Dear Parents/Carers,
Last week’s news review ended with us wishing ‘good luck’ to our
Year 8 and 9 Mock Magistrates team. Our good wishes paid off and I’m delighted
to report that the Woking High School team of Lily Harris; Adam Ahmed; Lily
Hallam; Tatiana Neeson; Ollie Strong; Anya Treat; Tom Heggberg; Alex Heeney;
Joshua Ford; Joni Dervishi; Amnah Dar; Lidewine Saris; Amelie Wilson-Rivers;
Eva Beeharry; Erin Fitzgibbon under the expert guidance of Mrs V Thomas won the
competition. We beat 6 other schools and the team won the High Sheriff’s shield
for the third year in a row, as well as £200 prize money. Members of the
team will represent the school at the High Sheriff’s awards evening at the end
of March.
Also over the weekend, our
Year 7 Girls won the District Sports Hall Athletics competition and are now
competing in the County Finals on Tuesday of next week; the
boys’ team finished third. We wish our team of nine students, who
are competing in the British Schools Biathlon Finals this weekend at Crystal
Palace, good luck .
Throughout this week Year 11 students have been completing
additional indicative exams in core subjects to give them extra practice before
the final GCSE exams begin in May. Year 10s have also completed MFL speaking
tests today.
We always look for opportunities to praise and reward our
students. This week Year 8-11 students were presented with Half Colours and
Colours. Congratulations to all those who received this award. Year 7s will
receive Half Colours at the start of next academic year and there will also be
another opportunity for all other year groups to be recognised at this point.
On Monday, I was delighted to represent Woking High School at the Woking
Rotary Club swimathon presentations. Back in October, six
teams from Woking High School in the swimathon, and the Friends of Woking High
School, were named as recipients of the Local Charities
Award, supported by Woking Rotary and Trident Honda. We are very
grateful to Woking Rotary for their ongoing support.
In the evening, we welcomed our September
2019 Year 7 cohort of students. All Year 6 students were allocated secondary
places on 1st March and in the first stage of their induction we
invited them and their parents to a “Welcome Meeting”. A packed hall heard Mrs
Abbott, Mrs Walter, Mr Crowley and Mrs Doe speak to parents about the ethos and
values of Woking High School, the Year 7 curriculum and pastoral structure,
along with the plans for induction. Meanwhile Year 6 students enjoyed taster
sessions in Art, Science, Design Technology and Computing. There was also an
opportunity for parents to speak informally to senior
staff over coffee and cake. All agreed that it was a very successful and
pleasant evening and our new students reported that they were happy and excited
to be part of the Woking High School family.
After school on Tuesday, a
group of 28 eager Year 9 students launched our 2019 House Bake Off competition
and they really set the bar high! This year’s theme was ‘Great British Sporting
Success’ and there were lots of very creative and wonderfully decorated bakes
showcasing this. The overall winners were Curie who gained a whopping 500
housepoints for their amazing efforts! Individual winners for their ‘Wimbledon’
themed cupcakes were Annabelle Mcalister and Aiman
Razaq, who represented Brunel, and
Emma Griffin and Amelia Sage who represented Stephenson with
their delicious football Cupcakes. We look forward to the Year 8 Bake Off
next week!
On Wednesday 13th
March 2019, the school hosted an evening of music, which
showcased the very best of our students’ musical talent. Sponsored by SEYMOURS
of Horsell, and in its 11th year, the annual Ensemble, Solo
Instrumental and Vocal Competition was first held in 2008, in memory of
student Lorna Paterson. Her mother Alison donated a wonderful silver cup which
is awarded to the overall winner of the coveted “Lorna Paterson Award for
Special Achievement in Music”. To listen, deliberate and then
select winners of each category, we welcomed three special guest judges: Anna
Loveday, Director of the S7 Consortium of Sixth Form Colleges; Rachel
Brazendale, Director of Music at Gordon’s School, and Michael Couper, local
musician at St Mary’s Church, Horsell. Our musical experts certainly had an
unenviable task!
The evening’s entertainment featured 17 performances in various
categories, including Small Ensemble, Woodwind, Percussion, Strings, Voice
and Pianoforte. In addition, last year’s overall winner, Mana Komatsu opened
the event with a wonderful solo on the piano. The soloists, many of whom were
accompanied on the piano by Fiona Godden, gave polished performances
throughout, playing a varied repertoire,
including graded examination pieces, to songs from the latest and most popular
film and stage musicals. As the judges were making their final decisions,
the audience were treated in the finale to a tuba solo. We had invited alumni,
Christopher Pearce, who is currently studying at Gordon’s
School, to conclude the evening. Chris played the `Andante’ by Alexander
Tcherepnin, and this really was a very special performance and much appreciated
by a most welcoming audience of parents, friends, students, governors and staff
members.
In summing up, the judges
commented on the high standard of musicianship and the excellent way in which all
of the performers had presented themselves. It was indeed a difficult task, but
after much deliberation, the Most Promising Performance went to Cameron Sia in
Y7, and then Mana Komastsu presented the overall winner’s cup, the `Lorna
Paterson Award for Special Achievement in Music’ to
Nona Lawrence. Nona’s violin solo was truly outstanding, but Jack Edwards’
performance on the drums was also so good, that judges found it very difficult
to decide between them.
It was a lovely evening of
fine music, and we didn’t notice the howling winds whipping around the walls of
the hall at all. Kind donations given as the audience departed raised
£295 for the cystic fibrosis trust.
Woodwind Category
Y10 - Rachel Allen (flute)*
Y8 - Meghna Amin
(flute)
Vocal Category
Y11 - Madeleine McClements*
Y7 - Phoebe Osborne
Y10 - Lois Miller
Y10 - Lilia Wada
Percussion Category
Y10 - Jack Edwards*
Pianoforte Category
Y9 - Kai Westaway*
Y8 - Leanne
Seet
Y7 - Cameron
Sia
String Category
Y9 - Nona Lawrence (violin)*
Y10 - Harry Davies
(guitar)
Y10 - Charlotte Joos (violin)
Y10 - Toby Webb (guitar)
Small Ensemble Category
Y11 - Madeleine McClements, Y8 - Karl Sonoy (vocal)*
Y10 - Lois Miller, Lilia Wada (vocal)
Y10 - Rachel Allen, Isobel Picken
(flute)
Most Promising Performance
Y7 – Cameron Sia, (piano)*
The ‘Lorna Paterson Award for Special Achievement in
Music’ Presented by Mana Komatsu (2018 winner)
Y9 - Nona Lawrence (violin)*
Day 11, yesterday, was a vibrant and exciting day with over 350
students involved in activities off site. It was the first big off
site activity for Year 7 and over 134 student took up the opportunity to visit
the Down and Wealdland Open Air Museum, where History was really brought to
life as students could actually go in and explore a range of houses and
buildings from across the centuries to see how living and working conditions
have changed. Year 10 GCSE DT students visited the Design Museum to help
support their current classwork projects by seeing first-hand the work of designers
and the evolution of ideas. Year 11 GCSE Geography students completed
their Geographical Coastal Study to prepare for Paper 3 of the final GCSE exam with a
visit to Barton-on-Sea to collect data on coastal management and experience
first-hand how this bridges the physical and human world.
Some of the Young Carers had a day at Surrey University
where they were took part in a number of team building activities through a
range of sporting activities. Back at school there were activities for
those left behind: Year 7s spent the day in English;
Year 8s looked at the use of Media and created a comic strip to tell a
story; Year 9s spent an exciting day in Science,
making water rockets, while some Year 10s spent time completing their Languages
speaking assessment ahead of the Year 10 examination series, with
the rest of the year group spending time in Maths and PE. Year 11 Art and Drama
students used the time for final examination preparation, with the remainder
using the time for private examination practice and revision.
Best wishes,
Jane Abbott
Headteacher