On Friday, 4th June, our post-exam pupils were treated to a photography day with renowned UK photographer, Duncan Raban. Over the years, Duncan has photographed some of the world’s most well known faces including Princess Diana, Madonna, the Rolling Stones, Tina Turner and Tony Blair to name just a few. Over the past four years he has had unprecedented access to behind the scenes at Great Ormond Street Hospital and his work there was documented in a major piece in the Sunday Times magazine in May. Luckily for us Duncan also works selectively with schools and the children spent the day learning to take spontaneous pictures like a professional.

The day was divided into sections with each section focusing on a particular task. Tasks ranged from ‘flying like airplanes’, ‘popping out from behind trees’ and ‘strutting down a catwalk’. These tasks gave children the opportunity to learn how to capture moving images, improve on portrait shots and take animated, fun photographs.

Duncan works with David Wallace, Old Dragon and Chairman of The Reputations Group. The Reputations Group is a strategic marketing and communications consultancy and also has interests in media businesses including photography and film.

Our appreciation and thanks go to Duncan, David and his enthusiastic team for a wonderfully inspirational day behind the camera.

To learn more about Duncan Raban’s photographic services or The Reputations Group, contact dwallace@thereputationsgroup.com

We are delighted to announce that, following our earlier achievement of the bronze and silver levels, we have now been awarded the coveted Eco Schools Green Flag. Last year we embarked upon this internationally recognised environmental programme as part of our school-wide mission to improve sustainability practices across the Dragon. The Eco teams, whole school and boarding, from Reception to Year 8, have met regularly to share their environmental vision and initiate projects that reflect their ideas and those of many others within our community.

These are the scholarship results to date. It will be evident that we prepare children at scholarship level for a host of different schools. There is a further round of academic scholarships still to take place in May for schools such as Eton, Winchester, Tonbridge, St Edward's, Bryanston, Westminster and Rugby. This year we have candidates for all these schools except the last two. It varies from year to year.

Most of the non-academic scholarships have already occurred but again we do have some individuals trying for music, art or sports awards next term.

We have had roughly a third of our leaving cohort attaining some form of scholarship for the last three years. A summary of the awards won so far by Dragon pupils in 2009-10 is as follows:

On Saturday 27th March in the very early hours of the morning 36 children and four staff headed off to Heathrow Airport to commence their Choir Tour to Lisbon. The sun came up as we boarded the flight and it remained shining for almost the entire trip. We all arrived safely in Lisbon with luggage in tow, all except for the vital portable keyboard that was left behind at Heathrow and so some impromptu busking took place at the luggage carousels as Mr Madden and Mr Van Tromp liaised with lost property. This was the first of many busking sessions that the choir provided to very willing audiences during our trip!

We then travelled to the seaside resort of Cascais which is about half an hour away from Lisbon. It didn’t take the children long to unpack in the hotel, find the beach and then enjoy the sand and sea despite not having much sleep the night before! The beach was very much a highlight of the tour and we spent time there every day playing cricket, building sand sculptures, eating ice creams and enjoying the waves! Of course we didn’t travel to Portugal just to enjoy the sea side, shopping and cultural centres of Lisbon (as enjoyable as they were), but more to share our love of singing and the children gave four concerts in some very different venues.

On the first night they sang in a chapel for the local people of Cascais and the following day they took part in a Palm Sunday Service at the local Catholic Church. On both occasions the children were given a standing ovation which was quite overwhelming for them! The third concert was given in the largest shopping centre in Lisbon where the choir entertained hundreds of shoppers during the afternoon.

The final and most poignant concert was given at the Pisao Community Centre which is a village set up to care for abandoned and disadvantaged people from throughout Portugal. Many of the people there had mental illnesses and the joy that the children brought to the residents through their singing was evident in their faces. They were certainly touched by our Dragon Spirit.

I don’t think we stopped smiling from start to finish on this trip and of course my thanks go out to all the staff who helped to look after the group and also to parents for your support. My biggest thank you though goes to the choir  who were an absolute credit to the school – well done!

Liz van Tromp
Head of Curriculum Music

Our summer school term has now ended with our new term beginning on Thursday, 9th September 2010. 

Our administrative offices are open throughout the holidays and can be contacted as normal. If you are unsure of who to contact please ring 01865 315403 (an answer-phone is available out of hours).

Should you be trying to contact the Oxford Summer School please use the details below:

Course office - 01865 315572  (with answer-phone, this number should be used for routine business)
Please direct any emergencies to Mr Joe Laing, Course Manager on 07950 399 065