Behind the Study Door
As I said to the children in Assembly this morning, they have been fantastic this term. Each of them has enjoyed successes and shown courage in getting through challenges; they have adapted to a very different term; and, as I asked them to at the start of the term, remained true to our core values of courage, honesty and kindness. My colleagues and I see this every day, and it is demonstrated through the awards presented each week - totaling more than 700 this term.
It's been a challenging week, and my thoughts, thanks and best wishes to all those who have, unfortunately, been caught up in the spread of COVID-19 at St George's. Despite this, we have much to celebrate and I do hope you enjoy catching up with the news this week and watching the various videos documenting the events, especially our Carol Service. The Pre-Prep productions have been released (please see the Pre-Prep bulletin), and the Years 3-5 production can be found below. They are all wonderful and, despite the digitalization this year, do the children proud.
I shall emphasise this in my end of term letter, which you will receive next week, but I would like to pay tribute to the staff for their selfless contribution and impact this week and throughout the term.
Finally, I closed Assembly by asking the children to remain true to our values of honesty, courage and kindness during the holidays. They have promised that they will own up when the chocolates disappear off the tree, and you can expect lots of helpers in the kitchen over the next three weeks.
My warmest thanks to you all for your unfailing support this term, and Catherine, and our boys, join me in wishing you a very happy Christmas.
William
The Festive Friday Feeling
Golden Tree Awards
Kindergarten Ladybirds
Zac: for doing his best to try new foods at lunchtime. Well done!
Kindergarten Bees
Olivia: for working carefully and making a wonderful Santa hat which she wore to the Christmas party.
Reception E
Ezra has found his listening ears this week! He listens well to his teacher. Keep it up Ezra!
Bella has loved all the Christmas art this week and taken great pride in producing really neat items. Lovely!
Krish has worked so hard on his time work this week and can read and make different o’clock times. Well done Krish!
Reception P
Toby has been working hard on his reading. He is now having a go at using expression when reading aloud.
Thomas has worked really hard at making his handwriting smaller and neater. Keep it up Thomas!
Rilke is such an imaginative child. He has really enjoyed playing in the Christmas Role Play area with his friends.
Tayyab has enjoyed learning about the body. He did some super work on our senses this week.
Jack is a kind and thoughtful boy who plays nicely and looks out for his friends.
1AG
Henry for reading to his teachers with focus and concentration.
Alessandro for showing a sensible attitude in school and always trying hard in class.
Alex for a great effort to rewrite The Nativity in his own words.
Luka for a great effort to rewrite The Nativity in his own words.
Raphael for regularly completing extra Maths work during choosing time.
1JH
Aadi for trying really hard to improve his writing. Well done.
Nico for a big improvement in his reading and writing. Well done.
Summer for writing a wonderful Nativity story.
Essa for writing a beautiful winter acrostic poem.
Charlotte for always working hard and concentrating well in class and for her cheerful smile.
Ella for always doing her best and for being kind and helpful. Thank you.
2SS
Alessandro for contributing well to discussions, offering valuable thoughts and ideas in class.
Jonathan for great determination and effort in DT, completing his sewing project.
Jago for great discussion and recall of facts in History learning about Mary Seacole.
2GA
Joel for trying hard to listen carefully in class. For showing kindness to another pupil by translating an instruction for them.
Kourosh for his enthusiasm and hard work in Maths. He has taken time to check his answers carefully.
3CH
Hannah for writing a very imaginative extra chapter for our class book.
Julia for completing a very descriptive extra chapter for our class book.
3ML
Rafferty did lots of research about foxes for his prep. He has used this to write a very interesting information text about them. Well done Rafferty!
Toby M has worked very hard all term – he makes a huge effort with his work across the whole curriculum. I’m very proud of him!
Pre-Prep Kindness Code Awards
Bronze: Zachary, Jannah H, Annabelle B, Ella.
Silver: Josie L, Rafferty C.
Prep School Commendations
Year 5, Year 6 and the Boarding community, for their spirit and acceptance of having to be at home for part of this week.
Year 5 for their board games on Monday and contribution to Titanic Day on Tuesday.
Siena L and Jamila M: for effort in their spelling tests all term.
Tabitha P: for her enthusiasm and dedication to Drama.
Inara H: for her dedication and commitment to Drama this term.
Zaki B: for his enthusiasm in Drama.
Billy O'B and Savannah K: for hard work in Science.
Beatrice A and Harrison B: for hard work in Science.
House Ship Competition
Congratulations to all those who entered our House Ship model competition. The standard of the entries were fantastic as you will see below. Amazing creativity showed by everyone!
Runners-up: Zain M-E (1AG) HMS Vindictive model, Harry L (3ML) HMS Vindictive model and pencil drawing, Aarun D (3CH) HMS Revenge model, Mason A (3ML) model ship, Jamie B (3CH) Minecraft HMS Victory, Sofia B (5SD) HMS Victory movie clip.
And the WINNER is...
Alessandro L - HMS Revenge - Together we are St George's. A unique and highly successful way of capturing the spirit of St George's.
House Cup Result
1st - Victory (292), 2nd - Rodney (283), 3rd Vindictive (249), 4th Revenge (243)
Christmas All Around The School!
It's been a wonderful week leading up to the Christmas holidays with so many festive activities and crafts going on. The corridors have been ringing with the familiar sounds of Christmas carols and songs, and children have been putting the finishing touches to their classroom decorations, making hats, peg angels and adding a sparkle to the Christmas cards they've made. The school looks amazing!
St George's has a great reputation for producing strong runners and the Inter-House Cross Country on Wednesday confirmed that this is likely to continue. The races were keenly contested and this was the most exciting House event of the term. The runners were supported by Mr Giani dressed as Father Christmas and there were lots of elves along the course cheering the runners on. The overall results were: Victory (1st), Vindictive (2nd), Rodney (3rd) and Revenge (4th).
The Michaelmas Term would not be complete without the Years 3-5 Christmas Production and the School Carol Service, which unfortunately had to be virtual this year. Thank you to Mr Wilkinson and the Music Department staff for working so hard to produce these videos as well as a video of the December online Music Concert in time for this end-of-term newsletter.
Congratulations to all those involved in this year's Carol Service, and particular thanks to Mr Wilkinson for the hard work in putting this together. We do hope you enjoy it.
Titanic Day in Year 5
On Tuesday a collection of first, second and third class passengers arrived at the Port of St George dressed in costume and eager to build on their knowledge of the Titanic. They were joined by some crew members including waiters, engineers, and captains, along with Captain Douglas, Captain Mitchell and Admiral Ghafadghi. Over the course of the day, the children took part in a variety of cross curricular lessons. In Maths, they looked at solving a variety of problems such as calculating how many tonnes of food were needed on board for the voyage. In English, the children had to research a real Titanic passenger who fitted with their costume and then complete their boarding pass with information on their age, occupation and whether they perished or survived the sinking. They then had a fabulous drama workshop run by Mr Jennings and the children all embraced their characters extremely well. The children made beautiful scenes of what they could see out of their cabin’s porthole and after lunch they enjoyed further Titanic activities with their specialist teachers. Many thanks to parents for some wonderful costume creations!
STG Antarctica Day Flag
Year 4 were thrilled to receive a photo of the St George's winning flag designed by Siena L. The photo was taken by BAS researcher Nadia Frontier en route to Antarctica.
LOOKING AHEAD...
The St George's Award - Be Your Best Self
Following its successful implementation during the summer term, we are delighted that the St George’s Award programme is starting again as a co-curricular activity for Years 3 - 8 from the Lent Term 2021. The three stages or groups, which are based on age, will run as separate activities but they will come together for a very special celebration at the end of the summer term. Visit the website for more details.
Camp Beaumont
Camp Beaumont Day Camps provide activities programmes for children aged 3-16. Holiday care will be available during school holidays with the first camp opening in February half term (15-19 February). St George's parents and staff will be able to enjoy a 10% discount by using the promo code HS20 in the online booking system. Please click here to find out further information regarding the different activity programmes available and camp opening hours.
and of course a very special Happy Birthday to Luca S, Oliver S, Siadon C, Arthur Jack E, Savannah K, William S, Alexander B, William F, Harry L and Harry E who all have their birthdays over the holidays.