Results Day: Economists excel

The results achieved by this year's Economics students were truly outstanding: over half were awarded an A*. Bearing in mind the fact that the national average (across all subjects) is only 8% A*, this is a phenomenal achievement.

Many of these students are going on to study Economics or Economics-related courses at university: 10 of them have met their offers to study at either LSE or UCL – two of the UK's top universities for the subject area.


We caught up with one of these London-bound students, Kira Tritenko (photo above). Alongside her A* in Economics, she gained A* in Maths, A in Politics and B in Spanish, comfortably beating her AAA offer.

'I'm very glad about my results,' she said. 'I worked really hard to get them.' Next year, Kira will study Economics at LSE – which she's looking forward to immensely – but she'll miss her teachers at d'Overbroeck's.

'Economics at d'Overbroeck's is the best. The way the teachers explain things is absolutely amazing. The teachers go way beyond the syllabus, which really helps you enjoy the subject and do well.'

View all of today's results stories so far

The new d'Overbroeck's ad campaign: how it was made

Normally we use this news feed to talk about student stories or College events. This post, though, is a little different: we thought we'd give you an insight into our Sixth Form advertising – by telling you the story of how we came up with our new ad campaign, which we launched earlier this month.


The thinking behind the ads

We wanted a series of adverts that reflected the opinions of students at the College; a campaign that wasn't us talking about ourselves, but us in the eyes of our students. It was to be eyecatching and bold, with a simple message about a distinctive feature of d'Overbroeck's Sixth Form.


Asking our students for help

So the first step was to ask a group of sixth formers to give up a few hours of their Easter holiday and come in for an informal focus group.

These generous students – Charlie, Daisy, Dani, Samuel and Will – gave us a wealth of feedback and ideas. As we talked, certain themes kept coming up. Independence. Balance. Atmosphere. Trust.

We kept coming back to the idea that, at Sixth Form, these students wanted a place that was geared towards them. A place where, as somebody said, 'It's not about what you can do for the school, it's about what the school can do for you.'

This idea seemed to be at the root of many of the qualities that our group liked about d'Overbroeck's.

... And we decided that this should therefore be the focus of our adverts.




Putting the ads together

Before our focus group had dispersed, we'd taken a few photographs of each student. We then paired up some of these with headline quotations taken from the focus group session and fitting in with our overarching theme. In our ears rang the advice of copywriter Roger Holdsworth, whose daughter Annabel studied here a few years ago: no more than 5-10 words for the headline. (Roger has had an illustrious copywriting career working for prestigious advertising agencies such as M&C Saatchi.)

At length (after a fair amount of headscratching, numerous false starts and plenty of ruthless word-pruning) we ended up with our first set of three adverts, featuring Samuel, Dani and Charlie – which are currently on display at a number of poster sites around Oxford, and have also appeared in the Oxford Times.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on the campaign!

Number 7 in Oxfordshire

d'Overbroeck's Sixth Form has been ranked 7th in Oxfordshire for last year's A level results in league tables published by the Times newspaper.

On average, our students scored an excellent 243.3 QCA points per entry – which translates to an average grade of somewhat over a B.

You can browse the league tables on the Times website – enter 'Oxfordshire' in the 'Local authority' field and choose the 'A level results' tab.

This year's Lower Sixth scholars

We thought we'd do a quick post to introduce this year's new scholars – photographed in typically scholarly pose, above (although the eagle-eyed will notice that two of our Upper Sixth scholars, Danielle Greenspan and Gidon Fineman, also make an appearance).

So – here are the d'Overbroeck's Sixth Form scholars who joined us this year:

Academic Scholars
Louisa Emms (joining us from Rye St Antony School)
Madeleine Hurry (Warriner School)
Bella Maine (Headington School)

Performing Arts Scholar
Matthew Thorns (Leckford Place)

Environmental Awareness Scholars
Louisa Goodfellow (Leckford Place)
Flora Griffiths (Chipping Norton School)

Academic Exhibitioners
Gary Paterson (Leckford Place)
Rhys Tong-Jones (The Athenian School)

Art Exhibitioner
Daisy Bernard (Headington School)

All Rounder Academic Exhibitioner
Edward Hornsby (Radley College)



Next year's scholars ...

We're rapidly approaching the application deadline for next year's scholarships – for those joining the Sixth Form in 2010-11. The deadline is Monday 9 November – so there's still time to apply. Further details are on our Sixth Form Scholarships page.

A busy first few weeks at the Sixth Form

We've had a busy first few weeks at the Sixth Form. Lower Sixth students have met their Directors of Studies and are already getting stuck into their AS courses, while Upper Sixth are up and running with their A2s.

Everyone's had a chance to choose their term's extracurricular activities at our (bustling) Activities Fair, while events like the Welcome BBQ and Movie Night have helped new students to get to know one another and make friends.

Meanwhile, rehearsals have already started for the Sixth Form student production of 'Alice in Wonderland'; ex-student George Meagher has returned to talk about his time as a Prime Minister's fellow in Brazil; and Upper Sixth students have embarked upon this term's UCAS preparation programme – of which we'll be posting more news shortly.

Meanwhile, here's a selection of photos from the Lower Sixth Welcome BBQ – sumo-suits and all.

Improving our email bulletins

In a few days' time, those of you who have subscribed to receive email updates from the Sixth Form newsfeed will notice a few changes to the emails we send out.

We're moving our email delivery service to a superior system, which will allow us greater control over the appearance of the messages. We hope this will result in more attractive news emails.


I'm already subscribed – do I need to do anything?

If you already receive email updates from us, your subscription will automatically switch to the new system, so you won't have to sign up a second time.

We do recommend, though, that you add the address feedblitz@mail.feedblitz.com to your address book or email whitelist – to ensure that your mail system does not trap our news emails as spam!


I'm not currently subscribed – how do I sign up?

If you'd like to receive the news items we post on this page direct to your inbox (rather than having to check our website for updates), why not subscribe?

BBC Radio Oxford Artweeks Interview

Earlier today, d'Overbroeck's Principal Sami Cohen was a guest on Jo Thoenes' BBC Radio Oxford show.

Sami and Jo discussed Artweeks and the College's links with the festival – which kicked off on 30 April with a very successful launch party hosted at Leckford Place School. Sami also spoke about developments at d'Overbroeck's, and how the College has changed since he first joined as a languages teacher.


You can listen again to Sami's interview via iPlayer.
(The interview starts at around 20 minutes in)


As Sami mentioned, Saturday's street festival in Summertown will feature performances and workshops given by d'Overbroeck's students ... so if you find yourself in North Oxford tomorrow morning, do come along and join in the carnival atmosphere!

Finally, we reiterate our open invitation to come along to the d'Overbroeck's Sixth Form and Leckford Place exhibition.

Sixth Form Chivalry

Sixth Form student Rory Cleaver happened to be walking down Turl Street in Oxford city centre when an elderly lady fell from her wheelchair. As luck would have it, he'd just – minutes earlier – been buying bandages for his injured knee. So he immediately rushed over.

After helping with the bandaging (he later found that the lady, Mrs Jose O'Leary, had broken her nose) and offering his coat, he ran to get help and arrange for an ambulance to be called – before returning to wait until the paramedics arrived.

... All was well, in the end – and, shortly afterwards, the Oxford Times printed a letter from Mrs O'Leary, commending Rory's chivalry:

'We often read or hear of the bad things that young people are said to do, but I witnessed some of the wonderful things that young people do and I would like to say a big thank you'

Profile of Rory on the Sixth Form website

New website launched

Today sees the launch of a new d'Overbroeck's Sixth Form website. If you visit (which we hope you will), you'll see that we've entirely revamped both the appearance and the content of the Sixth Form pages.


We felt it was important that a new site captured the buzz of student life at d'Overbroeck's – that it not only contained information about curricula, facilities, admissions and so on, but also that it gave an impression of the vibrant, eclectic array of people, activities, achievements and performances that make Sixth Form life so exciting.


As well as essential information about Sixth Form, then, you'll also find student stories and profiles, photographs, videos and more ...


We'd love to receive your feedback on the new look – so please do contact us with your thoughts, or comment at the bottom of this post.