The PE department and 24 pupils headed off to Killington in Vermont, to conquer the mountain renowned as ‘The Beast’.

Once again the trip proved to be as exciting and exhilarating as always.  The pupils had the opportunity to work with some of the best instructors in the area and they made fantastic improvements throughout the week. Apres-ski activities included the cinema, bowling and the very exciting tubing.  We also had the luxury of an outdoor swimming pool and hot tubs, with the backdrop of Killington mountain.

We also have to mention that the hotel breakfasts were worth waking up for.

Thank you to all of the pupils involved.

Watch this space for the 2013 trip!

The School was delighted to receive a very positive report after being inspected in October and November last year.

For more information and to read the report in full, please visit the inspection report page.

Congratulations to all of the girls who participated at the Indoor Rowing Championships.

Many of the girls have qualified for the London Youth Games in the summer. Well done!

Congratulations to Natalia for her qualification to the English Schools Cross Country Championships.

Natalia will be racing on Saturday 17^th March – Good Luck!

On Wednesday 25^th January 2012, a number of girls in Remove, LIV, IV and V forms took part in the London Schools Cross Country Championships at Parliament Hill Fields. Everyone ran extremely well over the very tough course, which is not only hilly, but very muddy!

Please click here to view this month's newsletter. Articles include GCSE choices and Christmas gifts ideas.

Transition and Preliminary had a wonderful outing to see the Live Nativity at London Zoo.  They visited the Three Kings and their camels, Mary and Jesus in the stable and the shepherds with their sheep and goats.  The tour finished with a visit to Santa’s Grotto!   

We also got the opportunity to visit other animals in the zoo including lion cubs and the new penguin pool where pupils dressed up as a penguin.

Two UVth Formers have achieved what no other Queen’s Gate girls have managed to do for some time: they debated their way to victory in the first round of the English Speaking Union Schools’ MACE debating competition, on Tuesday 6^th December.

With their coach, Ms Yates, the girls prepared an opposition to the motion, This House would make parents liable for the serious crimes of their children.  Despite an excellent performance from the proposition, Pimlico School, the team demonstrated superb clarity of delivery, and used impressive critical thinking skills to swiftly and confidently combat their opponents’ points.  The girls will now progress to the next round.  We wish them luck.

Queen’s Gate Public Speaking team, coached by Mr Denchfield, also fared very well in their first round heat.  Although the home team, London Oratory, beat off the five other competing teams, our girls performed admirably.

Some excellent public speaking and debating performances all round.  Well done girls!

On Friday the 2^nd December Queen’s Gate joined many other schools around the country to celebrate Number Day and raise money for the NSPCC.

Due to the combined efforts of the Junior and Senior school we raised a total of £527.40 for charity. Next year, the 188 duo may well reappear, and we hope to see more girls in full number gear.

Click here for more information on the event.

We have continued to show our commitment to helping a wide range of causes in the Junior School this term.  As part of our Harvest festival celebration we sent 63 bags of food to The Passage hostel for homeless people and £100 to Kids for Kids to help its work in Darfur. After half term the Junior School (with help from the Senior School) collected 145 shoe boxes to send to disadvantaged children through Operation Christmas Child. Our annual Poppy Appeal raised £194.49 and we have also sent £73.44 to Save the Children Fund, £170 to help save the orang-utans and over £500 to the Red Crescent for the victims of the Turkish earthquakes.

This term we also welcomed Stephanie Davenport from the British Heart Foundation to our Assembly.  She came to thank us for raising money for the BHF in our swimathon and skipathon last summer.  Well done to all the girls who helped to organise these fund raising events and our thanks to everyone who supported them.

November 2011 was the third year for the Queen’s Gate Cross Country Event. This year we had seven schools in total with 145 girls racing across three separate races. 

It was a competitive event with Queen’s Gate winning the Intermediate race, placing second in the Junior race and 3rd in the Senior race. Well done to all of the pupils who took part.

On Thursday 24th November, 1A had a fantastic time at Highclere Castle learning about Ancient Egypt. It is the home of the lords of Carnarvon and it was the fifth Earl who discovered Tutankhamun's tomb with Howard Carter in 1922. They saw lots of old egyptian artefacts, pretended to be archeologists and even peeked into Tutankhamun's tomb! We also had a chance to explore the beautiful grounds and do lots of other egyptian activities.

The girls visited the O2 on Tuesday 29th November to listen to the following speaker. 

Simon Watt – Biologist and presenter of Channel 4’s “Inside Giants”.  He went under the skin of massive animals to figure out what made them tick.  Simon spoke about some of the fascinating science that did not make the final cut. 

Steve Mould – resident scientist for Blue Peter.  He spoke about super absorbent polymers and polymers in action and conducted some exciting experiments to demonstrate complex scientific theories. 

Prof. Brian Cox – leading British particle physicist who has gained a meteoric reputation for making complex science theories easy to understand.  He shot to fame after his hit BBC series ‘Wonders of the Solar System’.  This was followed by ‘Wonders of the Universe’.  He spoke about CERN and the hunt for the Higgs Boson.

Queen’s Gate School hosted an African Culture Day during the afternoon on Friday 18th November for Remove girls, A Level and IGCSE music students. The whole school enjoyed a fantastic African Lunch with dishes from a wide variety of African countries. The expert tutors Victoria and Martin presented polyrhythmic drumming, call and response singing and dance workshops to the girls. This is a key area of World Culture and part of the National Curriculum at both Key Stage 3 and IGCSE levels and so was a wonderful first hand insight into African way of life. At 4pm parents enjoyed a short African presentation in the Senior School Hall of activities covered by the girls and their tutors.

On Tuesday 22nd November, III Form went on a tour of The French Institute in South Kensington to look at the resources available to people interested in learning about French language and culture.

“I think that the cinema was really cool and had comfortable chairs. I wish we could have watched a film.”

“The guides were kind and helpful.  The librarian read us the story of Little Red Riding Hood.  In French it is called “Le Petit Chaperon Rouge”. Afterwards, I enjoyed looking for books about animals and colours”.

On Wednesday 16th November, BBC News Entertainment Correspondent, Lizo Mzimba, visited Queen’s Gate to speak to the Vth Form who are preparing a controlled assessment analysis of the language of the news.  Lizo was the main presenter of Newsround between 1998 and 2008 and was able to share his experiences in presenting information about the ways that children are addressed by TV producers.  

Perhaps the most interesting part of Lizo’s presentation concerned the way that rapid developments in technology and the mass media have forced language to evolve in order to make news relevant to young people in the twenty-first century.  Our girls have more choice than any other generation and TV producers are aware of the importance of getting and maintaining attention, if they are to compete with other channels.  However, the BBC’s public service remit also impacts upon the choices of language and content, as the corporation strives to create a balance between popular appeal and the relaying of important information for the public good.  

The Vth Form girls were delighted by Mr Mzimba’s talk.  He had taken the time to construct a speech that was entirely relevant to the girls’ academic focus, whilst entertaining them with humorous anecdotes about his time in front of the camera.  Students were eager to ask questions—and could barely contain their joy at hearing that his next appointment of the day was an interview with the stars of the new Twilight film! 

We would like to thank Lizo for an excellent talk.

Lots of sport has been taking place recently and Queen's Gate girls have performed extremely well.

• The QG Swimmers won more than 90% of their time trial races against More House.
• The U14 Netball Team beat St Thomas More by a score of 27-0.
• Junior School (IIA and III Form) recorded two wins and two losses against Norland Place.

Well done to all of the participants!

The School joined the rest of the country by observing a two minute silence at 11am on Friday, 11th November.

The service took place at Holy Trinity Church on Prince Consort Road and the Order of Service can be viewed below.

Queen's Gate is delighted to be placed 78th in The Sunday Times Parent Power list of the top 100 Independent Schools, based on GCSE and A Level results in 2011.

Mrs Kamaryc commented, " I am delighted with this news. The girls and staff have worked tremendously hard together to achieve these results and this position. I am very proud of their achievements and offer them all my warmest congratulations."

More information can be found on the Sunday Times website by clicking the link below.

The Sunday Times Parent Power