d’Overbroeck’s

A co-educational independent school in Oxford for students aged 11-18

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Festival of Voice

Monday saw the first in our 2018-19 Festival Series. ‘Festival of Voice’ was held in the Years 7-11 Hall and included performers from Years 7 to 13.

The recital programme covered an eclectic repertoire, from Omri Greenwood’s soulful rendition of Billie Holiday’s God Bless The Child and Georgina Osibodu’s dramatic performance of Puccini’s O Mio Babbino Caro through to Bea Arden’s accomplished, self-accompanied rendition of Joan Armatrading’s Woncha Come Home.

Amongst the variety of solos were several ensembles including Emmie Bailey and Emmy Poyser’s quirky J’ai pas envie. With more than two thirds of the performers being girls it was a particular pleasure to hear the deep tones of Year 11s Harry Godwin and Ryan Seneviratne. As well as hearing polished performances given by our more seasoned students such as Nieve Burgess and Tabitha Witter, both of whom chose to accompany themselves on their ukeleles, we were delighted to see some of our newer students take to the floor. Year 7 students Tilly Ousey and Susie Taylor made their (very engaging) debuts and Year 9 Drama Scholar Theo Stavrik gave an intense account of Close To You from Undertale, which, as far as I know, was the first ever performance of a computer game soundtrack in d’Overbroeck’s history!​

The evening concluded with an electrifying, acoustic arrangement of Britney Spears’ classic Hit Me Baby One More Time ​from singer and guitarist Emma Claridge.

Many thanks go to all our talented singers for having the courage to stand up and sing in front of peers, family and friends and provide us all with such a vibrant and uplifting evening.​

Lianne Skriniar

Music and Singing Teacher

New improved A level grades – 25% A*


We are delighted to be able to announce that following re-moderation of Art, Photography and Textiles A level entries this year, our A level results for 2018 have been upgraded to 25% A* and 55% A*/A.

In Art, 9 of the 10 grades were moderated up, taking Art results to 30% A*, 60% A*/A, 90% A*-B and 100% A*-C.

Photography also saw 2 students moderated up, one to an A and one to an A* grade.

This is great news and congratulations to the Art Dept on delivering a very good set of results as well of course to the students who have belatedly received even better news.

If you’re coming to the Sixth Form Open Evening on 13 November, representatives from the A level Art department will be here, along with teachers and students from all our subject areas, so you can find out more and decide which subjects are right for you.  Register here or contact Senior Registrar, Lynne Berry, on 01865 688600 with any questions relating to Sixth Form Admissions.

Parkinson’s UK research for EPQ students

Lower Sixth Biology students Xanthia Woltjer and Joe Lee have been liaising with the Oxford branch of Parkinson’s UK, as part of their EPQ research.

Xanthia writes, “‘I had this amazing opportunity ​to meet Dr Simon Scott, author of the website scienceofparkinsons.com, who has been working in the field of Parkinson’s for over 15 years in both academia and biotech. He talked a lot about self-monitoring Parkinson’s but particularly about a new breath analysis therapy, a three year study in collaboration with other researchers including Dr Orna Barash.

“In Breath therapy, researchers isolate chemical compounds from breath samples so they can compare them with other biological samples collected from the same people (for example blood). They do this so that they can determine common features and patterns that could reveal new insights into the procedure of the condition. These chemical compounds that are isolated are called “Volatile Organic Compounds” (or VOCs). ‘These are organic chemicals that have a high vapour pressure at ordinary room temperature‘, and there are thousands of them everywhere. Simon’s job within this process is to collect the breath samples and send them off for research. Apart from talking about research and self-monitoring he also got patients at the meeting to evaluate some self-monitoring methods and some commented on their hesitations about the actual effect that self-monitoring has. We also got the opportunity to meet some members of the foundation, who themselves suffer from Parkinson’s disease and talked about how it is socially restrictive.”

Xanthia and Joe are both preparing to apply to medical school next academic year and their experiences with the Parkinson’s UK research will go towards research for their respective EPQs.  Xanthia and Joe are seen here with Dr Simon Scott.

Cotswold Wildlife Park Trip

At d’Overbroeck’s International, we want our students to excel academically, but we also want them to enjoy their time in the UK.

Our students participate in a wide range of weekend trips and activities throughout the academic year, which involve everything from visits to Oxford’s theatres, galleries or museums, to visits to other cities in the UK.

Last weekend our students visited Cotswold Wildlife Park. Only 40 minutes away from our school, Cotswold Wildlife Park is home to over 260 different species of animals and is set in 160 acres of landscaped parkland and gardens.

As soon as we arrived, our students were absolutely delighted to see the animals and admire them from a close (and safe!) distance.

The park is a joy not only for children and students but also for adults, as our teachers can confirm.

Our students had a fantastic time, despite the typical British rainy weather!

Here are a few photos from our trip:

Business talk: visiting Drayton Manor Theme Park

At d’Overbroeck’s, we believe that students always learn best when they combine theory with practice.

With this in mind, our Business GCSE students took part this week in a field trip to Drayton Manor Theme Park. This trip was meant to help students understand how a business such as a Theme park functions.

Over the course of an informative and fun-packed day, our students were treated to two presentations from Drayton Manor’s staff. The first presentation covered how Drayton Manor markets itself and attracts visitors, and the second went into detail on the park’s operations and HR. The presentations also included interactive tasks which developed our students’ business skills.

But the visit wasn’t all business talk.

At the end of the official meetings, our students had the chance to test thoroughly the park’s products, also known as rollercoasters and other very fun rides.

In the end, the “customers” were very satisfied with the services.

The business trip was a great success and our students are looking forward to other interactive learning adventures.

d’Overbroeck’s Economics Society in Headington debate

d’Overbroeck’s Economics Society is running for the first time this year and is a club for students, run by students providing an opportunity to discuss, explore, engage with and experience economics beyond the classroom.

Seven Upper Sixth economics enthusiasts from the Society travelled to Headington School last week to debate the topic, “This house believes that foreign aid is effective as a strategy for development” (Headington proposing and d’Overbroeck’s opposing). Along with having fun (and enjoying the food!), d’Overbroeck’s students also got very excited and deeply engaged in defending their stance in the debate. Although this was not a competition debate, d’Overbroecks did not come back empty-handed, as Nikki won a prize for the best counter-argument speaker!

Blue skies, high walls and zip wires

Beautiful blue skies and warm weather greeted us for our annual Years 7 & 8 trip to PGL Liddington.

The students (and some teachers) scaled high walls, built rafts, zipped down wires, solved problems, climbed ladders/tyres/ropes, canoed lakes and ‘ambushed’ each other as an evening activity. All in the name of fun (and self-discovery). It was a wonderful experience watching them conquer doubts and fears and achieve wonderful feats of agility, whilst making new friends.

A wonderful time was had by all throughout the trip. I would like to thank my colleagues, Claire, Rachel, Dearbhla, Lianne, Kathryn, Chris and Leon for helping to make the trip a success. More importantly, I would like to thank the students for making the trip so fun and enjoyable. I can’t wait until next year!!!

Martin Procter

Head of PE, Years 7-11

Understanding Elasticity (via pizza)

Last Thursday we welcomed Dr. Dominic Vella, Professor of applied mathematics at the Mathematical Institute in the University of Oxford, for the annual d’Overbroeck’s Maths Lecture. His subject was, “Understanding Elasticity – new wrinkles on Guass’ Pizza Theorem”.  One of the students who attended, Christine Sheung, writes:

“In the lecture, Dr Vella started off by giving a brief introduction to continuum mechanics, and then focused on elasticity of thin objects and surface tension. Apart from delivering lots of technical facts, he communicated complex, abstract Math concept into real life situation. It is a common knowledge that when we are eating pizza, we hold the slice in a U shape to avoid the toppings from falling off. But Dr Vella led us to think further about the Maths behind this, and how this clever trick works all because of wrinkles and folds.

“Dr Vella is so knowledgeable and enthusiastic in his field, and I think this was definitely one of the most enjoyable and stimulating lecture that I have attended.”

Dr Vella is seen here with two of our other Sixth Form students who attended the lecture.

A Level Biology news

MMI Simulations this week – In the Sixth Form Biology department, we ran our first multiple-mini interviews (MMIs) for our medicine / dentistry / veterinary medicine applicants with the help of Mark Blakemore from St. George’s, University of London.

We had seven stations, manned by Biology teacher Jaimie along with Upper Sixth Biology students Jono, Alice, Ella, Joseph, Anna-Maria and Alex. Mark trained them quickly to judge the quality of the candidates’ answers, and then briefed the seven candidates (Sandra, Iris, Wendy, Tony, Hannah and Titiana, along with past student Elena who is applying for graduate medicine) on the procedure. Each candidate spent five minutes at each station, answering a single question at each. The questions covered two ethical scenarios, two scenarios requiring skilled communication (including verbal instruction on the tying of shoelaces, seen here!), two scenarios testing logical reasoning and one academic problem.

These scenarios also tested other attributes of prospective doctors, such as integrity and the ability to work under pressure. There was a final debriefing, when both interviewers and candidates could ask questions to clarify any doubts they had. The candidates acquitted themselves well, and found the experience useful (although exhausting), and now have a better idea of tackling MMIs. The interviewers did a fantastic job on a 10-minute training (the usual training is 3 hours long), and I am very grateful to all of them, especially the ones that stepped in at the last minute.

There are further mock interviews scheduled for these candidates as well as for our Oxbridge candidates in November. 

UKCAT scores: This year has been a fantastic year for UKCAT scores, with four students breaking all previous d’Overbroeck’s records! Many congratulations to:

Tony Hua: 2900 and Sandra Brinster-Martelloni and Elena Zanchini: 2850 (all in the top 10% of UKCAT scores this year)

Wendy Gao: 2770 (in the top 20% of UKCAT scores this year)

​Our past students had usually scored around the national mean (around the 2500-2600 mark), so these results are fantastic, and reflect the work that they have put in throughout the year. These students now have a better choice of medical schools.

Inter-house photography competition

Photo by Tiffany, Morris House

At d’Overbroeck’s International School, we want our students to be as creative as possible not just during school hours, but also during their free time. Photography is one of the ways many of our students have chosen to express themselves in a unique, modern way.
Through photography,  our students capture moments of their student life at our school, friendships being built, trips to remember for a lifetime, life in the boarding house and much more.

These photos are extremely dear to us, as they help us tell the story of school life at d’Overbroeck’s International school from our students’ perspective.

Because of this, our school has decided to start the first official annual Inter-house photography competition!

The purpose of the competition is to encourage our students to share their photos representing student life at d’Overbroeck’s International School with the school, which will help them earn points for the house they represent.
At the end of each term, a judging panel composed of members of staff will decide upon which house has the best photos representing student life at our school.
The winning house will receive extra house points and a special prize!

We wish all our students a creative year and we look forward to seeing their wonderful photos!

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