Issue 87, Thursday 3 April 2014

eNews2014-15 Head Girl's Team Announced

Head Girl: Hannah PalmerDeputy Head Girl: Emily Dominey

Head of A House: Anna Blackburn Head of B House: D'Arcy Lawson Baker Head of C House: Grace Woodward Head of D House: Angela Liao

Senior Prefect: Sarah Samorzewska Middle Prefect: Jessica Gray Junior Prefect: Angel Smith

Boarding Prefect: Christabel Turnbull School Captain - Sport: Suzanne Pritchard

Charities Prefect: Imogen Stanley

School Captain – Art: Jessica Gray School Captain – Drama: Dolly Verity School Captain – Music: Georgia Cooper Head of Chapel Choir: Grace Woodward Deputy Head of Chapel Choir: Zara Hillary Senior Sacristan: Suzanne Pritchard

Deputy Head of A House: Freya Kalra Deputy Head of B House: Isabel Murray Deputy Head of C House: Angel Smith Deputy Head of D House: Georgia Cooper

Congratulations to the following girls who were announced on the last day of the Spring Term as the Head Girl's Team and Prefects for 2014-15.

Model United Nations Conference

On Thursday 13 March, ten brave girls, Mrs Dourountakis and Miss Brown embarked on a long weekend in Edinburgh for the George Watson’s College Model United Nations Conference. Our first evening was spent at the rather luxurious 'Twenty Princes Street Grill & Smokehouse' where we had burgers, steak and langoustines. After a well-deserved sleep we set off on an adventure around Edinburgh, starting at the castle. After frantically attempting to remember a fact about it, we realised that this trip was not aimed to enhance our knowledge of Scottish History! After a very brief shopping trip and a working lunch, we all went up to the Camera Obscura, where we saw the whole of Edinburgh projected onto a table via an 1850's lens. We then had fun exploring five floors of optical illusions. On Friday afternoon the MUN conference began and we did our best to lobby our resolutions for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Saturday began with a bright and early start for the conference opening ceremony. There were several speeches including the Secretary’s

talks on Fishing and the Economics behind Religion and a specialist talk on Palliative Care. After the opening addresses we were dismissed to our committees and started debating. Two of our Sixth Form debated their own resolutions in the Politcal and Health Committees and most of the other girls debated amendments. After a hard day’s work of building alliances with other countries and fighting for a united cause, we refreshed ourselves before returning for a very lively Ceilidh. The final day of the weekend was spent in general assembly, where Louise Schofield spoke against the emergency resolution, before a very emotional ending ceremony. During the awards ceremony Claire Fifield was lucky enough to receive highly commended delegate for the Media committee, her second award of the season. We said our goodbyes and set off to the airport for some sushi and burgers before our bittersweet flight home.

Lorraine Lam & Louise Schofield

House Music 2014This year’s House Music Competition took place on Tuesday 1 April, and this year we welcomed Libby Burgess as our adjudicator. Libby, who has an enviable reputation as an accompanist and Chamber Musician, read music at Oxford where she was the first female organ scholar at Christ Church Cathedral. She continued her studies in 2007 with a postgraduate scholarship in piano accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music, where she was awarded numerous accompanist prizes and graduated with the DipRAM for an outstandingly high final recital mark. She proved an excellent and enthusiastic judge.

Preparations for the competition had been energetic, well organised and first class and at certain points of the week four House songs could be heard at once! There were some promising Beginner solos from Camelia Joel-Davison and Chloe Horswell, Julia Cherry and Hannah Schick, Alexandra Povarova and Elizabeth Shegurova and Emily Chapman, confident Intermediate solos from Annabel Sheridan, Devon Mather and Sophia Lyons and impressive Advanced items from Eliza Ballin, Darcy Winter, CK Choi, Lucy Sedgwick and Lavinia Jones.

Especially strong this year were the Ensembles with Churchill performing ‘21 Guns’, Darwin ‘Feeling Good’, Becket ‘Hallelujah’ by Leonard Cohen and Alexander presenting John Legend’s ‘All of Me’. House songs came through strong in volume - I wish hymns in Chapel were as loud! – the best being Becket’s ‘Fill my Little World Right Up’ and Darwin’s ‘Love is Easy’ but as with every year, the real entertainment came in the special items. Alexander came into their own with the Spice Girls ‘Wanna Be’, Becket aimed for the future with Busted’s ‘Year 3000’, Churchill got into the groove with the High School Musical number ‘We're all in this Together ‘and Darwin entered into the world of political ballet with ‘Solidarity’ from Billy Elliot.

A fantastic competition and an amazing programme. Darcy Winter won the prize for best individual performance and a good time was had by all, especially Becket who won for the third consecutive year! Well done everyone.

Mr I Hillier

On Tuesday 25 February, the First Year went to Ascot Priory. The first stop we made at the Priory was to a chapel service in the Church. The service was roughly 40 minutes long and many other visitors came to worship. Father Paul, our tour guide, did the service and gave blessings and communion to anyone who wanted it. It was interesting to see a chapel service without any music. Instead, Father Paul printed the service sheet and we prayed instead. It was funny when the incense caught fire in the middle of the service!

After the service, we went to St Gabriel's, and Father Paul explained about the history of the Priory. He explained many interesting facts and told us many new and exciting things, such as how every nun who died there was put in the same coffin until their funeral. He also told us about E.B Pusey, who donated money and helped the Priory.

After we had our snacks at St Gabriel's, we were very lucky to be able to go to the basement. We went to the Lady Chapel, which was a room dedicated to Mary, but we also got to see the room and the coffin where the nuns were buried.

We would like to thank Father Paul for taking time out of his day to show us around. We all had a very good time and we’d also like to thank Mrs Magill and Miss Daws for taking us.

Sadhvi Subramaniam 1X

Ascot Priory RS Trip

On Monday 17 March, the Fourth Year attended a range of science lectures at the Institute of Education in London. We really enjoyed these, especially the first, which featured all kinds of investigations which had been carried out to find water on other planets, or even on the moons of other planets. Another lecture which was deeply interesting was about material science and the new materials that have been developed and discovered recently. One that fascinated me was D30 - this is a material which is normally soft and squidgy, but on impact goes hard and offers support. The lectures showed us just how many different areas of science there are, and how studying them could lead to a variety of opportunities and areas of work in the future.

Robyn Saxby 4Y

STEM Lectures

Eton Politics Society

A group of 11 students and teachers attended a debate at Eton College on ‘The Future of the British Economy’ on Wednesday 19 March. The panel discussion was hosted by the Keynes and Political Societies of Eton College and the panel consisted of rising Conservative star Kwasi Kwarteng MP, former Labour Home Secretary David Blunkett MP, Green Party Leader Natalie Bennett, leading economist and Head of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research Jonathan Portes, and Chairman and founder of Cobra Beer Lord Bilimoria.

The topics debated included the sustainability of the current economic recovery, the role of the state and private sectors in the economy, and the future of the union with Scotland. The discussion was lively and informative, and also very skilfully chaired, and the students had an opportunity to ask the panel questions after each topic had been debated. The students also had an opportunity before and after the event to mingle socially with students from the other schools attending the event. They found the event to be thoroughly enjoyable and gained useful insights that should help them in their A level Economics and Politics studies.

Well done to everyone who took part in the UK Intermediate Mathematical Challenge and congratulations to the following girls who achieved certificates.

Gold, Best in Fifth Year and Best in School: Moe Kishima

Gold: Yoo Kyung Lee

Silver and Best in Third Year: Kelly Yang

Bronze and Best in Fourth Year: Anastasia Bykova

Bronze: Katarina Brackhaus, Anna Mason, Imogen Sandford, Emily Hughes, Mariya Ilina, Chloe Horswell

and Arina Kartushina

The UK Mathematics Trust (UKMT) is a registered charity whose aim is to advance the education of children and young people in mathematics. The UKMT organises national mathematics competitions and other mathematical enrichment activities for 11-18 year old UK school pupils. It was established in 1996 and last academic year over 600,000 pupils from 4000 schools took part in the three individual challenges, the UK’s biggest national maths competitions.

A special mention goes to Moe Kishima, who not only received the best in school certificate, but also scored highly enough to be entered in the next round of the competition which will see her compete on a national platform. Good luck Moe!

UK Maths Challenge

Sixth Form Networking Workshop

As part of the comprehensive Sixth Form Lecture series, we were delighted to welcome Chrissie Gibbons to St George's for a workshop on networking and presentation skills. Girls learnt how to prepare for networking events, what to do when you get there and how to get the best out of them. It was a very valuable workshop that will no doubt help prepare the girls for life after St George's.

This term the Second Year girls have raised over £300 for charity by cooking meals for family and friends as part of an in-house competition. Girls submitted photographs of their culinary creations, together with a menu of the meal they had prepared. These were then judged by the Second Year Tutor Team, who found it very diffi cult to choose between such an impressive selection of mouth-watering dishes. Prizes were awarded to the following girls who had clearly gone to a considerable amount of effort to produce a delicious dinner: Hetta Loughlin (2Y), Sophie Ross (2X), Alice Hayward (2X) and Edina Green (2X).

Second Year Cookery Competition

My Cooking Experience: Sophie Ross 2X

This term the Second Year organised a charity cooking competition to raise money for the RSPCA & Cancer Research. We had to cook a meal for a member or members of our family. You could cook a 1, 2 or even a 3-course meal. I chose to cook a 3-course meal, for my step brother, my mum, my step dad and me. My starter was King Prawns in a sweet chilli mayonnaise served on a bed of rocket, with a slice of brown bread and lemon. I made the sweet chilli mayonnaise by using ketchup and mayonnaise and I added really fi nely chopped bits of sweet chilli. For my main course I cooked British steak in a red wine jus with rosemary crushed new potatoes with vegetables. My favourite bit was the potatoes and I cooked those by boiling them, then I crushed them and after that I put them on a tray and put them in the oven. Then last but not least I cooked my dessert, which was Eton Mess, which was really lovely and tasted amazing! It was quite easy to do but tasted really yummy. I would defi nitely cook this again.

Sophie's Prawn Cocktail

Starter.

Parent Association Coffee Morning

Thank you to all the parents who attended the Parent Association Coffee Morning on Wednesday 26 March. After sampling the breakfast treats on offer, parents had the opportunity to hear a short talk by Deputy Head Pastoral, Mrs Simpson, on "Facing up to Bullying". It was a very useful discussion and a great opportunity to catch up too.

Classics in the Media Competition

During the Spring Term, the Classics Department ran a competition on ‘Classics in the Media’ and specifi cally on links between the popular ‘Hunger Games’ series and the classical world. The entries were judged on whether they correctly identifi ed the classical references and on the quality of their writing. First place was awarded to Olivia Aluko in 3X, second place to Lauren Pryer in 4X and 3rd place to Heba Belkacem in 3Y. Congratulations and thank you to all the girls who entered!

Here is Olivia's winning entry:

The Hunger Games series has become very popular amongst people my age. The Hunger Games may come across as a very futuristic fi lm with its mind-blowing technology and big green wigs but the fi lm is very similar to Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece. Many ideas and names in the story make links to the classical world as well.

All of these ideas have a classical link with Ancient Rome and Greece:

In the Hunger Games, tributes from each district were chosen to fi ght to the death annually. This was a punishment for the revolt against the Capitol. In the same way, Ancient Rome made condemned criminals and slaves fi ght as gladiators in the colosseum for past crimes.

The Hunger Games was also for the amusement of the Capitol. Thousands of people watched Katniss fi ghting in the arena. In Ancient Rome, there would be 50,000 spectators in the Roman Colosseum watching the deadly brawls that took place there. In both Hunger Games and Ancient Rome, tributes/gladiators fought wild beasts as well.

The name of the nation "Panem" originates from the Latin phrase "panem et circenses" which means, "bread and circuses". The phrase is used to describe entertainment used to distract the public from important matters. The Roman Empire used this technique to keep the masses happy. The winner of the Hunger Games is rewarded with food and other gifts by the Capitol ("bread"), and the Capitol get to enjoy the entertainment ("circuses").

Katniss' designer and friend was named Cinna. The name "Cinna" comes from Julius Caesar's fi rst father-in-law. Caesar, the Hunger Games TV host, quite obviously was named after none other than, Julius Caesar. The new gamemaker, Plutarch, has a name that derives from a Greek Historian named Plutarch, and Seneca, the deceased gamemaker, is named after Emperor Nero's advisor and tutor, Lucius Annaeus Seneca.

So as you can see, Suzanne Collins had a lot of knowledge about Ancient Rome and Greece. The Hunger Games makes many links to the classical world despite its futuristic theme. It's ingenious! Olivia Aluko 3X

AmnesTEA Party

The Amnesty International group hosted an AmnesTEA Party with the aim of raising awareness of human rights. Thirty-fi ve girls attended the event to fi nd out more about the work of Amnesty International whilst enjoying an iced bun or a slice of cake. The committee explained some of the current cases that Amnesty International is working on, especially the campaign for global women’s rights. Following this, the girls were set the challenge of entering the current awareness competition for which they have to design a poster or write a poem on the topic of ‘My Body My Rights.’

Mrs M F Magill

Every Monday there is Geography Club. In one particular club we made and painted a model volcano and created scenery around it. Many people attended and we all had different jobs, whether it was to make people or houses out of plasticine, to be a painter or to be a collector of leaves for the scenery. In the end we fi lled the middle of the volcano with bicarbonate of soda and poured in the vinegar. This caused the volcano to erupt and cover the people, houses and scenery with our fake vinegar lava. It helped us to imagine what it must be like to live in an area affected by volcanoes. Geography Club is an informative and enjoyable way of learning and we advise everyone to come if they are up for a fun time!

Heba Belkacem & Amy Webber 3Y

Geography Club News

Boarding Life

As a weekend activity last week, the boarders went to the climbing wall in Reading. It was the first time that the majority of the girls had ever climbed and they all did extremely well and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Mrs S Hetherington, Markham Housemistress

On Wednesday 26 March, boarders from all year groups went on a bowling trip in Bracknell. We had 11 teams made up of pupils ranging from First Year to Upper Sixth. It was a fantastic evening, showing strong community spirit and integration. We had a lot of fun and even gave the arcade games a few tries! It turned out that Mrs Simpson was amazing at bowling with multiples of strikes and spares!

Kai Rui Zhen, Boarding Prefect

Sport Relief 2014

The U12 Lacrosse Team faced some tough opposition in their match on Saturday against Walthamstow Hall. The fi rst half was extremely diffi cult as the opposition were fast and managed to take an early lead. The girls communicated well at half time and came back in the second half with 3 excellent goals from Hannah Schick. The fi nal score was 10-3 to Wally Hall. Mentions go to Anna Ewens and Ellie Pusey.

The U14 Team had a great match on Saturday morning against Wally Hall! Although they did not win the game they played as a team and did a great job. Megan MacArthur helped the

Lacrosse v Walthamstow Hall

team move forward by scoring a goal at the start of the second half and Sophie Prentis had a big role on the midfi eld! A big congratulations to a great season as a team!

The 1st Team played a nail biting game against Walthamstow Hall this Saturday. They were down in the fi rst half but came on the fi eld at the start of the second half as an entirely different team. Together St George's scored 6 goals in the second half, 3 shy of winning the game. A tremendous effort was put in by the team and they fi nished their last season with one of their best played games! Congratulations - a great fi nal season!

Baston Rose Lacrosse Tournament

The U12 Lacrosse Team attended the Baston Rose Bowl on Saturday 22 March at Dulwich Preparatory School. This is a very prestigious tournament that only selected schools are invited to. The team took 5th place overall and played some great matches against very tough competition. Well done to all who played.

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Looking Forward...Saturday 13 - Thursday 17 April 2014

Netball Tour, Paris

Wednesday 23 April 2014 Fifth Year Revision Afternoon

1.30-6.00pm

Boarders Return

Thursday 24 April 2014 Summer Term Commences

Saturday 26 - Sunday 27 April 2014 Centenary Battlefi elds Tour

Monday 28 April 2014Optional Sixth Form Parents' Meeting

4.15pm, by request only. Please contact Mrs Dourountakis

to make an appointment.

Tuesday 29 April 2014 St George's Day Celebrations

4.15pm, Georgian Gallop

GCSE Drama Examination Performance 7.00pm, Drama Studio

Thursday 1 May 2014Parents' Forum

5.30pm, Old Library

Friday 2 May 2014 EXEAT COMMENCES

Please hand vouchers in to Reception or place in the collection box outside the

Dining Room