The Week @ St George's - 12 February 2021

The Week After Half Term Is Week

The Week @ St George’s

Volume 3 Issue 19 Friday 12 February

Photo captured during STEM Week La Storta Junior School

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Principal's Message Dear parents, pupils and alumni, A very warm welcome to this week’s edition of our newsletter.

A huge thank you to all those parents who joined us at the Principal’s Clinic on Tuesday. It was great to see so many of you - from across the three schools - join us. One of the areas we focused on for the presentations was the importance of encouraging your children to live in the moment, particularly during the current times of such uncertainty. It is all too easy for us as parents to feel frustrated or anxious about the restrictions, but exhibiting this in front of our children can increase their own levels of anxiety and feelings of frustration, isolation or unhappiness. In many ways, modelling this type of behaviour is more contagious than COVID-19! As we approach another holiday where travel plans will almost certainly have been delayed it serves as a very salient reminder of the importance of finding happiness in the moment rather than wishing our lives away. My huge thanks to Giulia Schembri for her contributions to the presentation - if you were not able to attend the video recording is available here.

I had the great pleasure of attending a number of STEM sessions this week within the Junior Schools and it was delightful to see the younger pupils get so much out of the activities. My huge thanks to all the staff involved and a particular thank you to the Senior School Science Department who opened the doors of their laboratories to the Junior Schools and demonstrated a number of experiments that had a real wow factor.

There are clearly a great many budding scientists within our youngest year groups.

Have a wonderful half term break everyone - if you have not yet completed the travel declaration form, please could you do so here as a matter of urgency.

David Tongue, Principal david.tongue@stgeorge.school.it

COVID-19 Documentation All test results and doctor certificates following any quarantine period must be sent to: coronavirus@stgeorge.school.it

STORTA JUNIOR SCHOOL STEMLA Week This Week!

Our Annual Junior School STEM week took place between Monday 8 February and Friday 12 February.

What is ‘STEM’?

STEM is based on the idea of educating pupils in four specific disciplines:

Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics ...in an interdisciplinary and applied approach. STEM has the aim of integrating these subjects into real-world applications. STEM week helped bring these invaluable disciplines into even greater focus within our curriculum. Each year group planned special STEM activities under the theme of ‘Journeys’.

See What's Been Happening during STEM Week in the Junior Schools'!

Turn the page...

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CITY CENTRE JUNIOR SCHOOL

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City Centre Junior School Dear parents

I find it amazing how time flies as it only feels like we recently returned after the Christmas break! The subject of time passing was actually a focus for me in this week’s STEM week as I carried out some action research into children’s perceptions of time. I used this research to demonstrate the scientific method to them as well as to hopefully prove an interesting theory about how we measure time internally. Results were less than impressive and did not prove my theory however! If you would like to try for yourself then follow the instructions below.

View the slide show here and decide for yourself which image is on the screen for the longest time before reading on.

My theory says that time is measured via unique experiences and therefore, a new experience can be perceived to last longer. If true, then most people will select the cake as the image longer on screen after the monotony of giraffes despite all being on screen for 1 second. Alas, in my results only 24% of children and adults chose the cake. I suspect this tells me more about my scientific methodology, but my theory remains unproven.

This week’s STEM focus proved to be an inspirational one with activities and challenges taking place throughout the week. We had live link ups with the science department at La Storta, a visiting Science teacher from La Storta who served up an experience for those with a strong stomach, a beebot STEM challenge room and many free choice STEM activities and demonstrations during breaktime and lunchtime. Huge thank you to the parent community for providing us with STEM links from their own jobs and a special thanks to Ms Verracchia and Ms Wild for coordinating such a memorable week.

Mr Matthew Woodhead Head of City Centre Junior School

CITY CENTRE Viaggio Nello Spazio!JUNIOR SCHOOL In Italian Class...Pupils go on a journey into Space!

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Engineering With The Dragons

Making Tunnels

Slippery Slopes

Tunnel Blocks

Understanding The Phases Of The Moon What better way for Year 5 to conduct experiments than with chocolate Oreos!

A huge thank you to all our parents who were able to find the time to contribute to our STEM Week!

More about STEM Week in the next newsletter!

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CITY Photo captured during Photography Club

by CENTRE JUNIOR SCHOOL Kai, Year 6

La Storta Junior School

Junior School pupils visit the Senior School Science Department Pupils had the opportunity to visit the fantastic lab facilities in the Senior School. They observed a range of exceptional experiments around the theme of air and demonstrated enthusiasm and curiosity as they asked a range of very interesting questions.

All Hands On Deck Year 3's challenge this week was to work collaboratively to design and then create a boat that not only floats but was also able to carry a certain amount of weight.

Pupils thoroughly enjoyed working together and were able to use their critical thinking skills to problem solve.

There will be no CCAs running the week after half term as PTEs will be taking place.

STORTA JUNIOR SCHOOL STEMLA Guest Speakers' Discuss Their Fascinating Work With Year 5 and Year 6 Building Bridges (Civil Engineering) with Mr McCarron This week, Mr McCarron spoke to pupils about building bridges. He explained the different types of bridges constructed such as the beam bridge, the truss bridge, the cantilever bridge and many more! Look...pupils were inspired to make their own...

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Environmental and Social Scientist, Fisheries with Mrs Kalikoski Mrs Kalikoski who works at the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) gave a wonderful talk to the pupils this week about her department of fisheries and the issues they are facing today. She explained that the seas are becoming depleted of marine life and therefore fishing cannot be carried out as freely as before. She also mentioned the danger to sea turtles and sharks that is caused by certain types of fishing methods.

Satellites (Electrical Engineering) with Michele Pupils interacted virtually with Michele from the European Space Agency (ESA) and discussed his work as a rocket scientist! Pupils were fascinated when he explained his project of working on a satellite for 13 years! He also demonstrated an unusual pair of imaginary glasses where you could see the electrical signals from the stars!

A huge thank you to all our parents who were able to find the time to contribute to our STEM Week!

More about STEM Week in the next newsletter!

SENIOR SCHOOL

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Senior School “Every Chess Master Was Once A Beginner.” – Irving Chernev Chess elevates creativity, deepens focus and improves memory so it's no wonder that the competitive game has taken over the library! Pupils from all year groups have been spending their lunchtimes playing Chess from beginner to expert levels! There is still a chance for pupils to sign up to the Chess Club via Schools Buddy.

Year 11 Design SCHOOL and Technology SENIOR Group A DT pupils enjoyed a day of practical work and model making as part of their coursework. Pupils have mostly been working on 3D models at home and it was exciting for them to see each other’s work and share their ideas.

Miss Odell Recommends...The Places I’ve Cried in Public by Bourne In this novel, we meet Amelie who has fallen in love with Reese.

She thought he loved her too, however, she soon starts to realise that real love isn’t supposed to hurt her like her love for Reese does. So she decides to retrace their story, revisiting all the places he has made her cry. She thinks that if she can work out what went wrong; perhaps she could finally learn to get over him.

A fantastic, gripping read by an incredible writer.

I rate it 4/5

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University Guidance

UK Fee status for non-UK/persons without settled status - an official update.

It is the final agreement on UK Fee status for non-UK/persons without settled or pre-settled status.

On 8 February 2021, the Department for Education have laid the regulations amending the eligibility criteria for EU, other EEA and Swiss nationals and their family members for access to home fee status and undergraduate, postgraduate and further education student financial support for courses in England starting in the 2021-22 academic year.

The regulations will come into force on 1 March 2021, and can be accessed on the legislation.gov.uk website.

For 2021 entry, some universities are offering grants, scholarships, bursaries and fee reductions for EU students. This is an evolving situation so please do contact Sarah Cassell, Head of University Guidance, Careers and Alumni, for further guidance.

Webinars Next Week 15 February, 7.00pm: Webinar Series: Study Liberal Arts in Europe 16 February, 5.00pm: Teaser Classes: Innovation and Entrepreneurship EHL Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne 17 February, 1.00 – 9.00pm: UK Spring University Fair 19 February, 4.00pm: Teaser Classes: Engineering Imperial College London 20 February, 12.00 – 5.00pm: SI-UK University Fair 20 February, 5.00pm: Webinar Series: Study Physics and Mathematics

Please note: Virtual events organised by third parties, including universities, may take place on Zoom or other platforms beyond the school’s control

You may book a meeting here with sarah.cassell@stgeorge.school.it

Purchase Your Fashionable Face Mask

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ZOA Committee Mask Project: A Student-led Project Offered at three given sizes at a price of €4 and conveniently available to be ordered online. The new ZOA mask website can be found at www.zoacommitee.wixsite.com/website and the link for the ZOA 'Helping Serenje' site, is as follows, www.helpserenjeorphans.com Some mask orders have already been made up and are quarantining. All orders will be acknowledged with a follow up email from the ZOA Committee but if you would like to get in touch, please contact us at zoa_committee@stgeorge.school.it After you have placed your order, the mask(s) will be delivered to your child during the school day where the payment can then be made. We only have a limited number available so get hold of yours quick!

Your contributions will help us significantly as we raise funds for the Serenje Orphans Children’s Home in Zambia. We would also greatly appreciate any further help as the project progresses with many more masks in the making, if this speaks out to you, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the ZOA Committee.

We would like to give a huge thanks especially to our mask-makers for all the efforts that have gone into the start of this project and their work so far!

ZOA Committee

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St George’s British International School • Rome • Italy www.stgeorge.school.it