A new look for OHS publications

She Raines Supreme

Year 13 English Literature students were thrilled to receive a visit this term from Nina Raine (1994), whose award-winning play Tribes they are currently studying. Nina, whose latest play Stories is currently playing at The National, gave up a whole morning to discuss the key themes, inspirations and obstacles in staging her 2010 play, which won, among other plaudits, the 2012 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award. To hear an author speak so articulately yet honestly about how her writing is achieved was an inspiring and empowering experience that they will never forget. Nina subsequently joined the Year 11 Book Group for a discussion of life in the theatre, in which she provided a packed room of aspiring playwrights, directors and actors with some incredibly practical and hard-won lessons on how to succeed as a female creative in the contemporary theatre.

Audiences were catapulted back to a world of Brylcreem and bobby socks for this term’s whole-school production of Grease. The OHS cast was joined by two male players, Lucas Leuna from the Warriner School (Danny), and Ioan Oosthuizen from Abingdon and Witney College (Kenickie), who must both be congratulated for their warm and charismatic performances. However, it was, if possible, even more thrilling to witness the humour, generosity and skill with which our own girls adapted to the challenges of playing strong male and female characters. They treated us to melancholy torch songs, hugely ambitious set-pieces choreographed by Mr Lewin, hilarious cameos and plenty of sassy dialogue. Of course, a venture on such a scale simply would not be possible without the vision of Miss Bramall, the harmonies of Dr Foster and his band or the tireless efforts of the wardrobe, production and technical teams, all of whom worked feverishly over the three nights of performance to ensure that every beat and bar were popping, every costume was perfect and every one of the 100+ cue calls to lighting and sound came off without a hitch. It seems that Grease really is the word.

Russian Conference

This term, Oxford High School hosted a conference for over 50 A Level students currently studying Russian at OHS, Harrow, Hampton and St Paul’s. Organised by our Russian Department, the day featured a range of fascinating talks from local academics covering such diverse topics as Gorbachev’s perestroika, how to translate Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita and – from our very own Head of Russian, Katya Solovyova – a talk on the untranslatability of certain words between our two

languages. The event culminated in some inspirational words from Anton Chesnokov, the Director of Rossotrudnichestvo (Russian Culture House). For several fortunate students, however, the day didn’t end there, as they and their teachers (alongside the ever-obliging Mr Chesnokov), were invited to the local studios of BBC Radio Oxford, where they joined DJ James Watt and spoke a few words of Russian live on the radio! Поздравляем!

Well done to Maya, Pearl, Bella and Freya of the Junior Swimming Team on their debut at the ESSA National Finals on Saturday 17th November. The girls did incredibly well to get there – besting 1,000 other schools to gain a place in the top thirty – and learned a tremendous amount from their experience of

swimming at this level. Furthermore, considering that this age group is open to U12 & 13, the fact that three out of the four girls are still in Year 7 makes the prospect of next year’s events very exciting indeed!