In 2019, some of our talented students produced a film of our Open Day event. We hope this gives you a flavour of what you have missed.
And alongside that, why don’t you have a look at the presentation we put together for our students who joined us this September. We hope these two short films begin to give you an insight into what Oathall is all about.
Tuesday 15 September is Battle of Britain Day. To commemorate this day, on Monday 14 September, students from Oathall remembered a local Battle of Britain pilot by laying a wreath and holding a small ceremony at his graveside in Western Road Cemetery in Haywards Heath.
Flying Officer Richard Plummer was born in Haywards Heath in 1912. Joining the RAF in 1937, he was shot down over Thameshaven in Essex on 4th September 1940. He later died of his injuries and is buried here in his hometown.
2020 sees the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and while a larger commemoration of the event is of course not possible this year, students and staff at Oathall Community College were keen to mark this occasion. History teacher Mr Jim Hastings and two Year 11 students, led the tribute by laying a wreath on behalf of the College.
Mr Hastings said of the event,
We as a school are keen to embrace the actions of local people in the past. Richard Plummer fought at the height of the Battle of Britain but sadly died never knowing that he had helped secure victory for his nation. Our history students paid their respects in a manner which epitomises the best of their generation, at the graveside of a man who epitomised the very best of his. They were eager to hear Richard Plummer’s story, from Haywards Heath to joining the RAF, fighting in Norway to his Hurricane being hit over Thameshaven. We feel honoured to have been able to remember a local war hero and share his story with our school community.
Thank you, everyone, and keep up with the exercise over the summer
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
The Road Safety Team at West Sussex County Council have set up a new Facebook page to help deliver important Road Safety messages to its residents, as well as the wider public who also use the roads of West Sussex. The aim is to help reduce the devastating Road Traffic Crash (RTC) statistics within the county and beyond.
If you are interested in keeping up to date with Road Safety topics, or have any questions you wish to ask, please go to https://www.facebook.com/RoadSafetyWSCC and follow this page! Thank you for your support.
Keep safe on the roads.
If you missed our Open Day in 2019 there’s still a way for you to capture a flavour of the evening by watching our short film.
This film was produced by a team of talented Oathall students – we hope you enjoy watching it.
Our School captains represented the school at the Haywards Heath Schools’ Remembrance service At St Wilfrid’s Church on Friday 8 November.
To mark Armistice Day and Oathall’s act of Remembrance, students and staff gathered on the piazza around our Field of Remembrance. Half of the crosses this year have been dedicated to soldiers, sailors and airmen lost in conflicts such as the Falklands and Northern Ireland. Assemblies this past week, delivered by History teacher and British Army veteran Mr Hastings, have reflected this and enabled staff and students to understand these conflicts better as well as the individual sacrifices made by members of Britain’s armed forces.
As always, our students showed great respect for the Remembrance proceedings which makes this now annual ceremony very special to be part of.
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.
It was lovely to welcome all of our new students for their induction day in July. Some of our talented year 11 students spent the day filming the event and have created this great summary of the day.
The autumn term starts on Tuesday 3 September for students in Y7, Y10 & Y11 and on
Wednesday 4 September for students in Y8 & Y9.
The College Open Day is on Thursday 19 September. The school will finish early this day. Friday 20 September is an INSET day and the college will be closed to students.
Information about other term dates and 2019-2020 school events is available to view here.
