Dear Parents/Carers, Students, Governors, Old Olavians and Grandparents 17 March 2017

Headmaster’s Newsletter 223

Herewith, as promised, a few more images from the amazing production of Les Misérables. Congratulations once again to everyone involved in the cast, the band, the direction and the support crew.

Recently, Year 12 student Radh Siddiquee was invited to attend a banquet and networking event at Kensington Town Hall hosted by the Bangladesh High Commission. The Prime Minister of Bangladesh uses the High Commission to recognise outstanding performance of British-Bangladeshi students. The event, a unique undertaking of the consulate in London, has earned itself considerable prestige and included the singing of God Save the Queen and Amar Sonar Bangla (‘My Golden Bengal’), cultural performances, speeches by Ministers and an opportunity to network with the many dignitaries present, including Press Minister Nadeem Qadir. Eminent journalist and lyricist Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury was also conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding contribution to the Bengali language. Radh was awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award by His Excellency Mr Md Nazmul Quaunine, for his 12A*s and 2As at GCSE in the 2016 examinations. This will give Radh future access to a wide network of people and organisations, helping him to connect with academic and professional activities in the UK and Bangladesh. He is expected to become a standard bearer of Bangladesh in his host community and contribute to the strengthening of Bangladesh-UK relations. Radh is also President of the St Olave’s Junior Natural Sciences Society, an Outreach Ambassador Prefect and a representative on the Sixth Form Association.

Inspired by International women’s day, Sixth Form students, both male and female, had the opportunity to hear from independent communications and policy consultant, Sophia Morrell. Ms Morrell’s talk entitled Outnumbered but not outpaced: Strategies for success in the male-dominated worlds of Westminster and the City, drew from her decade’s experience in financial services, as well as her role as Vice Chair of Labour in the City. Students listened to the presentation, before enjoying

an extensive question and answer session, learning more about mentoring and sponsorship in the workplace. Sophia Morrell is the political adviser to Jonathan Reynolds MP, Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury and Shadow City Minister, and will run as an independent candidate for Farringdon Ward in the 2017 elections.

Goddington Lane

Orpington

Kent BR6 9SH

Tel: 01689 820101

office@saintolaves.net www.saintolaves.net

Saint Olave’s Grammar School

London 1571

Headmaster: Aydın Önaç B. Mus., B. Sc., ARCM, FRSA

St. Olave’s and St. Saviour’s Schools Foundation

A group of Year 12 students recently attended the King’s College London Surgical Society’s National Surgical Conference at the Royal Society of Surgeons in London. The morning consisted of three lectures, namely: Innovations in Maxillofacial Surgery by Professor Ian Hutchinson, Blast Injuries and Bioengineering Innovations by Squadron Leader Phil Pearce and Innovations in Trauma Surgery by Mr Duncan Brew. These lectures provided a deep insight into the intricacies of surgery along with first-hand accounts from the prominent surgeons themselves. After lunch, the group participated in interactive workshops which covered suturing skills, cranio-maxillofacial surgery, orthopaedic surgery and laparoscopic surgery. For most, this was their first introduction to surgery. Thank you to Jeron Thaiparampil for this article.

It has been a busy term for the International Ambassadors beginning with a week-long visit by 30 students from Shi Da Fuzhong School in Northern China in January. They got a true taste of life as an Olavian, spending time in lessons with their buddies as well as taking part in a Duke of Edinburgh trek and an art workshop. Year 7s have been in contact with Jesus and Mary School in Rabwah, Lebanon, and have had their first skype conversation discussing the similarities and differences between their school and home life. We hope this will be a continuing series of discussions across the year. In a similar vein, the

Student Ambassadors have been exchanging questions about citizenship in preparation for their first skype meeting at the end of March with Anwar-ul Islam College in Lagos, Nigeria. Our Year 9 artists were selected to take part in the Rivers of the World programme organised by The British Council, they too will be working with a school in Lagos, Nigeria to produce artworks about their local rivers which will be exhibited along the Southbank and in City Hall as part of the Totally Thames Festival in September, before travelling around the world for display. Students from De Goudse Waarden in the Netherlands were welcomed for the third year running to spend a day at St Olave’s, attending some lessons with buddies and taking part in a topical debate about social and political issues with the Student Ambassadors in the afternoon. Work has also begun forming a link with our new partner school, Changjun High School in China, and last but not least we are also eagerly preparing a return visit from another one of our partner schools, La Martiniere in Kolkata, India, for a week stay in July!

Well done to Alessandro Lauri Menta, Joshua Limbrey and Jude Anson who won trophies at the Quest for the Best Open Championship Doce Pares Tournament. Alessandro won Gold in both the Single and Double Stick contests in the Junior Middleweights and Bronze in the Junior Form. Joshua won the Junior Heavyweight Single and Double Sticks and is the Open Close Quarters Champion. He also won the Junior Best Fighter trophy. Jude came 2nd in the Junior Heavyweight Single and Double Sticks and has won the Adult Form Division.

In preparation for International Women's Day we held a Gender Cross Curricular Day for Year 9s. Lessons drew attention to gender and inequality, and raised awareness amongst the cohort. In Science students examined what gender is; in Geography they looked at domestic violence in Russia and FGM; in other subjects they examined classical roles of women and how they are presented in literature, as well as influential women in Mathematics. Feedback for the day was overwhelmingly positive. A summative piece of work was produced by all students for a speech, poster or video, with Joseph

Barradell and Ansh Batura winning the main prize for their brilliant video. Those of you who are interested can watch this on: https://youtu.be/KcKSFDiI1tk Having delayed their trip due to Storm Doris, Geography students set off on their field trip into Orpington with the aim of collecting data on different ways of life within an urban area. They had a planned route throughout town, with various sites to visit, in order to collect data about the environmental quality, as well as to complete questionnaires. After observing various factors, including quantity of litter and evidence of crime, they took a pedestrian count to indicate how crowded the area gets. On the High Street, they asked people to complete a questionnaire to ascertain why people were in Orpington. Back to school, following the 4.5 mile walk, they started analysing the results which will be used towards their GCSE Geography exams in Year 11.

Thank you to James Gander for this article.

Congratulations to Kenji Seanor who achieved a total of 3 Winner's Cups and 4 Gold medals at the Bromley Music Festival last weekend. Kenji took the Gwen Massey Cup and Gold medal for his Beethoven, under Year 11 performance; the Brian Empett Cup and Gold medal for best Junior Bach playing, under Year 7; the Year 6 and 7 – 1st place and Gold medal, and the Kathleen Burton Cup and Gold medal for his Junior recital, under Year 7. Kenji completed his ABRSM piano Grade 8 with Distinction last year, before joining St Olave's, and has been working hard to increase his repertoire as well as improving his technique. His family are, naturally, very proud of him and so are we!

Well done to Year 8 students Hieronim Lecybyl, Aidan Mylroi, Surya Senthilkumar and Shrey Choudhary who assisted in a Science Workshop Day at St Peter and St Paul Primary School in St Paul’s Cray last week. They supervised groups of students from all years in a variety of scientific activities involving the transport of water in plants, fluid mixing, the complex nature of light and amazing carbon. Staff and pupils alike at the Primary School were impressed by the Olavians’ exemplary attitude and engagement with their pupils of all ages.

Year 9 GCSE Geographers began an investigation into river processes and downstream changes on the River Warren, in the Ashdown Forest (or Winnie the Pooh’s Five Hundred Acre Wood as some know it.) They were testing the Bradshaw model, which is the theory on how the river changes. The students developed their geographical skills, drawing a field sketch and measuring river variables, like cross-sectional area, velocity, gradient and bedload size. In the process,

water in their wellies led to some very squelchy boots! The investigation and analysis will prove challenging as the river did not follow the simplified theory, with many other variables affecting the results.

Well done to Shreyas Bharadwaj who has been awarded a high Distinction in his Grade 5 LAMDA Public

Speaking examination with an exceptionally high score of 94/100. Likewise, well done to Manav Babel

who also attained Distinction with 90/100 in his Grade 8 LAMDA Verse and Prose. Manev comments:

“This means a lot to me and is the end result of years of hard work.”

It was a pleasure to welcome Mrs Becky Jenner, CEO of Rett UK, to receive a cheque in assembly for the magnificent sum of £4,256.33 from Captain of School, Chukwunenyem Nwuba. This was half of the money raised by students during Festival back in December. Mrs Jenner expressed her sincere thanks to the school and the Festival Committee for choosing to support the work of this very worthwhile charity. The remaining money raised will go towards the DEC (Disaster Emergency Committee) Yemen Appeal. Unfortunately, they were unable to attend the assembly, as planned, because of the pressure of dealing with another emergency.

For my round up of weekly Clubs, Societies and other activities:

Art Club experimented with Stop Motion.

Law Society posed the question: Does religious freedom supersede civil liberties?

Raspberry Pi Club recruited participants for a competition.

Psychology Society discussed: The selfishness of selflessness.

Niko Kristic addressed Literature Society with: An introduction to absurdism.

Astronomy Society held a Q&A session.

QI Club considered: The real deadliest animals.

Junior Natural Scientists did a flame testing experiment.

Physics and Engineering Society held a talk on NASA.

I hope you all enjoy the weekend and the lovely spring weather we have been experiencing.

Yours sincerely

Headmaster