Students’ artistic talents on show in lockdown

1st February 2021J Godbolt

Students may not have access to the full range of school art resources at present but that hasn’t stopped them from getting creative at home.

In their remote lessons, students in key stage 3 and key stage 4 have been working on a number of topics and creating a range of pieces using photography, video, painting, drawing and collage.

Year 9 students have been tasked with creating a digital drawing using the Banksy artwork ‘Girl with a red balloon’ as inspiration, whilst students in year 7 were asked to observe and record the views from their windows in a media of their choosing.

This presentation gives you a flavour of some of the amazing work that has been created.

Getting creative in the great outdoors

15th January 2021J Godbolt

Students at Oathall have recently benefited from a generous donation from the Fairfax “Building Young Futures” education support programme. The programme has helped to fund a new outdoor learning hub on Oathall’s farm where students will be taught to develop skills using the Forest Schools ethos of learning. The new hub and resources will be used by students across all year groups helping them to develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on activities and experiences gained in an outdoor setting.

An activity week is also being planned for summer 2021 where young people will be able to enjoy a week of fun and challenging activities, all provided by Fairfax.

Mr Blackholly, Head of Farm, said,

“I would like to thank the ‘Building Young Futures’ initiative for their generous support of Oathall students. We are especially grateful to Mr Peter Chisholm MBE for his help and support for this project. We are looking forward to inviting him and Fairfax representatives back to Oathall to see how their support has helped to transform young lives”.

 

Autumn into Winter 2020

17th December 2020J Godbolt

Welcome to our final Teaching & Learning bulletin of the year. At the end of what might be considered, a long and arduous autumn term, it is so important to remind ourselves of the many positive events that have been taking place. Not least, the excellent news below of the school’s success in being selected to name the first operational turbine situated off the coast of Brighton. Well done to Mrs Lindsley and the EcOathall group.

Like others, the school has clearly faced many challenges this year. Regardless, it has been so good to see our students back at school, engaging with their learning so positively and interacting in person once again with their teachers and friends. The Oathall school community has demonstrated resilience, patience and optimism. Please explore, via the links at the top, examples of such positive experiences across the school.

As always, thank you for your continued support.

On behalf of the staff anf governors of the college, may I wish you and your families the very best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.

Edward Rodriguez
Headteacher

 

Announcing the 2020-2021 Senior prefect team

19th October 2020J Godbolt

Left to right: Oscar, Molly, Nicole, Isla, Lola, Katie and Wahi.

We are especially pleased to announce our 2020-2021 Senior Prefect team. Our selection process was delayed by several months after the school closure and restrictions arising from COVID.

The normal process of applications, interviews and voting took place this term and we are pleased to announce that our school captains are Isla and Lola.  Our team of vice-captains are Katie, Molly, Nicole, Oscar and Wahi. They have already begun to contribute by assisting with Zoom Q&A sessions for families of students in Y6 who are thinking of joining Oathall next September. Congratulations to all of them.

GCSE results 2020

20th August 2020J Godbolt

Congratulations to all of our students receiving their GCSE results today. In these unprecedented times we are immensely proud of what you have achieved in your time at Oathall and your results today reflect the hard work and effort that you have put in as a student.

Headteacher Mr Rodriguez said

“The excellent results today reflect how committed and hardworking our students have been during their time at Oathall. They should all be rightly proud of what they have achieved. The support from teachers and families has been crucial, particularly at this time. I wish each and every one of you success as you take next steps in life.”

House Championship winners

22nd July 2020J Godbolt

We are pleased to announce the 2019-2020 House Championship winners.

Credit cup winners – Pioneer
Attendance Cup winners – Pioneer
House Championship winners – Pioneer

Congratulations to everyone in Pioneer for this great achievement. Assistant Head of House, Mrs Corbett accepted the cup on behalf of the students in Pioneer at the end of the term.

 

The final end of year House scores were

Pioneer – 138

Voyager 125

Discovery – 104

Endeavour – 104

Oathall House Distance Challenge results

6th July 2020J Godbolt
The results are in!
Thank you to everyone for participating in the Distance Challenge. We had such a great effort from everyone with students, families, staff and even pets taking part.
A big thank you to Mrs Blyth, who took responsibility for managing the scoring which was not an easy task looking at total distances:
Here are the scores and running order:
  1. Pioneer: 3039.82 points with 1102km achieved
  2. Voyager: 2133.31points with 1012.76km achieved
  3. Endeavour:1353 points with 410km achieved
  4. Discovery: 1103.43 points with 364.24km achieved

Thank you, everyone, and keep up with the exercise over the summer

Good Deed Competition

28th April 2020J Godbolt

Prior to the Easter holidays, our ‘Good Deed House Competition’ was launched, students were asked to submit a picture, report or video of a ‘good deed’. Unsurprisingly, many of our students rose to the challenge; baking cakes for elderly neighbours, gardening, supporting younger siblings, making supportive signs and raising money for the NHS to name just a few.

Our top 4 deeds as voted for by staff were:

Libby (Y7) who made a cake for her elderly self-isolating neighbour and put a box of old books and DVDs outside her house for people to take.
Lola (Y10) who has been looking after her sister whilst her Mum has been at work and even taught her to bake biscuits
Ella, Amy and Rose (Y10) who have been climbing steps in their house equivalent to the Empire State Building to raise money for the NHS and The Gunjur Project in The Gambia as visited by students in February.
Isla has been supporting her grandmother by caring and walking Rupert, her much-loved dog. Isla sends her grandmother pictures of the dog which has been of great comfort.

Special thanks go to Jacob (Y9) for his heartwarming sign in support of NHS, Lucy (Y7), Jason (Y9), Jacob and Maxwell (Y7) for their fantastic gardening, Jasmine (Y7) for waking early to prepare a surprise breakfast for her family and Frederick (Y7) for helping his dad with some heavy-duty logging work!

All entries contributed to the House points and the overall results were
1st Voyager
2nd Pioneer
3rd Discovery
4th Endeavour

Congratulations to you all and keep up the fantastic work!
Miss Gyngell

Under 14 County Cup Quarter Finalists

27th November 2019J Godbolt

Oathall’s Under 14 Girls Football team continued to show resilience, determination and grit to secure their place in the County Cup Quarter Finals making them one of the top 8 teams in Sussex.

The match against Claremont School was a gripping game with the score drawn at 2-2 at full time. Neither team was able to penetrate the defence in extra time and following a further 20 minutes of play, nothing could divide Oathall and Claremont teams. The match went to penalties with Oathall’s penalty takers and goalkeeper holding their nerve eventually winning the match 3 – 2. Congratulations to everyone who took part.

The team will now go on to play Cardinal Newman school in the Quarter finals.

Chatting and crafting in the community

6th November 2019J Godbolt

Students at Oathall have just attended their first session at Compton House care home in Lindfield. Our students volunteered to spend time with the residents helping them to colour and write messages on poppies for a Remembrance day project in the home. Our student volunteers are ideally placed to give the residents an opportunity to chat and socialise with younger people from the community.

Miss Murray, who organised the session said

The group were fantastic and were really natural with the residents. They were so helpful and lovely with the residents, it was great to see. We are hoping to make this a regular event.