Duke of Edinburgh Award - Practice Expedition

Congratulations to the Sixth Form Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award group who have just completed their practice expedition to the Brecon Beacons. 

It was completed in every weather condition; fierce wind, snow, rain, and the occasional ray of sunshine. The students did fantastically well, coming together as a group to support each other and overcome different individual challenges. They also demonstrated and expanded on their navigational and camp craft skill sets. 

They now know what they need to work on for the qualifying expedition in Snowdonia this June. Good luck!

Russia Trip, Photography Competition

Following the recent trip to Russia, students were invited to submit their photographs in a competition judged by photography teacher Mark Pennington. The results, along with his comments, are displayed below. Congratulations to the winner and runner up, and well done to all those who submitted their work.

The winner: Jess Middleton-Heath

"Brilliant image, pairs, dark and light, mystery, cinematic, structured."

Runner up: Alex Ramos (two photographs)

"Magic, fantasy, fairy-tale, colour."

"Looks like a Lowry painting."

Mathemagicians!

We were recently visited by two 'mathemagicians' associated with Marcus' Marvellous Mathemagicians - a group of current maths students at the University of Oxford championed by Marcus du Sautoy, presenter of numerous TV programmes and the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science. Our mathemagicians (Dan Martin, an undergraduate in Physics at Hertford College, Oxford and Thomas Woolley, Research Associate at the Maths Institute, Oxford) spent an hour entertaining the students with their unique brand of humour and mathematical insights into winning games of all sorts. They convinced most of us that playing the lottery is a waste of time and money, and introduced us to an unsolved mathematics problem that could be worth at least one million US dollars to anyone who can solve it. 

Geography Field Trip

A review by Lower Sixth student, Jake de Buriatte

On the 4^th March 24 AS  Geography students headed up to Preston Montford with their three teachers, Kate, Louise and JP for a 3 day field work trip. When we arrived, we spent the day doing experiments about infiltration and hydrography in different areas – urbanized, cultivated and vegetated locations, as well as settling into our dorms for the next couple of nights.

On the second day, we went to the Carding Mill valley, where we carried out experiments on the rivers. We were gifted clear blue skies and warm weather - all in a picture perfect landscape. 

We worked our way down the river, from the source, measuring velocity, width, efficiency and discharge at several different points.

On our third and final day at the center, we went in to the county town of Shrewsbury to look at flooding. We split of into several small groups, and went to collect data from different zones within the town, carrying out a risk assessment of flooding with in the different zones. We spent the last part of our day looking at the multi-million pound flood defenses that were put in place after the devastating floods of 2003. 

All-in-all this was a really interesting trip and great to see the theories that we had learnt in the classroom in the real world. I can't wait for the next one!

Young Enterprise

A review by Jonathan Young

This term has seen our 2012/13 Young Enterprise company "Macaroon Bracelets" focus on sourcing sale opportunities for our internationally sourced boutique bracelets. 

This year's team (comprising Managing Director Malika Abdykalykova, Finance Director Fatmir Qylafi, Marketing Managers Chris Read & Josh McKnight,  Sales Manager, Xiaoli Huang,  Operations Managers Yeelee Ngai, Bao Anh Tran and Secretary Kornkan Chananithitham) highlighted a series of trade fairs organised by Young Enterprise to form the back bone of their sales strategy. 

Firstly, the Central Oxford Trade Fair at the Templar’s Square shopping centre in January saw our company make record sales – posting their best results in a day's trading to date as the passing trade from the shopping centre brought a steady stream of interested customers.

After the success of the Central Oxford Trade Fair, our company chose to attend another, this time the North Oxford Trade Fair at Castle Quay, Banbury. Another day of strong sales followed and an award from the Mayor of Banbury for our high standard of customer service. 

What does the future hold? The company is striving for more sales opportunities and with this is mind we have decided to compete nationally at the National Trade Fair in Stratford on Saturday March 16th. Let the sales continue….

Allen Associates Business Workshop

A review by Jonathan Young

“Put yourself in your customers place…”

The Business Department’s ‘Workshop Wednesdays’ continued with Kate and Rob Allen from Oxford recruitment specialists Allen Associates kindly offering their time and insights to this year's A2 and AS Business Studies students with a talk titled Running a Successful Business - Peaks, Troughs and Everything in Between.

The charismatic duo highlighted the importance of putting your customers needs at the forefront of your business planning with a customer focus essential as a base for both their differentiation strategy and their continued competitiveness in the recruitment market. Listening to your customers is key - their needs and wants - in order for your company to meet these successfully, especially in recruitment as your clients expect the very best candidate selection possible, tailored to their requirements”. 

In this regard Kate and Rob highlighted the importance of highly skilled, knowledgeable and dedicated employees in a people business such as recruitment. “Find good people and once you have found them keep them as they are integral to you continued success”.  As such Kate and Rob outlined their beliefs – a customer focus, the right staff, a strong brand known for high quality service will ensure competitiveness in the future.

A trip to the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

A summary by physics student, Jack Brett 

Picture from the Science and Technology Facilities Council

"Last week around twenty of us who are taking physics A level took a trip to the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Abingdon. We spent the day there and it was very interesting. I learnt about many complex theories concerning particle physics, including the famous Higgs Boson particle. There were many fun activities in which we took part, such as a tour of the laboratory as well as fascinating lectures from people who wok there. It was a very pleasant day out overall and was very useful for learning more about particle physics. I would strongly encourage anyone taking physics for A level to come along."