Dame Alice Owen‟s School
Newsletter — May 2015
Letter from the Head, Dr Alan Davison
Dear Parents
All parents should by now have received a letter from the Chair of
Governors and me regarding the School‟s future finances. It is a matter of
regret that the School needs to ask you for further financial support but, if
we are to continue to offer our high quality of education, we desperately
need to secure significant additional funding from our key stakeholders:
parents. If you feel you are able to make any additional financial
contribution or, indeed, if you alternately are able to offer your services to
the School (eg to help in the library, finance office or with copying etc), this
would be most gratefully received. The additional monies will allow us to
retain our smaller group sizes at GCSE and the wealth of extra-curricular
activities in all areas.
I can assure parents that we are making every possible effort to source funding from elsewhere, and
have recently been successful in securing additional funds from the Brewer‟s Foundation. If you have
any queries regarding this essential fundraising, or are willing to give your time to help in the School,
please do not hesitate to contact me via my PA Ms Veronique Duverge through the following email
address: duvergev@damealiceowens.herts.sch.uk.
I would like to note my thanks to all those parents who already give so generously to support
the school and those who have increased their contribution since the
letter.
As is customary, the General Election that was played out on the national
stage was mirrored by our own mock election and was no less fiercely
fought. Candidates representing the Labour, Conservative, Liberal
Democrat and Green parties spoke in assemblies, participated in debates
and covered the school in their propaganda. To make it as realistic as
possible, the first past the post system was used, with each form being a
constituency, plus an additional staff constituency. It is traditional for
Owen‟s mock elections to pick the loser in the real thing and this was no
exception. Labour led the way with 36% of the popular vote, which
translated into twenty nine of the sixty one seats and with the support of the
three Liberal MPs they were able to form a coalition. I would like to
congratulate Barnaby, Xenios, Emily and Freddie for leading the parties so
charismatically and to thank Miss Cornejo and Mr Latham for organising
and overseeing the process.
At the time of writing, thirty six Owen‟s students are visiting Valladolid, for
the return leg of the Spanish exchange, with our partner school there,
Colegio San José. During their stay they will be visiting Burgos and
Salamanca as well as taking the opportunity to improve their conversational
Spanish whilst spending time with their exchange partners‟ families. I am
sure it will be a wonderful experience for the students and I would like to
May 2015
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thank Mr Meekin for leading the trip. In a similar vein, there are also thirty six Owen‟s students
taking part in the away leg of the German exchange, staying with their exchange partners in
Viernheim. My thanks go to Herr Stegner for organising and Frau Möller for leading the trip.
Nearly three hundred students in Years 7 and 8 participated in the Junior Maths Challenge this
term. From this group the students gained 59 golds, 96 silvers and 65 bronzes, with twenty eight
students progressing to the UK Kangaroo and two going through to the Junior Olympiad.
Meanwhile in the intermediate age range, thirty seven students competed in the Kangaroo,
sixteen of whom received certificates for finishing in the top 25%. Fourteen students also
participated in the Olympiad, with Oisin Kim gaining a certificate of Distinction. I would like to
congratulate all the students for their success and to thank Miss Roots for overseeing their
involvement.
Our newest building, which was completed in April and is already in use for some of this
summer‟s exams, has until now has been known as the LDLS Building (Languages, Drama,
Learning Support). However, it will be formally opened and named on 1st July and will be known
as The Sir Alan Parker Building, in honour of the former Owen‟s student and acclaimed film
director. Sir Alan himself will be attending and unveiling the name at a ceremony that will be
attended by brewers, governors, teachers, students and parents. If you would like to attend the
ceremony, commencing at 2pm, please email my PA on duvergev@damealiceowens.herts.sch.uk
to allow planning for refreshments by Friday 12th June.
The last week of this half term included a wonderful junior concert involving the Junior Choir,
Second Orchestra, Junior Strings and Second band. Those of us fortunate enough to secure
tickets enjoyed a top quality performance that would be outstanding for a senior concert in almost
all schools in the country! Congratulations to all the students that took part, and thank you to the
staff, in particular Mr Grimstead, Mr Bean, Ms Jenkins, Mr Thompson, Mrs Brady, Mr Wilson and
Ms Browne who gave so freely of their time to enable this event.
The Summer Term is always external examination season. I am very proud of the mature
approach of Years 11, 12 and 13 in their preparations for these crucial examinations. I am most
grateful to all our staff members who have given significant time organising revision sessions, and
for their support to individual students in their preparations. I am confident that this will ensure all
students‟ success come August.
This year has included two new events organised by The Brewers Company, the second of these
being one to thank the prefects for their work in the past year. The Masters hosted an evening
event with our Brewers partner school Aldenham at Brewers Hall on
6th May. This was a very pleasant evening with the opportunity for the
two prefect teams to meet and network. I know that the students very
much appreciated this recognition, and I look forward to this becoming
an annual event on our calendar.
Over the last week, students have been exhibiting their GCSE artwork.
The quality this year is exceptional, and would have been equally at
home in the A‟ Level exhibition. It was clear how hard the students had
worked and demonstrated a high level of creativity and skill. All who
attended could not help but marvel at the quality of the artwork on
display. I am certain that many of these items would have raised
significant sums should they have been auctioned at Christies!
Alan Davison
Headteacher
May 2015
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News from the Maths Department
Intermediate Maths Challenge Follow on Round Results
After their success in the Intermediate Maths Challenge, held last term, 37 pupils went on to
compete in the Kangaroo and 14 pupils competed in the IMOK Olympiad. Nationally the top 25%
of scorers from each Kangaroo paper (Pink for Year 11/10 and Grey for Year 9) received a
Certificate of Merit. The following pupils from Owen‟s received a Certificate of Merit:
Year 9
Nefeli Hutton
Timothy Yeo
Natalie Rose
Polly Mitchell
Luther Lisk
Rushin Shah
Anthony Georgiou
Lewis Rayner
Year 10
Theo Charalambous
Elen Hughes
Amelia Georgiou
Samuel Weinstein
Mateo Attanasio
Year 11
George Watson
Matt Rose
Sarah Fishwick
Whilst the Kangaroo papers follow the multiple choice format of the Maths Challenge, the
Olympiad paper requires full written solutions to different and demanding problems. The UKMT
describes the Olympiad paper as follows:
„When climbing a mountain, a strenuous effort may be needed to reach the top, to be replaced by
a feeling of elation at the summit. In the same way, when solving a hard problem in mathematics
there is nothing quite like the feeling one gets when the penny drops after a long struggle: “Ah,
gotcha!”‟
The Olympiad is split into three papers Cayley (Year 9), Hamilton (Year 10) and Maclaurin (Year
11). In each Olympiad paper competent performers receive a Certificate of Merit and the top 25%
receive a Certificate of Distinction. Congratulations to Oisin Kim (Year 11) who received a
Certificate of Distinction. The following pupils received Certificates of Merit:
Year 9
Gordon Lee
Nick Scott
Year 10
Joel Buzzard
Joe Tyler
May 2015
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Year 11
Adam Ashing
Daniel Bishop
Rachel Hughes
Alex King
James Spence
Mimi Zhao
Congratulations to all those who participated and especially those who received Certificates. We
now eagerly await the results of the Junior Maths Challenge.
Maths Dept
Junior Maths Challenge
Over 250,000 students from all over the UK entered this year‟s Junior Maths Challenge in April.
Among them were 105 pupils from Year 8 and all of Year 7. They spent an hour tackling
intriguing and stimulating multiple choice problems, armed only with a pencil and plain paper. The
top 40% of students nationally receive a Gold, Silver or Bronze certificate. We were very pleased
with our results which are summarised below.
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Total
Year 8
36
38
14
88
Year 7
23
58
51
132
Total
59
96
65
220
The Gold Certificate winners were:
Year 8
Sebastian Kreutz Wellsted**
Alya Haque*
Jet Wang*
Matthew Mayes*
Aron Thomas*
AyasaYashiro*
Niall Nolan*
Thomas Vimpany*
Alfred Marriage Massey*
George Ioannou*
Amber Khan*
Daniel Hughes
Nikita Nunes
Lara Thompson
Sam Hewson
Matthew Kwok
Samuel Tiongson
Zoe Haynes
May 2015
Daniel Hitch**
CharlieBall*
Alex Stapleton*
Ethan Dommett*
Ankur Singh*
Louis Hurrey*
Jeremy Weinstein*
Niraali Mehta*
Indigo Sagoo*
Viren Halai*
Zak Buzzard*
Neve Mayes
Daniel Macmillan
Paola Barreca
Nadia Gonnermann
Aisha Manning
Hannah Chen
Louisa Ayerst
Page 4 of 12
Year 7
Emilia Warr*
Luca Choteborsky*
James Allison*
Nicole Di*
Esha Seechurn
Louie Baker
Jack Steel
Zoe Antoniou
Carmela Charalambous
Haleema Khan
Oliver Allison
Oscar Siddle
Megan Boulton*
Patrick Whitman*
Riyo Chuang*
Jack Williams*
Jineth Dissanayake
Gregoire Denjean
Niall McGoldrick Kim
Elizabeth Earl
Amelie Coyle
Katherine Boscott
Sajni Shah
The top 1,200 pupils nationally are invited to do the 2-hour Junior Mathematicial Olympiad Paper,
this year two of our pupils qualified for this (as indicated by **). This is the first year there has
been a Junior Kangaroo paper and 28 of our pupils qualified for this (as indicated by *).
Congratulations to all these very successful pupils and we await their follow-up results with
interest!
Maths Dept
Hertfordshire Year 8 Team Maths Winners
In the Team Maths Competition there were 2 rounds (the heat and the final). In each of the
rounds it was split up into six groups of questions; including two table rounds, an estimation round
and a memory round. As a team our best round was the table rounds, where we were split up into
pairs with two of us doing one round and two doing the other and then we would swap and check
each other‟s work. In the heat we came joint first with Townsend School and in the final we came
joint first again. We worked well as a team and that is what made us win.
Dylan Gunasekera
Year 8
Sebastian Kreutz Wellsted , Aron Thomas, Daniel Hughes, Dylan Gunasekera
May 2015
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News from the English Department
English at KS3
We are delighted to report on the continued success of our very talented students at KS3. Out of
many entries, a total of 71 students are to have their „Grim Tale‟ published in the Grim Tales –
Hertfordshire anthology. The task enabled students to develop and showcase their technical
writing and creative skills as well as having the opportunity to see themselves as published
writers. Their creation of a 100 word mini-saga, was indeed a challenging task but one our KS3
students relished!
Letters have been sent to pupils and parents congratulating them on their success and offering
them the opportunity to order a copy of the anthology, which shall also be available in The British
Library.
Raphael Gaete (Year 8) has also achieved great success in the National Literacy Trust‟s
„Alex Rider: Secret Mission‟ competition led by Anthony Horowitz. Raphael‟s story came in the top
10 out of 1500 entries and will be published on the National Literacy Trust‟s website.
News from the PE Department
Netball
At the end of last term the year 7A, 10A and 11A Netball teams played Chancellor‟s School in the
finals of their respective District League competitions. All three teams triumphed to become
District Champions. The 7A team avenged Chancellor‟s School who had defeated them in the
final of their District Tournament, whilst the year 10 side, by winning their final, completed the
District League and Tournament double. Congratulations to all girls who played in these finals.
Hockey
Congratulations go to Lucy Georgiou and Alya Haque (both year 8) who, following County trials,
were selected for the Hertfordshire Under 13 Junior Academy Centre.
To date, as the summer sport season has just begun, our teams have been training hard in
rounders and athletics but have only had a few sporting fixtures.
Rounders
Both the year 9 and 10 rounders teams opened their District League campaigns with victories
over Hertswood School. The former age group won 9-2 with Isobel Nendick receiving the player
of the match accolade, whilst the latter year group won 9.5-5.5 with Lucy Bird awarded player of
the match.
The year 7 and 8 teams‟ first District League matches of the season against Queenswood School
and Yavneh College fell victim to the weather. These teams are now due to start their group
matches just before the half term break with fixtures against Onslow St. Audrey‟s School and
Hertswood School.
PE Dept
May 2015
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News from the Art Department
May 2015
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Successful Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Gold Expedition to the
Brecon Beacons over Easter!
Many congratulations to our 26 Gold participants from Year 12 who all completed their Practice
Expedition with BXM Expeditions http://www.bxmexpeditions.co.uk/ over the Easter
weekend. Students brilliantly rose to the challenges of the trip and are now ready for their
Assessment Expeditions to the Lake District later this year in July and October. In the meantime,
they‟re all busy continuing with the other 4 sections of the Award – volunteering, skills, physical
and organising an independent residential trip as well as revising for their exams - wishing them
good luck for their AS Levels! Thanks to Miss Lord, Mr Titley and Mr Archer for accompanying
them to Wales.
Students in Years 10 and 11 who are doing their Bronze Award are currently training for their
expeditions on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school and will be heading for the Chilterns in
June, July, September and October later this year. If you‟re interested, follow https://twitter.com/
DAOSDofE on Twitter for DofE News!
Miss A Lord
Duke of Edinburgh Co-ordinator
Mrs M English
Duke of Edinburgh Support
DAOS Newsletter Library News May 2015
Year 8 student is a runner up in a national writing competition
We are thrilled to announce that Raphael Gaete in Year 8 was a runner up in the National
Literacy Trust‟s “Alex Rider” story competition. Raphael‟s beautifully crafted adventure story made
it to the final ten from over 1,500 entries. This was a national competition and is a great
achievement.
Year 7 and 8 students were introduced to the competition during their library lessons and
encouraged to enter. Many excellent entries were sent to the competition from our students, and
we are delighted that Raphael‟s story “Son” made it to the final ten. Raphael‟s‟ story will be
published on the National Literacy Trust website along with the winning entry and the other
runners up.
Readathon
Year 7 have been busily doing a sponsored read to raise money for children with serious
illnesses. We are still collecting sponsorship forms and money, so if any students have not
returned their forms or money this can be done via Wisepay, or by bringing the money to school
to their form tutor or to the library, in a sealed envelope with their name and form on it.
May 2015
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Thanks to all those students who have been reading and have obtained sponsors. Many grateful
thank also to all the generous sponsors. Some students were sponsored to read specific books,
others to read regularly or try a new genre or author. A lot of reading has been done, and the
money raised goes to a very good cause, well done.
Further information about the money raise will be available next half term.
Mrs S Compton
Librarian
News from the Social Sciences
The big news from the department is the sad
news that two of the team are leaving. I‟m sure
many of you are aware that Mr Roberts (the
Director of ICT but a key member of the
department) has decided to take retirement
after years of sterling service in the educational
world. However, more recently Mr Archer
decided to join him after 10 wonderful years at
the school where he has been an excellent
Economics and Business teacher as well as
helping out on numerous trips and clubs and
putting his name to the eponymous Chess
Prize along with my good self. I wish them all
the best and I‟m sure that all students will miss their hard work and dedication and I look forward
to finding out who has won their latest golf grudge match from September.
Throughout this term, despite the
pressures of revising for exams, we have
still managed to get speakers in to further
enrich the students and give them (what
we like to call) „magic dust‟ that they can
use in future exams/discussions.
I‟m
delighted
that
our
first
speaker
Bharat Mehta OBE, the Chief Executive at
Trust for London was invited in by one of
our students Xenios Matjilla after meeting
him at the Ha-Joon Chang lecture that I
wrote about last time. Bharat spoke about
inequality in London and some of his
statistics were quite amazing. Here you
can see Bharat with some of our
economists:
Even though this is more Politics than Economics, it was also great to see Freddie Moore invite in
a local Green Party representative to discuss Green Party policies in the run up to the General
May 2015
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Election. I‟m sure that it has been mentioned elsewhere in this newsletter but it was great to see
so many students from our subjects get involved in the DAOS General Election, with some of
them actually leading the parties.
But to go back to the original point, it is fantastic when we see students take charge of their own
learning and invite speakers in. I hope this continues in the future. NEVER STOP LEARNING!
We also had two other key Economics lunchtime lectures. One featured an old boy John Lewis
who now works for the Bank of England. He gave an excellent career‟s talk on what you can do
as an economist and then took many questions on economic policy making. It was absolutely
fascinating and we hope to see him again next year. The same can be said for Simon Upcott, a
father of some old students, who delivered an intriguing talk on the morality of tax, as we can see
on the picture. Again, the student‟s questions were excellent on this topic and could have lasted
another hour but alas, when the bell goes, we move like Pavlov‟s dog.
If you are reading this and think you could offer an interesting talk to our students, I would love to
hear from you. Please do contact the school and I will be in touch.
Have a lovely half-term!
Mr Simpson
Head of Social Sciences
Online shopping with Amazon? Help raise funds for the library.
You can find the catalogue link on the new Life VLE homepage, or by clicking
http://daos.koha-ptfs.eu and choosing the Amazon link on the right hand side.
May 2015
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Old Owenians Network Reception
Our inaugural networking event for our London alumni was held at Brewers' Hall on
Monday 11th May, 6-8pm. Guests who attended either work or study in the Greater London area
and they very much appreciated a drinks and canapés reception in the Livery Hall! It was an ideal
occasion for them to meet other alumni from across the years and make useful contacts, both
from a work point of view and social. Initial feedback suggests that two hours wasn't enough!
Chair of Governors and Old Owenian, Peter Martin (Class of 1963), gave a brief welcome speech
and Head Boy, Sam Mason, Deputy Head Boy, Philip Hobbs and Deputy Head Girls
Rosina Acosta and Stef Borden
also represented our School and
spoke to our guests.
Home of the Brewers, this venue
was kindly donated by the
Worshipful Company to enable us
to hold this after-work event. Many
of our alumni cannot join us for
the
Old
Owenians
Annual
Reunion Luncheon, which is held
during the day in October half
term. Guests entered a business
card raffle to win a bottle of
champagne
and
an
Owen Bear! Further report in the
Old Owenians Newsletter at the
end of June.
Biology Photo Competition 2015
The theme last year was „Brilliant Biology‟, which was to give a wide scope for our keen
photographers. We were delighted to receive lots of entries, especially from the Lower School.
This year we are encouraging students to get creative with our theme of Competition &
Survival. Deadline for entries is Monday 29th June and details of how to enter can be found on
LIFE - Departments -> Science -> Enrichment -> Biology Photo Competition. Alternatively
students can pick up an entry form from the Science staff room.
Here are our amazing winners from last year. Happy snapping!
2014 Lower School winner Emelia Bryce.
May 2015
2014 Upper School winner Oliver Marshall
Page 11 of 12
News from the OSA
OSA Events – The next OSA event is the Summer Fete
on 4th July which will include food, beverages, stalls and
entertainment so be sure to put it in your diary. The fete
starts at 12.30pm so why not come for lunch. If you are
able to volunteer to help in any way then please contact
The
Owen’s
School
Association
events@theosa.org.uk or come along to the next committee meeting on 1st June 2015
Raffle Competition—The OSA are holding a competition for years 11 and 12 to see which
student can sell the most raffle tickets for the forthcoming fete. Tickets have been sent home with
students and any ticket stubs and money should be returned in an envelope marked „Summer
Fete Raffle‟ to reception by Friday 3rd July. Please mark the envelope with your son/daughter‟s
name and form. If you should require additional tickets, these can be collected from reception. If
you are unable to sell the tickets please could we ask you to return any unused tickets.
Refreshments – There are lots of events coming up next half-term so any help serving
refreshments would be greatly appreciated. If you are able to help with drinks at any of the
events please email sarahl@theosa.org.uk. If your child is performing and you are able to offer
help during the interval then please volunteer.
Book Covers – As a reminder book covers are available for sale during the year and an order
form can be found on the OSA website, www.theosa.org.uk. Alternatively a paper copy of the
order form can be found in a yellow folder in the OSA box. Please mark any envelopes „book
cover order‟.
Matched Funding – If you are employed by a company that is able to offer matched funding and
would like to make a donation to Owen‟s School Association please contact
sarahl@theosa.org.uk. This is a simple and efficient way that companies can make a charitable
donation. A lot of companies have started to reintroduce matched funding so it is worth checking
if your company runs such a scheme.
200 Club – The OSA operate a 200 club and two prizes are drawn on a monthly basis, plus an
extra draw takes place in December. Annual membership is £12 per number. For further details
please contact Bev King via 200club@theOSA.org.uk.
School Uniform – Should your son/daughter have outgrown any of their old school uniform could
we ask you to think about donating it. Good quality previously owned school uniform is available
at Parents‟ Evenings. All items are carefully displayed and prices are very reasonable. Payment
can be made by cash or cheque (payable to Owen's School Association). Of course all funds
raised go back to the school. Stock is made up of donations and uncollected items of lost
property stored in the school office at the end of each academic year. If you would like to contact
Mrs Clews at any time for further information about the "OSA Nearly New", or would like to
volunteer
to
help,
she
can
be
emailed
via
the
school
office
at:
admin@damealiceowens.herts.sch.uk.
Donations of good quality items can be handed into the school office, in a suitable bag, labeled
for the attention of Julia Clews, "OSA Nearly New", throughout the year.
OSA Committee - The OSA committee is always looking for new members who would like to
help raise funds for the school. Should you wish to attend an OSA committee meeting as a one
off or if you would like to join the committee, then meetings are held on the first Monday of each
month at 8pm in The Old Library. We would love to see some new faces and look forward to
welcoming you.
May 2015
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