School Meals at Oathall

30th August 2018Oathall

School meals at Oathall are prepared and served by our own in-house catering team.

Catering Manager Mrs Denyer and her staff are committed to delivering the highest standards using fresh, good quality ingredients. The food and drink that we offer comply with the school food plan standards.

Menus are rotated every three weeks with themed days being a regular feature.  They are varied, nutritionally balanced and cater for all dietary needs. We offer gluten-free menus but ask that your child pre-orders this each day with the canteen team. We operate a nut-free policy but we are not always able to guarantee that nuts are not brought into the school by other children.

If you have any dietary requirements for your child please speak to Mrs Denyer or email her on sdenyer@oathall.org we will do our best to accommodate any requests. 

School meal food offer and menus

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What is OPTA?

15th August 2012Oathall

Oathall’s busy Parent Teacher Association (or OPTA) is a friendly and enthusiastic group of people with a desire to contribute positively to school life.

We aim to encourage positive relationships and communication between parents and teachers, tackling the wellbeing of the school and the welfare and development of our children together.

Like other PTAs we fundraise for those extra things that the school budget cannot cater for whilst strengthening the school community through social events and activities.

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Year 7 Settling in evening

18th October 2019J Godbolt

The Year 7 Settling in Evening will take place on Thursday 24th October from 3:30 – 6:30 pm and you are warmly invited to attend with your child.

The aim of this evening is for you to meet with the tutor and discuss how your child has settled here at Oathall Community College. Please note that a further evening is arranged on the 3rd March 2020 for you to discuss your child’s academic progress with their teachers.

Further information can be found in this letter.

Letter to Y7 parents

 

PTA Meetings and Minutes

5th August 2019Oathall

PTA meetings are held on the dates shown from 7 to 8.30pm (unless otherwise stated). Please do come and join us, new members are always welcome.

PTA meetings 2019 – 2020

Tuesday 10 September
Tuesday 8 October – AGM
Tuesday 5 November
Tuesday 7 January 2020
Tuesday 10 March
Tuesday 5 May
Tuesday 23 May
 

Minutes are available on request from opta@oathall.org

 

 

Information for new students starting in September 2018

31st July 2018J Godbolt

Welcome to all of our new students.

Transition team

Our transition leaders, Mrs Jane Newnham and assistant Headteacher, Mrs Faye Hatchard have been working with our local primary schools to prepare students for moving on to secondary school. On July 10, your child will attend the induction day and meet their tutor. Your child’s tutor will be responsible for your child’s pastoral care. Mrs Newnham also works with our team of Assistant Heads of House. They provide pastoral support for all of our students.

  • For enquiries about transition arrangements please contact Mrs Jane Newnham, Transition Coordinator jnewnham@oathall.org.
  • For enquiries/discussion about children with medical conditions please contact Mrs Polly McDonald pmcdonald@oathall.org.
  • For all other enquiries, please contact office@oathall.org. Your message will be directed to a member of Oathall staff who is in the best position to help you.

Information 

Parents of new year 7 students have been sent information packs in May. These contain forms and information about the transition process. Please refer to these if you are unsure about any of the arrangements for starting at Oathall.

In late August, we will contact you again with further information about the online systems we use for homework, timetables, school reports and our online payment system.

You may also find this information of use.

Starting Secondary School – A Parent’s Guide

Starting Secondary School checklist

Equipment 

Students need to be prepared for lessons at all times. Our ‘Be ready for learning’ leaflet provides you with details of the equipment that we expect students to carry with them in school.

In your first fortnight, you will find out what you need to bring for DT or PE lessons and your teachers will be happy to help you if you’re not sure.

We recommend students check their timetables the night before to ensure they are prepared for the next day.

Uniform 2018

New students starting at Oathall in September 2018 will be required to wear the Oathall uniform. All new students will be expected to wear a white collar shirt and Oathall tie as part of the uniform. 

Full details can be found here.

Food and drink at school

Students are expected to remain in the college during break and lunch times. Students may bring their own food to eat or they may eat in the canteen. Students will be registered with a canteen account on their first day. Information about the canteen and how this works is included in your information pack. Online payment details will be sent out in late August.

Travel to school

We expect all of our students to travel to school using sustainable transport. Most students walk to school or arrive by school bus. Students should enter by the Washington Road footpath, the Albemarle Drive or the Appledore Garden entrance. There are no other entry points into the school.

We expressly ask parents not to drive onto the school site to drop off or collect students in the morning or after school. The vehicle access into Oathall is narrow and not designed to allow for a large number of vehicles to arrive and turn around at the same time. This entrance is used by the school buses which must take priority over other vehicle users. The narrow drive entrance is also located in a residential area and a build-up of traffic at our entrance causes congestion and inconvenience to our neighbours. If you have to drop your child by car please drop them off or collect them at the Washington Road roundabout entrance where there is more space.

For evening events we allow parking on site.

Target reached!

21st June 2018J Godbolt

With only two more days to go, the PTA’s target to raise £25,000 for maths and science resources has been achieved and exceeded. The total currently stands at just over £26,000.

Thank you to everyone who has made a donation or contributed to the fundraising campaign. 

There are still 2 days left of the fundraising campaign so if you did mean to make a donation then there’s still time for you to go online and make a pledge on the Oathall PTA Crowdfunder page.

Thank you for all your support.

£25,000 crowdfunding challenge

8th June 2018J Godbolt

Visit our crowdfunding page and help us to inspire thousands of secondary school students to become future scientists, engineers and inventors. We want to buy state of the art equipment for Oathall Community College’s new science and maths classrooms which are opening this September. So, we have not got long to raise our target of £25,000 by June 23rd.


Our aim is to provide students with:

  • digital microscopes
  • anatomical models
  • specialist cameras
  • Lego Mindstorm kits
  • exciting maths learning software
  • digital screens
  • display posters

All these things will bring alive the worlds of science and maths for thousands of current and future Oathall students.

PTA launches fundraising campaign

22nd May 2018J Godbolt

Oathall’s PTA, in collaboration with the college, has launched a crowdfunding campaign with a target of £25,000.

The campaign aims to raise funds to equip the newly refurbished maths and science classrooms with state of the art equipment that will inspire a love and passion for science and maths that will allow our students to become the inventors, scientists, entrepreneurs, and engineers of the future.

Since last July, the old SAM block has been undergoing a long-awaited transformation with almost every part of the building being completely refurbished and modernised. The project itself ensures the building is fit for day to day teaching needs. However, the school staff, governors and parents have very high aspirations for our students.

Oathall has a tradition of excellent science teaching and our mathematics results are above the national average. We want to maintain and build on this reputation. We want to enhance the environment in the new building with state of the art equipment and resources that will inspire a love and passion for science and mathematics.

This is not about test tubes, heat mats and calculators; this is about having ambitious state of the art technology and equipment such as digital microscopes, thermal imaging cameras, anatomical models as well as display posters, digital screens and signage to bring the building and the teaching of these subjects to life.

These are not the normal items you find in a school science or maths classroom and are beyond even the best-funded schools. We believe our staff and children deserve the opportunity to learn using up to date teaching technology and hope that with the help of the whole community we can achieve this.

Our target is to raise £25,000 by 23 June 2018. You can support the campaign by visiting the Oathall crowdfunding page.

You can keep in touch with updates about the campaign on the PTA Facebook page. 

 

Energy offer for parents

14th May 2018J Godbolt

Your Energy Sussex, West Sussex County Council’s not-for-profit energy supplier, has launched an offer for parents, carers and staff that will directly benefit West Sussex schools.

Your Energy Sussex was launched earlier this year to encourage more people to switch their home energy supplier and save money on their bills. It offers competitive home energy prices, high levels of customer service and supports residents who are struggling to pay their bills through a Fuel Poverty Fund.

As an incentive to switch to Your Energy Sussex, from 14th May new customers living in West Sussex can nominate a local school to receive a £10 donation per fuel switch. If a new customer decides to switch their home gas and electricity supply to Your Energy Sussex, the nominated school will receive £20. The offer is open to people living in West Sussex only and closes on the last day of the school summer term. Further information is available at www.yourenergysussex.org.uk/schools or customers can call 0800 952 0001 to find out more or get a quote.

If you choose to switch you will be asked to nominate a school and give the schools unique identifier code. Oathall’s school code is 4102.

Your Energy Sussex is operated by the County Council’s Energy Team. It is a partnership between Sussex local authorities, including Brighton & Hove City Council and East Sussex County Council and Robin Hood Energy, a fully licensed energy supplier owned by Nottingham City Council.

Oathall Parent Partnership

16th March 2018J Godbolt

On Thursday 8 March, a group of parents met with Assistant Headteacher Faye Hatchard and Deputy Headteacher Toby Houghton for the first Parent Partnership meeting. The aim of the Parent Partnership is to meet with parents to discuss views on new initiatives and developments in the school and to give parents an opportunity to contribute positively to the development of our school community. At this first meeting, parents were involved in a discussion around a recent audit and review of Homework. Parents were asked a range of questions about homework and a number of suggestions were made by parents.

A set of minutes from the meeting can be found here.

The next meetings will be held on:

Friday 19th October 2018
Thursday 13th December 2018
Thursday 7th February 2019
Thursday 28th March 2019
Thursday 23rd May 2019
Thursday 18th July 2019