Friday, 22 March 2019

Headteacher's Weekly Review


Dear Parents/Carers,

There is masses to celebrate this week as our students have been in sparkling form.

Over the last two months, the Computing Department at Woking High School has joined other schools in taking part of the Digital Schoolhouse E-Sport Tournament playing the Overwatch computer game. Over 60 students have competed to date. A team of Year 10 boys (has won the school title, and will be competing at the regional qualifiers, which will be taking place on 26th March in Stratford – London. If they are successful, then they will be competing in the UK national final on 10th April.

During last weekend our Year 10 Girls Basketball team became County champions beating Harris Academy Crystal Palace 42 – 23. The game was much closer than the score line suggested with all girls contributing to the success.

On Sunday at the British Schools Biathlon Championships at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre our Under 15 boys’ team were in outstanding form, winning the British Schools Biathlon for the second consecutive year. All four Under 15 boys recorded considerable personal bests in both runs and swims. The team consisted of Josh Thompson, Michael Young and Alexej Baldwin but were well supported by Steven Wood. Please see results below:

British Schools Biathlon
Under 15 Boys Team Results:
1st       Woking High                          6746
2nd      Strathallan School                   5201
3rd       Campion School                      5082

Individual Results (Top 20 only):
Under 15 Boys            Joshua Thompson        5th
Under 15 Boys            Michael Young           8th
Under 15 Boys            Alexej Baldwin           11th
Under 15 Boys            Steven Wood              14th
Under 12 Girls            Bella Hornzee             17th



On Tuesday Our Year 7 Girls competed at the County Finals at Guildford Spectrum all of the team performed superbly. There were eleven schools competing our girls finished agonisingly in second place. Please see top three team results below :

1st       Howard of Effingham            468
2nd      Woking High                          457
3rd       Rodborough                            455

Also over the weekend, brothers Chris (Year 11) and Marin Somlev (Year 7) represented the school at the British Schools Judo championships in Sheffield at the English Institute of Sport. Both performed extremely well with Martin winning Bronze in the Under 15 55kg category and Chris in ninth place in the Under 16 66kg category.

On Thursday our Year 7 Girls Basketball team became County Champions winning all three games in the process.

Please see scores below:

Won 7 - 4 v George Abbott
Won 19 - 4 v Teddington
Won 20 - 0 v Howard of Effingham

This caps an outstanding season where the girls remain unbeaten.

Following the success of our Vocal, Instrumental, Solo and Ensemble competition last week, several of our outstanding musicians performed for all 270 children and staff at The Horsell Village School on Tuesday morning. A request for live music had been made some weeks ago by Miss Newman, their Music Coordinator, and we were happy to oblige by sending recent participants of the school’s annual music competition to inspire and entertain the enthusiastic infants. Instrumental performances included Nona Lawrence on violin, Meghan Amin on the flute, Leanne Seet on the piano and a particularly notable piano solo by Kia Westaway, whose mum works at The Village School and was able to hear Kia play this technically challenging piece. Two very engaging theatrical vocal solos were given by Phoebe Osborne and Lois Miller, but Karl Sonoy and Madeleine McClements reduced some staff to tears with a hauntingly beautiful rendition of ‘Never Enough’ from The Greatest Showman. This was a lovely opportunity to showcase musical talent and also to provide our own students with additional experience in live performance. Thank you to Fiona Godden from Surrey Arts for joining us to accompany the students on the piano.

Later that afternoon we had 30 very keen bakers take part in the Year 9 round of the “Bake Off” and the standard was extremely high! However, just like last week Curie were the winning House gaining 500 housepoints for their amazing bakes!!!

House Team Results:
1st Curie (500)
2nd  Faraday(200)
3rd  Stephenson(100)
4th Brunel (50)

Individual winners:
Callum Bright and Dylan Gubb (8W) (50)
Lily Hallam and Amy Rolfe (8Y) (50)




Our Year 7 cohort had the opportunity to meet with author Julie Sykes on Thursday 21st March.  Julie enthused the Year 7 students during her interactive talk about her books.  Our students had so many questions to ask her that Julie was overwhelmed by their passion.  Julie was impressed by our students’ behaviour and their enthusiasm for reading and writing, and stressed that this enthusiasm went above and beyond in her experience of visiting secondary schools.

Thursday evening was a buzz of activity as Year 8 parents and students attended the Year 8 Consultation Evening. Consultation evenings are an important part of our communication with parents, so it was particularly pleasing to see that 86% of parents attended to speak to teachers about the students’ progress. Parents who were unable to attend will be contacted by the pastoral team to arrange another time to discuss progress of their son or daughter.  

Congratulations to Stephanie Maties who passed her Grade 6 clarinet exam with a merit.

Please see attached a flyer announcing the forthcoming Woking Symphony Orchestra Spring Concert on March 23rd.  Of particular interest there will also be a pre-concert talk about the music by our Conductor, Roy Stratford, at 6.45 p.m. before the concert begins, which is available to all ticket-holders.


Best wishes,

Jane Abbott
Headteacher