Namibia 2012

Later this year, 20 of our Sixth Form and Year 11 students will be going to Namibia to work on improving the facilities of a local school by refurbishing classrooms and building playground areas. Our students will also help with activities and teaching whilst working with local pupils.

"Education is a high priority for Namibians, especially in the more remote regions where schools are more isolated. By working alongside communities to upgrade recreation and education facilities so to assist the daily education of Namibian pupils our education projects are intended to provide a meaningful and sustainable exchange for groups who wish to get closer to a rural community." according to 'Schools Worldwide'. The College organised a similar trip two years ago to Zambia which is featured in the photos.

To raise money for the materials to be used in Namibia, students have organised several events over the next few weeks, including two cake sales, a 'Safari Day' and Quiz Night. More information on these will be posted in due course.

Alongside these, a number of other social events have been planned for the term ahead, including:

• a trip to the Oxford University v The Army rugby match at the University sports ground on 7th February
• an ice skating disco at the Oxford Ice Rink on 24 February
• d'Overbroeck's Got Talent in March

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