St George's Chronicle 2020

2020

CHRONICLE

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Contents G

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Contents 4 5 6

The Big Four

Introduction from Alex Hems Junior School

Life before Lockdown

20 22 26 28 30 32 37 40

Lower School Goes Greener Remove Camp Drama Young Enterprise Scotland Model UN Conference Educational Trips

50 52 54 60 64 66 70 80 88 97

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Student Leadership Team 2019-20 Big Four Head Girl – Louise Gibson Deputy Head Girl – Emily Simpson Senior Prefect – Saffron Buxton Head of Boarding – Rebecca Provenziani

House Captains Argyll – Clara Young Buccleuch – Isla Keenan Douglas – April Hall Lindsay – Molly Cutter Moray – Jessica Griffith Strathmore – Kathryn Shott

International Trips - Nepal

School Prefects

Patricia Lancaster - Reflections

Georgia Bedlow, Joanna de Ville, Imisi Fakunle, Casie Gan, Alex Hartless, Anna Jamieson, Sahiba Jutley, Emma Lamond, Imogen Lovie, Lexie McDiarmid, Flora Nicholls, Rishika Pasupulate, Emma Percival, Annabelle Reid, Olivia Shand, Yumi Tsang

Life after lockdown

42 44

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Looking forward Distance Learning P6 Online Camp Lower School Home Learning Reflective writing Big Bang STEM competition A Year in the Life of Houldsworth Photography

Art Sport Staff Leavers Valete 2020

Vice House Captains Argyll – Lucinda Lennie Buccleuch – Susannah Hunter Douglas – Imogen O'Reilly Lindsay – Martha Ingledew Moray – Emma Fraser Strathmore – Lauren Anderson

Chronicle Team Editor: Shelagh Rodger Assistant Editor: Lesley Abbott

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G Student Leadership

The Big Four Louise Gibson, Head Girl My year of being head girl was such a unique experience for me. It was such a fantastic opportunity and it taught me so many new things that I feel will help later in life!

It was an amazing position to be in for my last year as I really grew close with all of U6. From the hoodies to the stressful UCAS deadlines, it was exciting to say the least.

The Big 4 team were also fantastic to work with, and it showed me how working together was always better. It could be busy at times, but the outcome was always worth it, and I feel it has improved my organization and time management skills. Overall, our last year and my year as Head Girl was amazing and, although COVID may have impacted our lives now, we managed to make the most of it and it was a great last year!

Emily Simpson, Deputy Head Girl My final year at St George’s was made even more special by taking on the role of Deputy Head Girl. This role was a huge honour and, despite the challenges, was great fun. Working closely with Lower School, the student leadership team and the Big 4 enabled me to develop skills in leadership, communication and organisation which will continue to assist me throughout university life. My final term was certainly unique, but this brought our year group even closer together and made my U6 year even more special. I will be forever thankful for the amazing friendships I’ve formed and the memories I've made during my time at St George’s.

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Saffron Buxton, Senior Prefect After being at St. George’s since nursery, the Big 4 was something I always looked up to, so the opportunity to take on the role of Senior Prefect made my final year all that more special. The role has been very rewarding and I have gained valuable skills. The role has challenged me, especially when it came to balancing my workload and planning our Leavers’ Ball, but it was more than worthwhile to watch my year group come together and make lasting memories. It has been an honour to be Senior Prefect, especially this year during the circumstances we have faced. Overall, this year has been very special and I could not have asked for a better experience at St. George’s.

Rebecca Provenziani, Head of Boarding Being the Head of Boarding has been one of the most enjoyable accomplishments throughout my time at St George’s. Although Upper 6 is the toughest year in terms of workload and responsibilities, the hard work is rewarded with fun and laughter. Taking up a new role turned out to be a challenging task at times, yet it enriched my school experience generously. I was able to strengthen my bond with people of different ages and backgrounds, got to know their culture and now share many fond memories with them. To my surprise, I have felt more at home than ever before and I am thankful for everyone who was part of my journey in St George’s and the memorable experience there.

Introduction G

Letter from the Head

The start of a new school year is always a special time, but never more so than 20th August 2020, five months to the day since we had said goodbye to our students in March. One of the most powerful lessons of this year has been that, while Teams, Zoom, and all the other platforms with which we have become so familiar are wonderful tools for work, which have enabled us all to stay in touch with colleagues and friends during lockdown, there is a deep-seated need in all of us for human, face-to-face interactions.

It was clear as the staff returned to the school buildings during the course of June and then in August that this was what they too had missed the most.

Throughout the period of Supported Home Learning, from March to the end of June, we were impressed by the adaptability and resilience of the St George’s community. Teaching staff relearned their craft for the digital classroom, and many surprised themselves with their technical skills and the confidence that they developed in trying out new techniques. Across Edinburgh and beyond, bedrooms, kitchens and living rooms became offices and teaching bases. Students missed one another and the daily routines and interactions of school sorely. They had a plentiful supply of work, live lessons, some extremely creative projects, on-line exams, a rich co-curricular programme and even remote Sports Days to be busy with, but the learning that we value at school happens outside the classroom as well as inside, and springs

from being with one another, growing up together, learning to flourish both as an individual and as part of a community. Nonetheless, they remained cheerful and resourceful. Our would-be examination candidates showed great fortitude and made an early and very positive start to their new Higher or Advanced Higher courses. For our Leavers, the Upper 6 of 2020, Speech Day had to take place on-line. It was a matter of great sadness to us that we were not able to say goodbye to them in person in June, but we look forward to seeing them back in school as soon as we are able to invite them here again, to celebrate their achievements and to commend the spirit with which they faced a period of uncertainty and frustration.

Of course, although the period of ‘lockdown’ has dominated all our experiences of the past few months, there was so much more to the school year 2019-20 than that. The year started auspiciously, with St George’s hosting our first ever Model United Nations Conference in October. We welcomed over 200 participants and felt the palpable excitement that comes from being with young people who are curious, energetic, keen to learn and to challenge themselves.

That same spirit of challenge and endeavour was apparent in the Young Musician of St George’s Competition, and this year we enjoyed for the first time a Young Singer of St George’s competition as well.

The joint St George’s / Merchiston production of Little Women was moving and funny in equal measure; our girls also rehearsed at Merchiston for their rousing, festive performance of A Christmas Carol. Cross-year multi-disciplinary teams of scientists worked hard to prepare for the Space Design Competition and, after a gruelling weekend of competition, won the Edinburgh-based event, earning themselves a place in the UK final that took place in London in March.

For the Lower 5 A Hockey team, a trip to Glasgow for the final of the Scottish Cup saw them victorious in a closely-fought match against George Heriot’s, just days before lockdown began.

I hope that Miss Walker and our founders would be proud of the spirit shown at St George’s during this extraordinary year. I like to think that they would recognise and commend the versatility, determination and community spirit that have flourished and kept the school strong in challenging times.

Alex Hems 2020

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G Head of Junior School

Home Learning 2020 This year at School has been like no other that any of us have known and, I must say, our Junior School girls of 2020 have been outstanding in how they coped with the sudden shift from being in real classrooms to virtual ones. The boundaries between home and school suddenly became blurred as we taught lessons from our kitchens, bedrooms and living rooms to girls scattered all over Edinburgh and beyond. For me the importance of relationships between staff and girls is essential to our success and we all had to engage with each other through a digital platform, a completely new way of learning and teaching.

Staff were inventive, adaptive and creative. A large number of our summer term events were moved online, and very successfully. Eco Day was a highlight with the setting up of our very own beehive, Honeycomb Cottage. We now have a swarm of bees led by Queen Beatrice! Thank you to Peter and Mrs Sinclair for all their work in steps towards the production of our own St George’s honey. We also enjoyed learning about just how crucial our bees are to our world.

Girls were energetic, enthusiastic and eager.

Sports Day saw all of these qualities come to the fore as they entered into the activities in their own gardens and local parks with

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a fervour and ingenuity we just couldn’t believe.

Galvanised by our wonderful PE department, there were back garden obstacle races, book-balancing challenges, hurdling cushions, loo roll races and it all ended, as every good Sports Day should, with an ice cream.

Parents were supportive, resilient and, quite frankly, exhausted. As they juggled their own work from home and supporting their daughters to keep the flow of learning going, it proved to be a steep learning curve for one and all. I applaud you and say thank you for the parts you all played too during home learning.

As we make our plans now to return to school, to reconnect with the children we have missed so much, may I say thank you to everyone in the Junior School community for working together to help us through these challenging, unprecedented times.

Sue Hay, Head of Junior School - June 2020

Head of Junior School G

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G Primary 1

Fairy Tales We have been having lots of fun learning all about fairy tales.

A friendly Dragon from Fairy Land wrote to us all at home and asked us to help him rebuild Fairy Land.

Here are our letters we wrote back to the Dragon‌

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Primary 1 G

We all had great fun making castles, towers, mirrors, finger puppets and fairy wands.

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G Primary 2

Keeping our spirits UP during lockdown Despite not being in school, we have been keeping up with our summer term topics! Some of our highlights have been: the runner bean seed experiment, dressing up as characters from Katie Morag books, learning about natural and man-made features as part of our Island Study topic, making our own islands, learning about aerial views and keys when reading maps, enjoying clubs and even taking part in Sports Day! It has been tough not seeing our friends but we have all tried our best to stay together!

Isabelle

Rachael

Mila

Art Island Study Lucy Abigail

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Primary 2 G

Lorelei

Isabella

2019‐2020

Brownyn

Plants Imogen Lydia

Poppy Elizabeth Tessa

Pranavi

2X

Katie Morag Day

Alba

Violet

Pandora

Madeleine Emily

Esmé Selma

2Y

Sports Day Isobel

Lilly

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G Primary 3

The Victorians

by Primary 3 The summer term’s unprecedented circumstances did not dampen the enthusiasm of the Primary 3 girls in their quest to research and enjoy their topic on the Victorians. Each week we looked at a different aspect of the Victorians, culminating in each girl presenting

Victorian school life I enjoyed learning about Victorian schools because I learnt that you weren’t allowed to write with your left hand. Laila I learnt that they used slate in Victorian Schools. Eloise

a talk to their class teacher on Microsoft Teams. The girls entered each activity with gusto and uploaded their favourite pieces of work, demonstrating their enthusiasm and creativeness.

Famous Victorians: Florence Nightingale I liked making the Florence Nightingale Lamp because I liked learning about her. Amelia I found learning about Florence Nightingale interesting and liked that she was called ‘The Lady with the Lamp’ because she carried a lamp when she went to check on the sick soldiers. Isabelle I liked learning about Florence Nightingale and comparing her life to Mary Seacole’s life.

Alice

Victorian toys and games I enjoyed making the Victorian outdoor game. Laurie

Laila, Zoe, Fleur, Harriet, Katie, Isabelle, Poppy L, Alice, Olivia, Phoebe, Imogen, Isobel, Caoimhe, Matilda,

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Primary 3 G

Queen Victoria

Victorian Working Children

I liked learning about Queen Victoria because it was fun learning about her family, what she wore and her coronation on Thursday 28 June 1838. Poppy L I learned that Queen Victoria had the longest reign ever - before our queen. Phoebe I enjoyed learning about Queen Victoria. She was born in 1819 and she died in 1901. Matilda I learnt that Queen Victoria only wore dark clothes for the rest of her life after her husband Prince Albert died.

Emily I enjoyed learning about Queen Victoria and how she was a strong lady, who reigned for a very long time. Eva

Victorian inventions I enjoyed learning about Morse code. Each letter is made up of dashes and dots. Jaanhavi I liked the inventions and the Victorian Schools. Poppy B I enjoyed making the poster and making your own invention.

Zandi

Isabela, Poppy B, Zandi, Emily, Laurie, Bess, Eva, Jaanhavi, Amelia, Kana, Eryn, Anushka, Eloise, Dilara

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G Primary 4History

Primary 4 Our teachers are Mr D and Mrs P Un is a prefix we have learned Responsibilities for the class reps were good to have Yes She Can is everywhere Evacuee Day we dressed up as evacuees back in the day Acccomplished learning led to success Recorder lessons were such good fun In hockey club we learned new skills Neat and tidy was the way to go Popups we learned with different folds Roman research taught us lots In lockdown we missed our friends Meeting on Teams helped this a bit All About Me was our PowerPoint Reading in groups on Tuesday and Thursday Yelling and yelling for our House Finding out more and more Our Junior Duke kept us busy Uncertain summer holidays with this virus Ready now to go on to Primary 5

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Primary 4 G

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G Primary 5

A Year in Primary 5 Autumn Term Voting for House/ Vice Captains – Isla

wind and the crunch of the bumpy gravel under my boots. I loved these satisfying noises. When we reached the top, we all started talking about the view and all the birds and other wildlife that we could see it was amazing. It didn’t end there, as we walked down the Law, I saw even more nature, what a treat!

Trip to the Royal Botanic Gardens – Pippa

At the start of Autumn Term, I got ready to prepare and present why I should be House Captain / Vice Captain. The suspense was high when Miss Willkie was counting the votes. I was so thrilled to find out I was House Captain for my house, Buccleuch. I made a thank you speech and delivered it at assembly. I hope I kept my promise and I hope I have been a good House Captain.

Climbing Scald Law – Ghorgie In Autumn Term we all climbed Scald Law. As we walked, I heard the slight swooshing of the trees in the

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Our trip to the Botanic Gardens was such a treat. We were met by a friendly, enthusiastic woman who took us around the Gardens and showed us different, imaginative ways to draw trees and leaves. My favourite was drawing by only looking at the tree and not at the paper which I was drawing on. The lady also showed us how to pour wax onto the outline of a drawing of a leaf. I then painted it with coloured dye. Later, once it had dried, I could hold it up to the light. It looked beautiful. It was exciting to learn new ways of looking at nature and different art techniques.

Primary 5 G Doing tours during Open Morning – Anais School open days are always fun because I like meeting new people and showing them round. To prepare for the tours, we worked out a plan of which classrooms to visit and what each class was working on.

People would ask questions on what our school day was like, if the lunches were tasty, what sports we did and what clubs and activities I was part of. Everyone I met loved St George’s as much as I do.

Creating an Advert for NASA – Beth

When we made videos inspired by NASA, I felt like I was a real reporter. We were tasked with making a video to recruit a new astronaut. It was fun working with my team to create the job description. We had so much fun filming. I especially liked using props to make it stand out even more. I also enjoyed helping other groups film their videos. I really enjoyed watching everyone’s videos, it was amazing seeing my classmates’ designs and creativity.

We were there to see the otters' habitat. The otters' home is called a holt or a couch. We had great fun walking from school to the Water of Leith. We spent the whole afternoon there.

Nativity – Zoey

Christmas Stories – Shania Writing a Christmas story for the Primary 2 girls was a substantial step for me, especially when we had to come up with an imaginative story. There were so many ideas bursting through my head, it felt like I was writing a letter to the Queen. I made sure the story was simple so that they could understand it and relate to it. After reading my Christmas story to the Primary 2 children, I looked at their reactions and they loved it. I could see the smiles on their faces and they also clapped. I will never forget this moment. I thank my teacher and school for this opportunity.

Documentaries – Sadie In P5 I enjoyed making a documentary about Otters. It was fun to film a documentary just like Sir David Attenborough. To make the film we visited the Water of Leith and did some filming when we were there.

‘I’m Gonna Shine!’ was our nativity this year. I really enjoyed being a star and we got to wear the most beautiful costumes. I wore a silver t- shirt and and black leggings. My mum and I put stars on it to make it more beautiful. My favourite part of being a star was we got solos to sing and I love singing so I was happy. The show was amazing, and all our families came to watch. I was so proud of myself.

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G Primary 5

Spring Term

Ross Mackenzie author visit – Ellie

Robert Burns Assembly – Amelia

We celebrate Burns Day on the 25th January to mark his birthday. During our assembly, I was one of the 8 girls to do the military two step in the middle of the stage. I was quite nervous, but I really enjoyed it! The show was over before I knew it and I had so much fun making the props!

I love it when an author comes to visit our school, so I was extremely excited when one of my favourite authors, Ross Mackenzie, came to visit P4 and P5 to talk about his new book ‘Evernight’. He told us about his inspiration for the book and I found this very interesting. I loved reading the book and really hope he releases Evernight 2 soon!

Scottish Politics – Martha

Crazy Hat Day for Young Carers – Zara

The Scottish Politics topic was one of my favourite events in the year. For the topic we each created a political party based on a subject we were passionate about. We made posters for our parties and gave a talk asking our classmates to vote for us. I put lots of effort and passion into my poster and talk and my effort was rewarded. I was 1 of the 2 parties chosen by my class.

I was not the overall winner, but I felt happy and proud of my achievements.

I mostly enjoyed CRAZY hat day. I am a young carer and I got to draw posters for the school. We donated a lot of money for the Young Carers.

Ceilidh Practice – Kate I was always looking forward to doing ceilidh practice.

We were given a partner and I learnt so many different ceilidh dances. I liked the Dashing White Sergeant best where we danced together in a group of six. Although the ceilidh was cancelled because of the coronavirus, I am still glad we were able to learn some dances.

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Summer Term Virtual Camp – Rosslyn

Primary 5 G In lockdown we couldn’t do real camp, so we did a virtual camp and to be honest it was extremely good fun! I enjoyed putting things in my time capsule then burying it until somebody finds it! My second favourite camp activity was making a map and my family then finding the time capsule.

Scottish Wars of Independence Topic – Eliza

Summer term gave us the chance to learn about the Scottish Wars of Independence. Outside of Edinburgh Castle there are statues of Robert the Bruce and William Wallace and there are so many other references to famous historical figures like Andrew de Moray in Edinburgh. Now that I’ve had a chance to learn about

them and what they did for Scotland, I appreciate the history around me more because now I have knowledge of what happened in these battles and why they were fought. Although we didn’t get to go to the Bannockburn Visitors Centre or Stirling Castle as had been planned, we did get to visit virtually and see what they are like.

And we learned a lot from Miss Wilkie and Miss Mitchell reading to us from The Little Book of Scottish History.

P5 farewell – Hannah When I started summer term I was in lockdown.

My favourite things were the group maths calls. We had to plan a party and it was so much fun. Our budget was £500 and my group managed to stay within the budget. The other was the P5 farewell it was so sweet. I loved my personal feedback. It has made me more confident about moving into P6. My mum was crying at the end of it. P5 has been INCREDIBLE and I loved every second of it.

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G Lower School Goes Greener

Pond Report In the autumn term of 2019, the Eco Committee got together to discuss how best to raise money so that we could build a pond. We all agreed that building a pond would be a great way for creating new habitats for wildlife and improving the ecology of the lower school grounds. We spoke to Gus, (a builder) to show him where, what shape and how big we would like the

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pond to be. The builders started the work before lockdown, and I am curious to see how it looks when we finally get back to school in August. We will be adding plants to ensure it’s an inviting place for insects and other animals. We hope to attract frogs, damselflies, dragonflies and more.

Sanna L4

Lower School Goes Greener G

Fundraising and Research To raise money for our pond we had a big Nessie Bin collection where everyone brought in clothes that they didn’t want. We raised almost £200 in weight! The Eco Committees had some money already saved from water bottle sales and last year's Eco Day of Action and, to get the rest of the money,

other departments in the school gave us some because they are also going to use the pond. We researched what kind of pond we wanted and how we would like the area to look. We found out about what animals live in and around a pond and looked at places where we could build one.

Lower School Grounds The Lower School Eco Team are in the middle of a very exciting new project. We are creating an Outdoor Biodiversity Classroom in our grounds! We are building a pond and marsh area to encourage lots more wildlife to our school. We found an area of unused land to develop and used the money we raised to get help from Earth Calling. We ordered the timber and they built the pond structure. They also used the wood that we kept from a tree that got chopped down to make us some log seating. We are now going to do lots more research and discuss what plants we will have

in the pond. Very soon, we hope to see lots of insects and eventually frogs, toads, tadpoles and maybe even some newts! This is an area for the whole school to use, from Nursery to the Sixth Form. We are looking forward to investigating our pond life and learning lots of new things. We are also going to have a big mural painted on the white walls to brighten up the area and blackboards so that classes can write down things we spot and what we discover. We are making a video documentary of our project.

Mollie (Lower School Eco Champion)

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G Outdoor Education

Remove Camp In Autumn term the Removes visited Lagganlia Outdoor Centre, near Feshiebridge on their Outdoor Education camp. The week aims to challenge the girls physically, socially and mentally, from developing teamwork and creativity to challenging fear and building resilience. The girls undertook activities such as canoeing, mountain biking, abseiling and, due to

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the week being blessed with great weather, more demanding activities such as canyoning and rafting were added. The girls' positive attitude to take on these challenges was a joy to witness and the benefits were numerous, but here are the girls to tell you themselves: Mr Fowles

Outdoor Education G

“What we learnt” “I really enjoyed myself. I learned that ticks live in heather! I also learned that I am braver than I think. I would never have thought going in cold water would be so much fun!“ Sofia B RQ “‘Live for the moment!’ which means enjoy where you are right now and don’t worry about the past or the future. One day we climbed up a mountain and all we said was, “Are we nearly there yet?” Once we got to the top, our instructor said, “Stop and have a look around.” That was when I realised we were on top of a mountain with amazing views. So, for the rest of camp instead of asking silly questions, I just lived for the moment. “ Poppy RX “I learnt that you don’t always have to come first. This camp really allowed me to learn that it’s not all about winning, no matter how nice it feels. My activity group navigated our way up and down the mountain as a team and we would not have been able to complete that challenge if we didn’t work together. I am very glad to have learned this valuable lesson and I will take this skill with me throughout future everyday challenges.” Reene RQ

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G Outdoor Education

“Overcoming our fears” “I was quite scared of abseiling and I really didn’t want to do it, but I knew if I didn’t I would really regret it. I had a lot of support from my friends, teachers and instructor to encourage me to have a go... It may have looked high when I was up there but, once I was down, I wished it was double the height. It was the best bit of camp!!” Alex RX “Abseiling and gorge walking were the toughest things I have ever had to do... I was scared that I would not manage to grab the rope and that the weight of all my wet clothes would pull me down into the freezing water and stop me coming up to the surface. I do not think I would have done it if I had not had so much encouragement from my friends.” Annabel RP “I have just come back from Remove camp, extremely proud of myself. With some support in place I agreed to go but I was still a bit nervous. I’m so happy that I went because I have made so many wonderful memories and had great fun. Before we went away, I spoke to a girl in Lower 6, Amy, who had also felt anxious about Remove camp. She gave me some top tips and advice on how to distract myself and cope with feeling homesick. I now hope to be that girl who can offer the support to others.

I’m now really looking forward to all the camps that are still to come.” Zara H RX

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G Drama

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Drama G

Little Women In December 2019, St. George’s mounted a studentrun production of Little Women. The minimal staging and stripped back take helped to highlight the theme of monetary struggles in a charming production that had students take on the roles of the eponymous March sisters. Jessica Griffith played Meg as being not only sympathetic but motherly and nuanced; a really calm presence around which the action unfolded. The choice to double-cast Amy really helped show her growth from a whiny and immature girl to a young woman who is still interested in high society but has

the maturity and charm to support it. But undoubtably the star of the show was Angelina Somuah who commandeered the stage as the adventurous and formidable Jo March, bringing to it a tenderness that is rarely seen in the role. The integration of music to suggest the passage of time was a clever touch that helped to ground the action in a sense of time and place. It was a successful and fun play to watch that creatively fleshed out the narrative in subtle yet interesting ways and the directors (Anna Spens and Grace Toner) should certainly be proud of their efforts.

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G Young Enterprise

Young Enterprise Scotland 2019 – 2020 The Young Enterprise Companies start setting up their company in August and close down at the end of March. Every new company must deal with choosing directors, deciding on product ideas, selling at various school events and fairs, sitting an examination, writing a report, being interviewed and making a video and a presentation. There are prizes to be won at both the Young Enterprise Christmas Market in December and the final Awards Ceremony in March. This year we had to have a slightly different ending as we could not have our ceremony at Napier, Craiglockhart following the sudden closing of the schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead the students had to create and email their presentations during the last week in school.

The Young Enterprise year can be difficult and stressful at times but the rewards they recoup make it all worthwhile. This is not only in financial terms as they can also develop new friendships, learn how a business works and maybe even have some fun.

Year 2019 – 2020 has produced three diverse and lively companies who have had their ups and downs throughout the year.

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Collecti – cacti and succulents

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Drip Dip – jewellery

3 Ankilles – ankle bracelets and jewellery

I found Young Enterprise was a very enjoyable and rewarding experience to take part in as we got to create a product and sell it. I got to experience what it is like to start a business and all the aspects involved such as advertising and how to manage the money and create a profit.

Alice from Ankilles

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At the Young Enterprise Christmas Market held at the Central Hall, Lothian Road on Saturday 7th December 2019 there was an exceptionally high standard of product display, where they proved they had good sales and marketing skills as they all managed to make a fair profit. They had an exceptional amount of detail in their display and a professional layout that was creative and appealing, encouraging the customers to stop and buy. All the students were enthusiastic and worked hard on the preparation for the day and on the day itself.

From the company reports and the video presentation that they submitted the following prizes were awarded.

Individual Awards Best Sales Director – 1st place – Caitlin (Collecti)

Whole Group Awards Best Presentation – 2nd place – Collecti Congratulations to them all and well done to all the people involved who ensured that the Young Enterprise Companies at St George’s had a busy and prosperous year. The list to mention is long; the students themselves and their family support on many occasions, the link teachers who turned up regularly every week and supported the students throughout the ups and downs of their experience. Another memorable year for St George’s!

I found Young Enterprise very useful as it broadened my view of business and it got me working together as a team. It taught me about the importance of communication throughout the whole process. We also had an interview near the end of the process and that was beneficial as we got to experience what it was like to be in a real business meeting, which was nerve-wracking at first but we settled into the interview quickly and they were impressed.

Megan from Drip Dip

Young Enterprise G

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As sales director, Young Enterprise has taught me how a business evolves and how it is managed. There were a few difficult situations and stress involved but, as I became more accustomed to the situation, I have learned useful skills and tips such as the vital importance of communication with others and keeping on top of a schedule. From decorating Christmas market stalls to creating virtual presentations, it was a new and enjoyable experience.

Caitlin from Collecti

I learned a lot from the experience. I had to learn how to co-ordinate a team so we could get all the tasks done, and I learned loads about teamwork. It was such a great feeling when our work paid off in the end.

Harriet from Collecti

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G Model UN

Hosting the Model UN Conference On the 5th and 6th of October 2019, over 200 students from across Scotland and England attended the first ever Model United Nations Conference at St George’s.

The Model UN club has been running at St George’s since 2006 and it was with confidence, and a little bit of trepidation, that the students of Upper 6 decided that they should put their experience and expertise to the test by organising an event that would be politically challenging, but also engaging and fun.

A number of students from Upper 6 volunteered to chair committees under the considered direction of the club’s Secretaries-General Louisa and Clara, and by the deputy Secretaries-General Isla and Yumi. The Committee Chairs had decided on the debate topics and wrote research briefs in order to prepare the participating students. They were able to blend an important academic ethos and a sense of fun during all the debates, which created a superb environment to discuss international relations. It is a testament to their meticulous preparation that every Committee – from

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the Security Council to the World Health Organisation – had rigorous and enthusiastic debates.

Students in six Committees debated with vivacity across two days about such important international issues as the situation in Syria, maternal mental health and single-use plastics. Over 30 countries were represented in each committee, which allowed for diverse views on every topic that were not easily reconciled. Each student had to develop resolutions that helped to develop their negotiating skills and created camaraderie among the delegates. Students represented their countries with conviction, and the level of political discussion was impressive to behold.

The Conference benefited from the expertise of three visiting academics on the first day: Prof. Beatrice Heuser, Chair of International Relations from Glasgow University; Prof. Jill Stavert, Professor of Law at Napier University; and Dr. Oliver Turner, Lecturer in International Relations at Edinburgh University. These visiting speakers were able to develop the students’

understanding of important international areas of disagreement, including US-China relations and mental health and human rights law. Ms. Gill Akhtar gave a thought-provoking talk on the lives of child soldiers at the start of Sunday, which focused the students’ minds on the profound effects that international policies can have on the voiceless.

Over sixty students from St George’s were involved in the conference from Lower 4 to Upper 6. From chairing the debates to acting as runners – passing messages between different country representatives – all students were able to participate in making the Conference such a wonderful experience. Nothing proved this more than the General Assembly on Sunday where all countries had to resolve a breaking crisis in the Persian Gulf. Ecoterrorists had taken control over three oil tankers in the Gulf, and all students had to work together to avert this crisis from escalating. The level of debate, engagement with the

topic, and the development of the relations between countries were remarkable. The buzz in the hall, including the (accepted) bribing of country representatives, really capped off a superb conference.

The end of the conference was marked by a talk from Mr. Ted Hall, the founder of St. George’s Model UN club, who urged the delegates to continue with their political activism and emphasised to them that their voices and actions matter.

We are so proud of the fact that Model UN is entirely student led. Clara, Louisa, Isla and Yumi not only organised the conference, but helped train many younger students. Their dedication, humour, and passion were infectious and, without them, the conference would not have been as successful. Their leadership was also demonstrated by the fact that we won best delegation at the North Berwick conference, which took place a month after our own. 2019 marked the first ever St George’s Model UN Conference, but it will certainly not be the last.

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G Moniack Mhor

Moniack Mhor Creativity in seclusion

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Moniack Mhor G

Tucked away in the Scottish Highlands, Moniack Mhor is central in providing an immersive creative writing space. Despite the 3hour drive, Moniack made up for it through its scenery, which was perfect for brewing up inspiration for our creative stories, not to mention a lunch stop at The House of Bruar.

On arrival, we got to work straight away. Every day we took part in writing tutorials with our amazing tutors Jen Hadfield (poet) and Kevin MacNeil (poet, novelist and playwright). With diverse activities, their tasks drew inspiration and creativity out of us which we did not expect. From writing ourselves as a musical instrument to acting out our own characters, we saw how the creative process could take many forms, giving us a new perspective to how we could plan and visualise our stories.

Over time, we got to know both our tutors and the George Watson’s pupils on the trip so much better.

In the evening we’d share what we had been working on around the fire. We created our own kind of community, commenting and complimenting on what others had done, inspiring each other on how we could improve our work.

Moniack as an environment helped our work evolve. From the snow-coated mountains that splayed outside the windows, to the roaring fires and cups of tea inside the cottage, some seriously cosy vibes were created. Motivated to work on our stories, and with the assistance of our tutors (and maybe a few too many digestives) we left Moniack with some great creative work under our belts. So after all the morning walks around the centre, and the laughs together in the evening, as we drove away from the centre there was some underlying sadness but, on the most part, we returned home relaxed and ready to reflect on and utilise the skills we learnt while on the course.

Head Girl Louise Out of all the school trips I have been on, Moniack Mhor was one that will stay with me for a long time!

The big house was so cosy, and my friends and I stayed in the room in the cottage which looked out onto beautiful scenery. The trip made me comfortable in expressing ideas, and more confident in sharing my work with other people beyond just teachers which is something I've always found difficult. The tutors were lovely, and you'll definitely make friends with the George Watson’s girls too!

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G Samye Ling Monastery

Religion & Philosophy Trips: Higher trip to Samye Ling Monastery, September 2019 Kagyu Samye Ling, Europe’s largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery, was founded in 1967 by two spiritual masters, in the rolling hills of southern Scotland. Today, Samye Ling – named after the first monastery to be established in Tibet – is a centre for Buddhist teaching as well as the preservation of everything from Tibetan religion, culture and art to medicine, architecture and traditional handicrafts.

The sight of the Stupa and a statue of Nagarjuna mesmerised me as we arrived. The bold white walls of the Stupa which housed sacred relics associated with the Buddha, stood next to a prayer wheelhouse. Inside each prayer wheel cylinder are printed Buddhist mantra – prayers – which, when turned, are said to activate and spread the blessing of the mantra throughout the

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Samye Ling Monastery G environment for the benefit of all beings and the planet itself, generating good karma – the positive or negative consequences of actions.

Notably, the nuns and monks who roamed the gardens surrounding the Stupa and Temple all sported burgundy robes and styled a shaven head, which symbolised simplicity and detachment from materialism.

Despite this traditionalism, we did discover that the monks and nuns were in fact allowed mobiles and laptops in their quarters.

Reflecting on our time at Samye Ling, it was the selflessness of everyone we met that stuck with me. It was believed that enlightenment had been reached by some of the residents at the monastery, however, out

of modesty they chose not to share or boast about their escape from Samsara – the cycle of death and rebirth: proof of their concern for the needs and feelings of others. Buddhists believe that the notion of ‘self’ results in harmful thoughts of ‘me’ and ‘mine’. I found this idea of impermanence, known as ‘Anatta’, very valuable. Anatta teaches that nothing within us is immune to the process of change and, as a result, there is no eternal soul. This belief hugely interested me as it allows the monks and nuns at Samye Ling, along with many other Buddhists, to reduce selfishness, desires, craving, hatred, pride and egotism; an ability and virtue I feel we should all aim to embody.

Eilidh Page, Lower 6

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G The Brain and Belief

The Brain and Belief Religion and Philosophy Talks: Dr Sarah Lane Ritchie on the Brain and Belief, December 2019 Earlier this year we were lucky to have Dr Sarah Lane Ritchie visit us to give a talk on neuroscience and belief.

Dr Lane Ritchie is a lecturer in Theology at the University of Edinburgh. Her talk was extremely engaging and focused on the Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR), which explores the relationship between belief and the brain. In particular, she opened us up to the idea that belief is not a unique or abnormal thing only associated with the spiritual world, but is a natural product of the way our brains work. Even if we are not religious, we all share beliefs in other things like football teams and political leaders. This tendency towards belief may be the result of our evolution. One specific idea Dr Lane Ritchie talked about was Agent Detection, a response that credits events in life to the work of an intentional being. It is suggested by some evolutionary scientists that Agent Detection helped early humans to survive in dangerous environments, but it means that now our

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brains are naturally disposed to think that events are the result of beings. This may explain how the concept of God developed. Dr Lane Ritchie also talked about other benefits of belief to our survival, like the way that it tends to motivate people to act in self-sacrificial and loving ways towards others which can help an overall community even at personal expense.

I found her talk really interesting especially as a Religion and Philosophy student because she covered reasons for our belief in religion that I had never learnt about before. It was fascinating to get an insight into our evolution and how our brains function in such a way that we are drawn towards religious belief. Dr Sarah Lane Ritchie was a great speaker and had admirable knowledge and intelligence on this topic which made her talk and the question and answer session excellent.

Naomi Scott, Lower 6

International Trip G

Nepal October 2019 October 2019 saw two teams of students head off to Nepal with four members of staff to go on an adventure we will all remember for a lifetime.

On our arrival in Kathmandu we hastily checked in to our hotel and jumped back on a bus to visit the WWF Headquarters for the Asia region. Although extremely tired from our travels we listened to a fascinating talk about how WWF distributes its resources in the area, particularly focusing on reducing plastic waste and protection of endangered species such as the tiger.

Some members of the team who want to study conservation in the future asked probing questions to drill down into the information further.

After a well-earned rest, the next morning we set out to explore the bustling, chaotic city of Kathmandu.

We headed to Boudhanath Stupa, one of the largest in the world, to learn about the rituals and culture of the Tibetan Buddhist Monks and have our own blessing inside the temple, where we were each presented with a yellow protective cord placed around our necks to keep us safe during our travels. I am still wearing mine one year on! After having time to explore the area we left the serenity of the stupa and headed out into the busy streets of Durbar Square, the religious centre for the Hindus. We explored the temple complex and saw the damage inflicted by the earthquake in 2015. We went to the living goddess’s temple in the hope of capturing a brief glimpse of the current Kumari, but we were unlucky on this occasion. We headed back into

the narrow alleyways crowded with mopeds and people rushing around to buy everything from vegetable to copper pots, interspersed with the small Hindu shrines scattered throughout.

The next morning, we set off on a very long bus journey on very bumpy roads to Pokhara, our base for the next part of the trip. Here the two teams headed off in different directions, one to start their trek to Poon Hill and the other to teach at Shree Bhagawati Primary School.

My group headed off to the school first. I was very excited to be going there as I discovered it whilst trekking in the region many years ago and have kept in touch ever since. I couldn’t wait to see St George’s students work with the children from the area teaching each other and having fun. On our arrival the students of the school lined up to present us with garlands of flowers and then quickly St G’s students split into small groups to teach the children songs, games and ceilidh dancing! Before long any nervousness disappeared and both groups of students were having a great time together. The next few days flew by, we taught English, maths, science and geography to the students as well as helped some older students tidy up the coffee plantation belonging to the school. The coffee helps to fund equipment for the school, and we bought a lot to bring back home as presents. Our other main task was to help move rocks for the local people to build a platform at the side of the school to create an outdoor nursery area, which was a tough job in the

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G International Trip heat of the sun. Our time here had come to an end, there wasn’t a dry eye amongst us as we said our goodbyes before we headed back to our base at Tashi-Ling Tibetan Refugee Camp.

Tashi-Ling is a very special corner of Pokhara. It is a haven for Tibetan refugees who crossed from Tibet in the 1950s as they were pushed out of their homelands and crossed the Himalayas to find safety and a new life.

Sonam, our host, had organised for us to stay in the community hall where the local ladies looked after us, cooking beautiful food for all our meals. We learnt to make momos and played with their children in the evening, and got up early in the morning to sit with the monks during their morning prayers. Sonam remembers leaving his homeland when he was about six and told us how he came to end up in the camp. Although his life has been very hard, he can see many positives from these unfortunate events: he has been educated and is a key member of society in Tashi-Ling, where he helps to teach travellers and tourists about the plight of the refugees. He also explained how he still feels homeless. Although Nepal has taken in many refugees, they do not have Nepali citizenship, they cannot work outside of the Tibetan community and have no passport so cannot travel. On our last evening there we exchanged cultural experiences. The ladies donned their traditional costumes and sang and danced for us, then it was our turn! We had singing in Gaelic and duos with the chanter rather than from bagpipes and the main event was ceilidh dancing the ladies had never experienced anything quite like it!

Before we left to head out on our trek, we visited the Gurkha Welfare Trust who spoke about the work they do in looking after ex-Gurkhas and their widows both in remote communities and in a care home in Pokhara. Their work includes providing water taps for villages and sanitation blocks to keep their communities healthy. The second talk we had, we all found shocking. Women’s menstruation in remote villages is seen as a disease and the women are cast out from their homes to stay in menstruation sheds that lack any facilities or comforts until it has ended. It is believed that if a woman stays at home during her period then bad things may happen to the community such as failed crops or earthquakes. The Gurkha Welfare Trust is attempting to educate these communities and provide basic sanitary care for the women, but it is a hard-fought battle at the moment.

Then it was our turn for Poon Hill! After driving through the dramatic landscape to our start point in the foothills of the Annapurna mountains, we set off early on undulating trails through small villages crossing over rampaging rivers

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International Trip G on ‘interesting’ bridges to explore the mountains. Our porters carried our kitbags, three tied together with rope balanced across their foreheads as they elegantly moved through this wild terrain. We hiked, with a little less style, learning Sherpa songs from our guides and looking out for the unusual bird life and the occasional monkey hiding high up in the trees. On the morning of our summit attempt of the panoramic viewpoint on top of Poon Hill we set off at 4am, with our headtorches lighting the way as we trekked up the steep path to the top of the hill to see the sunrise. We arrived as daylight hit the tops of the mountains and we were able to see the stunning and spectacular peaks of Gangapurna, Annapurna South, Annapurna I, Dhaulagiri and Hiunchuli Mountains. After taking a lot of photos we headed down to our tea house to get some well-deserved breakfast. Later we continued on our trek past huge waterfalls, down into jungle-like gorges towards our end point, Ghorepani.

After one last evening in Pokhara we started our return journey to Kathmandu where we arrived late in the afternoon. We only had a short time left, where we did some serious retail therapy, exploring a shop run by a women’s co-operative where we learnt about their determination to start their own business and make their own products ranging from scrunchies to luxury scarves and wraps. These women were breaking away from the traditional roles expected of them and were committed to working for themselves. We spent time in the Thamel area, exploring the alleyways and refining our haggling techniques buying elephant trousers, friendship bracelets and other reminders of our trip.

Our last evening was spent at the famous pizza restaurant ‘Fire & Ice’, a well-known spot for backpackers and climbers alike, where we had our first taste of western food before heading home.

One last treat, a visit to Kopan Monastery where Sister Karen showed us around and explained how it worked.

She led us through some meditation exercises and answered any questions we had about life in the monastery and that of a monk or nun. We left feeling relaxed and calm, ready to have a spot of lunch before heading to the airport to start the journey home.

I can honestly say that for all the teachers and leaders on this adventure, we all had the time of our lives. Watching this group of young people work together, engage with charities and teach at the school filled us with such pride that it genuinely brought tears to my eyes daily. Watching them experience a new culture with wonder and awe will stay with me for a very long time.

Jo Mushat

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G Looking back

Reflections … or “ch...ch...ch ... changes” …

by Patricia Lancaster

Arriving at St George’s in the late eighties was an exciting time for me, both professionally and personally. I had been living and working in Bath, so knew very little about St George’s School for Girls but, at the outset, I knew I had landed on my feet. In my first few months in school, I was struck by the open and liberal ethos of the school. Sixth formers wore their own clothes and bohemian style mixed happily with the Sloane velvet hairbands of the time. I found the students to be curious and spirited, but also extremely friendly and open.

The curriculum has always offered ‘the best of British’ and I have seen the full cycle of examination courses within the English department: GCSE and A Level, Highers and Standard Grades, then back to GCSE then Intermediate 2, National 5 and back to GCSE. Hats off to staff, students, and parents for persevering in their effort to keep up with such

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changes. Personalised learning became a watch word and I know no other school that has offered such a flexible tailor-made set of courses to students.

The extra-curricular dimension of the school has always been outstanding: it is rich and wide ranging.

Amnesty International, Debating Club, and the student newspaper, Independent Women, are just a few examples, but the girls often came up with their own clubs and societies: croquet was a popular for a while, as was quidditch! My involvement with extra-curricular made my first year at the school so much more enjoyable and I know that it helps to forge trust and respect between students and staff.

Drama and Music productions have always been central to the life of the school, particularly in the autumn term. In the early days, this was due partly to the fact that both departments were housed in the main Upper School building so that the corridors were filled with orchestral ‘joi de vivre’ and frenzied rehearsals echoed through the Crush Hall. Once the Robertson Music Centre and the St George’s Centre were built, Music and Drama had their own purposebuilt facilities, which offered students so much more.

Like PE and Art, such lively and specialised departments offer girls the chance to become totally immersed in their sixth form courses.

The global dimension of the school was very real to me early on in my time at school. I was lucky enough to take part in the St George’s Germantown Friends School exchange programme. GFS is a Quaker school in Philadelphia and is the longest running exchange in school, going back fifty years. In 1988 it was the only exchange open to students and staff. The five-week exchange opened my eyes to a more informal and diverse school community and its dynamic ethos made a professional and lasting impression on me.

The manner in which the international exchange programme has evolved over the years reflects the school’s aim to expand student horizons, giving them a global perspective. Students in Lower School, Upper 4, Upper 5 and 6th Form have had the opportunity to

Looking back G apply for a place on one of many exchanges around the world from Canada to Hong Kong. Despite the current pandemic, St George’s continues to be determined to give the girls insights into other cultures through new courses, developed during lockdown.

The ethos of the school and the pastoral care of the girls became my main area of focus and interest.

Student concerns became more complex over the years and the pressures on young people in society more intense. Mobile phones introduced another layer of communication and not always for the best! In response to such needs, a Personal and Social Education programme was introduced, and Heads of Year appointed. This allowed students to have access to more support and to more up-to-date information.

Now, more than ever, young people need a safe and open environment in which to voice their thoughts and to make mistakes.

An active student voice has always been encouraged, from an early school council to “Pow Wow,” a forum for discussion, girls have taken part in committees and focus groups and by doing so have made a difference. The student leadership team, or the ‘The Big Four’ as they are known, have consistently led school with enthusiasm and been powerful role models and communicators.

Looking back over my time at St George’s, one aspect that always makes me smile is dressing up for charity events. Concert Band charity extravaganzas, involving staff making fools of themselves, has been a highlight for students and staff alike. ‘Mamma Mia,’ ‘The Simpsons,’ ‘Mission Impossible’ and a recent staff panto brought the school together in a wonderful crazy way. The St George’s ‘magic’ is hard to define; it is just as present in moments of intense sadness and loss as in times of celebration and gratitude. The school community is very special indeed, for it is based on relationships and respect.

The success of the school seems to hinge on its roots in the past and its ability to adapt and innovate.

I worked under four Heads, each of them steering the school towards the future, without disregarding the past. Rituals and celebrations that have endured include magical Carol Services in St Giles with the choir processing by candlelight, Speech Days in the Queens’ Hall, the marquee at school and now St Mary’s Cathedral. Unlike most schools, there are no prizes at Speech Day, instead every girl ‘crosses the platform’ to be celebrated for who she is.

I knew that leaving the St George’s family would be

hard, but nothing had prepared me for the extraordinary final months of teaching online during lockdown. Who could have envisaged that exam classes would be in tears on hearing their exams were cancelled?

The day school had to close, before moving onto Teams, was an emotional one for us all. After my last lesson, I walked down the drive, not knowing when I would see my students and colleagues again when, suddenly, a car pulled up beside me and two familiar beaming faces yelled ‘Hello!’ Two old girls, now successful women, had driven up to school, ‘just for old times’ sake’ and had spotted me. On hearing that I had just taught my last face-to-face lesson, they magically produced a bottle of bubbly from their shopping in the back of their car as a farewell gift. The moment of sadness was gone – transformed, as only St G’s can do, into a moment of real joy and laughter.

That’s St G’s for you!

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G Looking forward

Looking to the future : e-learning at St George’s

by Andy Leask There were already a lot of exciting, creative things happening with technology in school. Virtual and Augmented Reality tech was bringing learning alive for students; audio and video technology was being used by teachers to enhance learning and teaching, and by students to demonstrate their learning.

Coronavirus – and the move to distance learning – undoubtedly accelerated things, however. In the space of a very short time we all (staff, students and parents) had to learn a lot. How to communicate with each other, remotely. How to teach remotely. How to assess remotely. How to look after the wellbeing of our students, our colleagues and ourselves. But learn a lot we did! The response to distance learning has been nothing short of amazing, and I feel proud of how positively everyone in the community

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Looking forward G embraced the changes, faced the challenges head on, and pulled together.

And out of this crucible, many positives have been forged. Necessity, the mother of invention, inspired us to explore new, creative ways to communicate with one another. The creativity demonstrated by our students was remarkable. Freed from the constraints of a classroom, we saw and heard stories being told, principles demonstrated, theories tested, experiments conducted. Flipping the classroom – always an aspiration – became an absolute necessity, as we reevaluated how to make the best use of the limited contact time we had with our classes. And for older students, the control over assignments, deadlines and calendars was a real boon; not as much fun as dressing up as a pirate for Remove video lessons, perhaps, but every bit as impactful as students and staff alike learned to manage workloads.

So, what does the future hold? What lessons have we learned from lockdown, that we can take forward into 2021 and beyond?

There are obvious parallels with the wider world, for starters. The 21st Century workplace was changing anyway, but the dramatic increase in working remotely has accelerated the process. Many experts suggest that there will be a continued, permanent move in this

direction, and so the skills of working and communicating remotely – using software like Teams, Outlook and other Office apps and making better use of multimedia resources to produce and consume content – have become more important than ever.

Just as we bear a collective responsibility to support the development of numeracy and literacy in the young people we teach, we must also strive to build their digital literacy.

Technology also empowers us as educators to enhance the efficiency and efficacy of our teaching.

Perhaps the single biggest step in this direction has been the move to a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy in the Upper School; this immediately unlocks many practical benefits of technology for teachers and students. Digital textbooks. Audio feedback from teachers. Accessing, producing, and sharing class notes. Collaborating with peers – even at a social distance!

Technology advances at a great rate: while it’s important we don’t turn our backs on tradition, we owe it to our students to embrace these changes, and empower them to navigate the digital landscape that lies before them. It’s impossible to know exactly what the future will look like. But we’re excited to find out.

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G Nursery

Nursery Distance Learning

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Nursery G As with the rest of our school community, our Nursery year ended with a full and varied programme of distance learning activities for our Nursery children. It is not easy to explain a global pandemic to young children, nor why their much-loved people are not able to see them each day.

Many of our youngest learners, although happy to be ensconced in the heart of their family, were confused about why their routines had so abruptly stopped. Our aim in Nursery was to maintain a feeling of contact, familiarity, love and sense of community with all of our children and their families.

• The Nursery team made full use of our secure online learning platform, Learning Journals, to maintain contact with our children and their families. Each week we posted a series of videos, ranging from story reading to art activities and even spotting sheep in nearby fields!

• We complemented our videos by providing our parents with activity suggestions for themes and topics over the course of the summer term.

• Nursery teacher, Miss Eirini, and Head of Nursery, Mrs Nettleton, made some live video calls to small groups of our Big Owls and Little Owls children allowing them to connect with their Nursery friends and teachers.

Children of this age and stage are busy, active and often relentless in their pursuit of fun and stimulation! The Nursery team wanted to make sure that all of our parents felt supported and inspired for the duration of the time spent away from Nursery.

One of our favourite topic themes centred around rainbows. This provided a series of activities which tapped into the national consciousness about rainbows in the early stages of the global pandemic. Our Nursery team were inspired to create a diverse range of activities for the children, all shared via Learning Journals videos. To our delight, we realised that learning about rainbows covered all curricular areas and also helped the children to learn lots of transferrable developmental skills too.

• We discovered songs and stories that blended well with our theme and we were grateful to Mrs Morrison, our Junior School music teacher, and Miss Barr, our Junior School librarian, who provided some additional stimulus for the children.

• We had art lessons with Mrs Cate and Mrs Trish which taught the children about the names of all of the colours in the rainbow and how to create their own rainbows using a range of media.

• We posted about treasure hunts and scavenger searches around each child’s home and garden as they looked for seven objects to make a ‘real things’ rainbow!

• Miss Eirini had a lovely idea to create clothes for paper dolls based on rainbow colours found in spring-time nature.

• We used the rainbow theme to encourage discussions with the children about people who help us stay well and what our whole community is doing to keep safe. Everyone, no matter how big or small, is important and able to help in a big way!

We were delighted that many of our families chose to share photographs of the children engaging and learning about rainbows at home. We missed the children as much as the children missed us so it was a real boost for the Nursery team to see each of their happy faces smiling out from our computer screens!

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G Nursery

Planning for Change It is of great importance to the Nursery team that we help support our children cope with change as it occurs in their lives. While the global pandemic waylaid our traditional planning and events, it gave way to more creative ways to help our families prepare their children for milestone events.

In this way, through a series of activities in the summer term, we were able to use our distance learning programme as a vehicle for ensuring • our pre-school children were excited about getting ready for Primary 1, • our ante pre-school children had an opportunity to understand more about moving into preschool.

Miss Eirini and Mrs Nettleton used live video calls with groups of Nursery children to introduce the idea of moving from one stage to the next.

Our Primary One teacher, Mrs Adams, met virtually with our pre-school children to help them to feel excited and prepared for the next stage in their educational journey. She also met with small groups of children in the Primary One classroom at pre-arranged times to balance readiness for school with the safety of all involved.

The pre-school class followed the City of Edinburgh Council’s transition project, which focused on the story ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’. This complemented the Learning Journals activities of our own Nursery and ensured that the children were able to feel connected

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to their peers across the city through updates on social media.

We held a ‘live’ pre-school graduation using our school’s preferred digital learning platform, Microsoft Teams. Our Nursery teaching staff worked in collaboration with our Junior School music teacher, Mrs Morrison, to provide a personal and memorable end of Nursery experience for our children.

We centred around the theme of superheroes as we felt that all of the children had learned to cope fantastically with the global events and had helped their families in countless, extraordinary ways. Our families contributed by helping us record the children at home singing along to ‘Sing a Rainbow’ and then dancing happily which we then adapted into the graduation event. Miss Eirini and Mrs Nettleton delivered specially prepared packs for the pre-school children ahead of their graduation, allowing every child to receive their Nursery certificate in time for this important day.

In life, change is a certainty. By helping to prepare and support children when they face a time of change we are helping foster feelings of resilience, confidence and security. We wish our youngest learners well as they move onto the next stages of their learning and feel certain that their futures lie bright ahead of them.

Nursery G

“Oh the places you will go, The people you will see!”

Dr Seuss

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G Nursery

St George’s Provision of Critical Childcare in Junior School and Nursery When the nation went into ‘lockdown’ in March, and our body of teaching staff prepared for a creative and technical response to distance learning for the remainder of the school year, our school remained open for those children of critical frontline workers who had no other childcare options available to them.

This service took place predominantly with Nurseryaged and Junior School children. Our school established a critical taskforce team for our youngest children led by Lisa Nettleton, Head of Nursery, and the Junior School Leadership Team. The taskforce team worked throughout the spring and summer terms, and also holiday periods, to provide a continuation of quality childcare which was adapted to maximise the safety of all in the face of the global pandemic. The

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taskforce team was ably established and supported by Elaine Ford, Upper School Student Welfare Manager, who provided important organisational and liaison links between staff members and parents.

Children attending our critical childcare provision were supported in their learning by the taskforce staff team. The taskforce team consisted of Junior School Support Staff, a Houldsworth Houseparent and members of our PE Department - a whole school effort!

The team was led by Eirini Chasomeri, Nursery teacher, who ensured there were lots of opportunities for play, fun and adventure for all our age groups of children.

The taskforce team also made provision for the Junior School children attending each day to access their daily digital learning programme of activities, and

Nursery G

gave the children teaching support for their completion.

It was a unique experience, to be in school while others were learning digitally at home, and we missed the hubbub of life and noise that a full complement of staff and children bring to a school. Truthfully though, we enjoyed the freedom to move and roam around our beautiful school campus at leisure. Whether we are playing in the Fantastical Forest, having an adventure inside the Nursery fort, or running full speed across the hockey pitches, we made the most of this unprecedented time and considered ourselves fortunate to be in such bountiful, natural surroundings.

The critical taskforce provision would not have been able to function so smoothly if it were not for the support, good nature and help from members across our wider

school community. Many thanks to the catering manager, Tony Brooks, who made sure that the taskforce and children were well nourished each day!

Margaret Imlah and the facilities team ensured that our Junior School was sterile, safe and ready for us to use with our groups of children each day, a feat for which we were highly grateful.

By remaining open, as a school we were pleased to be able to support our Nursery and Junior School parents who needed us throughout a highly challenging and difficult time in all of our lives. We send our good wishes to all in the school community and express our heartfelt thanks to each staff member who contributed and supported the critical taskforce to provide this essential service.

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G Primary 6

P6 Online Camp Primary 6 were meant to go on an activity camp at Lendrick Muir in May but unfortunately because of the lockdown we were unable to do this. So, the teachers brought camp to us at home...

Day 1: On the first day at camp we were all so intrigued to hear what we were going to be doing because the P6 teachers hadn’t told us anything except that we were going to have P6 camp at home. We met at the team virtual camp base, with our bags packed, awaiting instructions.

The first activity that we had to do was building our own dens to sleep in that night if we wanted. Some people made dens out of ironing boards, laundry racks, sofas - anything really that we could find at home. Some people even slept outside in tents. We had a lot of fun!

After break we met back at camp base to discover our next activity - a scavenger hunt. We were put into

Camp Itinerary Thursday 9.00 Arrive at CAMP BASE with bags packed 9.30 Build your den/pitch your tent – share ideas in DEN Teams 11.15 Meet at CAMP BASE – Scavenger Hunt briefing 11.20 Scavenger Hunt group task 12.00 CAMP BASE 12.15 Make own picnic lunch 12.45 LUNCH 1.30 Meet at CAMP BASE for collaborative group tasks • The RIVER – make a paddleboat raft • The WOODS – build the tallest tower/knot tying • The MEADOW – bat and ball skills

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small groups with a group leader for each. Then we had to try and find 40 items around our house in half an hour. The group that found the most items and handed in the assignment first (with the items on it) was the winner.

Our activity after lunch was a round robin of three different tasks. We were put into different groups and went to the activities together as a team. One of the round robins was with Miss Sinclair and it was called “At the river”. We had to make a paddle boat out of materials we could find around the house and measure how far they traveled in our baths or sinks. Another one was with Miss Hippisley called “In the woods”. We had to make a tower out of things we could find at home and measure them. We put all the measurements together in our groups and the group with the combined tallest tower won. Some even reached the ceiling.The other activity was with Mrs May, and was called “At the meadows”. We had to do as many keepy-uppies as we could with different items

Optional Evening Activities 6.00 Practise for TALENT SHOW 7.00 MOVIE – WALL-E 7.55 Pause Movie - NHS Clapping - hot chocolate and popcorn interval 8.15 MOVIE – WALL-E Friday 7.30 Reveille 8.00 Breakfast 8.45 Registration in CAMP BASE and dorm inspection 9.30 Time Capsule Actitiviy 11.00 The Lifeboat Activity 11.05 Meet HMS Captains in MARINAS for Activity briefing 11.15 Make personal choices 11.20 Debate in Lifeboat Channels 12.00 LUNCH 1.00 TALENT SHOW 2.00 CAMP AWARDS 2.15 Camp Reflection Quiz

Primary 6 G

(hockey stick, tennis racket, football, etc). We combined our scores with our team and the team with the most keepy-uppies won.

In the evening we had some optional activities that we could do. The teachers gave us a link to the film WALL-E to watch at home with our families, if we wanted to. We all really enjoyed the first day at camp.

Day 2: On the second day some people were very tired after the previous action-packed day and having had not so good a sleep in our dens!

The first activity of the day was to make a time capsule about lockdown. We put in photos, memories, local papers, diaries, drawings of rainbows, some people even put in rubber gloves, toilet rolls and hand gel! Then we put them somewhere that we wouldn’t look at for a while, and then in later years we

might find them and look back on our memories.

The next task was to ‘save’ people from sinking ships. But the catch was that there were thirteen people on the boat and only room for eight on the lifeboats. We were given information about each person and had to debate who we would have wanted to save. The last thing we did at camp was the talent show. We watched all of the pre-recorded videos. Some people did baking, dancing, showed artwork, and some people played their instruments.

After that we had the camp awards where we found out who had won each activity.

We had such an amazing time at P6 online camp!

We would like to thank all the teachers for all their hard work to make this possible!

Charlotte L and Caitlin P6P

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G Lower School

Lower School Home Learning Life in lockdown Dear Granddaughter In the year 2020, when I was ten, a virus broke out called the Coronavirus, also known as Covid-19. It started in a place called Wuhan in China and spread all around the world, infecting millions and killing thousands. It was not long after it first broke out that it arrived in the UK. It killed roughly 30 to 40 thousand in the UK alone, but the numbers kept increasing. This put us in lockdown.

Lockdown was put in place by the Government. Lockdown meant that you were only allowed to go out once a day for about an hour. We also had to social distance from our friends and family who did not live in the same house as us.

Social distancing meant that we had to stay two metres from everyone who was not living in our household.

I felt a bit confused when this was all happening because I was not sure when I was going to be able to hug my friends and family again. It was upsetting because I had not seen my friends and family in weeks. I was also not able to hug my grandparents, who I was very close to, for months as the over 70 year olds were at high risk of dying from this virus.

As for school, it was closed during this lockdown period and we had online classes with our teachers and a daily call with our class teachers and our friends.

You might think that school closing would have been fun and yes it was. It was not fun for long though as it got boring and we all just wanted to see each other.

Every Thursday at eight o’clock in the evening we clapped for the NHS staff as they were all putting their lives at risk to stop this deadly virus. We did this to thank them for what they did and how they saved so many lives.

It was not all bad as I spent a lot of time with my close family who lived in the same house and we did a lot of home baking, went on long walks together as a family and had lots of fun together. One of the things I enjoyed the most was the family football and netball games we had together. My sisters and I still had a lot of arguments though.

This time in my life was a mixture of feelings: happy, sad and everything in between. I will never forget it.

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Lower School G

The CREST Project The CREST Project is carried out every year by lower 4s. However, due to Covid-19, we had to do things differently this year. L4 were split into teams of 4 to 5 and with the support of our mentors, we came up with a project idea, carried out an experiment(s), as well as completing a group workbook and an individual workbook. We lastly presented our findings on a PowerPoint which we displayed to our mentor.

Completing the project at home had an impact on everyone, but we found solutions to overcome these problems. I think my group’s project was successful, but lockdown did create some problems. However, it was great that we had the extra challenge and it pushed us to do even better.

We decided to experiment with ‘Does the concentration of salt affect freezing and melting?’ I was excited to carry out this experiment and see how it would compare to my team members’ results. My results showed that the ice cubes with more salt froze faster than ones with less salt. Whereas ice cubes with more salt melted slower than ones with less salt.

I was confident when I was going to report back to

my group, but to my surprise I found that everyone had different results. On one hand it was not great because we couldn’t decide one overall conclusion, but on the other hand it was interesting to see how one experiment can cause different outcomes and it created much debate. I have gained a lot whilst completing this project. I have learned that working in a group is much better than working on my own because it’s more fun, more ideas are developed, and productivity improves. Also, taking my time when completing a task or experiment is essential because it makes whatever I am doing more accurate. There is not a wrong or right answer for science - it's all about the reasoning and information to back it up. Most importantly, this project helped me realise that I do have a passion for science.

I enjoy the fact that science is an endless subject, no one will ever know everything about science and its unlimited potential fascinates me as well.

The CREST Project was incredible, we all enjoyed learning and co-operating in groups in a way that we would never have expected to do.

Chelini Abeyasinghe L4L/P

The Deep Blue Crash go the waves, against the shore Creak go the hinges as I open the door I walk down the road towards sea Passing the gardens, bushes, and trees I feel the cold air on my face As I walk towards my favourite place The concrete slabs, rough on my feet But imagine the sand they are soon to meet soft but grainy and ever so cold With little shells that I can hold It feels so nice in my tiny toes I’m just glad they haven’t froze I hear the seagulls in the sky They flap their wing to make them fly The smell of the sea fills my nose The sun on the horizon as day comes to close I sit on the rock and look at the view Another good day, by the deep blue Katherine Wardlaw in Remove

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G Reflective writing

During lockdown, students reflected on what they missed most

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Reflective writing G

Face-to-face connection Lying on the grass, laughing, talking, reminiscing. The gentle breeze combined with glaring sun makes the perfect temperature. Perfect. As we gaze into the slowly setting sun, memories flood back of the excitement of the day’s activities. Winding down after trying on skirt after ridiculous skirt, matching wacky leopard print leggings with a hideous green bodysuit and crying with laughter at the absurd concoction.

Not even the glares from over-worked shop assistants, as we hand back all the items we had no intention of buying, can dampen our happiness. And of course, the day wouldn’t be complete without a Frappuccino served by a rather unimpressed teenager who would much rather be out shopping themself. Shopping bags in hand, we stroll to the bus stop, waving goodbye and promising we’ll do it all again next weekend.

Then suddenly, there was no next weekend. The endless days of wandering from shop to shop in the pleasant summer sun were gone. When would we be able to leave the house again? When would we be able to walk down a busy street without having to fear coming close to anyone? When would we be able to enjoy the outdoors without the confinement of a tight, uncomfortable mask? Not even those in charge know the answers. We have all been stripped of the simple moments that we took for granted and are now beginning to realise what we miss most.

Others may yearn for fine dining or expensive trips to Barbados, but for me simply being around those I love is what I’m looking forward to the most. One day we will be able to talk and share stories without having to endure crackly connection and blurry screens, and these unprecedented times have made me realise just how important that face-to-face connection really is.

As restrictions slowly begin to be lifted, one step at a time, we can cast our minds forwards to a time when a sneeze won’t induce unnecessary terror and our hands won’t have to be raw from wash upon wash.

Uncertain as we are of when this will be, we know it will be appropriately celebrated. A shaky Zoom meeting finally replaced with a real-life shopping spree; infinite typing replaced with actual speech. Words can’t describe how welcome this day will be, but until then we will continue to battle with ever-breaking broadband!

Flora Henderson

Live every day to the fullest All lockdown, I have been suffering the symptoms of shopping withdrawal syndrome and before you ask, online shopping is just simply not the same! There’s something so enjoyable about exploring hidden charity shops with your best friends, giggling and laughing when you find something so hideous and your eyes lighting up when you find just what you’ve been looking for. I’ve been ashamed that lockdown has driven me to shop unsustainably, with the likes of Shein and Boohoo making a huge comeback. I can’t wait to see my fellow volunteers at my local charity shop and feel like I’m doing something useful for once. At the time I never thought I’d miss it and I feel like that’s an important lesson I’ve learnt during lockdown: you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. Strangely enough I’ve began to miss school, not necessarily the lessons but the breaktimes with my friends and the feeling of leaving on a Friday, with an exciting weekend ahead of me. I also can’t wait to see parts of my family again, my sister who I would visit every week and my dad who lives up north. I’m anticipating the day we will all see each other again and the boardgames we will play together. I’m even missing the inevitable fights and falling outs, just to make up again and realise how much we love each other (also because it's really fun to annoy my brother!).

I miss the warm feeling of hugging my best friends and the sudden uncontrollable laughter over absolutely nothing. I miss the feeling of waking up on a Saturday morning and remembering that you don’t have to wake up for school. I miss the feeling when they call out your McDonald's order, yes, I’m that sad.

The feeling of being a part of something will be strange, I’ve forgotten what it feels like to be in a crowd and being close to lots of other people.

Concerts will feel even more electric than before and a thousand times more exhilarating after being deprived of them for so long. Feeling your heart thump in tune to the music and your ears ringing and your dry throat after screaming along to your favourite song. The realisation that your idol is right there in front of you breathing the same air.

For me the reason it will be so amazing is the fact that we have not been allowed to experience them for so long. The novelty of such minor things will bring me immense joy for the sole reason of finally being able to do them. It will teach me to enjoy things in life that I

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G Reflective writing used to think of as mundane and turn every experience into a memory. This crazy time in our lives has given me the inspiration to live every day to the fullest because everything could change in an instant. Life after lockdown will be so special because I will be sure to make it special. This lack of control I have felt for weeks on end will motivate me to take control, because to me life is what you make it now.

Lily Richardson Baines

Bask in the blessing of a nice, warm hug The intimacy of physical conversation tends to be underappreciated. The experience of watching your counterpart react, hearing their laugher ringing in your ears, watching the fluidity of their facial expression change or noticing the twinkling in their eye when gushing about their passions.

I miss it.

The intimacy of human contact tends to be overlooked. A high-five, an arm around the shoulder... or a really good hug. The type that envelops you in a blanket of warmth, like flames engulfing logs on a fireplace. The type that makes you feel safe, that overwhelms you with care, an unspoken affection.

I miss that.

In our modern day and age, technology provides a means of communication I will forever be grateful for. It is through such means that I met my best friend, after all. But of all the services it provides, of all the beauties of technology... it just cannot replicate the feeling of a nice, warm hug. Yes, without Instagram and Snapchat, there would be no way to communicate with my friends whatsoever. My extroverted self would have been driven straight down into the depths of insanity without those daily conversations: my friends have saved me from having a breakdown one too many times with the simplest “hello,”. And without the reprieve of Netflix, the perfect place to divert one’s attention from thinking a little too hard, I would have definitely had my mid-life crisis way too early. The endless scrolling through social media and the mindnumbing effect has definitely come in handy to unwind. And the little bundle of joy that is Animal Crossing certainly warms the heart, leaving you with a sense of accomplishment with each fish fished (while casually ignoring the crippling debt I am under.

Shouldn’t have gotten that basement).

But does it beat real connections formed with

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real people?

No. I wouldn’t say so.

And so, when the news is flooded with the promises of freedom, here's what I’ll do: I’ll pick up my phone, type a text or two, and slide it right into my back pocket. I’ll meet my friends at the park, bringing offerings of course (other than all my love, which without the accompaniment of snacks may not suffice): summer fruits, sweets, crisps, fizzy drinks... and with my banquet at hand, we’ll have a picnic. And we’ll talk. We’ll laugh. We’ll joke around, swing on the swings, slide on the slide, hang limp and defeated on the monkey bars (just me?). We’ll feast like kings, and enjoy our time together.

I realise that one day, such experiences will come naturally yet again. I will no longer yearn for basic human contact, from those other than my family (they are quite tired of my hugs). One day, probably sooner than expected, the intimacy of human interaction will return to its state of underappreciation. We’ll go back to spending time together communicating through our phones, our own little technological worlds colliding every so often to share a funny video, share music or discuss a topic. But on the day that lockdown ends, I’ll bask in the blessing of a nice, warm hug, and be grateful for the fruits our newfound freedom.

Alice Mahoney-Muir

Humans aren’t meant to be cooped up indoors As an introvert, I would say quarantine hasn't been as taxing for me as for others, but there are downsides to living like a Wall-E Universe extra.

While my screen-time has skyrocketed, and my organisation skills are slowly unraveling along with the patience for my sister, my parents agree that I have way too much free time to myself. When an introvert is left to the world, she finds herself in a sea of all kinds of vibrant personalities bursting with colour and shades she's never seen before. The spectrum of the world is enough to distract her from a chaotic mess that is her mind. I've been left to distract myself from thoughts that troubled me from years ago and were shoved onto the backburner of my brain while I took in the present. But now, the world feels stuck on pause, or a loop that I can't quite figure out the beginning and end of. Spoiler: teenage girl prone to overthinking plus a tsunami of what-ifs doesn’t equal a pretty equation.

The truth is, humans aren't meant to be cooped up

Reflective writing G indoors 24/7 (as the 2008 Pixar animation foresaw).

Humanity is built on diverse interconnection, which can only happen if we are able to interact and see the beauty of our world. Being stuck in lockdown has helped me appreciate the community that I live in.

The joy of dance How am I still sane? Answer: I am not. This is what quarantine does to you. My brain has been doing backflips since lockdown began in a thwarted attempt to comprehend the state of the world. I just miss everything so much: my friends, school, dance, music, even my teachers (shoutout to the Geography, History and English departments). And then, on top of all of that, they cancelled the Fringe and the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

What am I going to do with my summer? Apart from awkwardly running into the same teacher multiple days in a row (yes this did happen and yes it was considerably scary), the Book Festival is the highlight of the holiday. Summer is dead without it (no, I am not being dramatic).

Still, this is an opportunity to learn and experience new things. Re-watching Killing Eve Season 1 (thank you Phoebe Waller-Bridge), Miranda, Peep Show, the National Theatre productions and the Bolshoi Ballet on YouTube are lifesavers. My attempt (albeit unsuccessful) at learning basic Arabic has been amusing too. Genesis – only the best band ever – has provided a great deal of entertainment throughout quarantine, with my sister and I playing the whole 23 minutes and 6 seconds of “Supper’s Ready” on repeat whilst trying to count what time signature the different parts are in.

Apart from binge-watching Fleabag (oh yes, did I mention Phoebe Waller-Bridge has got me through lockdown?) and discovering a love of Klezmer music, quarantine has not been the most exciting.

My grasp on the English language is also becoming increasingly unstable as I gradually become more like a hermit, isolated from society (yet still undeniably atheist). Many hours have been spent rearranging books, first using the Dewey Decimal System, then in colour order, and finally grouped reversealphabetically by the 3rd letter of the author’s surname. MAD? How could you ever say I was mad?

Yet although my sanity may have flown out the

When lockdown is over, I would like to breathe in the fresh air again, knowing that I, fitted into this puzzle of society, can help fix the problems both inside my head and out in the open.

Hanan Hafizal

window in one ungracefully hasty hurdle, I always have the Mulrooney Clan Quiz Nights to cheer me up. These occur on a Saturday at 7pm (should you ever feel the need to come along) and involve 19 mildly deranged Irish people. You have been warned. Last week’s fiercely competitive quiz saw Team Bláithín successfully seize the victory.

I bet you don’t know how to say Bláithín (yes, you).

I will wait here whilst you do a quick Google.

Right, now that’s sorted…

I miss dance. Spinning across the studio, light streaming in the windows. I miss the challenge of always aiming to improve my technique, the artistry needed when learning a new variation, the sound of the swelling music surging from the speakers, like a full orchestra compressed into an iPod. Attempting online dance classes in a 1x2m space is impossible (trust me I have tried), as is trying to hear what my teacher is saying. Miss Buchanan’s distorted voice sounds like someone speaking underwater.

The last 3 months have been spent trying to pirouette on carpet and dance in dead pointe shoes, and honestly, I have suffered for it. My legs are concealed in a blanket of bruises, as I spend three quarters of my time accidentally hitting the furniture I am surrounded by.

Yet I have not lost hope.

It may be hard to imagine walking into Dancebase again with my friends, but I know that it will happen. Whether it be in two months’ time or six, we will experience the joy of dancing again.

Sive Lawrie

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G Reflective writing

To fight again...

We started this year focused on a ‘20/20 Vision’ (a phrase which Specsavers shamelessly appropriated) with ridiculously unachievable goals we giddily set, such as quitting sugar for a month (from personal experience, it's impossible!) and beautiful aspirations like travelling to an unexplored corner of the world . It was going to be the year. It was going to be our year.

Then, Covid-19 happened. The vision blurred. The glasses came off. With it, my goals and aspirations, sending me on a jerking rollercoaster of emotional highs and lows that kept circling back and back over and over again. It felt as if a truck brazenly came swinging by, bulldozing my aspirations in one fell swoop. (Well, at least I received the honour of being among the first ever to have their exams cancelled.

Hurray...)

For some, it has meant their dream of opening a business has crumbled to rubble like the economy. For others, that very special event you've been waiting for months to see has been rescheduled indefinitely. For me, it means I'm likely to be unable to participate in my favourite sport until next year.

What? Which sport could that be?

Judo. Probably the worst sport you could have chosen during a pandemic. Up close and personal, close contact, small spaces, heavy breathing. It spreads viral diseases such as Covid-19 like wildfire.

I long to stride into my dojo, feeling the hard, unforgiving mat beneath my bare feet, my coarse green obi fastened like a boxer's championship belt around my waist, and listen to those terrible 90's songs my club plays in the background while we warm up. To put it simply, I want to fight again. To train again. To feel as if I'm living again.

I miss that feeling. That nervous and giddy feeling that rises like butterflies in your stomach only to twist and tighten into a curling knot, as your muscles tense and jitter like a spring. The background noise fades and all you can hear is your breathing. Then, as you enter that red box, time stands still. In those ephemeral moments, there is only you and your partner. Nothing else matters as you grapple and struggle and pivot yourself in tandem with your partner, beads of sweat rolling off you like rain, muscles aching. Then, you're flying. The pressure is gone, and you throw them. Smack!

They've hit the mat. You've done it.

I look forward to real life Judo. To feel that struggle

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and fail, get back up only to fail again and then win on that mat, with fellow members I haven't seen in three months.

Until then, Zoom will have to suffice. But when the time comes to get back on the mat, that terrible 90's music will be there to welcome me back. And I can't wait.

Emma McCracken

Eating out I miss going for breakfast with my father. I miss waking up early in the mornings to make sure we arrived while they were still serving it. I miss the walking to and from the restaurant. And most of all I miss talking about the previous week over a good meal. Every Sunday we used to get up early, get dressed and make our way to a local cafĂŠ or restaurant to dine in style. Now we sleep in until midday and try our hardest not to burn the food we cook at home. Cooking at home has its charms, it really does, but nothing beats a good restaurant-made breakfast. No amount of practice cooking the bacon, trying to find the perfect time to cook it for, so as to achieve optimal crispiness without it becoming charcoal, will ever be able to rival the bacon found at restaurants.

There are other problems with the home-cooked breakfasts: they lack variety as we are limited by ingredients, skill level and cooking utensils (we currently run a rotation of only three options); they do not provide the same ambience for conversation (there is nothing quite like an early morning walk for conversation) and most importantly they just do not feel as special, sure we spend time preparing the breakfast but we eat it in the same place we would eat anything else, at our uninteresting, kitchen table,

Reflective writing G probably to the sound of my mother preparing my brother’s breakfast in the background. Not to mention that I have been able to see my father all the time, whereas I would usually only see him once or twice in the morning and at night, I now see him at every meal and at all other hours of the day, making time spent together more frequent and slightly less special. What was once a time once a week to get to talk properly has become just another meal spent with little to say.

Once quarantine is over I hope to be able to go out for breakfast once more, to wake up really early and

hurriedly get dressed, to make sure I am ready in time.

To celebrate we will probably go to our most frequented local restaurant (if you can call it that) McDonald's, or maybe we will go to the restaurant that started it all, Toby Carvery. Wherever we go, we will be sure to take a nice long walk there and a wonderful walk back, filled with pleasant conversation about the events of our week, that we have not had time to share yet. It may take a while for this to be reality but I patiently await the day.

Abbey Reid

I watched through paned windows as life recoiled from the streets.

Humanity returned to its burrows and those left walking the paved roads looked in on warm glowing windows.

Time slowed down and yet the days slipped through my fingers like sand evading my grip like the fleeting night.

The months blurred like an underdeveloped photo Taken in a rush.

The sky turned grey and the world was quiet , For the first time in years.

We were forced to embrace this abnormal lifestyle We each fought our own inner battles We prospered together although we were apart Like pieces of a scattered puzzle.

Each step back towards “normality” seemed temporary and uncertain Like a baby foal taking its first fumbling steps We’ve won and lost Conquered and been conquered Whilst we are still battling this virus Despite all the uncertainty there is however one thing I am certain of We will beat COVID 19 We will survive.

Written by Sylvie McAlpine-Lee

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G Old Girls’ Award

Big Bang STEM competition The Big Bang Fair is a national competition that recognises and rewards young people's achievements in all areas of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).

In November 2019, Iman and I entered our Waterpowered Flood Barrier project into the competition through online heats for a chance to showcase our work at The Big Bang Competition Finals in the National Exhibition Centre (NEC), Birmingham.

This stage of the competition required us to create a short video presentation of our idea, which we then developed further after being invited to the finals which were to take place in March 2020.

Our project was judged by leaders in industry and academia, who provided feedback to all competitors and finalists to help them continue to build their ideas, skills and confidence.

We wanted to address the global problem of flooding on an affordable and sustainable level, so we opted to design a flood barrier that required no excess energy to operate and rose automatically to protect infrastructure and homes from flood devastation. The barrier would work using the flood water in a displacement system to move it upwards. This would mean that no manpower or electricity would be needed to install the barrier in the instance of flooding and would, therefore, be more effective in emergency situations.

Our original barrier design consisted mainly of recycled plastics to minimise effects on climate change, whilst being an affordable option for developing countries.

After making it through the online heats, we were contacted by the judges of the Big Bang Fair suggesting that we also enter our project for the UK Junior Water Prize (UKJWP) as this would give us another opportunity to refine and showcase our work.

For the UKJWP I was required to write an academic report including ideas, research and experimental data as well as the maths and physics behind the flood barrier.

I found this experience invaluable, as I learned how to write in an academic style, which will prepare me well for university. Writing the report also allowed me to focus in on the smaller details of the design such as

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Old Girls’ Award G interconnecting the corresponding sections of the barrier, and drainage systems to remove water after a flood event.

In order to obtain experimental data, Iman and I built a scale model of our design using recycled materials and recorded the time taken for the barrier to rise. I then created a computer simulation of our results and scaled this up to find out how the real-life barrier would function.

We wanted our design to be accessible to developing countries, as recovery from damage caused by natural disasters is considerably more difficult when there are minimal or no precautions in place. I contacted the charity ‘Practical Action’ to talk about how we could make the design feasible for developing countries. Adapting our original concept to be made from oil drums, which are often readily available, means that communities can build and install water-powered flood barriers themselves from locally sourced and recycled materials.

After finalising our ideas, I used Computer Aided Design (CAD) software to create a virtual model of the barrier along with an animation to show how it would rise in the instance of flooding.

Following many hours of work, I finished the report and submitted it to the UKJWP. Soon after this, we found out that we had made it to the finals, which would also take place at the NEC during the Big Bang Fair. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, both events had to be cancelled. To our relief, the Big Bang Fair moved the competition online so we were able to compete in the finals after all. We created an in-depth video to present our idea to the judges as if we had been there in person. Despite not being able to interact with the

judges and answer their questions, we were awarded runner up in the Big Bang Fair finals for our project.

The UKJWP held live judging over Zoom which required us to present our project and respond to questions and feedback. This was a nerve-wracking yet valuable experience that will be useful for online university interviews in the coming months.

All in all, my experience proved to be a good one and I would definitely recommend the Big Bang Fair to anyone who is interested in STEM.

Old Girls’ Association Award 2019-20 Winner Over the summer break I decided to design and build my own electric violin for the OGA award. I have been playing violin from a young age, so this along with my passion for engineering inspired me to pursue this as my project. Like many projects, I started by jotting down a few ideas on paper. I then used the CAD software Fusion360 to build a computer model of my design that would allow me to program the CNC milling machine and cut out the body of the violin from wood. Watching my electric violin come together after hours of sanding, redesigning and 3D printing was by far the most rewarding part of my project, as I was able to follow the journey through from an initial idea to a playable instrument. I learned so much through the design and manufacturing process of my violin and really enjoyed using technologies like the CNC milling machine and the 3D printer.

Sophie Reid L6

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G Music

Music

It was a busy year for the Music department. The RMC hosted the Young Musician of St George’s competition in November 2019, a contest which showcased a wide range of talent, and we were treated to performances on a variety of instruments. This was the second year of the Young Musician competition at St George’s, and whilst everyone who participated played beautifully, it was Louise (U6) playing the flute who won the contest. November 2019 also saw the Music department introducing the Young Singer of St George’s competition, which was won by Imogen (U6). Both competitions enabled students to gain valuable experience performing to an audience and to let the school community and beyond hear these talented musicians and singers.

We must, of course, offer congratulations to everyone who had music exams in the autumn and spring terms: well done! Students worked incredibly hard and their efforts coupled with their teachers’ support really paid dividends. In the weeks approaching the music exams many students also attended and performed at the Tuesday lunchtime recitals, which allowed them to become more self-assured in a performance situation. The recitals also ensured that when the diet of exams arrived students had had the opportunity to perform in front of an audience, resulting in a more confident and relaxed approach.

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In the winter term Junior, Lower and Upper School ensembles held their Christmas Concerts, Carol Services and Nativities and, in the true nature of music making at St. George’s, they displayed the musical talent and enthusiasm of the students as well as the dedication of all the staff involved.

Although 2020 has been a difficult year so far, it was encouraging to see that the Music department implemented Teams to communicate with students and to motivate them during the lockdown. Individual instrumental and singing lessons were administered online meaning a quick and steep learning curve for all involved. The outcome was extremely impressive.

In April, Mr Raynor and Mrs Morrison initiated and implemented the Junior, Lower and Upper School performance Teams and encouraged students to upload pieces that they had been preparing for exams or just for their own satisfaction. This way, all their hard work had not been wasted. The Team was a huge success, with girls of all years posting music from different eras and genres, and it has been wonderful to see the teachers joining in as well!

All in all, despite the ups and downs of the academic year, the resilience and perseverance of both the students and teachers have ensured that the Music department has had another successful year. We all look forward to more settled times and a return to happy music making!

Music G

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G Houldsworth House

A year in the life of Houldsworth

Boarding life is an unforgettable experience. Through a tightknit community, friendships are formed, memories are created and yet a lot of hard academic work goes on. It is great preparation for life after school and allows you to become more independent with timekeeping, which at times can be a struggle! However, the houseparents are always on hand to help and through their caring nature you really feel you are in your home from home. Throughout this year there have been some notable dates on the calendar such as the Hallowe’en party where all the boarders and staff dressed up in line with the theme of the year, and the Christmas lunch where the Head joined us for a superb meal prepared by Stuart and the kitchen staff. Every weekend, there was a variety of trips and activities available for us: these included going to the Six Nations games at Murrayfield and Winter Wonderland during the festive period. Even during lockdown the Houldsworth Team was a source of comfort; we knew that the House staff were there for us, “together apart”. Boarding at St. G’s is amazing - we can confidently say that the Upper 6 leavers will miss their time in Houldsworth, and we will miss them.

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Foundation Office

The Foundation Office supports the Old Girls’ Association (OGA) in connecting all members of the St George’s Community.

As an alumna of St George’s, you are part of a ‘Network for Life’. OGA membership provides: • Full lifetime access to the Foundation Network, our online community • The Dragon Magazine, published twice yearly (Spring & Autumn), providing an insight into the lives of our alumnae, and a place to share news past and present. We’ve had several examples of alumnae reconnecting with the school, or with old friends, as a result of reading The Dragon, which is an added bonus.

• Doddie the Dragon, a lucky mascot to take on your travels • The annual alumnae Summer Lunch, hosted on site, with a delicious meal, drinks, tour of the school, archives display, and an opportunity to catch up with former classmates and teachers • A 10-year reunion hosted on site • A bi-annual London reunion • A Hong Kong reunion

You can make connections to find or offer work experience, internships or jobs, depending on where you are in your career. You can find connections that are relevant to you and seek advice on a wide range of businesses and industries. For example, which qualifications are most relevant, interview procedures, opportunities to travel – or anything you want to find out more about. Regional hubs will help to establish connections if you are relocating for University or work.

This year, the Foundation Office supported the Upper Six development programme by arranging speakers from parent and alumnae community, who kindly gave their time to offer weekly online presentations, providing insights and tips on recruitment and careers across a wide range of industries. Useful advice ranged from the academic – which courses might be suitable for certain careers – to the highly practical suggestion of doing a trial run of travel if you can. We are very grateful to all those involved, including current parents, for giving up their time to support the girls this summer.

Unfortunately, our usual programme of summer events had to be postponed due to coronavirus restrictions, but we will be back as soon as it’s safe to do so!

Personal and business networks are increasingly important in finding career options and new opportunities. Now more than ever, as ‘traditional’ modes of working have been disrupted, we rely on the power of our networks to stay connected.

NETWORK St G’s exists as a club within the Foundation Office website, allowing members to CONNECT, INTERACT and GIVE BACK.

Register with the Foundation Network & NETWORK St G’s foundation.stge.org.uk to keep up to date with news and events.

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Photography

Phoebe, Higher Photography

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Niamh, Higher Photography

Aisha, Higher Photography

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Above and right - Phoebe, Higher Photography

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Left and above - Caitlin, A Level Art

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Sukhman, Higher Expressive

Sukhman, Higher Expressive

Rania, Higher Expressive

Harriet, Higher Expressive

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Georgie, Higher Expressive

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Kate AS Level Textiles

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Above clockwise - Ruby, Rania and Issy AS Level Textiles

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Rania AS Level Textiles

Kate AS Level Textiles

Lower 5 Printmaking

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Left and above - Upper 5 Portraiture

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Sahiba, A Level Art

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Sahiba, A Level Art

Primary 6 Printmaking

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G Sport

Hockey Highlights Across all the school teams from P6 to the First XI the girls are to be praised for their level of team working, commitment and determination, and all their hard work was rewarded with numerous successes throughout the season. Notable wins for the First XI included a 6-0 win against Kilgraston School, a 6-2 win against Edinburgh Academy and a 4-1 win against the High School of Dundee. The Second XIs trained with aggression and passion to improve for themselves as individuals and for each other. Each game they listened and learned and in turn results were excellent, with a notable 1-0 win over MES and a 5-0 win over Fettes.

The 3rd, 4th and 5th XIs had successful seasons with girls from all three senior year groups working well together to make excellent progress and achieve pleasing performances and results. The highlights of the season were a 2-1 win over Strathallan for the 3rds, a 3-0 win over Fettes for the 4ths and a 6-2 success against Fettes for the 5ths.

Lower 5 Hockey club this year had over 40 girls coming to practices on Monday afternoons and participating in matches for the ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ teams on Saturdays, with lots of girls attending extra sessions on Friday mornings too. Undoubtedly the highlight of the season was the Scottish Cup success – a first for St George’s and there is a full separate report on page 82!

The Upper 4 ‘A’ team had a lot of close matches throughout the season with a highlight being a 4-1 win over The High School of Glasgow. The girls played some very effective, mature hockey, which was evident at the East District tournament at the end of the

season, unfortunately missing out on the semi-final of the Cup due to goal difference. The girls then narrowly missed out on winning the plate final, which was decided on running penalties.

The ‘B’ and ‘C’ teams also enjoyed successful seasons. The ‘B’ team were a particularly strong side with a winning streak of 6 games in a row during the season. The ‘C’ squad also enjoyed a competitive season, being joined by a lot of new players after Christmas. The girls had their best team performance against Fettes College, winning 5-0.

The Lower 4 ’A’ team played in the East District Tournament and, after a tough section, qualified for the second tier plate competition where they beat Fettes on running penalties in the semi-final, before going on to play their best hockey against North Berwick High School in the final. St George’s won with a convincing 5-0 result.

The final tournament of the Remove season saw the girls win their group, meaning they went into the Cup semi-final where a tight game against George Heriot’s resulted in a draw. The dreaded running penalties came next, but with true grit and determination, we beat George Heriot’s to take us into the final against George Watson’s College. After a very close game and some good defending we unfortunately conceded late on, leaving us little time to try and get an equaliser. A good effort by the whole team and a nice way to finish the season.

A particular high point for the P6 Hockey club was the fantastic achievement of winning the ESMS Primary 6 tournament. A fantastic year for the club as a whole with lots of positive experiences for all girls who were a part of that.

Individual successes At the Inter-District Tournament this year Emma Fraser (U6), Georgie Yuille (L6), Amy Guijarro (L6) and Lulu Harvey-Crawford (L6) all represented East District U18s winning the Gold medal. Ciara Moore (U5) and Kate Bole (L5) represented East District U16s at the Inter District Tournament which went down to nail-biting running penalties and saw the girls come away with the silver medal. Naesi De

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Zoeten (U5) also represented South during the Inter District Tournament. From their performances during the tournament, both Emma Fraser (U6) and Georgie Yuille (L6) were called up to join the U18 Girls Scotland Squad. Ciara Moore (U5) was selected to be a part of the U16 Girls Scotland Training Squad and Kate Bole (L5) was asked to join the U15 Scotland Development Squad. Well done girls!

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G Sport Scottish Cup Champions “The winners of the Junior Schools’ Cup 2020 – St George’s School!” The scenes of jubilation following these words are a sight that will live long in the memory for all who were present at Glasgow National Hockey Centre on Friday 6th March 2020. For the team, however, this match was simply the final moment in a year of hard work.

The team’s Scottish Cup journey began in late September with a tough first round draw, away at High School of Glasgow who would go on to lift the Scottish Plate, demonstrating what we knew at the time – we had defeated one of the best teams in the competition.

After Christmas, belief was growing as the team gelled and the girls set themselves the target of winning the Scottish Cup. They committed to giving themselves the best possible chance and this meant extra practices on many Tuesday and Thursday mornings, working on goalscoring and penalty corners among other things. The quarter final arrived in late January and the team was just hitting top form with a 7-0 win over St Columba’s as the result.

The semi-final with Strathallan was also at home and

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the girls were backed by a strong St George’s support.

In the end, the girls secured a much deserved 4-2 win.

On to the final. The girls put in 60 minutes of vigorous energy and effort – and that was just the singing on the bus journey! Our driver needed a lie down, but the team simply re-focused their energy on the task at hand. The team was motivated and inspired by the dedicated group of supporters who arrived in Glasgow with their signs, face paint and enthusiastic voices – and, of course, the drum!

As the game began, play went from end to end. At the end of the half, St George’s showed their work rate and commitment in defence as they dealt with a spell of pressure, Kitty saving twice from Heriot’s best opportunities. The second half continued in the same vein; St George’s were excellent in defence and had further chances to score. The key moment in the game arrived with 8 minutes remaining. Tess, who had performed brilliantly throughout, suffered a cut to the eye while defending bravely. There was a break in play and following the restart, Kate scored a wonderful winning goal. The girls saw out the win to cue celebrations on the pitch and in the stand. Well done Lower 5 ‘A’, class of 2020 - a perfect way to end your time together as a team!

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Equestrian Every year several St. George’s girls compete for the school in equestrian events. This year has been very different for our team members due to Covid -19. Many events both large and small were cancelled and there was no knowledge of when they would return. Sadly too, for the very few inter-school events that were held prior to Covid 19, our team members were unable to attend or compete as a team as they were competing at other events. That said, they have had a number of individual successes and are regularly placed in national competitions in all three disciplines – cross-country, dressage and show jumping. We are always on the look out for new equestrian competitors, so anyone who is interested should please contact Mrs Goodbrand.

Here is a flavour of some of their successes this year: Olivia Anderson: Olivia won the 90cm Championship at the Scottish Home Pony International and competed at the British Show jumping Academy finals at Stoneleigh on Lakeview Samson.

Rosie Simpson: Last summer Rosie qualified 6th in Regional Pony Club eventing. Since then she qualified for the Pony Club League Championships and the British Riding Novice Championships but sadly, both were cancelled!!!

Marni McMyn: Last June, Marni and her pony Jester came fourth in the British Show Jumping junior 128cm pony class run at the Royal Highland Show (RHS). They were also invited by the RHS Show Organisers to take part in the invitational Mini Major. They were paired up with the professional show jumper David Harland to compete against 7 other pairs and they came third. In addition, Marni was in the squad for potential selection for the Scottish 128cm team at the Scottish Home Pony International and Welsh Home Pony International.

Tess McMyn: Tess has continued her success with her pony Jac coming fifth in the 138cm pony class at the Royal Highland Show last June and being on the squad for potential selection for the Scottish 138cm Show jumping team.

However, the highlight of the year for Tess and Jac was competing in the National 138cm Pony Championship show jumping final at the Horse of the Year Show in October. They were the only Scottish rider and pony combination who qualified for this and, in addition, Tess won ‘Most Improved 138 Rider 2019.’

Although they did not win the event, they did finish well and enjoyed the experience. This was an amazing achievement for their first time qualifying.

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Badminton Lower School

This year's Badminton club was very well attended. The girls always arrived ready to play with big smiles, and got quickly into fun games. There were always a few favourite games requested each week such as 'spaceinvaders' as well as a few new ones to keep it fresh. A particular highlight of this club was the way in which the girls got a chance to interact across different year groups. It was pleasing to see the Lower 4 girls encourage and promote friendships whilst developing badminton. A great effort from all who attended.

Senior School Senior Badminton Club was very well attended for yet another year with courts overflowing every Friday evening. A large number of Upper 4 girls attended which is exciting for future years. We had some friendly matches against MES and Strathallan where we narrowly lost but it was great to give girls the experience of playing competitive games. Well done to all girls for their commitment and enthusiasm every week.

Cross Country

The cross country runners have had a great year and it has been fantastic to welcome some younger runners into the group. They have trained hard through challenging conditions and raced some great courses.

In the Lothian League season, St George's School was represented in all age categories with success coming in the Primary and Junior girls. In the Primary team competition, St George’s A team finished in 3rd place, with Florence Henry finishing the league in 9th place. Mairi McLintock, Francesca Earl, Imogen Thompson and Abby MacLennan all achieved a top 10 spot in one or more of the races. Anise Macauley-Orr retained her title in the individual category of the Junior girls, with the team of Anise, Sophie Hems, Amelia Cormack and Caitlin McCracken finishing in 2nd place.

In the Fettes Relay portion of the League, St George’s fielded an incredible 4 teams in the Primary

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category. Francesca, Florence and Imogen raced well together to finish in 3rd place. In the Junior category, both teams finished in the medal positions, with Anise, Sophie and Caitlin claiming 2nd and Robyn Macdonald, Amelia and Florence claiming 3rd.

The Scottish Schools Secondary Cross Country Championships were held again at Hopetoun House.

The course was challenging with both the weather conditions and the mixed terrain. There were 206 athletes in the D girls’ category. Amelia and Sophie raced well with Caitlin, finishing in 55th place. Having moved an age group to group B, Robyn and Anise both ran great races, with Anise finishing in 18th position.

The Lower School runners had an event that was dedicated to them and they rose to the challenge.

In the 35th Scottish Prep Schools Cross Country Championships, held at John Muir Country Park, there was a record turnout of 332 runners from 12 schools. The U11 team of Francesca, Imogen, Abbey, Scarlet Gilchrist–Adams and Amelia Taylor stormed to 2nd place. Francesca ran well into 3rd place individually with Imogen on her heels to finish in 4th.

The U13 team of Florence, Mairi, Caitlin, Amelia, Sophie, Amelia Marshall and Ella Prest raced well to place in 4th position, with Florence individually finishing in the top 10.

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Fitness club Fitness club, which runs on Tuesday mornings before school, was a pleasure to take this year. Around 20 girls were dedicated through the dark winter mornings and came and worked incredibly hard. Sessions are always varied and allow girls to push themselves as hard as they feel possible each day. Every session has an optional ‘finisher’ and every week the whole squad stayed and worked hard. Well done and we hope to see you all next year.

Lacrosse This year we have had a keen core group of players who have committed to Lacrosse. It’s always tricky to practise for the first term without any fixtures but this time allows us to get the basics right and leaves us to focus on team attack and defence in the second term. As in previous years, we have introduced some indoor fixtures which lets us play friendlies against local opposition. These games were very close, particularly against Loretto, where we played a number of indoor games at U-14 and U-15 level with only a few goals to separate the teams. These games were the first competitive games for our Lower 4s and they rose to the challenge.

The highlight of the season was the U-15 tournament at Loretto. This team was made up of a mix of U-15 and U-14 and the youngest players certainly made an impression. They were solid in defence and dynamic in attack. Once they realised

it was going to be difficult to run the length of the pitch every time we had possession, they settled into some nice passages of play. This was the girls’ first competitive game playing the new 10-a-side format and they adjusted very quickly, especially the midfield. Having topped the group, we went into the 1st/2nd play-offs against Glenalmond. This had been our toughest group game so we were prepared for a tight game. The girls played well, communicating well in defence and creating lots of scoring opportunities in attack. The final score was 8-3, a hard-earned win against a good Glenalmond side ensuring the overall win. Well done to all the players this season. Congratulations to Katie Binsted who was selected for the Scotland A team U-19 Home Internationals and to Robyn MacDonald who was selected for the B team. A great achievement and reward for all their hard work.

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Netball Netball at St. George’s is booming! Girls from P6 to U6 are enjoying the opportunity to develop their skills at club, play friendly matches against other schools and compete in regional and national competitions.

Lower School numbers at club have been gradually increasing every year and it is wonderful to see the girls’ enthusiasm for the sport. The P6s and Removes had an action-packed autumn term with training and friendlies against Bruntsfield P.S, Edinburgh Academy and St. Peter’s P.S. In the Edinburgh Primary Schools' Winter Tournament, the P6 team were undefeated, winning five games and drawing one. This was a fair play tournament and no winners were recorded but the girls were delighted with their success. The Remove team also did very well to reach the semifinals in their tournament. Unfortunately, they had a very tough game against Cramond P.S and just missed out on a place in the final.

Upper School netball has also been very popular, and it has been the best attendance at a senior club (L5-U6) for many years. The U4s have shown some great enthusiasm throughout the year and it was a good opportunity for all club members to participate in a friendly tournament with Balerno, MES and a visiting school from England at the start of the spring term.

The Scottish Schools’ Cup is one of the most popular events in the country for netball and each year

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we enter three teams from different year groups. U4, L5 and senior teams participated in the competition this year and there have been some impressive performances along the way.

The U4s have been a dedicated and determined group! They have been undefeated throughout the competition and were entered into the silver section of the competition, as a result of a draw with Balerno H.S and goal difference determining their fate. In the knockout rounds they had convincing wins against Hawick H.S and Trinity H.S from Glasgow to proceed to the semi-final. They made the trip to Strathallan for the game and were nervous yet determined to reach the final. It was a magnificent team performance: the girls pulled on all their individual and team strengths and were deserving winners. The final was due to take place against Berwickshire H.S in March but was unfortunately postponed. Fingers crossed there will be the opportunity for this to take place before the end of the session. Well done girls for such a fantastic achievement!

The L5s were also a very committed group this year and it was pleasing to see some new girls join the club.

The Scottish cup team reached the silver section of the competition after one defeat in their rounds. In the knockout section, the girls progressed very well, beating Jordanhill and Thurso High School along the way. In their quarter-final, the girls faced an

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Swimming experienced school from Renfrewshire, Williamwood High School, who won the competition last year. Unfortunately, it was just too tough on the day and the girls suffered a heavy defeat. Well done for a great year and hopefully you will all be back for more next session.

The senior girls, a mixture of U5s, L6s and U6s, have really gelled together well this year and have been an encouraging and supportive team.

They were the only group to make it into the gold section of the cup, after a successful run of games in the first round. Unfortunately, they faced an experienced Robert Gordon's team from Aberdeen in the first round and their cup run ended early. Throughout the season, some of the senior girls have supported with younger netball clubs and the attitude to help develop netball in lower years has been fantastic. Well done for your dedication to netball throughout the years and, U6s, make sure you join a team wherever you end up next year!

Miss Collins would like to say a huge thank you to all the girls that have participated in netball throughout her 12 years at the school. It has been an absolute pleasure for her to develop the sport over the years and to work with so many dedicated students. All she would like you to do, is keep playing and sharing your love of netball!

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This year saw the introduction of the St George’s Swimming Time Trials. It allowed our inexperienced swimmers to gain valuable experience competing in a gala, with the more experienced swimmers using it as a warm up for the session and to be considered for the upcoming competitions throughout the year. With the Upper 6 Sports Leaders volunteering their time to help run the gala, around 20 swimmers competed in a variety of races over both 50m and 100m in all 4 strokes. Vittoria and Carolina Quattrone, Bella Geard, Tami Falope and Charlotte Duffin used the trials to qualify for the Edinburgh Schools Swimming Gala.

The Annual Girls’ Schools Association Swimming Gala against The Mary Erskine School, St Margaret’s School, Kilgraston and Fernhill was the first meet of the calendar. The girls raced well as a team to finish in third position.

The Edinburgh and Midlothian Swimming Gala held at Ainslie Park swimming pool was a successful gala for the St George’s swimmers with a number of personal best times achieved by the girls. In the primary category, Bella Geard finished in the top 10 for her 50m butterfly and freestyle.

In the secondary category, Flora Nicholls claimed 3rd in the 400m freestyle and 4th in the 100m butterfly. Cara Farquharson claimed 4th in her 100m breaststroke, with Annabelle Mathers and Amber Devin finishing 6th in the 100m freestyle in their respective age groups. The team of Amber, Annabelle, Cara and Flora finished just outside the medals for the 4 x 50m Open Relay.

Flora qualified for the 400m freestyle event at the Scottish Schools Swimming Competition in Glasgow.

The last competition of the calendar was the 5th Annual ESMS v St George’s & Merchiston Castle School Swimming gala that was held in February and hosted by ESMS. All races score points for both girls and boys, with St George’s score being added to Merchiston to give a combined total.

The girls produced some great swims and even managed to beat the boys in a few races.

Unfortunately, the combined St George’s / Merchiston score was unable to beat ESMS and we finished in second place.

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G Staff

Staff Leavers Morven Peden Teacher of Primary - 35 years at St George’s

weekday mornings to its very own special parking place.

But, Morven, we know that your daily journeys will be in different directions now. We hope you enjoy spending time with your beloved family – Faith and Alec and your sister, Jane. You’ll be spotted in many a coffee shop in Bruntsfield, I’m sure. Do remember to come back in more usual times for a proper send off from us all…

Patricia Lancaster Teacher of English - 32 years at St George’s

It goes without saying that, when Morven leaves us at the end of this term, the Junior School just won’t be the same without her because she has been with us at St George’s since 1985, sharing those years between Junior School and Primary 6 in Lower School. On the announcement of her retiral, there was a deluge of good wishes from parents, whose daughters have been lucky enough to have been in Morven’s class at some point on their St George’s journey. Interestingly, there was a message of disappointment from one parent lamenting the fact that their daughter wouldn’t have the opportunity to be in Mrs Peden’s class in the future!

Over the years, Morven has shared her wisdom, common sense, vast experience and what we all enjoy - her conversation and quick wit. In the past few years she has been in the Primary 4 ‘double act’ with Alasdair Dunlop, where their skills have complemented each other perfectly. I know that he, for one, will miss the daily banter with Mrs P! In our lockdown weeks of home learning, Morven will not mind me saying that her IT skills have been tested to the limit but, with her usual spirit and willingness to try new things, and with cheerful aplomb, she has mastered the essentials of running a virtual classroom, which she could never have imagined doing at the turn of the year. (She joins many of us in that respect).

So, there will be no sign in the future of a little black Mini being driven through the playground early on

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If you cut Tricia through the middle, you would see St George’s written there. When soliciting colleagues for words to share on what Tricia has meant to them over the years, there was an overwhelming response – far too many words to contain here, and no handful of paragraphs could ever be a fitting tribute to a teacher, colleague and friend so valued by so many.

Tricia is a teacher with real flair and creativity: she has always cared deeply about the students in her classes, and the different ways in which she could inspire and support them to achieve success. She drew every bit as much satisfaction from soaring around the Lower School, co-ordinating swooping flights of children studying ‘The Snow Goose’ as she did from discussing the nuances of language with our Advanced Higher classes; she inspired every student she taught, and every colleague with whom she worked.

A warmly compassionate, caring human being – something that was a real strength in her former role as

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Deputy Head Pastoral – Tricia extends this empathy to all her colleagues and students alike, and no favour or request was ever too much for her. Always happy to help out in a crisis, or to pitch in to problem solve, she brings wisdom, patience and a supportive demeanour with her. She knows that teaching is about more than the curriculum, it’s about the whole person, and believes passionately in student – and staff – wellbeing. Nothing was ever too much for Tricia, and many a colleague found in her a sympathetic ear and a supportive shoulder.

Tricia’s joy, her infectious spirit, her joie de vivre, will also be missed. Her enthusiastic involvement in the school’s life – in Diversity Days, the staff pantomime, as a character from Mamma Mia, a Teletubby, a Beatle, and many more – typify the cheerful abandon with which she embraces opportunities for fun in learning. Finding light and laughter in learning was such a cornerstone of her lessons, that the joy seemed to radiate from the classes in which she taught.

Those who know Tricia are aware of her love of nature, and growing things. Her work with the Botanical Gardens has brought her much joy, and we know she is looking forward to dedicating more time there. She often brought that love of nature to school with her, whether that was in flowers and plants to decorate the English base, using foliage and vegetables as teaching props, or the beautifully intricate wrapping of her annual Secret Santa gifts, incorporating leaves and flowers (so recognisable, in truth, that her gifts were never much of a secret!).

As one colleague put it: “being with Tricia just makes me feel a little warmer towards the world and that things will somehow work out - as long as there are people like her to lead and adventure with.” Tricia is valued, treasured and much loved by all who have had the joy of working with her, or being in her classes, and it is hard for us to imagine school life without her.

Norma Kerr Head of Faculty of PE - 29 years at St George’s Norma started her career at St George’s in August 1991, as Principal Teacher, Head of Physical Education and since then has served the school and the wider educational community in Scotland in a number of different ways.

At the heart of all that she has done has been her commitment to helping children and young people to

develop a positive relationship with physical activity and to embedding this relationship as habits for life.

Norma came to us with a significant career in international hockey behind her, having been capped 101 times for Scotland. Although an elite performer herself, a consistent feature of her philosophy of education is to be inclusive in her teaching, and she has been a passionate advocate of finding ways to enable all her pupils to access physical education and sport, whatever their apparent ability. Under Norma, our PE curriculum has expanded to include yoga, bike ability, orienteering and an array of sports leadership qualifications and life skills which ensure that there is a very important element of choice in our provision, and something for everyone, beyond the conventional team sports which have also flourished under her leadership. She has also pioneered work at school based on findings of The Institute for Neuro Physiological Psychology for our students, to address the long-term issues caused by retained reflexes, and led the group that supports some of our children every year.

Norma has had a long-standing association with the SQA, with whom she has held a number of significant positions, most recently Principal Assessor for Advanced Higher PE. Her considerable expertise in the teaching of PE as an academic subject has been a great asset to St George’s. Norma’s professional interests are wide ranging; she has been invited to teach students on the PGDE course at Edinburgh University and has also successfully undertaken the SCIS leadership course. Within school this breadth of

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G Staff interest is also apparent. Norma has overseen our school House system as House Co-ordinator, and has developed a carefully structured, challenging and engaging series of outdoor education experiences for our students, which form an integral part of their curriculum in Primary 7 and S1 and as part of an optional programme in S2, S3 and S6. Passionate about developing student leadership capacity, Norma has also organised a residential programme for S6 pupils. She was a key figure in developing our Trios programme for staff, a structure which allowed for cross-departmental professional development and reflection for colleagues across the school. This work was highly praised in the school’s most recent inspection.

Energetic, creative, reflective, always seeking a new challenge, Norma is a highly skilled teacher to her core. She is deeply committed to securing the best outcomes for young people. She knows her students well and has the versatility to teach across the whole age range at this 3-18 school, where PE is taught to pupils from Nursery to S6.

In a career that has spanned nearly thirty years at this school, Norma has contributed in countless ways to creating a positive experience for hundreds of young people, whether through their PE lessons, Sport, a varied and challenging programme of outdoor education or through the delight they take in involvement in House events.

Norma has been a valued part of St. George’s PE community for almost 30 years and has decided to step back from holding a leadership position at the School. A return to teaching, however, is a consideration for Norma. We wish her all the best with her future plans and endeavours.

Nursery & Junior School Kathy Wawro Teacher of Support for Learning for 10 years As is so often the case with very talented people, Kathy hides her light under a bushel. She is a born linguist and loves nothing better than to experience other languages and cultures – her first degree was in French before she quickly realised her other passion: helping and encouraging others, first as a primary teacher, then as a Learning Support teacher at St Margaret’s School for Girls in Edinburgh, from where she joined our own Junior School in 2010.

And how lucky we were. It wasn’t long before

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pupils and staff alike came to appreciate just the lengths Kathy would go to help people. From her sensitivity in nurturing students experiencing difficulty, to her wonderfully imaginative development of resources, to her warmth and generosity of spirit when supporting other class teachers – the ways in which Kathy has gone over and above the call of duty are simply too numerous to mention.

Kathy embodies the meaning of the words, ‘Parttime hours, full-time commitment’. For her, the pupils have always come before any timetable constraints, and she has frequently been seen meeting with parents before and after the school day, fitting in extra lessons in lunch-time and breaks, and offering TLC through her specialist sessions, most notably the “Seasons for Growth” programme, which has benefited so many of our younger girls.

But Kathy’s passions extend well beyond St George’s.

She has been an absolute rock in supporting her husband Mike and her daughters Katie and Sophie – as well as her family in Aberdeen and Ireland – through some challenging times recently. Not to mention her beloved dog Rory, who is sure to enjoy even more walkies in future! Adding to that her love of yoga, Zumba, reading, yoEuropean cinema, Asian cooking, friendships and travel, and we can be sure there will be little time for her to miss St George’s – even though we will be missing her enormously!

Annelie Strydom Teacher of Primary for 10 years The Junior School share that they have been so lucky to have had Annelie with them for the past ten years.

Girls have benefited from her gentle demeanour and a firm but fair approach to almost everything she turns

Staff G her hand to. Her measured serenity brings a calmness to a classroom be it art, literacy, numeracy or even cross-stitching, and teaching younger girls the mastery of needlecraft demands the ultimate in patience. But Annelie has plenty to go round.

She has been a valuable member of the Primary 3 team most recently and I know that Helen and Fiona will miss her in particular but we all will, and you will always be held fondly in our thoughts.

Kinghorn is a long way from Edinburgh, let alone South Africa, but now Annelie is putting roots down there and is ready to become a part of a vibrant, village community. She has her hands full with an energetic toddler and an exuberant dog – so she really has a busy time ahead , but a happy one and she leaves with our love and best wishes, as long as there are plenty invitations over to the kingdom of Fife!

Nimisha Mistry-Caxaria Early Years Practitioner for 3 years After over three years with St George’s Nursery, Mrs Nimisha Mistry-Caxeria will leave us at the end of the summer holidays in pursuit of new adventures in her husband’s native Portugal.

During her time in our Nursery, Mrs Mistry-Caxaria has shown love, care and warmth to all of the children.

We were delighted to share in her excitement last year in the lead up to her wedding day. She has been a supportive and friendly colleague to the Nursery team and we thank her for her commitment to Nursery+ and Holiday Club where she helped to provide a welcoming environment for our families. In particular, Nimisha has been an enthusiastic advocate for our nursery cookery activities and we shall remember fondly the delicious dishes she developed for the children and staff team.

We wish Nimisha well for her new adventures abroad and we wish her lots of good luck and happiness for her future.

Upper School Nicola Collins Teacher of PE and Pastoral Leader / Transition Tutor 12 years at St George’s Contributed by Norma Kerr When Nicola arrived at St George’s she was immediately drawn to the eagerness and appetite for participation shown by Lower School girls: this has never left her. Nicola is always delighted to see these

girls grow in confidence, create close relationships with their peers, and enjoy their learning whether this be in PE lessons; sports clubs; camping adventures with L4; language and cultural trips to Spain and France; Lower School productions; or as part of Team Santa in Remove Outdoor Education!

Nicola’s expertise in and passion for netball – having played at European and International Level – were the catalysts for its expansion in curricular PE and extracurricular sport at St George’s. Many girls benefitted from the opportunities and encouragement she provided. The steady stream of skilled and enthusiastic netball players in school is testament to Nicola’s dedicated and inclusive approach. Her organisational ability and attention to detail were well recognised: this helped her manage successful Scottish Cup involvement for all the teams in addition to regular clubs and fixtures and in fulfilling her extensive teaching and pastoral commitment.

Nicola’s all-round expertise was also fully utilised to enrich the PE provision through her enthusiastic involvement in the development of yoga, dance, volleyball, football and fitness activities. Her determination to maximise learning opportunities for everyone was always evident. These admirable personal qualities and excellent professional commitment were demonstrated in the individual care and attention she offered all her pupils and highlighted when she organising an imaginative, challenging and varied programme of activities to supplement SQA National 5 courses once assessments were complete.

Nicola is a kind and considerate colleague who will be greatly missed by all those who worked with her.

We wish her every success and happiness in her new adventures in Germany.

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G Staff Contributed by Mel Benson, Head of Lower School Nicola has played a significant role in Lower School throughout her teaching career at St George's. She started as a form tutor, followed by becoming the Remove Senior Tutor in 2016. More recently, Nicola was appointed Pastoral / Transition Tutor in the Lower School Leadership team. She has been involved in a number of events, socials, initiatives with Primary 6, Remove and Lower 4 girls, and has consistently led the buddy system, Young Carers and Murrayfield Nursing Home community work.

She is always ready to help out and will put her hand to anything - nothing is too much trouble. Nicola has helped many girls navigate their way through the challenges of these transition years and has had a big influence on developing resilience too. Her calm manner, sense of humour and rapport with both girls and colleagues will be very much missed by the Lower School community. The girls have been very fortunate to have had Nicola as a role model.

Mairi Rice Teacher of IT, Computing & Psychology for 3 years Mairi’s desk is easy to spot in the Enterprise Centre: it is the oasis of tidy piles and neat stacks of paper amongst the detritus that fills the room and overlooked by lists and planning charts on the wall like road signs that say “beware - organised person ahead”. Mairi is an individual mix of contrasts: a computer nerd who understands people, a list person who doesn’t like ticking boxes, a firm teacher who loves her students, a no-nonsense person who likes fun, a kind of old-fashioned teacher with modern, forward-thinking methods, someone who says “you would be mad to do that job,” then volunteers to do it.

Mairi joined us back in December 2017 and made an immediate, positive impact. We wanted to improve the digital and computer skills of all our girls and Mairi has been instrumental in the development and delivery of this. A pivotal day for Mairi was a lesson when her Psychology class (yes, she teaches that too!) had a list of numbers in a column on an Excel spreadsheet: when asked to add them up they got out their calculators I would love to have seen her exasperated expression.

So, this improvement is a work in progress! Not many of us can say that we have worked with classes from Primary 1 to Upper 6 and are just as good with both, and qualified in two subjects and are just as good at both.

Above all I think the things Mairi dislikes the most are injustice and unfairness. She believes everyone should

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be treated the same, given the same opportunities and given the same chance to succeed. Mairi takes the same joy from the achievements and attainments of her weakest student as her strongest. This is the fundamental ethos of our school and why Mairi fitted in so quickly. Mairi will be friendly to everyone in the same way. I think if you wanted to create a spreadsheet of individual staff interactions with all other members of staff and analysed the results on a graph: 1. Mairi would love that 2. Mairi would volunteer to do it 3. Mairi would be in the 99th percentile 4. She will be sorely missed

Rebecca Loxton Teacher of English for 2 years Despite only being with us for two short years, Becca will be sorely missed by us all. She is well loved by her students, who appreciate her calm demeanour and dry wit (traits also very much valued by her colleagues!)

Indeed, only her car’s frequent breakdowns seem to ruffle her feathers, and she has taken lockdown – and its impact on her wedding plans – in her stride.

A dedicated teacher, Becca is methodical and strategic in her approach to planning and instruction, ensuring students are stimulated and entertained, and are well-drilled in their important skills. She is reliable and reassuring and has consistently demonstrated an admirable degree of patience with her classes. We wish Becca and her husband-to-be Peter all the best.

Craig Walker Principal Teacher of Maths for 2 years Craig Walker joined us as Principal Teacher of Mathematics in August 2018. Previous to this he had taught at George Heriot’s for eighteen years. Although Craig has been with us for a relatively short time he has thrown himself into life at St George’s with enthusiasm, bringing with him many years of experience in teaching Mathematics. He is both an excellent mathematician and teacher.

Those colleagues who have got to know Craig well in his time at St George’s will appreciate his positive approach to his work and his great sense of humour.

Not forgetting his love of anything Star Wars related.

He has formed good working relationships with colleagues and friendships that will last.

Craig has built excellent relationships with the girls and we will all miss hearing his, sometimes quite loud, voice echoing through the Maths corridor. His

Staff G enthusiasm for the subject is contagious and he has encouraged and nurtured many girls, who do not always appreciate the subject in the way Mathematics teachers do, to succeed and enjoy Mathematics.

Craig’s passion for the subject lies in the Mathematics of Mechanics. He is the Principal Assessor for the SQA Advanced Higher course and is dedicated to furthering the development of this course around Scotland. We have certainly appreciated his input in the development of the course here at St George’s.

Craig will be greatly missed but I am very pleased that he is moving on to become Head of Mathematics at Stewart’s Melville College. This is an excellent next step in his career and we wish him every success in his new role.

Facilities Roseanna Skyba Facilities Assistant - 35 years at St George’s Roseanna joined the staff of St George’s School on 1st September 1985 as a member of the Facilities Team and was initially one of the Team of Cleaning Staff under the supervision of the Janitor of the time – Mr Bobby Falconer.

Roseanna quickly proved herself to be a very capable and flexible member of staff and so, as often happens, took on additional and diverse responsibilities.

For many years, once her cleaning day was over, Roseanna headed across to Lansdowne House, home to St George’s Junior boarding students, where she assisted Sally Browning in the preparation and clearing of the Boarders’ evening meals.

Roseanna then diversified even further to work in the Junior School as a Playground and Lunch Time assistant, a role which she really enjoyed. Roseanna could often be found joining in with skipping and other games at lunch times.

When the decision was made to move all Boarders into Houldsworth House and run boarding as one large family, Roseanna also moved and took on the role of Housekeeper in Houldsworth to assist House Staff with the smooth daily running of the house. This role included a Saturday commitment which she carried out until 2009 when she made the decision it was time to cut back a little and spend more time with her family.

Roseanna was always very proud of her Polish roots and her knowledge of the Polish language and Polish cookery. A few years ago, she, her sister Sharon and

granddaughter Amber, had the chance to visit family they had not met before. It was an emotional trip but she was very pleased to have had this opportunity.

She is now looking forward to her retirement – the last few months have given her a taste for what it will be like, and she is enjoying it!

Roseanna has told Margaret Imlah that she is glad she will now have more time to spend with her husband Peter, her sons Ian and Mark, her grandchildren, Amber and Rory and her dog – Costello!

Boarding Megan Hammell Graduate Boarding Assistant Megan has been a firm fixture at St George’s since birth, with a brief respite for her degree! Her own experience of the school has been such a help to the boarders and she quickly became the IT expert on the Houldsworth staff, producing a wonderful end of year scrapbook and even turning her hand to virtual ‘Annie’ for Lower School. We wish her every success for the future.

Clare Mclaughlin Assistant Housemistress Clare has been a valued member of the Houldsworth team since August 2018, and has been Assistant Housemistress this session. She is very organised, imaginative when it comes to organising trips (even virtual ones this term) and the girls' complicated travel plans, and always has a smile, no matter how busy she is. We are delighted she is staying on to look after the ‘quarantineys’ in August and wish her every success for the future.

Susan Hughes Visiting Music Teacher - 24 years at St George’s Sue Hughes joined the music department, as a flute teacher, in January 1996.

She soon brought her own unique energy and musical contribution to the school, and, as such, built up several days teaching, with beginners all the way up to Grade 8 students benefitting from her expertise and enthusiasm.

Over the years, Sue has created successful flute ensembles in each area of the school, as well as directing the Lower School Wind Band in many a lively performance. Latterly, she has added to her teaching portfolio in guiding students safely through the challenges of Grade 5 theory examinations.

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G Staff Simpson and, most recently, Pippa Shields.

As a parent she had a very good understanding of the needs and approach of St George's students, as well as being approachable and supportive in her dealings with them. No medical emergency could faze her, as her years of training within the Intensive Care Unit came to the fore.

The whole school community will miss Karen and we wish her every success and good wishes as she returns to Intensive Care work within the NHS.

Her lovely manner, gentle humour and excellent teaching will be much missed, and we thank her and wish her happiness in this, the next chapter in her career.

Karen Gray School Nurse - 16 years at St George’s Karen has been an integral part of the medical cover across all parts of the school: Junior, Lower and Upper.

She has been a supportive colleague, working over the years with Ali Stevens, Karen Stevenson, Moira

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VALETE 2020 Platinum Badge: awarded to girls who joined us in Nursery and completed their school career at St George’s School for Girls.

PHOEBE GRAY

EMMA PERCIVAL

2010-2020 University of Aberdeen – Business Management

2004-2020 Platinum Badge University of St Andrews – Geography

Gold Badge: awarded to girls who began and completed their school career at St George’s School for Girls or who have boarded since Remove.

SAHIBA JUTLEY

YUMI TSANG

2018-2020 University of Strathclyde – Architectural Studies

2015-2020 London School of Economics and Political Science – International Relations and History

UPPER 6P HELENA CASSELS 2006-2020 Platinum Badge University of Exeter – English with Study in North America

PHOEBE FISHER 2012-2020 Abertay University – Psychology

ZAYNAH HAMID 2015-2020 Queen Margaret University – Education Studies (Primary)

AISHA KHURRAM 2014-2020 Edinburgh Napier University – Social Sciences

ALEXANDRA MCDIARMID 2014-2020 Gap Year University of Glasgow – Product Design Engineering

ANNA PAGE 2014-2018, 2019-2020 University of Dundee – English and Politics

LOUISA PRVULOVICH

2015-2020 The University of Edinburgh – International Relations

2004-2020 Platinum Badge University of Bristol – Economics and Politics

MARTHA INGLEDEW

ZOE VENTON

MAIA HIRAM

2013-2020 Northumbria University – Psychology

KRISTIN LONGMAN

2013-2020 Robert Gordon University – Digital Media

2012-2020 University of Aberdeen – Psychology

UPPER 6R

FLORA NICHOLLS

GEORGIA BEDLOW

2009-2020 Durham University – Natural Sciences

2013-2020 University of St Andrews – French and Russian

NIAMH SAMSON 2013-2020 Edinburgh Napier University – Nursing (Child Health)

ANNA SPENS 2018-2020 Robert Gordon University – Media

JING SU

TYLER DE VETTA 2014-2020 University of Chester – Criminology and Sociology

CASIE GAN 2013-2020 University of Manchester – Geography

2016-2020 University College London – Statistics, Economics and Finance

CHRISTINA HAWKES-CUMMING

UPPER 6Q

HANNAH JOHNSON

INDIA DOCHERTY 2004-2020 Platinum Badge The University of Edinburgh – History

2010-2020 The University of Edinburgh – Philosophy 2012-2020 University of Aberdeen – Psychology

ALEXANDRA MACLEOD-BONNAR

UPPER 6S NAJD ALAKEL 2012-2020 Newcastle University – Law

ANYA CARLYLE 2014-2020 The University of Edinburgh – Geography and Economics

IMISI FAKUNLE 2012-2020 University of Leeds – Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence

APRIL HALL 2006-2020 Platinum Badge University of Vermont – Liberal Arts

CECILIA HU 2018-2020 Queen’s University Belfast – Food Quality, Safety and Nutrition

ELIZABETH HUTCHESON 2014-2020 The University of Sheffield – Modern Languages and Cultures

LUCINDA LENNIE 2015-2020 University of Glasgow – Sociology/Social and Public Policy

CALISTA NG 2016-2020 The University of Edinburgh – Civil Engineering

ZUZANNA RUSEK 2013-2020 Edinburgh College – Social Science

NIAMH STEWART 2011-2020 University of Strathclyde – Business

CLARA YOUNG 2013-2020 Durham University – Geography

2006-2020 Platinum Badge The University of Edinburgh – Social Policy and Sociology

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UPPER 6W EMILY ADAMSON 2016-2020 University of York – Physics with a Foundation Year

SOPHIE BRADFORD 2018-2020 London School of Economics and Political Science – Law

KATE EMMERSON 2014-2020 The University of Edinburgh – Chemistry

JESSICA GRIFFITH 2011-2020 University of St Andrews – Geography

SUSANNAH HUNTER 2016-2020 The University of Edinburgh – Law

EMMA LAMOND 2006-2020 Platinum Badge Gap Year – Volunteering in Honduras with Project Trust.

Newcastle University – Geography

HANNAH MONK 2012-2020 University of Strathclyde – Chemical Engineering

ANNABELLE REID 2010-2020 University of Glasgow – Sociology/Politics

LARA TALLULAH WADDELL 2016-2020 University of Exeter – Law

UPPER 6X SOPHIA BLACK 2014-2020 Edinburgh College – Care and Administrative Practice

KATHRYN SHOTT

MOLLY CUTTER

2011-2020 Heriot-Watt University – Actuarial Science

2013-2020 University of Bath – Management with Marketing (with professional placement)

HANNAH TURPIE

EMMA FRASER

2016-2020 University of Glasgow – Sociology/Social and Public Policy

2015-2020 University of Strathclyde – Psychology and Social Policy

UPPER 6Y LAUREN ANDERSON 2011-2020 Edinburgh Napier University – Criminology

ANNA CRAIG 2012-2020 University of Exeter – History with Employment Experience

COURTNEY FOX 2014-2020 Gap Year – applying to Camp America/Canada Queen Margaret University – Psychology

CAITLIN HANSON 2014-2020 University for the Creative Arts – Acting and Performance

HANQING HUANG 2018-2020 University College London – Chemistry with Mathematics

IRINA IVKINA 2016-2020 University of Glasgow – Business and Management

IMOGEN LOVIE 2016-2020 The University of Edinburgh – History of Art

IMOGEN O’REILLY

ALEX HARTLESS 2015-2020 University of Oxford – Philosophy, Politics and Economics

ANNA JAMIESON 2006-2020 Platinum Badge Gap Year - travelling and volunteering University of Bristol – Geography with study abroad

TILLY MACAULAY 2014-2020 University of Leeds – Criminal Justice and Criminology

RISHIKA PASUPULATE 2014-2020 University of Glasgow – Medicine

OLIVIA SHAND 2004-2020 Platinum Badge University of Glasgow – Medicine

GRACE TONER 2011-2020 Edinburgh Napier University – Social Sciences

KATHERINE YANG 2018-2020 The University of Edinburgh – Theoretical Physics

STUDENT LEADERSHIP TEAM REBECCA PROVENZIANI

2013-2020 University of St Andrews – Mathematics

2006-2020 Platinum Badge Gap Year working in a school in South America University of Bristol – Pharmacology

DAISY HENDERSON

TALA SAWALHA

SAFFRON BUXTON

JOANNA DE VILLE

2006-2020 Platinum Badge University of Strathclyde – Business Enterprise

ISLA KEENAN 2013-2020 Degree Apprenticeship – Health and Social Care leading on to The University of Edinburgh – Childhood Practice

KATHERINE MCCLOREY 2014-2020 The University of Edinburgh – Computer Science and Mathematics

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2015-2020 Valencia Catholic University – Dentistry

HAFSAH TAHIR 2014-2020 Robert Gordon University – International Business Management

UPPER 6Z LAUREN ANDREWS 2015-2020 University of Sheffield – Music and Philosophy

2015-2020 Head of Boarding University College London – Biochemistry 2004-2020 Platinum Badge Senior Prefect University of Leeds – Economics and History

EMILY SIMPSON 2006-2020 Platinum Badge Deputy Head Girl University of Bristol – Medicine

LOUISE GIBSON 2016-2020 Head Girl The University of Edinburgh – Chinese and Economics

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