Being a new school, we get to celebrate many firsts at Orange Tree School, and this year we are celebrating our first term in the new building, our first Christmas, and our first guest speaker, to name but a few. 

Ben Bailey Smith, otherwise known as Doc Brown, came into talk about his career and share advice with our students. We learned about his journey through youth work, to writing scripts for Lenny Henry, to comedy and music, to appearing in films, shooting around the world, recently appearing in the Star Wars series Andor: which brought in some of our parents, trying to scout teasers for the next series. There was a great chance to ask him many questions about his fascinating career, and our students asked some really interesting questions, which unlocked many insights about the showbiz industry, including some pretty juicy stories about certain celebrities who shall not be named here. 

All our students and staff really enjoyed his fascinating talk, which was in turns inspirational and very entertaining. Our students said: 

“It was a really interesting talk, Doc Brown was a really great speaker, and very cool guy.” 

“I was really inspired, and he gave me a lot of useful advice.” 

The staff could more or less say the same thing. 

Other highlights of the day included our Christmas jars, which the students felt was a great bonding experience, especially as they got to take them home as Christmas presents for each other, and our Christmas quiz, where the students took on the teachers, holding their own almost winning, but the adults got there in the end scoring just a few more points. 

It’s always a treat to be able to come together as a school this way, and serve as great reminders of what a wonderful community we have here.