This part of the year is always bittersweet for me. Getting to the end of a long year and looking forward to summer while simultaneously getting ready to say goodbye to staff and friends after coming back from the trenches of exams always feels poignant. Besides the school year coming to an end, it is also an apt time to remember all the incredible and passionate things students do from across the year groups. Without fail, I am always bewildered how my friends manage to keep up with their studies, social life and hobbies all while doing more incredible things.
This year I was fortunate enough to know all four members of the Conrad 2025 team, who have now arrived back from the Texas finals. As if getting to the finals wasn’t enough, they also came home with the Entrepreneurial Innovation Award while representing not only OHS but the entirety of Europe as they were the only finalists from the continent. Amy, Christina, Aaron and Casey should be so happy with this result and praised for their unwavering confidence in themselves and their idea. I am so grateful to know such brilliant people.
It would be an injustice not to mention the Ada Benson lecture that took place this June which hosted Julie Etchingham to talk about modern media as a woman working in the TV industry for over 30 years. The night was organised by several members of the sixth form community and everybody involved deserves so much credit as it was such an insightful, relevant and needed conversation. ‘The media’ is always a hot topic and is especially prevalent at the minute with the political landscape changing every minute it seems, so hosting such an accomplished woman in this field was a brilliant idea.
There is always more to celebrate at OHS, the Year 11 French music video competition has seen OHS to the finals, a team of passionate MUN speakers travelled to London to speak their voices at the Model United Nations conference hosted by King’s College London and Year 9’s Alicia has won the coveted Lockheed Martin Code Quest competition. Everybody who has gone above and beyond their curriculum this term, which may indeed be the whole school, deserves praise and recognition since passion is one of the greatest things to have and fostering it is a priceless opportunity.
Music is always something I have loved at OHS and outside the classroom, I always found that a good song could change my mood. Because of this I have collated a few of my favorites into playlists which can be accessed via Apple Music or Spotify below, I hope you enjoy listening:
https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/head-girls-playlist/pl.u-LdbqqPdT2vEx0rJ
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1AqyRUn8we0BFBoJhkRY4i
I hope everybody enjoys their summer and gets some rest, because you cannot work hard without playing hard.
Ad Lucem,
Jess.