Easter 2019

The Character of Desborough College

Easter 2019

Easter 2019

Character education at the heart of a full education

Dear Parents/Carers

The examination “season” is upon us in a few weeks time, bringing with it for parents a whole range of challenges: managing their children’s levels of stress and anxiety; organising revision timetables; ensuring that examination preparation does not become an obsession to the exclusion of everything else and that time is allocated for normal, teenage activities. “ He chose not to go to Every routine MUST include time for hobbies, exercise, family, friends university, but he has and even for doing absolutely nothing! Encouragement, support and a sympathetic understanding of the pressures that young people find a PhD in emotional themselves under cannot be over-stated. As parents you have a intelligence.” crucial role to play.

Matt Snell

It is very rare that I draw attention to the achievements of a single member of staff but I cannot allow the departure of Matt Snell to a school in Switzerland to pass without mention. Matt is not a qualified teacher but he has excelled in his roles as Student Mentor and Head of Year and he will be sorely missed by the boys and his colleagues in school.

Matt Snell is an advisor and a counsellor. He never gives up on boys and he never falls out with them. He is always able to find something positive in even the most troubled pupil. He is caring, compassionate, empathetic and kind. He is always cheerful, optimistic and positive. He never deprives boys of their dignity by ridiculing them or being unkind. And he’s not like this just around the boys; he can’t help himself....it’s how he is.

Matt chose not to go to university, but he has a PhD in emotional intelligence. He is a great judge of people’s moods and has a knack of finding ways to get boys to confront their mistakes because they know that he will listen to them and avoid judging them. Every day is a new day and a fresh start. He “gets it” that boys make poor choices in terms of their behaviour and he teaches them how to make good choices. Matt is not a teacher in a formal sense, apart from the occasional PE lesson, but he has taught many boys some crucially important lessons that they will take benefit from throughout their lives.

Good luck in your new role, Matt.

Finally, I would like to thank you all for the wonderful support that you have given to Desborough College throughout the year, particularly during the recent Ofsted inspection. Have a fabulous Easter holiday.

Regards, Easter 2019

It is always sad to say goodbye to members of the Desborough community. We are enormously grateful to them for the contributions they have made to the school.

Aine Kelleher, Head of Design & Technology Aine joined the teaching staff at Desborough in July 2o14 and became curriculum leader for Design & Technology in September 2014, taking on the additional responsibility for leading whole school STEM in September 2017. She has is a hugely enthusiastic and creative teacher, being instrumental in creating the innovation room at “His warm smile Desborough. We wish her well as she moves to the International and genuine love School, Switzerland. of music has Dan Fisher, Music Teacher rubbed off on Dan came to Desborough on maternity cover in September 2017. His many of the warm smile and genuine love of music has rubbed off on many of the boys.” boys. We are thankful to Dan for all he has done during his short spell at Desborough, and we hope that as he begins his new post as music teacher at , Reading he will know that we are not far away. Easter 2019

Following our recent Ofted inspection cake was provide by a parent for all of Desborough’s hard working staff

We were all incredibly touched by such an act of kindness and generosity. The strength of the wider Desborough community was displayed throughout the inspection process. This, perhaps, was the icing on the cake (sorry, Ed.)

“ The school is increasingly popular. Parents value the strong culture of respect that is so evident in the pupils’ attitudes.” Ofsted 2019

Easter 2019

Working together with Circle Education Group, Desborough is ahead of the game in developing character education in all its students through The Desborough Way.

For the past two years Desborough has been working to deliver character education through our lessons, sport, drama, music, art and all the other activities in which are students are involved.

“ The Desborough Working with our friend, Dr Phil Cummins, from the Circle Way’s philosophy Education Group, we are reshaping our curriculum to teach the encourages pupils to nine character virtues that form the Desborough Way: develop a strong set of Respect, Teamwork, Pride, Humility, Courage, Leadership, moral values.” Kindness, Gratitude and Positivity Ofsted 2019 Our intention is that the rebranded newsletter The Stag - The Character of Desborough College, will showcase these character virtues in action.

Easter 2019

Jane Wallis, Desborough’s new School Business Manager provides an update on changes to the school site.

I’m Jane Wallis, the newly appointed School Business Manager (SBM). I wanted to introduce myself to the Desborough community and let you know what will be happening around the school estate in the next months.

I’m joining Desborough at an exciting time and there is lots to do. The buildings and facilities were underinvested while part of the previous chain - and show it. Now a stand-alone academy in charge of its own finances, Desborough has committed to a significant investment in the estate to bring it back up to the high standards we used to enjoy.

Over the coming months there will be an almost continuous programme of works while I refresh the school buildings. Classrooms, toilets, PE, IT and the outside environment will all be refreshed with a first pass of basic facilities “ Desborough has management such as proactive servicing, running repairs, decorating and committed to a deep cleaning. However, the toilets and IT facilities will both be getting significant investment additional much needed upgrades and expansion to bring them up to serve in the estate.” the needs of our growing school population.

My objective is that on arrival day 1 of the new academic year in September, Desborough will be ready for the next stage of investment, as we start to consider larger scale improvements to the site and facilities.

Easter 2019

Mr Formstone, Deputy Head of Maths, welcomed our

numeracy guests to challenge our sharpest minds.

Numeracy Week was a huge success at Desborough once again. We had Rob Eastaway and Zoe Griffiths join us to give fun talks to a number of students - the topics included "Mathematical Magic" and "Freaky Probability". We also had a number of students take part in a secret code breaking activity and maths was emphasised in a number of lessons throughout the school (not just in maths either). A huge thank you to all the staff and students who took part!

The Yr12 mathematicians got treated to ‘stand-up’ maths at the Hexagon Host stand-up mathematician Matt Parker (Edinburgh Fringe, Radio and TV), warmed us up with some problem-solving questions about pizza and football. He was followed by 3 other acts with differing areas of interest in Maths. My personal favourite was Aoife Hunt, who solves problems around crowd control in large stadiums – how long will it take to get the crowd out? How long does the interval need to be in order to allow enough people to be able to access the toilets? An amusing demonstration of how much slower people move when they are in a crowd, roping volunteers together to simulate a crowd movement. Rob Eastaway showed us how our intuition isn’t always spot on – if you stand in front of a mirror on a wall (not full height) and move backwards will you see more of yourself, less of yourself or the same amount? Maths you-tube celebrity James Grimes explained how codes work. In “ Best piece of advice to particular how the Enigma Machine was cleverly designed to avoid its give to students messages being understood by code breakers. We learnt how different thinking of pursuing a letters have a much higher probability of being used (like vowels) and this career in Maths, is that was used to break the code. He even had a real Enigma machine to you don’t need to love demonstrate on! all areas of Maths – just one!” Apart from the obvious enjoyment of the audience, what I took away with me as the best piece of advice to give to students thinking of pursuing a career in Maths, is that you don’t need to love all areas of Maths – just one!

Easter 2019

Josh Presnail, Yr 8 gives his feedback on an excellent day at the 2019 Sportshall Athletics County Competition The 2019 Sportshall Athletics County Competition was highly competitive. Each person received a list of 6 events which they had been signed up to by the Coaches. Athletics Club has enough members to have a blue and a red team. Each team competes separately and the players in each team have to do their best in each event, as they contribute to the overall score. Both U13 boys’ teams did very well, with the blue team coming 2nd and the red team coming 6th. Other successful competitors from Desborough included Henry Curno in U13s and Rahul Hared in U15s. There were also three events selected (a track event and two field events) which contribute to an individual award. This prize is called the County Sportshall Champion. Javier Fimia and I both won all our events and were awarded joint Gold 2019 Sportshall Athletics Champions for the U13 boys. They also won silver medals in their team, Maidenhead Athletics, who came second overall in the team events.

We are so proud of Cody Rumney, Yr8 who has joined an elite “ So far I think I have rugby squad. He gives an account below of his progress. done well and shown my rugby abilities, I So far my Wasps Academy experience has been fun and I have learnt a can’t wait to see what lot, such as line speed and the importance of man on man marking. It is the next few sessions a one hour drive for me which isn’t too long. I have quite a few friends hold.” who go from my club, Maidenhead. I got a bad bruise on my arm and leg which hurt quite a lot, although I was alright. So far I think I have done well and shown my rugby abilities, I can’t wait to see what the next few sessions hold.

Easter 2019

Ofsted, 2019 Parent View

“ My son is caring and sensitive, and the school nurtures these characteristics

through their Desborough Way philosophy.”

Easter 2019

Desborough’s Principal joins former pupil , Austin Heath, who won a scholarship for A level study at Eton

I had a fabulous time watching Austin Heath playing in the Lent Jazz Concert at recently. Austin, who left Desborough College in Summer 2017 to take up a sixth-form scholarship at Eton, still has many friends studying here and I was delighted to receive the invitation from his parents. He is enjoying his time at Eton and currently working hard towards his A Level examinations before taking up a place at Imperial College next year.

Easter 2019

Mr Kilcoyne, Head of Rugby, recounts a hugely successful Yr 8 and Yr 9 rugby tour

In December along with Mr Furmage, Mr Andrew Jones and Mr Coughlan, I was lucky enough to take our Yr 8 and 9 rugby squads to Spain’s capital, Madrid, for a rugby tour.

Despite one member of the Yr 9 team trying his best to remain the wrong side of border control in Madrid, we arrived at our hotel. The boys had the chance to explore Madrid, aided by our tour guide, with a particular highlight being the Christmas Market in President’s Square. The boys took an instant liking to Madrid and I was reliably informed: “The Spanish make ‘banging sandwiches, sir.”

Of course, the main reason we were in Spain was for the rugby. The boys had two training sessions, organised and run by the teachers, in preparation for the two fixtures against Spanish opposition. At the end of the final session a Yr 8 team played touch against Yr 9. It was close, but Yr 9 ran out winners 15-5, despite my completely unbiased refereeing.

The physical style of rugby was a feature of the first fixture. Our Yr 9 team had to adapt quickly to a more brash and upfront style of rugby. LJ Ekendahl played through the pain barrier to put in some monster hits while Jody Bunce, Toby Pocock, George Swinn and Jude Griffin from Yr 8 displayed enormous courage, making an impact from the bench despite being a year younger.

Having witnessed the Yr 9 game, Yr 8 were better prepared for the physical onslaught and it showed. A defensive mishap in the opening seconds did not stop a huge effort for the remainder of the game. Harry Bunce and Jacob Hughes gave excellent performances; outstanding work rate and tactical play from both. Josh Presnail led the pack well from the base of the scrum, while Alfie Harris found his feet playing in an unusual position of blindside flanker.

The second fixture was less physical, a relief for the boys! So much so that even Jenson Lawrence managed to play with only one working arm! Jody Bunce stepped up to play a full game at fly-half for Yr 9 and never looked out of place. Cameron Bellamy helped himself to a fine collection of tries showing excellent pace and agility.

The tour finished with a trip to the Bernabeu Stadium, the home of Real Madrid FC and the Spanish National team.

It was a highly enjoyable tour for both pupils and staff. I would like to thank the boys, teachers and par ents for their wonderful support.

“He displayed enormous courage, making an impact from the bench despite being a year younger.” Easter 2019

Scott Lange, Yr 11 has been successful in gaining an engineering apprenticeship. He writes about the interview process.

I found the advertisement for the apprenticeship on the apprentices.gov.com website. The opportunity of an engineering apprenticeship for GSK stood out. I had to apply online, filling out forms with my predicted exam grades and other information about my wider interests. I was delighted when I heard back that I “It was hard and I had made the next round. I had to complete a large number of multiple choice had to give my questions, which took me over an hour to complete. It was hard and I had to give my opinion on work-life situations. The next round was job simulation. opinion on work- They asked me questions and filmed me answering them. I was also asked to life situations.” write emails as if I was on the job. During the last stage, I was offered an interview alongside ten other people. This is where they got me to build things, take part in group activities and write presentations about myself. Later, I was one of the two people offered the job out of over 200 candidates.

Yr 9 students check out the latest in science, technology, engineering and maths at the Big Bang Fair. Mr Keenan, Design Technology Teacher, provides his thoughts on the day.

On March 13th a group of Year 9 pupils travelled to the NEC in Birmingham for the BIG BANG Fair. It was a four-day STEM event run for secondary students, with interactive workshops, pupils presentations, industry leading professionals demonstrating new STEM idea and exhibitions of engineering at its best. The British Army and the RAF had amazing interactive areas, that pupils could experience sitting inside one of their impressive vehicles. Pupils were amazed at the scope that STEM education covers in the many different areas of work and development that you can explore in future. An insightful and enjoyable day had by all.

Easter 2019

Mr Clawson, Assistant Principal Head of Sixth Form, considers the attractions of apprenticeships at The National Apprenticeship Show with our Yr 13 students “ So attractive were some of the remuneration A fundamental of our careers programme in the Sixth Form is the promotion and packages on offer, I support of a broad range of post-18 options, and so we couldn’t miss the chance counted myself lucky to to take a group of Year 13 students to the heartland of all things apprenticeship bring the same number of – The National Apprenticeship Show. Taking place at Sandown Racecourse this students back to school event brought over 100 employers together including: British Airways, KPMG, in the afternoon!” Lloyds Banking Group, Unilever, Vodafone, Virgin Atlantic, Deloitte as well as the Army, Royal Navy and RAF. Our students enjoyed meeting with a variety of potential employers face to face, and exploring the many credible and impressive alternatives to university. So attractive were some of the remuneration and training packages on offer, I counted myself lucky to bring the same number of students back to school in the afternoon!

A busy time for Mr Clawson, who also accompanied Yr 12 students to a study skills workshop at Royal Holloway University College

Our Year 12 students enjoyed the opportunity to take a glimpse at campus life when we visited Royal Holloway for a study skills workshop in March. Our day started with a seminar on revision skills, followed by campus tours led by student ambassadors. Our tour visited the various faculties, amenities, sports complex, students’ union and accommodation. The highlight of our day was certainly the interactive and insightful study skills workshop in the afternoon, which demonstrated for students a number of study habits and routines that will be useful at A-Level and beyond. Our students, as ever, put their best foot forward when representing our Sixth Form and left a very positive impression on our hosts.

“ Our students, as ever, put their best foot forward when representing our Sixth Form and left a very positive impression on our hosts.”

Easter 2019

Our students help to run an All Stars Cricket and Hockey skills Festival at Desborough

The School Sport Partnership put 100 Yr 1 and Yr2 children through their paces at the All Stars Cricket & Hockey Skills Festival in the sports hall at Desborough on Thursday 14th March. One student from Boyne Hill Infant said, “Desborough is the best place ever!”

The photographs show the fabulous Desborough leaders who helped run the day.

Well done all those involved. One primary school pupil said, “Desborough is

the best place ever!” Easter 2019

In celebrating World Book Day, we ask our students (and staff) to dress as a book character who represented one Desborough’s character virtues.

Desborough celebrated our love of reading for pleasure in great style this year with our theme to dress up as a literary character to represent the Desborough values:

Respect, Positivity, Teamwork, Pride, Leadership, Courage, Humility, Kindness, and Gratitude.

This required a lot of imagination and we were delighted with the effort put in by students and staff (Mr Bromley in particular!) Highlights were from Callum, D’Real and Ismail who all received house-points for their endeavour.

Easter 2019

“The Old Maidonian Society was founded in 1924 to connect former pupils of Maidenhead Grammar School which was renamed in 1973 as Desborough”

Easter 2019

The Old Maidonian Society held its annual dinner on Friday 29th March and reunited former students from across the generations.

It was a great pleasure to see so many familiar faces at the annual Old Maidonians Dinner at Maidenhead Golf Club. The ‘Old Maids’ was founded in 1924 to connect former pupils of what was Maidenhead Grammar School. President, Colin Cutler, recorded this fact in his speech and, in looking to the future, suggested that a new name for the society reflecting the school’s change of name to Desborough (in 1973) is being considered. This was echoed by Desborough’s Principal, Paul Frazer, who asked for others to continue to support the excellent work of the society.

It was good to see the current Yr 13 pupils celebrate the evening. See you next year…

Easter 2019

With feet back on terra firma, Alex Gloster (OM) writes of his success in gaining his Commercial Pilots License

“So..... I'm back from Phoenix now and successfully passed my Commercial Pilots License first time! Probably one of the most stressful periods of my “ Even more daunting, life! But the next phase of training is probably going to be even more I'll be sharing the stressful: the Instrument Rating. I'll be learning to fly the aircraft purely on radio and the airways instruments only being able look at my panel and not outside! Even more with the big boys, the daunting, I'll, be sharing the radio and the airways with the big boys, the likes of British likes of British Airways, Virgin etc. Another big step up is the new aircraft: a twin-engine 440 horsepower turbo charged Piper Seneca V which is going to Airways, Virgin” be fun and fast to fly! Most of this next phase will be about me joining airways and shooting instrument approaches into airports like Gloucester and Cardiff. The whole goal of this next phase is to help when conditions aren't favourable and we can’t see outside so we have sole reference to our instruments!

Lieutenant General Nick Pope, CBE was recognised for his outstanding achievement “ He was the part of the at the recent OM dinner first cohort of students of the renamed Desborough; Many distinguished former students returned for the he spoke of a sense of Old Maids dinner including Lieutenant General Nick connection with his Pope, CBE, a British Army officer who currently former school.” serves as Deputy Chief of the General Staff. Nick was awarded the Wilfred Upson Prize in recognition of an outstanding achievement of a former Desborough pupil. Nick was part of the first cohort of students of the renamed Desborough; he spoke of a sense of connection with his former school.

Easter 2019

We are delighted to have two silver medal winners from the National Junior Scullers Head

Congratulations to the Desborough boys who, rowing for Maidenhead Rowing Club, won silver medals in their coxed quad at the National Junior Scullers Head. A great achievement because there were over 70 boats in the competition. Well done Jacob, Nat and James: gifted athletes and deservedly popular members of the Desborough College community “ A great achievement because there were over 70 boats in the competition.”

Easter 2019

“Students demonstrated enormous courage during their performances, alongside respect and positivity during the devising process with the Newlands’ girls.”

Easter 2019

Katie Turner, Curriculum Leader for Drama, reviews the recent A level performances

Louis Bellinger and Craig Slattery performed their A Level Devised Theatre coursework pieces at Newlands School, as part of the Consortium arrangements for A Level Drama and Theatre. Using Steven Berkoff’s ‘in yer face’ performance style as stimulus, the students tackled two relevant social and political issues: the Grenfell Tower tragedy and Mental Health. Both students demonstrated enormous courage during their performances to parents and staff, alongside respect and positivity during the devising “This is theatre process with the Newlands’ girls. at its best!” ‘U N H I N G E D’ presented a variety of mental illnesses and how taboos and prejudices are still prevalent in society. ‘LegoHouse’, based on the Grenfell Tower fire, presented a series of controversial viewpoints and how social issues are still unresolved. Both pieces were extremely well researched, revealed intellectual gravity, communicated strong political messages and provoked thought, through rhetorical and unanswered questions. This is A Level performance work at its best.

Easter 2019

Mrs Holyoake-Lloyd, Drama Teacher and Raising Achievement Leader for Yr 11, reviews with great pride the Yr 11 drama productions.

This year we saw some fantastic work from our Year 11 GCSE students. They used teamwork and positivity to wow the examiner with their characters and performance skills.

We had performances from Evan Gilio – Marc, Shivam Bhalla – Yvan and Andrew McCormick – Serge in ART as we aimed to show the psychological, emotional and power dynamics of friendship, as the three men argue through their way through this subtle, absurd comedy.

In LORD OF THE FLIES we had Joseph Ioras – Piggy, Siraj Zaman – Simon, George Eaves – Ralph, Michael Brazenor – Roger and Akram El Mouak – Jack as we intended to explore the shift in power between the characters, explore their vulnerability and address the themes of hierarchy, control, loss of innocence and individuality.

In CHOCOLATE WAR we had Humzah Ali - Brother Leon / Obie, Lee Beckley - Roland Goubert, Joshua Murphy - Jerry Renault and Safian Ali - Archie / Coach / Janza this play was set in a Catholic High School, this psychological thriller explores the themes of bullying, hierarchy and control.

In UP AND UNDER Darnell Brobbey – Tony, Wallace Goremusandu - Phil, Harry Levett – Steve, Sean Procter – Arthur, Uwais Tanvir – Dave and Jack Worth – Frank as the students used multi-rolling as the Wheatsheaf Warriors and the Cobblers, the actors explored absurd comic realism as the characters embarked on fitness training for the challenging Rugby League Sevens tournament.

IN ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST Edward Esling - Pissani & Constable, Toby Lamont - Inspector Bertozzo, Scott Lange – Superintendent, Oscar May - Maria Feletti and Lucas Walker – Manic performed a comic satire which takes place in Italy 1969 and exposed political corruption within the police force.

“They used teamwork and positivity to wow the examiner with their characters and performance skills.”

Easter 2019

Easter 2019

A froup of A level students travelled to Washing DC and New York to find out.

During the half term break, Year 13 Geography and Politics students visited Washington DC and New York City as part of their final year A-level studies. The trip started off with students getting to see first hand how the political system of the United States operates by visiting the US Congress, even sitting in on the Trump Border Wall vote in the Senate and watching as the House of Representatives session began. Following this we visited landmarks throughout the Washington area including the Lincoln Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery where we visited the tomb of John F. Kennedy and observed with great respect the ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the White House, enjoying an excellent guided tour.

On our visit to the National Archives students were able to see the original Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and the Constitution of the United States. Following our stay in Washington we briefly visited Philadelphia, stopping off at Independence Hall to see the Liberty Bell and the stage for the birth of the United States.

The final two days were spent exploring New York City, including a visit to Ellis Island to gain a wider understanding of migration patterns into the US and how it has changed through time, taking time to understand the courage it took to leave Europe and emigrate. After visits to the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty and of course Times Square everyone was more then ready for the night flight home and a chance to reminisce about this amazing experience. Throughout the trip students highlighted the best of Desborough spirit, embracing the culture, widening their horizons and showed a keen passion for developing their understanding further.

“Embracing the culture, widening horizons and showing a keen passion for developing understanding further.”

Easter 2019

“Taking time to understand the courage it took settlers to leave Europe and emigrate to the US”

Easter 2019

Desborough students join the Weight Watchers team for a day of leadership and management training. Mrs Eaves, Senior Assistant Principal

On 14th February, some of our most talented Year 10 rowers got the chance to listen to a motivational talk from Alex Gregory, twice British Rowing Gold Olympic winner at London and Rio in our Jacoby Studio, alongside around 100 “Alex spoke about the WW (formerly Weight Watchers) employees. setbacks including major injury he had Our boys got the chance to quiz Alex on his technique and to handle his two experienced prior to gold medals! Alex spoke about the setbacks including major injury he had his success and how experienced prior to his success and how he maintained his dream throughout demonstrating great resilience. Afterwards our Desborough boys he maintained his joined WW’s senior management and Alex for refreshments and further dream throughout discussions. demonstrating great resilience” We hope that this is the start of a great relationship with Alex Gregory and WW.

Easter 2019

Desborough students were tasked to design the Heathow Pod

On 18 March, the CEO of Heathrow Airport, John Holland-Kaye visited Desborough College along with colleagues from Heathrow and the “We worked in organisation Learning to Work. The purpose of the visit was to give pupils an understanding of the types of jobs available at Heathrow, a major employer in groups of four to the area. construct our pods, competing against We were shown a video of the advantages and the convenience of the Heathrow Pods. There is an automated battery-operated transport system other teams on designed to ferry passengers around Heathrow. Following this, we were set racing tracks the task of creating, in Lego, a programme to control the pods’ movements. constructed out of We worked in groups of four to construct our pods, competing against other Lego bricks.” teams on racing tracks constructed out of Lego bricks.

Easter 2019

Olasubomi Alfolabi and Felix May, Yr8, pose questions to John Holland- Kaye Where did Heathrow get its name?

The name Heathrow originated from an open land surrounded by fields and lush farms. On the open space was a village called Heath-Row. Later on, the village moved their supplies and people to allow the airport to be constructed. The airport called itself Heathrow as a thank you to the village.

What was your favourite subject at school? Economics. It is essential to my current job in helping to understand the company’s “Hard work, financial operations and to run the business successfully. determination How did you become the CEO of Heathrow Airport? and devotion” Hard work, determination and devotion. Even now, he does not have much time to socialise as much as he would like.

He has had many jobs in the past including being a school caretaker, and a management consultant at a bar. His current job is his favourite so far…

What kind of jobs are there at Heathrow?

Heathrow Airport employs people in 76,500 jobs, including the 400 companies giving assistance such as restaurants and airlines. Approximately every 45 seconds a plane either lands or takes off the runway. Easter 2019

A lesson in resilience and kindness by Max Baker, Yr 10

St Catherine’s College in Oxford was as dazzling as it was surprising. It was my first visit to an Oxford College. The Bernard Sunley Lecture Theatre is “His greatest spacious and it was full house with both young and old for the talk. discovery, The speaker Matteo Broketa, a St Catherine’s undergraduate reading Biology, perhaps, was the won the Wallace Watson Travel Scholarship at this same event last year. He kindness and spoke of his unbroken, unguided hike in the Huella Andina region of Patagonia, Argentina. He illustrated techniques he had used, such as only hospitality of the carrying a 4 kg ruc-sac, and spoke of his confrontations with wild horses and Argentinians he hearing the sound of eerie call from mountain lions. His greatest discovery, met.” perhaps, was the kindness and hospitality of the Argentinians he met. I thoroughly enjoyed the talk and my brief visit to an Oxford College. It really made me think about the places and people I might visit in my future. It was a brilliant opportunity to get and I truly look forward to other ones like it.

Easter 2019

“I was surprised to learn how delighted they were that we had managed to come”

Nicolas Crossa, Yr 10, reports on the Wallace Watson lecture

I was excited about the talk in more ways than one; mainly I wanted to learn about my mother’s homeland, but also was intrigued to see what a talk in Oxford was like. It did not disappoint.

After a forty-five minute drive, we arrived at St Catherine’s College. Inside there were a lot of people and they all appeared to know one another, meaning there were a lot of introductions before the talk began. I was surprised to learn how delighted they were that we had managed to come.

From then on a lovely evening followed, Matteo told us all about his trip, showing many pictures of the breath-taking scenery of the snowy Huella Andina in Patagonia. Most interesting was his goal of connecting the different routes together. To do this he tried finding small pathways in Google Earth, which in the most part worked for him, carrying everything he needed for 3 days travel in less than 4kg. Overall it was a very interesting and amusing evening, and I left knowing a lot more than I did before.

We were also told about the winners of the Wallace Watson award for next year, and one involves travelling to Iceland and the other tracking and catching jaguars in Mexico which sounds thrilling. We will be back next year.

Easter 2019

Ofsted, 2019

Respectful ∙ Kind ∙ High Expectations Quality ∙ Proud ∙ Moral Values

Responsible ∙ Courteous ∙ Safe

Easter 2019

Mrs Hallissey School Librarian planned a celebration of World Book Day by organising a visit from one our students’ favourite “ Over 5,500 authors books have been borrowed The joint winners of our Year 7 competition to name a character in literature for every virtue to win a £20 Amazon voucher and ten from the house points were Santosh and Thomas. Library so far We were very pleased to host the very popular author, Andy Briggs care of RBWM Libraries, who discussed what it is truly like to be an this year” author. His tales of the adventures he has had around the world to get up close and personal with smelly gorillas, elephant fleas in his shorts and drone racing were a whistle stop tour of all his books.

Thank you to all who joined in and contributed on the day. We raised £152.70 in total to go towards new books in the Library.

Update: Over 5,500 books have been borrowed from the Library so far this year. We currently have 50 boys who have read over a million words each since September and we look forward to many more next term. We have also started our weekly Carnegie Book Group for some year 8s. Happy Easter!

@DesboroughLRC

Easter 2019

Mrs McFarlane, Head of Houses, reviews a busy term in the house competitions.

There have been some great house competitions and opportunities for the boys to participate enjoy, compete and achieve this term.

Desborough’s Houses challenged each other to see who could bake the best cake and cookies

The final competition this term was the Great Desborough Easter Bake Off, which challenged pupils to be creative, imaginative, positive, show pride in their work and teamwork. To help earn their house achievement points over 40 cakes were entered and the house captains and selected teachers enjoyed judging them all!

The overall placing were: 1 st place Harry Atherton; 2nd place Christian Silva De Freitas; 3rd place Samuel Winyard; 4th place Mahad Mian; 5th place Artemiy IIin

Easter 2019

World Book Day gave the boys a chance to dress up as their favourite characters and support the LRC.

House points for the top 3 dressed pupils (Yr 7): D’Real Brown (Constable), Isma’il Mehrban (Dickens), Callum Meadows (Elgar) – order shown in the photographs.. The overall winner was D’Real Brown (Constable).

Easter 2019

Mr Kilcoyne, Head of Rugby, took our Yr 7 and 8 rugby

squads to the County 7s, and was rewarded with two superb team performances.

Few in the Yr 7 squad had ever played this format of Rugby before, yet they finished as the highest ranked state school. Hayden Moore

scored a hat trick in 7 minutes in one games while Milo Barker, showing size isn't everything, put in some dominant hits throughout the day.

The Yr 8 team reached the final. Throughout the day, Josh Kuwali and Javier Fimia, appeared to score for fun and there was immense defensive work by Jody Bunce and Rudy Donohoe-Flanders. Despite these efforts, the team were narrowly beaten.

As always, both squads gave an amazing account of themselves, and I still get so much pride in being able to take our rugby squads to all their fixtures.

I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Jody Bunce, Cody Rumney, Ollie Hodgson and LJ Ekendahl on their continued involvement with London Irish and Wasps development squads. A superb reward for all their efforts and hard work.

Touch Rugby will recommence in the last term of the Year for all Years! “ I still get so much pride in being able to Our Senior football team has enjoyed great success in the take our squads Berkshire Cup to all their #GoDesborough fixtures.”

Easter 2019

Desborough’s Yr 9 students engage in the Bright Ideas Competition. Miss Corrigan outlines how STEM subjects can help students tackle future global issues.

Have you ever wondered what cities will be like in 2050? What energy challenges they may face? Can we sustain the dynamic, fast moving culture that we are so fond of? We were tasked with solving the problems that are associated with the depleting stores of fossil fuels and the ever-growing population; Imagining creative solutions to energy challenges, challenges that are completely rooted in the world that we call home. This challenge took STEM beyond the text book and into the real world.

The main question we were tasked with: how can countries produce much more energy, while mitigating environmental challenges? The competition showed us in a clear, efficient manner how STEM can tackle these problems and make a “ How can positive difference in the world. This cross-curricular competition allowed us to develop a range of skills including creativity, problem-solving, teamwork and countries produce leadership. much more

The Bright Ideas Competition gives us a chance to win various prizes including energy, while £5000 prize package to supersize Desborough Colleges’ STEM fund, VIP stem mitigating session in a lab in London, and a prototyping session to bring your idea to life. environmental

This fun-filled day helped inspire us to think about how Science, Engineering, challenges?” and creativity can be used to make real life differences to the World. Easter 2019

A magical night of singing at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford for a group of Desborough singers

Being asked to sing in a concert is one thing. Being asked to sing in the magnificent Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford with the world renowned King Singers adds extra excitement.

This was the opportunity presented to six Desborough students when they joined forces with the Choral Society and children from local secondary and primary schools within Oxfordshire. Under the guidance of the Radley College Precentor, Mr Sam Gladsone, they worked on learning a wide It is not an easy repertoire of pieces – both contemporary and classical – to support the songs feat, and requires sung by The King Singers. a large amount of The boys performed in both an afternoon concert and an evening gala teamwork to performance to audiences of over 400 people. It is not an easy feat, and coordinate the requires a large amount of teamwork to coordinate the voices of 250 singers. The Desborough boys were outstanding, with an experience that will live long voices of 250 in the memory. We are all enormously proud of their performance. singers.” Easter 2019

Staff from Newlands Girls and Desborough have been working together to develop their leadership skills. Mrs Cath Harden, Vice Principal, outlines what has been taking place.

Desborough College and Newlands Girls’ School have been working together Working to develop the leadership skills of our talented staff. The year-long ‘New Leaders’ course involves teachers working on projects in their own schools, together to as well as visiting colleagues at the partner school to discuss ideas and develop the collaborate to ensure that we are sharing the very best practice. Sessions so leadership skills far have included a Launch Event, What makes a good leader? Run by Dr Louise Ceska at Newlands Girls’ School, as well as a session on Planning for of our talented Improvement – Leading Innovation and Change which was held at staff” Desborough College this month and run by Cath Harden and Jo Capon. We still have sessions on Coaching and Building Capacity and Enriching the Student Experience as well as our Celebration Event which will take place in January of 2020. We are very proud of our middle leaders and hope they will get a lot out of this opportunity that can then be shared more widely in both schools.

Easter 2019

“ The teachers really know how to bring the best out in boys and develop and encourage them in the right way.”

Ofsted, 2019 Parent View