Cheery spirit and excitement has filled OHS this week – whether it’s enthusiasm for a good lie-in during the holidays or for everything that comes with the festivities. Here’s what we got up to during the last week of term…
Christmas Movie Night
Written by Flo H, Year 9
Year 9 were treated to a festive movie night, celebrating the beginning of the festive season at OHS. But, of course, the evening simply could not have been complete without pizza. The movie night was a great opportunity to relax and chat with friends – whilst also enjoying a Christmassy film to get us into the festive spirit!
It was nice to have a chance to socialise with people from other forms, outside of the normal school timetable. About three-quarters of the year came along, making it a nice number for the event, with plenty of people to chat and talk to. The movie evening started straight after school at four and lasted until seven, punctuated by the extremely welcomed pizza delivery halfway through. A multitude of blankets, pillows and fluffy socks was smuggled into the hall, ready for the film to start. Home Alone was the film of choice, and, in my opinion, was the perfect movie option for the event… Everyone enjoyed the film, but I was surprised at how many people hadn’t seen it before! But, the mixture of pizza and a classic Christmas film did, as expected, go down a treat.
Once the highly anticipated pizza had arrived, squash and cookies were brought out too, and then it was time to eat! Half an hour later, everyone full of pizza, we went back again into the hall, ready for the final part of the movie. We finished the film a bit earlier than 7pm, so what else could we do, but Christmas karaoke? All in all, it was a fun, sociable event, which everyone enjoyed immensely. Nobody could argue with pizza, a Christmas film and a surprise festive singalong on a Friday night. Now everyone is excited for the next round of festive fun!
Chemis-Tree
Year 13 A Level Chemistry students got into the Christmas spirit early – they created their infamous ‘Chemis-tree’ by utilising the ever-so-colourful properties of transition metal compounds!
Christmas Carol Service
On the evening of Wednesday 13th December 2023, our school community gathered in St Andrew’s Church for an evening of festive music. As with every Music Department event, there were beautiful performances from our school choirs, soloists and staff.
Form Decorating Competition
Everyone’s favourite school tradition, the Form Decorating Competition, kicked off on Thursday morning. Each form room was decked out to fit their year group theme, we saw everything from Hollywood runways to elf production lines. Their decorations and performances needed to be sustainable, leading 11G’s Met Gala to be awarded with the Most Sustainable award. The award for ‘Best Creative use of Technology’ is given to 8G – ‘The Winter Express’ transported us through snowy scenery using a projector as the front of the train.
As the performances were of such high caliber, the judges decided to introduce two separate categories of singing and acting. The Best Singing Performance went to 10G’s moving rendition of Les Miserables. The award for Best Acting Performance went to 9H for their lively Strictly Come Dancing act.
This year, we have introduced a Highly Commended Award for a class in each year group:
- Year 7 – 7H’s Elf
- Year 8 – 8S’s Lapland Wonderland
- Year 9 – 9D’s Scooby Doo
- Year 10 – 10O’s Nativity
- Year 11 – 11H’s Narnia
Our Runner-Up paid attention to detail and involved the judges in their dances, 10G’s ‘Mamma Mia!’ stunned our judges.
And finally, what everyone has been waiting for, the winners of Form Decorating 2023 are… 9S with their rendition of ‘Barbie’!
From all of us at OHS, we wish every one of you a very joyful festive period and a Happy New Year. We hope you all have a wondrous break and look forward to seeing you next Term!
