St. George's School Cologne Newsletter - St. Georges School

E-mail: info@stgeorgesschoolcologne.de
EVERY SECOND FRIDAY NEXT ISSUE 12TH MARCH 2010
Friday 26th February 2010
Volume 07 Issue 13
St. George’s School Cologne Newsletter
McKenna pitches in to get the ball rolling
With the vanishing snow and
one or two early signs of
spring in the air, we took the
opportunity to officially
open the new all weather
sports pitch – it was a grand
opening indeed.
We would like to express our
sincere gratitude to Mrs
Horton and Mr Kevin
McKenna who undertook
the opening ceremony. A
ribbon, two pairs of scissors,
a collection of Press representatives
and an enthusiastic
group of pupils made the
occasion one to remember.
We were most fortunate
that Mr McKenna was able
to join us during his hectic
training schedule as a senior
member of the 1. FC Köln
Football Team and International
player representing
Canada. Following a brief
game of football with our
pupils Mr McKenna took the
time to talk to our most enthusiastic
footballers concerning
life in professional
sports; they will certainly
remember this day for some
time to come.
This investment in such a
wonderful resource will
ensure that our pupils are
able to hone their football
and hockey skills to a truly
competitive level; go team
St. George’s!
Dear St George’s,
Welcome back after the
break, we hope that you
all enjoyed a well earned
rest! The past two school
weeks certainly have
been busy ones. In the
week before half-term, the school
was gripped by carnival fever. As
you can see from all the pictures in
this edition, on Karneval day the
school was invaded by a host of pirates,
princesses, superheroes and
sorcerers to mention just a few. We
were also pleased to welcome the
Rondorfer Dreigestirn into school,
who gave a very entertaining presentation
to pupils in Early Years and
Lower School. Fortunately they
kindly agreed to speak German and
not Kölsch, so that we all stood some
chance of understanding what they
were actually saying!
Karneval was not the only opportunity
to dress up recently. Year 5
turned back time for the day as a part
of their Victorian project and turned
St George’s into a Victorian primary
school, with pupils and teachers in
typical Victorian dress. This was a
memorable experience for our pupils,
who certainly enjoyed the opportunity
to see history brought to
life. From the sounds of things, they
were also pleased when things returned
to normal too!
The snowy weather before half-term
did not stop the Caterpillars making
the most of their outdoor play area. It
also provided them with an ideal
opportunity to learn about keeping
You should have received the following letters over the past two Thursdays: 11.02 EY F02 Assembly; LS Residential; MSUS Football coaching;
MSUS Miss Rettinger 25.02 WS Parents Meeting; WS Mobile Phone Policy; WS Extended Day;FS Fruity Tuesday; LDNurs March playscheme; LD/
N/R Scolarest; EY Club changes; F01 Chocolate Museum; LS Clubs; LS Craft Day; LS Open Doors; IB Easter Quiz
School For Life
See Back Page
or our Website
for an exclusive
St. George’s
offer
healthy in the cold weather. Judging
from the pictures they all enjoyed
the different fruits and vegetables
they got to try.
Fortunately the icy weather seems to
have past, which means we can now
start to make full use of our new outdoor
facilities. The Sports Pitch is
now in constant use, not only for
Sports lessons, but also during
break times, when pupils in Lower,
Middle and Upper School get the
opportunity to use it for their own
games of football. Of course this is
not the only sport the pitch is intended
for, but it seems to be by far
the most popular! Given this, we
were pleased to welcome Kevin
McKenna of 1. FC Köln to participate
in the official opening of the pitch
last week.
The coming two weeks will be as
ever busy ones. Next week, the
school will be participating in
events to celebrate World Maths
Day, along with thousands of other
schools worldwide. Also don’t miss
our Musical Evening on Wednesday
10 th March in the Conference Room,
where pupils from Middle and Upper
School will get an opportunity to
demonstrate their talents.
Wishing you a relaxing weekend,
R. Hollow,
School Director
P. Dickinson
Assistant School Director

Foundation Stage
Attack of the Ladybirds Pocahontas, Winnetou & Davy Crocket
Princesses and Fairies
The Boys
Ladybirds Alaaf!
As it was Karneval last week, the Ladybirds
enjoyed a very traditional celebration. we
dressed up as our favourite characters, danced
and sang along to Koelsch songs and ended
the day with an ENORMOUS, yummy feast!
We are already counting down the days 'til
next year's Karneval.
Ladybirds Alaaf !
The very hungry caterpillars were enjoying the snowy weather outside.
Wrapped up in coats, winter boots, gloves, hats and scarf out they went
in to the cold weather outside enjoying the fluffy white snow! And what
can we do to be healthy in this cold weather!!! What did the very hungry
caterpillar in the story do while she was growing? The very hungry caterpillar
was eating lots of healthy food!!! Like the very caterpillars in the
It's Party Time !
Dancing & Singing
Our Fierce Pirates
nursery! In the last few weeks we have been talking about all different
kinds of fruit and vegetables and the children were able to
create their own favorite fruit with papier-mâché!
And what is more fun then just talking about it?? Of course, EAT-
ING IT ☺ We have been enjoying a juicy fruit salad with bananas,
apples, kiwis, grapes and oranges !

Lower School
Work of the Week 18 Work of the Week 19
Maide, Alienor, Heather, Naoshi, Nicolas, Kiran, Miguel, Ty,
Mathias, Neele, Cosette, Jordon
In Year 5 this term we have been studying
the Victorians. We have been learning
about Queen Victoria, the workhouse,
school life and how rich and poor people
lived. To truly appreciate how Victorian
schoolchildren lived we had a Victorian
day. To make the day more authentic, everyone
had to dress like a Victorian, including
the teachers! Victorian schools were
stricter than schools today, and there were
many punishments for misbehaving. Some
children had to wear the dunce’s cap and
stand in the corner, and others had to
kneel with their hands behind their head
facing the wall. In Victorian schools a
severe punishment was to receive a caning,
so the children would work in silence and
try not to do anything wrong! Our Victo-
Lauryn, Laura, Heidi, Alex, Tarek, Denise, Moritz, Jenna, Fabienne,
Ewa, Paul
rian day involved a hymn practice in the morning,
where we sang ‘All things bright and beautiful’ and
an exercise drill outside. After a short break, the children
learnt about old money, which consisted of
pounds, shillings and pence and a brief science lesson,
where they had to analyse and draw the inside of
an apple. The final lesson of the day was one of the
most important in Victorian schools; handwriting.
The children had to copy out the alphabet multiple
times as neat as possible, and if it wasn’t neat enough
they would repeat it again until the teacher was perfectly
happy with it. The children thoroughly enjoyed
the whole day, and are glad that everything is back to
normal!
Victorian Day

If you recently
bought
books at
the St.
George’s
School
Book Fair
from Mr.
Stanford,
your purchases
also
supported
the Library.
As we have
done in the
Lower School says “Thank You” for stacks
of new books from Book Fair commission
last three years, the Book Fair commission was immediately reinvested
into new reading material, especially targeting Lower
School pupils. We were able to substantially enlarge our “Usborne
Young Reading” series – a very popular series among pupils from
Year 3 – Year 5, helping children to improve their reading and literacy
skills as well as broadening their knowledge. Moreover, interesting
new reference books as well as a variety of leisure reading
and top-ups of the ever-popular “Horrid Henry” and “Captain Underpants”
series have the children of Ms. Lawrie’s Year 4 very excited!
So, a big Thank You to all who, by fostering their own children’s
reading skills through buying from the Book Fair, are also
helping an even larger number of pupils to improve theirs!
Library Literary Quiz
1. What are Peter Rabbit’s siblings called?
2. Who encourages us to “be who you are
and say what you feel because those who
mind don't matter and those who matter
don't mind!”
3. What is Pippi Longstocking’s full name?
4. Which book, regularly used as a groupreader
at St. George’s School, has won
the Nobel Prize for Literature?
5. What is the predominant theme in Malory
Blackman’s acclaimed series for teens,
“Noughts and Crosses”?
(Answers below)
Library Link
Since the book series – now already up to its 5 th volume
- is enjoying immense success, it was of course only a
matter of time until a movie-version would hit the big
screen. “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief”
opened in Germany on February 11 th . For all those not
yet familiar with the plot, here’s a short synopsis: Percy
Jackson, dyslexic hothead, just had to change schools –
again! But something strange is going on - the gods of
Mount Olympus and assorted monsters have suddenly
walked out of the pages of his Greek mythology texts
and into his life. And they're not happy. Zeus' lightning
bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.
Even more troubling is the sudden disappearance of
Percy's mother. As Percy adapts to his newly discovered
status as a demi-god (his father is Poseidon), he
finds himself caught between the battling titans of
Mount Olympus. He and his friends embark on a cross-
country adventure to catch the true
lightning thief, save Percy's mom,
and unravel a mystery more powerful
than the gods themselves.
Directed by “Harry Potter and the
Chamber of Secrets” director Chris
Columbus, this is a fast paced actionmovie
for teens from the age 12+.
Seasoned with some silliness and
humour, this is an ideal family-movie
– and if you would like to know what
Percy did next, you can always visit
the Library and pick up one of the
follow-up volumes!
1. Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail 2. Dr. Seuss 3. Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Ephraim's Daughter Longstocking 4. “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
(Nobel Prize 1983) 5. Apartheid and Racism; people with black skin (Crosses) are dominant over the white people (Noughts)
Isha’s Insight, February 26th 2010
Isha's book rating: 5/5
Hairy Maclary is a dog (who is very fun loving
and mischievous) and the star of this book series.
He is a little prankster, who usually gets
himself into trouble with the ferocious cat, Scarface
Claw. Well actually, Hairy Maclary is not
just about one dog, it’s about all his doggie
friends from the neighborhood!! If Schnitzel Von
Krumm(with a very low tummy), Muffin Maclay
(like a bundle of hay) and Blitzer Malony (all skinny and bony) sound
interesting to you, then you won’t be disappointed reading about all of
them.
There are fifteen Hairy Maclary books and some more in the Slinki Malinki
series, which is about a real thin and black cat and his cat friends.
I was introduced to the Hairy Maclary books at the age of 3 on a trip to
New Zealand and since then it’s been an addiction (and a family favorite)
and now I enjoy reading it to my little sister. If you are feeling down
in the dumps, you might want to consider reading a Hairy Maclary
story to feel better (I‘m not sure, but at least you can try. It works for me
and so it could for you!) These
books are written in rhymes like,
‘Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s
Dairy’.
You can also learn loads of new vocabulary
from these short stories -
words such as bumptious, cantankerous,
frisky and many more that
we don’t see very often.
Illustrated by Korean artist Young Kim with
input from Meyer on every panel, the first volume
of Twilight: the Graphic Novel will be
published on 16 th March. Its publisher said the
black and white title, with colour interspersedl
Exciting news for teens - ‘Twilight’ The Graphic Novel’ and
move over Harry Potter - Here comes Percy Jackson !
throughout, would combine "a rare fusion of
Asian and western comic techniques". Mayer
herself said that Kim's graphic interpretation of
her characters and settings was "very close" to
what she was imagining while writing the series.
"It takes me back to the days when I was
writing Twilight." And there were some more
uplifting news for her fans: "I can't say that I
am done with Twilight forever. I'm not working
on anything new Twilight-related now,
and probably not for a while. But there's still
a possibility that I'll go back and close some
of the open doors," Mayer was quoted in a
recent interview.

A breeze of a project
An anemometer is a wind speed
measuring device, derived from the
Greek word “anemos”, meaning
wind. Some anemometers measure
the strength of the wind
only, but others can also
detect the pressure of the
wind.
The most popular type of
anemometer is the standard
“cup-style” anemometer
in which wind
movement is caught in the
revolving cups, and registers wind
strength. Our own Weather Wullie
weather station uses the cup method.
However there are other types of
anemometer that can be used:
Windmill anemometers which use
rotating blades, rather like the tail
fin of a helicopter.
Heated element anemometers which
raise the temperature of a wire and
IB pupil Yannic
has taken inspiration
for his wire
trees from the
artist Sal Villano.
The twisting of the
wire is very tedious
and takes a
long time to create
the final piece.
Using Quartz to
represent the
leaves added a
surrealistic effect.
Art
Middle School
use the wind chill factor to record
strength.
Laser anemometers use a laser
beam to detect movement
of air particles, in
other words wind.
Sonar anemometers use
sonic waves to measure
movement of air be
measuring the difference
between pulses of ultrasonic
sound between two points.
A simple but very effective method
is to use a ping-pong ball on a
string to detect air flow. Surprisingly,
this was allegedly actually
adopted by astronauts visiting
Mars to measure any wind there
during the NASA 2008 Phoenix
mission!
We shall be testing some of our
Readathon Raises the Roof !
Pupils in Years 7 and 8 have
been sharing their love of reading
by taking part in a sponsored
Readathon. The event,
which took place just before
Christmas, saw pupils being
transformed into bookworms as
friends and family sponsored
them to read as many books as
they could in a week.
Pupils were encouraged to
read at home and in class and
recommended their favourite
books to their classmates.
Popular choices included the
Twilight series and Jacqueline
Wilson books among the girls,
while many boys found it hard
to put down Anthony Horowitz
books and the Artemis Fowl
pupils’ machines once the
weather improves and calculating
the wind speed alongside
Weather Wullie’s measurements.
Our pupils can only use the
material available to them of
course; however they did a
sterling job with paper cups,
Having now completed a full year in our
new location in Rondorf, we have, over this
time trebled in number and hopefully will
continue to do so.
The House is generally, a very
relaxed environment. We do
however; have rules, guidelines
and timings that need to be observed.
This is purely for the
safety, security and wellbeing of the young
people under our care.
We have tried to create a ‘homely atmosphere’
having a communal common area
where Boarders can relax during their free
time. This is generally a low key time with
Boarder’s choosing to cycle, go jogging, a
Boarding
series. Harry Potter and A Series
of Unfortunate Events remain
firm favourites for everyone!
The Readathon was certainly a
great success, raising a grand
total of €1642. All money raised
goes to the Roald Dahl Foundation
and CLIC Sergeant, both of
which are charities that support
seriously ill children and their
families.
However, reading shouldn’t end
with the Readathon. Hopefully
the week has inspired a passion
for reading in Middle School
and, with such a well stocked
library, pupils will be spoilt for
choice.
By Miss Crossland
pencils, blu-tac and pins. Given
that NASA appeared to use the
simplest method, I am sure our
pupils will be proud that their
labours matched the methods
used by some of the cleverest
scientists of our time!
walk to the high street to pick up essentials,
or simply to sit chatting whether it be with
staff or other Boarder’s.
Encouragement is given to all Boarders to
involve themselves in organized
activities. Many of them organize
events themselves and include
other members of the House.
Our Sixth Form enjoy extra privileges
designed to give them greater responsibility
and thereby setting good examples
to younger members of the House.
Long may it continue to be a happy household.
Matron, Mrs. D. Brindle

Early Years prove they
The week before the holidays
an exciting event
happened in St.
George’s. The three
Dreigestirn from Rodenkirchen
came.
The three Dreigestirn told
us about Karneval and
sang songs with the
school. The people had
some precious costumes.
There was a farmer, a
Karneval Prince and a
Karneval Princess. All of
us enjoyed this event.
Miguel
Early Years
The Early Years have been
investigating new stories,
writing alternative versions of
fairytales and have even written
their own myths and legends,
all during our Literacy
week. The completed stories
have been shared with the
Reception children with the
Year 1 and 2 pupils coming to
read during our story time.
We had the pleasure of watching
a performance of the
Brothers Grimm stories the
Fisherman’s wife and the Genie
in the bottle by the Classic
Fairytale Company.
Alongside these activities all
the children helped to make
cakes and treats for our Literacy
Bake sale. This event was
hugely successful and we
would like to sincerely thank
all of the parents who assisted
with donating cakes. We
would also like to thank the
staff for all their hard work
without which, this would not
have been possible.
Karneval comes calling
have the Write Stuff

General Notices
Gentle Reminders The I.B. (C.A.S.) team are organising their third sea-
Forthcoming Highlights
Tennis Kinderland
Children from the age of 4
can register for a tennis
course at MSC Marienburg
from 12th April—8th October.
Registration by 8th
March
Contact
Gabriela.jarecki@gmx.de
sonal quiz, to be held on Thursday 18 th March 2010 at
18.30 in the school Dining Hall.
We would like to warmly invite parents and friends of
St. George’s School to attend this most entertaining
and worthwhile evening.
Our I.B. pupils raise money through various projects
and activities. The two previous quiz evenings held in
Christmas 2008 and Summer 2009 were most successful,
allowing us to present the Salvation Army with a
healthy cheque last June to assist in their important
and selfless work around our city, and further afield.
Please consider joining us on this evening, by entering a team of up to 4
people (1 of whom must be over 18 years of age) via the letter that was emailed
to all parents this Thursday. Alternatively, ask your son/daughter to
collect an entry form from Mr Stimpson, the I.B. C.A.S. Co-ordinator. Entry
will be 3€ per team member and will be payable on the evening.
St. George's on Stage!
Music, theatre, and
sport during the summer
holidays for 6-14
year olds
This summer, Todd
Fletcher will again be
offering the St.
George's on Stage!
holiday programme.
The programme, which
will include training in
the performance arts and sport during the afternoons, will take place
between July 13th to July 24th and conclude with the performance of
an original musical.
Registration officially opens March 15th, but families can reserve and
secure a place in the programme in advance at no cost.
For more information, please contact Frau Bücker in the school office
at 02233 / 80887-0, or the St. George's on Stage! team at
sgos@toddfletcher.com.com
Exclusive St. George’s School Offer
Like football?
Over the age of 7 and under the age of 16?
Available during the May half term?
If you answered YES to the above questions St. George's
School has an exciting opportunity for you. This May
half-term English Championship League team Preston
North End football club will be offering a football course
run by qualified professional coaches. If you are
interested please contact Mr Nelson or the School Office.
SCHOOL FOR LIFE
Pupils from 5 - 18 year olds are
invited to take part in this year
World Maths Day. Pupils have
been provided with their own
logins and passwords so that
they begin their Mathletic training
in the run-up to World Maths
Day.
Last year in 2009, 1.9 million
students from over 225 countries
combined to correctly answer
452,682,682
mathematics
questions creating
a new world
record. This year
the aim is to
break this record.
Pupils have sixty
seconds to answer as
many maths questions
as possible,
adding to the global
score. The real fun
comes from competing
against pupils of
the same age who
are online at the
same time in mental arithmetic.
Also there are prizes
Minted Gold Medals to the pupils
answering the highest number
of questions correctly in
each age group (5-8, 9-13, 14-
18) will be the World Champion
World Maths Day Wed. 3rd
Nursery Viewing Wed. 3rd
World Book Day Thu. 4th
LS Craft Day Tue. 9th
LS Open Doors Wed. 10th
US Parent’s Eve Tue. 16th
CAS Quiz Thu. 18th
Egg Rolling Thu. 18th
and receive a Minted Gold Medal.
Gold Medals to the top 10 pupils
in each age group (5-8, 9-13, 14-
18) answering the highest number
of questions correctly will
receive Gold Medals.
World Maths Day Gold Award to
every pupil who correctly answers
4,000 questions or more
will receive a digital certificate
Gold Award.
Printed World
Maths Day Gold
WMD
FOUND !
Award to the top
50 students in
each Age group
(5-8, 9-13, 14-18)
will receive a
printed certificate
Gold Award sent by
post.
All students who participate
will receive a
digital certificate for
participation.
This is your chance to
be part of a truly
global event and improve
your mental
numeracy in a fun and innovative
way.
World Maths Day - 3rd March
2010
http://worldmathsday.com
Mr Packman