St. George's School Cologne Newsletter

E-mail: info@stgeorgesschoolcologne.de
EVERY SECOND FRIDAY NEXT ISSUE 27TH FEBRUARY
Friday 6th February 2009
Volume 06 Issue 09
St. George’s School Cologne Newsletter
Ladder to success
The Fire Brigade and emergency services
paid their first visit to the new St.
George’s Cologne Building last week.
Satisfied that we were certainly safe
enough the brave men and women of
the local fire service decided to take
the children on a tour of their fire engines.
Some brave souls (Herr Mehic !)
even went up the 30m ladder. Our
thanks to the wonderfully friendly and
professional team who took time out
from their busy schedule to make our
children’s day
Booking for the future
Dear St. George’s
Another busy week in school!
The building contractors are still
working to put the finishing
touches to the building both
inside and out. I am sure you
will agree that the progress being
made is fantastic.
The
Sports Hall is progressing rapidly
and will hopefully be in use
very soon. Last week we had a
visit from the local fire brigade
who took time to show our Early
Years pupils their fire engines.
They were allowed to sit in the
engines, use the hose pipes and
wear the firemen’s helmets, which they enjoyed tremendously.
Last week also saw the Open Day for our Boarding
facilities. This generated a great deal of interest and hopefully
more pupils will join our School House at St. George’s
in the near future.
We would like to take this opportunity to welcome Mr
Packman back to the classroom. Mr. Packman missed the
start of the school year due to illness but he has returned
fighting fit to his Mathematics and IT lessons.
Unfortunately we must say goodbye, and good luck in the
future, to Miss Steinmetz from our MFL department. Miss
Steinmetz has been with us for some years now and will be
missed. She is being replaced by Miss Tyson who we
would like to warmly welcome to St George’s school.
On the News page of our website you will also find details
regarding driving regulations in the car park and new pick
up procedures for the Early Years pupils. Remember that
for the safety of all users of the car park please do not exceed
5 km/h when on the school grounds or Husarenstrasse.
We are continually looking at ways to relieve the
congestion during busy times and will keep you informed
with latest developments. We ask that you are patient and
follow instructions given by our parking attendants.
To keep up to date with all school news, and also menu
details for the Dining Hall, please regularly check the news
section on the St George’s web page which can be found at
http://www.stgeorgesschoolcologne.de/
relaunch/?page_id=26
Alternatively you can automatically
keep up to date by subscribing
to our RSS feed by
bookmarking our News page in
your browser.
We wish you all a relaxing
weekend,
Mike, from Advantage books has spent
a very successful couple of days in the
Conference room of our new building.
His annual Book Fair, offering a vast
selection of English material always
proves popular. There were certainly
quite a few satisfied customers clutching
their new purchases yesterday.
Another booking for your St. George’s
calendar.
School For Life
Yours sincerely,
R. Hollow
School Director
C. Wilford
Assistant School Director
You should have received the following letters over the past two Thursdays:29.01-LDFS Half-Term Playscheme; FS-LS Ringelroeteln
Alert; LSMS Bonn Marathon; 02.02: WS Uniform Information 03.02: WS Parents Evening Postponement 05.02 F10-13
Graduation Ball

Foundation Stage & Early Years
Up, up and away

ARTBOOTH by BOOTHBY

Boarding @ School House
For as long as most of us can remember St.
George’s has hosted departments from
Nursery level to Sixth Formers and in recent
times we have added our Little Dragons
as a Pre-Nursery group. In September
2008 we opened our doors to
boarding pupils, initially located in
Bornheim we are delighted to join our
new home in Köln-Rondorf – The
School House.
For the majority of our pupils our
school is a daily experience however,
for us all in the School House this is
our home from home. We live and
work in the same location if you like. The
House community is currently made up of
seven boarders and two residential staff (Mr
and Mrs Aitken), our Matron (Mrs Brindle)
and our Head of Boarding (Mrs Hollow); this
is a growing community.
Our purpose built School House is quite
outstanding. Our boarders relax in their
common room, study in their own rooms
and dine together each evening – the
food is so good that Mr Jaggard was
drawn from his office to join us!
We hope that you will take the time to
visit us and remember, your school is
our home!
Mrs N. Hollow
Head of Boarding
MSUS
In this episode of my of weekly
column I want to talk about the
progresses and improvements
that have been achieved at St.
George's School.
Although the level of education
that one can reach here has been
and ever will be one of
the main reasons to
join us - St. George's
has nevertheless always
tried to keep
pace with the technological
and social development
of modern
days.
Thus, a lot of improvements
have taken
place. Only think of the
parking situation at the old school
building in Suelz: far too few park
spaces, which led to permanent
traffic jams, with stressed parents
and angry local residents. This
situation has clearly changed by
the providing of parking spaces
for teachers. Students and parents,
who are now able to park
right in front of the school or on a
rented park space very close to
school.
But not only that. In order to improve
and to ensure the proper
nutrition of every single student,
a canteen has been launched,
which offers fresh and healthy
food and drinks for a fair price. At
By
Max Bauer F13
the old school people had
either to bring their own food
or to go a bakery or supermarket.
This plainly did not
provide a nutrition that
healthy and well-balanced
like our canteen does now.
The variety and
choice, has been a
welcome advance to
help keep out the Winter
chill.
Probably the most
important improvement
is the increase in
work space. Teachers
now work out of their
own rooms. This together
with new much
bigger library and the two
Sixth Form private study
rooms, has provided plenty
of workspace for everybody.
In the old building, due to its
size, not always possible for
us to sit together and a
choice of seat was not always
an option. We are now part of
an established and growing
institution of which we can be
truly proud.
The future playground and
new gymnasium, offer us a
bright future - That means the
best is yet to come! I'm sure
you all are looking forward to
that.
Take a look at this picture.
Be honest, did you
think it was a clockface?
Well actually the picture
shows the Cologne
Pegel, one of Cologne’s
most basic, yet effective
flood defences.
From the outside it may
just seem like a tower with
a clock on it; however its
primary function is to measure
the water level of the
Rhine. Using a simple flotation
device to float on the
water’s surface, it
will rise as the
river’s water level
does too. This
movement of the
flotation device,
makes the dial
above move
round, so that the
higher the level of
water, the higher
the reading on the
dial. This creates
an accurate measurement
of the
Rhine’s water
level, and allows
river experts to
accurately monitor
the Rhine’s water
level increase. On
the dial above, metres
are shown with the
big hand, and the
smaller hand shows
centimetres in groups
of 10.
The highest recorded
level that the Rhine
reached was recorded
between 1993
and 1995, where the
Rhine reached a staggering
10.69 meters in Cologne;
however the last
highest level of water was
recorded in 2003 when
the Rhine
reached 9.71
meters, with the
lowest recorded
level of 0.80m on
the 29 September
2003.
The Pegel is
monitored daily,
making Cologne
a safer city, sustainable
for the
future generations!
Luke Haddon; A
Level Geography,
Yea
r 12.

Early Years
A new year, a new school and new faces. Since arriving at St.
George’s new home, the Year One Seahorses have been exploring
and settling in to their new environment. There are new journeys
to school, hot lunches, incredibly long corridors, new spacious
classrooms, and new routines such as changing from outdoor
to indoor shoes. The Seahorses have welcomed new classmates
to the St. George’s community.
The returning Seahorses remember that not long ago they too
were beginning each day greeting new faces, listening and
learning to speak in a new language and diving into new academic
endeavours as Year One pupils in an English International
school. This has helped them to support their new classmates
with willingness, patience and kindness. The Seahorses always
endeavour to be excellent role-models, treating others in a manner
that is respectful and caring. As a result they have provided a
warm and welcoming environment for the new pupils joining St.
George’s School this year. The Seahorses should be very proud
of their consistent effort and enthusiasm and in their developing
reading, writing and number skills.
Mrs Campbell
Year Two children this week
had a fantastic time when
they visited the Sports Museum
in Cologne. This was
connected to their topic
“Health” where they have
been studying Florence
Nightingale, healthy eating
and the Olympics. All children
were thrilled by the
chance to join in activities
such as football, boxing and
playing on the various sports
related equipment. In the
coming weeks, Miss Jennifer
the School Nurse (see back
page) will also be visiting
the children to talk about
health related issues.
Lower School
6Ks Science experiment.
In a recent Science lesson we learned about changing
materials. We did a few experiments; one of them was
using bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. We wanted to
see if we mix these two materials together a new material
would be made or not. We discovered that a new
material was made; this new material was a gas. We
found this out by putting a lid onto the tub, after about
33 seconds the lid flew off. Luna
Our Science experiment
In our Science lessons we learned about changing materials.
We proved that you can change bicarbonate of
soda and vinegar into a gas. Noëlle
Changing Materials
In our science lesson we learned about changing materials. We used bicarbonate of soda, a little plastic tub and vinegar. First we took a little
teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda and then poured a bit of vinegar on to the bicarbonate of soda in the plastic tub. Quickly we put on the lid and
waited for something to happen…
We waited until eventually the lid of the tub popped off and shot into the air. This happened because the bicarbonate of soda and vinegar reacted
to make a new material, which was a gas! We know it was a gas because we saw the mixture making bubbles. There was so much gas
that the lid popped off because there was so much pressure in the tub with the lid on. Everybody screamed when the lid flew up into the air!
Phyllis
We have also investigated burning different materials, including bread, banana skin, cloth, cotton wool, crisps and cardboard from an egg box
to observe any changes. The cotton wool and the cloth burned the longest, and the egg box took the longest to catch fire. The bread made
quite a bad smell!

Library Link
Gaiman's Newbery Medal 2009 win is a
vote for populism - and for excellence
Wednesday’s news
that British author Neil
Gaiman won the Newbery
Medal, America's
most prestigious
award for children's
literature, was a welcome
surprise for a
number of reasons. But
Gaiman's win for The
Graveyard Book,
about a boy raised by
ghosts who faces the
wonders and terrors of
the worlds of both the
living and the dead, also appears to put to bed the notion
that the Newbery Medal is out of touch with what people are
reading: The Graveyard Book begins with a multiple murder.
A mysterious character known only as "the man Jack" sneaks
into a family home and kills most of the family members.
When he reaches the nursery, however, the family's twoyear-old
son is missing, having scooted out mischievously
into the night. The man Jack, whose silence and hunting
skills seem not quite of this world, follows the scent of the
boy to a nearby disused graveyard. Where something
strange happens:
The community of
the dead in the
graveyard hides
the boy from the
killer, and the
shady Silas - not
quite dead, but
not quite alive
either - takes the
man Jack aside,
escorts him calmly
out of the graveyard
and erases
his memory. The
boy is adopted by
the Victorian
ghosts of Mr. and
Mrs. Owens, and
Silas appoints
himself the boy's
guardian, as he's
the only one who can leave the graveyard and bring back
food. For Silas knows that the man Jack will not rest in his
hunt. “The Graveyard Book is endlessly inventive, masterfully
told and, like Bod himself, too clever to fit into only one place.
This is a book for everyone. You will love it to death.” (Holly
Black, co-creator of The Spiderwick Chronicles) This book
has a recommended reading age of 10+ and will be available
from the Library soon.
New in Middle and Upper School
Reading Selections
Stephenie Meyer has already made a name for herself,
as the author of the best selling ‘Twilight’ series
for young adults. She now ventures into another Science
Fiction realm with The Host: Earth has been
taken over by an alien race that takes over the minds
of humanity whilst leaving the bodies intact. Wanderer
is a ‘soul’, an alien freshly implanted into a
human host and looking forward to experiencing life
on Earth. The only problem is that Melanie (the original
owner of Wanderer’s body) refuses to let Wanderer
take over completely. Melanie has unfinished
business in the real world and Wanderer cannot help
but go along with it. Wanderer/Melanie find Jared
(Melanie’s boyfriend) with a group of other survivors,
not only must Wanderer fight to gain the trust of the refugees but she
must also work out whether Melanie’s feelings are
coming through or if she is in love with Jared herself…
- Stephenie Meyer fans will love this novel,
which is available from the Library’s MS Reading
Selection. The recommended reading age is 14+.
Barack Obama was born in 1961, three years before
the Freedom Summer of student sit-ins and
nonviolent marches, when their political faith
helped black Americans to face down the power of
white mobs, fire hoses, and sheriffs with dogs. We
look back on those times as the innocent days before
Black Power and FBI shootouts, when white
allies were still welcomed in the struggle. Obama's
mother, a white, eighteen-year-old co-ed at the
University of Hawaii, married its first African student,
a Kenyan in his early twenties. When he went to Harvard to pursue a
Ph.D. in economics, he left his wife and two-year-old son behind. After his
return to Africa, he saw his son only once, when Obama was ten years old.
He died when Obama was in his early twenties. Barack Obama's quest for
the meaning of his absent father's life becomes a
search for his own identity in Dreams from My Father:
A Story of Race and Inheritance. First published
in 1995, beautifully written, it is the story of his
childhood and adolescence in Hawaii, where "there
were too many races, with power among them too
diffuse, to impose the mainland's rigid caste system"
and of his youthful disaffection and salvation through
community organizing in Chicago which eventually
would set him on the road of becoming America’s
first African-American president. Available from the
Library’s US Reading Selection, this will grip anyone
interested in History, Politics and Current Affairs.
Also available is its follow up volume, The Audacity
of Hope, in which Obama engages themes raised in his keynote speech at
the 2004 Democratic National Convention, shares personal views on faith
and values and offers a vision of the future that involves repairing a "political
process that is broken" and restoring a government “that has fallen out of
touch with the people”.
In the Library or at the Advantage Book Fair, I’m
afraid it’s the same. St. George’s pupils cannot get
enough of Stephenie Meyer. Mike, from Advantage
Books has seen them fly off the shelves and Mrs.
Wintersohl has a waiting list for borrowing all of
her titles. However, Mike also pointed out that the
‘Usborne First Readers’ series was a big hit with
the younger children.
Best Sellers

General Notices
Meet Miss Smith - Our School Nurse
Dear Parents,
You may have seen me
already in the Nursery or
in the School Office or
generally accompanying
a weary looking child
along the corridor, so let
me introduce myself. I
am Miss Smith (or Miss
Jennifer to the little ones)
–the School Nurse. I
trained at St Martins in
Lancaster, and have
worked in the Accident
and Emergency department
as a registered general
nurse.
I am very much enjoying
my new role within the
school and am looking
forward to what the future
may hold here.
I have an open door policy,
therefore any parents
with concerns for
their child’s health can
come to speak to me, I
would be only too glad
to help.
I would also like to request
that if your child is
taking or has been prescribed
any medication,
it should be brought to
the Nurse’s room next to
the main office between
8 and 9 am on the day
the medication has to be
administered. I can then
distribute or administer
it myself throughout the
day.
Gentle
Reminders
Parents Evening on
Wed. 11th
has been
postponed
Please refrain from
smoking anywhere
on the school
grounds
Please do not temporarily
‘prop open’
any security doors
Friday 13th is
FSEYLS Karneval
Dressing up day
FS Parents –Have you
registered for the
Half-term playscheme
?
You can now subscribe
to our RSS feed
on the ‘News’ page of
our website
Please do not
bring dogs to
school
Meet Frau Überall– Our Dining Hall Manager
Dear Parents,
Please allow me to introduce
myself, for those of you
whom I haven‘t yet had the
pleasure of meeting. I am
Frau Überall, the Manager
of the brand new St.
George’s School Dining
Hall . Since the 5th of January,
my team and I have
been preparing meals for
your children.
It is of course, a great source
of pride when we see that
your children have enjoyed
their meals, but also In this
short period my colleagues
and I have been amazingly
impressed at how helpful,
polite and friendly your children
have been.
I would also like to express
my gratitude for the feedback
I have been receiving.
Whether by meeting you
personally, or through email
correspondence at
dininghall@stgeorgesschool.de
Calling all Runners...
Any Pupils born between 1991
and 1998 who would like to
run in the Bonn Schools relay
marathon please contact Mrs
Reece or Mr Johnstone. Closing
date for entries is 26 th
April. Please refer to the recent
letter for more details.
Your input is enormously
important. Again, whether
you wish to get advice, have
a general query or request,
simply want to say thanks or
even to offer any view,
please do not hesitate to
email or come in for a chat. I
certainly believe that any
criticism, positive or
negative, can only help us
grow and provide a better
service for you all.
Forthcoming
Highlights
FS/EY/LS
Karneval &
Fancy Dress
Half Term
Rosenmontag
Fri. 13th
Mon.
16th-
Fri.20th
Mon. 23rd
Little Dragons
Sing-a-long
World Maths
Day
Fri. 27th
Wed. 4th
Boarding Exeat Sat. 7th
Giraffes
Assembly
LS Spellathon
Tigers
Assembly
Wed. 11th
Wed. 11th
Thu.12th