News from around the College
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Principal's Review of the year Parents will know quite a lot about what happens here at St. Clare's, from our correspondence, from the website (www.stclares.ac.uk/parents - with the special section for parents of pre-university students), and from their sons and daughters. However, at the end of the year, I also provide an overview of what has happened. It has been a busy and eventful year. What follows simply highlights some of the many things happening. Because it is written with parents of pre-university students (pre-IB, English 16+ and IB) in mind, it focuses on those programmes, with less emphasis on our senior and summer courses. Record-breaking IB results
While we've been delighted, of course, that the last few years have seen us setting and breaking records, it does mean that each succeeding year, students have more to live up to. Top scoring students were Anthony Grout, Marcela Rehakova and Wang Xiao Ou, all with 43 points, and Jia Yu (Grace) Li who obtained 44 points - completing her exams in November, as she was ill in May. This group of students represented very appropriately the IB student body in 21st century St. Clare's.
University entrance In all, students from the class of 2003 started courses at 29 universities or other institutions of higher education in the UK. 5 students have places to begin next academic year, after taking this year as a gap year. They include places at Oxford, Liverpool and Sheffield, and 2 going to Sussex to study music-related courses. Unusually, no students from the class entered universities in the US. A number were offered places, but decided to proceed elsewhere for university study. While the largest number and the majority of students went on to universities in Britain, 12 students went on to the universities of Rotterdam, Warsaw, Melbourne and Malta and to other institutions in the United Arab Emirates (Dubai), Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands. St. Clare's IB Institute expands and
develops We also offered revision courses at Easter this year - attended by some of our own students, as well as those from other IB schools and colleges around the world. On both the Easter and summer courses, we welcome students with a slightly different profile from that during the academic year, with, for instance, a higher proportion of students from the Middle East. Last summer, we also introduced subject workshops for IB Diploma teachers, in conjunction with the regional office of the IB Organisation. We are the first IB school in our region - Africa, Europe and the Middle East - to be authorised to offer these workshops. New staff New IB intake - class of 2005 - the
largest ever The IB in Britain In August 2003, a short article on the IB at St. Clare's appeared in the Financial Times, and Ralph Ekins, class of 2003, was interviewed on Radio 5 Live on A level results day, as a representative of IB students. During the autumn term, a research report was published on the reactions of universities and higher education institutions in Britain towards the IB Diploma. The report is long and detailed, but to summarise - the picture is very positive. UK universities are strongly supportive of the IB programme - its breadth, the emphasis on critical thinking and research skills, without reducing the depth of treatment of individual subjects. I was pleased to be invited to speak on behalf of IB schools at the report's launch at the University of Bath. St. Clare's at 50 Students contributed music before and during the event, and Marta Emmitt wrote a short play especially for the occasion, performed by two of our second year IB students - Lena Thoenies and Miriam Bergesen. Our speakers at the evening function on the same day included two alumni who have achieved distinction in very different lines of work. Nikita Lobanov is a geologist, banker and art collector, and Nikki Cheetham is managing director of Endemol UK Productions, the television company that produces many ground-breaking and popular TV programmes, including Changing Rooms and Big Brother. New mission adopted "To advance international education and understanding." Although this represents what, in practice, has been guiding us in recent years, formal endorsement of the new mission is a significant and important landmark for St. Clare's. The process of changing the legal documents concerning our status as a charity and company in line with the new mission has started. IB programme academic news Activities Our programme of exciting outdoor pursuits continues to develop. Horse riding in the Brecon Beacons, in Wales, cycling in the New Forest, hill walking, an Outward Bound course in Wales and Wilderness Challenge are among this year's activities. Wilderness Challenge involves students living in the open for several days, collecting their own water and food, and preparing their own shelter. Our students were, again, for the second year, in the national finals of this competition. Service activities, when students put something back into the College, local or global communities are seen as increasingly important. The St. Clare's Tanzanian Educational Project raises awareness of the educational needs of developing countries, and also raised further funds to support a rural school in Tanzania. The Kiboriloni primary school, which we have supported over the past four years, will benefit from sales of the photographs currently on display in the Art Studio. Students have visited and befriended refugees and asylum seekers held in a centre near Oxford. We maintain our involvement with homeless people in Oxford, delivering surplus meals to a local hostel. The Environmental Action Group and conservation volunteer group have been very active this year - engaged in recycling within the College, and conservation work in local nature reserves. In December, we took part in International Volunteer Day. Over 60 IB students spent a Saturday to help out in the local community in North Oxford. Some lent a hand in local shops, packing and carrying shopping for people, while others gave assistance to individuals in their homes or gardens. It was very good to contribute positively to our local community in this way. Our dance troupe has been performing Latin Funk in various local schools - combining action and creativity with a service dimension. Students assisted in the Oxford Literary Festival, getting to meet distinguished authors, while providing a useful service to others. Two new initiatives this year are Model United Nations, and the Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme. On the sports front, among many activities, our football team came second in the International Schools Football Tournament, held at Tonbridge School, our basketball squad trained and played in the Oxford and Cheltenham basketball league, staff and students have taken part in a number of competitive fun runs. Internationalism in action
St. Clare's - a "good" school St. Clare's connections We also play a leading role in the UK IB Schools and Colleges Association, IBSCA. Nick Lee is probably the longest serving IB coordinator in Britain, and I serve on the steering committee of the association, contributing to organising a conference in which the Director General of the IBO, Professor George Walker, and the architect of the educational reforms in England, Mike Tomlinson, come together on the same platform on Monday 14th June. We hosted subject review meetings here in Business and Psychology just after the official IB exams, bringing together teachers from IB schools all over the country, and we developed and maintain the website for the organisation. Many of our teachers are IB examiners, some are subject workshop leaders, and I was recently elected to the IBO's regional heads of schools committee for Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Ron Hameiri has very recently been appointed Deputy Chief Examiner for Business and Organisation within the IB - the highest examining position normally held by teachers in IB schools. David Staton has just returned from lecturing on terrorism at a conference for university students in Florianopolis, Brazil. IBSCA student conference Senior courses at St. Clare's Cabinet reshuffle - changes at the top And… and… and… St. Clare's 50th anniversary - "golden
jubilee" - themes We have launched a decade for development, during which we wish to improve our buildings and premises. Work is already underway on 18 Bardwell Road, the academic and administrative centre for senior courses. We shall then move to refurbishment of 3 Bardwell Road as an improved residential and social centre for senior students. We have undertaken a considerable amount of work on the development of a comprehensive architectural masterplan for the central Banbury Road premises. Looking around the rear of 139 Banbury Road, with its assortment of buildings, some of low quality, highlights just how important it is to undertake new building and development as part of an overall plan. We are working with Rick Mather Associates, a leading architectural practice which is also working to redevelop the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and the South Bank complex in London. But our location means that lots of other people are interested in our plans. This part of Oxford is a Victorian conservation area, and sensitivity to the area's residential character is required. More particularly, English Heritage, the body that nominates buildings for "listing" by the Secretary of State, has also expressed interest. Our deliberations are currently held up while we wait to see if one of our buildings will be listed. This could have a determining effect on the masterplan, so we cannot simply charge ahead. We are seeking to secure more stable funding arrangements for scholarships and bursaries for students who cannot otherwise come to St. Clare's. At the November Town Hall event, we announced our intention to begin an annual fund, which we formally which is currently being launched. This will give the opportunity for alumni, parents and former parents, staff and former staff and other friends of St. Clare's to associate themselves with and support the College's current activities in a practical way, including contributing to the funding of the scholarship programme. We have also committed ourselves to developing our own understanding of and commitment to global citizenship. Students and staff at St. Clare's live lives which have implications for others - on a global scale. Our travel, or decisions as consumers, our way of life in general - have implications on the environment and for the well-being of others. We continue to work out more fully what we mean by the term "global citizen" and work, as staff and students to make us more responsible inhabitants of this finite planet. We began work on this in all subjects last year, and this continues. This year, we moved to consider life in the houses, with an emphasis on recycling and reducing waste and energy consumption. As I have mentioned, Keith Allen is assuming particular responsibility for coordination of our work in this area. St. Clare's Association The purpose of it all "To advance international education and understanding". This year, sadly yet again, conflicts and terrorism continue. In so many parts of the world we look on with incomprehension, alarm and horror, at views and events which seem, at least in part, to stem from suspicion of, and lack of knowledge about others, with such disastrous results. In our small way, we are doing something to address this here, by bringing together young people from very different backgrounds and cultures, to work and live together, and, while doing so, to find out more about what makes us different, and those things which are important to everybody. Lester B Pearson, the former Canadian Prime Minister and Nobel Peace
Prize winner said: I hope that what I've been describing about our activities this past year demonstrates that we take our mission seriously. We continue our work to enable students to study to a high level, to secure qualifications and university entrance, and while doing so to learn more about other cultures, people and ways of looking at the world seems just as important in 2004 - arguably even more important - than it was 50 years ago.
Boyd Roberts, Principal
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