A large group of Year 9 students visited the STEM Centre at Gatwick for the Gatwick Apprenticeships Fair yesterday. This was a great opportunity to talk to a range of employers about apprenticeships and possible future pathways, and was perfectly timed as they think about their GCSE options.
They spoke confidently, listened carefully, and came away with lots of great ideas.
Find out more about National Apprenticeship Week 2026.
A reminder that parents are invited to attend the Year 9 Options Evening on Thursday 26th February from 6pm.
The evening will provide you and your child with information on the options process, the timeline and give you an opportunity to explore the vast array of subjects on offer at Key Stage 4 and to speak with staff.
You can find out more about all of this on the Key Stage 4 options page on this website, which we would encourage you to take a look at with your child prior to the evening.
As for the evening itself, the itinerary is as below.
Tutor groups: PRC, VLP, DDRM, ELMS, EMP
6pm… Parents and students from all tutor groups arrive
Presentation in the Hall.
7pm… Visit Key Stage 4 courses and speak with teaching staff.
8pm… End of KS4 information evening
Tutor groups: DJA, PAR, CEE, VRBL, VABA
6pm… Parents and students from all tutor groups arrive
Visit Key Stage 4 courses and speak with teaching staff.
7pm… Presentation in the Hall.
8pm… End of KS4 information evening
We look forward to seeing you then.
Just before half term, all students in KS3 were invited to take part in a maths competition with a difference. The challenge involved recreating Miss Calleja’s recipe for a Spanish sponge cake, Bizcocho 1, 2, 3 using volumetric ratio.
The recipe is easy: You need 125g of yoghurt, follow with oil, sugar and flour in the volumetric ratio 1:2:3. Add three eggs and a teaspoon of baking powder. The challenge was for students to make their recipe their own by adding their own ingredients or twist to this basic recipe. Additionally, students could look at changing the recipe for a different number of people and the ratio calculations for weight, instead of volume.
The winners were Francesca and Flora in year 7, Lucy in year 8 and Grace in year 9. Prizes were also awarded for best presentation and ‘most out there’ decoration.
Congratulations to the winners!
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.
We were really thrilled and delighted to welcome author Sue Cheung to Oathall on Monday 11 November. Sue Cheung visited to speak to Year 9 students about her latest book ‘Chinglish’.
The book is about the up’s and down’s of Jo Kwan a teenager growing up in 1980s Coventry with her annoying little sister, too-cool older brother, a series of very unlucky pets and utterly bonkers parents. But unlike the other kids at her new school or her posh cousins, Jo lives above her parents’ Chinese takeaway.
Told in diary entries and doodles, Jo’s brilliantly funny observations about life, family and char siu make for a searingly honest portrayal of life on the other side of the takeaway counter.
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.
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
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!”
There was a fantastic atmosphere and feeling of team spirit at this year’s Oathall School games day. A whole day of competitive events including tennis, dodgeball, handball, cycling, tug of war and traditional athletic events had been organised by the PE team. There were outstanding performances from individuals as well as the teams with everyone competing to be the best tutor group in their year and of course, the overall House winners.
Congratulations to Voyager House who were the Oathall 2018 school games day winners.
A round-up of the scores from yesterday:
Year 7 Tutor Winners – 7EARK Mrs Kingsford
Year 8 Tutor Winners – 8VPS – Mrs Sullivan
Year 9 Tutor Winners – 9DKRG – Mrs Garrick
Year 10 Tutor winners – 10PSK – Mrs Kirkpatrick
Well done to everyone who took part.
‘Royal Wedding’ was the theme in this year’s Bake-Off competition. The competition is run annually and is open to students in years 7,8, 9 and 10. The competition and prizes are sponsored by the Rotary Club of Haywards Heath and the entries are judged by the WI. Students are given 4 hours to bake and decorate a cake which is then judged on taste, appearance and technical difficulty. The winning entry was made by Emily, who has now won on three separate occasions. Well done to all of the students who took part.
