Christmas Fair 2011

It may seem that Christmas is still some way away, but it's coming early to d'Overbroeck's College! On Saturday 26th November, between 11am and 2pm, you are warmly invited to join us at Leckford Place for our annual Christmas Fair. There will be an array of stalls and games for adults and children - the perfect place to snap up a few presents - with refreshments available, including mince pies and mulled wine. All money raised will go to local children's charities.

There is also the opportunity for you to have your own stall or to help with the running of the fair, so if you'd like to be involved or would like more information then please contact anne.brooks@doverbroecks.com.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Summer cooking and inspired teaching

The following article was first published in the Oxford Times Educational Supplement on September 15th 2011.

Sami Cohen, the Principal of d'Overbroeck's, reflects on the essential ingredients that make for outstanding teaching and learning.

Not an avid TV watcher, I was nonetheless captivated by Jamie Oliver’s recent programme on summer cooking. Working outdoors with no kitchen in sight, it was fascinating to watch him crush fresh ripe avocadoes till they oozed through his fingers, squeeze juicy lemons with great gusto, turn a holey old bucket into a serviceable fish smoker and whip up a cake out of hastily cooked pancakes and the enthusiasm of a bunch of three-year olds. With the most makeshift of equipment and the minimum of pretension – but with passion, flair, a deft touch and plenty of joie de vivre, he was able to bring the best out of his ingredients and to turn out exquisitely succulent results.

It struck me that good teaching had much in common with this. Good teaching comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes; there is no single recipe for it. Nevertheless it seems to me that the best teachers are often not those who revel in convoluted teaching strategies or who aspire to create beautifully conceived model lesson plans. The best teachers are those who have a rich reservoir of energy and passion, who enjoy their subject and love to communicate it; those who make a point of really getting to know each and every one of their students and who aspire to kindle in each of them a combination of inquisitiveness, enthusiasm and a desire to think for themselves to want to know more.

Such teachers are often passionate, driven people who are motivated by a desire to inspire and to draw the best out of every one of their students. The result is usually a very special kind of ‘dedication’; a dedication that is shared by both students and teacher – and, where the alchemy really works, such dedication need by no means be earnest or sanctimonious. It is usually more robust and runs deeper than that. ‘Where there’s laughter, there’s learning’, as our founder was fond of saying. When students are comfortable and at ease, that is when they are most prone to be receptive and engaged. And the benefits are mutual: students can bring the best out of their teachers, just as much as teachers can bring the best out of their students.

Every school has to have, and to publish, a ‘statement of aims and ethos’. You are most welcome to find ours on our website. It starts as follows: ‘We aim to maintain a lively, close-knit yet relatively liberal community in which pupils feel engaged, happy and at ease with themselves and with their school environment; in which the relationships between staff and students are ‘comfortable’ and built more on mutual respect than on imposed formality; in which pupils are encouraged and stimulated to develop academically and personally, and to grow into themselves as confident, thoughtful and considerate people who are ready to move on to the next stage of their lives.’

In my view, outstanding teaching sits at the very core of this and none of the rest would be possible without it.

Click here to read more articles on our 'In the Media' page.

Creative Courses 2011

Here at Leckford Place, we very much enjoyed the summer's Creative Courses; all the children were wonderful and really made the most of the week. Next year we'll be running the courses again and are very much hoping to add to the spectrum of activities that we offer; one course we're hoping to run is Hip Hop dance, but more information will be available in due course. If you haven't already, subscribe to the Leckford Place blog to keep up to date with this and all that's going on at Leckford Place.

In the meantime, below are a number of photographs taken during our busy and creative week!

Best GCSE results ever

Congratulations to our Year 11 students on their excellent results. An outstanding 29% of their results were A* and 55% were A* or A. Once again all of our students achieved at least 5 GCSEs at A* to C. These results are a tribute to the hard work and commitment of the students such as Lydia (above) who achieved A*s and As in all her subjects.

Festival for Science teachers

Members of staff from Leckford Place science department enjoyed an evening out in the University of Oxford Museum of Natural History. The event was a science teachers’ festival and there were tours, talks and displays on offer.

Deborah Hankins (our Science Technician) demonstrated 'Microscale Chemistry' alongside the likes of Oxford University Physics Department, the Association of Science Education and Science Oxford. She was able to show how chemical reactions can be carried out on a micro-scale and how to make a micro conductivity meter. There was lots of interest, especially in the latter as a fun piece of equipment to make in schools.

The festival was organised by the Oxfordshire Independent State Schools Partnership. It was great to meet up with some old friends, make new contacts and be inspired by science.

— Words by Anne-Marie Jones, Head of Science
Image is Creative Commons licensed by Mike Cugley

Our new 'Reading for Pleasure' library

As part of a 'Wider Reading Drive', the English Department have invested in a new range of fiction books aimed specifically at reading for pleasure. Such books include the Cherub Series, Elizabeth Laird and Mal Peet for younger readers, with the latest Orange Prize shortlist and a range of Booker winners alongside some classics for the more advanced.

Students are encouraged to take time selecting books for themselves and to discuss their choices both with their teachers and peers. To facilitate this, we have started a reading blog on Moodle called 'What's Worth Reading?'. This works as an interactive reading list — students can add books or comment on existing suggestions; this allows students to use the opinions of their peers to inform their private reading rather than those of parents and teachers who sadly rarely seem to have quite the same influence!

This has already raised the profile of 'reading for fun' around the school and it's been great to see girls and boys alike discussing fantastic fiction books as well as movies and computer games!

— Words and photo by Joanne Williams, English teacher

A private showing of A Comedy of Errors

The Oxford Shakespeare Company, fresh from performing their A Comedy of Errors in London, happily agreed to open their Oxford summer season a day early especially for Leckford students and parents!

Reviewed by The Guardian as 'an exuberant outdoor production — faultless performances, a toe-tapping, heart-warming hoot', a wonderful summer’s afternoon was enjoyed by all! Against the beautiful backdrop of the Wadham College gardens, we were treated to a musical and modern interpretation of one of Shakespeare’s lesser-known comedies.

The performance retained the puns and slapstick style typical of Shakespeare’s comedies with more modern twists and audience interaction making the play more engaging and easy to follow than is often the case with Shakespeare productions. A huge thank you to those parents who came along to share the day!

— Words and photo by Joanne Williams, English teacher

GCSE Geographers study Somerset river

We visited Nettlecombe court in North West Somerset to complete a river study for the students’ GCSE Geography Controlled Assessment.

Nettlecombe court is a long established FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) centre with considerable local field work expertise, helping us to collect data and learn to process that data with the most up to date methods available. GE Graph was one amazing tool that I learnt about for the first time!


Nettlecombe court is situated in a steep-sided, lush green valley with the considerable advantage of a limited cell phone network. Students were able to maintain their focus on the demands of the field trip without too much disturbance. As is normal on Geography fieldtrips, behaviour was excellent and much successful work was completed — even with the distractions offered to some of our boys by the presence of a local independent girls’ school…

Sadly for them, there was not too much time available for relaxation and socialising!

— Report by Paul Wheeler, Head of Geography

Old uniform put to good use

Something a little different, today. Above is a photograph of children at Mfuwe Secondary School in Zambia — now decked out in old Leckford Place uniform.

We donated surplus uniforms to the school via the charity Chipembele, with help from clothing shop Shepherd & Woodward.

The children 'were thrilled beyond words', according to Anna Tolan, director of Chipembele. 'They said "Proper" (meaning not second-hand which is what they usually get handed out), "Very brilliant" and "Now I'm HAPPY".'

Love Languages Competition

Year 8 students of French and Spanish travelled to Surrey, back in February, to take part in the 'Love Languages' competition held by the City of London Freemen's School. Students performed a five minute piece in their chosen foreign language, in front of audience and judges.

Below is a short account by year 8 student Genevieve Reeves:

We had an amazing time at the Love Languages Competition. It took place at City of London Freemen's School in Surrey so the build-up was really exciting.



It was really fun making up our own script but it was hard to translate it into Spanish and French. The food we were given was great, particularly the huge doughnuts!



It was really nice to see other schools perform and listen to conversations in different languages.



Overall I think that the experience was fantastic and I can't wait until next year!

Red Nose Day festivities

Red Nose Day was celebrated in style at Leckford, with staff and pupils alike donning red to raise money for this fantastic cause!


The Year 8s took the lead in organising a brilliant range of events for the day, kicking off with a very popular Cake Sale in the Social Area at break. Lunch was extended, and the hall in Leckford was transformed into a carnival with a great selection of stalls and stands, including a Shooting Gallery, Pin-the-Nose, and a Hot Dog stall — all of which was accompanied by an Open Mic stand. A good number of pupils chose to sing and perform, as well as home-grown talent in the form of staff JP and James Holburn.


All would agree, however, that the highlight (perhaps not for those on the receiving end!) was the Staff Sponging. Head Mark gamely took the lead in the stocks, followed by staff including Maths teacher Frank and the English department's Jo Williams.


At the final fund-count, the grand total came to a fantastic £551.50, a sum that all the school can be very justly proud of. Well done to the Year 8 group that planned the day, and to all who gave so generously throughout!

View a slideshow of more photos

— Words by Ed Yeo, Music Teacher and co-organiser of the event, along with JP Davies

Charismatic Public Speakers

Back in January, two teams represented Leckford Place at the Rotary ‘Youth Speaks’ public speaking competition. This was the local area competition Intermediate Section hosted by Cherwell School.

Team A (Year 8) consisted of Jesse Weeks (Proposer), James Lambert (Speaker) and Hovnan Eayrs (Chairman). James gave an animated and amusing talk entitled ‘Why do the Goodies Always Win?’



Year 7 was represented by Team B (above) comprising Sophia Saban (Speaker), William Nicholson (Chairman) and Jack Valentine (Proposer). Sophia entertained us with tales of her family Christmas spent with an eccentric relative.

Against some strong competition, Leckford Place stood out as having two equally impressive teams. Our speakers and supporters presented their own well prepared material in a confident and natural style.

Although they did not bring home one of the two prizes — and that must have been by the narrowest of margins — Sophia and James were given well-deserved praise by the judges for their confident presence on stage. They also won the spontaneous praise of several members of the audience.

— Writeup kindly provided by Lesley Lambert, parent