eNewsletter ARTS
Spring 2019 Issue 118
www.stgeorges-ascot.org.uk
HOUSE ART Page 12
HOUSE MUSIC Page 3
SPRING TERM AWARDS Page 9
HOUSE LACROSSE Page 18
FROM THE HEAD Academic Page 6
Boarding Page 11
Arts Page 12
It certainly feels as if Spring is in the air and the frenzied noise and excitement of the girls heading off for their Easter break at lunch time today has now passed. The end of term is finally here and I write this in a quiet and empty school with the sun streaming through my study windows in a rare moment of calm (before packing for my venture on the school ski trip which departs in a matter of hours!). This is always the term where there is the greatest amount of change; we start with dark, cold, January days and finish well into Spring time. In January, lucky Year 6 future Georgians have received offers to join in September and by the end of term, once acceptance deadlines have passed, we are excited by the prospect of a fantastic, large group of lovely girls who we know will be joining the school for their exciting futures. We had a great deal to celebrate in our End of Term Awards, from D of E awards, Science Week awards, LAMDA and music exams, to clubs and year group academic prizes. We have to say goodbye to the winter sports of lacrosse and netball, that the girls have shown such promise in this year, and we look forward to welcoming the sounds of tennis, athletics, rounders and cricket next term as well as our Sports Awards evening at the end of next term. The swimming pool has undergone an enormous transformation during this term and the following few months will involve completing the interior as we await the opening of this fantastic new facility in the new academic year. The Fifth Year and Upper Sixth girls, with GCSE and A Level exams looming, may not feel like there is much of a holiday ahead of them but I have encouraged all the girls to rest and recharge over the coming 3 weeks in order to continue to give off their very best in all that they do next term. Liz Hewer Headmistress
IN THIS ISSUE
Sport Page 18
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Darwin House Party Page 25
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Page 3 House Music
Page 12 Arts
Page 23 Other News
Page 6 Academic
Page 18 Sport
Page 11 Boarding
Page 22 Charity and Community
Page 25 Darwin House Party
HOUSE MUSIC
HOUSE MUSIC Wednesday 13 March saw the annual House Music competition, in which every girl took part and performed in an attempt to help their House win the coveted trophy. The event brings together every girl to perform their House song and a special item, and encourages girls across year groups to perform individual and ensemble pieces. Amongst a number of outstanding vocal performances, we were also treated to a trombone solo and piano concerto.
The highlights, as always, were the choreographed special item pieces from each House, which this year included ‘Grease Lightning’ from Grease, ‘Runaway Baby’ by Bruno Mars, ‘Fabulous’ from High School Musical, and ‘Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’’ from Teen Beach Movie. Congratulations to Becket House who were the overall winners, and to Jacqueline who was awarded the best individual performance.
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HOUSE MUSIC
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ACADEMIC
A LEVEL HISTORY OF ART On Monday 25 February our A Level History of Art pupils travelled to London for a packed day of discussing and viewing relevant artworks. Their first stop was the exhibition “John Ruskin: The Power of Seeing” at Two Temple Place which highlighted Ruskin’s ideas and vision – a key element of their current topic, ‘nature’. It was a wonderful opportunity to view his watercolours and drawings first-hand and the girls particularly enjoyed learning about and inspecting his collection of precious stones. They then walked to the National Gallery where they were able to hear Dr Jill Burke give a fascinating lecture on “Renaissance Nudes and the Power of Looking” before both girls gave their own presentations in front of Rachel Ruysch’s “Flowers in a Vase” and Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers”. In the late afternoon the group travelled to the V&A where, amongst other rooms, they explored the newly renovated cast courts and the girls marvelled at the true size of Michelangelo’s “David” amongst other sculptures.
SENIOR ACADEMIC SCHOLARS LUNCH Mr Rhodes brought a new twist to the Senior Academic scholars lunch on 26 February with prompt cards which asked the girls to consider three key questions: “Would you pay everyone the same?”, “Does prison work?” and “Do humans need religion?”. The girls keenly discussed each topic over lunch, and came up with strong arguments for and against each question.
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ACADEMIC
UNIVERSITY SUCCESS The Upper Sixth have enjoyed a number of notable successes in their applications to prestigious universities this year. All post-18 options are encouraged and supported by the School yet undergraduate study remains the most popular choice for girls in thinking about their next step after secondary education. Prominent achievements include two overseas applications to North American institutions with Virginia successfully gaining a place at New York University which was always her first choice. In comparison, Faith is having the enviable challenge of deciding between a number of offers from US institutions including Iowa University and Berry College. Meanwhile,
Sophie has been looking somewhat closer to home but with no less ambition as she has applied for the highly competitive option of Medicine and she has been successful in gaining offers from Nottingham, Cardiff and Newcastle. Although these three pupils are to be congratulated for their achievements their Upper Sixth peers have also been highly successful in gaining offers from Bristol, Edinburgh, the LSE and UCL amongst many other universities. Such offers will provide significant motivation for the girls as they continue their studies towards the A Level examinations in May and June.
JAGUAR LAND ROVER On Monday 18 March the Third Year girls enjoyed a visit to Jaguar Land Rover in Solihull, where they learnt about manufacturing on a small scale and looked around the assembly areas with the Mathematics department.
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ACADEMIC
GEN KELSANG NYINGPO VISITS ST GEORGE’S On Tuesday 26 March the Fifth Year were delighted to welcome the internationally recognised Gen Kelsang Nyingpo to St George’s to find out more about Buddhism and do some meditation, something we’re sure will be helpful in keeping them calm as they head into their GCSE revision over the Easter holidays.
MUN AT GORDONS SCHOOL Wednesday 27 March saw our MUN team visiting Gordons School in West End, where they took part in a mini MUN conference. The girls debated topics including Blood Diamonds and the situation in Venezuela. Our girls were all fantastic, presenting some brilliant points and represented the school in a mature and engaged way.
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ACADEMIC
SPRING TERM AWARDS
This term’s Awards were held on Friday 29 March, and recognised the achievements of our girls since January. Well done to all girls who received awards including Duke of Edinburgh, effort, achievement and progress cups, music and LAMDA grades, Science Week prizes, Olympiads and Club awards.
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ACADEMIC
NATIONAL SCIENCE WEEK During National Science Week, the Science Department joined in the fun and held our own SGA Science Week. It started with Mr Rhodes giving an assembly looking at the journey of becoming Homo sapiens. He shared the origins and risky behaviours of our distance ancestors, along with the striking similarities between Homo rhodesiensis and himself. The girls in the Fourth Year and selected Third Year girls were able to take part in the Biology Challenge, while the A Level Physics pupils completed the Physics Olympiad. The Science Fair saw high-quality projects ranging from the obligatory volcano model through to an innovative project looking at using milk to make biodegradable plastics. Three alumni who are currently studying Medicine, Pharmaceuticals and Artificial Intelligence at University College London visited girls and gave inspiring and motivating talks about their field of study and the qualities needed to succeed in STEM subjects. In addition, Ben Draper from Kings College London spoke to our A Level Biology pupils about his research into CAR-T therapy; a completely new type of therapy that uses genetically modified immune cells to kill cancer cells. Every day pupils volunteered to be locked in a science laboratory and were challenged to use their scientific knowledge and problem-solving skills to escape. This proved to be quite difficult, however, the girls who worked best as a team were able to solve the puzzles and find the key to unlock the door.
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BOARDING
BOARDING ACTIVITIES This term has been another busy one in boarding, with baking in Markham for the Red Nose Day bake sale, Friday night ice cream sundae making in Knatchbull and weekly yoga and movie nights in Loveday. The Markham House boarders went to Escape 360 on Sunday 3 March, where they had to work in teams to ‘save Charlotte’. The Fourth Year girls escaped in under the hour, and the Second and Third Years did too with a bit of extra time! On Monday 18 March the girls in Knatchbull and Loveday celebrated St Patrick’s Day with Irish music, potato games and snacks. The girls enjoyed their mini Guinness chocolate cupcakes whilst singing along to Molly Malone! While some may have wished they were celebrating in Dublin, Knatchbull put on a good show to get in tune with our Irish relatives. Sláinte!
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ARTS
HOUSE ART During last half term we held the very first St George’s House Art competition, for which each House was asked to select a small creative team, comprising of one girl from each of the First to Fourth Year and one Sixth Form girl, to create a large painting/mixed media artwork on a canvas. Each team was given one A1 canvas and basic art materials such as acrylic paint. Artwork could be a painting or mixed media piece such as incorporating photography, material or Collage. In this inaugural year, the theme was water, and houses were asked to meet prior to the start date to discuss, plan and sketch their design.
The competition went smoothly and all the Sixth Form girls in charge for each house organised their teams very well. The younger members of the teams learnt a great deal from the older girls in their group and everyone worked well together and seemed to enjoy it. We were delighted to welcome back Mrs Fidler, the previous Director of Art at St George’s, to judge the competition. Congratulations to the winners, Darwin House, for their creative and imaginative interpretation of the theme.
Darwin
Alexander
Becket
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Churchill
JUNIOR CONCERT
ARTS
We were wowed once again by our Junior musicians at the Junior Concert on Friday 15 March, when parents were treated to solo and ensemble performances from girls in the First to Third Year. Violin, flute, ukulele and vocal pieces were performed, and the First Year choir showed us their dance moves in their version of The Monkey’s song ‘I’m a Believer’.
A LEVEL DRAMA REVIEW This year’s Lower Sixth Drama piece was one about kidnapping. Abi reviews it for us. “The waiting audience were interrupted by a deafening scream. Intrigued, we followed the flashing lights which lead us to the drama studio. As we entered, the performers asked us if we had seen ‘Christopher’. The piece opened in a psychiatric hospital with the parents of ‘Christopher’, played by Liv, Millie and Kiera, quickly followed by a scene of Millie disappearing from the beach, which was one of my favourites as it was effective and almost dream-like. The audience immediately felt upset and scared for the child and parents. The teddy being taken from the child was particularly clever as this was an experience we could all relate to. The next scene involved Liv playing young Christopher, which was frightening because he was playing with a music box which brought back childhood memories, but in a creepy, disturbing way. Next, Millie and Vas walked behind the audience, brushing everyone’s heads or necks, making everyone feel uncomfortable. This was followed by a scene portraying the controversial kidnapping of Chloe Ayling. A movement sequence began
with small yet uncomfortable touches from Vas and Millie while Kiera, playing Chloe, sat on a block as though preparing for a photoshoot, with the touches slowly progressing to more aggressive ones. Vas and Millie pulled up a sheet in front of Kiera, resembling the white background used in photoshoots, and shadows of Liv, playing Christopher, and Kiera were projected onto it, with Christopher leaning over Chloe. After a restaurant scene, Christopher, played by Kiera, killed his aunt whilst she was watching a TV programme, which cleverly had a countdown to symbolise the count down to her death. One of my favourite scenes followed, with Liv playing a cleaner and Kiera still as Christopher, in which the cleaner was drowned by Christopher. A plastic sheet, blue lighting and music helped this scene come to life, and its simplicity made it stand out but still be very powerful. The last scene echoed the first, where the three girls sat with their backs to one another, discussing frantically, how they are going to escape, as it emerges that they have been kidnapped. A cage with a sheet over it left us with a feeling of tension and unease as the performance finished.”
SHOOTING TR On 19 and 20 March, select girls from the Third and Fourth Year impressed us with some fantastic performances in their play ‘Shooting Truth’. The play followed the story of a group of school pupils working on a film project about Freya, a young girl drowned for witchcraft in 17th Century. The piece was both hilarious in parts and yet very intense and terrifying in others, showing off the best of the girls’ incredible and diverse talent. Miss Johnson and Mrs Gregan, with the help of Mr Pearn’s amazing technical skills, produced a piece which was highly technical and current. Projections of live video
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ARTS
RUTH streams, Skype video calls, text messages and silhouettes added a very impressive dimension to the piece. Miss Johnson said ‘The girls have worked tirelessly all term and have been a pleasure to rehearse with; we are extremely proud of what they have achieved. This play really displayed some of the highest standard of performances at St George’s. We are sad to say goodbye to such a clever and exciting production and such a wonderful cast.’
SPRING CONCERT The Spring Concert finished the term off with a bang on Thursday 28 March. The audience were treated to performances from many of the school’s musicians, including piano and trombone solos, and ensemble pieces from the orchestra and Chapel Choir. We also saw a performance from the First Year Choir, who have had Third Year girls Ellie and Lucy working with them this term on their own arrangement of One Direction’s ‘The Story of My Life’. Congratulation to all girls who performed and created an entertaining and memorable evening.
ARTS
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HOUSE LACROSSE House Lacrosse was a spirited and energetic encounter on Monday 25 March. There were some amazing performances from our team players who pushed each other in every game - there were no holds barred and every goal was hard fought! There were also some wonderful performances from girls who have not played lacrosse much before - notable appearances came from Meriel and Sigho who bravely stepped into goal for their Senior House team. Lucia also played in goal for her team and Liv scored some amazing goals for her house, including the tournament-winning goal. The Juniors played with grit and determination and there were some amazing attacking and defensive skills on display. Alexander House took the Junior Lacrosse title, Churchill House won the Senior tournament and with Churchill House’s Junior team coming second, this meant that Churchill House won the House Lacrosse Cup for 2019. Well done to all the girls who took part!
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SPORT
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SPORT
NATIONAL SMALL SCHOOLS LACROSSE TOURNAMENT On Saturday 23 March the Senior Lacrosse team travelled to Rendcomb to defend their National Small Schools title which they have held for the last three years. The team played exceedingly well, moving the ball with intelligence and fighting to win the ball in all areas of the field. They won all of their matches but their win
against local rivals Heathfield was particularly sweet as this was the first time they had beaten them all season. They came top in their section but had to meet Heathfield again in the semifinals. In a very physical and feisty encounter, the lead changed hands many times and Heathfield just managed to edge ahead and hold on to the lead until the final whistle. Our girls never gave up and fought until the end - there was really nothing to separate either team and although we didn’t manage to hold onto the title, the girls showed how far they have come this season and how much they have learnt. Their performances really were the best of the season and there is so much to look forward to from this team in the next lacrosse season!
NETBALL SUCCESS Congratulations to new Sports Scholars Lottie and Izzy whose out of school netball team, the Eagles, were unbeaten in the Junior Berkshire Netball League for the second year running. They finished the season with 10 wins out of 10 and a goal difference of 304, and were just 6 goals short of scoring 500 goals in total. Quite an achievement!
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SPORT
NATIONAL SCHOOLS LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIPS On Saturday 2 March to Tuesday 5 March the St George’s U13, U14, U15 and U19 Lacrosse teams played in the National Schools Tournament at Aldershot.
Hill. In a very tight and feisty encounter, the girls fought hard but could not hold off their opponent’s attacking drives and they lost the match by a small margin.
The U19 tournament is held over two days and the team met some tough opposition on the first day but held their own and made sure they scored in every game. Many of their matches were very close which gave them a place in Division 3 on the Sunday. The team stormed through their matches, winning all and giving them a place in the semi-finals against Abbots
The U13, U14 and U15 teams also fought hard in their games, putting their best foot forward despite tough opposition. The final results did not reflect the girls’ performances and hard work but bodes well for the future. All of the girls should be proud of how hard they fought and how well they played in their teams! Well done girls!
SHOWJUMPING SUCCESS Congratulations to Molly who represented St George’s at the Gordon’s School show jumping competition on Sunday 10 March. Molly did fantastically in both rounds and got a double clear in the 70cm in a time of 58 seconds and 80cm in 55 seconds.
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CHARITY AND COMMUNITY
SIMPLE LUNCH This is the first year we have held a simple lunch and Ash Wednesday felt like a good day to do it, as it is a significant date in the Christian Calendar, marking the start of Lent when often people choose to give things up in order to grow in self-discipline and humility. Lunch was still plentiful and nutritious, thanks to our amazing catering team, but there was more limited choice than usual and the overall menu was a lot plainer. Through a straightforward and simple choice, we raised in the region of £150 to be divided between our three school charities.
RED NOSE DAY BAKE SALE The Red Nose Day bake sale was very successful this year, and it was great to have so many contributions of cakes and cookies from budding bakers within the school. Thank you to the charity reps who worked hard to put it all together and to Charities Prefect, Emily, for co-ordinating the event with Miss Stepp. We are delighted to have raised a total of £103.10 for this amazing cause.
ELECTRIC EELS INVITATION COMPETITION Through part of this term, the First and Second Year girls have been working on a competition as part of their work for computing. They were given the challenge of creating an invitation using their computing skills. The invitation was for the annual prize-giving and social of our local charity partner, Electric Eels, which is a competitive swimming club for children with Down’s Syndrome. Some wonderful designs were created and in the end, two were chosen. Well done to Tirnan and Lucia for their winning designs.
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OTHER NEWS
WORLD BOOK DAY St George’s marked the annual celebration of books, World Book Day, on Thursday 7 March. This year’s theme was ‘From book to screen’ and we explored the vast array of books that have been made into films or television shows. The girls competed in a number of activities; including a book quote treasure hunt, a match the film scene to the book cover competition, and a Dragonfly quiz to find out which actors had played which book characters in screen adaptations. Once again, the girls were able to discover new books and develop a love of reading.
SENIOR SPORTS AND ARTS SCHOLARS LUNCH The Senior Co-curricular scholars, a group comprising of pupils in the top three year groups who excel in the worlds of Art, Drama, Music and Sport, met on Monday 18 March to discuss a variety of topics with Miss Antolik, Mr Carroll and Mr Wright. Interesting discussions were had on the nature of Art, its purpose in society, if it could be defined, and whether galleries should be free to the public over excellent food from the Dining Room. For some of the girls present, this represented their final Scholars Lunch and it was pleasing to hear of their continuing engagement, enthusiasm and enjoyment of St George’s co-curricular life.
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OTHER NEWS
YOUNG ENTERPRISE TRADE FAIR On Saturday 2 March, the Young Enterprise girls from St George’s were invited to attend the annual Trade Fair in the Lexicon Shopping Centre in Bracknell. This is an opportunity for Young Enterprise companies to sell their remaining stock before the companies are finally wound down in May. It goes without saying that all the St George’s teams excelled. The Kiwi company (pictured to the left) were awarded Best Trade Stand by the Duty Manager at the Lexicon. The companies now go on to prepare for the final showcase competition in April, where the teams will present their Companies and products to a panel of judges. We wish them the very best of luck!
ST JOHN’S BEAUMONT DISCO The First and Second Year girls enjoyed an exciting evening on Friday 8 March at St John’s Beaumont. The girls had a lovely time socialising and dancing to all the latest hits and the school made over £3000 for their chosen charities (across the middle and upper discos) so it was a brilliant event. A great time was had by all.
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DARWIN HOUSE PARTY This year’s Darwin House Party was a Masquerade Ball and took place on the evening of Friday 22 March 2019. As girls, parents and staff mingled at a welcome drinks reception, part of the fun was trying to figure out who was behind the mask! A sumptuous dinner was followed by an array of entertainment put on by the talented members of Darwin House. The items which featured in this term’s House Music competition were included in the programme, as were two additional dance performances and solo vocal pieces. It is clear to see why this is a highlight among the House events calendar.
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D HOUSE PARTY
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ST GEORGE’S ASCOT
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