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