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