Dear OFS Community,
Mr Chatzianastasiou has every reason to feel exceptionally proud as he took Yr8 pupils for a unique experience at the New Scientist Live Festival, held at the ExCel London. The event was largely attended by senior schools from London, Oxford and as far afield as the south coast. Prior to the event, pupils were invited to submit questions that would be asked through a live feed to astronauts on the International Space Station.
Only 7 students were shortlisted in total, and 2 of those were Orley Farm students – in front of a packed arena Dhruv & Sohum took the microphone and spoke with the Commander of the International Space Station, Andreas Mogensen.
Dhruv Patel
Sohum Shah
Yr8 had an amazing day at the New Scientist Live Festival at ExCeL London. Through fascinating talks and activities, the STEAM subjects were brought to life, inspiring a new generation of future scientists & engineers. This once-in-a lifetime unique opportunity was a phenomenal experience, gave us goosebumps and we are so proud of our Year 8 students! I am sure that experiences like these can and will have a profound impact on those attending – what a true privilege. Thank you to Mr Chatzianastasiou and his department for an extraordinary experience. I briefly caught up with Mr Chatzianastasiou, Ms Roets, Mrs Calvey and Mr Amaslidis in the staffroom and it was lovely hearing the Science department reflecting on some unique learning opportunities!
Kayan Varsani:
It was a fantastic experience visiting the New Scientist Live Festival! I thoroughly enjoyed visiting all the various stalls and attending the magnificently interesting talks (and the freebies were a bonus!).
I found it very inspiring listening to the live call with Andreas Mogensen, and learning about life on the ISS was very interesting. I also enjoyed learning about how to use a tractor, and, in the Pokemaths talk, it was fascinating to find out that a Charizard would need to eat around 18000 calories per day!
Sahir Shah:
I really enjoyed exploring the festival and learning about the different projects that were on show, and overall found the trip very exciting. I was inspired by our visit and in particular by watching the live connection to the commander of the ISS.
Ayaan Zaidi:
Amazing, interesting, delightful.
Krish Parmar:
Exciting, fast-paced, spontaneous, interesting. I was fascinated & inspired by the remotely controlled medical equipment used for operations.
Ethan Isherwood:
We visited a myriad of stalls covering all corners of science. We also listened in to many talks, including an interview with the commander of the ISS Andreas Mogensen, which was fascinating.
Thomas Bartlett:
The live call to the Commander on the ISS was very interesting and inspirational.
Noah Airi:
Very enjoyable, interactive, informative and fun. I learnt about the different challenges astronauts face when going into space. I also learnt about robotic surgery, and how it's performed, and finally learnt about how ear injections are carried out.
Aayansh Vakil:
I found very interesting that you are not allowed to eat any sandwiches or anything similar to that like crisps on the ISS, as it leaves crumbs which float and can result in an eye injury!
Aman Bagade:
It was really fun and it was a great experience. I loved the Body and Mind show with Andreas Mogensen, the commander of the ISS, and the planetarium visit was brilliant. There were also so many really cool experiments in different stalls that I had a great time in.
VEX Robotics
This term, our robotics programme has been an intensive task for both the pupils and me! In just a few weeks we organised and sorted thousands of parts, prepared our space and then started building and programming. With so many software issues and glitches, the season opener at JLS was a tall order and the night before we still only had one functional robot and one very nearly there!
At JLS we competed in a field of teams where some have been building since June! Three teams even attended from Turkey, so it was a strong international field. Our pairing ranked 5th in the finals. While our expectations were realistic on outcomes, we had a mission to learn as much as we can. Our two robots, Marvin and Talos, will be completely redesigned, rebuilt and renamed.
We next compete as early as October 31st at City of London and then Nottingham on the 24th November. I anticipate a push for all new robots and team organisation after soaking in what they learnt today. Watch this space, from small beginnings I have high aspirations for them.
Mr Dholakia
Robotics is the best thing I have ever invested my time in. From building to programming, there is something for anyone. I have never done anything like it at all in my life, but since it is so easy to get used to, I got into it after just my first lesson! My life has changed for the better ever since.
Arjun Vaghela
It was a lovely experience to go to John Lyon and to be able to compete against the other schools. We worked as a team, and we tried to solve our problems all by ourselves. A big thank you to Krish and Thomas for leading our teams, at the end of the grand final we came 5th and 6th. A special thanks to Mr Dholakia for taking us.
Rohan Shah
Open Day
116 families registered to visit Orley last Saturday in what turned into a beautiful day! With over 200 pupils volunteering to join Saturday school, some for activities, others touring, our visitors certainly got a 360 of life in a buzzing, happy school. Hearing the comments from our guests over tea made me very proud and also humbled – what an extraordinary community we live and work in!
Moments from the touchline
Roman Skeletons Workshop
It is incredible what we can learn about the lives of our Roman ancestors by examining their skeletons. With this in mind, Y5 children attended a live stream workshop with the Museum of London where they had the opportunity to examine scientific evidence related to Roman skeletons and learn about every day life in Roman London. In this interactive workshop, our pupils learnt about the life of a young woman, whose skeleton was discovered in East London.
I really enjoyed the Roman skeleton workshop and I found it very fascinating to learn about osteoarchaeology and how we can learn so much from skeletal remains. I especially enjoyed learning about how skeletons are preserved and what Romans used in their everyday lives. Thank you for organizing the workshop!
Dylan Jethwa, 50
They had the opportunity to ask lots of interesting questions about her but also about the process of scientific analysis. What we found particularly striking is that although she was buried here in London, she originally came from southern Europe. Roman Londinium was one of the greatest cities of the Roman Empire and it appears that it was as diverse as it is today. The children loved the workshop and learnt a great deal about Roman History and Science.
Headmaster's Commendation
Congratulations to Tia Gupta for producing an extraordinary creative prep conveying the properties of matter - well done Tia!
We all know that Ms Gentles is a leading light on the science of well being here at Orley Farm. However, having read her published article in the 'Prep School', SATIPS magazine, I suspect that the nation might well be realising this too! I have scanned the article and attached it to my weekly email to parents as I know that the unique programme developed by Ms Gentles that forms part of our curriculum is something that parents are keen to support.
Congratulations to Jai and Tej for their collaboration as they created a 3D map of Paris based on their own recent journey…Tej informed me that he was there to watch England Play last weekend in the Rugby World Cup!
Congratulations to Emily for her outstanding Creative Prep in French. Following her visit to the Louvre, she raided the recycling box and created a fantastic model – well done Emily!