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.
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!”
This year, over 60 farm club students attended and helped out at the South of England show at Ardingly. The South of England society provided the college with a large marquee to display a selection of our chickens, lambs and pigs to the public. Visitors were then able to get up close to the animals and our students were on hand to answer questions. The event gave our students the opportunity to show their knowledge and skills to the public.
Students also took part in the main livestock parade. They walked in front of the cattle holding up the cattle breed boards. We also showed our three commercial pigs, and the judges awarded them third in their class.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Congratulations to Oathall’s U12 Girls Football team who have finished the season unbeaten. The beat teams from The Weald, Hazelwick and Burgess Hill Academy and drew with both Millais and Tanbridge House.
