Forthcoming events:

Sunday January 4th: Boarders return by 9pm Please ensure that you forward any travel requirements to Mr Betterton (pbetterton@bromsgrove-school.co.uk) as soon as possible. The School closes on 19th December.

Saturday January 24th: Breakfast Club, 8.30am

Sunday February 8th: Oakley House Formal Dinner hosted by the Parents’ Association. All parents and pupils welcome. Details from the Chairman of the PA will follow.

Saturday March 14th: Breakfast Club, 8.30am

If you would like more information regarding any House events, please let Miss Cringle know (tcringle@bromsgrove-school.co.uk).

End of Michaelmas Term

We have reached the end of what has been a long and, at times, crazy term and I know that the girls are all looking forward to enjoying a well earned rest! The Oakley girls are a fantastic group, who have been a pleasure to work with this term. I have received many positive and complimentary comments about the House and that is down to them.

Academically, the girls have been great! There have been an outstanding number of Academic Commendations for subject work:
3rd                    Pippa Brock with 10
Joint 2nd         Katherine Keates, Sarah Westlake, Wendy Wang with 11
1st                    Nicole Sun with 13
The number of effort grade commendations has also been phenomenal. There were 25 after First Grades for averages of less than 2.0 and, as if that were not enough, there were 49 after Second Grades – that means that over half the girls in the house were commended. Headmaster’s Commendations were awarded to Sarah Chadwick, Kirsten Handley, Star Zhou and Betty Guan for having the best grades in the House.

There have been a huge number of achievements this term. I congratulate the girls for all they have done and I apologise if I forget any now. As always, they have shown great team spirit in inter-house competitions. Hockey was a fiercely fought competition for both Juniors and Seniors and those that took part did themselves and the House proud. Well done to the Seniors for winning the plate competition and to the Juniors who came second in Hockey and Swimming and who won the House Basketball competition. Congratulations to Lizzie Leather and Sarah Westlake who won one of the hardest inter-house competitions – Junior Debating. Becca Cottrell led the House in a very fine performance of Mamma Mia in the Unison Song competition – third place was very creditable. Music this term culminated with a fantastic Christmas Concert in which Hannah Rowsell (in a flute solo), Ellie Harding, Fran Boffey and Sarah Westlake performed superbly. Well done to Becca Cottrell, Veronika Kubisova, Monty Bent, Sarah Westlake, Gabrielle Rose and Lizzie Leather who give up so much time to Chapel Choir performances and rehearsals. Monty Bent and Becca Cottrell read lessons superbly well in the end of term Carol Services. Sarah Westlake read in the Advent Carol Service. Well done to Sophie DaSilva for her part in the House drama competition and to Becca Cottrell for completing a mammoth two day march with the CCF last weekend from Bromsgrove to the National Arboretum raising money for Help For Heroes. Veronika Mikhel was Best Senior Cadet at the recruits’ Passing Out Parade. Rachel Johnston and her team are the first holders of the Oakley House Challenge Stick after winning the PA Quiz. We look forward to re-awarding the Challenge Stick at our next house event. Congratulations to Katy Blunt and Fran Boffey for their achievements with the Debating Team. Well done also to all the girls who have represented the school this term in sports teams. Faye Al-Nakeeb captained the U15a Hockey team and reported on their season in the Fourth Form Assembly. Faye also played for the 1st XI this term. We congratulate Polly Fletcher for her netball achievements this term and also Rachel Clare for her successful Hockey season.

House Colours are awarded to those who have shown a significant contribution in at least 3 areas – they are not a right and must be earned.
This term, Junior House Colours were awarded to Sarah Westlake, who enthusiastically got involved in a huge variety of different activities. She epitomises House Spirit - congratulations! Fran Boffey is Highly Commended at Senior level.
Many girls, both Juniors and Seniors, are well on their way and I look forward to awarding more Colours at the end of the Lent Term.

The Annual House Christmas Party marked the start of the last week of term and we were very pleased to welcome so many of our Day girls to join our Boarding pupils. With a Christmas Hat competition, followed by dinner and Mamma Mia on DVD, the girls enjoyed themselves immensely.

Rachel Johnston has led a great monitor team this term. The Michaelmas term is always a baptism of fire, but they have worked very hard to ensure that the House ran smoothly and that the girls were well-behaved and well entertained. They have been a huge support to me.  I am grateful to Miss Knight and Mrs Clee for their support, Mrs Smith for the huge amount she does for all the girls and the whole of the tutor team and our also cleaners Maureen, Julie and Helen.

And finally…I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous 2009. Enjoy the break!

15th November

We have had another hectic week!

All girls attended the moving Remembrance Sunday Chapel Services on Sunday 9th November and on Tuesday 11th November a two minute silence was observed in the House and across School.

We are very proud of Polly Fletcher who has been selected for the West Midlands U17 Netball Academy and also Faye Al-Nakeeb who has been selected for Worcestershire U16 County Hockey. Faye also represented the school in the U18 County Tournament on Monday 10th November playing for the 1st XI. A really excellent achievement considering she is only 14! They won the competition and are now through to the next round!
A number of our boarders enjoyed a trip to see Edward Scissorhands in Birmingham on Thursday evening. They enjoyed it enormously.

Elizabeth Leather and Sarah Westlake did extremely well in the preliminary rounds of the Junior House Debating contest. We are pleased to say that they got through to the finals which will take place on Wednesday 3rd December. We wish them luck in their preparations!

On Friday 14th November, Lauren Kim and Mrs Boonnak represented the house in Bromsgrove’s Got Talent which was in organised by the Reverend Hedworth and the Charities Committee! Both were very entertaining! We are very proud of Lauren Kim who won the contest!

Friday was also ‘Own Clothes Day’ and Oakley raised nearly £100 for the Children in Need Appeal.

In Swimming, Lorianna Bland swam for the U14s in the 1st Round of the National Championships and Pippa Brock and Lori Bland, swam for the U16 squad against Cheltenham College.

The following girls represented the school in Hockey against Marlborough College:
2nd XI: Laura Cottrell
3rd XI: Fran Boffey
U15A:  Ellie Harding, Faye Al-Nakeeb, Annabel Cox, Polly Fletcher, Katie Thompson
U15B:  Maddie Smith
U14A: Rachel Clare, Katherine Keates, Pippa Brock
U14B: Gabrielle Rose, Roji Gurung, Montana Bent, Lauren Kim, Natasha Evans

8th November

The house has been extremely busy since the last update.

Saturday 11th October saw the first Oakley Breakfast Club of the academic year, with lots of girls enjoying breakfast in the House. We are looking forward to the next one on Saturday 15th November.

Later in the day, we celebrated an early Halloween with our Scary Movie Sleepover. It was great to welcome so many Day pupils to a night in the Boarding House and the Monitors had great fun decorating the House and setting up games; it was much appreciated by the girls.

On Friday 10th October, our seniors beat off strong competition from Mary Windsor and Housman Hall to win the Inter-House Hockey Plate competition. We are very proud of the following girls:

On Monday 13th October, the Juniors battled hard against Thomas Cookes, Hazeldene and Mary Windsor in their Inter-House Hockey Cup and Plate competitions. We were disappointed to lose our title, but pleased with our performance and 2nd place in the Cup competition. The House Teams consisted of:

The girls performed ‘Mamma Mia’ fantastically well under the confident conducting of Becca Cottrell in the Unison House Song competition on Wednesday 15th October. We were unable to retain our title, but came a close third and were highly commended by the judge.

It was nice to see so many parents at Parents’ Evening this week – well done to the Upper Sixth and Upper Fourth who had good reports from their teachers! There is another Parents Evening for the Upper Sixth and Upper Fourth on Wednesday 12th November.

We all felt we deserved our two week half term holiday. However, many of our girls were kept busy with school trips.
Sarah Chadwick, Crystal Chen, Ada Cheng, Becca Cottrell, Emily Douglas-Osborn, Kim Haynes and Caroline Robinson attended a wet and muddy Biology Field Trip in Pembrokeshire.

Charlotte Dixon, Amy Boden, Sofiya Gavrylyuk and Alisa Pokrovskaya enjoyed the Geography Field Trip in North Wales.

Helen Sicong Chen, Lailany Mujue Wang, Heather Xin Ting Wang, Phyllis Cheuk Wing Chau, Yolanda Heng In Leung and Sunny Wu all enjoyed an exhausting visit to Dartmoor for their Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award Practice Expedition.

Ellie Harding, Laura Cottrell, Polly Fletcher, Faye Al-Nakeeb and Katie Thompson went to Germany with the U16 Girls Hockey Squad.

At the end of the half term holiday Hannah Rowsell, Millie Boffey and Lizzie Leather travelled to Yorkshire for the National CCF Orienteering Championships, where they performed well.

Congratulations to those girls who have earned academic commendations this week:
Ga Kei Sin, Star Zhou, Maggie Zheng, Helen Chen, Jenny Li (2), Rachel Clare (3), Julia Dai, Roji Gurung (2), Heidi Kong, Sunny Kim, Ellie Harding, Namrata Pun, Jecy Zhang, Wendy Wang.

In sport, a huge number of Oakley girls continue to represent their School.

In Swimming against Cheltenham College Annabel Cox swam for the U18 Girls Squad. Lorianna Bland, Pippa Brock, and Katherine Whelan represented the U16 Girls.

In Netball, Kim Haynes and Sarah Chadwick played for the 2nd Team against Kings Worcester. Ani Cox, Faye Al-Nakeeb, Polly Fletcher and Katie Thompson played for the U16s in the County Tournament, which Bromsgrove won!

Faye Al-Nakeeb was selected for the 1st XI in the U18 Midlands Zone Tournament. Rachel Clare, Katherine Keates and Natasha Evans played again for the U14s in the County Finals. Other fixtures against Oundle, RGSAO and Uppingham involved:
1st XI: Faye Al-Nakeeb
2nd XI: Laura Cottrell
3rd XI: Fran Boffey
U15A: Ellie Harding, Faye Al-Nakeeb, Annabel Cox, Polly Fletcher, Katie Thompson, Rachel Clare
U15B: Maddie Smith, Rachel Clare
U14A: Rachel Clare, Katherine Keates, Natasha Evans, Pippa Brock
U14B: Gabrielle Rose, Roji Gurung, Montana Bent, Lauren Kim, Lori Bland

October 4th 2008

As part of a Boarders’ trip, several Oakley girls descended on Oxford Street, London, last Sunday for a day of shopping. Despite the crowds, they had a fantastic time and were pleased with the purchases they made! Yet more members of the House did their part for the economy on a Junior Boarders trip to Merry Hill on Friday 3rd!

The School week began with the Harvest Festival Service. Wendy Wang and Crystal Chen organised a superb display of food in Chapel; thank you to everyone for their contributions. It was also Oakley’s ‘Chapel week’. Our congratulations go to Victoria Makova who read in Wednesday’s Chapel Service alongside Mrs Clee, Polly Fletcher and Millie Boffey who read at Holy Communion on Thursday and to Hannah Rowsell who read at Routh Hall Assembly on Friday.

The L4 had a great day out on Wednesday, enjoying the traditional long walk along the Malverns. They impressed staff with their team work and enthusiasm.

The U4 enjoyed a day out of school for their Duke of Edinburgh expeditions and many members of the House took part in the CCF Field Day and overnight exercise at Swynnerton.

Katy Blunt had a busy week. On Saturday she attended a talk held in Routh Hall made by William Hague, and on Monday Morning she was on Five Live’s Victoria Derbyshire Show grilling Shadow Conservative Ministers.

Lizzie Leather impressed on the piano at the Music Scholars’ Recital.

In Sport, swimming was against Cheltenham Ladies College this week and Annabel Cox, Lorianna Bland, Pippa Brock, Katherine Keates and Katherine Whelan were selected to represent the Under 16 Girls Team.

Faye Al-Nakeeb was very excited to have been selected for the 1st XI at the County Tournament at Malvern College. Rachel Clare, Katherine Keates and Natasha Evans played for the U14s at their County Tournament.

Other fixtures against Cheltenham Ladies and Rugby School involved:
2nd XI: Laura Cottrell
4th XI: Fran Boffey, Kateryna Voytenko
U15A: Ellie Harding, Faye Al-Nakeeb, Annabel Cox, Polly Fletcher, Katie Thompson
U15B: Maddie Smith
U14A: Rachel Clare, Katherine Keates, Natasha Evans
U14B: Gabrielle Rose, Katherine Whelan, Montana Bent

The first set of academic effort grades were published this week and the House have done well and proved that they are working well. Twenty-five girls were commended for a grades average of less than 2.0. Well done to: Pippa Brock, Natasha Evans, Katherine Keates, Sarah Westlake, Katherine Whelan, Faye Al-Nakeeb, Hannah Attley, Annabel Cox, Polly Fletcher, Ellie Harding, Lizzie Leather, Katie Thompson, Laura Cottrell, Juliane Rein, Hannah Rowsell, Nicole Sun, Kateryna Voytenko, Star Zhou, Katy Blunt, Emily Douglas-Osborn, Rachel Johnston, Sunny Kim and Wendy Wang. Sarah Chadwick and Kirsten Handley received Headmaster’s Commendation for the best grades in the House. Congratulations to them all!
Cornelia Glaser, Sophie DaSilva,  Ada Cheng, Laura Cottrell, Hannah Rowsell, Ellie Harding, Polly Fletcher, Maddie Smith and Millie Boffey were superb ambassadors for the House and the School this week when they acted as guides to parents and prospective pupils visiting the Senior School.

Congratulations to those girls who have earned academic commendations so far this term:
Annabel Cox (3), Ga Kei Sin (2), Heather Wang, Lauren Kim (2), Sophie Lancucki, Star Zhou (3), Polly Fletcher (2), Millie Boffey (3), Victoria Makova, Sunny Wu, Kirsten Handley (2), Rachel Clare (3), Laura Cottrell, Kateryna Voytenko, Pippa Brock (4), Hannah Attley (3), Eve Potchapornkul (2), Natasha Evans (2), Roji Gurung, Amy Boden, Poppy Venables, Juliane Rein, Sunny Kim, Ellie Harding (2), Emily Douglas Osborn, Lucie Haynes, Joyce Zhou (2), Namrata Pun (2), Maddie Smith, Rachel Johnston, Jerry-Dee Shields, Lori Bland, Crystal Chen, Faye Al-Nakeeb, Lizzie Leather (4), Katherine Keates (4), Sarah Westlake (3), Sarah Chadwick, Maria Stepanova, Katie Thompson (2), Hannah Rowsell (3) and special congratulations to Nicole Sun and Wendy Wang who have earned six commendations each!

Week ending 21st September
Term is now well underway and we are gradually settling into new timetables and routines.  A number of girls and staff have been struck down by the Week 3 Cold! If your daughter is unwell and unable to come to school, please let the house know by telephone or email before 8.20am. Our House Photo has now been taken and you will be able to see the proofs shortly. Preparations for the LIV Malvern Field Day are progressing well and all consent forms should now be in.

Sports Fixtures
This term’s sporting fixtures continue to keep our girls busy at the weekends. Hockey fixtures have taken place against Trent College and Cheltenham Ladies College and netball against Worcester Sixth Form. The U16 Hockey Team played in a mid-week County Tournament:
2nd:      Laura Cottrell
3rd:       Becky Storey, Alisa Pokrovskaya
U15A: Ellie Harding, Faye Al-Nakeeb, Annabel Cox, Polly Fletcher, Katie Thompson
U15B: Maddie Smith, Lucie Haynes
U14A: Rachel Clare, Katherine Keates, Natasha Evans
U14B: Montana Bent, Gabrielle Rose, Natasha Evans, Katherine Whelan, Pippa Brock, Lori Bland
2nd: Kim Haynes, Sarah Chadwick
U16: Laura Cottrell, Faye Al-Nakeeb, Annabel Cox, Polly Fletcher

House Events
On Friday 12th September, 26 members of the Fourth Form visited Hollywood Bowl at Rubery Great Park, where they enjoyed an evening of bowling. However, progress was slow on some lanes, due to an extraordinary number of visits to the café! We returned to Oakley for pizza, drinks and lots of shrieking! Our commiserations to Millie Boffey who slipped in a puddle on her way home and has been on crutches ever since!

On Friday 19th September, the House Monitors hosted a L6 Integration Evening in Routh Hall followed by hot dogs in Oakley. It was great to see all the girls getting to know each other a bit better and the outcome – an artistic Oakley banner – will hang in the House.

There were two Boarders’ trips on the weekend of 13th/14th September. Five girls enjoyed a visit to Rubery Cinema on Saturday night and on the following day ten Oakley girls descended on Alton Towers for a day of thrills!

Katy Blunt travelled to Durham with the Debating Team to represent the school at the European Youth Parliament.

On Thursday September 11th, Rachel Johnston attended a School Monitor training evening with Mr Bowen and Mrs Maund and our excellent team of House Monitors attended a similar session on Thursday September 18th. We look forward to seeing them put their newly acquired skills into practice around the House.

Maddie Smith, Polly Fletcher, Ellie Harding and Hannah Rowsell set the standard for this year’s guides, when they proved themselves to be superb ambassadors for the House and School as they showed prospective parents around the campus at the Year 7 and 8 Parents’ Open Morning. Becca Cottrell and Emily Douglas-Osborn have also impressed showing prospective parents around.

Awards and Commendations
We were very proud of Ellie Harding and Hannah Rowsell, who were awarded their Grade 4 Saxophone and Grade 5 Music Theory respectively.

Parents Association
It was great to see both old and new members of the PA at the Open Meeting on Friday September 12th. Please keep an eye open for upcoming events.

8th September

We were delighted to welcome so many new faces to the House last weekend and the vast majority are already settled in extremely well. This year we have a total of forty-two day girls, which has doubled our day-girl numbers, and fifty-two boarders in Oakley House.

New Staff
As you will know, Mrs Ascough begins her maternity leave this term, so we welcome Miss Cringle as acting Housemistress, along with her fiancé Mr Helmore and wish them much happiness in their time in Oakley.
Miss Knight has become the Assistant Housemistress (Boarding), whilst Miss Ellis-Owen takes up a new position as Assistant Housemistress (Day) to take special responsibility for ensuring the many day girls in the House settle in well.
New tutors in the house this year are: Mr McClure who is Head of Classics and Latin, Miss Sutters who teachers English, Miss Zafar who teaches History and Politics.  In addition, Mrs Boonnak joins us from School house this year too.  We welcome all of them and are sure they will soon feel at home in Oakley.

House Holiday news
The only major change in the house’s physical appearance since last term, is that we have converted one of the boarding studies into a further day study, to accommodate our larger number of day girls.

Sports Fixtures
This term’s sporting fixtures are now underway, although some matches succumbed to the torrential rain, and already a number of our girls are making their mark in the first Hockey fixtures of the season:

2nd:      Laura Cottrell
3rd:       Becky Storey, Gina Lees
U15A:  Polly Fletcher, Faye Al-Nakeeb, Katie Thompson, Ellie Harding
U15B:   Maddie Smith  
U14A:   Rachel Clare, Katherine Keates, Pippa Brock
U14B:   Montana Bent, Gabrielle Rose, Natasha Evans

Exam Results
The A2 results that last year's Upper Sixth achieved were excellent. Five girls achieved straight A grades, with a few gaining four or five. Nearly all of the girls got into their first choice university and we wish them well as they begin their university careers over the next couple of weeks. GCSE and AS results were also very pleasing. Yolanda Leung and Ucy Yu Xi Zhang were both amongst the top ten students in the country for AS Textiles. This is a tremendous achievement and testament to their hard work.

Summer Term 2008 News

Lent Tern 2008 News

Michaelmas Term 2007 News