In my assemblies this week, I have been reflecting with the students on our school community. Our experiences in the last two years have reiterated how important being part of our community is for our mental health and wellbeing. This week is National Mental Health Awareness week and the theme this year is tackling loneliness. The strength of our community in making everyone feel valued, that they belong and can contribute is a mainstay in tackling loneliness in our school.
I also referred to an email from a member of the public who wanted me to know how polite and considerate a huge number of the students had been while she was moving against the flow of students at the end of the day with a pushchair and shopping. When our community is at its best, it is something to be hugely proud of and this edition of the newsletter really shows how our community is coming together in support of each other and the wider community.
During my assemblies, I reminded students of our core values with kindness being particularly pertinent. I referred to an email I had received from a parent who wanted me to know how much they appreciated older students on the school bus looking after their child when they were unwell and how much that illustrates the fact that our school community expands beyond a class, a year group, the timings of the school day and the confines of the school buildings and playing fields.
In the first full week of this term, our College students led the whole community in fundraising and fun in our Raising and Giving (RAG) Week. With support from staff and students in array of events and activities, they have raised a significant amount of money for charity and continue to raise awareness about how students can support the diversity and inclusiveness of our community in the ‘Speak up, speak out’ project. It was great to see our whole school come together, raise important funds and to
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see our College students role-modelling and leading the student body – not to mention a number of staff members taking a pie in the face or humiliating defeat in the sporting arena for a good cause! It is great to be seeing so many elements of the wider life of the school having such a positive impact on the students. The trips, competitions and community events that have continued, despite the ongoing challenges of COVID-19 absences, provide so much optimism for the depth and quality of the opportunities and experiences that students will have this term and in the future, as the impact of the pandemic continues to decline. Thank you to all the staff who have worked so hard to cover for absent colleagues, prepare students for success in GCSE and A level examinations and progress in their learning, as well as deliver such a great array of enrichment and wider development opportunities. Finally, thank you to you as parents and carers who do so much to support the school and your children
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in their school life. I would like to take this opportunity to wish the students in Year 11 and 13 all the best for the coming examinations.
The Warlingham Learner
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Votes for Schools As part of our registration activities, students have the opportunity to learn about and debate topics each week, using resources from VotesforSchools. This helps provide students with a wider understanding of current affairs, develops their empathy and kindness skills when considering sensitive issues, and also enables them to practise forming arguments and debating. Furthermore, they have their voices heard as VotesforSchools shares the voting outcomes with a variety of organisations, including governments and charities.
Recently, students have discussed the topics below. Their votes as a school can be seen below alongside the votes for Surrey and the UK.
Should the Homes for Ukraine scheme be for more refugees?
Is it right that the Prime Minister kept his job after ‘partygate’?
Vote 30th March
Vote 27th April
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Tandridge Learning Trust Wellbeing Conference On Tuesday 19th April, Tandridge Learning Trust held a one-day Trust-wide Wellbeing Conference at Warlingham. This was the first time we could come together as a Trust since the pandemic and it provided an opportunity for us to take time out from the curriculum to focus on mental health and wellbeing. The day began with a welcome to Warlingham from Paul Foster and the Trust’s Chief Executive, Rebecca Plaskitt, who shared the Trust’s Vision and Values and set out the aims and intention for the conference. Two keynote speakers, Nicky Forster and Suzie Lavington, provided engaging and inspirational speeches to set the tone for the day. Staff then broke out into workshop sessions which were run by a variety of external specialists and internal staff.
Staff could choose from a range of workshops focusing on areas including nutrition, mental, emotional and physical health, sport, music, relaxation and mindfulness. It was refreshing to be taken away from the usual day job to focus on ourselves. What resonated from the whole day was the importance of looking after ourselves, our
mindfulness, mental health and general wellbeing to provide us with the foundation to be the best that we can be, essential building blocks to providing the highest standards in teaching and support roles.
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PE Teacher, Vanessa Salem provides an insight into the workshop she ran on the day… As part of the provision for this conference, myself and Carter Hatton volunteered to run a workshop entitled ‘Acceptance and a smattering of PE.’ We are both currently on a course to gain a qualification in health and wellbeing that is being run by AfPE. (The Association of Physical Education). As part of our qualification, we are required to give a presentation to a cross-section of staff and senior staff on how approaches used in physical education or activity are used to promote pupils’ and staff’s, social and emotional wellbeing. We were delighted to have the opportunity to share with our colleagues how acceptance when dealing with adversity (whatever the situation) is part of the wellbeing process and how physical activity, and the involvement in that, can help with dealing with stress and /or coping with challenging situations.
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It was insightful to find out from staff how many different physical activities they were involved in throughout the week and how willing they were to rank themselves from being very active to not being active at all. The opportunity of being able to share our views on acceptance and wellbeing and the benefits of being physically active reinforced the importance of physical activity not just in PE but everywhere across the curriculum. If being active can help us address in schools some of the pressures that young people face with exams, the difficulties with friendship groups and bullying, the problems with body image and social media and the challenges of being a young carer, for example, in turn it can help us to explore our own lives and consider and continually evaluate and reflect on how we can all become more active in school and at home.
In April last Term, our anti-bullying peer mentor team ran a competition for all year groups to design an anti-bullying mascot to join our current mascot, Warly the Walrus.
First Prize: James B (7G) Sharman
We had some fantastic entries from each house with the winning entries selected by our Anti-Bullying Peer Mentor Team. We are delighted to announce that Sharman were the overall winners with James B from 7G creating mascot, Justice James. Bill C in 7 N was a close runner up. Johnson came second with Keira G from 7A’s Boo mascot and Chichester came third with Gaius M from 7R’s Knight mascot. Congratulations to the lucky winners who were awarded with a certificate, chocolates and colouring pencils by Paul Foster, as well as to everyone else who took part.
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Second Prize: Keira G (7A) Johnson
For our
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Third Prize: Gaius M (7R) Chichester
As Head of Johnson House, I often have moments where I get to feel proud of the achievements of our students but I wanted to share a specific example from the previous term that was not just a highlight for me but for many other members of staff. In honour of World Autism Acceptance Week, two Year 10 students, William and Lily, spoke at two whole school assemblies about what Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) means to them. They spoke so eloquently and beautifully about their own stories, the difficulties they face and challenges they have overcome. It not only gave an insight into the school experience for students with ASD but was hopeful about the unique contribution all students in our school community have to make. It took great courage for these individuals and I know they positively impacted on a number of our students who took the time to feedback to the students involved and members of staff. I feel incredibly lucky to have students like Lily and Will - not just in Johnson house but in Warlingham as a whole.
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For our Easter fundraiser, the Sharman House team decided to do something a little different and collect Easter Eggs to donate to Caterham Food Bank. In return, students received a raffle ticket to win a prize. Well done to prize-winners Joshua M, Alex F and Sophie A! Thank you to everyone involved, particularly our fantastic house team who came up with the idea, designed the poster, and promoted the fundraiser (Chris, Freya, George, Sophie, Lily and Mia). Caterham Food Bank were extremely grateful for the donation, and we hope that the Easter Eggs were enjoyed by local people in need. Below is a photo of some of the Easter Eggs that were donated by students across the school. We are proud to be supporting a local charity and one which is used by so many in need. Some information about Caterham Food Bank and how they run is below: “We don’t think anyone in our community should have to face going hungry. That’s why we provide three days’ nutritionally balanced emergency food and support to local people who are referred to us in crisis. We are part of a nationwide network of foodbanks, supported by The Trussell Trust, working to combat poverty and hunger across the UK.”
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COVID-19 Vaccinations Message from your Local Immunisation Team Please note that the Children and Family Health Surrey School Immunisation team is no longer able to offer COVID-19 vaccinations at school or catch-up community clinics. If your child requires a COVID-19 vaccination, please book an appointment through the national booking system or the NHS Surrey Heartlands website.
Would you be able to inspire the next generation? Are you willing to speak to current Year 12 students and answer their questions? Do you wish you had support in choosing your career pathway when you were at school? Warlingham School & Sixth Form College FUTURES FAIR might be the place to come! We have an opportunity for you to meet and inspire the next generation! We are looking for employers, businesses and education providers in the local area who would be willing to take a stand at our Careers Fair. Help our students to learn more about the world of work and the kinds of careers they wish to pursue in their future beyond the classroom! The event will take place on Tuesday 7th June, 10.30am – 1.30pm (set up available from 9.45am). To volunteer for this opportunity, or to find out further details, please contact Laura Langley on L.Langley@WarlinghamTLT.co.uk as soon as possible.
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Year 12 & 13 Parliament Trip On 21st April, myself and the other Politics students were fortunate enough to be able to visit the Houses of Parliament in Westminster to experience the running of parliament and to develop a greater understanding of its history, functions and role in modern British politics. We arrived at Westminster at around 11am, and swiftly walked towards the visitors’ entrance; my first impression was one of fascination due to the grandeur of the place – everywhere we turned we were greeted by grand, impressive statues depicting relevant figures of British history, especially of former parliamentarians and prime ministers.
After setting foot in the Visitors’ entrance, we had to undergo a rather unusual, airport-like security entrance, where our bags were taken from us, and we were (understandably) checked for any
suspicious objects or substances – fortunately none of us were flagged up by security! Following this brief security check, the tour began; the first place our tour guide took us was to a particularly imposing hallway, where huge paintings depicting famous Napoleonic battles and former kings and queens lined the walls. As I am also a history student, I found this especially fascinating, and we stood there amazed by the sheer length of time it would have taken to create such large, detailed paintings. After walking through several other similarly grand lobbies and hallways, the part we’d all been excited about finally happened - seeing the House of Commons debate. We were guided up an extremely narrow staircase which led us to the viewing gallery, where we (literally, not metaphorically) looked down upon members
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debating whether Boris Johnson knowingly mislead the House. It was during this debate that we were able to witness several famous politicians speak and debate one another, such as Jeremy Corbyn, Angela Rayner, Caroline Lucas and Steve Baker. It was this part, in particular, that we all agreed was the most interesting part of the whole experience, as we’d all seen clips and videos of such things online and on TV and now was the chance for us to experience it all in person. Having watched the debate for 10-15 minutes, the tour guide moved us along to the next part of the tour, which was the House of Lords – the unelected, upper house of Parliament. Here, we were informed on the major details of the House, namely which kind of people worked there, what its main functions are and the role it plays in the State Opening of Parliament every year when the Queen comes and sits in the chamber. Following a period of amazement at the grand, red and gold benches that filled the room, we moved on to the final part of our trip, which was the politics workshop and meeting local MP for
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East Surrey, Claire Coutinho. In this workshop, we were mostly asked questions testing our knowledge on electoral systems (a significant part of our Politics course), and how they worked. Despite this being undoubtedly challenging and interesting, everyone sat around intrigued waiting for the next and final part of the trip – meeting Claire Coutinho. She was probably rather surprised when one of the first questions asked was her views on Boris and ‘Partygate’ - although based on current affairs it was effectively inevitable. Despite this, she was perfectly happy to expand on her position even if she didn’t answer it directly! The other questions asked were generally milder, such as, what her regular schedule is like and who inspired her to enter politics. Overall, meeting her was a very enlightening experience as it gave us a great insight into what life is like as an MP and how one can become one.
RAG Week During 26th - 29th April, we held the first RAG (Raising and Giving) week since 2019 due to the pandemic. This year, the theme was: ‘Speak Up Speak Out’. Our main focus was to raise money for under-represented charities that promote Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (ED&I). The chosen charities cover a range of topics that fit within our theme: ant-racism, mental health, disabilities, and LGBTQ+.
to all the other College students who were so encouraging and enthusiastic in running the events. Thank you also to all the staff members who volunteered and supported the events. Lastly, thank you to everyone who participated in the events and donated to help raise money for such amazing causes.
The College students were responsible for organising events throughout the week. We held 13 different fundraising events for the whole school, including Pie the Teacher, Teacher vs Student Tug Of War, photo booths, a tombola and pizza, ice lolly, doughnut, sweet and soft drinks sales. To end the week, students and staff wore blue for the day as this colour symbolises unity and harmony. We are very pleased to announce that we raised around £1150, which will be divided equally amongst our chosen charities. We would like to say a big thank you
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Our chosen charities Bloody Good Period helps to end period poverty by distributing sanitation products to those who can’t afford them or don’t have access to them.
LGBTQ+ community.
Metro helps to support those who are experiencing issues with their identity, sexuality and gender, whilst also promoting equality for the
Scope offers both practical and emotional support to people with disabilities. CALM is a mental health line that has a focus on men’s mental health. Stop Hate UK helps to support people affected by hate crimes and challenges discrimination.
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Year 12 Young Enterprise Follow Up In March, as part of our College enrichment programme for the Advance Award, we had two Young Enterprise teams competing to launch a product for sale with profits going to their chosen charity. The teams, Fone Chic and Synth Notebooks provide an update below on how they got on…. Fone Chic Over the last few months, Young Enterprise students were set with the task of creating and developing a product and business by selling a product of their choice. Fone Chic decided to make and design personalised phone cases with the intention of raising money for charity while additionally developing personal skills. As well as promoting our product on the school’s website and social media, Fone Chic displayed many posters around the school and approached individual teachers and form groups to get our product out there and show our first prototype in
person. We felt that this built a relationship with our customers as they could envision themselves with our product. Once an order was placed, we received an email with the details of their order specifications, which was then registered into a spreadsheet ready for production. Then a member of our team would tailor the product to the customers’ liking at the end of each week. Shortly after being manufactured, the phone cases were then packaged and ready for distribution, which were hand-delivered by members of Fone Chic. We achieved a total profit of £277, after paying back the initial loan from the Peter Jones Foundation. This was donated to our chosen charity, the Lily
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Foundation, which we felt is a charity close to many of us. With our profit margin being so high, we placed fifth nationally within the Tycoon Young Enterprise competition. This profit was the result of 38 sales within the school community and 100% customer satisfaction. Fone Chic would highly recommend this experience to any dedicated, innovative, and creative minds that are interested in pursuing an entrepreneurial future. After this valuable opportunity, we will walk away with many newly developed skills that will help us in the future with whatever path we will embark on.
Synth Notebooks Our notebooks were available through WisePay for £4.49 in a wide range of designs and paper types. We sold both marble and camouflage designs with the choice of lined, squared or plain paper which we promoted in our poster advertisements around school. Our unique option to allow the customer to both customise the design and paper type created twice as much choice for them to suit their needs. We raised our funds by compiling a business plan detailing our business and its operation to receive our loan from Young Enterprise which funded our start-up. Throughout the course of the trading window, we managed to sell a total of 39 notebooks which then turned into a profit of £99.06. Processing orders required a lot of attention to ensure we could fill our order forms as fast as possible to reduce the waiting time for our buyers. Once the orders arrived, they were delivered via the tutor trays for a hassle-free delivery. As of now we are no longer operating and selling our notebooks since the closure of the trading window.
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now that we are able to be more independent and utilise our newfound creative freedom with the business from now on. Thank you all for supporting our business throughout the trading window.
From this experience, we learned fundamental business skills such as time management, how to calculate sales and how to make a product stand out through promotional content and activity. We would recommend it to anyone interested in running a business so that they may also learn the skills needed to operate a successful business. If we were to change how we operated our business, we would have included tutor groups in our order forms as not knowing the tutor groups of some customers delayed delivery times. The success of our business has created a discussion in the group about whether we would like to continue operating the business
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