The Wider Programme

The Ada Benson lecture is a biannual event that happens in the Ada Benson building. This is a great opportunity to lead a fun and informative social event. Teams have invited some fabulous speakers in the past few years, including Jeanette Winterson and Will Compertz. It’s a great opportunity to meet some truly inspirational people.

Each student is assigned a different role within the team, including poster designing, writing invitation letters, marketing, or chairing the interview.

Students venture to Cutteslowe Primary School every Thursday lunch to read with the Year 5 and 6 pupils.

Careers Assistants support Ms Heath, the Head of Careers and Higher Education, introduce a wide range of different careers and further education opportunities to the students at the school.

This involves planning events, inviting speakers and deciding how Career-oriented dubs like Hortensia should be run. You are able to choose which careers you want to hear more about, and invite speakers that you find interesting.

As a Sixth Form student, you get the opportunity to lead on clubs and activities, and this makes a really valuable contribution to our superb co-curricular offering. Examples include Beekeeping, LGBTQ, Russian, Robotics, Ethics and Philosophy and Interfaith club.

compLEX is an all-new student-led publication that spans across the entire GDST. The magazine aims to shine a spotlight on all things Law-related, but entries can be about anything that interests you so long as your topic has some legal basis. Issues are published biannually (at the end of the summer and winter terms) and are distributed to every GDST school. The magazine is discussed during Law Society meetings (Thursdays 12:25 – 12:55 in Wollstonecraft). We use this time to delegate roles, write articles, design and collate the magazine.

Over the last 3 years, there has been a range of exciting student-led conferences, such as Fashion, Engineering and Economics. As a member of the event planning team, you decide on the conference theme, design the speaker programme and host the event on the day, including chairing the Q&A sessions. This is a high-profile role, with a wide reach of over 200 schools and approximately 7000 pupils.

The Conrad Challenge is a prestigious global Science and Technology competition for 13-18 year olds. It involves creating a product or service to address a global problem. The   enables students to develop their knowledge and skills in science and business – including writing and presentation skills.

This gives students the opporuntity to organise, plan and run Drama sessions, using acting and role play to help students from a local Primary School develop their communication skills and grow in confidence throughout the year.

We aim to foster a lifelong love of the arts through academic study and performance. In the Sixth Form, students get the chance to produce, write, direct and perform in their own plays, which widens their understanding of the process.

Our Prefect Team and wider Sixth Form community play a leading role in representing the views of their peers and promoting positive behaviour. There are 14 Prefects, including the Head Girl, Deputy Head Girl, Chair of School Council and the GDST Student Council Representative. They are excellent role models for younger students. Our Prefects work closely with the Head and Director of Sixth Form and other senior members of staff. Examples of the impact that Prefects have had on school life include raising awareness of neurodiversity and introducing various environmental and fundraising initiatives.

GDST Lead is an innovative programme designed to allow young women to develop the transferable skills necessary to become future leaders and entrepreneurs.

Click here to find out more

House Leaders (three per House) are elected annually by their year group and staff in the spring term of Year 12 and their period of office is one year. This is another key leadership role in school and your responsibilities include working closely with the Heads of House and members of staff in leading and running the various House activities such as Sports Day, literary quizzes, House choir competition and House drama competition.

The annual school magazine is entirely student-led. The Sixth Form editorial team is responsible from start to finish. They decide the theme, content, and the layout. They also make choices on what they consider newsworthy, ensuring there is a flavour of what has happened in school over the last year.

Our Maths Mentors programme involves creating engaging lessons for pupils in Year 6 at a local Primary School. As a Year 12 Mentor you will help them develop their basic mathematical skills through a variety of tasks and puzzles! The Mentors receive guidance about various teaching strategies to use with their buddies. They develop leadership qualities throughout the project and become confident in discussing any issues that arise along with suggesting new ways of working. You don’t need to be taking A level Maths, but do need to have enthusiasm, patience, good communication skills and commitment.

The Medical Myriad is a student-led magazine that allows aspiring medics to work as part of a small group (typically 2-4 people) to publish 2-3 volumes, each focusing on topics related to medicine, medical Biology, Chemistry or anything else about health science that digs deeper into or extends beyond the Biology or Chemistry A-Level curriculums.

Music at OHS is truly an enjoyable and fruitful experience, especially at sixth form. Music in sixth form is highly inclusive, and provides performance opportunities to instrumentalists, singers and all music enthusiasts.

Each term we present a major Lower School and a major Senior School concert, using venues such as Oxford Town Hall, the Sheldonian Theatre and a number of Oxford colleges. There are frequent chamber concerts and tea concerts, Open Mic nights, masterclasses with guest artists and a biannual whole-school musical staged in conjunction with the Drama Department.

Academic Scholars and Exhibition Holders from OHS and Wimbledon High join forces to write articles for the Owls Quarterly academic journal. Students have the freedom to write about whatever subject they are interested in. The programme involves exciting trips to broaden our academic horizons and discover new things. Be inspired by concepts totally outside the curriculum to discover your interests Practice collaborative and sophisticated writing. Meet other GDST scholars in your subjects!

Peer Mentors are Sixth Formers who have volunteered to support younger students. There are many rewards to Peer Mentoring. Your role is to help students settle in and support them with any concerns in their academic and personal life. This includes supporting students in finding the answers to the following: how to study more effectively, how to manage your time and what subjects are like at GCSE and A Level. Mentors can also offer support in how to navigate social and friendship issues.

Many students choose to pursue the Sports Leadership qualification alongside their academic studies. The Level 2 Award in Community Sports Leadership, is a nationally recognised qualification which equips you with the skills to lead sports or physical activity under indirect supervision. The course involves both guided & peer-to- peer learning and supervised leadership to ensure that you have the skills you need. It increases your social confidence and teaches core leadership skills such as organisation, planning, communication and teamwork.

Our STEM Outreach programme has been running for several years. Each week during the school term, you will run interesting science lessons for Year 5 students from local Primary Schools. You don’t need to be studying science at A Level! We are looking for volunteers who enjoy working with younger students, have good communication, interpersonal and teamwork skills.

This option is available to students who are doing Conrad Challenge or GDST LEAD as students need to draw on some real-world experience of business and entrepreneurship in order to make the most of the programme. The programme is divided into three co-equal
strands:
▪ The Leadership Strand is inspired by the coaching programme at Henley Business School
▪ The Business Strand uses the world-ready parts of Business Studies A level
▪ The Entreprise Strand allows students to work with an entrepreneur on a case study.

The aim is for students to develop knowledge and skills which will enable them to engage successfully with leadership and management roles which they encounter in school and beyond.

Alongside the lessons, students meet GDST alumnae who are specialists in the different areas of the diploma (marketing, finance,
HR, strategy, coaching, and entrepreneurship). These sessions are online or in-person, at schools or in the company’s offices. Students work on their enterprise project with the entrepreneur in residence, meeting them a number of times to ask questions and help them to develop their ideas. The teacher supports the writing of the business plan.

Students will complete various tasks over the course of the year. These will involve:
▪ Open-book answer to business-case study questions
▪ Written reflections on what they have read.
▪ Live pitch presentations

The Tangent is a student-led STEM magazine. The magazine aims to cover a broad range of fascinating STEM topics which are each researched and written by individual students. Each issue of The Tangent spans a diverse selection of STEM topics which we hope will encourage newfound interests and inspire the OHS students reading them. If you are keen to study a STEM-related subject at university, writing an article for The Tangent is a brilliant way to showcase both your passion and knowledge for the subject, as well as demonstrating organisational, creative and collaborative skills!