Minerva 3 - Summer 2019

MINERVA SPRING 2019 Summer 2019

OHS artists mentored by alumna Amy of A Summer Isles Freeman Sport and Music

CONTENTS CONTENTS Climate Change Poetry Languages at OHS OHS Tops the Charts Chemistry Olympiad Neurodiversity World Book Day Cyber Finals Green Fashion Show National Sporting Success Success Young Enterprise

NEWS

From the Headmaster

One of our school aims is to encourage every girl to find her own voice. From our successful Young Enterprise teams, through Milli Dubin’s impassioned poetry to Niki Kini’s new single, the evidence for this rings out loud and clear. Classical music-making has also continued to thrive and we have a terrific stock of talent coming through, such as Helena Gascoyne, Helena Landis and Sasha Kirby, all three of whom will be playing in the National Children’s Orchestra this year.

The alumnae reunion in May was a joyful occasion, tinged, however, with sadness at the recent loss of our exceptional former Headmistress, Baroness Mary Warnock. Mary was an outstanding philosopher and I’m sure that she would have been delighted by the award of a UCL Philosophy Scholarship to one of our recent alumnae, Christabel Kane. We hope she would have approved, too, of our plan to name our Extended Research Project in her honour. There was a palpable buzz at the recent ‘tutorial’ sessions and we are enormously grateful to all of our parents and friends who generously offered their time to give our Year 12 girls such a boost to their independent research.

To end on a sporting note, hugely well done to our U13 Cricketers on making a Lord’s final, to our record-breaking Athletics team on their monster points haul and congratulations, too, to our U9 footballers on their recent tournament victory (no parental bias whatsoever in highlighting this!)

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Young Enterprise Finalists This year, for the eleventh year running, Oxford High School has succeeded in sending representatives not merely to the Oxfordshire Finals of the Young Enterprise Competition, but also to the highly competitive Regional Finals.

What makes this year special is that, for the first time ever, both our companies succeeded in progressing to this stage, which is a huge testament to the innovation and vision of everyone involved. Glo, who are seeking to raise awareness of mental health issues through their beautiful serotonin necklaces, were awarded the prize for Best Customer Service, while Elixir, who have produced a range of stylish yet sustainable drinking straws and a thermos bottle with a temperature detecting LED light, have shown astonishing marketing prowess and are

currently in the process of finalising deals with a value in excess of £65,000. Huge congratulations to both companies, therefore, who were both so impressive that they were trading first and second place throughout the competition, and huge thanks to Mr Gallacher, Ms Lea and Graham Varney, the school’s long-serving Business Advisor, who have mentored them throughout the year.

Empathy in Action This term the Geography Department hosted a return visit from Empathy Action, the humanitarian charity whose mission is to inspire and empower people to work together to improve the lives of others in need. Their simulation, ‘The Poverty Trap’, immersed our Year 9 students in a slum environment which enabled them to engage imaginatively with the challenges faced by the 800 million people around the world currently living in extreme poverty (that is, on less than $1.90 a day). We hope that the experience, which provided the girls with a glimpse of the vulnerability felt when resources are scarce, has ignited a desire to help through action. As one student commented, ‘It was over-whelming and moving, especially as I have seen many slums in India but never really thought about what it was like to be in them.’

Finding Order Amidst Chaos Congratulations to Amia Guha (Year 10) on winning third place in the U16 Category of Sydenham High School’s #700STEMChallenge. Responding to a deliberately open-ended brief of writing 700 words on a STEM subject, Amia’s essay ‘Mathematics: The Order and the Chaos’ provided a trans-historical survey of how maths has provided humankind with the means of comprehending the mysteries around us, taking in Paleolithic man, 13th Century scholar Roger Bacon and Einstein along the way. Of the experience, Amia said, ‘The subjects we take at school weave themselves inextricably into our life outside formal education, and this essay allowed me to recognise the part played by mathematics.’

Milli Goes Viral On the 15th of April this year, Year 12 environmental activist, Milli Dubin, took to the streets of London with thousands of others to protest government inaction on climate change.

Charged with delivering a talk to the crowds at short notice, Milli wrote and passionately delivered a heart-breaking and powerful poem, which was later set to video by The Big Blue Blueprint, an eco-friendly internet platform. Such was the power of Milli’s words and delivery that the video went viral on Instagram and, at last count, the video has been viewed over a million times.

Watch Milli performing her poem at the Climate March via the following QR code.

Laurie Magnus Prize 2019 We are delighted to announce that, hot on the heels of her acclaimed performance at the Climate March, Milli Dubin (Year 12) has been commended in the GDST Laurie Magnus Poetry Prize for her poem ‘Out Of All The People’. We are also thrilled to announce that the poetry bug has spread to OHS Prep, where Ottilie Schuman (Year 2) was commended for her poem, ‘Fireworks’ and Maggie Waring (Year 3) received a special mention from the judge. Congratulations to all our poets!

Magic Numbers This March saw 500 of the top mathematicians in Year 11 from all over the country participate in the prestigious Maclaurin Olympiad.

With the results now in, we are incredibly proud to announce that Kitty Knight (Year 11) received a gold medal after achieving a score which placed her in the top 10% of the country’s top-500 mathematicians in her age group. Her mathematics goes from strength to strength and we are very excited to see where the future takes her.

As we go to press, we also await the results of the Junior Mathematical Olympiad. Three of our Year 8 students are among the 1,200 Year 7 and 8 students invited to take part.

Good luck, Gabriella, Ahyoung and Katherine!

Gut Gemacht!

Congratulations to sisters Elsa and Eleanor Voak (Years 12 and 10) on their exceptional achievements in a number of recent language competitions. The sisters won 1st place in the 2nd round of the Oxford German Olympiad with their joint entry entitled ‘Poetry - A Humorous Approach’, as well as gaining commendations in the individual rounds alongside Amy King (Year 10) and Flora Molnar, Lara Solie-Tuluie and Isabel Cavanagh (all Year 8). Elsa and Eleanor were also highly commended and commended, respectively, in the second round of the Fabulous Translation

Competition run by the University of Oxford’s Modern and Medieval Languages Faculty for their creation of two highly original fables. Finally, the sisters were delighted to learn that their ironic take on the pre-marital communication between Queen Victoria and Albert of Saxe-Coburg (which they re-imagined as a text chat) has won first prize in the DAAD/IMLR German Writing Competition 2019. As ever, it’s a delight to see the passion and proficiency for modern languages maintained by OHS girls, as well as paying glowing testament to their teachers!

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NEWS

Bow Down Year 12 student Niki Kini is currently making waves in the music industry, having clocked up more than 117,000 streams on Spotify and topping the Audition Poll on Amazing Radio with her debut single, ‘Bow Down’. Niki, who was discovered after posting a video of herself performing at an OHS Open Mic event, cites a range of musical influences, including Pink’s attitude, Billie Eilish’s creative direction and the South Indian Kannada songs she grew up with, which helped shape her distinctive ability to sing in micro-tones. Fiercely independent, Niki much prefers writing her own songs to performing those of others, as this gives her more control over the process and more authenticity in performance. Judging by the results so far, we can’t help but agree!

Pump Up The Volume Two Year 8 students have made bold first steps towards their dream jobs in the music industry this term. Bobby GreenGonzalez has begun presenting her own music and discussion programme, Volume, on Windrush Radio while Eleni Wragg, who wants to be a singer-songwriter, was her first guest!

Of the experience, Bobby said, ‘I’ve

always wanted to go down the path of broadcasting or presenting, something involving regular contact with the public, and this was an exciting first step towards that goal!’ Eleni, meanwhile, gave credit to her music-loving family for inspiring her, and professed a desire to keep practising her piano skills so she can be as confident in live performances as she is at home.

By Royal Command Congratulations to Helena Gascoyne on winning a place at the Royal College of Music’s Junior Department, starting in September 2019. With violin as her first instrument and piano/composition second, she will receive weekly tuition in London from some of the country’s best players and build on the experience she gained leading the National Children’s Orchestra Under 13 this Easter (where she was joined

by Helena Landis, also Year 8).

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NEWS

OHS In Concert Since last term, we have been treated to three highly memorable events organised under the aegis of the Music Department. Opera lovers were able to witness forty OHS girls enjoying the unforgettable experience of performing at the Playhouse alongside an international cast of soloists, in Oxford Opera’s production of Bizet’s Carmen. The girls’ contributions to the frantic fight scene and the sultry Habanera were so impressive that Director Paul Carr noted that, ‘We’ve rehearsed with many professional choruses who weren’t as good as you!’ The Sheldonian Concert in April, meanwhile, saw a reprise of some excerpts from Carmen prior to exceptional concerto performances on the flute and harp by Ella Hobbs and Eoin Hanrahan, and a vocal solo from Isabelle Davis. In the second-half, the orchestra brought off the extremely challenging orchestral showpiece The Sorcerer’s Apprentice with aplomb, enlivened

by Eleanor Voak’s bassoon in the Mickey Mouse role. Finally, June’s Lower School Concert gave some of our best up-and-coming players a chance to shine with some spirited highlights from the ever-popular Mamma Mia! Well done, all!

Sounds and Sweet Airs Over the course of three balmy evenings in June, audiences were transported to new worlds of fantasy and wonder in this year’s Lower School Production of Return to the Forbidden Planet. Based loosely on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Bob Carlton’s 1960 musical saw our actors orbit their way around the Shakespearean text and craft magical, comical choreography to accompany popular songs from the 60s. A joint production between the Music and Drama departments, the show also gained vital momentum from the tech team led so maturely by Ottilie Hicks (Year 10) and the creativity of Olivia Rossler (Year 9) in masterminding the sound and video design. With an amazing set, fantastic individual performances (not least that of D’Illyria, the omnivorous intergalactic squid) and enough warmth and brilliance from the ensemble cast to ‘reverse the polarity’ of even the hardest heart, the show truly was out of this world.

OPTION A (cover shot IS Return to Forbidden Planet): Sounds and Sweet Airs OPTION B (cover shot is not Return to Forbidden Planet): Music of the Spheres

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PREP SCHOOL

Green Fashion Show

Young Art Oxford

For this year’s fashion show, Year 6 decided to move away from using plastic as the main material for constructing their outfits. Instead, they pledged that 75% of each garment would be constructed from reclaimed, unwanted and/or discarded materials. Through a combination of recycling, reclamation and upcyling, the girls learned a huge amount about sustainable culture, alternative materials and how different materials can be attached in order to create a garment. The results were unveiled in a spectacular fashion show, where every girl had the opportunity to wear her outfit on the catwalk before an appreciative audience of friends and family.

Young Art Oxford is a competition for students in Oxfordshire from Reception to Year 9, the proceeds of which go towards raising money for Cancer Research UK Kids & Teens. This year students at OHS responded to the theme of ‘Home’ by exploring animal habitats, other-worldly homes and imagined homes.

Competing in a very tough field and with judging from some of the biggest names in children’s art and illustration (including Korky Paul and Mini Grey), Tiana Evans was therefore thrilled to be named the winner of ‘The Ruskin School of Art Award’ for her age group.

The winner of this award is recognised for having the most vivid imagination and Tiana’s entry, which featured a Queen Bee residing in luxury at the centre of her hive, was a worthy recipient!

Year 3 Singing Under the inspired direction of Ms Taylor, Year 3 Singing was once again a roaring success, in this its fourteenth year. Over two days at the beginning of May, more than 300 children from St Barnabas Primary, Windale Primary, The Dragon School and OHS came together to share a love of music and try out new and eclectic songs. Singing everything from nonsense songs to lyrics from around the world and hymns to the wonders of nature, the children were taught how to animate their performances with physical gestures and other tricks of the trade. The festival culminated in a riotous concert for family members and friends, and our hats go off to Ms Taylor and all the organisers for making it such a memorable event.

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PREP SCHOOL

Bendy, Giggly Yoga Time

Walk on the Wild Side

Seen here are some Reception students loving their weekly yoga session with Hannah from Tatty Bumpkin. Tatty Bumpkin offers a developmentally-focused yoga programme (‘The Tatty Bumpkin Rainbow Adventure Pathway’) aimed at creating ‘bendy, giggly yoga for clever minds and strong bodies.’ Each week participating students from Reception to Year 2 attend their lunchtime yoga session then receive a follow-up email with the posture of the week, which explains to parent and daughter both how to do that posture and the health benefits it confers, such as spatial awareness, relaxation and conditioning. As you can see here, however, the first order of business to have a lot of fun!

This term saw Years 5 and 6 embracing their wild sides as they embarked on two action-packed residential trips. Year 5 visited PGL Liddington, where they soared beyond their comfort zones with classic activities such as the Giant Swing and Canoeing, but also managed to fit in some brand new activities such as the high ropes course, which included wobbly bridges, slippery platforms and a fantastic zip wire at the end! Year 6, meanwhile, faced the next-level challenge of surviving ‘off-grid’ in the woods for their residential.

They had a fantastic time learning bushcraft skills and really pushed themselves to try new things in a week packed with once in a lifetime opportunities. Even the lack of showers did not manage to curb the incredible enthusiasm of the girls as they threw themselves into archery, fire-making, camouflage & concealment exercises, night games and building their own shelters for a night of wild camping!

A Summer of Sport Cricket continues to be hugely popular at OHS Prep and our U11 team is having a great season this year, finishing sixth in the Oxfordshire County Festival and seventh in the GDST Rally – both great achievements! The girls are also continuing to do brilliantly at Football, particularly in the recent Summertown Stars Primary Schools Cup. Here the U11s did brilliantly to finish as runners-up in the Plate competition, but it was the U9s who, on this occasion, stole the show, winning all their matches decisively until the nail-biting final, where a draw at full-time

led to a triumphant penalty shoot-out and some very happy footballers claiming the trophy! In Swimming, the Prep has had a fantastic season, winnig six out of seven galas and proving to all competition that our swimmers are a force to be reckoned with. Finally, the girls’ prowess in Athletics shone through at the GDST Rally, where Emily Channon came second in the Y6 600m, Effie Sutherland came third in the Y6 80m, and Ophelia Calhoun came second in the Y5 High Jump – and great attitude was shown by all!

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BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

She’s a Rainbow Spring term at the Senior School finished in a riot of colour this year, as we all took part in the first whole school Colour Run. The event saw pupils running a course all through the school grounds, past two paint stations staffed with mischief-making staff and Sixth Formers, who enjoyed themselves just a little too much in their efforts to pelt the passing runners! The atmosphere was electric with music playing and an excitable buzz as students and teachers pounded their way round the course. Well done to all who took part!

Everyone Is Extraordinary The concept of neurodiversity suggests that neurological differences such as dyslexia, ADHD and autism are actually just part of the natural diversity in human evolution.

To highlight this concept and celebrate our own neurodiverse students, OHS was proud to participate in this year’s Neurodiversity Celebration Week. During the week, fact sheets detailing ‘The Autism Advantage’ and ‘The Hidden Workplace Skills of Those with Dyspraxia’ appeared on walls throughout the school, alongside posters celebrating neurodiverse role-models such as Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Greta Thunberg. However, the undoubted highlight was a whole-school assembly featuring two of our neurodiverse Year 12s, Milli Dubin and Jessica Saunders, who captivated the whole school with their amusing and heartfelt accounts of being diagnosed with ADHD and Asperger’s, respectively, and how they’ve gone from regarding these diagnoses as disadvantages to hidden superpowers!

La Dolce Vita The Italian Exchange with Liceo Classico-Linguistico in Turin has been a highlight of the Italian Department since 2004. This year, under the assured guidance of Signora Stellardi and Ms Girling, the girls enjoyed an unforgettable time with their families, where nerves soon evaporated in clouds of conversation, friendship and special outings. The weather was less kind, showing a distinctly English tendency towards rain, but this failed to dampen the girls’ spirts as they embarked on a plethora of group excursions, including a 3,480m cable-car ascent into the Alps, pizza-making and visits to both Turin’s Museum of the Cinema and La Scala in Milan, where they were lucky enough to witness a rehearsal on its historic stage.

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BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

Sticky Business The OHS hives yielded their first honey this term. Here the Go Apiary team provide us with some notes on how it’s done…

So you want to take some honey from a hive? First, remove the honey-containing frames from the top boxes, being careful not to irritate the bees (they sting). Next, take the frames to a suitable place and remove the wax caps from the honeycontaining cells with an uncapping knife. To remove the honey, spin the frames in an extractor which centrifugally forces the honey down and out of the honeycomb.

Once the extractor is full, open the tap and let it flow into a large jug. Pass the honey through a sieve to remove bits of wax, pollen and dead bee. Finally, pour the honey into jars and sell them to your teachers for as high a price as possible.

Kilve Residential This term, Year 7 departed for Kilve Court in Somerset, where they partook in a cornucopia of adventurous outdoor activities. The pupils spent the week caving, climbing, sailing, kayaking, mountain-boarding, mountain-biking, navigating highrope courses and fossil hunting.

In the evenings, they developed their teamwork, leadership and communication skills with the lowropes course, shelter-building (where some got rather wet!) and orienteering. Whilst the weather was definitely not on our side, it did not dampen the OHS spirit! The pupils had a wonderful time challenging themselves, facing some fears and making new friendships.

A Blackwell’s Bonanza The reading ambassadors for OHS Book Club were rewarded for their appreciation of all things literary this term with a cultural and book buying visit to Blackwell’s, Oxford. Highlights included a glimpse of Oxford’s very own Philip Pullman browsing the shelves, reading Harry Potter in Latin and Greek, handling rare books, including a sixteenth century wooden book bound in pig-skin and written in ancient Greek, plus a tour of Basil Blackwell’s office, where the girls enjoyed imagining the conversations between Mr Blackwell and literary acquaintances including AA Milne, CS Lewis and Tolkien. The visit culminated in an extensive browse of the stacks, where each girl was allowed to choose three fiction titles for the school library.

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COMMUNITY & PARTNERSHIPS

A Feast of Reason The Extended Research Project or ERP (which is to be renamed this year – see Alumnae News, opposite) is a key feature of our 360 Programme, encouraging Sixth Form students to undertake independent research that goes beyond the curriculum, often to undergraduate level or beyond. An exciting new feature of the ERP this year has been to match participants with an external academic mentor in addition to their school-based supervisors. Year 12 students met their mentors for the first time in May, gaining unparalleled access to leading academics and professionals within their fields of study, including physicists, environmentalists, biologists, psychologists, linguists, software engineers, criminologists, artistic directors, engineers and archaeologists. The mentoring sessions were a great success, with several students receiving offers of further support for university applications and many mentors commenting on the excellent quality of students’ research.

These Girls Can The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme at Oxford High School continues to go from strength to strength. This year, 88 of 100 girls in Year 9 have begun their Duke of Edinburgh journey with the Bronze Award, while a further 56 girls in Year 10 commenced their Silver Awards with a Qualifying Expedition through the White Peak District, taking them through Dove Dale and up to the spectacular heights of Monsal Head. Finally, 15 girls in Year 12 have started the incredibly ambitious Gold Awards. These efforts have not gone unrewarded: 78 students have successfully completed an Award this year, including a record 6 Gold Awards for students still in the Sixth Form – an incredible achievement and testament to the commitment of the girls in question. Our Duke of Edinburgh team meanwhile, led by Mr Sobey, was delighted to be reaccredited following a Licence Review, with the assessors being very complimentary of the way in which the scheme is run at OHS.

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Carnegie Quiz and Picnic The CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals are the UK’s oldest and most prestigious children’s book awards, with the main award decided by children’s librarians and a second ‘Shadowers’ Prize’ chosen by young readers. To celebrate the unveiling of this year’s winners, OHS Book Club once again invited girls from Didcot Girls and Cherwell along to our annual quiz picnic.

In between sandwiches and snacks, forty Year 7/8 students were quizzed on their Carnegie shortlist knowledge, with our Cherwell neighbours earning themselves a worthy victory! To conclude the afternoon, we all gathered to watch the announcement of the winner, which this year was Dominican-American slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo with her bravura novel, The Poet X.

CAREERS, ALUMNAE AND OTHER NEWS

Alumnae Reunion 2019 This year’s Alumnae Reunion on Saturday 18th May was a fantastic event at which old friendships were rekindled through reminiscence, rousing speeches and laughter. It brought together alumnae who left these halls not merely forty years ago, but also twenty-five, ten and five years ago, so there were plenty of opportunities for story-telling among our returning sunflowers! Guests were also treated to a glimpse of the OHS Archive, which is currently being digitised – a link to the archive can be found within the alumnae pages of the new school website.

Amy Isles Freeman Mural Alumna Amy Isles Freeman (2011) returned to OHS during the Easter Holidays at the invitation of the Head Girl team with the brief of creating a new mural for the Marbles Court. She more than vindicated the faith of Anoushka, Sajil, Pip and Hannah by creating this image of joyful, dancing OHS girls that will undoubtedly brighten the days of our students for decades to come.

The Warnock Extended Research Project

We are delighted to announce that, in recognition both of her inspirational leadership of OHS and her exemplary contributions to the fields of ethics, philosophy and public policy, we will be renaming the Extended Research Project in honour of Baroness Mary Warnock (1924-2019) as of this year. You can read more about the Project opposite on p. 10.

The Consolations of Philosophy Congratulations to Christabel Cane (2014) on being awarded a Keeling Scholarship at UCL. The university offers two Keeling Scholarships, one for Ancient Philosophy and one for Modern Philosophy; Christabel was successful in obtaining the Modern Philosophy scholarship.

Medicine Conference 2019

Careers in Year 9

This year’s Medicine Conference saw aspiring medics in Years 10 and 12 taking blood from a fake arm, recording their own ECG, trying key hole surgery, looking inside their own bodies with an ultrasound machine and taking a picture of the inside of their eyes, all thanks to our guests, Medical Mavericks.

Quote of the day must go to the student who commented, ‘Oh my word I have no veins, I must be a vampire.’ In the afternoon, those wishing to pursue a career in medicine listened to alumnae Nisha Hare, Joanne Rose and Claire Warrell talk about life as undergraduate at Medical School (Oxford), grad school entry for medicine (Warwick) and the challenges of being a Registrar in Tropical Medicine (UCL).

Year 9 students gained some priceless insights into the world of work this term. First they took part in the Take Your Daughter to Work day, where girls learned about careers as diverse as broadcasting, PR and even brewing!

Later in the term, they took part in a Kaleidoscope Day organised by Bright Green Enterprise, where they learned not only about ethical and green enterprise, but also product design and marketing as they created their own green initiatives.

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Stars of Track and Field OHS athletes have had an exceptional season this year. In April, the Year 10 team was crowned Oxford City Schools’ Champions, with stand-out performances from the relay team (2nd), Bea Jarvis in the 1500m (2nd) and Erin Waters in the Javelin (1st).

From this event, nine girls qualified for the County Schools’ Championships representing Oxford City, of whom Bea Jarvis and Eloise Krebs gained 2nd place in the 1500m and High Jump, respectively, while Erin Waters and Elisa Potts Gorgue were crowned County Champions in U17 and U15 Javelin. Similar success was had at the GDST Rally in June, where the OHS Athletics team finished 2nd, winning a slew of individual golds for Izzy Martin (1500m), Izzy Bhatia (70m hurdles), Jess Simons (200m), Maisie Kavanagh, Elise Potts Gorgue and Erin Waters (Years 8,9 and 10 Javelin), Olivia Martin (1500m), Izzy Oppon (long jump) and Emma Lackenby, Bella Alder, Jess Simons and Melodie Torbrand (Year 8 relay).

We are also delighted this term to celebrate the extraordinary success of our Junior Girls Track and Field team.

The Junior Girls Track and Field Cup scores entrants on how well they run, throw and jump in order to calculate an overall winner. In the Oxfordshire round of the competition, our team scored a whopping 413 points, the best score ever achieved by an OHS team and 96 points clear of our nearest rivals, St Helen and St Katharine. In the Regional Finals, the girls did it again, scoring 411 points to become Regional Champions and ranking fifth in England. Top individual performances included Melodie Torbrand in the 100m, Jess Simons in the 200m and long jump, Izzy Martin in the 1500m, Emma Lackenby in the hurdles and Alice Millar and Maisie Kavanagh in the Javelin. This is a phenomenal achievement by the girls, which we’ve just learned has led to a place at the National Cup Finals! We’re sure the girls will acquit themselves equally brilliantly here, but however things end, they’ve already done us proud!

SPORT

Champions of Cheer Sisters Bea (Year 7) and Elizabeth Zmitrovich (Year 8) have had a very eventful term, travelling to Orlando Florida with their team, the SA Cheer Academy, to compete in The Summit, a.k.a the world championships of cheerleading. Triumphing in the semi-final against 30 other teams, they progressed to the ten-team final. Here the SA Cheer Academy came an amazing second-place, making Bea and Elizabeth true world-beaters. Bravo, girls!

Westminster Wonders Congratulations to Olivia and Izzy Martin, whose running continues to go from strength to strength.

This term they wowed the London crowds, winning the Westminster Mile in their respective age groups.

A Perfect Summer for Indoor Cricket Perhaps it’s the terrible weather, or perhaps it’s pure skill, but the U13 Indoor Cricket team have had an astonishing season.

Since March the team, captained by Ellie Simpson and Sana Kassey (both Year 8), have won the County Championship followed by the Regional Championship at Edgbaston, before having the privilege of competing in the Nationals at Lord’s, the home of cricket. Here their incredible journey culminated in a fantastic day of cricket which saw them end fourth out of 872 schools across the country.

Hot off the press, congratulations to the U15 Cricket team, who just won the GDST Cricket Tournament by six wickets. Howzat, indeed!

Minerva is the termly newsletter of Oxford High School, Belbroughton Road, Oxford, OX2 6XA www.oxfordhigh.gdst.net oxfordhigh@oxf.gdst.net 01865 559888 Sincere thanks to all students and staff who contributed articles this term.

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