St George’s Ascot News

16^th October 2009

Mrs Jordan and the Governors were delighted to welcome so many 2^nd Year parents to their dinner. The specially set up Dining Room looked lovely, the atmosphere was very relaxed and happy and everyone enjoyed the delicious meal. A special thanks goes to the 6^th Form girls who provided the musical interlude.

DoE SILVER EXPEDITION Congratulations go to the fifteen L6^th girls who successfully canoed (and also sang) from Wokingham to Runneymede. They had to take everything they needed with them, including food for all meals over the three days, and equipment for camping out for two nights on the journey. Despite strong winds and a wet stormy second night, spirits remained high throughout. The school received many compliments from fellow campers, other river users and the assessors.

BEN HUR LIVE AT THE O2 ARENA Girls from 2^nd Year to L6^th went on a trip to see Ben Hur live at the O2 arena. The show was very different from anything we had seen before and it was very impressive. Thank you to Miss Fontes, Mrs Wright and Mrs Green for accompanying us on the trip; we all really enjoyed it. Alexandra and Esther

Phoebe and Catharina with Miss Gheeraert

FRENCH CLUB ON MUFTI DAY The MFL department would like to welcome Miss Gheeraert; she is taking conversation classes with the older girls and has run several pancake making sessions which have proved very popular with the 1^st Years. She hopes in the near future to be able to teach the 6^th Form how to make them as well!

1^st YEAR ART TRIP TO THE PITT RIVERS MUSEUM Entering the Pitt Rivers Museum, it was dark and dreary, to conserve the old artifacts. ‘India Himachal Pradesh, Spiti’ was an angry, fiery mask and makes you shudder in fright when you look into its ‘ready to pounce’ mouth or when you look into his hypnotising, wide open eyes. Another mask I remember was from Korea and felt dead, as no eyeballs came out from the empty white spaces. It reminded me of a thin lipped angry human, trying to hold back anger. Shrunken heads made me feel weird. Seeing a human’s head the size of my hand was, well, quite unusual, but the face looked as if in a day-dream or just really calm! Another main thing we studied while we were there was different architecture and patterns. Aboriginal Art for me was simple, but mesmerising. The architecture pattern that I liked the best is a part of a big mosaic cloth about a metre long and a half a metre wide. It was a piece of work made up of little circles across the cloth. It definitely makes your eyes swivel, but it is really unusual. Being a lover of art, it was a very enjoyable trip. Sarah (1X)

Sketchbook images by Antonia Moss (1Y)

HOUSE DRAMA At last all the weeks of preparation were over and the school packed into the Sue Cormack Hall for the much anticipated competition. All four Houses performed admirably, keeping the audience thoroughly entertained throughout: Alexander House: “Annie” Becket House: “The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole” Churchill House: “Black Comedy” Darwin House: “James and the Giant Peach” Our distinguished adjudicator, Mr Jeremy James Taylor, currently Director in Residence at Wellington College, was clearly impressed, praising all Houses for producing drama of the consistently highest standard he has seen in such competitions. Congratulations go to all the girls involved and in particular to the winning Darwin House.

MARKHAM BOARDERS RESIDENTS’ WEEKEND The Markham boarders had a busy weekend. tThey all travelled to Harrow Leisure Centre, where they had a two hour session on the climbing wall and the trampolines. The girls all had a great time, and were complimented on their good behaviour and manners by Rock Frog, who were running the event. We had some extremely proficient climbers among the group, and even those who were nervous had a go and did well. In the evening the whole of the 4^th Year attended a social with the boys from Harrow. On Sunday October 11^th the Markham boarders visited Hampton Court. They toured the place itself, and braved the rain in order to go around the maze.

Chair Bobby

Sanctuaries within Sanctuaries Christina

Body Maps Jade

ART AT ASCOT RACECOURSE Once again, pieces of art from St George’s girls did well in the Windsor Festival and were chosen to be displayed at Ascot Race Course. In the Two-Dimensional Art, works highly commended by the judges included “Body Maps” by Jade and “Chair” by Bobby). A further commendation went to Christina for her “Sanctuaries within Sanctuaries.” In the Three-Dimensional Art category, works highly commended by judges were: Jade’s “Body Armour”, Georgina’s (L6 B) “Pop Art Dress” and Georgia’s (L6 D) “Peacock Corset”.

Pop Art Dress

Body Armour

Peacock Corset

1st Year Choir

MUSIC NOTES The musicians in school have been busy with a delightful lunchtime concert last week and then several girls performing to great acclaim at the Prep Heads Day. The Music School’s Open Evening Concert showcased talent from across all years. There was a wide variety of excellent instrumentalists. The Flute Group made a memorable debut and Tara’s beautiful singing greatly impressed everyone. The 1st Year Choir sang with great enthusiasm and the Chapel Choir brought the concert to an end with beautiful performances of A Clare Benediction, Ave Maris Stella and one of Mr Hillier’s Blessings.

GIRLS GO GREEN WEEK Our Green Week started with assembly on Monday 5^th October. Dr Peter Campbell, who is a biologist and works for Syngenta, talked about “bees in decline” and to increase the attention he brought a beehive with him. During the week we organised our usual recycling rubbish collection in the bottom car park. The recycling rubbish box competition was held on Friday tea-time.

MUFTI DAY Mufti Day was held on Thursday October 1^st in aid of ‘Jeans for Genes’. Members of the Upper Sixth gave a very informative and interesting Chapel presentation on the work of the charity. The girls heard how their money would be used to help children with disabilities associated with genetic disorders. So far we have collected £242.68

SCIENCE LECTURE We were delighted to welcome guests from Brakenhall who joined girls from 1^st Year to U6^th for an afternoon of amazing science lectures. Firstly the internationally famous expert virologist Dr Mike Leahy, who contributes regularly to the National Geographic and the BBC, gave a fascinating talk on his studies on parasites – including how, in the name of science, he has let himself be infected by tape worms, head lice and more. He was then followed by Dr Hal and his team, who treated the audience to a Chemical Extravaganza. They performed a series of practical demonstrations not normally carried out in schools. The audience were spellbound. In his quest to make science more accessible for children, Dr Hal does a lot of work for the Royal Society and the Institution of Chemistry – he certainly gave Chemistry the “wow factor” for us.

ALZHEIMER’S SOCIETY FUND RAISING Following the start of term sponsored walk, on behalf of all the girls who participated, Jess and Zeny, were delighted to present a cheque to the Bracknell branch of the Alzheimer’s Society. We look forward to working more closely with the Society in the future.

GALA CAREERS EVENING Nine former Georgians came back to school to tell the 5^th Year and the L6^th why they loved their work.  With careers as varied as medicine, acting, banking, marketing, law, architecture, fundraising for charity, there were nevertheless striking common threads running through all the presentations. Our current girls were advised to be prepared, and to stand up for themselves in what may be a male-dominated world; the girls were assured that ‘St George’s girls can stand tall and strong’! One of them summed up the view of all: ‘My passion has become my job’. After the talks all the Georgians – both current and former – were entertained to a delicious and elegant candle-lit dinner which gave more opportunity for questions and discussion.  We’re very grateful to all the alumnae who gave up their time and we hope to see all of them again at our GALA 90s reunion at Chelsea Harbour in November.

SIXTH FORM FIELDTRIP The 6^th Form geographers had a very successful trip to Mickleham Down to investigate the succession process happening there.