Flight to the edge of space!

On Friday 21st June 2013, a team of d'Overbroeck's staff and A level chemistry students, led by teacher Stephen Belding, launched a weather balloon as part of an ambitious experiment to record and analyse atmospheric data.

The helium-filled latex balloon carried a small polystyrene payload (see photos below) containing a camera (programmed to take photographs every 30 seconds for a period of 3 hours), a GPS tracker (to determine the location of the fallen balloon after the flight), a data logger (to record the temperature, pressure and humidity every 10 seconds) and two intrepid lego figures belonging to teacher Max Parsonage's grandson.

With the appropriate authorities informed and weather patterns checked, the balloon was released. Two and a half hours later it returned safely to Earth, along with some quite spectacular photos, such as those below.

Congratulations to Stephen and the team (in particular student Joe Wolfensohn who had the idea) for a very successful experiment!

Some interesting facts about the experiment

• At the earth's surface, the balloon was 1.8 metres in diameter, becoming bigger until, having reached its highest altitude, it burst. Just before it burst, its diameter would have grown to about 10 metres.
• During the flight, the temperature was expected to drop to around -60^oC. At this temperature everyday electronic equipment (like the camera) stops working. Stephen and his team therefore had to use special chemicals to heat the inside of the payload during the flight.
• The balloon took 2 hours 20 minutes to reach its maximum altitude (travelling at 6.54 mph) and 50 minutes to descend (travelling at 11.2mph). 
• The GPS trail below shows how it travelled throughout its journey, taking off from Wolvercote (north of Oxford) and landing near Brize Norton.

Young Enterprise goes from strength to strength

Last month saw the conclusion of Macaroon Bracelets Young Enterprise journey as they attended the Central Oxford Company Program Regional finals at the prestigious European Headquarters of probably the most famous motorcycle brand in the world...Harley Davidson!

The standard of this year's competiton was exceptionally high as all the entrants showcased impressive stands, products and presentations. Macaroon Bracelets more than matched their competitors with a well thought out stand and very narrowly missed out on the "Best Presentation Award" as they wowed the audience with their humorous interactive media presentation. Whilst away from the competition students loved the opportunity to ride on a real Harley Davidson!

This years Young Enterprise company has really developed throughout the year following their mantra of the 3 Ps; PLAN, PRACTICE and then PERFECT, always looking to improve and add value to their product. Congratulations to Managing Director Malika Abdykalykova for successfully leading the team through this development and Fatmir Qylafi for winning an award for 'outstanding individual contribution' at the awards ceremony. Finally a big shout out to the rest of the team: Xiaoli Huang, Yeelee Ngai, Bao Anti Tsan, Chris Read, Sai Chananifhitham and Josh McNight without whom this year's success would not have been possible.

Commonwealth Games hopes for d'Overbroeck's star

As reported earlier this month in the Oxford Mail, d'Overbroeck's student Jack Antoniou (pictured below) is hoping to compete at next year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow after becoming the youngest player to represent Cyprus at Rugby Sevens.

Jack, an Upper Sixth student studying P.E., Business Studies and Geography made his debut for Cyprus in Dubai last December and most recently featured at the European Sevens Cup in Tel Aviv, Israel. Jack, who also plays club rugby for Henley Hawks, helped Cyprus reached the plate final where they lost to Denmark.

We wish Jack every success for the future and look forward - hopefully - to seeing him at next year's Games!

Highly commended entry in Words for the Wounded Writing Competiton: Cassie Cooper Bagnall

Congratulation to Cassie Cooper Bagnall for being Highly Commended in a recent Words for the Wounded national competition. This competition helps raise funds for wounded service men and women. For more details visit http://www.wordsforthewounded.co.uk/index.html

 

Cassies’s piece is as follows:

 

“Warming sunlight poured in through the open window, pooling gently around a sleeping female form. Lucy sunk into its comforting embrace, rolling softly onto her side hands placed protectively over her ‘bump’. A new dawn. Promising great things with its limitless sky of blue. Poppies stood tall outside the window, cursed with an ugly bud, blessed with a beautiful bloom; a fog of emotion clouded her vision as tears sparkled, yet unshed.

 
Three months. Six days. Nine hours.

 

The space beside her was painfully vacant, pillows undisturbed by an exhausted head instead occupied by a crumpled piece of paper, words flowing across the page in an achingly familiar hand. His last letter. She’d read it so many times it was carved into her heart.

“Come on Luce.” she smiled, listening to the faint echo of the voice she’d fallen in love with . “Up and at ‘em.”

“Alright, give me a minute. Go make some coffee and stop nagging me.”

“It was just a love-nag,”

“Go ‘love-nag’ the coffee pot!”

“I’m going, I’m going...”

She wasn’t a morning person. She had the opinion that there were some hours of the day no normal human being should ever see.

 

Three months. Six days. Twelve hours.

 

Then it happened. His photo was packed with care and Lucy bustled into the back seat, parents arguing all the way. The engine kicked in with a hacking cough, prompting another argument over when they were going to replace this ‘good for nothing...’

“That doctor has a serious honker!”

 

Three months. Six days. Nineteen hours.

 

“We’re going to take you down to the delivery room.”

 

Three months. Six days. Twenty hours.

 

Lucy held her baby girl in her arms awestruck, marvelling at creation.

“Who do you think she looks more like?” she asked.

“She’s gorgeous. She’s all you.”

She looked up and saw her soul-mate; he was as she had seen him last, now a figment of her imagination - handsome, with dark hair, and melting chocolate coloured eyes. His uniform fit him proudly, though his boots were up on the bed. Again! She raised an eyebrow and mysteriously his feet slid back to the floor.

A father, a soldier, a hero...her Jerri.

“I miss you.”

“You can always find me. I never really left.”

Lucy looked down at her baby girl, awake and smiling, her father’s eyes brimming with curiosity.

 

He was right. He was still here.”

 

 

 

Thinking of Medicine as a career?

 

Amongst the many parents coming to talk at our Careers Event next Wednesday we are fortunate to have Peter Ratcliffe and Hilary Kirk.

 

Peter Ratcliffe

Peter was appointed to the Nuffield Professorship of Clinical Medicine in January 2004. Educated at Cambridge University and St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, Professor Ratcliffe worked at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, the National Heart and Chest Hospitals and the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases before joining Oxford University as Registrar in Renal and General Medicine in 1981. Most recently Peter was Professor of Renal Medicine and Senior Research fellow of Jesus College. He is an Honorary Consultant Physician at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital Trust and a Fellow of Magdalen College.

 

Hilary Kirk

Hilary studied for a Biology BSc, and then pharmacology MSc before realising that medicine was the way forward on her personal journey. Hilary believes that she is a living representation of one of the best things about medicine which is there is something in it for everyone. Hilary is now a Consultant Paediatric Anaesthetist and has been at the John Radcliffe for 13 years. She has managed to combine study, living abroad, a family, and a career. Hilary feels that Anaesthetics is the practical enactment of everything she loves doing and says she never has a dull day at work!

We are delighted that students will have the opportunity of meeting and talking to Peter and Hilary about a career in Medicine.

 

 

Wayne Yip coming to our Careers Event

Recent blogs will have told you a bit more about parents who are coming to speak at our Careers event. We are also delighted to welcome once again one of our past students, Wayne Yip who has been very successful in the film industry.

Wayne finished in the the sixth form in 1999 and went on to graduate from Oxford & Cherwell College in 2004 with a degree in Graphic Design. His first foray into film was a music video for Quasi - 'Peace & Love' which won the Domino Records and Audience Award at the Radar Festival 2007.

Wayne's first short film Happy Birthday Granddad won the BAFTA '60 Seconds of Fame’ 2007 award and since then he has directed Secret Diary of a Call Girl -Season 4, Misfits - Season 3 and this year's UTOPIA for Channel 4. He is currently directing the last ever episode of Misfit.

Pictured below is Wayne talking to students at last year's event.

 

More speakers for our Careers Event

If you have been following our blog you will know that this year's Careers Event is on Wednesday 19th June. We are delighted that so many parents have offered to come and talk to students about their industries and careers. We have already introduced some of them in earlier blogs and here are two more profiles of people who will be attending:

Susie Brooks-Smith  Susie began her career producing adverts with directors  such as Bruce Beresford and Peter Weir. She then moved into journalism which included working across all the Vogue titles until she moved to England. Here she continued to contribute to international magazines such as Tatler, House & Garden and Homes & Gardens. She also wrote her first book "Cotswold Gardens" and wrote and produced documentaries for the BBC and C4 including "The Spirit Of Pushkin" (BBC) and "Mummy Doesn't Live Here" (BBC). The first film she produced was " Tooth" starring Harry Enfield, Richard E. Grant, Vinnie Jones, Stephen Fry and Jerry Hall; this won the 2004 Giffoni International award for Best Children's film and Best Child Actor. "Locked In" starring Ben Barnes and Eliza Dushku will be released internationally in 2012. Susie is now co-producing the Booker Prize shorted listed book "The Riders" starring Academy Award winners, Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush.

Saskia Ozinga   Saskia worked for nearly ten years for Friends of the Earth in the Netherlands, working closely with many other environmental and human rights NGOs. Saskia’s main focus was tropical rainforests but she was also involved in other campaigns and has a good overview of the NGO community involved in forests and human rights issues specifically as well as how to campaign.
When Saskia moved to the UK in 1995 she set up FERN, an organisation doing advocacy work at EU level around forests and human rights issues. FERN networks with many EU based NGOs and also works closely with partners in West and Central Africa and Asia to ensure their voice is heard in EU aid and trade policies. Issues they work on include illegal logging, carbon trading, forests and climate, export credit agency financing and biomass. FERN have 12 staff and two offices, one in the UK and one in Brussels.

This should be a tremendously useful event for students and we are grateful to everyone for giving up their time to help.

Who else is coming to speak?

Not long now until our Careers evening on Wednesday June 19th. We are extremely grateful to all the parents who are giving up their time to come and advise students. Amongst those coming are:


Adrian Hallmark. 
Adrian is the Global Brand Director at Jaguar. Adrian joined Jaguar Land Rover as Global Brand Director, Jaguar on December 1st 2010. Adrian is a member of Jaguar Land Rover's Executive Committee and reports directly to Jaguar Land Rover Chief Executive Officer, Dr Ralf Speth. With more than 27 years of experience in the automotive industry, Adrian has held a number of Directorships and Board positions at Porsche Great Britain, Bentley, Volkswagen USA, and Asia, in CEO and Board Level roles on the Commercial and Brand Functions, and with National, Regional and Global responsibilities.



David Rose.
David is an award winning journalist. In 1984, he joined The Guardian, where he did ground breaking work on the Guilford Four and Birmingham Six I.R.A. bombing cases. He became a contributing editor for Vanity Fair in 2002 and is a special-investigations writer for the Mail on Sunday. David’s awards include a One World-European Union award for journalism in the service of human rights (1997) and the Royal Institute of International Affairs David Watt Memorial Prize (1993). He is the author of six books, including “Guantanamo: The War on Human Rights”  and “The Big Eddy Club”, which was shortlisted for the UK Crime Writers' Association Golden Dagger.

Who's coming to talk?

This year’s Careers Evening is on Wednesday June 19th and we are very fortunate to have an amazing array of parents coming to share their experiences and insights with students. In the next few days we will be highlighting some of the many parents who have kindly offered to come and help students' with their careers choices.
 
We start with:

Dr Ed Wood who has been Chief Designer at Williams F1 since 2006.

Ed has a broad range of engineering experience in both motorsport and aerospace and therefore has  knowledge in both engineering and physical sciences. He has degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Manchester and Doctorate from the University of Oxford where he undertook research for Rolls Royce plc. Prior to Williams he has worked as a Development Engineer at the Ferrari and & Renault Formula 1 teams and was Chief Designer for the Subaru World Rally Team.

Edi Smockum

Edi has had a career in television & radio as a producer/presenter and now runs a company that manages entry-level training schemes for Channel 4, training reporters and presenters. Edi was responsible for training the disabled reporters and presenters for Channel 4's Bafta-winning coverage of the Paralympics. Edi also does consulting work for the National Film & Television School which is considered one of the top 10 film schools in the world.

We are looking forward to a very useful and interesting event.

Steph Croft-Simon launches her own organic bars

As well as running her own catering business (which includes supplying lunch for the sixth form) past student Steph Croft Simon has beenbusy creating her own healthy, organic bars.

Her "NOM" bars (naturally,organic matters) are organic, free from dairy and refined sugars and a good source of slow release energy. They are also extremely nutritious as they are coconut oil based, and full of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals.

Steph's NOM bars are due to go on sale at Planet Organic, the UK's largest organic supermarket, in July. She is also due to meet buyers from Tesco shortly so we'll keep you posted on the progress of her new products!