Summer Term Newsletter 2015

Dear Parents and Carers It seems unbelievable that another whole academic year has come to an end and what a year it has been! I am very aware that the change in School status and the Governors’ decision to join THPT has caused some concern within the local community. I do appreciate that many people genuinely care about the School and worry that its unique character and identity might be lost. Please be assured that one of the reasons that I applied to become the permanent Head at Oxted is because I am deeply committed to being the custodian of all the features of Oxted School that make it so special, while utterly focused on ensuring that our students have the best possible educational experience that we can provide.

I would like to personally thank the parents who have come in to School to discuss with me any queries they have and also to provide feedback about what we can do better. If you have any outstanding concerns then please do come and meet with me to discuss them in person.

I would like to draw your attention to three articles that are contained within this newsletter that we have written because parents have suggested these would help to explain three particular issues that appear to be causing concern. One is the Senior Leaderships Team’s strategic plans for SEND (our students with Special Educational Needs) also the darkening financial skies that are gathering over schools across the country and how Oxted is responding and finally an update from the Governors. Please do read these articles.

Over the course of this half term we have been reviewing our last School Improvement Plan and identifying the priorities for 2015-16. This year we have been very focused upon embedding all the significant changes that took place so quickly in 2013-14. Much consolidation has been achieved and we are confident that we now provide our students with a good educational experience. Next year we can begin to gather momentum to take the School on the next stage of its journey towards providing an enriched educational experience that is exceptional. The School Improvement Priorities 2015-16 include:   

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Ensure all departments secure outstanding outcomes for all groups of students particularly our most vulnerable groups Utilise effective interventions, based upon robust and moderated assessments Ensure that all teaching is good or better every day, every lesson with a focus upon the implementation of outstanding schemes of work; embedding high challenge; effective scaffolding strategies; incisive AfL and questioning techniques which deepen learning in lessons and the promotion of a love of reading Foster positive relationships in the classroom to promote impeccable behaviour Continue to raise students’ aspirations Increase the impact of student voice on school improvement processes Maximise the impact of parents and tutors on student outcomes To continue to prepare for the curriculum changes 2015/16 Implement the powerful learners’ strategy Create a culture of distributed leadership Continue to secure good value for money

I wish you and your families a happy and relaxing summer holiday.

Mrs N Euridge Head of School

Governors’ Update As the School year comes to an end, we look back over a year that has held challenges for all of us at Oxted School; students, staff, parents and Governors. So many people have worked so hard and the Governors of Oxted School are extremely grateful for their support. We are very fortunate to be able to work with such dedicated and committed individuals. As parents you can be sure that your children’s welfare and education is at the heart of everything we do.

Schools and education continue to feature in government plans. ‘Coasting schools’ will be pushed to become academies and Nicky Morgan has raised the bar on what a ‘coasting school’ is. The Governors’ decision to take Oxted’s future into our own hands and choice of The Howard Partnership as our partner to work with that we know and trust, has been the right course of action and is affirmed when we talk with Governors from other schools who are currently feeling that pressure. The process of conversion to becoming an academy is proceeding smoothly, with the DfE defined process being followed and on track to convert on 1 September 2015.

The future holds further challenges; educational budgets are being squeezed and at the very least, sixth form funding is being cut by 12%. A consequence of the growing success of Oxted students is that we have increasing numbers of students who want to come to our School.

However, school funding is calculated on the previous year’s student numbers, so it will mean that next year is going to be a difficult year financially. Oxted School, along with the rest of the country, will feel the austerity pinch.

The summer term inevitably brings goodbyes with Years 13 and 11 moving on to the next phase of their lives, with many continuing their education. Members of staff are also moving on. As we are a large school, it can seem that many staff are leaving but in fact our staff turnover is much the same as that experienced by schools across the country; we are delighted that so many of our dedicated and loyal staff are staying, and particularly that Mrs Euridge will continue to lead the School as Head, following her successful appointment in June. We wish all our leavers success.

We would like to thank the students for all their hard work and wish those who are waiting exam results the success they deserve. We thank the teaching and support staff for their continuing loyalty and commitment to the children and Oxted School. We thank you for all your support. We look forward to the new academic year and the exciting opportunities that our partnership with THPT and being an academy will bring.

Oxted School Governors

Staffing Update Many thanks to the following staff who have been covering fixed term vacancies. May I take this opportunity to wish them all the very best in their future endeavours:      

Miss R Adam (Teacher of Drama) Mr L Johnson (Teacher of Music) Mr D Chikobvu (Teacher of Science) Mr C Baynes (Teacher of History) Miss D Rasarathinam (Teacher of Maths) Miss L Mohan (Head of Media)

The following staff below are relocating, retiring or seeking new opportunities and I would like to thank them for all contributions to Oxted School: Miss C Paterson (Teacher of MFL) Miss H Haywood (Teacher of FDT) Mr F Canizares (Teacher of MFL) Mr J Duffin (Teacher of History and Year 8 Progress Leader) Miss R Newman (Teacher of PE) Miss I Davies (Teacher of History and Lead Practitioner) Mrs J Wallis (Head of Psychology) Mrs K Taylor (Teacher of English) Mr J Oringo (Teacher of Computing/ICT) Mrs J Hewett (Part Time Teacher of FDT) Mr R Cassim (Teacher of Computing/ICT) Miss N McGrath (Teacher of Geography) Mr J Manson (Teacher of Computing/ICT) Mr D Marchant (Senior Teacher) Mr Marchant has developed many successful initiatives at Oxted School including and introducing our VLE (Frog) and our excellent flexi week.  Mr R Trust (Head of Government and Politics) I would like to thank Mr Trust for all his years of service to education and to wish him the very best, and a long and happy retirement in Somerset  Mr D Morris (Head of Creative Arts) After many successful years at Oxted School, including directing 30 incredible School plays (performing in one), is retiring. We are delighted that Mr Morris will be returning to Oxted in a part-time capacity to work with Mrs Ruffell on our highly successful sixth form Extended Project programme  Mrs J Cooper is also leaving at the end of this academic year. Her official title for many years has been the School Housekeeper. As well as ensuring we have a high quality learning environment, Mrs Cooper has also worked tirelessly behind the scenes on many whole School events like the School productions, sponsored walk and organised the Year 8 camp. I am delighted Mrs Cooper has agreed to still co-ordinate our sponsored walk and the fabulous Year 8 camp, two of the many highlights of the Oxted School calendar.              

Sadly Mrs H Kenning (Teacher of Maths and Acting VI Lead) is very unwell and our thoughts and prayers are with her family at this difficult time.

Follow Oxted School on Twitter You can also follow us on Twitter for the latest news and information from Oxted School: www.twitter.com/oxtedschool

New Teaching Appointments We are fully staffed with qualified teachers for September and look forward to welcoming:                     

Mrs D Gibbons (Teacher of Psychology) Mr A Harney (Teacher of History) Miss I MacLean (Teacher of MFL) Miss J Perez Spratt (Teacher of MFL) Mr W Roberts (Teacher of Maths and Music) Miss S Shillitto (Teacher of Technology) Miss K Murphy (Teacher of Technology) Mrs E Stephen (Teacher of English) Mr A Wise (Deputy Head of Technology) Mr C Henk (Head of Humanities) Mrs L Seymour (Head of Creative Arts) Mr S Lloyd (Head of Computing) Mrs H Leech (Head of the Visually Impaired Unit) Miss A Fairclough (Teacher of Computing and ICT) Mr D Stoneham (Teacher of Science) Miss K Aldersley (Teacher of Maths) Mrs R Faturoti (Teacher of English) Miss P Harris (Teacher of Science) Miss R Richardson (Teacher of Maths Miss H Shah (Teacher of English) Miss D O’Shaughnessy (Teacher of Maths)

We are delighted to welcome back from her maternity leave Mrs L Earnshaw. Mrs Earnshaw was Head of Science, but will be returning to us as a Lead Practitioner to support the ongoing developments within teaching and learning both within the Science department and whole school.

Financial Update The National Context There are significant national difficulties with education funding. At best, the amount of money per student will be maintained, however there is a continuing rise in the number of students in the school system which is spreading resources more thinly. In addition, every school now faces increased staff costs as there are rises in employer’s contributions to National Insurance and Pensions for Teachers and Support Staff. These increased costs are in the region of 10%-12%.

Also, school sixth form funding has been reduced by a further 12%. School budgets have been cash protected for 11-16 year old students, but the increased staffing costs are unfunded so that all schools have not been protected from the Governments’ austerity measures.

In addition, nationally, schools are reporting increasing difficulties with teacher recruitment and the problem is particularly acute at leadership level. This puts further financial pressure on schools as they attempt to recruit and retain high quality staff in a competitive marketplace.

Over the next few years an increasing number of schools are likely to be in Multi-Academy Trusts (MAT). Joining a Multi-Academy Trust may be seen as a solution to the financial pressures schools face as a MAT is better placed to provide cost savings through economies of scale, restructured leadership and opportunities for staff retention through succession planning and professional development.

The Surrey Context Surrey is one of the ‘shire’ counties and therefore receives just over £4,000 per student in comparison to some other Local Authorities that receive over £7,000 per student. Conservative backbench MPs, many of who represent the shire counties are calling for a national funding formula to be introduced to begin to address this imbalance.

The Oxted School Context Oxted School is growing and we have a waiting list for the first time in four years for Year 7 and the Sixth Form is likely to be in excess of 400 students this September. This is a great reflection of the returning confidence of parents and students in the School. However, the funding for these additional students is in ‘lag phase’ so we have to wait a year for the money to catch up with the increased number of students.

Fortunately we have anticipated these issues and made appropriate plans. For example over the last two years we have increased our class size from an average of 22 (2013) to 24 (2014) to 26 (2015). Classes are still relatively small, but we feel that becoming larger would not be desirable. We are also able to make cost efficiencies by being part of a successful multi-academy trust and this is protecting the school from the national and Surrey financial situation and our own ‘growing pains’. We are confident we are able to still continue all the work that we have done to raise standards and that the quality of the curriculum will be maintained. However, we rely on the donations to the School Fund to support many activities beyond the taught curriculum. Our enrichment programme (some of which is reflected in our newsletter) is extensive and truly supports students having a very special and rich educational experience at Oxted. It is important that we alert you to the possibility that the extra-curricular provision and resources that are not part of the core offer may suffer if parents do not support the School by giving to the School fund via the Oxted School Trust. Details of the School Fund are below, and further information will be sent to all parents in September.

Oxted School Trust - Donations Donations to the Oxted School Trust are due annually at a cost of £30 per student per year or £120 for 5 years covering Year 7 to Year 11.

If you have not already paid, please arrange to do so by visiting the School website following the link through the INFORMATION tab and selecting ONLINE PAYMENTS from the drop down menu. If you have not already registered for online payments, you will need your unique ‘Pupil Link Code’ to make your donation in this way. If you have any problems or to request your code, please email financesf@oxtedschool.co.uk Alternatively you can pay by cash or cheque (payable to the Oxted School Trust). Please return all payments made this way to the Finance Office clearly marked with your child’s name and tutor group.

If you are a UK taxpayer your donation will be eligible for Gift Aid. Please complete the Gift Aid Form available on the School website, just select the ABOUT US/OXTED SCHOOL TRUST area of the School website, print and complete the form and return to the school Finance Office.

Donations are voluntary but vital to provide the extras purchased for the benefit of all students which are not covered by funding from the government.

Please email financesf@oxtedschool.co.uk if you require further information

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SEND Strategic Developments From September, the SEND team at Oxted School will benefit from increased capacity and expertise as a result of restructuring and further leadership recruitment. The team will be led

by Mrs Michelle Metcalf who will become the SENCo. Mrs Metcalf will be supported by two very experienced members of staff: Mrs Charlotte Geen (Deputy SENCO - Teaching) and Mrs Denise Williamson (Deputy SENCO - Provision). Mrs Metcalf has a wealth of experience working in SEN; she worked as the SENCO for six years in her previous school leading an outstanding SEN department with the support of Mrs Williamson.

In addition to our SEN Leadership team we are fortunate enough to have an expert team of teaching assistants with specialisms that include both Autistic Spectrum Disorder and Speech and Language Difficulties. We are further supported by a knowledgeable and skilled administrator who ensures that all of our paperwork and systems are effective and efficient.

Our priority at Oxted School will continue to be providing high quality support for our most vulnerable students and we welcome the opportunity to work in partnership with parents to ensure that we meet our own high standards. In relation to this we are extending our Phoenix provision in both Literacy and Numeracy; ensuring that these small groups are receiving quality intervention from teachers to support their Literacy and Numeracy needs and enable all of these students to access the wider curriculum.

Our vision is to enable all students to become resilient, resourceful and independent as they progress through the skill and leave us as confident young people who are equipped with the skills they need to be happy and successful in the future.

Key Stage 3 Update The past term has been a busy one for those connected with Key Stage 3, the Progress Leaders and tutors have continued with mentoring and intervention. After each data entry point the Progress Leaders analyse the impact of the intervention carried out since the previous data entry. Year 9 mentoring this term has been focussed only on English and Mathematics since students were moving into their new classes to begin GCSEs; Mr L Hilton (Year 9 Progress Leader) has passed information to Mrs R Chevalier (Year 10 Progress Leader) in order to provide continuity.

For Year 8 the focus of the most recent mentoring has been students designated Prior Attainment High (PAH), this was to ensure that a consistent focus is placed on high achievement. Prior to intervention the mentored students had made only half a sub-level of progress since the previous data entry, as a result of intervention those same students made more than a sub-level of progress on average across all subjects. Mr L Hilton is reviewing the whole KS3 intervention programme as part of his Middle Leadership Project to see how we can make it even more effective.

Throughout the past term there have been regular celebrations of the success of students after the publication of grades. For each year group between 70 and 90 students have invited to the Library at break to receive a certificate of commendation from Mrs Euridge in addition to a doughnut. Year 7 and Year 8 have just completed a fortnight of assessments which will lead to the final set of grades at the end of June. Following these grades there will be a chance to celebrate the progress that has been made over the entire year, there will also be the opportunity to identify those students for whom intervention at the start of the new academic year will be key.

Once again I have spent much of the first part of the summer term meeting staff in our local primary schools, often in the company of Mrs A Rosier from the Inclusion Team. Sixteen primary schools have been visited, sometimes just to speak with Year 6 teachers, sometimes to hold a question and answer session with Year 6 students and sometimes to do both.

There are students joining Oxted School from a further sixteen primary schools; each of these has been telephoned or emailed in order that we have information about every one of the students joining us in September. Our information will be enhanced by the receipt of the Key Stage 2 test results on Tuesday 7 July.

All 340 new students have been placed in tutor groups ready for their Transition Day on Tuesday 30 June.

Mr Stodart has worked hard to provide a varied and exciting programme for the Year 6 students’ first taste of being a student at Oxted.

The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and the students are keen and eager to start their secondary school career at Oxted School.

Towards the end of April, thirteen Year 8 students had the opportunity to attend Surrey University each day for a week to see what university has to offer. This event was part of Surrey University’s Widening Participation work. Over the course of the week our students joined those from other Surrey schools to use the University’s science and sporting facilities, to attend a lectures on law and nutrition, to work in teams on a construction task and explore the way we learn. From the moment they arrived on the Monday they had to work in mixed groups rather than just with people from their school; another attempt to emulate university life. The most memorable part of the week took place on Friday afternoon when, in the company of parents and friends, the students attended their graduation ceremony wearing gowns and mortarboards. The feedback from this experience has been overwhelmingly positive with students declaring that they now wanted to go to university which, of course, will have a positive impact on their progress in school.

Looking forward, the Key Stage 3 Progress Team are planning to increase our parental engagement work next year; being more pro-active in inviting parents to meetings to discuss progress and following up non-attendance.

Finally, we would like to comment on the fact that Mr J Duffin is leaving his post of Year 8 Progress Leader in July. He is quietly spoken but there is an air of confidence about him; this means that he comes across, to both students and parents, as someone who is worth listening to. On many occasions over the past year we have been grateful to him for the clear information that he has provided and the solutions that he has identified. We look forward to Mr Connell joining the Key Stage 3 Progress Team from September.

Mrs A McNamara Assistant Headteacher

Key Stage 4 Update To support Year 11 in their preparation for GCSEs staff have:  created a Revision Exam Support document from each department over the exam period  held breakfast sessions from 8.00am by departments where there was a 9.00am exam. These were organised to ensure that students had reminders about the exam they are about to sit, both content and exam technique  held support sessions in period 3 and period 4 to help focus the student’s minds and help them to remain calm when there was a 2.00pm exam  held a number of sessions organised by departments to support revision and answer any questions or concerns Whilst these sessions were not compulsory they were created to provide support and ensure that every student felt as prepared as they could be for each exam.

May Half Term Revision Sessions and Library Availability There were revision sessions during the May half term for Maths, MFL and PE. The Library was also staffed by the Senior Leadership Team and available for quiet independent study between 9.00am and 4.00pm (Tuesday – Friday).

Year 11 Parent Survey A recent survey of Year 11 parents highlighted the following points (25 parents responded): Do you feel that your son/daughter has been supported throughout of the year?

95% said YES  Did you as a parents have enough information to help support your son/daughter throughout the year?

75% said YES  How useful were the Year 11 Parent Bulletins?

95% said useful or very useful Those who took the time to complete the survey also left feedback for the subjects that they felt provided the best support in preparing their son/daughter which will be shared with the departments. 

In addition they also took time to leave comments on how we can further develop our support of Year 11. This will be further analysed, shared with the Governors and proposals put forward for next year.

Year 10 and 11 Parents’ Information Evening In the first week in June there were two separate evening presentations for New Year 10 and New Year 11 parents to help them to understand what will be involved throughout the year.

Information covered included:     

Brief presentation from the English, Maths and Science Departments How students are assessed and examined at GCSE What the school will do to support each student What the students can do to ensure success How you can support your son/daughter during this demanding time

Academic Progress and the Progress Leaders Both Mrs Chevalier (Year 11 Progress Leaders) and Miss Holmes (Year 10 Progress Leader) have taken time to reflect on the vast amount of support that they co-ordinate for both Year 10 and 11 in order that we can identify which areas are highly effective and which areas can be further developed. It has been decided that Mrs Chevalier will act as the Progress Leader for the NEW Year 10 and that Miss Holmes will move with Year 10 to become the Progress Leader for the NEW Year 11.

Academic Tutoring We are looking to strengthen the link between student, tutor and home so that each can help achieve the best outcomes. Developments being explored include: 

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Transfer from recording tutor activities on a paper based system to an online version. It is hoped that by doing this it will enable home to take an even more active part in supporting their son/daughter and encourage even more contact with the tutor It is hoped that the online documents are made available to tutor, student and home via FROG which will help establish this VLE as the go to portal

Mr S Milne Assistant Headteacher

KS5 Update Students have now sat their AS and A2 examinations and we wish all students the very best with their results. In the build up to examinations students benefited from focused assemblies and tutor activities geared towards exam preparation and the extended access to the School library and study facilities during holiday periods was again well utilised by students in the Sixth Form, especially those in Year 13. A targeted Raising Achievement evening and Academic Board were also organised to provide more detailed and specific support to parents and students in preparation for their examinations. As always there was an impressive amount of revision classes and support sessions put on by individual departments and teachers.

The Sixth Form Teaching and Learning Review being led by Miss J Williamson, dedicated KS5 Progress Leader has now been completed and a new Teaching and Learning Policy in place, which has already been presented to the Senior Leadership Team (SLT). A comprehensive teacher and student survey related to teaching and learning was completed. The findings were on the whole positive but also identified areas for consideration and development. A full programme of lesson observations targeted at Key Stage 5 has also taken place and supported

by SLT, which again showed that the standard of teaching was very high. We have also carried out a comprehensive work sample that raised a number of important issues in relation to the quality of student folders. The final elements were a number of ‘working lunches’ with invited and Heads of Department to reflect on the outcomes of the review and to share good practice.

The resulting new Teaching and Learning Policy will be introduced to staff for the new academic year. New resulting features such as formal folder checks, revised Attitude to Learning descriptors, student voice surveys, a new cause for concern policy and a fully revamped tutorial programme for the Sixth Form are currently in place or in draft form for consultation and being embedded into key documents such as the Assessment Calendar and staff training programme for the coming academic year.

Year 12 have now returned to school and has started their A2 courses. Considerable time and planning has gone into ensuring that the period following their examinations is a meaningful and practical start to their A2 studies. All returning Year 12 students attended a 1:1 academic tutor meeting with their tutor to discuss their examinations, intended programme of study for Year 13 and their targets for Year 13. Tutors also took some time to discuss their plans for life after Sixth Form and the support that they need to make these plans a reality. It the intention this year to develop an individual support plan for each student in respect to their future aspirations. We have also identified a cohort of students in danger (SID) of underachieving who may need extra departmental support.

In line with Raising Aspirations strategy we have changed our policy with respects to the Extended Project. Traditionally offered to Year 13 in September, we have responded to requests from Year 12 to start the Extended Project prior to the summer holidays.

This challenging and stimulating project has grown in popularity and there are currently 90 students in Year 12 voluntarily signed up to explore the option of an Extended Project. Meetings will be held with all students prior to the summer to discuss their proposed project title.

We envisage a significantly increased number taking the qualification and thus enhancing their own independent study skills as well as supporting future applications. This years Extended Project were once again of the highest standard and showcased our students’ exceptional talents.

We have taken Year 12 to the UCAS Convention at the University of Surrey and held a Higher Education evening for Parents. We have also held a focussed day dedicated to applying to University. As a result we currently have 170 of our Year 12 registered with UCAS and in a position to work on their applications; this is an increase on last year.

Support sessions were also provided in respect to Personal Statement writing. This year students have also benefited from listening to external speakers with expertise in Gap Years, Apprenticeships and the students also enjoyed a presentation by the Director on Uni-Frog. This is a new search engine for University places and Apprenticeships that the school has subscribed to in conjunction with the Howard of Effingham School and it really does support our students in their research.

We have also provided training for all Year 12 tutors in respect to UCAS applications and the process of writing a Tutor Reference for UCAS. Training for subject staff will take place in September. UCAS support clinics will be held on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons after School and until the 15 January 2016 deadline. We have also held a Careers Forum that was well attended by students. A large number of visitors from different professions came into school to meet with students and to answer their questions.

The Sixth Form Council has also been very active. They have once organised a superb RAG Week, raising many thousands for Bromley Y Counselling service in Bromley (in memory of Elizabeth Thomas) and Brooklands School for Disabled youngsters in Reigate. Cheques were given to the representatives of both charities during Year 13’s last day assembly. We have also enjoyed a superb leavers’ day and a very memorable prom that was a fitting end to an excellent year group. This year we organised a new event in the Sixth Form social calendar in the shape of Year 12 summer party, which was a great success and which will be repeated next year. A notable event this year was our support of the Anthony Nolan Trust with over 100 students signing up as future donors in the constant battle against blood cancer.

This half term saw Year 12 go on work experience, while considerable preparations are also in hand for enrolment in September. We are also planning our Graduation Evening and Senior Prize Giving in which we hope to celebrate the deserved success of our students in the Autumn Term.

Mr A Bennett Head of Sixth Form

Local Air Cadet takes to the sky thanks to National Award Year 13 Oxted School student Bridie Wakeford an Air Cadet Sergeant with No 340 (Edenbridge) Squadron Air Training Corps (ATC), has won twelve hours of flying tuition thanks to the Royal Air Forces Association.

The RAF charity runs an annual Flying Scholarship programme, now offering six awards in total to outstanding members of the Air Cadet Organisation (which includes the ATC and the Combined Cadet Force) and the Girls Venture Corps Air Cadets.

The scholarships recognise the continuous support of these organisations to the RAF Association.

Bridie was presented with her prize by the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Andrew Pulford, at the Association’s recent Annual Conference.

Bridie is working towards becoming an air traffic controller in the RAF and hopes this award will help her achieve this ambition.

Puffin Book Design Competition James Coleman 10SM has won £100 pounds worth of Puffin books for the School. His design of Goodnight Mister Tom 'stood out because of its strong composition and extremely evocative use of silhouette.'

Mrs R Cornick, Librarian

Surrey Schools 80m Hurdle Champion The 86th Surrey Schools Track and Field Championships at Kingsmeadow Saturday 13 June saw Oxted athletes in many events. Josh Watson joined the ranks of Surrey’s elite athletes by becoming the fastest athlete in Surrey in the 80m Hurdle Championship. His winning performance (11.73) was significantly ahead of all of his rivals and marked him as the quality athlete at this most technical event. His achievement resulted in his selection for the SE England Inter County Championships together with possible selection for the English Schools’ Championships – the pinnacle of school based competition in England. We wish him well.

Mr J Manson

Frantic French Bake-Off even had the head saying ‘Ooh La La!’ On Tuesday 28 April, a bunch of lively Year 11 students, led by Madame Witty, took part in an enjoyable French themed, ‘Great British Bake-Off’, in our excellent FDT facilities to showcase their love for the French language and its spectacular cuisine.

The scintillating adventure began when we arrived at the FDT room with a sense of nervousness as well as curiosity to see what we would be baking. In front of our eyes laid eight sealed brown envelopes; I was the first to pick an envelope purely because I couldn’t hold myself further! I opened it up and trembled when I saw the words ‘Tarte Tatin’. In my 9 years of French education I’ve never even heard of ‘Tarte Tatin’ let alone taste or even make it before! My other ‘competitors’ received an array of dishes including soufflé, lemon tarts and layered cakes. Our neighbourhood ‘anxious Annie’, and a close friend of mine, received the dreaded soufflé however it is clear to say everyone under-estimated her baking prowess and eye for detail, she was arguably at a professional standard and truthfully made me eat my words when I said ‘she’ll sink like her soufflé’.

We faced several difficulties along the way. For example I had burnt my caramel for my ‘Tarte Tatin’ simply because I was too busy reading away at the recipe which was written in French!

Which only made the job ten times harder! My ‘arch nemesis’ and perhaps my greatest friend was slow and steady but he fell at the last hurdle, he was too rigid. He didn’t broaden his horizons and try new things! Both of our errors can be applied to education, one must always be flexible, be able to do two things at one time and most importantly, push themselves to a limit they are not comfortable with, only then true learning can occur.

In the end we all had minor errors and nobody expected less, we are all energetic, hardworking and bright students, but we are no professionals, with the exception of our soufflé lass. Most importantly we all overcame these difficulties by working collaboratively, boosting each other’s morale and offering a helping hand to our worthiest adversaries.

We enjoyed this experience so much. We are grateful for the opportunities Oxted School give us to vent our exam stress and let loose, whilst maintaining a learning environment.

Mrityunjay Vijayshankar, 11SB Some comments from the students who took part: ‘It’s like soft meringue foam in my mouth 10/10!’

‘Soufflé is stressful, ‘nuff said!’

‘Wow!’ ‘The colours of the French flag, blue white and brown!’

‘It was a really fun experience and I’m glad I didn’t end up burning the school down!’

‘I wasn’t born a baker but I now know I’ll die as one’ ‘The soufflés turned out surprisingly well - not a soggy bottom in sight!’ ‘…and is finished with ‘Tatin’ lettering on top in French…oh no that’s more like Arabic!’

Oxted School goes to the mountains of New England and visits the Big Apple During the Easter holidays 75 students (Year 8 – 11) and 7 staff visited the resort of Killington in Vermont for a snow sports course of skiing and boarding. The snow gods provided a wintery wonderland the result of one of the coldest winters that they have had in recent years. This allowed beginners to make excellent progress with fantastic conditions and for the more advanced to experience the thrills of “glade” skiing (skiing in the trees) and the opportunity to ski “outer limits” the site of World Cup moguls competitions.

The students went bowling, to the cinema, pizza night, disco and competed in a quiz. After five days in the mountains we headed south to enjoy the wonders of New York. On our first night in the city we attended an NBA game between the Brooklyn Nets and the Toronto Raptors at the Barclay Centre in Brooklyn. It was a fantastic game to be introduced to professional basketball as the lead switched hands throughout the game up until the final minute when the Nets finally clinched the game winning 114 – 109.

The following day we went on the Staten Island ferry so that we could take photos of the Statue of Liberty and the famous Manhattan skyline. Following this we went to the top of the Empire State Building to see the fantastic views in between the forest of skyscrapers. This was followed by a shopping expedition in one of the many malls in New York.

The students were fantastic, keen to learn new skills, meet new people and quick to embrace the American way of life.

Mr S Milne, Assistant Headteacher, KS4 Leader

Rhys Saddles Up For A Career On The Turf Rhys Clutterbuck 9TH is waiting for a start date to begin a 12-16 week course at a jockey training school in Newmarket.

Rhys was one of a handful of youngsters selected from hundreds of applicants for the pony racing course.

Although his passion is to be a jump jockey, Rhys has also been selected to play rugby for Surrey County.

Oxted School wish him luck with whichever path he chooses.

Courtesy of Kevin Black, County Border News Photo by Kevin Black

Anthony Nolan Trust Oxted Sixth Form got fully involved in supporting the lifesaving work of the Anthony Nolan Trust in their campaign to build up their register of future bone marrow and stem cell donors in their efforts to defeat blood cancer.

Following an information assembly on the work of the Anthony Nolan Trust, volunteers came into School to sign up students who wished to become a potential donor through their ‘Give a Spit, Save a Life’ message. It was a simple process for students to give a small sample of DNA and place themselves on the register in the hope that they could be a future match and genuinely save a life.

The campaign was inspired by Year 13 student Elli Smith (pictured), whose cousin Joey currently suffers from a rare blood condition known as Diamond Blackfan Anaemia and is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant. The Anthony Nolan Trust volunteers were impressed by the number of Sixth Form students who volunteered and a similar event is already being planned for next year.

In picture: Elli Smith, Mr Bennett (Head of Sixth Form), Lauren Dennis (Anthony Nolan Volunteer), Bradley Carr and Joss Carter

Year 8 Geography Field Trip This half term, the whole of Year 8 went to Seaford to undertake Geography fieldwork. The aim of this trip was to give students the opportunity to experience real life Geography in the field as well as develop students’ abilities to collect, analyse and evaluate data. These are vital Geography skills needed for GCSE and A-Level and they also have vital links to the Maths curriculum as well.

Students undertook data collection on Seaford beach to determine how longshore drift operated on the shoreline and the impact of coastal engineering methods on the area. They also surveyed the town of Seaford to look at land use and tourism.

The students were an absolute credit to the School. They thoroughly took up the challenge of collecting data and showed resilience and a thirst for learning when learning how to apply the data collection methods. The students are now enjoying writing up the project creatively in groups in the classroom.

Miss D Wheeler, Head of Geography

Science Reading Award "Well done to the winning Tutor Group 7TD for finding the most scientific facts for the Library Science Reading Award”.

Students were challenged to take a Science reading book from the library and find two scientific interesting facts.

Students discovered many answers to questions including "why spiders don't get caught in their own webs", "how small are atoms" and "how many hearts a squid has" Well done to all and keep reading!"

Mrs R Cornick, Librarian

Primary Outreach Art Year 5 classes from St Catherine’s and Dormansland Primary Schools visited the Art department with Mrs Woledge and Mr Mann to take part in a summer Art workshop. They were introduced to new techniques and different materials to produce a variation on a beach themed “still life” in the style of Roy Lichtenstein. Working in pairs the children were clearly pleased with their finished artwork.

Design Technology We have been able to offer two different DT sessions for Year 5 children from our feeder schools. Whole classes took advantage of a 2D design activity which was run by Mr Rose and Mr Hunt using a computer programme to create designs for a circular key ring. The children loved making their own designs on the computer and were fascinated to see the laser cutter transferring their designs to their own key fobs.

The DT department then organised two challenge events where teams of four children created a brand of collectable toys.

Each team member had a job: Toymaker, Packaging Manager, Leaflet Designer and Marketing Manager and the teams made at least three of their toys, packaged in boxes with information leaflets. Having made their packaged toys the teams then presented their ideas to the class.

Once again staff were impressed with the quality and creativity of the Year 5 work.

Geography We have now completed our Geography Outreach sessions with our feeder primary schools. Groups of our Year 8 students have visited the Year 5 classes to run an event called “The Trade Game”. The game introduced aspects of a country’s resources and economy as well as teaching them some Geography and the importance of teamwork.

Thank you to Miss Barber and Miss O’Keefe for their support with these events and to the Year 8 students who were a credit to themselves and the School.

English As part of their creative writing topic, our Year 8 students all wrote a story which they then made into a book. Year 5 children from our feeder primary schools visited the School Library to help judge the books. A pleasing number of Year 8 students volunteered to assist in the activity by reading the stories to small groups of visiting children and it was lovely to see the Year 5’s engaged in the storytelling. At the end of the session the children had a final chance to look at the books before making their choice in a secret ballot.

Staff from both Oxted and the primary schools were impressed with the standard of the books and the quality of the stories.

The votes were counted and the winners were as follows: Year 5 vote (female author) “Flutterbell the Fairy Princess” by Amber Pearce Year 5 vote (male author) “Supersock” by Max Tinson Staff vote (female author) “The Boy with No Name” by Imogen Newbold Staff vote (male author) “Albert and the Snowglobe” by Edwin Todd Thank you to Miss Ridley for running these sessions and to the Oxted School Library staff along with a number of Year 8 students, too numerous to mention individually.

IT (Movie moments) Mr Manson and Mrs West ran four fantastic ICT sessions for Year 5 children. The children were shown how to make a short trailer for a film, sporting event, activity or other suitable topic using downloads of videos and images from the internet which they then edited into their “movie moment”. Those with enough time then added music to their films for maximum effect.

Maths Mr Connell from the Maths department has been visiting some of the primary schools to run Maths booster sessions with small groups of Year 5 children who find Maths challenging. By introducing topics, such as sequencing, it is hoped that the children will find Maths less daunting when they eventually arrive at their secondary schools. The primary school children worked well and enjoyed the visits from Oxted staff.

Music The Music department were again out on their annual music tour and this year visited Dormansland, Churchill, Tatsfield, St Stephen’s, Godstone and Holland Primary Schools for a fantastic performance of music and song. The primary school children love being performed to

by Oxted students of all ages and are grateful for the hard work they put in.

Science Teams from St Mary’s Junior School, St Catherine’s, Holland and Lingfield Primary Schools have now completed all four rounds of the Oxted Science Challenge Cup 2015. The winning team was from St Catherine’s with Lingfield as runners up. During the competition the children completed challenges which had been set by some enthusiastic Year 8 volunteers and included making rockets, catapults, cradles to protect an egg, testing different streamlined shaped, food testing and investigating magnets. The competition ended with a forensics investigation to work out which suspect had been threatening their Headteacher with the ultimate destruction of their collection of garden gnomes!!!

Thank you to the Science Technician team and the Year 8 students who volunteered to be part of this event.

Over a two week period 13 classes of Year 5 children from our feeder schools have also visited Oxted for a morning of science. They always enjoy using Bunsen burners which this time they used to make a pH indicator from red cabbage.

They watched some fun demonstrations and also made bath bombs which they took back to school.

Thank you to all the subject departments who entered into the Primary Outreach Programme and for the enthusiasm of the staff involved.

Thank you to the departmental Technicians for their support and help with minibus driving and to all the Oxted students who have been involved in supporting the activities.

Mrs A Cilia, Primary Link Coordinator

Salter’s Festival of Chemistry

Four Year 8 students took part in the Salter’s Festival of Chemistry at the University of Surrey.

They had to complete two practical challenges, one set by Salter’s and the other by the University.

The students were privileged and excited to be able to use the excellent facilities made available to them in the university chemistry department. They found it really interesting to carry out practical work in a lab designed for higher education students.

After the challenges the students made their way to one of the large lecture theatres where they were given a loud and very visual Chemistry show which they really enjoyed.

Royal Society of Chemistry Schools Analyst Competition Two teams of Year 12 Chemistry students competed in the Schools Analyst Competition run by the Royal Society of Chemistry at the University of Greenwich at their Medway campus.

The students worked in well-equipped university labs using many instruments and techniques for the first time. They enjoyed the experience and made most of the opportunity to learn new skills.

The competition was very tight and only a few marks separated most of the teams. Both teams finished high up in the points table with the team of Emma Penn, Hannah Potter and Adam Doukkali delighted to have earned more points than their friendly rivals Adam Akhtar, Matt Bennett and Duncan Taylor.

Surrey and Berkshire Schools Challenge We took two teams of Year 8 students to compete in the regional rounds of the Surrey and Berkshire Schools Challenge, a University Challenge style quiz with starters for ten and bonus questions, all Science based!

Our team of Jake Hobson, Natty Bateman, Megan Summerton and Eleanor Evans won the round with our second team of Ben Gibbs, James Wright, Hannah Haywood and Freya Smith the very high scoring third placed team.

The winning team qualified for the finals of the competition, which was held at Reading University and the second team were invited along to join in the day.

On the day, one of the winning teams from another region was unable to attend the finals so, as a high scorers, our B team were asked to stand in and take part in the finals.

Afte r an ente rtai nin g inte ractive Scie nce lecture the competition began with both teams doing really well and answering some difficult questions.

At the end of the morning session both teams finished in the top four and so progressed to the semi finals round.

Our A team won their semi and qualified for the finals which they won in a very close, nail biting contest. Our B team were narrowly beaten in their semi final but put in a great performance especially for a team who didn’t know they were taking part until they arrived!

Well done to both teams and congratulations to our winning team. Their prize was a tour of the Mars factory in Slough.

Science Fair Our Science Fair has now become an annual tradition and this year it was well received by around 800 young visitors.

The Old Hall was set up with a large number of hands on experiments and demonstrations including: pH testing, testing food for starch, optical activities, a variety of magnets, microscopes, making CO2 to extinguish a candle, using your senses and much more.

The Main Hall included the stage set up as a dark room with our impressive Reuben’s tube which involves flames dancing to music!! Students also enjoyed being engulfed by a giant bubble, shrinking their crisp packets, being vacuum packed, riding a bike to power light bulbs, using air displacement to knock down paper cups, making rockets and investigating the weird properties of custard.

Our Year 7 students visited the fair, where possible during their Science lessons and Year 5 children came from our feeder primary schools.

We had a large group of Year 8 and Year 9 students who volunteered to help at the fair, a few even spending the whole of academic monitoring day helping us. The children really engage with our students, who explained some of the science behind the activities and helped manage the logistics of four days of continual visitors.

A huge thank you to the Science Technician team who dedicate time and energy to the smooth running of the fair.

Maths and Science Day at the Howard of Effingham School Seven Year 8 students visited the Howard of Effingham School for a Maths and Science Challenge for the more able.

Ianthe McKenzie-Smart, Harvey Carter, Chris Bell, James Ticehurst, Jess Whiddett, Phoebe Gates and Rhiannen Herpe took part in team activities including designing and making a coin sorter from a given list of materials. The students worked in teams with students from other schools and certificates were awarded to winning teams and individuals. Jess and Phoebe both came away with certificates so congratulations to them and well done to all our students.

Science Week Tutor Group Challenge As part of our Science Week celebrations, we run a Tutor Group Challenge.

Each year group is set a different task and every participating tutor group receives points and a certificate with the winning tutor group in each year receiving pens, pencils and sweets.

The points were totalled and the overall winning House received the Tutor Group Challenge Cup. Congratulations to Stocketts, the winning House for 2015.

Thank you to all tutor groups who took part.

STEMFEST 2015 The Big Bang Fair In the heat of Tuesday 30 June, we took thirty two Year 7 students to the Big Bang Fair, a STEMFEST event at the South of England showground in Ardingly. We were booked into a “Science of the Bleeding Obvious” workshop where students had a taste of dealing with a mock up of a trauma situation. We had seats for an entertaining “science magic….magic science show” where the wacky presenter showed how magic tricks can be used to demonstrate scientific principles.

In addition there were literally barns full of hands on activities and demonstrations from dancing robots to microbiology to careers advice. There were countless commercial exhibitors, universities and school projects for the students to visit.

Despite the heat the students made the most of their day and we were delighted to receive an email from a parent saying “my son had a brilliant time and came home totally enthused about Science. In his words "it was epic and one of the best days I've ever had!"

Year 10 into Year 11 Activity Day We are lucky at Oxted School to have the opportunity to move our Year 10 into Year 11 after May half term and take advantage of the six weeks remaining of the summer term. Moving from Year 10 into Year 11 is an important step as the students are now role models for the rest of the School to look up to.

In order to help our students be excited about moving into Year 11, we organised a Year 10 into Year 11 activity day to mark this change. We want our students to have high aspirations and that they are prepared to work hard to achieve their goals.

During the activity day the students completed a series of activities throughout the day that helped them to prepare for the future.

The activities include:  Personal Development and Leadership (delivered by the Army)  Teambuilding (delivered by the Army)  The Future (careers, further education)  First impressions (How to maximise work experience)  Oxted Sixth Form (help students to understand that our Sixth Form is about more than just the academic) One of the highlights of the day for many students was to have the opportunity to show the Army just what they can do on their assault course (bouncy castle) which was tough but a lot of fun.

I hope that the new Year 11 are excited about their futures and that they are prepared to work hard to gain the grades needed to make their future possible.

Mr S Milne , Assistant Headteacher - KS4 Leader

Year 8 ‘In Class’ Fashion Show Having studied lessons on clothes in Spanish, students worked in groups to create a fashion show in the target language. Muy bien chicos Mrs S Ellis, Head of Spanish

Year 11 Prom The Prom at Woldingham Golf Course was a fitting way to celebrate the end of their GCSE exams and their time together as a year group. They arrived in style, were dressed to impress and throughout the evening they did everything with class. No longer school children but young adults looking forward to an exciting future.

They have worked hard together and made the most of a fantastic night together.

Mr S Milne, Assistant Headteacher, KS4 Leader

Year 13 ‘Class of 2015’ Leavers’ Prom Westerham Golf Club played host again for our ‘Class of 2015’ Year 13 prom. On a sunny evening students got to spend one last night together to celebrate the end of their examinations and also their formal association with Oxted School. They have been an exceptional year group throughout their time at the school and the significant number of staff who came to share in their evening was a fitting tribute. The dance floor was never empty and it was great to hear a few of the old classics made it on their playlist. A huge thank you to everyone at Westerham Golf Club for making us so welcome and good luck to all of the students in their examinations and we hope to see them all at Graduation after the summer.

Mr A Bennett, Assistant Headteacher, Head of Sixth Form

Music Department This term has been another very busy and successful time for the Music department.

Friday 20 March - Thursday 26 March Year 11 and Year 13 conducted their music performance exams. All students performed fantastically and behaved in a professional manner. Well done to you all.

During the Easter holidays the Junior Choir, Samba band, Concert Band and String Group went to Paris for four days. Our students performed at two venues in the centre of Paris to very enthusiastic audiences, despite the weather in our outside concert! They saw the sights of Paris and had a boat trip on the River Seine. They also spent a day in Disneyland Paris! The students were fantastic for the whole trip, extremely well behaved and great fun to be around.

More photos can be viewed on the School website http://www.oxtedschool.co.uk/87/image-gallery/cat/74/music-tour-march-2015

On Tuesday 28 April the Music BTEC group arranged a lunchtime concert to raise money as part of their Music Project Unit. They hosted the concert in the Main Hall and asked acts to perform.

Thank you Hannah and the Fox Hunters, Don’t Believe The Hype and The Tin Foyles who helped the BTEC class raise £53.75.

The Music Department have had a very busy and successful half term with many events going on in School and around the community.

All of our extra-curricular groups have been working extremely hard to put pieces of music together for the various concerts taking place, so well done to all students in the String Group, Samba Band, Bassics, Senior Choir, Brass band, Concert band and Junior choir.

On Wednesday 24 June and Thursday 25 June the Junior Choir, Concert Band, String Group and Samba Band went to six different primary schools on the annual primary school tour. Students performed many pieces and gave demonstrations about their instruments to students at Churchill, Tatsfield, Godstone, St Stephens, Dormansland and Holland School. Well done to all the students who took part especially the Year 11 and Year 13 students who have recently just left and who gave up their time to come back and support the event.

Our BTEC Music students hosted an extremely successful event at the Oxted Royal British Legion on Friday 26 June called ‘Live at the Legion’. The Year 12 group had to organise and perform at an event as part of their course and along with the other bands that performed raised £240 to go towards the Poppy Appeal and the Music department. The Music Department and BTEC Music class would like to thank everyone who was involved in performing at the gig, helping to move equipment and a very big thank you Steve Gamble who gave up his time to be the sound engineer for the evening as well as performing with his band the Titfield Thunderbolts.

The summer concert held on Tuesday 7 July featured soloists and all of our extra-curricular groups. The show was very successful and we wish the very best of luck to our Year 13 students who are leaving to go to university. We would also like to wish Stanley Wickham all the best for the future as he leaves us to go to the Brit School. Stanley has been an extremely dedicated member of the concert band and performed in the last two musicals at Oxted. His positive attitude and musical talent will be very much missed, thank you for all your hard work over the last three years Stanley.

Mrs S Homewood, Head of Music

True Adventure On Wednesday 15 July, the first of six groups consisting of 104 students, 12 teachers and 6 expedition leaders will start their expedition to Costa Rica and Nicaragua. For the students this is a culmination of hard work, determination and dedication to raise the required funds to participate in this life changing activity.

While in the country all groups will be working alongside charities to improve the educational resources and facilities of schools in the Granada area of Nicaragua. They will also be trekking amazing volcanic sites, tree planting in Grade 1 rainforests and turtle watching in the north west of Costa Rica.

Pleaser look out for lots of pictures and reports upon our return and wish all of the adventurers luck on their travels.

Mr Wheatley, Expedition Organiser

Sixth Form Mixed Beach Rugby Tournament On Friday 26 June Oxted went to their first mixed beach rugby tournament in West Wittering.

Oxted’s first challenge was getting to grips with the rules! Unfortunately constant penalties lead to our first loss against Berkshire Agricultural College. However this was not a sign of things to come. Oxted continued to improve with excellent play from all members of the squad winning all of their remaining pool games.

This put Oxted into a playoff match against Langdon High. It was a tough match as the majority of Oxted’s team were soaking wet from their quick pre match paddle in the beautiful British sea! and perhaps this distraction led to a loss in the play off.

Oxted were then entered into the plate where we won the quarter and semi-final only to face Berkshire Agricultural College again in the final. It was a far closer match with both sides scoring, unfortunately in extra time BAC’s super sub scored an excellent individual try and Oxted’s dreams were scuppered.

All in all it was a fantastic day for all members of the tiered and sandy squad, hopefully something that will become a tradition for Oxted to attend in the future.

Mr T Bridgland, PE Teacher and Deputy Head of Tenchleys

Paris Rugby Tour 2015 It was an absolute pleasure to be part of the Paris Rugby Tour 2015. Taking thirty one students from Year 8, Year 9 and Year 10 to show the French, why they keep wanting to buy British talent for their professional teams! The teams worked throughout the week with the coaching staff at Racing Metro to develop their technical skills and team play, receiving five training sessions at Racing’s state of the art training facility. We were also lucky enough to be joined on the pitches by some of the professionals at Racing including Jamie Roberts, Mike Philips and Johnathon Sexton.

Over the five days in Paris the boys were able to tour the Stade de France in the centre of Paris and lose to Mr Wheatley at ten-pin bowling!

It wasn’t all fun and games, there was the real reason we toured Paris and that was to play the local French teams. All teams did fantastically well and we walked away with a 2-1 aggregate score across all the games.

Well done to all the boys for their fantastic spirit, dedication and behaviour while on tour. A special thank you to Mr Bridgland and Mr Faulkner for assisting with the running and organisation of the tour.

Mr Wheatley, Head of PE

Year 8 Boys’ Football Win District Cup Having beaten the Warwick School in the semi-final of the District Cup, Oxted faced RAAS in the final. RAAS were the hosts for this age group so had a slight advantage as the home team.

Full of confidence, from a very successful season, Oxted dominated in the first half scoring a well worked passing move from the right leaving Nathan Hogan space to score. Oxted continued to control the game during the first half. The opposition never gave up but Oxted’s defence was very compact and stopped every attack. Rob Street in defence continued to impress. As time was running out, a deflected shot from the opposition meant it was 1-1 at half time. The second half was one way traffic as Oxted dominated. RAAS were under huge pressure but were holding on. With the game heading towards extra time, Nathan Hogan was played into space by brilliant Tyler Simms (8GM) pass and Nathan smashed the ball into the net of his left foot, a fantastic goal to win the Cup. It was a fitting end to a very good season, the squad deserve the success as they have been the strongest team in the District this year.

Congratulations Oxted School Year 8 Football Team.

Year 8 Football Team Matthew Barnett, Callum Molyneux, Tyler Simms, Sam Franklin Williams, Ben Hogan, Bruno Berkengoff, Robert Street, Brandon Howgate, Tom Mullen, Ryan O’Donoghue, Kai Thomas, Harry Crockett and Nathan Hogan.

Mr S Owen, Head of Stocketts House

Year 8 Boys Make the Surrey Cricket Finals Year 8 boys have had a successful cricket campaign this year having won every match in their East Surrey tournament, they went on to achieve 4th place in the Surrey finals after some very close matches. I am extremely proud of how the boys conducted themselves at the tournaments. They were a true credit to the school and embodied the spirit of cricket. Well done boys!

Year 8 Cricket Team J a ke Pe a rce , Ro b e rt St re et , J a me s Wid d o wson , Tyle r Ro be rt sh a w, Brandon Howgate, Harry Cockett, Luke Stock, Tom Mullen, Daniel Rance and Joel Munroe.

Mr J Williams, Deputy Head of Foyles House

Easyfundraising - Shop Online and Raise Funds for Oxted School Easyfundraising is a shopping directory listing some of your favourite stores including Amazon, Marks & Spencer, Next, John Lewis, Toys R Us and many other big high street names.

Why not raise valuable extra funds for us by using this fantastic scheme when you shop online, you won’t pay a penny more for your shopping, in fact you can even save money as many retailers offer discounts and special offers exclusive to Easyfundraising.

All you need to do is to visit www.easyfundraising.org.uk/oxtedschool and when you register, select Oxted School as the organisation you wish to support.

British Athletics UK National Sports Hall Finals Having been selected following County trials, and their respective teams (U13 Girls, U13 Boys and U15 Girls) winning their South East regional age-group finals in February, four Oxted School students who train at Holland Sports AC in Hurst Green represented Surrey at the British Athletics UK National Sports Hall Finals, held at Sports City Manchester on the Saturday 25 April and Sunday 26 April, Maddy Nunan 8GI, Harry Fisher 8GI, Lucy Sumner 10DB and Stephanie Fisher 10GS enjoyed a thrilling weekend of top-class competition.

Competing against ten other County regional winners, including teams from Wales and Northern Ireland, in a range of track and field events in teams of twelve (U13) and seven (U15) is the culmination of the winter season for young athletes. Teams need strength in depth to challenge for the overall title with points awarded in each event for placing's.

On the Saturday, Surrey U13 Girls comfortably won Gold to be crowned National Champions and the U13 Boys won Silver, just being beaten by reigning champions Avon in a very close result (1,266 to 1,214 points). Individual highlights, Maddy won a Silver medal in the relay, just 0.2 seconds away from Gold, to go with her team Gold. Harry won his 4-lap heat and in the final placed fifth, just 0.9 seconds outside the medals, and overall third best points scorer for Surrey with Team Silver.

On Sunday the Surrey U15 Girls successfully defended their 2014 title, taking Gold in a nail-biting tussle with Birmingham (1,306 points to 1,284) to be again crowned National Champions. Individually, Lucy won Bronze in a very close 4 x 2-lap relay and Stephanie won Bronze in the individual 4-lap and Gold in the 8-lap Paarlauuf.

Mr Wheatley, Head of PE

Cheer 4 Life - Sunday 26 April 2015 Cheer 4 Life is a charity Cheerleading event where Cheerleaders from all over Surrey come together and perform for family and friends to raise money for Cancer Research UK. This year the Year 7 squad ‘Oxted Mini Stars’ and Year 8/9 squad ‘Oxted Rising Stars’ performed two outstanding routines. The girls worked super hard all year and attended lunch and after school clubs to practice and refine their routine for the big day.

The students from Oxted and other schools in the district raised just over £1,700 for Cancer Research UK. Well done to all girls who took part and thank you for your outstanding commitment to cheerleading this year.

Miss K Sayadi, Head of Girls' PE

‘Oxted All Stars’ A massive well done to ‘Oxted All Stars’ who have been together for the previous three years and with half the squad now leaving in Year 11, we want to thank you for your commitment and hard work in cheerleading.

Miss K Sayadi, Head of Girls' PE

Sports Day Monday 15 June was the start of the Sports Day heat competitions. Each tutor group was tasked with selecting a cutting edge athletics squad to represent all the major athletic disciplines (both for field and track), the only limiting rule being that one student could only compete in 1 track, 1 field and 1 relay.

The week of the heats was blessed with summer weather, and despite it only being the heats, the crowds massed and the tension was high. With hundreds of students from Year 7-Year 10 pitting themselves against one another in the arena of direct athletics competition, emotions were running high with both anguish and tribulation evident amongst the students as they fought for the right to successfully gain a place in the final event on Friday 3 July 2015.

After the heats, the Sports Day loomed. The weather reflected the upbeat mood of the students as both spectators and competitors took to the field for Oxted’s second Sports Day. The morning saw the battle of the field events, with long jump, discus, javelin, shot put and also the gruelling long distance of 1500m. In the afternoon, the culmination of the day reached a climax of anticipation as the whole school gathered on the top field to witness a fantastic sporting spectacle. The event saw spectators line the edge of the 100m track, all seated and supporting their respective House’s fanatically. The events were majestically started by an excellent student cheerleading display organised by Miss Sayadi.

Due to the heat events, the final races were all hotly contested and some finishes needed video technology to separate them. The event was a truly great fantastic sporting experience with the athletes giving their all in front of a very jubilant crowd. The Sports Day upheld the Olympic qualities of fair play and competition, and the crowd showed their appreciation with rapturous applause after each race.

Finally, with the races finished and the scores to calculate, Mr Stodart came into his own, tackling the scoring spreadsheet, the Head of House’s waiting in anticipation for the final House scores

Final Scores

Overall Tenchleys 1897 Foyles 1761

1st 2nd

Stocketts

1672

3rd

Detillens Grants

1526 1423

4th 5th

My thanks to all of the students who competed in both the heats and the final competition, and made the event such a success. Thank you to the tutors and students for arranging their initial athletics team sheets, and also to the many staff who supported the day. Many thanks to Mr Stodart and Miss Holmes for calculating the scores, and a final appreciation to the PE department for helping to organise and run the event. A great day for Oxted sport.

Mr D Wheatley, Head of PE

Battle Fields Trip 2015 On Wednesday 17 June the History Department took one hundred Year 10 students on the annual trip to the battlefields of World War One in Ypres, Belgium.

We first visited Tyne Cot, where our students saw the largest commonwealth cemetery, with 12,000 graves and a further 33,000 names inscribed on the Memorial to the Missing.

Students discussed the sacrifice those men made and read a poem in tribute to those who gave their lives in order to preserve the freedom we now enjoy.

Langemark is small cemetery near Ypres containing the remains of over 44,000 German soldiers. Our students commented on the smaller gravestones, which were black, rectangular and flat on the floor. They also noticed a more sombre mood. Here we talked about the fact that these soldiers also sacrificed their lives for their homes and families and for that reason they deserve the same respect as an allied soldier.

The Menin Gate was built at an entrance to the city of Ypres that was often used by soldiers on their way to the front lines, over 300,000 soldiers never returned. Every day at 8pm the Menin Gate is closed to traffic and the Ypres Fire Brigade play the Last Post. Our students took part in the ceremony by placing a wreath of poppies. We are incredibly proud of them, they were considerate and respectful.

Mr N Simmons, Head of History

Sky Dive for Charity Hazel Finn 11DW has been raising sponsorship money for Cancer Research over the past year. Her efforts came to a head on Saturday 4 July in Reading at the London Parachute School. Hazel completed a 10,000 feet sky dive with assistance.

So far Hazel has raised over £400, a tremendous effort. Well done Hazel. If you would like to contribute further to this amazing cause please contact the Detillens House office.

Mr T Edwards, Deputy Head of Detillens

Flying the green flag for charity work in Detillens house Members of 10DK have been working tirelessly over the past academic year, making an impact when and where they can in support of this year’s House charity, Shelter.

So far this year they have had a very successful cake sale, two charity food drives - collecting for The Caterham Food Bank and a Christmas raffle – where prizes were donated by tutees.

Members of 10DK should be applauded for their philanthropic attitudes and selflessness when considering the misfortunes of others.

Detillens House – Leading the Way. Miss K Mason, Tutor 10DK

Detillens House There have been many positives this half term for Detillens, once again.

Our challenge for the Inter House Cup has gathered momentum and we have competed with full teams in every event. We have had numerous volunteers for all events, which is testament to our students and their pride in the House.

Sports Day was a great success and we improved greatly on last year.

The surge for the House Cup continues. We are now placed second overall at the moment. As many House points as possible are needed, and this will continue into next year.

Attendance is one area we need to still work on as a House. Unfortunately, we are presently last in the Attendance Cup, which is having a knock on effect in our attempts to win the House Cup. The concern is the number of odd days that students are taking off. Can we please make every effort to make sure all students attend school on a regular basis and maximise our efforts, so that we are ready for the new school year in September.

So it’s all ready for an exciting end of school year. Whatever the outcome we have made great strides this year. Well done to everyone.

Mr T Edwards, Deputy Head of House

Foyles House Foyles are particularly proud of our efforts for our two charities this year. We set ourselves an ambitious target of £1,000 between both Cancer Research UK and Taylor Made Dreams.

With a number of fantastic events including the hugely successful Foyles talent show we have not only met this target but smashed it making in excess of £2,000.

We are also extremely proud of our students achieving sporting excellence this year.

Josh Constable 8FF who has qualified for the National Finals of trampolining on the Sunday 11 July, and Joshua Watson 9FC, who after winning the 80m hurdles in the Surrey Schools Championships has been selected for the Surrey team to compete at the national championships in Gateshead.

Mr D Holloway, Head of House

Grants House The Grants team are proud to say that we have maintained an impressive stretch as top of the House Point Achievements along with a steady rate of attendance throughout the term.

We continue to support the British Heart Foundation as our House Charity and have raised an impressive amount so far this year with exact figures to follow shortly.

A massive further thank you to all of the Grants students who represented the House in the Cricket, Rounders and Ultimate Frisbee Inter-House competitions recently. We would like to thank those students who took part in the Sports Day on Friday 3 July.

We would like to take this opportunity to celebrate the incredible achievements of some of our Grants students this year. In particular, we would like to congratulate Joshua Nonet-Black, in Year 12, who this year has played for the England VI Cricket team including a recent test match against India, the current World Champions. Furthermore we would like to congratulate Abby Taylor, in Year 9, who has successfully qualified for the Scottish Tennis Open and we would like to wish her the best of luck in this tournament.

We have had the excellent array of activities that took place during Flexible Curriculum week.

Our new Year 11 students embarked Work Experience, our new Year 10 students took part in various activities, including DofE expeditions, Year 8 students went on Camp and Year 7 students went on various trips throughout this period.

We hope you all have an excellent summer holiday and look forward to seeing you all again in September.

Mr M Connell, Deputy Head of House

Tenchleys House As a house, which is devoted to assisting charities where possible, we helped to raise around ÂŁ245 for the Nepal earthquake Appeal.

All monies raised are to go to help rebuild shelters, supply medical supplies and feed those badly affected.

Tenchley’s students applied for House Tutor student elections and each tutor voted for their representative. We have a fabulous team of 12 students who will listen to their tutor regarding ideas they would like put forward to improve aspects of their schooling. Well done to: Ellie Carlile, Maisie Boardman, Erin Boulton, Emily Strange Ellie Sandover, Jessica Whiddett, Oliver Darrell-Brown, James Staton, Sophie Marlowe, Casey Edwards, Joe Steeden, Emma Pinchin We held our first House Council meeting, where we decided to meet monthly and discuss all the fabulous ideas our students have.

Ms S Marshall, Tenchleys Learning Coach

Stocketts House This summer term has been incredible busy for Stocketts House. Just after May Half term we said goodbye to our Year 11s who have completed their exams and are enjoying a well deserved break before their results come out on Thursday 20 August 2015. We wish them all the luck! Year 11s leaving did mean that we now welcome our old Year 9s into their GCSEs as the new Year 10s and our old Year 10s into the new Year 11. We began our process of picking our new Prefects from these new Year 11 students, who will next year continue to support what we do within the House. We also welcomed 12 students across the year groups as our House Council Representatives, who will be representing the Stocketts student voice next year as part of the whole school House Council. Congratulations to Joel Pickford, Billy Butt, Izzi Lovering, Gracie Horton, Katie Bradbury, Sam Hopwood, Asad Karimi, Alfie Saunders, Natty Bateman, Hayley Sasserath, Mia Harewood and Barnaby Stott who were all chosen by their peers to be part of this excellent opportunity. Alongside this, the students have continued to raise money for our House Charity Born Positive, with many students buying bracelets to show their support for the cause.

We have also been incredibly successful this term in the Inter-House competitions that have been taking place; winning both the Maths Inter-House and Science Week Tutor Group Challenge as well as currently being Third in the English Inter-House. Thank you to everyone who was involved in Sports Day. We say a sad farewell to Miss Newman (Deputy Head of House). Following the birth of her son Jack, she has decided to move closer to her family in Eastbourne. I would like to thank Miss Newman on behalf of all the students that she supported and her dedication to Stocketts House. She will be missed by the students and staff. She writes: “Dear Stocketts I hope you are all well and getting loads of House points! As you recently had an assembly about choices I thought I would write you a message about a choice I have made recently. I have decided not to come back to Oxted and instead have got a job in Eastbourne so that I can bring baby Jack up by the sea and be closer to family so they can help me. This wasn't an easy choice to make as I absolutely love Oxted School and a huge part of that was being Deputy Head of Stocketts House. I will miss working with you so much as you are such a lovely group of students who I'm sure will go really far.

Mr Owen is a very good friend of mine so he will keep me updated on how you are doing and I really hope to receive a text from him on the last day of term to say that we have won the Champion House Cup as we all know that Stocketts House is ‘simply the best’. So take care everyone and keep on being the best that you can be and keep on making the right choices. Miss Newman” Mr Owen, Head of Stocketts House

Dates for the Diary August

28

Sixth Form Graduation

September

1

Sixth Form Enrolment

2

INSET Day

3

Year 7 and Year 12 Return to School (School photographs)

4

Whole School Returns (whole School photograph)

8

Year 8 and Year 10 ‘Meet the Tutor’ Evening

9

Friends of Oxted School Committee Meeting

10

Year 9 and Year 11 ‘Meet the Tutor’ Evening

17

Year 7 and Year 12 ‘Meet the Tutor ‘ Evening

21

Year 12 DofE Gold Parent Information Evening

22

Parent Council Meeting

25

Whole School Sponsored Walk

29

Senior Prize Giving

1

Early Closure — 12.35pm

1

Main School Open Evening

2

INSET Day

6

Year 11 Music Concert

8

Year 13 Progress Review Evening (Parents’ Evening)

15

Sixth Form Open Evening

22

Year 11 Raising Achievement Evening

26

Half Term

2

Whole School Returns - second half of Autumn term

October

November

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