Monday, 21 December 2009

Our School Play

On Friday the 18th of December the junior class and middle class (cadets) came together to make a wonderful performance.
Before the performance everybody had the chance to look at all the wonderful art work that we have been doing this term with Mr. Uroz.

Each class did a separate play but each one was as good as the other. It took the classes about a month to prepare the plays. The juniors' play was written by Mr. Laubacher and it talked about how people affect global warming and how we can make the Earth a better place to live in. The play was funny yet it had a message to all of us in it. It had a lot of song and dance in it (songs like 'Yellow Submarine' and 'Beat It'). The dances were funny and they had a bit of break dance too thanks to Lucas M and Dario S. The middles' play was written by us with a very fun method that Mr. Laubacher (our music and performing arts teacher, who organised the show) used with us. First he told us each to find a story and bring it in, and then we put all the stories together to make one big play.

A special thanks to Hannah Vissers for doing such a great job on the lighting and to Liza for her exceptional dancing, that included some tango.

Friday, 18 December 2009

Tonight!

We look forward to welcoming family and friends of St. George's to our spectacle of the visual and performing arts, tonight from 18h00. Please come along and see some of the wonderful work that has been going on here this term!

Monday, 14 December 2009

Our trip to Basel!!!



On the 10th and the 11th of December We went to Basel and it was groovy :)

On the first day we went on the train and when we arrived we got changed out of our uniform and had our lunch at a snazzy restaurant. We had a choice to have soup or salad and steak, chicken or the vegetarian option. Then we had a yummy chocolate cake for dessert.

After lunch we saw the actual Saint George slaying a dragon on the side of the big cathedral. After that we had a tour around the city and we went on a boat across the river which was attached to a wire so it wouldn't go down the river. After our boat trip we went to the main part of the city and had a chance to do some Christmas shopping.

After the Christmas shopping we went to the Christmas market. Some of us went on the rides, it was hilarious. After the amazing Christmas market we went on the tram back to the hotel and went to sleep.

The next day we had our breakfast buffet. Then we walked to famous Kunstmuseum with Mr. Uroz. We then looked around the galleries and we got into groups and researched our artists. Then we went to the Tinguely museum and we all got free postcards. It was fun, you had to pass by the art and it would come to life. You could even walk up one of the pieces, like a climbing frame of art. On the way back we saw Santa Claus in a tram and then had a pizza for lunch. Then went on the tram back to the hotel to pick up our suitcases and went home!
Thanks to Miss Beubry for organising such a fantastic trip, and to Mr. Uroz for being such a wonderful and knowledgeable guide around the art museums.

Curling With St. George's!

Last Wednesday, all of us at St. George's went curling. It was quite hard at first when we had to slide along the ice with a really strange shoe that made you slip. The best part of curling was the competition and yet again Neuchâtel house won. We had to practise a lot before the competition and we had to do things like learn how to slide on the ice with the strange shoe, how to 'throw' a really heavy stone across the ice (which made everyone fall) and how to brush in front of a stone while it was moving, which was the funniest part of the whole afternoon.

I think that St. George's is a excellent school because we get to do so many extra-curricular activities like going curling and going to laser tag. We can't wait until after the holidays when we can go skiing with the whole school!!!
Sebastien

Monday, 7 December 2009

Merit Points & House Points

Hello, I'm Anne-Gabrielle from Morat's House. In the school there are 3 different houses: Morat, Bienne & Neuchâtel. Each student is in one of the houses & can earn: merit points and house points, by doing good homework, exceeding expectations, after school activities or by doing a service to community. When you get 5 merit points you get a house point. I get most of my house points because of after school activities (sports, blog...). Last Friday we went to Fun Laser. A huge place where we have laser guns and we run around to shoot the people on the other team. Neuchâtel house won, I think because they have Alexander and Miss Fish! Alexander had the best score. This week we are going to go curling the day before we go to Basel!!!

Friday, 4 December 2009

Exams and Fun Laser

Congratulations to all our students on completing a gruelling week of exams. We are very proud of them for working so hard. We celebrated the end of the exam week with an inter-house competition at Fun Laser. After two hard fought games, everybody has been eagerly awaiting the final results. The winning team was the one with most point after both games. In reverse order...

3rd place went to Bienne house (who actually won the second game!) - 28300 points
2nd place went to Morat house - 40650 points
Which means the winning team was Neuchâtel - 44650 points

Here you can see Carla and Hannah from team Neuchâtel, getting ready to go into battle.
Special congratulations to Alexandre (Titi) and Agnieszka (above) who were our 'top guns'. Alexandre scored higher than anyone else this month, so his name is on the board of honour!


And as for next week's competition, the house curling teams are already in training.

Monday, 30 November 2009

Trip to Basel

Hi everybody,

Next week we are going to Basel (one of the biggest cities in Switzerland) for a culture trip from Thursday 10th to Friday 11th with the whole school. Our language teacher, Miss Beubry, organised this one.

The trip will be good for practising German for the others and for me because I'm a native German speaker and I can help them. We will also use this trip to practise our humanities and art skills, and have a lot of fun!

We will leave Neuchâtel early in the morning and will go by train. First, we will visit the city and in the evening we will go to the Christmas market which will be great to buy presents.

For the night we will stay in a hotel including a tasty breakfast. We will be two in a room and I will be sharing with my good friend Lucas ;). In the morning our great art teacher Mr. Uroz will join us to visit a famous and nice art museum in Basel (Kunstmuseum, and then Tinguely Muesum) which will certainly be very interesting!

We will come back to Neuchâtel Friday in the evening.

I'm looking forward to going there and think that everybody will like it and have a lot of fun!

This week we first have to pass our exams which is not so enjoyable and then: FUN,FUN,FUN!

Dario, 12, student of the junior class at the St. George's School Neuchâtel.

Bye!!!

Friday, 20 November 2009

Congratulations

CONGRATULATIONS

to Miss Kirsty Fish, our Head of Mathematics and Science

on gaining the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust Diploma in Leadership and Innovation.

We are lucky to have at St George's School in Switzerland, Neuchâtel such a recognized leader in educational ideas and innovation.

I am sure she will help to keep us all, teachers and students alike, at the forefront of international education.

Phil Jones

Director

Thursday, 19 November 2009

Parce Queue - A Tale of Tails

The middle class went to the natural history museum today, to look at the animal tails exhibition, as we have been learning about adaptations in science.

The Fish- it has a powerful tail to steer and to move along faster.
The Amphibians- they have a tail for the same purposes as a fish.
The Reptile - has a tail to keep its balance.
The Mammal - has a tail to keep its balance, and sometimes for climbing.
The Bird - its tail helps it move quicker in the air and helps it to steer.

We then went into another room where there were animal skeletons from the puma to the dwarf mouse and from the squirrel to the hedgehog.

In another room we were shown how the animals each use their tails differently. For example, the kangaroo uses its tail when walking as a crutch to support its back legs.

In another area we observed living animals. This was fascinating as you could see the animals tails in use. We also got to stand over a aquarium on a grill and on the bottom of the aquarium was a mirror so it looked as though we were in the aquarium.

We found the trip very good as it was extremely interesting. We learned a lot from it.

Wednesday, 18 November 2009

Earlybird English at St. George's


Cambridge University graduate Lysandra Sinclaire-Harding will be offering English from today to children aged 4-11. There will be lots of games and stories to help them develop their language and understanding. Please contact Mr. Jones if you know somebody who would like to join the group.

We look forward to welcoming the young students and the newest member of the St. George's team!

Monday, 9 November 2009

A showcase of spectacular students


On the 18th of December we will be hosting an eventful night full of creation and entertainment. The Juniors and Middle classes will be performing plays that they wrote themselves. Along with this fabulous performance the art works of the whole school will be on display, and also some musical talents. The Juniors will be performing 'The Sinking Island' and the Middles will be performing 'Strange Noises and their Effect on Dreams or When the Repairman Rings Thrice.' Tickets will be on sale from the 1st of December. To purchase tickets email pjones@st-georges.ch Mara and Annabel, from the Junior Class, will be in charge of ticket distribution.


Tuesday we are planning an exciting trip to St-Georges in Clarens to watch their pantomime which is Cinderella. Kirsty and I are getting very excited as we love excursions :)


We love the school and the food is especially great we can't get enough of it.
At break we have cereal bars with tea or hot chocolate and sometimes we have Nutella or Ham sandwiches. Sometimes we have nibbles too. At lunch we all sit together with the teachers. We always have a hot meal followed by a pudding.

WE LOVE ST GEORGES!!

Love from Carla and Kirsty Xx

Tuesday, 3 November 2009

House System

We decided to name the house teams after the three lakes of the area, and to use the colours of the flag of the city. So the house teams are as follows:

House points are awarded for achieving 5 merits in any of the following areas:
- Homework
- Contribution
- House competitions
- Service to community
- Exceeding expectations

Merits also count towards personal awards:
50 merits = bronze award
125 merits = silver award
250 merits = gold award
500 merits = platinum award

So, the challenge is set - who will be the first award winner???

House competition update:
Neuchâtel house won the unihoc tournament, Morat house won basketball and Bienne house won the football!!

Monday, 2 November 2009

Connecting learners in a global world

Hello, this is Mara, Anne-Gabrielle & Annabel! We are focusing on global education this week. Our school has been comparing different schools around the world and the way they teach. Our school is in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Anne-Gabrielle will now speak.

I always lived in Switzerland. I went to 3 different schools since primary school. In those 3 different schools I learned English, French, German & in year 7, a little bit of Latin. For 5 years of primary school, I was in a private school. For 1 year and 3 weeks, I was in a public school. Now, I am in St. George's school in Neuchâtel! I really like schools in Switzerland because I learn about a lot of stuff, but I would like to learn more about the South & North Poles and how they go to school and how they learn, what they do with their day.

Now, Mara will speak.

I've been to 2 different schools in Bucharest, Romania & in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. They are a bit different. There, I spoke in English & learned French. Romanian is my first language. At my other school we didn't do German, but here we do. I would like to find about schools in India because there are more poor people there and I want to know how they afford their necessities and materials for school.

Now, Annabel will speak.

I've been to 3 different schools in Sunnyvale, California and in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. In California, we didn't get to do many experiments or go on any excursions because schools didn't have enough money. In my first school in Neuchâtel, we used materials such as blocks and sticks. We learned square root with those materials. The problem was, in adulthood, would we have those materials? Overall, every school is extremely different. What I would like to find more about is how strict are teachers in other countries. What are their customs in class?

Students in our school took a survey made by a senior student in our school about how they see schools. She asked about the uniforms, what is a good teacher to us, why schooling is important for us & how our school can be improved.

In languages, we did an essay about our different schools we had been to and what languages were spoken there. What were the differences between our previous schools?

We are submitting our work to be published as part of an international student project. Hopefully our work will be accepted & we will be invited to take part in an online conference with students from all around the world!

Monday, 19 October 2009

Suchard

On Friday the 25th of September the whole school went to Suchard museum in the centre of Neuchâtel. It was really fun. First we went to the workshop to decorate our chocolate. We put some candies in it to make it look more colourful. When, when we finished, the guide showed us and introduced us to the museum. He showed us different flavours that you can put in the chocolate, he also showed us some posters that represent Suchard, some very interesting old machines and a very beautiful statue. It was really, really interesting. We all had so much fun. Then, when the tour finished we went back to the workshop and we took our chocolates that were ready. When we got back to school we were all very tired, but it didn't really matter because we all had so much fun.

The end, by Mara

Thursday, 1 October 2009

Un message du directeur, Monsieur Jones

Un mois de Septembre fabuleux ici à Neuchâtel, pour l’ouverture de St. George’s. Le soleil a brillé sur notre ‘rentrée’ à plus d’un titre!

Quelle transformation, dans un bâtiment, en l’espace de quelques semaines. Des espaces vides sont devenues des salles de cours vivantes, débordant d’activités, reflétant des personnalités et spécialités. Une balade dans l’école est maintenant un voyage autour des ‘domaines de la connaissance’

Nos visites à Neuchâtel ont laissé des impressions qui sortiront en vidéo prochainement; des modèles réduits de la ville et des poèmes inspirés par les vus du lac; des images et des photos ‘des Trois Lacs’ (qui seront immortalisés dans les noms de nos ‘houses’) ornent les couloirs; nos étudiants polyglottes friment en posant leurs origines et leurs langues, sur une carte du monde.

Nos trois 'Misses' (Mesdames Beubry, Thompson et Fish) ont fait des merveilles avec leurs classes respectives. Les plus jeunes élèves sont pleins d’enthousiasme et de vitalité; les moyens le sont autant, bien qu’avec une image plus ‘cool’; nos grands confrontés à leurs nouveaux univers de littérature, de science et des mathématiques, n’arrêtent pas de cogiter.

Au piano et aux claviers, avec Monsieur Laubacher, les préparations sont en cours pour une performance musicale à Noël.

Tandis que l’espace, en haut, sous le toit, a été transformé par Monsieur Uroz en une arène superbe pour ses élèves artistes pour travailler et exposer.

A l’extérieur, sous un soleil d’été, Mr. Clarke fait découvrir plusieurs activités sportives aux élèves.

Jetant un coup d’œil derrière les salles de cours après 16 heures, on y voit des élèves consulter leurs blogs, bavarder et danser.

Effectivement, en l’espace de quelques semaines, les professeurs et les étudiants, ont transformé; 50 rue Sainte Hélène, en un lieu de savoir, une école!

Bravo!

A message from Mr Jones

A stunning September for St George's opening, here in Neuchâtel. The Sun has shone on our 'rentrée' in more ways than one.

What a change, in a building, in a few weeks. Empty spaces have become vibrant classrooms, reflecting personalities and specialities. A trip around the school is now a voyage around 'areas of knowledge'.

Our visits to Neuchâtel have left impressions soon to be released on video. From scale models of the town to poems inspired by lake views. 'Les Trois Lacs' (to be the immortalised in the names of our 'houses') decorate the corridors; our polygot students show off their languages and origins on a map of the world.

Our three 'Misses' (Madames Beubry, Thompson and Fish) have worked wonders with their tutor groups. The juniors bristle with vitality and enthusiasm; the middle class are no less involved, albeit with a 'cooler' image to the fore; our seniors faced with their new worlds of literature, science and mathematics have not had time to take off their thinking hats.

On piano and keyboards, preparations are under way, with Mr Laubacher, for a Christmas performance. While the space, up under the roof, has been transformed by Mr Uroz into a stunning arena for his student artists to work and exhibit. Outside, under a summer Sun, Mr Clarke has had everybody playing, it seems at sometime or another, every sport. Peeping around, behind the doors after 4, there's blogging, babble and ballet.

In the space of a few weeks, teachers and students, have transformed rue Sainte Helène 50 into a place of learning; a school!

Bravo!

Monday, 28 September 2009

What I like about St. George's

Hi

My name is Sebastien and I am a student at St. George's in Neuchâtel. I am in the middle class and there are six other people in my class. What I think is best about St. George's are the extra-curricular activities, including football, hockey, ping-pong, CAS and dance.

I like the food at St. George's. My favourite meal so far was the tortellini and the chocolate mousse.

Every week we have been on a different trip outside school. My favourite was going to the Suchard museum where we got to make our own chocolate.

Wednesday, 16 September 2009

Official school launch


Above: St. George's School Neuchâtel baguette
Above right: loyal Saint George's parents mingling with each other

Above: school picture
Above right: Mara (youngest) and Elizaveta (oldest) cutting the red ribbon

Above: They did it!
Above right: The light supper for the parents and friends of St. George's

Monday, 14 September 2009

Canoeing

Hi, I'm Annabel, this week's school blog editor.
Last Friday (the 11th) we went canoeing on Lake Neuchâtel for an after school activity. It wasn't very sunny outside, but we still had a fun time!
Before we started, we warmed up with some energetic arm stretches. Then we went in 3 canoes and paddled around the lake. After a while, some groups had a really funny idea of splashing the other groups. I ended up getting soaking wet on my shorts!
This Friday, we are planning on going to play swingolf, whatever that is! Here are a few pictures:

Mara, ready for action... Setting off on the lake


In our canoes


Getting to know our paddles.....................Waiting in line for canoes

Sunday, 13 September 2009

First Impressions of the School

This is my first experience in a private school, and I would say that it has been really interesting. The size of the student body comes as a bit of a shock, but I think it is a positive factor. The teaching method is effective because it allows for a deep understanding of the material where the teacher can cater to the needs of every kid. Also, lunch time is unique in the sense that it feels as if you are sitting in a restaurant. Random seating at lunch really forces you to get out of your comfort zone and introduce yourself to new people. Wearing a uniform is something I need to get used to but it makes life a little easier in the morning. I believe that in the long run, this chance to live the life of a St. Georgian student will be of high worth in the real world.

---- Sameer, Year 13

Saturday, 12 September 2009

Tour de Neuchâtel

On Thursday afternoon we had our first school trip - a guided tour of Neuchâtel. While some of us have lived here for many years and others arrived just a couple of weeks ago, I think we all enjoyed finding out about our historical and beautiful town. Photos from the tour...