ORLUMNI
SPRING 2025
12
FORMULA IZZY
42
24 HOUSE WINNERS
JAMES
DATES FOR THE DIARY
orley Farm Association
Spring Term House Winners dates for the diary
WELCOME
Where has the year gone, and spring is definitely here, some well needed warm weather. The school as always has been busy but even the Orley Farm Association have kept the whole community busy from the annual Quiz night (this year it sold out in a record 48 hours!), a Netball match and a wonderful Easter Egg Hunt and much more.
We are seeing more of our Orlumni and we continue to hold our events and it’s great to see how well they are all getting on.
Please keep sending us your articles and look out for Orlumni events on the “Dates for your Diary” page that you can attend or if you wish to organise a reunion then please let us know.
C H E T A N S H A H
Editor
EDITORIAL
CHETAN SHAH Editor
SARA PADALINO Editorial assistant
TIM CALVEY photographer
NATALIE HEHIR social media
JAS BIRDI communications
CONTRIBUTORS
Tim Calvey, Stephen Bloom, catherine godet, Rebecca Gascoigne, keith ford, chiraAg gudka
SUBSCRIPTIONS
SUBSCRIBE ONLINE
https://orleyfarm firefly cloud net/membership/m embership-form
CONTACT US
Orley Farm School
South Hill Avenue
Harrow on the Hill Middlesex, HA1 3NU
PHONE
+44 (0)208 869 7600
We have had enquiries about how people can give back to the school where they have had a joyful time. There are various things that you can donate towards or you can assign your donation to a particular part of the school of your choice.
E.g. Planting a tree, Sports, Music, Drama, Bursary, Scholarship fund, General donation etc.
WE LEARNT INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT OUR SOLAR SYSTEM WE ENTERED AN ART GALLERY AND EVEN HAD TIME FOR A BOOGIE TO SOME CLASSIC HITS! I LOVE THE WAY THAT ORLEY PUPILS PRESENT WITH SUCH ENTHUSIASM, CONFIDENCE AND ENGAGEMENT – IT MAKES YOU WANT TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL YOURSELF!
headmaster's address
This is always the tough term – we returned to cold short days, where you leave the house in darkness, only to return in the evening to darkness! But you need tough times to find what brings joy! I’m very mindful as I’ve taken in recent news stories from around the world that there is a huge amount of trouble, anxiety, fear and even hatred and we need to bring hope and inspiration to our lives so that we can radiate the same to others!
So, where best to find stories of hope and inspiration, look no further than the Orley community! It’s a genuine privilege to come to work every day, especially when I’m surrounded by radiators of light, warmth and hope! I recently signed over a dozen Headmaster’s Commendations for pupils who had received over 100 House Points – the smiles and sense of pride were pretty special. I publish a weekly reflection that highlights just a handful of stories around a weekly theme – do click here to read about them!
A highlight this term was a new event for parents and staff. Following the success of last year’s OFA parent-staff football tournament, Mr Gupta and Mr Shah suggested a similar netball meeting, and we managed to get everyone out on the courts for a lovely event that brought 6 teams together. For me, the highlight was seeing your children getting involved, cheering from the sidelines but then tearing off to play their own games! Here’s to more joined up events and opportunities to show our children what healthy lives look like!
Now than exams are over, our Yr6 girls were invited to put themselves forward for Junior Head of School. Congratulations to Soha and Safiyah who delivered amazing speeches and in the school ballot, pupils voted them the top 2 candidates!
Finally, I need to update everyone on the House competition – Hastings have certainly enjoyed domination in recent years but we had an incredibly close run competition this year with 0.5 of a point separating the winner...congratulations to Julians (see page 42) who took home the cup this term, what will this mean in summer, we’ll have to wait and see!!!
WHO THOUGHT THAT PLAYING THE DIDGERIDOO COULD BE SO THERAPEUTIC?!? RECEPTION HAD A WONDERFUL VISITOR WHO SHARED THE POWER OF STORYTELLING THROUGH ABORIGINAL MUSIC HOWEVER, FOR THIS TO WORK, WE ALL NEEDED TO LEARN TO PLAY THE DIDGERIDOO, NOT AS EASY AS YOU THINK BUT RECEPTION MASTERED IT I WAS SO IMPRESSED WITH THEIR FOCUS AND LISTENING SKILLS HERE’S TO POPPING DOWN UNDER TO GO WALKABOUT
editor's comment
2025 has started at a pace, the spring term is the shortest but it seems the quantity of activities in the school is comparable to any other term. In keeping with this “Formula Izzy” had an experience of a lifetime especially for any motorsport fans. To have an opportunity to see at first hand how things work at the cutting edge of this sport in terms of technology, the level of detail and how they push the boundaries of the sport.
Our sports teams have been busy as usual with rugby, football and basketball fixtures for the boys and both netball and the new addition of football for the girls.
So much so, even the OFA following their success with the Parent-Staff Football Tournament decided to hold one for Netball.
It’s not just sport but the OFA have set up a sewing club, supporting the school on trips and had a Valentine’s bake sale, and if that wasn’t enough they organised for the Easter Bunny to visit!
Year 5 showcased their acting abilities with the children’s classic, “James & the Giant Peach” and musically there was a lot happening, ending the term with an Easter Service.
We have a few events coming up and the one I’m looking forward to is the 25 year reunion, pupils and parents coming back to Orley, after they first set foot here in 1999! We have our usual recent leavers invited back to reconnect and see how they are settling into their new senior schools.
CHETAN SHAH Editor
“EDUCATING THE MIND WITHOUT EDUCATING THE HEART IS NO EDUCATION
AT ALL”
ARISTOTLE
Our VEX Robotics teams have enjoyed growing success with more and more teams getting involved across more and more year groups. Mr Dholakia hasn’t heard the expression ‘walk before you run’! What started as an event for a few teams turned into a monster with 120 pupils, 24 teams, across 9 schools, 6 adjudicators and 4 VEX officials – a tight schedule of 96 matches, culminating finals matches, against the backdrop of a live feed and hypnotic drum & bass made for a highly compelling day that we aptly named ‘Farmyard Frenzy’!
FORMULA IZZY:
by Isabelle Marsh
Back in May 2024 I applied for a work experience week at Williams F1 Teamand out of 2700 applicants was awarded a place. This insightful week taught me all about the inner workings of the team and further understanding on how the cars work.
We had a tour of the factory covering all aspects including:
- their cars being unloaded from the most recent race, - the kilns where they set the carbon fibre that makes their cars, - their pit stop training machine,
- their two massive wind tunnels used for testing the aerodynamics of the cars developments.
Further into the week we had talks from every department in the company from STRESS engineering to finances and race directors. This allowed me to understand the vital role that everyone plays in this team and that they are truly a family run team.
We took part in engineering, marketing and strategy activities as well as a look inside the future of esports. It was lovely to see other girls there who also shared the same passion as me for engineering and design in sectors of the working world that are still male dominated careers, and to see this team’s efforts to push women in motorsport and engineering as part of the Women in STEM drive. The atmosphere around the team was buzzing the entire time I was there with everyone being welcoming and joyous.
The week opened many doors for me, provided real life work experience and insight on the teams inner workings, is an amazing achievement for my CV - and was a lot of fun!
TALKING OF TAKING YOUR OPPORTUNITIES, ORLEY FARM RAN A TWILIGHT SESSION FOR STAFF THE IDEA WAS FOR US TO GET BACK INTO THE CLASSROOM FOR A LESSON BEFORE CONTINUING OUR LEARNING JOURNEY AROUND THE IMPACT OF AI IT WAS INTERESTING THAT ALL OF US HAD A ‘COMFORT ZONE’ OPTION BUT ALL OF US IDENTIFIED A ‘FEAR ZONE’ OPTION TOO! IT WAS A GREAT WAY TO REMIND OURSELVES OF WHAT PUPILS DO EVERY DAY – PUSH THROUGH!
sports round-up
Boys’ Games - Rugby & Basketball
U13 Rugby Captain: Shai Nasim
U13 Players of the Season: Tanay Beygo (forwards) and Jayden Tull (backs)
U11 Rugby Cup: Adam Durrant
U10 Rugby Cup: Anthony Dabi
U9 Rugby Shield: Kian Malde
U8 Rugby Shield: Kailen Patel
St. Jude Cup (Most Improved Rugby Player): Shayan Aggarwal
Golden Rugby Ball: Ralph Hutchinson (U12 A – 180 points/36 tries)
Basketball Captain: Akshay Nagda
Basketball Player of the Season: Shai Nasim
3 A
sports round-up
It has been an excellent term of rugby at Orley Farm despite some pretty challenging weather at times! As a school, we have played more matches than ever, 76 in total excluding tournament (winning 40 of these so a win percentage of over 50%!), with every boy from Years 3-8 representing the school, and 140 different boys have combined to score a record 649 tries/3245 points we have scored in these matches!
House matches rounded off the term with Julians winning the Senior Competition in Years 7 and 8 and Broadrick winning the Junior Competition in Years 5 and 6. Our basketball team shone again by storming to victory in the annual Orley Farm Basketball Tournament, thus winning the tournament for the fourth year in a row!
Mr Bloom – Head of Physical Education & Boys’ Games
“EDUCATION IS NOT THE
LEARNING
OF
FACTS, BUT THE TRAINING OF THE MIND TO THINK!”
ALBERT EINSTEIN
sports round-up
Girls’ Games - Netball
The Girls’ Games department has had a busy term of netball fixtures with all girls from Years 3 to 6 representing the school. This term we also introduced football into the Girls’ Games lessons for Years 5 and 6 and two teams had their first football fixture against St. Helen’s School and won both games.
In the last two weeks of the term OFS hosted an U9 Netball Tournament with 4 other schools, an U10 Netball Tournament with 7 other schools and an U11 Netball Tournament with 8 other schools and 150 children playing netball on the school astro.
Julians won the House Netball Competiton and Kailah Brown, Sienna Sheth, Ira Pancholi, Kaiya Ragwani, Flora Rakoliya and Siya Patel were all awarded netball prizes.
Ms Godet – Head of Girls’ Games
YR2 STRUCK GOLD AS THE SUN SHONE ON THEIR ‘MEADOW SCHOOL’ MORNING THEY CONTINUED THEIR SOLAR SYSTEM THEME MAKING STARS USING WOOD, NAILS AND YARN THEY ALSO CREATED BIODEGRADABLE ARTWORK DEPICTING THE PLANETS AND CONDUCTED SLIGHTLY EXPLOSIVE SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS USING DYE AND EFFERVESCENT TABLETS!
drama
While Years 6–8 were immersed in rehearsals for the upcoming summer production of Bugsy Malone, Year 5 had their moment to shine. Their Year 5 Showcase Performance of James and the Giant Peach was truly enchanting, as the pupils took the audience along on their adventures both on and inside the giant peach. Each class brought their unique flair to the quirky characters, from the ‘know-it-all’ Grasshopper to the grumpy Earthworm, and the mean old Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker. Every pupil showcased fantastic storytelling and characterisation skills.
Their dedication in Drama lessons this term truly paid off, as we were thoroughly impressed by their growing confidence, humour, and energy on stage. What makes this event even more impressive is that it is the only show in the school year to be led and managed entirely by children, both on and off stage. Backstage, they adeptly handled missing props and even missing pupils, yet the audience remained blissfully unaware - a testament to their professionalism!
For me, the pride was twofold, as I had the privilege of witnessing their progress not only as their Drama Teacher but also as Head of Year. It was incredible to see how far they have come since Year 4!
Mrs Gascoigne - Director of Drama
A wonderful pupil-led assembly asking questions about the power and impact of books in our lives. The theme of this year’s Book Week, ‘You Can’t Live Your Life Without Books!’ , was enthusiastically chosen by our library monitors. They curated a week full of engaging activities, allowing their peers to dive into the world of books and discover the joy and knowledge that reading brings.
Music
Middle School shined this term in their two concerts, which took place in the penultimate week of term. Entitled ‘Lead with love’ , the concerts featured all the junior ensembles in the school (choir, brass, wind, strings and guitars) with all the children in Year 3 and Year 4 singing a host of different songs, from 76 trombones to Climb every mountain. Children were also given a chance to design the front cover of the programme, and three winners were selected for their artwork.
Upper School were busy behind the scenes getting ready for their end-of-year summer concerts. Weekly rehearsals have carried on as usual for the Senior Choir, Concert Band, Senior String Ensemble, the Senior Band, and the Year 5 Choir. The Senior Guitar Ensemble have been on break this term, but they will re-start their rehearsals after the Easter holidays.
All children enjoyed taking part in Easter services at the end of term. Middle and Upper School sang a setting of the Lord’s Prayer, and old favourites Great is Thy faithfulness and All heaven declares. The children in Pre Prep sang a Johnny Cash classic, He turned the water into wine, at their service, and the African-American spiritual, The angel rolled the stone away.
Mr Ford - Director of Music
YEAR 6 DIVED INTO THE THEORY BEHIND ELEMENTS AND COMPOUNDS AND THIS WEEK THEY PUT THEIR KNOWLEDGE TO THE TEST, BY CREATING A CHEMICAL COMPOUND IN A CHEMICAL REACTION THE RED GLOW AND SMELL WERE STRONG CLUES WHILE THE CLASS WAS LOOKING FOR EVIDENCE OF A CHEMICAL REACTION HOWEVER, PROOF CAME AS THEY CHECKED TO SEE WHETHER THE NEW COMPOUND (IRON(II) SULFIDE) HAD RETAINED THE PROPERTIES OF THE INDIVIDUAL ELEMENTS THAT MAKE IT UP, AND IN PARTICULAR IRON TO THEIR SURPRISE, WHILE IRON IS A MAGNETIC MATERIAL, IRON(II) SULFIDE IS NOT, EVIDENCE THAT IN A CHEMICAL REACTION, THE PRODUCTS ARE COMPLETELY NEW SUBSTANCES WITH THEIR OWN UNIQUE PROPERTIES - GREAT DETECTIVE WORK!
Spring Term 2025
Traditionally, the Spring Term has been a quieter period for the OFA – a time to catch our breath after a jam-packed Autumn and prepare for a busy Summer ahead. But this year, we kept the momentum going by introducing a number of new initiatives and events, all driven by our ever-supportive community.
Supporting School Trips
Thanks to the help of our incredible network of Class Reps, we were able to support the school in maintaining their staff-to-pupil ratios for several exciting trips. In line with Orley’s Year of Giving, parents joined pupils and teachers on visits to the RAF Museum, Windsor Castle, Odds Farm, and the Lookout Discovery Centre with Pre-Prep and Year 3.
The children were a delight: enthusiastic, curious, and so well-behaved – and the staff had clearly put great thought into preparing these enriching experiences. For any parents considering lending a hand on a future school trip, I wholeheartedly recommend it. It’s a wonderful way to connect with both pupils and staff while getting a glimpse into the day-to-day magic of learning beyond the classroom.
Valentine’s Bake Sale (14th February)
This year, we moved the Bake Sale from October to Valentine’s Day – and what a sweet success it was! Our amazing community whipped up an abundance of delicious homemade treats, with very few store-bought goodies in sight.
We were lucky with the weather and managed to run two sessions, selling out completely by the end of the school day. A massive thank you to all the children and parents who helped bake, set up, and serve – your time and effort made this event extra special (and extra tasty!).
Quiz Night (14th
March)
Our ever-popular Quiz Night sold out within the first hour – 21 tables snapped up, leaving over 60 hopeful quizzers on the waiting list!
A huge thank you to Mr. Bloom for crafting a brilliantly challenging set of 110 questions. The competition was fierce, coming down to a dramatic tiebreaker between the top two teams.
While one team walked away with bragging rights, the true winner was our community, with an incredible £5,566 raised through the evening’s auction.
Sewing Bee (14th & 21st March)
A group of wonderfully creative and industrious parents came together to upcycle old school uniform into something truly special. With summer on the horizon and Orley’s 175th anniversary celebrations on the way, this talented team has been busy crafting exclusive, handcrafted bunting – beautiful decorations that carry both charm and meaning.
Netball Tournament (21st March)
After the success of last year’s OFA Parent-Staff Football Tournament, we introduced a Netball Tournament – originally scheduled for the Autumn but postponed due to weather. Thankfully, the Spring sunshine held, and we were able to get everyone out on the courts for a fantastic, energetic event.
It quickly became a full-community affair, with children cheering from the sidelines (and then racing off to start games of their own). Events like this showcase not just teamwork and fun, but also what healthy, active lifestyles can look like for our children.
Easter Egg Hunt (28th March)
To wrap up the term, we held an Easter Egg Hunt in the school meadows and what a joyful end it was!
The meadows were buzzing with excitement as children searched for bunnies and cardboard eggs, several marked with letters that formed an Easter-themed word.
And yes, we had our very own Easter Bunny handing out treats. We can confirm it was a member of staff, but not from the Senior Leadership Team –so the mystery remains!
Closing
As we look ahead to the Summer Term, plans are already in full swing for more brilliant events – and yes, we still have a few surprises in store! More importantly, we remain committed to nurturing and celebrating the incredible spirit of our community. Thank you for your ongoing support and enthusiasm – you make everything we do possible.
Warm regards, Chirag
OFA Chair & the OFA Team (2024-2026)
J U L I A N SH O U S E W I N N E R S
Dates for the diary
ORLUMN I LEAVERS 2022 & 2024
Friday 6th June 2025
6pm-8pm
This is only for those in current years 7&9 (so those who may have left OFS in 2022 & 2024) and their parents: Entrance via Kitchen Drive RSVP: orlumni@orleyfarm harrow sch uk
AFTERNOON TEA: 25 YEAR REUN I ON
Sunday 1st June 2025
2pm-5pm
This is for those students who joined Orley farm reception in 1999 & their parents:
Entrance via Kitchen Drive RSVP: orlumni@orleyfarm.harrow.sch.uk
RECONNECT I ON FOR STUDENTS BORN 2006/07 ACADEM I C YEAR
Tuesday 19th August 2025
6pm-8pm
This is for those students who left Orley Farm and are now continuing their journey.
Entrance via Kitchen Drive RSVP: orlumni@orleyfarm.harrow.sch.uk
OTHER EVENTS
ORLEY FARM SCHOOL FA I R
Saturday 13th September 2025
Timings TBC
@ORLEYFARMSCHOOL
