Students celebrate excellent GCSE results

22nd August 2019J Godbolt

Congratulations to Oathall students who are celebrating their excellent GCSE results. Students have seen impressive outcomes across all areas of the curriculum.

In English, 73% of students achieved a grade 4 or above whilst in mathematics 67% of students achieved a grade 4 or higher. In science, 75% of students achieved 2 good science GCSE passes.

There were some exceptional individual performances with more than 11% of the cohort achieving 7 or more passes at grades 7, 8 or 9. Moreover, 23% of all grades awarded were 7 or higher.

Students of all abilities have excelled and achieved results of which they should be very proud. It is clear that their progress and attainment is significantly positive.

Headteacher, Edward Rodriguez said,
“I would like to congratulate all students and staff. The fact that so many of our students have reached their full potential, with others exceeding expectations, is testament to their hard work and commitment.”

Year 10 First Aiders

10th July 2019J Godbolt

Students in Year 10 studying child development have just completed a first aid course specifically covering emergency first aid for babies and toddlers. The course took place over two days and students learnt how to deal with burns, breaks, bandaging, choking and asthma in babies and small children. As well as this the course covered how to perform CPR and mouth-to-mouth and how to use a defibrillator – skills which could be applied to anyone, not just babies.

Mrs Kirkpatrick said:

“another successful Year 10 cohort has passed their first aid course. It was great to see so many of our students become potential life-savers and to learn skills which are so useful to them. They were all fantastic over the 2 hours and I was very proud of the way they all threw themselves into the practical elements, which can be a little embarassing!”

Oathall’s Rugby World Cup Bake-Off

5th June 2019J Godbolt

Each year, the Rotary Club sponsors the Oathall bake-off competition. This year’s competition theme was the Rugby World Cup – Japan 2019.

17 students entered by baking a cake at home and sending in a picture for consideration. These entries were then judged on creativity and skills with 8 being selected to enter the final competition.

The competition took place on Tuesday 4 June with competitors being given 4 hours to bake & decorate their cake from scratch. The cake ingredients were provided by the Rotary Club & the decorations were provided by the students.

At the end of the competition the cakes were judged by a panel made up from WI members, Kate Kent and Julia Vokes, Mike Hoare and Nigel Vokes from the Rotary Club, Emily Hughes and Emma Brown from Oathall’s catering team, as well as Emily Brock, three times previous Oathall Bake-Off winner.

Cakes were judged on appearance, skill level, taste & texture as well as on creativity and originality. The winning cake came top in all of the criteria. The judges were particularly impressed by the original use of Yuzu a Japanese flavouring in the filling as well as the creativity and professional finish.

Every person who entered received a whisk and wooden spoon with the final entrants receiving an apron and recipe book. The top three entries also received gift vouchers as their prize.

A display and information about the event will also go up in the WI tent at the South of England Show.

2019 Senior Prefect team

3rd May 2019J Godbolt

We are very pleased to announce the new 2019 senior prefect team. The selection process involved students initially writing a letter of application. They were then asked to present on a theme of ‘What one thing would you change about Oathall and how would you go about actioning the change’.

All the students who took part in the process performed exceptionally well and after careful consideration, Ben McDowell and Kitty Underhill were chosen to be School Captains. Seren Billson, Esme Bridgen, Felix Carter and Jessica Ruddock were appointed as Vice Captains.

Students rise to the Tenner Challenge

5th April 2019J Godbolt

Enterprising students at Oathall Community College have raised £1586 for charities by participating in Young Enterprises ‘Tenner Challenge’. Over four weeks students use £10 pledges to get their student business ideas off the ground and make as much profit as they can.

This year, 18 teams made up from over 40 students in year 8 and year 9 took part. Teams provided a range of services and products such as chocolate pizzas, car washing, gardening services, arts and crafts and dog-walking. Students could sell their products & services to friends and family as well as at lunchtime fairs in school. Students commented that the challenge had taught them a lot about being independent and that it gave them a good experience of the financial & marketing side of running a business.

At the end of the four weeks, the teams returned their initial £10 and paid £1 as a legacy donation to Young Enterprise to support next year’s event. Students donated £1586 of their £2309 profits to their chosen charities.

Mrs Laura Griffiths said,
It has been remarkable to see how well the students have taken on this challenge. Their dedication and commitment has been fantastic. They have shown how well they can work together in a team and have overcome obstacles they have faced. It has been a great experience for them to see what it is like to run a business of their own taking into consideration costs, advertising and profits. I am very proud of what they have achieved and that a huge amount of their profits went to such fantastic charities

Rock Challenge 2019 ‘Black Swan’

8th March 2019J Godbolt

On Monday 25th March, around 50 students from Oathall took part in the 2019 Rock Challenge Competition. This was the culmination of 7 months hard work and dedication from the performers, stage crew and lighting team. The achievement from each and every student was outstanding.

Oathall’s performance this year was titled ‘Black Swan’. This was a contemporary, street dance fusion piece that explored the physiological and psychological struggles of a mentally delicate dancer and her strive for perfection, only to find herself struggling to maintain her sanity as she descends into madness from the pressure of perfection. To succeed, she will have to transform herself into something she has never been.

The Rock Challenge was established in order to combine the benefits of taking part in a large scale dance production with involvement in a positive ‘ drug-free’ activity.

Although Oathall did not win, the students’ performance was recognised with awards gained in the following categories

• Award of Excellence in Lighting
• Award of Excellence for Entertainment
• Award of Excellence for Visual Enhancement
• Award of Excellence for Stage Use
• Award of Excellence for Costuming and Character
• Award of Excellence for Soundtrack

Performance faculty enrichment leader, Mrs Avery said

I am proud that at Oathall the Rock Challenge event brings students of all ages, backgrounds and gender together in order to work collaboratively on a brilliant production. The students take charge not only of choreography but costumes, sound, lighting and scenery.

I would like to thank every student who took part in and contributed to this year’s production, you were all a pleasure to work with. Finally, thank you to all the parents & staff who kindly support dance at Oathall and help to encourage our students to achieve amazing things.

 

Oathall’s Sporting Superstars

15th February 2019J Godbolt

It has been a fabulous sporting start to 2019 for Oathall’s PE teams. We have been successful against local schools in Football, Futsal, Indoor Athletics, Indoor Cricket and Hockey to name but a few.

Here’s a quick summary of some of the highlights

The U12 boys’ hockey team (pictured above) played in the annual tournament in Crawley with 5 other schools, with a combination of U13 and U12 teams. Despite being the youngest team present they finished unbeaten with 4 wins and 1 draw.

Our Indoor Athletics teams were successful in the Mid-Sussex round of the Countywide indoor athletics competition with the Year 7 Girls & Year 8 boys winning their rounds.

The Under 12 Girls Football team have completed all of their West Sussex league fixtures and have finished the season unbeaten.

Keep up the good work everybody!

If you need a reminder of our Autumn successes in the performance faculty catch up with their newsletter here.

Youth Speaks public speaking success

11th February 2019J Godbolt

On Saturday 9th February our Junior Public Speaking team travelled to Cranleigh with Ms Slade for the next round of the Rotary Club’s ‘Youth Speaks’ competition. The team, made up of Molly, Matty and Tom had already secured a clear victory at a local level and were now facing the District Semi-Finals. This was a larger heat with a total of 6 teams, all fighting for one place in the District Final.

All three students brought their A game and proved from the outset they were serious contenders. Speaking on the theme of ‘Welcome to our World – a unique insight into the world of teenagers’ the team delivered a confident and faultless entry. Not only did Molly take the award for Best Speaker, and Matty for Best Chair Person but the team also took the overall prize, securing a place in the District Finals in March.

Commenting on their performance Ms Slade said,

I am really proud of our team’s achievement. The hours of rehearsal and the time and effort they had all put in was evident as they delivered their speech. I am looking forward to the next round and wish them the best of luck.

 

DRONE 500 Challenge

2nd October 2018J Godbolt

Oathall students and staff have attended the launch of this year’s Mid Sussex STEM Challenge. The event took place at Mid Sussex District Council offices and was officially launched by the High Sheriff of West Sussex Caroline Nicholls. The Drone 500 challenge has been developed to encourage an interest in STEM subjects amongst young people and to help them understand how these subjects will be applied in industry in the future.

In the first year, the challenge was won by Year 9 students from Oathall. In this, the second year of the competition, more schools from across Sussex have entered for the chance to win. Over the next six months, each school is being tasked to build a drone for £500. The drone will be required to meet a number of very specific requirements which will be tested at the final next March. As well as this each team will be required to produce a business case which they will pitch to a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style panel. Each team will be supported and mentored along the way by members of the local business community.

Head of Art and Design Technology, Pete Robinson said,

“This is a fantastic opportunity for our students to gain an insight into the world of engineering and design. Not only does it encourage an interest in STEM but it develops team building and a work ethic at an early age. We will, of course be working hard to retain our title!”