Orlumni Magazine Spring 2022

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WELCOME

I’d like to welcome you all to this the first issue of Orley Farm School's alumni newsletter. This publication will serve the alumni and hopefully keep them abreast of the goings-on at Orley Farm as well as news, stories and updates from alumni members.

Orley Farm was established over 170 years ago and has a long and deep history. What we want to achieve is to reconnect those former students and form a relationship with the current cohort, the school and its extended community and allow them to be part of what they once were.

Please free to email us with your stories and updates and we would love to include them in future issues.

CHETAN SHAH Editor

SARA PADALINO

assistant

TIM CALVEY

KING social media

JAS BIRDI communications

CONTRIBUTORS

Tim Calvey, Stephen Bloom, catherine godet, Rebecca Gascoigne, keith ford, monika patel

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

"SCHOOL IS A BUILDING WHICH HAS FOUR WALLS WITH TOMORROW INSIDE."

headmaster's address

Welcome to a brand new enterprise and opportunity for Orley Farm – a network that will connect all manner of possibilities. An alumni is not a new thing, but the Orlumni will be unique as I am sure that the seeds being planted through this publication have the potential to grow into connections that we don’t even know exist in the here and now! The unique part comes from being wholly owned by current and former pupils and parents and whilst there is a starting point, none of us have even begun to plot the end so let’s enjoy and imagine so that the generations that follow continue to tend to and water this new shoot. As we all reflect on the past two years, the greatest challenge has been in connecting people, or certainly generating and maintaining real and meaningful connections.

Technology has certainly aided this but I suspect that it has also hindered in equal measure. I have seen children and adults retreating into a very controlled space in which we decide how and when we connect camera on or off, microphone on or off and chats that contain emojis. The return to ‘in person’ contact, that we think we’ve craved, suddenly doesn’t have those some options nor the control that we’re used to.

As Spring heralds new growth, this publication is the early germination of a whole new species that could grow into whatever we can collectively imagine the possibilities are endless. However, they will all revolve around connections, real not virtual!

It’s surprising that it’s taken a pandemic to launch this but perhaps that describes the best parts of Orley; we’re not prepared to waste learning opportunities and we thrive in adversity! A huge thank you to Chetan for getting this off the ground, and for truly living the Orley Dream! Enjoy reading and imagine the possibilities of a flourishing Orlumni!

TIM CALVEY Headmaster

editor's comment

We can’t quite believe it, but here is the first issue of Orlumni! In this issue we hope to highlight the life at Orley in the past term plus with some added extras. We want to be able to show you how the school has progressed since you left and how we hope the essence remains the same.

There have been conversations about revising the Orley Farm alumni association over the past few years but as you can imagine with a number of other priorities for the school, it took a back seat. As a former parent I had a vested interest in getting this up and running so I offered to help and have an active alumni once again.

Recently listening to “Golden Years” by the late David Bowie, it reminded me of how important those formative years of schooling are and the way

those years have shaped both my children. It has given them a strong foundation and allowed them both to enter their respective senior schools with confidence. They look back at their time at Orley with fond memories and have formed life long friendships. Which is why I don't want them to forget where it all started and if they are able to, then to give something back.

We will also aim to put on events to allow the alumni to reconnect and opportunities to be involved in the progression of the school.

Alumni reborn

Orley Farm has had an Alumni Association for a while but we felt that it needed a revival and brought up to date and become more pro active.

These are the revised aims of the Alumni:

To create a platform for former students to be able to reunite and connect organise events

To create opportunities where they can be part of the progression of the school and it’S students

To be involved with events taking place in the school community

sports round-up

Boys’ Games - U13 Basketball

OFS Basketball Captain 2021 22: Aaryan Patel

OFS Basketball Player of the Season 2021 22: Kumayl Nomoni

Our senior basketball team had a memorable day in January as they won the annual Orley Farm Basketball Tournament, the first time since the Class of 2017 with the likes of Alex Gabbitas, Zainali Jamal and Arav Patel!

After winning all four of our group matches, we faced Durston House in the final and won 4-3 in an absolute thriller!

Not only did the boys win this tournament, but they also had a 100% record for the entire season, winning all nine of their matches with an aggregate score of 170-50!

The strong Orley Farm basketball tradition is as strong as ever and, with several boys in the squad only in Year 7, 2023 promises to be another exciting year…

sports round-up

U11 Rugby

OFS U11 Rugby Captain: Daniel Markham Lee

OFS U11 Rugby Player of the Season: Daniel Markham Lee

On the back of a great season on the regular circuit, our U11 A rugby team competed in the annual Durston House U11 Tournament. As well as the hosts themselves and our boys, teams from The Hall, Arnold House and Hill House also took part.

In short, our boys were absolutely sensational. They stormed to victory in all four of their matches, scoring 16 tries and conceding only one throughout the morning to bring the shield and winners’ medals back to South Hill Avenue!

Mr Bloom Head of Boys’ Games

sports round-up

OFS

OFS

OFS

sports round-up

The finale of the Netball season was the Tournament & Festival hosted here at Orley Farm School with 9 schools and 320 girls participating in competitive and fun matches on Wednesday 16th March, quite possibly the wettest day in March! At the end of the afternoon the OFS U11 A team were the runners up on the U11 Tournament, losing to NHES in the final. The U10 A team won their tournament after winning all their matches in a round robin tournament.

Miss Godet – Head of Girls’ Games

GB FENCING SUCCESS

by Chetan Shah

Finn Keen picked up his first fencing foil at an after school club run by Mr Bell in St George’s Hall and who knew 6 years later, he would be selected to represent Great Britain in the U17 Cadet squad.

He has been fencing since he was 8 years old and has continued to demonstrate a huge commitment to his training and his club, Fencers Club London, under the excellent leadership of coach Pawel Osmanski. He’s worked really hard these past 6 years attending training 5 days a week, Strength & Conditioning sessions, national and international competitions and training camps. This has led to him refining his techniques and maturing in his outlook.

Finn’s mother says, “Pawel is always honest with Finn and they have a trust, a bond that has helped Finn to become very focussed, and to keep that focus under pressure.”

His first competition representing GB was at the European Fencing Confederation Cadet Competition, December 2021 in Cabries, France. This was an U17 competition and he was the youngest fencer having made the selection aged 13. He is currently ranked 18th in Great Britain Men’s Foil U17’s and 3rd in England U14’s.

This is a fantastic achievement in trying conditions, and demonstrates Finn’s ability to keep calm, focussed and maintain his energy levels.

Based on his recent wins, he made the selection to compete in Bratislava and Rome in January, however due to Covid restrictions, both these competitions were cancelled. He has recently returned from CEP Marathon Fleuret in Paris where unfortunately he had to withdraw from the competition due to a torn hamstring.

The next few months are busy with the British Youth Championships and Challenge Wratislavia in Poland.

Finn represented his current school, John Lyon at the Public Schools Fencing Championships in March and took Gold in the Mount Haes Foil event.

The Cadet season will commence in earnest in September and as part of development, Finn attends some high calibre international training camps each year and will spend most of his summer in Italy and Poland.

Later this year he will be invited to be part of the British Fencing Athlete Development Programme that exists to support athletes in achieving Olympic success and inspiring others. It covers athletes from age 15 to 35 (and beyond for those performing at Olympic level) who are moving through a defined development pathway to success at the highest level of fencing.

We wish Finn all the success for the future.

drama

Year 5 Showcase The BFG!

On Thursday 23rd March, Year 5 gave us a ‘golden fizwizzer’ of a showcase! transforming us to the magical dream world of Roald Dahl’s The BFG! Parents were thrilled to be invited into school to see the first live showcase in two years! It was wonderful to see how each class portrayed the different roles with enthusiasm and commitment, from the scary mask clad childreneating giants to the wonderfully endearing BFG and Sophie (and many more in between). Year 5 impressively ran the show all by themselves from backstage, finding ways to improvise around missing props and broken suitcases. It really showed how far they have come on their journey to independence in Upper School.

This cross-curricular performance saw the Year 5 choir give us a beautiful musical interlude with a mystical song, written by Mr Ford and inspired by the BFG’s ‘dream country’. The pupils all wore their own fantastically gory ‘Giant’ masks which they had created in their art lessons with Mrs Walsh. Thank you to both the music and Art Departments for getting on board to help create this immersive experience for Year 5. They showed us so many magical sequences: dream catching, the human-eating giants hunting for their prey and even the Queen of England but a highlight for the audience, young and old, was definitely the hilarious ‘whizzpopping!’

Well done Year 5!

drama production robin and the sherwood hoodies

Music

Pre Prep

The Year 1 children are looking forward to trying out all the orchestral instruments of Orley Farm this coming June. They will then get to decide which instrument they would like to start learning when they begin Year 2. Last year, we had over 36 children in Year 2 start an instrument at Orley Farm. These children later go on to join junior ensembles in the Middle School.

The Middle School Spring Concert

In March, the Year 3 and Year 4 children had their first concert in three years. Both of these concerts, a matinee and an evening performance, took place in Saint George’s Hall, and most exciting of all we had a live audience! All 120+ children learned new songs: Do, Re, Mi and My Favourite Things, When I grow up (from the musical, Matilda), A million lights (by Michael W. Smith), and we finished with a rousing rendition of Lovely Day by Bill Withers.The junior ensembles (guitars, brass, wind, choir and strings) also played pieces as well, and we enjoyed hearing solos from 4 soloists.

Upper School

Selected young musicians in Years 6 to 8 enjoyed a trip out to Merchant Taylors in March to play in a massive orchestra with other prep schools in northwest London. The children were challenged to sight read music and prepare in only two rehearsals in one afternoon. Parents were invited to hear the fruits of their children’s labour at a concert that same evening. Next term we are preparing our Summer Concert, and we will sing music by Jess Glynn (Rather be), Allen Toussaint (Yes we can can) and Pharell Williams

Logo creation

The Name: Combination of Orley & Alumni as suggested by a former student

Pronounced: "Or lum ni"

Clean, neat & modern

Gives the Alumni it’s own identity

The Crest

Connection with the school retained

Partially transparent, as the school is part of former students earlier life

The Circle

The Journey

Former students coming back

Giving back

Togetherness

Connected

A unique group of people It’s not closed, as new members will join every year

ofa

A heartfelt hello from the OFA. My name is Monika Patel and I have two children currently at Orley Farm. I have been part of the current committee for over three years, and I’ve seen the changes of the OFA’s approach pre, during and post Covid. It has given me immense pleasure to have been able to organise events and bring the Orley Farm past, present and future communities together.

Fireworks Night

Our Fireworks night luckily this was able to go ahead considering a lot of the surrounding boroughs had cancelled. The evening involved a lot of food and drink and ending with our annual spectacular fireworks display, which 6 years on still doesn’t fail to amaze me. We raised an amazing £2869.50.

Christmas Fair

Then 3 weeks later we held our Christmas Fair. This event always brings joy and happiness. The School and OFA have a common interest of utilising our own children’s talent – the children were given the opportunity to have their own stall to raise money for their chosen charities. We had 43 stalls and they displayed impressive business skills. Our fair raised a further £3836.59.

Since the start of the school year we have hosted a number of OFA events:

Cheese and Wine evening the only way I can summarise the event was, we ran out of wine! A great way for new parents to meet and to socialise with existing OFS parents. Our Annual Macmillan Coffee mornings are always a huge success. This year we raised £1861.13.

events for this year

With the school, working together we assembled hampers for our local My Yard project. As a community we were able to provide basics as well as festive treats to our local families who hugely appreciated our efforts.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the beginning of a new era with Orley Farm School -

This will be an excellent way to stay in touch and see the success of our past students. Obviously truly honoured to be the Chair of the OFA at these exciting times.

My team are my pillar of strength and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the School, my OFA committee, the class reps, parents and most Monika OFA Chair

"COMMUNITY IS MUCH MORE THAN BELONGING TO SOMETHING; IT'S ABOUT DOING SOMETHING TOGETHER THAT MAKES BELONGING MATTER."

BRIAN SOLIS

Leavers Destinations

Aldenham

Berkhamsted

Eton

haberdashers'

haileybury

harrow

john lyon

Marlborough

merchant Taylors

mill hill

alban's

pauls

Leavers Destinations

Destination school

Bushy MEads School

haberdashers'

hill

Godolphin & Laytmer

North London Collegiate

Notting Hill & Ealing

Northwood College

Rickmansworth school

royal masonic

Moving abroad

South hampstead High

Dragon School

Helen's

Margaret's

HOUSE WINNERS HASTINGS

Dates for the diary

ALUMNI EVENTS

OUTDOOR SPACE - OPENING

Friday 27th May 2022 6pm-8pm

This is only for those who left OFS in 2021 (Years 7&9) and their parents: Entrance via Kitchen Drive

RSVP: orlumni@orleyfarm.harrow.sch.uk

ALUMNI INTER-HOUSE SOFTBALL MATCH & PICNIC

Saturday 2nd July 2022 1pm-4pm

This is for all alumni: Meet at the Pavilion Bring your own picnic

RSVP: orlumni@orleyfarm.harrow.sch.uk

FOLLOW US

@ORLEYFARMSCHOOL

@ORLEYFARMSCHOOL

ORLEY FARM SCHOOL

OTHER EVENTS

OFA SUMMER FAIR

Saturday 18th June 2022 11am-2:30pm