| Established | 1613 |
|---|---|
| Type | Academy |
| Headteacher | Doctor A J Davison |
| Founder | Dame Alice Owen |
| Specialism | Languages and Science |
| Location | Dugdale Hill Lane Potters Bar Hertfordshire EN6 2DU England |
| Local authority | Hertfordshire |
| DfE number | ???/5407 |
| DfE URN | 117579 |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Students | 1428 |
| Gender | Mixed |
| Ages | 11–18 |
| Website | Dame Alice Owen's |
Dame Alice Owen's School is a mixed voluntary aided secondary school in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, England, founded in the London Borough of Islington.
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The trustees of the Dame Alice Owen Foundation are the Worshipful Company of Brewers. It is more commonly known as Owen's. In terms of exam results, the school has been one of the best state-school schools in the country for some time now, with over 95% of students receiving 10 A*-C grades.
The school is also partially selective by means of an entrance examination. 32.5% of places are offered for academic ability and 5% for musical ability, and 10% of places are reserved for children living in Islington. Students are drawn from a wide area and the school is heavily over-subscribed.[1]
It is situated in the south of Potters Bar, just north of the M25, and within earshot of the South Mimms services, near to the west and near to Bridgefoot Lane.
2013 heralds the 400th Anniversary of the school, which started in Islington in 1613 (see history below) and they will be celebrating its quatercentenary in less than two years time.
To commemorate the occasion, their 400th Anniversary Committee, headed by Old Owenian Gary Kemp (Spandau Ballet performed their first gig in the dining room in Potters Bar), have already set up significant events for the whole school community to take part. Sir Alan Parker, film director, producer, writer and actor (also an Old Owenian) will be directing a Celebration Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, on Tuesday 23 April 2013, with the schools’ own Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, Junior and Senior Choirs, including a performance by Spandau Ballet and a Thanksgiving Service will be held at St Paul’s Cathedral on Tuesday 30 April 2013.
A programme of various sporting occasions, a specially written drama production and a 400th Summer Ball will take place during the year, ending with a Carol Service at St Albans Cathedral on Monday 16 December 2013. Old Owenians can keep in touch with what’s going on by joining the school’s 400th Anniversary emailing list, which now has nearly 2,000 past students, staff and governors signed up for alerts to their 400th quarterly newsletter. Details on how to join can be found on the school website (Old Owenians page) which contains extensive information about the school.
In conjunction with the celebrations, a 400th Anniversary Appeal has also been set up, to raise £1m towards a new Science Building on the school’s 1970’s site. Launched in February 2011 at Portcullis House, Westminster, with Lord Robert Winston as keynote speaker, Dr Alan Davison, Head, joined Patrons Edward Guinness CVO, James Clappison MP and Emily Thornberry MP in outlining the ambitions of the school’s new project. Patrons, Gary Kemp, Lord Lingfield and Sir Terry Leahy, as well as David MacKay, Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department of Energy, also endorse the school’s commitment to providing outstanding facilities for our scientists of the future.
Dame Alice Owen’s have been a Science Specialist School since 2007 and 43% of students go on to study Science at world class universities. The school holds regular lectures for the school community organised by its Science Society, worked with Cancer Research last year on a skin cancer project and are building relationships with Imperial College London. The school aims to attract additional government funding, with over £250,000 already raised (October 2011), to support the build, which would start in 2014.
The school was founded in 1613 by Dame Alice Owen and has maintained many unique traditions from that time, such as the giving of a small amount of "beer money" to every pupil[2] and the school's long standing close association with the brewing industry and the Worshipful Company of Brewers.[3][4]
Having narrowly missed being struck by a wayward arrow earlier in her life, Dame Alice Owen founded a school - originally for 30 boys - in Islington, London as thanks. Arrows feature prominently on the school's crest, which is in itself largely identical to the crest of the Worshipful Company of Brewers; other motifs include barrels and hops.
A girls' school was built in 1886.[5]
It was badly damaged during WWII and a new building was erected in the early 1960s, replacing temporary buildings. On 15 October 1940, around 150 people were sheltering in the basement of the school where a parachute mine hit the building, causing a pipe to flood the basement and killing most of the occupants. The main buildings of the boys' and girls' schools facing each other across the boys' school playground, were located in Goswell Road, Islington, and eventually merged as a single school.
In 1973 the school relocated to its current location in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire. The former boys' school building has now been demolished, but the girls' school building is now part of the City and Islington College. On 2 November 1990, the Duke of Edinburgh visited the school. On 25 November 1997, the Princess Royal opened a new languages centre. Also earlier in 1997, Arsenal football club tried to place a group of its talented youngsters at the school, with a £250,000 'gift', but the school refused saying it would not drop its academic standards, even though George Graham's children went to the school. The youth team went to Highams Park School.
(others need to be added, e.g. from R.A. Dare's History of the Owen's School)
(Please refer to the school website for details - under About Us, School History, Headteachers)
93% of all Year 11 students secured 5 A*-C grades including English and Maths
96% of all Year 11 students secured 5 A*-C grades without English and Maths
The performance at A* was amazing at 35.2% and a record performance at A* and A - 68.1% of all entries were graded A or A*
82.1% of all grades were awarded A* - B
Upward trend with the new A* grade, with 21.3% of all entries being awarded an A*, 32% were awarded an A, making the A* and A total 52.3%
64 of our students secured straight A*s and As
99.4% of all entries secured a pass grade
20 students with offers confirmed their Oxbridge places and the majority of students secured places at their first choice of university
AS results showed a new school record with 54.1% being graded A (44.1% in 2010) and 78% A & B grades (68.9% in 2010)
(In 2008 a record number 27 of the A-Level students were asked to join Oxford or Cambridge.[6])
The school had its first two students attain places on the prestigious Prime Minister's Global Fellowship programme in 2009.[7]