Girls at St George’s enjoy far more than just an academic education
From their earliest days, pupils engage with each other, gain a world-wise perspective and actively contribute to the local community.
Our outreach programme builds important partnerships, creates a true empathy with others and broadens every girl's horizons.
Meaningful connections with others are developed through play, work and service. Learning to step outside her own social circles is an important part of every girl’s education. We work with many local charities that benefit from the work the girls do. We also have close connections with local and boys’ schools.
The structure of school-wide community action is embedded in our school culture and our 'connections' work is overseen by one of our Deputy Heads who reinforce the importance of this ethos. We also have two members of staff responsible for organising academic and sporting events and maintaining connections with our local school partners. Our school Chaplain organises a Charities Committee, chaired by the Charities Prefect, which leads the school in raising funds for local charities that are voted for by our pupils every year. With the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award providing a further path to volunteering locally, community outreach is at the heart of our school life.
From years of focus and hard work we have built strong relationships with local community partners and many of our pupils and staff become very involved and committed to these projects. Each week, groups of our Lower Sixth girls provide one-to-one reading with younger children from local primary schools. Our Director of Music has taken the lead with a local primary school choir, and regularly takes whole-school singing practices. Local children come to St George’s for education taster days in Music, Art and Drama. They use our facilities and benefit from the specialist teaching. At Christmas time we welcome almost three hundred local school children to watch our hugely popular pantomime. There is also a volunteering club for Year 9 and Lower Sixth Form pupils, with links to local care homes. The girls visit the older people in the homes and enjoy providing social activities and entertainment.
Regular charity work is just part of a well-rounded education at St George’s
We have a whole school charities programme that includes supporting three charities voted for by the pupils each year - one local, one national and one international. Throughout the year, each year group fundraises for the chosen charities and the money raised is split between them. Year group fundraising events are numerous and often inventive, they can include cake sales, ‘teacher for a day’, sponsored runs, mufti days, Christmas fetes and the Summer Fair.
In addition to the charities selected by the pupils each year, the School supports other well known causes, including ‘Jeans for Genes’ day, Save the Children Christmas Jumpers, Comic Relief and at Harvest time everyone brings in groceries for a local food bank. The girls are educated to embrace a compassionate approach to life and develop a sense of responsibility beyond their own front door.
In actions and awareness, we are intrinsically linked to our local community and these connections continue to gain strength and importance as part of school life at St George’s.
