Dame Alice Owen's School
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Dame Alice Owen's School is a mixed grant-maintained school in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, England, originally based in Islington. The trustees of the Dame Alice Owen Foundation are the Worshipful Company of Brewers. It is more commonly known as Owen's.
The school has a strong academic reputation with well above average performances in both GCSE and A-level external examinations. The school is also partially selective by means of an entrance examination and this combined with its reputation means competition for places is extremely high.
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[edit] Life at the School
The school was founded in 1613 and has many traditions that can be traced to that time.
Dame Alice Owen's School attracts an unusually wide range of pupils. This is partly due to the historic connections with North London and because of the school's performance. There is a sharp contrast to the other two secondary schools in the area, Chancellor's School in Brookmans Park and Mount Grace School also in Potters Bar. Pupils come from as far afield as Ware and Hertford to the North and Harringey and Islington to the South. The size of the contingent of pupils from inside the boundaries of Greater London is illustrated by the buses that arrive at Owen's every morning. The 826 brings pupils from Hatfield, Brookmans Park and parts of Potters Bar and is a single decker vehicle. Barnet/Finchley and Southgate/Winchmore Hill are both served by four double-deckers each way each day. These buses are the 626 for Barnet and Finchley and 699 for southgate and Winchmore Hill.
Currently the school is undergoing lots of building work as it is rebuilding the maths and technology (MATS) block. This has cost the school its playground as the building is being built over the teachers car park who now park in the playground.
[edit] Facilities
Dame Alice Owen's School has approximately 1400 pupils and over 100 permanent staff. Despite the age of some of the buildings on the Potters Bar site, the school maintains a pleasant environment for learning. Renewal and replacement of ageing buildings is given top priority by the school's governors and trustees, the Worshipful Company of Brewers. Construction is half way through on a new mathematics and technology block to replace an ageing structure dating from the school's move from Islington in the early 1970s. Registration is done electronically and most members of staff are equipped with laptops as well as most classrooms having interactive white boards. Facilities are also excellent for both sport and music with a 300-seater concert hall (the Edward Guinness Hall), a gymnasium, sports hall, astroturf pitch, tennis courts, extensive grass pitches and Sixth form smoking area.
[edit] Achievement
The focus of both the previous head, Mrs Aldon T Williamson, and the current one, Dr Alan Davison, is on performance in public examinations. In 2006 the percentage of pupils achieving 5 grades at GCSE was 95.5 and the pass rate at at A-level was 99.3%. High achievement is not uncommon; nearly a quarter of the departing Year 13 achieved three or more As at A2 and each year the school receives a sprinkling of letters from the exam board congratulating individual pupils on achieving a mark that came in the top five nationally. Very few pupils drop out at 16 and many 18 years olds go on to top universities. The number gaining places at Oxford and Cambridge universities frequently reaches 20.
[edit] Extra-curricular activities
Extra-curricular activities are encouraged at Owen's. The music department is one of the best in the area and many pupils play in the acclaimed school bands, orchestras and choirs as well as county music groups and in some cases the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (NYO). In recent years the pupils have organized popular and original music events based around more modern music in the Edward Guinness concert hall. .
Sport is important at Owen's and teaching is aided by superb facilities. Football is the school's strong point with teams participating in county and national competitions. Cricket and athletics dominate in the summer months and the school often triumphs at District Sports, an athletics meeting held at the Gosling Stadium in Hatfield. Rugby is also popular with many boys and the first XV have for the past two years played in a floodlit festival, competing against other Hertfordshire schools at the ground of Hertford RFC. Hockey and Netball form the mainstay of girls PE but individual talent is also catered for in non-team sports such as tennis, swimming, cross-country running and even golf (an annual match between the governors and pupils and staff is organized). The school has also produced a string of England quality Badminton players. James Lidgett Hertfordshire's opening bowler and explosive number 11 batsman has also been tipped for great success in the future.
Owens has recently seen an explosion of quality publications produced by students; In The Black, a business and economics themed publication, was the first highly successful student magazine to be introduced into the school and has received extremely positive feedback. Other Publications include Lies, the politics magazine which has been the subject of controversy with some highly opinionated journalism, an environmental awareness brochure named 'The Bigger Issue' and most recently an environmental magazine and history magazine named 'New Century'.
Foreign Languages plays a prominent part in Owen's extra-curricular activities. Students are able to study either Italian or Japanese after school from Year 8 onwards during 'Twilight Lessons'. Pupils may also extend their GCSE 'Short Course' language qualification (in either French or Spanish)and they can also study German and French and Spanish to a 'Full Course' qualification by studying after school in Year 11. Other extra-curricular languages taught at Owen's include Portuguese and Chinese.
