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New Additions to the Farm!

Dear OFS Community,

We kicked off the week with a raft of our pupil led committees that truly do grapple with school and wider life issues. As I joined the various groups I was amazed at the engagement, ownership and participation of everyone, from our youngest to most senior pupils. The contributions of these teams have a deep and lasting impact on the shape of the school and I am proud that legacy is something that our leaving pupils are shaping; but also that our youngest pupils see such good examples and modelling of behaviours that give me good cause for hope for all of our futures!

School Council

In this week's school council meetings, we were:

  • writing questions in preparation for the upcoming Headmaster's Question Time Assembly where we will be interviewing Mrs Padalino, PA to Mr Calvey, Mr Cursino from our catering team and Mr Richards, Head of Pre-Prep, on their roles within the school.
  • discussing our weekly school council surgeries and looking at ways to engage the school community in these each week.
  • reviewing the comments from each Form in Middle School and Upper School for the Food Committee.
  • sharing ideas for next year's teacher led assemblies.

Library Monitors

We talked about running a stall and selling unused books at the Summer Fair sparking concern about stock being taken off the shelves! After discussing the need to remove books that have not been borrowed in 5yrs+ (which would make way for new publications), we then moved on to talking about how well visitors can access ‘hidden’ books.

So many wonderful ideas were shared about moving stock around and clearing furniture/beanbags that may be blocking shelves. We settled on having ‘Monitor’s Top Picks’ – every week we will place a yellow star on their pick, to help draw visitors' attention to a new title.

What started as a simple point on the agenda (asking for volunteers), ended in something completely different. We are incredibly lucky to have such a reflective group!

Eco Team

Our main focus for this meeting covered the following areas:

  • Raising awareness of global climate issues
  • Enhance our natural environment by championing biodiversity
  • Promote wildlife appreciation and protection at Orley Farm
  • Help pupils appreciate that small steps can make a big difference
  • Enhance wellbeing through an appreciation of nature

It was good to have Mrs Bedford, a Wildlife Conservationist, joining our team from the parent body and we’re looking forward to looking beyond our school site as there’s exciting opportunities in Harrow and beyond!

Digital Ambassadors

The Digital Ambassadors have been investigating the impact that technology has had during the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. This has involved considering issues such as the increased threat of cyber-attacks, the use of cryptocurrency to provide financial aid and the use of facial recognition to identify children separated from their parents.

We are currently developing a blog style Firefly page with the aim of providing the latest technology news, games reviews, technology life hacks and much more to our school community. We look forward to launching this when we have the necessary content!

Pupil Wellbeing Ambassadors

Our team are on Wk3 of their training to become ‘Pupil Wellbeing Ambassadors’ and this week the focus was random acts of kindness. They explored ideas around what this meant, the possible impact of such acts on others as well as their individual plans to put into action – secretly!

Sports Representatives

The Middle School Sports Reps were reviewing clubs and hobbies and concluded that more options focused on their age group would be popular. Following the meeting, Mr Babir and Mr Pearce have offered options that are starting next week – that’s what I call a prompt response!

Older pupils suggested that more Hockey would be beneficial, especially for the boys as many senior schools play Hockey. Mr Bloom is looking at the curriculum delivered in PE lessons and is looking to put a 5 week programme together for the coming term – again a speedy response!

And finally, Reps were keen to extend the swimming season and will be taking a proposal to Senior Staff to keep the pool running in September for as long as we can, weather permitting.

Mother Hen Seeks our Help!

There’s been such a buzz in Reception as well as a sense of urgency – Mrs Hen delivered a letter saying that she had lost her eggs. However, to our delight her eggs turned up on Monday and one by one, little miracles happened with chicks hatching!

I made the mistake of suggesting that Mr Hen was probably also a little concerned – or he certainly should be about the missing eggs! Zuri quickly corrected me…

Mr Calvey, there’s no Mr Hen, there might be a Mr Rooster…

She then spent some time educating me because her bedtime books have taught her a lot…I half expected Zuri to share her reading list with me out of concern for my lack of knowledge on such matters!

It was lovely dropping into Reception this morning as they were literally making the most of teaching nature...in nature!

Science

Y7&8 Trip to the Science Museum

Our senior students visited the Science museum on Friday, a trip that has resumed, following a short break due to the pandemic. This was a fantastic day out in London and we would strongly recommend to all parents to consider organising a visit to the Science museum, as there is simply so much to see, engage with, analyse and learn from, with amazing galleries and exhibits for all ages. A huge thank you to Mr Chatzianastasiou and his team who organised the trip.

Feedback from our pupils on the trip who rated the day 8.6 out of 10...

Yr5 Merchant Taylors' Science Challenge

Many Yr 5 students were keen to be part of the Science Challenge Team at Merchant Taylors' School, but these 4 lucky ones were selected at random to represent our school. (Mary, Yumie, Robert, Yogesh)

They were presented with 3 challenges which required them to use scientific equipment effectively, use their scientific knowledge as well as problem solve and work collaboratively. We were also treated to a CCF parade, all and all a lovely day of learning!

More Cricket Success

After our 1st XI cricket team’s outstanding win last week against Aldenham, they were at it again with an equally superb win over Durston House. They bowled the opposition out for just 37 with Aziz Chaudhary taking a wicket off the very first ball, three in his first over and four in total! Aarav Bhalodia and Nayan Gajparia both took two wickets each as well.

We then scored the runs in just four overs for a brilliant 10 wicket win. Our 2nd XI got their season underway and also had a great win as they limited Durston House to 73 runs as Eston Patel took four wickets before we chased down the total with Vikram Navin Chandra leading the way with the bat. The rain played its part, too… having been forecast to rain most of the day, it held off just long enough for us to complete both wins before the heavens opened at around 5.00pm!

We have some very exciting Scholarship news to share but as we are waiting on a few more schools, we will keep you in suspense a little longer! Have a lovely weekend, enjoy the weather!

Tim Calvey