Academic Life

Looking back on our academic year, it gives me such pleasure to reflect on all that we have achieved and enjoyed. Our pupils, as always, have given their all in preparing for the public exams and have taken every opportunity to equip themselves for any possible question! In their last lessons in 2022, both the exam classes were on top form singing quotations from ‘An Inspector Calls’ rap, planning essay responses and practising timed work. They all worked incredibly hard and deserve their fantastic results.

As well as the work of the curriculum, the English department has been busy re-establishing school trips and searching for new opportunities to enhance learning within the school environment. We were delighted once again to be in the company of Carol Ann Duffy and Simon Armitage at The Forum in Bath this February giving the Upper Fifth a chance to hear from their GCSE Literature poets.

In May, members of the new Lower Sixth Book Group read the Ishiguro novel ‘Klara and the Sun’ in preparation for a meeting with Radley. There were some fascinating insights shared by both schools and we enjoyed sharing varying perspectives.

Lastly, we are delighted once more to have collaborated with the Murray Centre for the Downe House Seniors Association (DHSA) Short Story Competition. The DHSA is a wonderful opportunity for our pupils to flex their creative writing muscles and share their thoughts on a given theme. This year, Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee was the inspiration with each school section writing on a theme taken from one of Her Majesty’s personal qualities. The story content did not have to relate to the Queen, the themes were purely to spark ideas. The Sixth Form were given the theme of Dignity, Upper School had Endurance and Lower School wrote on Wisdom.

The stories submitted showcased a passionate interest for a wide variety of literary genres. The shortlisted work was judged by a panel of DH alumnae with careers or interests in the world of writing and publishing. Mrs Boswell, one of our English teachers, who began the competition, and 2021 winner, Poppy Scales (DH 2020), also joined the panel.

Congratulations to our well-deserving 2022 winners:

Sixth Form winner: Lauren Akinluyi (LVI)

(Runners up: Charlotte Butterworth (UVI) and Mary Hazlitt (LVI))

Upper School winner: Annabel Trew (UIV)

(Runners up: Isabelle Ashworth (UV) and Felicity Harris (UIV))

Lower School winner: Sophia Bones (LIV)

(Runners up: Rosie Ilott (LIV) and Aryana Patel-Sharma (LIV))

The overall winner and recipient of the Clare Balding Prize for Excellent Writing was Annabel Trew, whose name now appears on the beautiful carved oak trophy that proudly sits in the Murray Centre Library. Annabel wrote a powerful, original story from the perspective of the ship Endurance on its final voyage.

As a celebration to honour all our talented winners, we were delighted to be joined by Poppy Scales, who is currently studying English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. Poppy led a spirited and motivational creative writing workshop where the finalists were tasked with various writing and thought exercises to conjure up new characters, worlds and plot lines which they took to with enthusiasm and imagination.

“My favourite thing from the creative writing workshop was creating two different characters and seeing how they interact with each other.” Mary Hazlitt (LVI)

“My favourite aspect of the workshop was the prompt of a person – any person, your choice – sat behind a tree.”

Felicity Harris (UIV)

A celebratory lunch followed, with the Catering department providing a delicious spread in the Boardroom, including cupcakes for all the winners. It was wonderful to see everyone bonding over a love of literature. Congratulations to these pupils and to all those who took part. It has been an exciting and action-packed year once more and we look forward to all that the next year brings!

A collaboration between the Murray Centre and the English department.

From 15 – 18 March 2022, the Murray Centre became the backdrop for the Downe House Festival of Literature. The bunting was hung, flags fluttered outside and a local bookshop moved into the Collaboration Space. The stage was set for an exciting four days of events that allowed the whole community to share in the joy of literature.

Workshops

All Key Stages enjoyed a workshop to complement their programmes of study. The Remove and UIV enjoyed creative writing and confidence workshops provided by The Watermill Theatre and Revolution Performing Arts. Our GCSE classes were treated to a Shakespeare workshop on ‘Macbeth’ or ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ by Three Left Feet from Lancashire. The LVI had the opportunity to hear from a Casting Director at the Watermill and considered how they might cast their set texts: ‘Wuthering Heights’, ‘The Great Gatsby’ and ‘Othello’. In addition, Mr Owen, Mr Bartholomew and Mrs West read extracts from their favourite novels in The Murray Centre at lunchtime. Perhaps most entertaining of all, however, was the Birmingham based performance poet Giovanni Esposito or Spoz who encouraged all year groups to write and perform their own raps in response to their favourite chocolate!

Guest Speakers

In addition to our Performance Poet, Spoz and staff from the Watermill, the undoubted highlights of the week were the evening events when we welcomed some of our most popular authors to Downe House.

ROBERT HARRIS

Robert Harris is one of the foremost political and historical thriller writers. He is truly a master storyteller who has had many of his books made into films and TV series. He was expertly interviewed by one of his biggest fans, Tacita Rhys Williams (UV), and gave our audience of pupils, staff, alumnae and parents a very memorable evening. With his background in journalism and a lifelong interest in politics and history, it was fascinating to hear his take on the state of our world today. The interview was followed by a very busy book signing session in the Murray Centre that kept our guest writing for over an hour!

HOLLY BOURNE & LISA WILLIAMSON

We welcomed top teen authors Holly Bourne and Lisa Williamson who shared their love of writing with the Upper School. Holly and Lisa write with insight and humour about the issues faced by teenagers today with a particular slant towards mental health, friendships and romance. Once again, one of our pupils, Sophia Smeaton (LV) did a superb job hosting the evening and, although Holly was unable to join us in person, thanks to the expertise of our AV department, the conversation flowed freely from screen to stage.

KAREN MCCOMBIE & NICOLA PENFOLD

Our final evening event was with two popular authors amongst our Lower School readers, Karen McCombie and Nicola Penfold. The event was live streamed to our LIV pupils in Sauveterre and we also welcomed some of our families who will be joining Downe House. Karen and Nicola interviewed each other and treated us to a reading each from one of their books. It was lovely to see how engaged our Lower School pupils were – the Q&A at the end could have gone on all night!

POP-UP BOOKSHOP

Throughout the week, we were delighted to have a bookshop on site, hosted by our local award-winning independent Hungerford Bookshop. It was a real treat for pupils to be able to take time to browse and choose their own books from a wide-ranging selection on offer, including books from our festival authors.

Book Hunt

There was great excitement every day of the festival when a new set of books wrapped in brown paper were hidden around the School campus. These were brand new books gifted to whoever was lucky enough to find them and much fun was had running around searching every nook and cranny. Some pupils proved to be particularly skilled at seeking them out.

In addition to all of this, there were competitions to enter, a 1940s vintage typewriter on display where pupils could add sentences to a festival story and lots of daily quizzes, crosswords and even a Shakespeare puzzle to complete.

In the Michaelmas term, we participated in the National Cipher Challenge which is an annual competition organised by the University of Southampton. This entailed teams from schools around the world solving two different challenges published on the website every Thursday afternoon. Each included passages which were encrypted using various types of cryptographic methods, with some of the most common being Vigenère and Columnar Transposition Ciphers. We would decode the passages and submit our answers to the host, who marked them based on the accuracy and the speed of our decryption. This also determined our position on the leader board. The entire event spanned about ten weeks with each challenge getting progressively more difficult and the leader board, as well as the forums, progressively more competitive. The forums were filled with participants asking one another various questions or building theories about the plot and who all the mysterious characters were until it was all finally revealed at the very last challenge, which was by far the hardest one.

On the forums, the host of the Cipher Challenge was playing the role of one of the characters; Harry. He interacted with us in the way that Harry would interact with Jodie, another one of the characters, through the letters which we decrypted throughout the course of the challenge. He would also answer questions and leave helpful hints which managed to help us through Challenge 10B, the final one.

The plot was undoubtedly the most captivating part of the entire experience as it was both carefully crafted to be interesting on its own as well as being a source of motivation to come back to solve the new challenges each Thursday.

One of the most memorable parts of this was when we finally managed to figure out to whom all the initials belonged in all the previous letters, as we had been intrigued by it from the very start.

There were two parts to the overarching plot; the more modern line of two people attempting tirelessly to uncover the conspiracy, and the other consisted of the conspirators’ letters to one another revealing in the last of the challenges what the Lighthouse conspiracy was about. The last of the challenges revealed that Mary Boole, the head of this mysterious organisation, set out to recruit women all around the world to help with creating technology which could revolutionise the world into an era of light, with Jodie, one of the main characters from the modern line, being recruited by the Lighthouse conspirators in the final letter. We were delighted to discover that all the names of the characters used pertained to real historical figures of female scientists and mathematicians.

This was an incredibly fun experience and we learnt a lot about how cryptography works as well as managing to improve our skills along the way. Additionally, there was a very useful guidebook which helped us alongside the numerous online tools. We will certainly participate again next year and would recommend this experience to anyone regardless of how much you know about cryptography, maths or ciphers. To quote Jodie, ‘you should have both a linguist and a mathematician in your team’.

Economics and Business remain popular A Level subjects at Downe House. As active global citizens, these subjects never fail to interest and thus attract pupils wishing to know and find out more by studying our subjects. The well-used saying from Greek philosophy that ‘change is the only constant’ is fitting to the study of our subjects. The current national and global context adds further weighting to that, providing our pupils with much to digest. We hope that when pupils leave their studies, examinations aside, they do so, well equipped to face the inevitable change and challenges ahead.

Mr Ian Chapman hosted Oxbridge Business and Economics preparations this year, charged with leading the girls to think far beyond the confines of A Level theories. Keynes once said:

Pupils have considered the issue of Economic Rationality and Utilitarianism and looked at how different economies might grow and then might develop on the back of this. There has been discussion of the middle-income trap and the new Silk Road that China has been building where we have questioned the reasons and ethics of such a move and questioned whether international trade is just colonialism by the backdoor. Inequality has been considered through the work of Thomas Pickety and this will lead us on to consider fuel poverty as we start a new term.

Moreover, post Covid, educational trips to see speakers and factories restarted and will continue this coming year. Our pupil-led Business and Economics Society was relaunched by LVI: Amy Jiang, Nicola Iu and Cléo Dutertre-Delaunay. They hosted and discussed matters including Downe House Social Enterprise, the economics and external costs of Formula 1 and incentives to vote or increase vaccination rates. The girls are hoping to attract younger pupils in the school to join the society this year.

Mrs Colleen Lowe, Head of Economics & Business

Potential Oxbridge economists considered some of these issues. The year began with the question of: What do we mean by the ‘value’ of a good or service? Is it the amount of money that the consumer is willing to pay or the cost of producing it? This issue is explored in Mark Carney’s book, The Reith Lectures in which Christine Lagarde asked how can we go from knowing the price of everything to understand its true value? This led on to consider Kate Raworth’s ideas using the concept of Doughnut Economics of environmental concerns where she offered an “alternative roadmap for bringing humanity into a sweet spot that meets the needs of all within the means of the planet.”

As part of the OCR A Level Specification, pupils are expected to carry out an independent investigation. The idea for this piece of work is that they choose an area of the syllabus that they find interesting and then plan, investigate and conduct a piece of research independently.

This year we were happy to finally take the pupils away again on a residential fieldtrip. We headed off to the Field Studies Council Field Centre in Slapton Sands, Devon. We were thrilled with the location, however less so with the weather!

The first couple of days were spent introducing the girls to urban and physical fieldwork techniques. The idea being to give them an opportunity to see which methods they enjoyed and begin to think about the type of project that they might like to carry out.

For our urban day, we headed down the coast to Plymouth. The aim was to investigate how differences in social inequality affect the quality of life for the residents of Plymouth. We looked at what life is like for people living on different ends of the income spectrum. Pupils carried out building quality surveys, environmental quality assessments and spent some time thinking about how they could add to these methods to create their own investigation.

For our coastal day, we travelled to three locations along the south Devon coast. The weather was dreadful but as usual, we found our geographers have a great sense of humour! This was assisted by finding a lovely café that served hot chocolate just in time for lunch. On the coastal day the girls looked at the impact of different types of coastal management strategy on the coastal settlements. The girls learned how coastal managers make decisions about the choice of different strategies, using both physical and human geographical considerations.

We finished on Slapton Sands, where we found it had a very moving story attached to it. In 1943, the beach was taken over by the allied forces to use as a rehearsal area for the D-Day Landings. Unfortunately, a combination of live ammunition and poor visibility resulted in the deaths of 749 American servicemen. In the centre of the beach, there is a beautiful stone monument which was set in place to commemorate the ill-fated.

Slapton Sands also plays an important part in the survival of some of the UK’s rarest flora and fauna and as such provided a stunning backdrop to our beach day. We were able to watch the thrilling display of gannets plunging into the sea while the girls carried out their beach investigations.

On our penultimate day at the centre, the girls travelled out on their own, to carry out an investigation that they had designed the night before. Some of the pupils headed back to Plymouth with field centre staff, while Mrs Ilott and I hit the beach again with the girls who had chosen coastal investigations.

We were so impressed with how hard they worked. The majority of the girls came back with their data collected and some had even begun to write it up! The FSC facilities were superb and several of the girls took the opportunity to use the on-site soils laboratory, so the Chemistry department at Downe House will be relieved to hear they are not needed this year!

The pupils used the final morning to discuss statistics and started making choices about how they would present and analyse the data they had collected. We are looking forward to seeing how the girls progress with this piece of work.

Miss Kathryn Rawlinson, Head of Geography

It has been another busy and exciting year in the Science department, with many scientific enrichment opportunities taking place to complement curriculum lessons.

A highlight of the year was the successful Science Residency in the Michaelmas term, which was very much enjoyed by pupils and staff alike. The Michaelmas term saw another very wet Biology Field Course, but despite the weather, the UVI remained in good spirits throughout! Several external Science competitions took place during the Lent and Summer terms, where some most excellent results were achieved. The Remove had their annual trip to ‘We the Curious’, where they took part in a range of interactive and hands-on exhibits.

“In the Lent term the Lower School went to ‘We the Curious’, which is a science museum in Bristol. I loved this trip as it was very fun and informative. We learnt about lots of topics to do with science including disease and illness and kinetic energy; this was demonstrated by a life-size hamster wheel that used kinetic energy to increase or decrease the speed of water released by the waterfall. We the Curious had many displays on different elements of science that were both fascinating and informative. The life-size hamster wheel was also lots of fun because we were allowed to try it out. It was a fun experience to learn about science, outside of the classroom, with your friends in an informal and more amusing way. This museum opened our eyes to all the different things involved in science and how everything is related to it. We the Curious was a fantastic experience and I encourage anyone who is interested in science to go.”

Anna Dawson Paul (Remove)

The House Science Competition, now a firm fixture in the Science calendar, returned for the Summer term and huge congratulations go to the overall winners, AGS! In the Summer term we also had our first Radley-Downe House Science collaboration event, where UIV had a fantastic talk from Professor Lewis Dartnell, followed by supper; this was a most enjoyable occasion for all, and hopefully the first of many for this partnership. Throughout the year, a number of members of the Science department have run a wide range of courses for the Elective Programme, which have been well received by the girls who have relished this academic enrichment opportunity.

Miss Christina Pugsley, Head of Science

SUCCESSES IN SCIENCE COMPETITIONS!

In March some of the UVI Biologists took part in the highly prestigious Biology Olympiad – an online competition sat by top schools all over the country. For the second year in a row all our pupils were ‘placed’ – they were commended or gained a Bronze or Silver Award. A special mention should go to Yuhan (Angela) Wan, who achieved a Silver Award, but missed the Gold by less than 0.5%! Milly Assheton, Madhulika Kaushik, Lara Harries and Heloise Friedlander all gained a Bronze Award, placing them in the top 15% of pupils who took part. Eleanor Gibbs and Sui Ying (Ashley) Tsoi did very well too, just missing the Bronze Award and so were commended. The Olympiad is a well-respected academic competition, so to even get placed is a great achievement; well done to all!

Further success for our Biologists came in May when some of the LV took part in the Biology Challenge. When Mrs de Chazal received the results, she was exceptionally impressed with the number of successes and very proud of all who took part. Freya Hanbury, Yuchen (Rebecca) Gao and Linxin (Sophia) Guo deserve special congratulations on gaining a Gold Award – placing them in the top 5% of the country! Nine of the LV that entered gained a Silver Award, 12 pupils received a Bronze Award and a further 18 were highly commended or commended. Huge success all round and much deserved – it is, obviously, a very challenging competition but the LV certainly rose to it!

Mrs Nadine de Chazal, Head of Biology

This year in Chemistry we have entered many of the prestigious competitions on offer for our pupils.

In January, we entered some of our Sixth Form pupils for the Royal Society of Chemistry Olympiad competition and received the following results:

Highly Commended: Ling Xuan (Victoria) Tiang and Sayuri Shukawa.

Bronze Award: Ziqi (Jade) Fang, Katie Lam, Cleo DuterteDelaunay and Motunrayo Adeniji

Silver Award: Anya Gannon and Zi Xin (Sunnie) Wei

Gold Award: Jiayi (Ariel) Cao

Due to the timing of the UVI mock examinations, the majority of our entries were LVI and so this set of results is incredibly positive given that they had covered just one term of the A Level course at the time.

We also entered a group of UIV, LV and UV pupils for the Royal Society of Chemistry Top of the Bench competition. Our team consisted of Kexuan (Angela) Zou (UV), Jiayi (Catherine) Wang (LV), Maria Taraban (UIV) and Liberty Spry (UIV). The girls each completed an online quiz as part of the competition and then built and tested a polarimeter made from LEGO. We ran into some unfortunate technical difficulties which prevented the team from completing the full competition but the skills and teamwork on display were outstanding and all girls should be highly commended for their effort throughout.

Mrs Poppy Maspero, Head of Chemistry

Biology Field Course

In October, the UVI Biologists undertook their compulsory field work and perfected their ecological sampling techniques on site here at Downe House. Yet again the weather was atrocious but despite the lashing rain they completed two core practicals; using quadrats to estimate the abundance of plant species around the Science block and Willis House and carrying out a belt transect to look at the effect of light intensity or soil depth on the distribution of plantain. They also took a woodland walk to observe succession and dug some pitfall traps to sample the invertebrates around the AGS tennis courts. The UVI worked extremely hard all weekend and with good humour, their Biology teachers were most impressed with their resilience and enthusiasm. They even managed to have some fun learning about the statistical tests used in Biology (although the supply of smarties helped)!

Mrs Nadine de Chazal, Head of Biology

SCIENCE RESIDENCY:

During the week of the 15 November, the Science department carried out their first Murray Centre Residency; it was a fantastic week of activities and quizzes for pupils to get involved with all in the name of science!

The week was kicked off by the superb Dr Helen Czerski as she delivered a Medley Lecture ‘The Ocean at the Top of the World’. We were lucky enough to learn about Dr Czerski’s exciting work investigating bubbles during the time she spent on an icebreaker near the north pole. It was a fascinating and engaging evening and was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Dr Czerski really made Physics and scientific research understandable and intriguing for everyone even without an academic background in Physics or Science. After the lecture, Dr Helen Czerski’s visit to Downe was concluded with a book signing session of her book ‘Storm in a Teacup’.”

Jiayi (Ariel) Cao (LVI)

Dr Helen Czerski is an inspirational Physicist, Oceanographer and Broadcaster. After graduating from the University of Cambridge with a PhD, she discovered her love for oceanic bubbles, which is what her current works are focused on. Her enthusiasm for Physics is passed on to the general audience through her engaging books, broadcasts and lectures.

It was a fabulous opportunity to have Dr Czerski as a guest speaker for our Medley Lecture at Downe. Not only did we gain a better understanding of oceanic bubbles and scientific expedition in the Arctic but were also inspired by her passion for the natural world. The lecture gave us an insight into how scientific research and data collection were carried out in the Arctic, where teamwork became vital to ensure safety and the validity of data collected. Focusing on the open lead (open water within sea ice), Dr Czerski and her colleague measured the bubbles at the ocean surface, which were hypothesised to burst and spit out particles from the ocean into the air as aerosols that could then become starting points for cloud formation in the Arctic. It was also fascinating to hear how the seemingly remote Arctic is so tightly linked to our climate.

Dr Jones and Mrs Maspero started off the weekly lunchtime slots with some chemistry fun; the classic displays of Elephant’s Toothpaste and investigating dry ice. We also had some Origami Organs with Mrs Harrop and Miss Pugsley and tight rope walking fruit with Mr Smith; sadly we cannot promise that no fruit or veg were harmed during the making of this this balancing act! It was great to see so many of the students getting invovled with the exciting activities.

Dr Rachel Maclennan, Deputy Head of Science i/c STEM and Medicine

During the Michaelmas term, girls from the Sixth Form visited the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, Tokyo: Art and Photography exhibit. This fascinating exhibition provided an extraordinary insight into the city that has constantly reinvented itself. The show provided a thought-provoking insight into the development of Tokyo from the Edo period with a celebration of the floating world in a selection of beautiful woodblock prints and historic folding screens and examined how more contemporary artists have responded to this iconic legacy. Tokyo is renowned today as one of the world’s most important cultural hotspots and this was examined with examples of pop art, video works and contemporary photographs. With new commissions by contemporary artists too, this exhibition provided a fantastic insight into the power of location to inspire a myriad of artistic responses.

and Claude Monet. The final part of the day was a timely consolidation of our specified Renaissance painter in the special exhibition Raphael. Particularly useful was the study of the Portrait of Pope Julius II and the life-size copy of the School of Athens. The girls judged the day to be extremely helpful and eye-opening; all were very pleased to have been able to discuss the works in person, particularly the aweinspiring cast of Michelangelo’s David.

Lvi Revision Trip To London

On Tuesday 24 May, the LVI Art Historians focused on their Renaissance revision and practised their visual analysis skills at the Victoria and Albert Museum, dividing into groups for discussion workshops, and then travelled to the National Gallery after lunch. The highlight of the day was a visit to the Raphael exhibition, which enabled everyone to revise one of the syllabus-specified artists in preparation for the mock exams. MsDiane Slocombe, Teacher of History of Art

Lvi Articulation Competition 2022

On Tuesday 18 January, the LVI took part in the ARTiculation competition, providing the pupils with an opportunity to deliver a short presentation about a work of art, design or architecture that really inspired them.

Sixteen of our LVI girls competed, presenting on a diverse range of artworks, including architecture, film, fashion, photography, installation, ceramics, digital art and paintings. Everyone presented a carefully researched topic and the standard of presentation was particularly high this year; the adjudicators, Mrs Toogood and Mrs Lamont, had some very difficult decisions to make.

Cordelia Reeve and Daria Andreeva were highly commended for their presentations. Elfreda Harvey was runner-up for her insightful analysis of the National Museum of Qatar. Many congratulations to Ebunlola Oyegunle for her winning presentation which analysed Grayson Perry’s Brexit Vases, whilst evaluating the role of art in politics. Thank you to all the competitors for working hard to create such an informative and entertaining evening!

Uvi Study Day

On Sunday 24 April, the UVI Art Historians enjoyed an intensive day of revision, focusing on their Renaissance and Nature topics, with plenty of visual analysis practise too. They began the day at the Victoria and Albert Museum, comparing the depictions of David in the cast gallery and practised their analysis of unfamiliar bronze sculptures, ready for their exam. In addition, they were able to view contextual works, in order to better understand the case studies on their syllabus. After lunch, they continued their revision at the National Gallery, where they focussed on works by Giovanni Bellini, Sandro Botticelli, JMW Turner

Lvi Write On Art

Huge congratulations to all those who submitted an essay for the Write on Art Essay competition. The task was to choose a piece of art from a collection in the UK and to write a short essay on what our pupils believe makes it so fascinating. Our LVI History of Art pupils really got their teeth into their chosen piece and showcased a wide range of interests from grand manner portraiture to neoclassical sculpture to modern re-imaginings of baroque fresco. Miss Hannah Tomlin, Assistant Housemistress (Tedworth) the Imperial War Museum in London. We were split into groups of three and given a tablet to discuss and think about questions, particularly why the Holocaust happened, as sometimes studies can be more concerned with what happened than why. We were guided through the early stages of the war, how restrictions and discriminatory laws increased in Nazi Germany throughout wartime, and then into the Final Solution, where we were able to see video footage and photographs from some of the death camps. continue to study the Holocaust, why it is still important,

In the final week, we had a series of events to commemorate the Holocaust. This included a trip the Imperial War Museum Holocaust exhibition.

Annabel Trew (UIV)

The History and Politics departments had another exciting year as they emerged from the constraints of Covid. Working out of a newly refurbished and hi-tech departmental office, we have introduced some new developments to our Lower and Upper School curriculum: the Remove now study the History of Medieval Mali and undertake a short course in archaeology in the Summer term, and the UIV course now includes an in-depth study of the Holocaust. Next year, we plan to introduce some Chinese history into the LIV course.

We enjoyed a number of online and in-person talks throughout the year from, amongst others, The Rt. Hon Jacob Rees-Mogg MP and Sir Max Hastings. We also ventured out on trips for the first time in two years. The first was a Sixth Form Politics trip to Parliament and the Supreme Court. Then in the Summer term the Remove had a fun and interesting day out at Hastings Battlefield.

of Hastings was fought. Firstly, we did an informational quiz; it was hard, but I learned many new things. We also went learned many new things about the weapons and how they were used. I even got to try on a helmet that the soldiers years ago. It really painted a picture in my mind.”

Mia McLennan (Remove)

Towards the end of the Summer term, our UIV linked up with the Radley Shells and undertook some project work on material about the First World War from the Radley archives. We spent an afternoon at Radley, and at the return fixture at Downe a few weeks later, the boys and girls did their presentations on topics such as Suffrage debates at Radley, three Radleian brothers and their experiences of the war, and the (singularly unsuccessful) Warden of Radley during the war.

The following day we had a series of inter-disciplinary workshops and a visit from Holocaust survivor Steven Frank.

“On Wednesday afternoon, UIV and LV were given a talk by Steven Frank. Steven is a Holocaust survivor and he shared his story from both before and after the War. His father was a lawyer and part of the Dutch resistance. His father got taken by Nazis and soon after, he, his mother and his two brothers were taken to a camp for more privileged people. After a few months, they went to a transit camp where they stayed for a year; then they were sent to Theresienstadt.

shocking. Very often, the Holocaust is seen as something talk, Steven highlighted the bravery of his mother and her amazing ingenuity. She was a brave woman who managed to help her three sons get through one of the worst things that happened to mankind.

It is important to continue talking about the Holocaust and prevalent today. Listening to survivors and not silencing the voices of marginalised or oppressed people is very important.” Esmee

Haefner (UIV)

Learning a language is not just about what happens in the classroom. At Downe House, we ensure our pupils have fun learning about different cultures too.

This year was particularly busy, with a range of activities across the School for all ages and all tastes! As well as the usual essay and translation competitions, we also took part in the Poésiæ for the first time. This is an annual poetry recitation competition, embracing seven different languages with pupils taking part from all over the world. Very simply, pupils of all age groups select a poem in a language of their choice and recite it with as much expression as seems appropriate, some poems even encouraged physical actions. Many of our linguists took part and 18 girls were selected as the winners of their year group and their language within the School. They were the submitted to the competition and Alexa Peschkoff’s (Remove) French entry was highly commended, and Daria Andreeva’s (LVI) German entry won her age group. Well done to both girls!

After a hiatus due to Covid we were delighted to invite Onatti back to School to provide plays for our Remove to UIV pupils in French, German and Spanish. These were very well received and the girls enjoyed watching some entertaining and topical short dramas. It was excellent to hear the pupils laughing at these foreign language plays and understanding the issues that were raised.

To end our year, we were delighted to bring a little cultural ‘pzazz’ to Founder’s Weekend with a multisensory event outside the Murray Centre. ‘Culturalicious’ tested pupil, staff and families taste buds and knowledge of European cheeses, worldwide olive oils and German beer. We also encouraged our community to make Chinese dragons and write Chinese characters. As a reward, freshly made crêpes were available, but only if you could ask for them in French!

Language Ambassadors

This year our Language Ambassadors took to their roles with enthusiasm and have been proactive about participating in events across the department as well as providing individual extras for pupils in the Lower School. They have played a prominent role and next year’s LVI have big shoes to fill.

“As Language Ambassadors, we have really enjoyed our role this year working together to encourage the learning of different languages and cultures all around the world. We have especially enjoyed leading a variety of activities and clubs for the School, such as French Cinema Club in which a range of films chosen by Elfreda Harvey gave us an amazing insight into French cinema from different decades, and MFL Book Club lead by Longwen (Vivi) Lei, where she gave everyone an appreciation for both German and Danish literature. The team were also very excited to launch the school language magazine ‘Lingua’ in which many of the Language Ambassadors wrote engaging and interesting articles. Well done Elfreda Harvey and Omenasan Irikefe for leading the team in this effort. Perhaps one of our favourite highlights was the Remove Christmas and Summer parties, it was great to teach them about culture and traditions in each of our respective languages.”

Amy Wright (LVI)

“As a Language Ambassador this year, I have focused on promoting Modern Languages from the aspect of literature by initially writing reviews for translated books and then two meetings where pupils from three different year groups discussed Patrick Süskind’s German novel ‘Perfume’ and helped to give taster sessions to younger pupils interested in studying languages in the future.” Longwen (Vivi) Lei (LVI)

GERMAN:

Coming out of Covid has enabled us to enjoy lots of opportunities beyond classroom learning. Earlier in the year, we had to cancel our trip to the West End to see a live performance of Tom Stoppard’s latest play Leopoldstadt due to Covid, but we managed to watch a recording at the Curzon Cinema in Oxford. This epic play provided our Upper School pupils a glimpse at what thriving Jewish culture and identity in Austria was like before the Nazi regime came to power.

During the Michaelmas term, we were kindly invited to join Radley’s German department for their pupils’ Christmas celebrations. The LV and LVI were treated to traditional German Christmas food and drinks, as well as some quizzes, games and competitions which were great fun and provided some excellent opportunity to practise German outside the traditional classroom.

The arrival of spring brought our next German adventure: The Sixth Form pupils dyeing Easter eggs the German way! During a fun evening in the York House kitchen, we transformed ordinary eggs into colourful hors d’oeuvres and added some traditional Bratwurst and Bratkartoffeln to the mix.

Not content with simply enjoying a hearty meal, we then watched a new German film that addresses the rise of the New Right in Germany: , a thought-provoking work that led to many lively discussions afterwards.

Sticking with film and discussions, we soon welcomed Radley College German pupils for a film and discussion event at Downe House. After a brief warm-up exercise discussing key vocabulary and themes in the film, we watched Daniel Brühl’s directorial debut A film about Berlin’s gentrification and the lasting effects of the hastened reunification, it led to an interesting debate and exchange of ideas – and all in German! As teachers, we were thrilled and impressed by how well all pupils conducted complex discussions entirely in the target language.

To cap off the busy year, we were lucky enough to welcome Professor Sabine von Mering, Professor of German and Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies at Brandeis University in Boston, USA, to Downe House. She started the day with a presentation to the UIV on the Holocaust, before meeting with sixth formers to discuss topics around their Oxbridge and IRP exams.

We look forward to more exciting events in the next academic year, including theatre trips and our first trip abroad to visit Aachen’s Christmas Markets!

We are very proud of Longwen (Vivi) Lei’s (LVI) great success in the Praktikumswoche competition:

Chinese

Pupils and staff celebrated the beginning of the Year of Tiger on 1 February 2022 and started their Chinese New Year celebration by enjoying a wonderful Chinese lunch with many choices: dumplings with four different fillings: Shanghai red braised pork belly, garlic and sesame tofu, ginger and soy longevity noodles, dim sum, sweet red bean buns and so much more. Mia McLennan (Remove) said: “I enjoyed everything at lunch. I am so happy!” as it reminded her of the celebration in Hong Kong.

The Chinese department decorated Garden House and the girls learning Chinese had the chance to learn more about Chinese New Year costumes and to receive a , red envelope! The UIV pupils made a wonderful display of a tiger, made up of hundreds of ‘ Happy New Year’ greetings, accompanied by QR codes to videos and stories about China’s New Year traditions.

On the evening of Thursday 3 February, pupils learning Chinese and those with Chinese heritage attended an exciting concert by Transition, a British band singing in Chinese. Along with the songs, the band also shared stories of living in China - the pupils had a wonderful evening and enjoyed a little bag full of Chinese goodies.

theme of ‘health’. Each person had a designated role and Unfortunately, it was moved online due to Covid. However, many new friends, many of whom are genuinely passionate Longwen (Vivi) Lei (LVI)

Pupils of Chinese are often given opportunities to take part in competitions and in the UCL IOE Confucius Institute 2022 Young Photographers’ Competition Yasmine McLennan’s (UVI) photo received first prize. Yasmine explains, “I was at central ferry pier in Hong Kong, Gwyneth and I were walking around on a pretty day and was stopped by the vibrant colours of the stall. All the snacks being sold are typical Hong Kong snacks, which we grew up eating! The lady behind the counter was lovely and when I saw the title of ‘Chinese community and friends’, I was immediately reminded of my pleasant interaction a couple of months ago. Although the lady reminded me of the competition title, so did the food that surrounded her. The photo reminds me of the community and friends I grew up around, I am very proud to call Hong Kong my home and these hidden corners of culture remind me of my love for the city.”

French

We have enjoyed so many different French activities this year, from the Remove Christmas party to the Sixth Form Soirée de la Francophonie. It has been an incredibly busy year! In December, the Remove were entertained by the Language Ambassadors, who introduced them to the diverse ways of celebrating Christmas in their countries. They also had fun taking part in games and some loud singing of Vive le vent! At the end of the event, everyone enjoyed some yule logs and smoothies.

The Sixth Form girls studying French were invited to attend the Chandeleur festivities (France’s Pancake Day) at Radley in February. It was a fun evening that provided opportunities to explore different cultures with quizzes and, of course delicious, crêpes and cider tasting. All in moderation of course!

Later in the year, we joined the worldwide celebrations of ‘la Francophonie’. Our French assistants, Ninon and Joséphine, prepared a range of activities to raise awareness to our French sixth formers about the extent of the French language during our Soirée de la Francophonie. There are over 300 million Francophones all over the world across five continents. It was fun to watch the pupils work out the different flags and cities. Everyone certainly enjoyed ‘le fromage’ and ‘diabolo fraise’!

To top off the year, on Monday 20 June the Remove had a Fête Française (a French party)!

Spanish

This year the Spanish department worked on some activities for our Hispanists that allowed them to explore and enjoy culture beyond the classroom.

party was one of the high points of our GCSE Spanish course and a well-deserved celebration of our teachers,

“In November, we were learning about la gastronomía and for us to gain a better understanding, Señorita Nuñez provided us with a booklet about the origins and recipes of the Spanish dishes, which she then brought ingredients to create them. My group made tortilla de patatas while the other group made el gazpacho. The cooking process snacks: cheese, prosciutto, calamari… It was such an Katie Lam (LVI) were hidden around the site. Lastly, after all the activities

Tee-J

Mwenebungu (Remove)

It has been another exciting year for the Computer Science department at Downe House! In the Michaelmas term we launched a school-wide competition to name our new Nao robot! The response was amazing – we received over 105 name suggestions (from staff and pupils) with very persuasive reasons! But there could only be one winner…Olive!

In September, Lower Fifth had a fantastic day at The National Museum of Computing where they experienced a fascinating insight into the evolution of computers: from the Colossus and Enigma machines, to Retro Games, programming BBC microcomputers with BASIC, AI and the Turing Test!

This was followed-up in October, when the department took a further twenty Upper Fourth pupils to the museum’s ‘Young Women in STEM’ day (presenters included the RAF and Sphero); a truly inspirational opportunity to introduce our girls to the broad variety of skills required for an exciting career in STEM.

In November, all girls from Remove through to Upper Fourth were entered into the annual Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge with a phenomenal 45 girls achieving Gold Awards (scoring in the top 10% nationally) and qualifying for the Oxford University Computing Challenge in the Lent term.

Olive makes regular appearances in Computing lessons and is a foundering member of the School’s first (and now thriving) Code Club! One of the highlights for Code Club this year was entering the ‘PA Consulting Raspberry Pi competition’. In keeping with this year’s theme: innovations to save the planet, our Code Club team produced an educational roleplayer game (RPG) called ‘Save the Planet Dash’. The girls designed and developed this idea entirely by themselves, coding their solution in Python, using the Raspberry Pi devices provided. Their code was modularised, so that it can be worked on and tested concurrently by different team members. The idea behind the game is to have fun while learning important facts and planet saving decisions!

The girls received a certificate for their ‘Raspberry Pi pico’ and some positive feedback from the judges:

“Such an interactive role-playing game would be great for teaching the importance of being climate conscious. The code looks very well written with good commenting and clear variable names”.

Olive was also an inspiration to our budding Remove programmers, who learnt to code their own interactive ‘chat-bots’, as part of the Wakefield Award programme.

On Tuesday 8 February 2022 we celebrated the 19th edition of Safer Internet Day (SID), the theme this year was ‘Together for a better internet’. The day called upon schools and youth organisations to band together to make the internet a safer and better place for all – especially for children and young people.

This year the annual ‘Hour of Code’ event for Remove took place in March, with all Remove girls off-timetable to experiment with the physical programming of BBC micro:bit devices.

Last year, we launched the iDEA award (a widely recognised digital qualification), specifically to Upper Fourth and we now have 26 Bronze and 7 Silver award holders! Extra special congratulations to Dominica Prentice (UIV) who was the first person at Downe House to have completed all Silver Badges in order to unlock the ‘Silver Star’ award.

We also welcomed Year 5 and 6 pupils from St Mark’s primary school to Downe House for a community coding event, as well as, hosting STEM activities for Founder’s Weekend, and taking the Lower Fifth Computing pupils to an academic presentation by Prof Sir Nigel Shadbolt at Radley College’s 175 festival!

Mrs Siobhan McClure, Head of Computing and ICT

Gap Year Fair

The Gap Year Fair was very insightful, not only for those certain on taking a year out, but also for those who had never thought about it. The Farr Centre was lined with exhibitors who spoke about different opportunities, from volunteering abroad to cookery schools in London. It was incredibly helpful to explore gap year options and to think about activities outside of School.

It was wonderful to speak to Milly Lewis (Downe House alumna), who founded Holiday Hands; a company that links families to a pair of extra hands for holidays or events, we all agreed that this would be a fantastic opportunity, for either a gap year or during the holidays. The Language Gap also proposed excellent opportunities to improve language proficiency by spending time in native countries. The cultural immersion would be beneficial for any A Level pupil, as well as anyone looking to improve their familiarity with another language. Undoubtedly, this was yet another successful Gap Year Fair packed with options to consider. Thank you to Ms Akhtar and Mrs Knight for hosting such a wonderful event.

Ebunlola Oyegunle (LVI)

Overseas University Fair

At the Overseas Universities Fair, we were given much insight into a whole range of universities and the benefits of applying to universities abroad. As I have an interest in the creative arts, one of the universities that piqued my interest the most was Loyola Marymount university in Los Angeles, California which was ranked number 64 by U.S. News and World Report Best National University Rankings (2020). I was particularly interested in the programmes they offer, including Marketing, Film Production and Animation. They also have many educational experiences that integrate academic life with real-world experiences to guarantee success in a global marketplace.

In addition, I was very interested in the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), with many of their alumni working in top positions at companies such as Apple, DreamWorks, Disney, Pixar and Samsung. They also offer programmes studying Architecture, Animation, Fashion, Film, Graphic Design and many more, as well as providing students with excellent resources and technology, which is perfectly suited for my interest in a marketing or creative career.

Overall, I would say that this event allowed me to broaden my knowledge of the countless universities abroad that offer multiple courses of interest to me, as well as helping my understanding of the benefits of a global education.

Onicha (Aimee) Chansue (UV)

Medic Talk

On Saturday 5 March, Dr Pilkington, Head of Medicine Applications, gave a presentation to selected Lower Sixth girls and their parents, about applying for Medicine, VetMed and Dentistry.

She highlighted the grades and key qualities needed for these careers, such as organisational skills, empathy and teamwork. We also learned about the importance of not just taking part in work experience but also being able to reflect on it. Dr Pilkington also discussed the different teaching styles of the universities and stressed the importance of considering our own learning methods to ensure we are a suitable match. It was an extremely informative talk, which has helped us with planning for our future applications.

Katie Lam (LVI)

Oxbridge Launch

At the beginning of the Lent term, the Lower Sixth had the pleasure of attending the Oxbridge Programme Launch event, hosted by Dr Atherton. It was very enlightening, as it gave us insight into the process of applying, and the preparation needed for the interview and the admissions tests. Dr Atherton’s talk was very informative and gave us an excellent overview of the application process. We were joined by Kieran Hammond from Leading Education, who talked us through various insights about an Oxbridge application. We were also joined by Jenni Caisely, Admissions Interviewer for Cambridge University. Jenni explained the interview process and walked us through the typical structure of an interview, along with some pearls of wisdom to think about in preparation for it. To finish off the night, we were fortunate enough to have two Downe House pupils, who have just been accepted into Oxford University, impart some of their wisdom from their application experiences. Overall, it was a very useful event, which helped a lot of us get a clear sense of direction for the year to come. Many thanks to Dr Atherton and the Higher Education team who made this all possible!

Lauren Akinluyi (LVI)

VIRTUAL REALITY AND AI-ASSISTED INTERVIEW TRAINING FOR SIXTH FORM

We are proud to be the first school to be using VR (Virtual Reality) headsets to help our pupils become world ready. Our bank of VR headsets are proving to be a big hit with our Sixth Form students who have already started taking advantage of this new tech addition to their interview preparations.

Almost all leading business surveys, such as the Harvard Business Review, put soft skills, such as leadership, communication, teamwork, and interpersonal awareness, at the top of the list for recruiters. We have offered interview practise sessions for many years and have been looking for ways to extend that one-off experience to give our pupils the opportunity to practise at their own pace. With the emergence of fantastic EdTech training platforms, like , we are excited to introduce VR and AI (Artificial Intelligence) to our interview training programme.

The programme now includes training using VR headsets, creating an alternative to the traditional in-person approach with significant advantages. VR and AI support input methods such as speech, gaze and 3D gesture recognition, which enables pupils to practice behaviours in their own time and at their own pace, without the need to meet in person.

Virtual practise can feel safer and less stressful than performing in front of peers and it enables pupils to focus on honing their interview skills at their own pace.

As the world becomes more technologically advanced, we are aware that nurturing human to human interaction is important, now more than ever. The digital training programme concludes with online interviews using Shortlist Me, and personalised feedback with our partner EBP, to complete the whole programme which includes the range of traditional interview practice activities.

Ms Marya Akhtar, Director of Global Partnerships

The period of examination results usually gives cause for great celebration and this year is certainly no different. I simply could not be more proud of our UVI and UV and all that they have achieved at A Level and at GCSE.

We are immensely proud of our A Level students’ achievements and were delighted to celebrate the results. Every one of our students showed great determination and resilience as they approached the first set of public examinations they had taken, and they can now look to the future with confidence and optimism.

The hard work and effort of the girls over the last two years, along with the support of their teachers, tutors, pastoral teams and their families, has resulted in a wonderful set of results for all; 75% of the A Levels taken by our students were graded A*-A and 91% were graded A*-B.

Our leavers are heading off to study a diverse and impressive range of courses both here in the UK and abroad, at some of the world’s most prestigious universities and establishments. The Class of 2022 is an exceptional group of young women who have contributed greatly to School life throughout their time here. All are to be congratulated for embracing opportunities for their personal development and for giving back to the School community through their roles as leaders on School Council, as Seniors, Ambassadors and Champions, as well for working so hard to reach their potential academically. They have set a superb example for pupils lower down the School and we have watched with pride as they have grown into confident and skilled young women, well-prepared for their future studies and careers.

The results were similarly positive at GCSE with 70% of the grades being 8s and 9s (A* and A**) of which 43% were grade 9. We are pleased to be continuing high levels of success across all subjects, but particularly across STEM subjects – this year 90% of STEM results (the Sciences, Maths and Computer Science) were awarded at grades 9-7. Similarly, our performing and creative artists have continued to achieve great results; 100% of our Music GCSEs were at grades 9-8,

100% of Drama grades were at 9-7 and across the Creative Arts (Art, Textiles and Design Technology) 89% of results were at grades 9-7. Factoring in the disruption to their studies that the pandemic caused, in particular to the practical elements of coursework, the achievements of this remarkable group of pupils are even more outstanding.

The statistics are, I believe, impressive but, what is always more satisfying, is the success that individual girls have enjoyed. The vast majority have gained grades which are a reflection of their personal best and these have been achieved alongside outstanding contributions to Drama, Sport Music, Art and so much more. The girls are all ready for the next stage of their educational journeys and should move on with great confidence.

I particularly congratulate the following girls who achieved 4 x A*/A or D1-D3 grades and above at A Level and/or Pre-U: Maria Kheyman, Sophie Loftus, Antonia McClintock, Alice Pernthaller, Mathilda Singer, Yuhan (Angela) Wan, Zi Xin (Sunnie) Wei, Cheuk Yu (Queena) Wong and Jiayi Zheng

And my congratulations go to those girls who achieved 8 x A* (9-8) grades and above at GCSE:

Shiloh Akintaju, Tundun Are, Isabelle Ashworth, Juliette Bale, Katie Beeson, Ploypailin Bennett, Emilie Booth, Georgina Boucher, Freya Brown, Ottilie Campbell, Xinrui (Sherry) Chen, Claribelle Cheng, Sinling Damais, Clothylde Debray, Emilia Finney, Kimberly Gan, Camilla Hale, Honor Harris, Lilias Hoare Nairne, Hannah Hurd, Hannah Knight, Janice Li, Sophie Li, Yizhuo Liu, Katya Longden, Charlotte Mackinnon, Olivia McClintock, Honor McNair Scott, Annabel Munnelly, Freya O’Donohoe, Sion Ovbiebo, Yi Kei (Alisha) Pak, Ellen Phillips, Claudia Pope, Zara Reeve, Tacita Rhys Williams, Emily Sideso, Ella Spry, Cecilia Stone, Isabelle Wessely, Sissi Xi, Charlotte Yeo, Ziyue Yu, Jocelyn Yue, Xin Yi (Jessica) Zhang, Zhuo Er (Joy) Zhou and Kexuan (Angela) Zou.

Mrs Emma McKendrick, Headmistress