Shakespeare, foolish men and sheep: this year's AQA Baccalaureate results

This year's results for our students in the AQA Baccalaureate Diploma included an impressive 5 distinctions and 6 merit awards.

A Distinction, the top award, requires an A grade in all of the AQA Baccalaureate components (the extended project, enrichment and critical thinking) as well as in three A level subjects.

Distinctions were awarded to:

• Fame Cheerapatanakom for his project entitled " How original are Shakepeare's Roman plays?"
• Susannah Cohen: "Men are fools: why is so much male behaviour seen as foolish and irrational by women?"
• Edward Hornsby: "An assessment of water quality at a sewage outlet point in the Oxford area; an ecological investigation"
• Madeleine Hurry (pictured above) "The biological basis of HIV and its connection to the development continuum"
• Bella Maine: " Is the stratification of the UK sheep industry beneficial to flock health?"

Students achieving a Merit award were:

• Praise Izinyon: "Should patients completely trust their GPs?"
• Grace Kirby: "What can explain the criminal punishment of animals in early modern Europe?"
• Rebecca Love: "How legitimate is the classification of Shakespeare's final plays as romances?"
• Chrystal Pereira: "The Tunisian revolution- was it inevitable?"
• Charlie Richards: "The causes and impact of the deforestation of the Amazon"
• Charlie Skegg: "The Seven Deadly Sins- a photographic portfolio"
• Noel Thompson: "A comparison of a selection of fossil fuels"

In its feedback the Board commented that "the centre should be applauded on such an interesting array of projects". On the Enrichment part of the qualification the feedback stated that" the centre clearly participated in a range of valuable and meaningful enrichment activities" which students have "clearly enjoyed". Well done to all those involved.

Williams and McCartney

Congratulations to one of our past students, Jack Williams, who has just graduated with a 2:1 from The Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts and shook Sir Paul McCartney's hand in the process! Jack has been in the studio recently recording an EP and is due to sign a record deal in the near future.We'll keep you posted.

A level results 2011 — 85% A*–B

This year's Upper Sixth succeeded in achieving our highest ever tally of A*–B grades (an impressive 85%) with 19% of all grades received being A*s.

More than a quarter of our students gained all A/A* grades, and subject highlights included:

• 100% A*/A in Ancient History, Classical Civilisation, German, Japanese and Russian
• 82% A*/A in Economics
• 65% A*/A in Maths
• 63% A*/A in Art and Physics
• 63% A*/A in Biology

The photograph above shows Femi Gibson celebrating his results — AAB in Economics, Sociology and Business Studies — securing his place at York University to study Sociology.

Particle Physics Masterclass at the Rutherford Laboratory

A view from above the beam pipe at the Diamond Light Source. This shows the red and yellow magnets around the beam pipe used for deflecting and focusing of the beam. We could walk above the beam pipe on the protective concrete blocks.

We took 15 Year 12 students to the Rutherford Laboratory for a day of varied activities centred around Particle Physics. There was a tour of the Diamond accelerator, a space-age looking silver doughnut shaped building where electrons are accelerated to very high speed and then as they circulate they emit intense radiation, for example X rays, that can be used to interpret the structure of complex molecules in Medicine or Engineering. We walked above the beam pipe on the metres thick concrete that protects the technicians from this radiation trying to get into our heads the fact that this 235 metre diameter building is today’s ultimate microscope!

A view of one of the computer images from the detector at the LHC in Geneva. Around the beam pipe at the centre are different detectors to identify the kinds of particles emitted from each collision process. Our mission was to find the elusive Higgs Boson, a rather unfair test as it was not on any of the slides our students investigated!

There were also lectures on the Large Hadron Collider at Geneva and Dark Matter; lectures that took no prisoners! Quite high level work, avoiding any of the maths but introducing many quite challenging concepts such as anti-matter, virtual particles and charm! Each speaker exuded the excitement and importance to them of scientific discovery — such a good example for students who wonder why they need to study; the more you study, the more interesting it gets!

We also did a computer exercise the students in pairs analysing images from the LHC detector, identifying the type of particle released by the proton-proton collisions. There was a prize for the group that discovered the Higgs Boson, a particle that they are looking for at CERN and there was one image that had been made up to reveal the Higgs. Unfortunately this year it wasn’t us that won; back to the drawing-board!


Perhaps most important of all to some of the students were the copious croissants, cakes, lunch and coffee available on the day and free to all. Everyone took on board many, many Higgs Bosons and got heavier and heavier!

The Rutherford staff were excellent throughout the day, answering all our questions and enthusiastic about all the work being done. I hope we left the wiser, if heavier, and in class we have launched into the AS study of Particle Physics; the Masterclass served as a really good introduction to the topic.

— Words by Paul Baily, Head of Physics

Blue skies, panther suits and wipeouts — Ski Trip to La Thuile

Last half term, 30 students and three brave d’Overbroeck’s teachers left Oxford for a week’s skiing in the Italian Alps. After a 'luxury' 14 hour coach journey, 3 hours of trying on ski boots and a stop off in the beautiful Courmayeur, a tired yet excited bunch arrived at the hotel in Pre-Saint-Didier, lying in the shadow of Mont Blanc.

The snow conditions were fantastic, which, coupled with ideal sunny days and blue skies, made a fantastic start to the skiing at the resort of La Thuile. With the opportunity of skiing five hours a day, competition was high not to be nominated to wear a famous pink panther suit on the slope.

With sleep levels running low, wipe-outs were frequent and hilarious, as students and staff took advantage of amazing instruction, a snow park and the opportunity to ski across the boarder to France. By the end of the week, everyone had improved their skiing massively, and it was with bleary eyes and exhausted legs that the group made the long journey back to the UK after an unforgettable trip.

— Writeup by Bella Maine, Upper Sixth

From Graffiti to Typology — AS Photography trip to London

'Seb with Graffiti' by Edd Sampson (Lower 6th)

On Wednesday 2nd March, AS Photography students headed down to London to take photographs and visit galleries.

Having taken the train to Paddington and then the tube to Waterloo we walked over the river and along the Southbank to the Tate Modern. Despite the chilly breeze, students spent time documenting sights and events — such as the colourful graffiti, and a photo shoot happening on the river ‘beach’.

At the Tate we took in the view from the top floor and visited an exhibition called Typologies, showing artists who use photography to approach themes systematically, creating multiple images of similar subjects.

'Edd at The Tate' by Paige Tully (Lower 6th)

We then walked over Millennium Bridge and took the tube to The Whitechapel Gallery to see an exhibition of collaged photographs by John Stezaker and for a walk down Brick Lane.

— Writeup by Elina Medley, Photography teacher

Historians hit the heights of DC and New York

In February half-term the History department embarked on its annual overseas adventure — this time with a party of 20 A level History and Politics students, to explore the sights of Washington and New York. For most of us, this was a first trip to the two cities and there was a palpable excitement as we gained our first glimpses of the White House and Capitol on arrival.


Our two days in Washington were spent seeing all the iconic sights that are so familiar from the TV and films. Highlights included a tour of the Capitol itself, circumnavigating the White House (we almost saw Obama — we were assured at least that it was his motorcade!) and viewing the Mall from the top of the Washington monument.



A coach journey brought us to New York, where we were awed by the impact of the night-time Manhattan skyline. If our spirits were briefly dampened by our somewhat basic accommodation, they were rapidly lifted by our proximity to Central Park, stunningly beautiful after a recent snowfall. The sights of Wall Street, the Ellis Island ferry and the Statue of Liberty continued to excite us and we enjoyed a full immersion in American culture in the form of an evening at Madison Square Garden and the New York Knicks basketball!


A more serious tour of the United Nations HQ followed, along with a sobering visit to Ground Zero and a touch of culture for some in visiting the Metropolitan or Guggenheim art museums. All this, with an exhilarating ‘sky ride’ to the top of the Rockefeller Centre, night-time walks down Broadway, evening meal in Planet Hollywood in Times Square and a good dose of Manhattan shopping completed a wonderful week of tourism, fun and, who knows, maybe even a little education!

— by Alastair Barnett, Head of History

View a slideshow of photos from the USA trip