailored lecture from a leading academic in the field of moral philosophy, and to have a supportive environment in which they could ask specific questions on the finer details of the topic. Model United Nations Conference St George's entered the Model United Nations (MUN) Conference at Lady Eleanor Holles School, which took place from Friday 30 January until Sunday 1 February. Model United Nations is an academic simulation of the United Nations, which aims to educate participants about current events, effective communication, globalisation and diplomacy. Students took on roles as diplomats, investigated international issues, debated, deliberated and developed solutions to world problems. The conference helped to develop the girls communication and critical thinking skills including public speaking, research, policy analysis, negotiating, conflict resolution and note taking. An excellent opportunity, well done girls.
Lower Sixth girls with Dr Naomi Goulder and Miss Kelsey Fisher
On Wednesday 14 January, the Upper Sixth French class and Mme Burrows set off for the British Film Institute, London. Emily Dominey, Freja King and Suzanne Pritchard made the most of the journey, speaking French all the way, to the great surprise of the Ascot commuters. They attended a lecture on the famous French cinema movement 'la nouvelle vague'. The lecturer introduced key French directors and the girls were invited to analyse clips from a variety of films and interact in French. This was a tremendous opportunity to broaden their understanding of the new wave style and techniques which the girls found very useful indeed.
Academic
Modern Foreign Languages
During the afternoon session a Truffaut's film, 'Les 400 Coups' was shown followed by a Q&A session with the audience. The girls were a credit to the school. Interested and attentive, they took part and very much enjoyed the event.
Lectures and Talks Lecture - WaterAid
Lectures
Headmistress' Lecture - Nick Gough
Pupils, parents, staff, alumnae and friends were warmly invited to the Headmistress’ Lecture on Wednesday 28 January at 7.00pm. Nick Gough gave a superb lecture on his adventures, travelling the world in a tuk tuk. He, and a friend, decided that they wanted to raise awareness of educational projects around the world and, without any prior mechanical or driving knowledge, bought a tuk tuk and commenced their travels in India having taken a sabatical from their jobs. Nick explained some of the excellent projects they viewed, including a man in Africa who encouraged elderly women to start a business, and schools for children who had never been schooled before - all of which he found deeply affecting. By filming, blogging and photographing these projects, Nick and his friend generated much needed funds for the projects directly featured, using an online giving website back in the UK. Nick also talked about some of the crazy adventures he and his friend had including getting stuck in the mud in Africa, having to push their tuk tuk in the Andes, being chased by children and how, in particularly dangerous parts of the world, they shipped the tuk tuk to avoid confrontation. The girls, parents and staff really enjoyed the talk and there were many questions at the end.
On Tuesday 3 February, Duncan Ross from WaterAid gave a talk to the Third to Sixth Form girls about the work that WaterAid undertakes. Duncan has helped to support WaterAid for many years after a career as a Mathematics teacher. He talked about the role of women within the organisation and the problems WaterAid works to address. He then went on to explain the problems that face Africa and other affected countries, including the distances that people have to walk to get to a water source, sometimes two to three miles per day. Duncan also highlighted that people in Africa survive on less than 10 litres of water per day, where as the average person in the UK has approximately 150 litres for personal use per day. Duncan also explained that one in eight people in the world live without safe drinking water; approximately 750 million people. This results in many people suffering very severe diseases, with 1,500 children dying every day because of these problems. The girls found the lecture eye-opening and fascinating.
Visits
Australian Exchange Trip
Third Year girls, Hetta Loughlin and Alice Hayward, are currently enjoying an exciting exchange trip in Australia.
From left to right: Tamara Andrews, teacher at St Catherine's School, Alice Hayward, Hetta Loughlin, Issy Binstead and Annabel Joubert at St Catherine's School
The girls departed the UK on Saturday 24 January and will return on Monday 6 April. Hetta Loughlin is staying with Issy Binstead and her family, whilst Alice Hayward is staying with Annabel Joubert and her family. The girls will attend a term at St Catherine's School, Toorak, Melbourne, enjoy a trip to the Outback, plus many trips and outings with the families, including climbing Sydney Harbour Bridge and visiting the local wildlife. Issy and Annabel will join Hetta and Alice at St George's next term, for the whole term. Follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/stgeorgesascot) and Twitter (@stgeorgesascot) for further updates of the girls' adventures. Jack the Ripper Tour On the night of Friday 23 January, the Third Year girls went on a Jack the Ripper walking tour around Whitechapel in London, accompanied by Miss Jackson, Dr Tieanu, Mr Sharkey and Mr Heather. There was a feel of damp and a threat of rain in the air as the group walked where Jack once terrorised local people in the Autumn of 1888. The girls visited the scenes of five grisly murders and learnt about the plight of the victims and the fear spreading around their neighbours. They listened to theories about who Jack really was and tried to imagine how things were back then. The atmosphere is recreated by a "Ripperologist", who dramatises the events and sets the social scene. The girls bravely faced the cold to unravel the mysteries that Whitechapel was hiding in its narrow back alleys and grim history.
Jess Bennett, our Georgian expert on Jack the Ripper said: "I enjoyed listening to the tour guide, and learning new things! I didn’t know that Catherine Eddowes had 'V' cuts underneath both eyes. The tour was very interesting, even though I have already been previously on other school trips and with my family. I would definitely recommend going!"
Globe Theatre On Monday 9 February, Upper Sixth Form students visited Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London as part of their A Level Drama Examination. The Globe stands a few hundred yards from its original site. The rebuilding of the iconic building stems from the founding of the Shakespeare's Globe Trust by the pioneering American actor and director Sam Wanamaker. Its annual season combines Shakespeare classics as they were meant to be seen, with plays by the most gifted new writers. However, education is at the heart of the Globe Theatre. Holding a year-round programme of Learning, Research, Courses, Projects and Events, over 100,000 studets and teachers visit every year. The girls thoroughly enjoyed the visit.
Lord Robert Winston Lectures On Wednesday 11 February the St George's A Level Biology pupils visited the Camden Centre in London to hear Lord Robert Winston give two lectures. The first of the two lectures, covered DNA as an information carrying molecule and how it's sequence of bases determines the structure of proteins, including enzymes. His second lecture looked at how complex organisms are organised. Both of these lectures directly relate to the current Biology course. Lord Robert Winston has regularly presented and contributed to a diverse range of television programmes, and is now as well known for his broadcast work as his scientific research. As well as being a regular contributor to science and current affairs programmes such as Panorama and Child of our Time, he also writes scientific articles for national newspapers. The girls found the lectures fascinating. Thanks go to Mr Rhodes for organising this trip.
Lord Robert Winston
Visits
Performance and education
Arts
Arts Life at St George's Drama Drama Workshop GCSE and AS level Drama students were privileged to work with respected freelance dance and movement coach Phillip Hill. Phil has worked on many major projects with his Dance company JumpStartMove and completes regular work for the National Theatre. Students learned movement techniques that will be valuable to them in their practical exams. All of the girls enjoyed the work immensely. Fourth Year student Charlie Coates commented "It was a fantastic workshop. We learnt lots of exciting things we can use for our work in the future." This is the second time Phil has visited St George's. He really built on his previous visit and challenged the girls and was impressed with the confidence they showed when learning new techniques. Othello at The Lyric Theatre Fourth, Fifth and Upper Sixth students visited the Lyric Theatre, London to watch the popular production of 'Othello'. As part of the girl's A Level examination, the Upper Sixth Formers are required to watch a 21st Century version of this performance and discuss how the play relates to the original performance conditions in Shakespeare's day. The Fourth and Fifth Year girls watched the performance as part of their coursework by analysing the performance.
Art
Art in Reception This is a new initiative, introduced this term, where we focus on an individual pupil’s piece of art and give them a mini art gallery experience, as well as enabling the whole school and our visitors to enjoy their work. The piece of art will be changed on the first Monday of each month. The first girl to have her artwork displayed is Jessica Gray. Jessica’s AS artwork developed through the title 'Earth, Air, Fire, Water'. Jessica focused on the subject of 'Earth' with an influence from hanging objects (Air). The piece explores the overground, underground, the background and the foreground, and the relationship between them.
Jessica Gray
Arts
Arts Life at St George's Fun and vibrant art The art on display in the Art Department, which includes artwork with a variety of mediums including ceramics, textiles, sculpture and glass work, is extremely colourful and has attracted much comment and admiration. The displays represent work from First and Second Year girls, plus the Art Captains Club. During your next visit to the department, please do take a look at these stunning works of
art.
First Year textiles cushions First Year soap carvings of Japanese Netsuke
Second Year Sculptures
Art Captains Club wire portraits
Glass work by Lucy Walker
Forms
Meet a Form This is a new feature, introduced this term, where we meet a Form in each edition of eNews. The first Form to be featured is 2AF with their Form Tutor Ms Figueira.
"My favourite subject is Drama. I am Charities Captain at St George's and my hobbies are acting and travelling." Bella Stanford-Harris
"My hobbies are drawing and listening to music. The subjects I enjoy the most are Art and Drama." Keshni Vadivelloo
"The best thing about St George's is the tuck shop, my friends and boarding. I like to read, play tennis, watch television and being with my friends in my free time." Lucila Obregon
"I like learning about Mathematics, Art and Textiles. I enjoy drawing out of school time, and I really enjoy the food at St George's." Nancy Zhuang
"My favourite subjects are Latin and Art. The food at St George's is my favourite thing about the school and I enjoy ballet and sport in my spare time." Annabel Cunningham
I like being with my friends at St George's. My favourite subjects are Drama, Art and Music. I am a member of LAMDA, piano club and Dramatica." Sadhvi Subramaniam, Form Captain
"I enjoy watching television and sewing in my spare time. My favourite thing about being at St George's are the teachers. My favourite subjects are English and French." Susie Jeffery, Deputy Form Captain
"The highlights of being at St George's are the people and delicious food. I am a member of the swimming club, tennis club and theatre school." Christina Vassileiou
"My favourite subject is Sport. The best thing about St George's is the tuck shop and all of the people. I enjoy watching television and playing games." Fatimah Iqbal
"I like Sport and Music at school. My favourite thing about being at St George's is the delicious food. I enjoy animals, sports and singing. I am a member of Wentworth Sports Centre." Ellie Pusey
"I enjoy Drama and boarding at St George's. I am a member of an ice skating club and boarding prefect for the Second Year." Julia Cherry
"My favourite subjects are Science and Latin. The food at St George's is my favourite thing about the school. I enjoy show jumping in my spare time." Lily Corkchi
"I am a member of LAMDA and Wentworth. I enjoy gymnastics outside of school. The best thing about St George's is the people." Kiera O'Hare
Socials
Socials On Saturday 31 January, Third Year Eton boys joined our Third Year girls for a meal and disco. All attendees took to the evening with much enthusiasm! Our Fourth and Fifth Year girls also hosted a social evening for boys from Winchester College on Saturday 7 February. They all enjoyed food and a performance from band Rothwell.
Third Year social with Eton
Houses
House Debating 2015 On Thursday 12 February, the annual House Debating event took place at school. This is a House team competition with three students per team. The competition began with Churchill House (proposing) and Becket House (opposing) ‘The pursuit of happiness is making us miserable’. The second debate proposed by Darwin House discussed the motion that 'Freedom of expression must include the right to offend', with Alexander House opposing this statement. Finalists, Churchill House (proposing) and Darwin House (opposing) held the final debate, with Churchill House believing 'Queen Elizabeth should be our last monarch'.
Winners Darwin House with Mr Carroll
Staff and fellow students listened to all of the points put across by the finalists, with Mr Carroll and Mrs Witt adjudicating the debate. Darwin House were announced the winners of the Catherine Dyer Trophy (Catherine was a Head of Sixth Form who sadly died in service in 2011 and who loved debating). Congratulations to Olivia Clouting for winning the individual debater award. Well done to all of the girls who entered the competition; your confidence and debating skills were very impressive!
Olivia Clouting, individual speaker winner, with Mr Carroll
On Friday 30 January, students, staff and parents enjoyed an evening of award winning food, plus a performance by the girls. The theme of the evening was Roald Dahl's 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. The dining room was decorated with colourful sweet decorations, with chocolate treats at every turn. In keeping with the Roald Dahl theme, the girls performed 'Matilda' to staff and parents at the end of the evening. All who attended had a wonderful time, and thank you must go to Mrs Fidler and Mr Cornish for their hard work in organising the event.
Houses
Churchill House Party 2015
Houses
Darwin House Party 2015
On Friday 6 February, Darwin House held their annual party.
The theme of the evening was The Great Gatsby. The dining room was decorated with luxurious gold decorations, with sparkling wine and decadance at every turn. The girls performed various dances, some individual music pieces by Chloe Smythes and Georgia Cooper, the winning Darwin House Declamation performance and the House song to staff and parents at the end of the evening. Everyone who attended had a wonderful time, and thank you must go to Mrs Dorey for organising the evening, and Mr Cornish for the decorations and delicious meal.
Young Enterprise Student Seminar On Thursday 5 February, Mr Cameron and Lower Sixth Form girls Grace Tufnell, Darcy Coop, Yuki Lee and Sanmi Toyobo joined a Student Seminar at Waitrose Headquarters in Bracknell, Berkshire as participants of the Young Enterprise programme. Young Enterprise is a not-for-profit enterprise and financial education charity in England & Wales. Young Enterprise's mission statement is "To inspire and equip young people to learn and succeed through enterprise."
The Company Programme is aimed at ages 15-19 and run during the course of an academic year. Students form a business and elect a board of directors from among themselves, raise share capital, then create, sell, and market products, attempting to generate profits.
The girls have been selling fruit infuser bottles online, at school and also after school at the Queensmere Shopping Centre. The seminar assisted the girls in writing Company Reports as well as with presentation skills and sales techniques. For more information, or to buy your fruit infuser please visit www.bottlesandyou.wix.com/ bottlesandyou or follow the girls on twitter @BottlesAndYou
The St George's girls business 'BAY Bottles and You' recently won this competition.
Charity
READS school in India Following the Parents Association making a very generous donation of ÂŁ2,000 to the school in India, we are happy to announce that the construction of a Water Harvesting Plant has commenced. The state of Rajasthan, where Dundlod is located in Northwest India, is a mostly dry, desert region with very low annual rainfall (estimated at less than 400mm). The Water Harvesting Plants are designed and constructed with local labour and skill and provide significant employment opportunities. They result in affordable water that is available to all, regardless of caste, creed, or economic status.
Example Water Harvesting Plant
Tour de Force Nick Dorey, husband of Housemistress and teacher Mrs Dorey is currently training to cycle the full route of the Tour de France to raise money for charity. Nick is due to cycle the distance from London to Cairo (3,282 kilometres) in 21 days in France, to raise funds for the William Wates Memorial Trust. The trust was set up in 1998 in memory of Will by his family, after he was tragically killed whilst on his gap year. We would be very grateful if you could sponsor Nick for his amazing efforts to raise money for this much deserved trust. To donate, please visit http://www.bmycharity.com/nickdorey. To follow Nick's training and the event itself, please visit www.facebook.com/Nickstourdeforce
Nick Dorey on a similar cycling challenge
Community and Charity
Community
Sport
Sports Life at St George's
Ascot Schools' Netball Tournament On Wednesday 28 January, St George's hosted the U15 Ascot Schools' Netball Tournament. The St George's team competed against very tough opponents including St Mary's, LVS, Heathfield, Charters and The Marist. By the end of the tournament the girls won their match against Heathfield with final score 4-0. Overall, the girls came fifth place. St George's School v Wellington School netball match On Tuesday 3 February, the St George’s U16 A team played netball against Wellington College. Throughout the match both teams played their hardest, constantly competing with only one goal difference at the end of each quarter. At the end of the third quarter Wellington were leading by two goals which encouraged our team to push even harder to equalise the score. With our defenders Emily Hughes, Stephanie Bankole, Devon Mather and Georgie Woodward working hard to gain possession, the attack, Esme French and Rosie Fisher, carried the ball to our shooting end, so that our shooters Alice Robbins and Scarlet Mason, could score some excellent goals, enabling the team to power through and take the lead in the final minutes. St George's won with a tremendous score of 28-26. Well played to the whole team for such a triumphant win. Chess Match On Thursday 12 January, First Year student Laura Davidson received an invitation from Wellington College to attend a lecture and play a simultaneous chess match with Garry Kasparov, former World Chess Champion, writer and political activist, considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all time. Laura played for two hours before retiring. A great achievement Laura, well done! Laura has won both the English and British girls' chess championships, she plays for Berkshire and very recently was the top under 12 girl at a 'by invitation only' South of England tournament.
Venice Talk On Thursday 8 January, the Sixth Form girls were given a talk by Charlie Hall about the geographical, ecological and political topics that make up Venice, the marine city. Charlie told the girls how Venice was built and mentioned the famous poets, painters, playwright who came from Venice.
Tatler Talk On Thursday 29 January, Sophia Money-Coutts, Features Editor at Tatler Magazine talked to the Sixth Form girls about life as a journalist, how the girls could develop a career in journalism and some history about Talter magazine. The girls found Sophia's talk very interesting and had lots of questions for her at the end.
+44 (01344) 629900 St George's School office@stgeorges-ascot.org.uk Ascot Berkshire SL5 7DZ www.stgeorges-ascot.org.uk
Sixth Form
Sixth Form