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I wish you all a Happy New Year and all best
wishes for 2009. We welcome a number
of new members to our community and hope they will be very happy here. Term quickly got back into full swing
with mock exams for the 5th Year and some public exams for the 4th
Year, 5th Year and 6th Form. However it is never all work and no play,
and the wide variety of clubs and activities is back, together with a full
sports programme and an exciting programme of weekend outings for boarders.
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BY ROYAL INVITATION
The school holidays got off to a good start for
a party of girls from 1st to 5th Year. Accompanied by
various parents, grandparents, siblings and friends, they enjoyed a Family
Christmas Day at Ascot Races. The
Countess of Wessex very kindly invited us all into the winners’ enclosure
for an informal walk-about, when the warmth of her welcome made up for the
coldness of the day. Even Lucy,
despite being wheelchair bound because of her broken leg, was able to get
to the parade ground thanks to a “lift” from her Dad. The younger boys and girls enjoyed their
visits to Santa’s grotto and the face painting and everyone enjoyed taking
advantage of complimentary premium tickets to watch further races from the
comfort of the grandstand. We are
most grateful to Vicky Gallister, the Events
Organiser, for giving us this special treat …. we
hope to be invited back next year!
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SWIMMING STAR
During last term and the
Christmas holidays CB (1X) competed in the Bracknell and Wokingham Swimming Club
Championships, coming second overall in the President’s Cup. She is a very
talented swimmer and will be captaining the St George’s Under 13 team in the Independent
Boarding Schools Girls’ Swimming Relays in May.
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Help make school dinners even more special next week
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Everyone agrees that the food here at school
is superb – next week there will be an opportunity to demonstrate our
appreciation by helping those less fortunate. The School Food Trust and the
UN World Food Programme (WFP) have teamed up for The Really Good School
Dinner, running for one week, starting on Monday 26th January. The idea is
simple; if you enjoy your school lunch, then, when you come into the Dining
Room, make a donation to the Charity.
The money raised will be given directly to the WFP’s
education feeding programmes, providing nutritious meals to children in the
Developing World, in countries including Kenya,
Cambodia and Bangladesh.
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EPIPHANY CAROL SERVICE
The visit of the Three Kings
to the Baby Jesus was celebrated by a service of music and words. Many
thanks to Mr Hiller for finding such an interesting variety of appropriate
readings, choir pieces and carols and to all those who read so eloquently
and the choir for leading the singing.
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BOARDERS’ OUTINGS
WITH THE STARS
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At the beginning of the term the 3rd
and 4th
Year boarders mingled with the stars on the first outing of
the New Year - at Madame Tussauds. Some
even got to do a recording in the Big Brother Diary Room! There were
familiar faces at every turn until the Chamber of Horrors, where wax
figures and ‘real’ people mixed in a terrifying and scary setting of dark,
dank gloom. The girls did not hold back – screaming as they returned to
daylight! A fun afternoon was had by all.
Next day all the 1st to 4th
Year boarders went to Wokingham for a couple of games of Laser Quest and
ten pin bowling.
Friday night is cinema night for those
boarders in the 1st to 4th Year who wish to go – it
is becoming increasingly popular with 26 girls opting to see Twilight last week.
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SILVER SERVICE
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For hundreds of Georgians,
it must be hard to imagine St
George’s without Ms Cauldwell. At the start of the
term, the staff helped her to celebrate having started here 25 years ago.
Just think – that is well over 35 000 lessons that she has taught, over 200
red pens used for marking and more reports written than she cares to
calculate. However, these figures are trivial – it’s the hundreds of girls
who have benefited so greatly over the years from her dedicated teaching of
maths and ICT and from her personal concern and care who really matter to
her, whether she has been teacher, tutor or simply a friend. St George's School has so much to thank her for.
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FOOTBALL
Football continues to be popular with the girls.
Because of the commitment and enthusiasm of the girls, the PE Dept managed
to organise a friendly fixture against St Mary’s in which all of the girls
interested could participate. 1st Years played alongside the U6th,
and a strong band of supporters watched from the balcony. All the girls
enjoyed the experience and we look forward to participating in the Ascot schools’ tournament in March.
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RACIAL BULLYING
WORKSHOP
Do you know how many races there are in
the world? Do you understand the
story of genetics well enough to answer questions on how similar we all
are? These questions and many others
were addressed last Friday evening by an organisation called Aik Saath, which is dedicated
to the cause of peace and racial harmony through the teaching of conflict
resolution skills. Aik Saath
impressed us with their humility and tolerance, and left some of us
thinking that perhaps the leaders of the world’s nations could do with a
Citizenship lesson at St George’s!
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What Every Parent of a teenage girl always wanted to
know BUT WAS TOO FRIGHTENED TO ASK
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Are
girls “sugar and spice and all things nice”? Produced by The Girls’ Schools
Association, www.Mydaughter.co.uk
is the first website dedicated to providing information, expert opinion and
useful advice on all aspects of raising and educating happy fulfilled
girls. It does not promise to solve every problem but it is packed with
useful tips for anyone who cares about teenage girls.
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NETBALL CLUB RETURNS TO ST GEORGE’S
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Netball club has returned to St George’s this year. Warmly welcomed by the girls, our new
South African coach is a committed and talented netball player who currently
plays twice a week herself and also coaches girls at all levels. We hope that as the girls take up this
opportunity for free coaching and we will see their skills developing in
school matches
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HIGH HEELS AND HIGH IQS
Following the launch of the GSA’s new web site www.Mydaughter.co.uk,
Mrs Jordan
appeared on BBC Breakfast TV for a light-hearted discussion on the influence
“WAGS” have on teenage girls. In case you missed it, you can see a replay
by clicking on the link on the School page of our website. We are hoping
that her co-interviewee, Mrs Lizzie Cundy, will
be able to visit us in the near future to continue the debate. With such a
charming and poised TV debut, we hope to see Mrs Jordan
on the small screen again before too long – St George’s was proud of her.
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'Yes We Can'
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INAUGURATION DAY AT ST GEORGE’S
I’ve been following Barack Obama’s
campaign. I think he is a sign of hope and equality to all of us. I asked
if we, as a school, could watch the live broadcast; which we did. The
ceremony was remarkable. When the moment came that millions of Americans
had waited years to see, the swearing in of their first African-American
President, every one watching here applauded. And then came the inaugural
speech that people will talk about for years to come. It brought tears to
my eyes to see “a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have
been served at a local restaurant” now stand to take a most sacred oath. I
think we have a President who will change the world positively, and now the
whole world can strive towards having only one race in society – Human.
Emily (1Y)
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ST GEORGE’S GIRL SUCCEEDS IN THE COUNTY CROSS-COUNTRY
FINALS
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EH (2Y) represented St George’s in the Berkshire Schools under
13 County Cross-country Finals on Saturday 17th January. With between 80-85 girls competing, the
competition was very strong, but with her natural ability and determination
she achieved a fantastic 2nd place in her age group.
Congratulations – you did us proud!
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THE LION KING
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On the first
Saturday of term the L6th boarders had an outing to see The Lion King. For many of the new overseas
students it was their first visit to a West End theatre and they thoroughly
enjoyed it, whilst we have some aficionados of this production who had seen
it several times already, with Georgina topping the bill
with this being her sixth visit!
The costumes are
simply stunning, and the music and lyrics are superb. The cast are
extremely talented. This production is a ‘must see’ for everyone – that’s
our advice.
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COMMON ENTRANCE AND
SCHOLARSHIPS
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This year we had a record number of girls sitting
the 11+ Entrance papers. We hope the examinations went well for everyone
involved. Results should be out by the end of the month. Good luck to everyone
going for one of our 13+ Scholarships.
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