Lambing season has been a great success for us this year.
We’re delighted to have welcomed 14 healthy lambs to the flock – 4 boys and 10 girls.
It’s been a very busy but rewarding time, and we’re so pleased to see them all thriving and full of energy.
A huge thank you to Chris and Clara, who have worked incredibly hard throughout lambing to make sure everything ran smoothly and that both ewes and lambs were well cared for.
Earth Day – Wednesday 22 April if you didn’t know – will be celebrated in school next week in an Open Mic lunchtime event on the day itself.
Our theme is Nature – theirs is Our Power, Our Planet fyi – students are invited to register in advance at the library should they wish to read from a book or poem of their own choosing.
All participants will receive a credit.
The deadline to register is Monday 20 April. We hope to see you there!
The first meeting of The Friends of Oathall, the re-launched PTA, is Thursday 23rd April at 7pm in the school library.
Everyone is welcome to come along if you want to get involved. Come and join us, meet other parents and hear about our ideas to get our PTA active this year.
Towards the end of last term our Y11 Animal Care class welcomed some tiny new additions into the world of Oathall Farm. Eleven Indian stick insect nymphs – which you might be able to see in the photos above if you look closely – were successfully hatched from eggs that students Harry B and Harry T have been carefully tending to over the last five months. The Harrys, also pictured, could be considered proud grandparents, as the new babies represent the second generation of stick insects they have collected and hatched while at Oathall.
Our bushel – the collective noun for stick insects – of Indian stick insects are all female, and naturally lay eggs continuously without male involvement in a process called parthenogenesis. Their eggs need a careful balance of heat and humidity for the next 3-6 months before they hatch, and the young nymphs will eat privet, bramble and ivy leaves as they moult and mature into adults.
As Indian stick insects only live for a year, we are immensely proud of our students for having a hand in nurturing the next generation of nymphs for future students to appreciate.
Towards the end of last term the Modern Foreign Languages department launched a competition for students to bake a cake – the theme being Around The World In A Cake.
Credits and certificates were awarded to students placed in first, second and third place. There was a fantastic response, and as you can they received a very tempting and varied selection of entries!
The overall winner was Clare in Y8 with her German chocolate and cherry cake, second place was the Swedish cake with the flower on top, a joint entry by Mia and Lily both in Y9 and third place went to Eddie in Y7 with his Romanian cake.
The department would like to thank everyone that took part. And credit for the photos goes to Hristiyanin in Y9 – good job.
You may recall earlier in the year Oathall hosted a UK Maths Trust Intermediate Mathematical Challenge for Years 9-11. Well now it’s the Year 7 and 8’s turn!
It’s time for them to sign up for the Junior Mathematical Challenge which is taking place in school on Wednesday 29th April.
The deadline to sign up – using this Form – is Wednesday 22nd April.
The Junior Mathematical Challenge is a 60 minute, 25 multiple choice question challenge. It encourages mathematical reasoning, precision of thought and fluency to make students think.
If students wanted to get a feel for the sort of questions they may be challenged with, they can see some past papers on the UKMT website.
This is a great opportunity for budding mathematicians to shine – but also for all students to take part in a nationwide challenge representing their school.
Once again, they need to sign up by 22nd April 2026.
The Gym & Dance Show took place on Wednesday evening and it was a resounding success. If you couldn’t make it then we hope this selection of photos help to convey the energy and commitment from everyone who took part on the night.
It was a fun night of dance and gymnastics and we look forward seeing you all again next year when we go again!
Well done to everyone involved in creating such a magical spectacle – the atmosphere was off the scale.
The photo above shows Oathall’s brand new, replacement 3G synthetic turf sports pitch just a handful of weeks away from being ready to use by our eager students and local community users.
The turf carpet is currently being laid, after that the sand and rubber crumb pellets will be applied to ensure that pile of the carpet stays upright.
The photos below highlight the journey we’ve been on with S&C Slatter who won the tender to replace our existing pitch. The only part of the old pitch that remains, is the LED floodlights. Everything else has been replaced from the ground up, the foundations, the tarmac, the fences, the kickboards – made out of recycled artificial turf carpet – the shock pad underlay, and the turf carpet itself.
It’s been a major project, but the results I hope you agree are stunning and we can’t wait to start using it. We look forward to many years of use ahead!
Eight juvenile chickens were recently introduced to Oathall Farm and they are thriving in their new environment, with some laying already.
Pictured here are Y10 volunteer feeders, Lillie-Rose, Eleanor and Megan who we are are indebted to for their enthusiasm and support on the Farm.
The chickens are settling well into the new chicken area, envisioned and created by Clara Farmer (Senior Farm Technician) and Chris Candy (Farm Technician). The chickens are especially enjoying the variety of enrichment features, and can be seen foraging near habitat piles, resting on their log perches and even balancing on their tree swing!
There are now 10 chickens on the Farm with breeds ranging from Speckedly Gold to Amber Star.
Business Studies is a hugely popular GCSE option choice at Oathall, so when local independent estate agent Mathew Gurr offered to come in to talk to Y10s about marketing, brand management and business planning, we knew it was going to be a sure-fire hit.
We’re so grateful to Mathew for giving up so much of his time – we had to run the session twice there were so many students – and for preparing a presentation that resonated so clearly with some of the topics they are studying.
There were lots of questions from the audience, and our Business Studies teachers are going to be reflecting on what Mathew talked about in future lessons. Thank you, Mathew!
