Headteacher's Weekly Review

Dear Parents/Carers,

At Woking High School we are extremely mindful of our students’ wellbeing, safety and are constantly updating our safeguarding training and the advice we give to students and parents. On Tuesday we welcomed Tea Stegerman from the Breck Bednar Foundation who came into talk to every year group about online safety. In each session, she spoke of the dangers of online grooming, using the tragic story of 14 year old Breck Bednar, who was murdered by an 18 year old he befriended online. These talks were a preamble to a series of lessons that all students will receive in January, which will explore online grooming in more depth.

There was also a parent session in the evening centred around the danger signs of grooming in young people. Again led by the Breck Foundation and Mr Crowley, this event was very well received and all of the presentations will be on our website soon.

Another academic year brings with it Woking High School’s annual entry into the prestigious Youth Speaks competition – a national Public Speaking Competition that promotes the opportunity for students to develop their public speaking skills and talk about a topic that matters in their lives.  Woking High School has won the local round in both Intermediate and Senior categories for the last 10 years and this year was no different.  The students were exceptional – coming first and second in both groupings, beating John the Baptist and Gordon’s School.  Congratulations to all the students involved: Alana Lynch, Issy Metcalf, Maddy McClements, Roisin Fellows, Charlotte Hamilton, Emma Joll, Adam Ahmed, Matthew Rayner, Amy Cox, Emma Twiston Davies, Daniela Moya and Mamtha Muralidharan.

Congratulations also go to the following students for success in Music examinations:

Andries Verhaeghe, Year 11 – Grade 8 Guitar with Distinction

Emily Loxton, Year 11 – Grade 6 Pianoforte with Merit

With wet, dark and cold winter days now the norm, it’s time for Cross Country! On Tuesday this week, just over forty of our students were competing in the District Cross Country Championships at Lightwater Country Park against eleven other secondary schools. In difficult, cold and blustery conditions, they performed particularly well and were extremely unlucky to miss out on silverware. Out of the eight age group competitions, we had four team second places and one third.

Please see selected team results (top 3 only):

Year 7 girls              Second

Year 7 boys             Second

Year 8 girls              Second

Year 9 boys             Second

Year 10/11 boys       Third

Selected individual results (top 10 only):

Year 7 girls              5th     Laura Kersley

Year 7 girls              7th     Bella Hornzee

Year 7 boys             3rd     Jiyah Kapotwe

Year 7 boys             4th     Joseph Walters

Year 7 boys             8th     Archie Robinson

Year 8 girls              7th     Carla Manning

Year 8 boys             7th     Teddy Gannon

Year 8 boys             8th     Toby Spencer

Year 9 boys             8th     Stevie Barron

Year 10/11 boys       7th     Liam Stone

As a result, many will be selected to represent North West Surrey at the Surrey Schools Cross Country Championships at Reigate in January 2019.

On Friday 23rd November, Woking High school hosted an 'Employability Workshop' run by a charity called 'Look'.  The VI students in Years 8-10 were joined by other VI students from Oxted, George Abbot and Gordon's Schools and took part in activities to develop interview technique, discuss presentation skills and to understand more about the Access to Work scheme for people with disabilities.  It was a fantastic opportunity for students to be able to discuss VI related issues, to get to know other VI students and meet employees from Look who are visually impaired themselves and have experience of interviews and employment.

As the festive season approaches, there are a number of community events we have been asked to publicize.  A separate letter with details was sent via Schoolcomms on Tuesday 27th November.

Mrs Edwards and the restaurant team have some exciting events lined up for our students over the next 2 weeks. From Monday 10th to Friday 14th December, at lunchtime, in the area beside the Kiosk, there will be a Christmas food and drink market.  Food items on offer will change daily and there will be sample in the restaurant next week to give students a taster of things to come.  The delights will include hot fruit punch, hot dogs, Bratwurst, filled jacket potatoes, cakes and bagged Christmas treats. Students will be able to pay for this using their usual cashless system.

Tuesday 18th December is our annual Christmas lunch, which will be the only service at lunchtime on that day.  Students will have the choice of turkey with a pig in blanket, Quorn fillet and sausage or vegetarian wellington, accompanied by stuffing, roast potatoes, carrots and sprouts followed by Christmas pudding or a festive shortbread for the cost of £3.25.  This will need to be paid for by Friday 7th December, and it has been added to the Scopay system for your convenience; you will receive a separate email giving details of this and how to make the main course selection.  We look forward to as many students as possible joining us for these events, which are a great addition to our Christmas celebrations.

May I draw your attention to the fact that “No December” a band made up of Madeleine McClements and Alana Lynch, Year 11 - Vocals, Edward Steel, Year 11 – Bass Guitar, Thomas Bates – Lead Guitar and Sam Fox – Drums, both ex-students now at Woking College, are playing at the Horsell Christmas Fair from 5-6 p.m. on Saturday 1st December.

Best wishes,

Jane Abbott

Headteacher

Headteacher's Weekly Review

Dear Parents/Carers,

On Monday and Tuesday this week the Growing Against Violence (GAV) charity visited Woking High School to deliver a series of sessions to Year 7 to 10 students. GAV is a curriculum-based intervention for youth crime and exploitation prevention delivered in secondary schools across London and Surrey. Since its formation in 2008, the GAV curriculum has been delivered to over 120,000 students in 600 schools. The project's aim is to reduce gang involvement, exploitation and violent offending and to give students the information they need to make safe choices. This is a vital ingredient in our PSHE offer, the sessions were excellent and student feedback was incredibly positive.

Year 10 students have now completed their first indicative GCSE exams, sitting papers in Maths and English.  Not only has this exam week given students chance to test and apply the knowledge and skills they have acquired, but also they have been able to put into practice revision techniques and experience the rigours of sitting exams under JCQ (Joint Council for Qualifications) conditions, which apply to all public exams.

On Wednesday evening 23 students from all year groups gathered at the New Victoria theatre for a night at the Opera, for a production of Verdi’s La Traviata: Behind the Curtain, performed by Glyndebourne tours. GCSE Music and Drama students, plus musicians from KS3, discovered the magic of opera with this unique live performance, which included a behind-the-scenes exploration of how opera is staged. With a mixture of informative interviews and music, the audience learnt that over fifty thousand operas have been composed, but only fifty of the most popular operas are now performed on a regular basis throughout the worlds 120 opera houses. Leading operatic soloists also revealed just how much training the vocalists and musicians undertake to prepare for each production.  Sat in the front two rows of the stalls and a whiskers throw from the orchestra, we were treated to a world class performance by Glyndebourne, who are recognised globally as one of the finest opera houses in the world.  All students were exceptionally well behaved and attentive throughout quite a long programme, which concluded with a condensed performance of the opera in Act II.  Year 10 student Charlotte Joos said ‘it was an entertaining way to learn how operas are put together and the English subtitles helped me to understand the story. I particularly enjoyed the vocal dual between a tenor and baritone; highlighting the difference between an aria and a recitative’.

Thursday welcomed our second Day 11 of the academic year. There were 200 students off site for the day! Year 10 GCSE Geography students completed a data collection exercise for their Geographical application module.  This year’s study is based on an investigation into whether redevelopment has improved the environmental quality of Westfield Stratford City area. Following completion of the field study visit, students will be writing up their reports in Geography lessons.  Year 10 GCSE Art students benefitted from a prolonged period of time to work on their pieces and were joined by Emma Hobbs Head of Art Woking College who ran personalised support and intervention workshops.  The remaining Year 10s spent time focussing on study skills where they learnt about a range of techniques they could use and then had time to develop these further in Maths and English workshops along with some private revision time.

Meanwhile 45 Year 9 Computing students visited Microsoft HQ in Reading to to see the layout of the Microsoft Head Office, hear from numerous speakers from within the business, and to develop students understanding of careers in the technology industry. Year 8s took part in a Finance day, participating in sessions lead by the Citizens Advice Woking, on the topics of banking, life skills, aspirations and financial information.  Year 7 Mandarin students experienced a series of workshops, delivered by the Woking Chinese Society, in Calligraphy and Kung Fu which enhance the work on Chinese culture that they have been completing in their lessons.

On Thursday afternoon six students from Woking High School (Ella Barber, Ellie Greenway, Hannah Jackson, Anthony Downer, Iina Kautovaara and Ava-Lynn Belcher) performed at the switching on of the Woking Christmas lights as part of the Summerscales Dance School. The students performed many different routines, including many group dances and their Christmas finale. The students loved performing at the Christmas lights event and put in a really great performance.

The Science department ran all day workshops in Science skills for Year 11, where students spent time in each of the subject areas and had time for revision and question practice in preparation for their indicative exams in December.

Today, representatives of Woking Rotary Club received 108 Christmas shoeboxes from members of Year 7. Students in Year 7 have been filling boxes with toys, toiletries, stationery and other small gifts, so that they can be distributed to children in need across Eastern Europe.

Friends of Woking High School would like to extend a huge thank you to West Byfleet Golf Club for their donation of £500 towards a replacement school mini bus. A special thank you to Jane Atkinson who has had 4 children pass through Woking High School and put us forward with the WBGC for the donation.  It is much appreciated and we are now just over 75% of the way to our target of £10,000! Our fundraising target is a big challenge and would not be possible without generous donations from our community and businesses.  Thank you to everyone who has donated so far. The appeal will close at the end of December – we are currently only £2 per student away from achieving our target! If you would like to donate, please follow the link https://www.totalgiving.co.uk/appeal/schoolbus#

A reminder that you can support the Friends of Woking High School, when shopping online, by using the links below. A percentage of what is spent is donated to the school.  

‘Give as you Live’ allows you to shop at over 4,000 stores, a % of your total shop is donated to Friends of Woking High School. http://www.giveasyoulive.com/join/fowhs

‘Amazon Smile’ allows you to shop at Amazon, who then donate 0.5% of eligible purchases to Friends of Woking High School. https://smile.amazon.co.uk/ch/1053122-0

Exciting news from the Ridgeway Restaurant!!  The restaurant will be will be hosting a Mini Christmas Food Market for one week from Monday 10th December. Food and drink stalls will include a wide variety of sweet and savoury treats for the students to enjoy. There will be a special ‘currency’ that students can pre-purchase via the restaurant from Monday 3rd December.

Ex-student George Loxton, is climbing Mount Kilimanjaro next September, with the University of Birmingham, where he is in his first term studying Maths. They are raising money for the Meningitis Research Foundation. The link to his sponsorship page is https://birmingham-kili-2019.everydayhero.com/uk/george-loxton-kilimanjaro-2019 if you would like to sponsor him.

Congratulations go to two students for success in their music exams:

Charlotte Joos, Year 10 - ABRSM Grade 5 Violin with Merit

Eugene Westaway, Year 11 – ABRSM Grade 5 Saxophone with Merit.

Surrey Minority Ethnic Forum have asked us to share the following information with you.

There is a Higher Education Information Evening taking place in Woking at the Parkview Community Centre, on 27th November from 5 p.m. The event, organised by Surrey Minority Ethnic Forum (SMEF) is held in partnership with the Higher Education Outreach Network (HEON) which aims to support students in Year 9 to 13. SMEF is a registered charity with a company status working with multi ethnic communities and has planned this FREE event for multi-ethnic young people and their families in Woking, to provide information and advice on all the programmes that are on offer. There will be three talks from HEON about student finance, a parent's guide to university and apprenticeships and university life and support at university. Refreshments will be provided as well as an opportunity for parents to ask questions and talk further with the partner officers from University for the Creative Arts, Guildford College Group and the University of Surrey. Please use the link to view the flyer.

Best wishes,

Jane Abbott

Headteacher

Headteacher's Weekly Review

Dear Parents/Carers,

Our senior students have their eyes firmly fixed on examinations. Year 10 students have exams in the core subjects of Maths and English next week and have been preparing for these in tri weeklies and extra revision sessions.  Meanwhile, Year 11 have taken the opportunity to get some expert advice from OCR examinations on the poetry component of their GCSE in English Literature. 35 students accompanied by Miss Powderly, Mrs Miller and Mrs Barker, attended the conference at St Columba’s Church, Cambridge. The favourite speaker of the day was Dr Fred Parker from Clare College, Cambridge University. He spoke with eloquence about the set poems and supported students through his own readings, providing annotated versions for the students to take home. At the end of the day Dr Parker and the conference hosts mentioned how impressed they were with the students’ behaviour throughout the day. They listened brilliantly, coping with the demands of university style lectures – a couple of students even asked questions following the lectures to enhance their personal understanding even further. Students also appreciated the chance to see a little of the city itself in their lunch break and enjoyed a walk past some important landmarks on the way back to the coach.

We would like to invite you to an event that is designed to highlight the work that we will be carrying out in school with your children in the early part of the Spring Term. All students will be taught a series of lessons which focus on the story of Breck Bednar who was tragically murdered in 2014 after being groomed online. As a preamble to this work, students will be hearing from the Breck Foundation during the day on the 27th of November. The Breck Foundation is a charity founded by Lorin LaFave, who was the mother of Breck. Using his story, the foundation travels the UK educating the Digital Generation to keep safer online.

A parent session, led by one of the charity’s senior foundation speakers, will take place on the evening of the 27th November between 5.45pm and 6.45pm in the main school hall. All parents are welcome to attend.

If you have any questions about either the student session or parents’ evening, please do not hesitate to contact Mr Crowley via mcrowley@wokinghigh.surrey.sch.uk.

Thank you to parents of Year 7 students who attended their first full Woking High School consultation evening on Thursday.  98% were able to meet with teachers to discuss their son/daughter’s progress in their first few months at secondary school.  The feedback we received was very positive.

"I am particularly impressed with the efficient and fast way that teachers respond to my emails."

"The school is a very supportive community for my son. He has grown daily since starting in September."

"Staff are thoughtful about students and I feel they are looking out for their welfare. I couldn’t be happier."

"We are very happy with how our child has settled in. Thank you."

"Our child has transitioned extremely well and he loves the school. Thank you."

Our Head Girl and Head Boy team did a fantastic job selling second hand uniform at the Year 7 parents’ consultation evening this week.  They raised £120 for the Mango Tree charity.  Well done.

Please may I draw your attention to a concert being performed by Woking Symphony Orchestra.

To staff, parents or students, who would be interested in our forthcoming concert at the H.G. Wells in Woking on Saturday 24th November at 7.30 p.m.

This is a concert that includes a special performance, in that we have programmed a piece of music called Lamia by Dorothy Howell.  This was extremely famous and popular in the 1920s and 1930s (championed at The Proms by Sir Henry Wood), but has since then mostly fallen into obscurity, having been revived just once in 2010 at The Proms.  The reason that we have included this particular piece in our concert is that one of our violinists was Dorothy Howell’s last piano pupil and knew her very well for several years.  It’s a lovely piece, and is well worth the work that we have put into it. Lamia will be followed by the Brahms Double Concerto with the sisters Emma and Joy Lisney, on violin and cello respectively, as our soloists.  The second half of the concert is Tchaikovsky’s mighty Symphony No. 4.

I attach a flyer which has all the details for booking tickets, etc. and we hope that some of you might be interested to come along.  Certainly it will be a rare treat to hear the Dorothy Howell piece.

Jenny Sohl, on behalf of Woking Symphony Orchestra

Good luck to the Woking High School Warhammer team of Rufus Hobbs (Year 7), Thomas Marton (Year 10), Matthew Szarvas (Year 10), Harry Gannon (Year 11), Emil Kautovaara (Year 11) and Billy Webb (Year 9), who compete in the School’s League heats for Warhammer 40,000 at the Woking Games Workshop store on Sunday.

Best wishes,

Jane Abbott

Headteacher

Headteacher's Weekly Review

Dear Parents/Carers,

This time of year brings the excitement of Hallowe’en and Bonfire Night as well as a more sombre and reflective period of remembrance.  Sadly, as I’m sure you are aware, the fun of the Woking fireworks display was marred by a serious accident involving an inflatable slide. The thoughts of the Woking High School community go out to the families and friends of those students impacted.  One of our students was directly involved, but is thankfully recovering from his bruising.  Students have been offered support if they were affected by these events in anyway.

This week our attention has been focused on the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI. Throughout the week assemblies have taken place to all year groups. Students have been given the chance to reflect on the sacrifices made by a generation of individuals who served on behalf of Britain across the Commonwealth. As part of this reflection, students have been given the opportunity to say a small ‘Thank You’ in the form of notes and messages. Our students, as always, have shown how thoughtful and considerate they are with many wonderful messages being written.

On Wednesday we held our annual Remembrance Concert at St Mary’s Church, Horsell. It was a wonderful evening. Students representing all year groups performed this special concert, which was attended by the Mayor of Woking and a large audience of parents, governors, and members of the local community. The opening address focused on the historical events of The Great War during 1918 in the lead up to Armistice day, and set the scene perfectly for a variety of readings using war poetry, musical ensembles and a very moving presentation by Year 10 GCSE Drama students, which told the story of American teacher, Moina Michael, the ‘Poppy Lady’ and how she was inspired by the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’. Over 135 students were involved in the performances which included the voices of the Horsell C of E Junior school choir singing their rendition of ‘Remembrance’.

Musicians, vocalists and readers were outstanding throughout and the evening was brought to a conclusion in the Act of Remembrance and the faultless playing of The Last Post by Year 11 student Jude Rainsborough, who will repeat his performance at Sunday’s Remembrance service in Horsell village. A collection for the Poppy appeal on behalf of the Royal British Legion raised £243. Well done to all students and staff in preparing and delivering such a memorable and fitting musical tribute in remembrance of all those who gave their lives during the Great War.

This morning every member of Woking High School participated in our school remembrance event. 80 students, two from each tutor group, held remembrance crosses.  Each one represented one of the fallen named on the Horsell War Memorial. Jude Silverton read “For the Fallen” in the minutes leading up to 11 a.m. and then Jude Rainsborough played the haunting Last Post whilst poppy petals floated from above and silence reverberated around the school grounds. After precisely two minutes, the Revielle sounded and students processed in silence to our memorial garden to place their crosses and lay a wreath. This year the memorial garden has been expanded to include a British Legion “Silent Soldier” and is the location of our own poppy installation.  The event was a beautiful and heartfelt act of remembrance.

Although our official remembrance comes to a conclusion this week it is still not too late to expand our poppy installation if you would like to, please log on to your Scopay account and complete the order box.  We intend the poppy river to be a feature during the coming year.

On Sunday, along with the rest of the country, Woking and Horsell will be marking the exact time and date of the Armistice. Jude will play again and Tom Mills will read at the Memorial Square in Woking.

Please see the Friends of Woking High School campaign information sheet via the link. Thank you for your continued support.

Certificates for exams taken in Summer 2018 are now available for collection from the main school office. (Students are required to sign for the certificates – if they are unable to collect them in person please email Mrs Bostock, dbostock@wokinghigh.surrey.sch.uk. The nominated person will be required to show ID).

May I wish a “happy Diwali” to all members of the Hindu community in Woking.

Best wishes,

Jane Abbott

Headteacher

Headteacher's Weekly Review

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome back to the second half of the Autumn term. Staff began the week with a very productive training day which focused on how we as humans think and learn and how this can be applied in the context of education. The day enabled staff to develop their understanding of current research and its application in our day to day teaching and learning.

Over half term we heard news that nine of our students - Bella Hornzee, Mana Tanaka, Lizzie Chapman, Daniel Baldwin, Joshua Thompson, Michael Young, Alexej Baldwin, Steven Wood and Lucas Salman - have qualified for the British Biathlon Club Championships in Leeds in late November. We wish them good luck and congratulate them.

On Thursday evening our Year 10/11 boys Badminton team became District Champions winning their two matches five games to zero, versus Tomlinscote and Winston Churchill. The team consisted of Tom Wells, Toby Harris, Wesley Ingham and Gideon Jansen – Well done boys!

Congratulations also go to Jenna Culshaw, George McEwen, Tom Wells and Luke Holcroft, who represented the school on Tuesday 30th October in the National Pistols Championships at Whitgift in Croydon, in which they qualified for the National Final, to be held at Stoke Mandeville, Bucks, on Wednesday 16th January 2019.

Finally, congratulations go to one of our alumni, Charlie Goodall, who is currently studying Law at Nottingham University.

Please may I remind you of our Remembrance events taking place next week:

•  All week Remembrance assemblies led by Mr Jones and WWI thank you notes written in tutor groups.

•  Wednesday 7th November, 6.30 p.m. Remembrance Concert at St Mary’s Church.

•  Friday 9th November, 11 a.m. 2 minutes silence, laying of crosses and wreaths at Woking High School.

•  Sunday 11th November, Jude Rainsborough from Woking High School is playing the Last Post at St Mary’s Church and Tom Mills is reading at the Woking Remembrance event in the Memorial Square.

Also, please do purchase our DT Remembrance Poppies to help create our poppy installation.  

These can be purchased, with names inscribed, from the Scopay section of our website.

Best wishes,

Jane Abbott

Headteacher