A visit to the Bate Collection

A review of a recent trip to Oxford University's Bate Collection by d'Overbroeck's student, Tal Fineman.

On a frosty Monday morning in January, a small group of d’Overbroeck’s students braved the cold and trekked to St. Aldate's for a visit to The Bate Collection of Musical Instruments. The collection is dedicated to historically significant musical instruments, from medieval serpents and crumhorns, all the way through to a theremin, one of the pioneering instruments in electronic music. However, this was no normal museum visit - the Bate collection takes a very ‘hands-on’ approach, and so we found ourselves attempting to play viols (forefathers to modern string instruments), antique brass and woodwind instruments, and a Harpsichord that was supposedly played by Handel himself! 

The trip proved a most welcome and educational break from normal lessons, and special thanks are owed to Phil, Sue, and the staff at the collection for providing the experience!

Enrichment

Our Enrichment programme this term for the Lower Sixth will include:

• Dr Stephanie Burnett Heyes. Monday 18th  January 

Dr Hayes is a lecturer and research scientist in Oxford. Her talk is called "The Brain in Adolescence" and will cover:
1) what adolescence is (biology, cultural differences)
2) how the brain changes in adolescence (white matter and grey matter)
3) what this might mean for thought and behaviour.

• John Hoskins  Monday 4th February

  John is an ex-professional golfer who will speak to the students about his career in the sporting world and how many of the skills you need to develop at a highly competitive sporting level are also applicable to the world of an ‘A’ level student--drive and determination, taking yourself out of the comfort zone at times and working hard to achieve your goals and aspirations. There is, however, a significant twist to his tale that will hopefully leave students time to think through about consequences in response to decisions that they may need to take in life. (More will be revealeded later about this!)

• Professor Bliss Monday 18th February

Professor Bliss is the Nuffield Professor of International Economics, University of Oxford & Fellow Nuffield College, Oxford. He will be presenting on Game Theory and running an experiment with d'Overbroeck's students. Popularized by movies such as "A Beautiful Mind", game theory is the mathematical modeling of strategic decision-making. It includes the modelling of conflict among nations, political campaigns, competition among firms, and trading behaviour in markets such as the New York Stock Exchange.

• Sue Bennett Monday 25th February

Sue is Director of Student Careers & Skills, University of Warwick, and parent of a former student at the College. She will be coming during the afternoon and evening to deliver a UCAS Briefing to all of our Lower Sixth students and their parents. Sue’s talk will cover the process of deciding what to study at a UK university and where to study it, how degree choice relates to career choice, as well as how to make the application itself, including the secrets of writing the personal statement.

• Korina Karampela 4th  March

Korina is the founder of b4iapply, author, consultant and speaker. She has held senior positions in the pharmaceutical industry for 12 years and has an MBA from MIT Sloan. Her blog http://b4iapply.com is recommended by The Guardian for professional development. Her ebook 'b4iapply to uni: the 4-step to success' is now available on Amazon and on iBookstore. Korina will be coming to give us the big picture about how to choose the career we want and the best qualifications to get us there.

• Elevate Education  Monday 18th March,

Elevate Education will present a session entitled ‘Ace your Exams’.The sessions are led by graduates and postgraduates who have recently taken their ‘A’ levels themselves. The purpose of the sessions is to give students advice on critical exam skills that will allow them to excel in the exam room and the different types of work that they can do for effective preparation.

A level choices and Sixth Form Open Morning

As you will have seen there is lots in the news at the moment about A level choices and proposed changes to the A level system. If you want to find out more about different subjects, what they involve, what combinations of subjects work well together and how universities view subjects our Sixth Form Open Morning (Saturday February 2nd from 10am to 1pm at The Swan Building) is an ideal opportunity to find out more. You can talk to students and Heads of Department and find out in detail about your Sixth Form options with us.