Headteacher's Weekly Review

Dear Parents/Carers,

Last Friday we had over 50 students in action at the First Round of the English Schools Athletics match at Woking Sportsbox. We are hopeful that at least two of our teams will have qualified for the South East B final. There were some exceptional individual performances with Year 7, Jiyah Kapotwe, breaking the School record in the 800m in a time of 2.21.40 minutes. We had numerous individual winners, please see team and selected individual results below:

English Schools Athletics First Round

Team Results:

Junior Boys    5th

Junior Girls    4th

Inter Boys     4th

Inter Girls      7th

Individual Winners:

Liam Stone              Inter Boys     1500m

Chris Baker             Inter Boys     800m

Matthew King           Inter Boys     200m

Toby Webb              Inter Boys     Discus

Teddy Gannon          Junior Boys    Discus

Lizzie Chapman        Junior Girls    300m

Lizzie Chapman        Junior Girls    Discus

Congratulations go to Rhys Conlon in Year 7, who has been selected as part of the Great Britain climbing squad. Below is a picture of him training with them.

This week Year 7 Mandarin students completed their Speaking Hurdle test.  They had to introduce themselves and their family and describe a picture in a GCSE-style assessment.  They did extremely well to overcome their nerves and show what they had learnt!  Their next test will be Reading and Listening on the 5th June.

A number of the most able Year 9 students, completed their work researching the air quality around the school site, with the London Sustainability Exchange this week. They met to discuss the results and evaluate a range of strategies to reduce air pollution. The results came back positive, as the air quality was above the minimum standards in all areas. One way in which you could help reduce this further, is by turning car engines off whilst you wait for your child at the end of the day, or by encouraging your child to cycle, walk or use public transport to travel to school, if possible.

Last year, the Year 10 students proposed a change from the Head Boy/Head Girl title to Head Student, feeling it was a more inclusive term and reflective of the time we live in.  At Woking High School, we pride ourselves on the maturity of our students and the strength of our Student Voice. We therefore listened to what our students had to say and, having explored the idea further, we decided to implement the students’ proposal. As a result, I am pleased to announce that the Senior Student Team will be:

Head Students

Roisin Fellowes

Dora Savory

Deputy Head Students

Esraa Fahgahly

Charlotte Hamilton

Emma Harris

Oscar Khan

Abigail Shameen

Toby Webb

Olly Wooster

Congratulations to those students and I know that Mrs Walter, as Headteacher designate, is looking forward to working with them.  Thank you also to all the other students who put themselves forward as candidates.

On Wednesday a group of 20 Year 8 students spent the morning at The University of Surrey visiting their STEAM Festival. This inspiring and energetic event showcased different subject disciplines and their application within Higher Education and Industry, with a particular focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. Students engaged and interacted with various demonstrations, observing subjects in a different light and learning more about their own potential career options and pathways in the process. They discovered how Science, Maths and the Arts, can collaborate through technology and innovation, seeing how everyday objects are created from a different perspective. Students took part in informal workshops hosted by McLaren, they watched performances from the Theatre Society and a UNICEF Awareness performance and had the opportunity to visit a Planetarium show.

Following a successful, but windy practice expedition in April, 26 Year 10 participants will be completing their assessed Silver expedition on the South Downs from Thursday 16th to Saturday 17th May.  Walking approximately 45 kilometres in total, they will carry all of their equipment and food between two campsites, enjoying beautiful views of the English Channel and the Downs. They are all well prepared and have worked well within their groups; we wish them well.

There are two workshops taking place that your children may be interested in - A woodwork programme running over the May half-term with the Great British Woodshop - please see attached flyer and Stagecoach Woking has two great Summer fun workshops planned which will run from the 29th July to the 2nd August. They have a workshop designed for children aged between 4-6 years and the theme will be Excerpts from School of Rock and another workshop for older students aged between 6-18 years which the theme will be Grease. To register, please go to www.stagecoach.co.uk/woking or email woking@stagecoach.co.uk or call 07957 825641. No Stagecoach experience necessary."  There is also a competition running for a child to win a FREE place in a workshop! Please see attached information on the competition. The closing date is 29th June.

Best wishes,

Jane Abbott

Headteacher

Headteacher's Weekly Review

Dear Parents/Carers,

Despite being a slightly shorter week, following the Bank holiday on Monday, much has been achieved.

On Tuesday we welcomed author Matt Dickinson. Students from Years 7-10 and their parents, signed up to attend a talk with the author, film-maker and mountaineer. Matt spoke of his experiences of climbing Mount Everest, reaching the summit and its challenging environment.  He showed footage of his adventures working as a film-maker for the BBC and National Geographic.  Matt spoke about his work as an author and encouraged the students and parents to participate in his creative writing challenge.

Our sports teams have been in evidence over the past days. Our table tennis team of Jacob Kelly in Year 9 and Year 7 students Luke Kelly, Lewis Mayho, Daniel Grainger, Edward Robinson and Herbie Hunter, played Gordon’s in the Arete competition losing narrowly 5-4.  It was extremely well contested and all of the participants were a credit to their respective schools. On Wednesday, 30 of our students competed in the district athletics trials, there were a number of personal best performances. Teddy Gannon broke the Year 8 school record in discus recording a distance of 30.80m. We are hoping to have many of our students selected to represent the district at the county championships on 8th June. Today we have 50 students competing in the first round of the English schools’ athletics competition.

Year 11 Drama students completed the performance section of their GCSE on Wednesday. Last week Art GCSE students completed their 10 hour practical and today has seen the start of the Immersion timetable in preparation for written GCSEs which start on Monday with RE. We wish all our Year 11, the very best of luck with their exams over the coming weeks.

Best wishes,

Jane Abbott

Headteacher

Headteacher's Weekly Review

Dear Parents/Carers,

We have just received news of two of our Year 8 students who competed in skiing and sailing events over the Easter holiday. Finley Salter took part in the British Alpine Championships in Tignes, France.  In order to compete Finley had to qualify by scoring sufficient points in previous races.  The competition was tough, especially as the top skiers live and train in the Alps and several of the races were won by the French number one, who has British relatives.   Finley competed in Super G, Giant Slalom and Slalom over five days, with his best result being a respectable 13th position in his age group.  Madeleine Greaves went to Lake Garda in Italy to compete in a sailing event in her Optimist dinghy. It is the world's largest regatta of a single class of boat and there were 1100 competitors from 37 countries. After 3 days of sailing, Madeleine qualified for the silver fleet in her age group, which she then won on Easter Sunday. Congratulations go to them both.

Last Friday evening three of our students performed at a special awards event hosted by the Mayor of Woking, and attended by members of Woking Borough Council, honoured guests, family and friends. The Mayor’s Civic reception held at the HG Wells Centre is an annual gathering to celebrate and recognise the achievements of citizens of the borough in recognition for their contributions to the community. During the last few years, Woking High School has been honoured to receive a special invitation to provide two quality musical performances just before the Mayors speech and main presentation. Supported by proud parents and accompanied by local pianist Fiona Godden, duettists Madeleine McClements and Karl Sonoy went first, and sang Never Enough from the hit musical ‘The Greatest Showman’. Their voices blended beautifully in perfect harmony. To follow, violinist Nona Lawrence, played a remarkable set of six variations from the Romanian Folk Dances by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók.  Mr Goodwin who attended the evening, reported that “the students were simply stunning and thoroughly professional in their performances, and were possibly the best musical ambassadors the school could offer at such a prestigious event”. At the evenings conclusion, the Mayor of Woking and many guests thanked the students personally for their efforts. It was a great evening and provided another very positive experience for our students.

The following students successfully passed recent practical music examinations:

Y7 - Jasmine Baker Grade 2 Guitar

Y7 - Cerys Soper Grade 2 pianoforte

Y7 - Max Togher Grade 2 Viola with Merit

Y8 - Hugo Komatsu Grade 5 Pianoforte with Merit

Y9 - Kai Westaway Grade 7 clarinet Merit

Y9 - Nona Lawence Grade 8 Violin with Distinction

Following a Year 7 visit to see our local national league basketball team, The Surrey Scorchers, play a match against the Leicester Riders, we were fortunate to have two of their players run a coaching session at Woking High School on Monday. This celebrated the success’ of our teams this season: Boys District Champions, Girls District and County Champions. Captain of the Surrey Scorchers Tayo Ogendengbe and Henry Wilkins took the players through the fundamentals of dribbling and introducing new and challenging skills. They then refereed small sided games. The students learnt a great deal and were thrilled to have taken part in a session lead by such accomplished players.

On Wednesday our Year 10/11 boys and girls athletics teams competed in the District Championships. Our boys team were exceptional winning for the fourth consecutive year and the ninth time in twelve years. Our girls team competed well, but finished fifth overall. In the boys 100m Double English School, gold medallist Dominic Ariyo-Francis broke the School and District Record for the 100m in a staggering time of 10.87 seconds. Please see team scores and individual top 3 places below:

Year 10/11 District Athletic Championships boys results:

1st      Woking High   76

2nd     Tomlinscote    65

3rd     Gordons        63

Girls Results:

1st      Gordons        79

2nd     Tomlinscote    67.5

3rd     SWPS           62

5th     Woking High   50

Individual Top 3 Places:

Gold    Dominic Ariyo-Francis         100m (School and District Record)

Gold    Charlie Terry                     400m

Gold    Abiel Natnael                     Long Jump

Gold    Toby Webb                        Discus

Gold                                          Boys 4x100m Relay

Silver  Matthew King                    Hurdles

Silver  Abiel Natnael                     200m

Silver  Chris Baker                       800m

Silver  Liam Stone                       500m

Silver  Alexis Cortade                   Javelin

Bronze Max Carter                        High Jump

Bronze Danel Jansen                     100m

Bronze Mia Smith                         300m

Bronze Jodie Bongartz                   1500m

The Friends of Woking High School have just received notification of the amount raised from the Pen and Homecare products recycling for the last 6 months. They received £17.42 for the pens and £82.76 for the Homecare products and bottle tops, so a total of £100.18 for the last 6 months.  This is a great contribution from the Friends of Woking High School, plus even more importantly, saving all that waste from going into landfill.  It would be wonderful to beat this total at the next payment point in October, so please can the Friends remind everyone that they are still collecting milk bottle tops, Homecare products and pens.  Please see attached posters. Friends would like to thank Sheila Tattersdill and Steve Chapman, plus all other students and supporters of Woking High Schoo,l who have made contributions to the 2 recycling schemes.  Also to the office, who help manage the collection of the recycling.

Finally, I hope you have received a Schoolcomms letter from Mr Tehal, Chair of Governors, announcing that Mrs Maiken Walter, currently Deputy Headteacher, has been appointed as the next Headteacher of Woking High School, commencing the role in September 2019.  I’m sure you will join with me and the whole school community in congratulating her and sending her our best wishes, as she prepares to take on the best job in the world!

Best wishes,

Jane Abbott

Headteacher