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Building Legacy

Dear OFS Community,

With most entrance exams complete for our 2022 Leavers, thoughts are turning to Legacy! I fear that in days of old, this meant scratching your name in a wall but I am proud that our Leavers have a deeper sense of how they wish to be remembered. I once saw a sign that read…

Take nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints and spend nothing but time!

I walked out of my office on Monday to see Mr Baker delivering a pile of old tyres and a team of excited Yr6 pupils with shovels and buckets. Their plan…to create a communal herb garden outside Butler Hall so that parents can help themselves to a mint tea, or some calming lavender?

OFS U13 Tournament

Last Saturday saw the annual Orley Farm U13 Ten10 Cricket Tournament, an event which has run since 2007. Four schools – Durston House, St. Martin’s, Westminster Under School and ourselves – competed in three rounds of matches played on a round-robin basis. It proved to be an incredible five and a half hours of cricket in warm sunshine on a day which saw a whopping 907 runs scored and 45 wickets tumble!

Our first game against Durston House resulted in a comprehensive win by 7 wickets before we beat St. Martin’s by 60 runs thanks largely to a brutal innings of sheer brilliance by Ranvir Puri who scored 62 runs off just 28 balls. Our captain, Ravin Abhayawickrama, then took three wickets to wrap up another outstanding win. Like us, Westminster had also won both of their matches, albeit not as convincingly, which meant that the final match after lunch was simply a case of ‘winner-takes-all’!

We batted first and scored 83-3 from our 10 overs before setting about defending our total. In short, with Westminster needing 20 runs off the final six balls, Aarav Bhalodia delivered a nerveless over which conceded only six runs. He also picked up two wickets including their star batsman with the last ball of the tournament thanks to a superb juggling catch from Aaryan Patel to spark celebrations on and off the square encapsulated in some of these photos as we won the tournament for the first time since 2017.

To cap a perfect day, Ranvir and Ravin took home the Leading Batsman and Leading Bowler trophies for scoring 108 runs and taking four wickets for 20 runs respectively across the three matches. As well as our cricketing prowess, it was the manner in which our boys played which was just as impressive, conducting themselves with real class and epitomising a true team ethic.

I would like to thank Mr Badal and his team for providing a wonderful match tea, to Mr Baker and his team for getting our pitches and outfield looking stunning and to Mr Bloom for organising a fantastic event.

Girls take to the field

When the sun truly shone earlier this week, all girls in Years 5&6 represented the school and took over every pitch across Oakmead, Summerfield and the Astro – it was quite a sight! The girls demonstrated good judgement in fielding, excellent focus when bowling and risk taking while building the respective innings.

At the end of the fixture Orley Farm had won 6 out 7 matches along with a draw. Our Cricket Captain, Anshi Puri, made the observation:

We worked well together to win our game, making quick decisions in the field, and calling well when scoring runs.

She hopes that they will play this way in their upcoming match against Notting Hill & Ealing School next week! Well done to all the girls, I loved watching the way that you supported and encouraged each other – keep it up!

Rhinos don’t always have thick skin!

I dropped into Rhinos earlier this week as they were looking at friendship and the complications of reading the signals that we don’t always say but more often show through body language – not easy! I was so impressed with their willingness to share thoughts, ideas and observations. Their secret challenge was to use their skills in the coming breaktime to spot other children who might just need a friend to play with…everyone needs someone to hold their hand!

Lions get persuasive!

Mr Jeffrey invited me to read some of the letters being sent to Iggy Peck, a budding architect, to persuade him to consider their designs for a new bridge. With this term’s theme of 'inventions', Yr2 have been designing suspension bridges that they really want Iggy to comment on – I have to say, I wanted to join them as there was quiet music playing and such a sense of quiet industry.

What a lovely lesson and I'm hoping to join the lesson in which they build and test their own bridges.

Moving to a New Beat!

Through Edge, Yr6 pupils have a wonderful opportunity to spend 5 weeks in Alexandra School with a focus on sharing musical experiences. I joined Mr Ford and Mr Knapper and absolutely loved watching the interactions. Orley Farm pupils are fortunate to have access to such a range of instruments but to see this being shared as they performed pieces that they have learnt and the impact on other children was wonderfully humbling.

I was fortunate enough to join former pupils up at Harrow this week and they were talking about the return to formal exams as we exit a pandemic. I’m mindful that many of our pupils will also be preparing for exams next week and it’s so important that they keep perspective and see them for what they are – a chance to test their knowledge by applying the numerous critical thinking skills that they are developing. If we can instil a balanced sense of ambition and curiosity, this generation will fly and see exams for what they are. Ms Gentles has developed more information for pupils, parents and staff, do follow the link below:
I hope that everyone enjoys the weekend and returns ready to throw the kitchen sink at the final week before we break for half term!

Tim Calvey