Warlingham News - 23.9.20

AUTUMN TERM EDITION 1 23RD SEPTEMBER 2020

This has certainly been a start of term and school year like no other!

As you will be well aware, the end of the Summer Term and the summer holidays were extremely busy for staff who had to plan the reorganisation of the School so that we could safely open for students this September.

It has been a real pleasure as Headteacher to meet all of the students and to welcome them back to school. They have been a credit to their families and to Warlingham in the way they have adapted to new ways of working in school and have formed new habits at the same time as embracing pre-existing routines and expectations. Nevertheless, it is clear that both staff and parents / carers will need to continue to doggedly and persistently remind and reinforce the need for students to socially distance wherever they are able to (both at school and in the community), to wash and sanitise hands regularly and to “catch it, bin it, kill it�.

As we fall into a routine, it can become easy to forget the importance of these key actions, actions that enable us to balance protecting personal and public health with opening up classrooms to maximise learning. Thank you for your support in this and in responding to remote learning arrangements should they be required to help control the virus – as was the case with Year 7 last week. More details about our remote learning provision and contingency planning will be shared with parents in due course.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the vast majority of parents who have adapted to dropping off and collecting their children away from the school. Avoiding pulling into the gate area or driving onto the school site has really helped us manage the arrival and departure of students in a controlled way.

At the start of this term, I spoke to staff and students about the future ambition for the school and the vision to deliver an outstanding education for Warlingham students beyond the current coronavirus pandemic.

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3. High expectations for all learners

So, what does an outstanding school look like? I have shared with staff the three key components that it is our ambition to deliver as the school moves forward. These three key components are: 1. Consistently high quality teaching

As an inclusive, comprehensive school, the outstanding education that is our ambition is for all learners, irrespective of their starting points.

Delivering these three elements will require all three key players (staff, students and parents / carers) to work together collaboratively and with commitment.

As we continue to develop the Warlingham Learner, I will share updates with you in these newsletters; in the meantime we have included a diagrammatic representation on the next page.

Every lesson is focused on ensuring all students make progress in their learning, across all departments, all key stages and all year groups.

2. Developing outstanding lifelong learners

I spoke to all students at the start of term about how the qualities of the Warlingham Learner will not only enable them to reach their achievement goals but will also give them the personal qualities, attributes and skills that will secure happiness and success in their next steps beyond Warlingham.

Whilst we continue to manage the current temporary (though far-from-over) public health challenge, I remain excited about and committed to the future for the school and to the positive difference that together, I am confident we can make, for all our students.

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The Warlingham Learner

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Reading and vocabulary at Warlingham What do we do at Warlingham?

Our teaching and learning activities help to develop the vital reading skills needed for students to engage with and enjoy a range of challenging texts across the curriculum. We pay explicit attention to key academic vocabulary as well as subject-specific words in our learning journey at all key stages. Students are frequently engaging in lessons with these words to improve their reading comprehension and understanding. This vocabulary is also signposted in supportive resources, such as Knowledge Organisers and Word of the Week activities. Our Year 7 and Year 8 students have dedicated reading lessons in which they practise honing a range of reading strategies useful in all subjects, as well as explore an eclectic range of texts. This is also supported by a text-rich curriculum in English and Literacy lessons.

How can parents and carers support at home?

Reading at home is crucial to developing and maintaining good reading habits and broadening young people’s background knowledge. Parents can encourage students to read by accessing the school’s library management system Eclipse through our website. We will also email book request forms to enable use of the Learning Resource Centre (LRC)

and book lists for different year groups to share ideas for texts. There are annual book awards for children, which can be followed for reading inspiration, such as The CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Award. It is important that students have the opportunity to explore both fiction and non-fiction texts, such as articles, factual accounts and biographies, in order to develop their view of the world as well as to expand their vocabulary.

Year W/C 21/9/20 W/C 28/9/20 It would benefit students to discuss 7 Context Analysis the meaning of the Word of the Week at 8 Evaluation Summary home with you and to 9 Demonstrate Comments reflect on how they have been using these 10 Image Perspective words in different 11 Explicit Capable subjects. The next words for each year 12 Context Interpret group are shown on the right.

13 Incompatible Temporary

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Anti-Racism Action Group The events of summer 2020 certainly gave many of us food for thought. The fatal arrest of George Floyd sent shockwaves across America and the UK, forcing society to reflect and confront the racial injustices that still exist. Whilst this was a sobering reflection, it also ignited a spark of hope for progress; a real coming together to combat racism- in all its forms and this hope for progress and change was felt passionately at Warlingham School & Sixth Form College. Ex-students, current students and teachers alike, all voiced the need to address any potential racism and unconscious bias here at Warlingham; these collective voices have become the AntiRacism Action Group.

The Anti-Racism Action Group has been formed to cast light upon and act wherever we think racism might impact us as a school community, as a trust and as part of our wider community. We are a group with over 30 members, including ex-students, current students, teachers, governors and members of the Tandridge Learning Trust. We have come together to reflect on the experiences of our past students and members of our school community in order to achieve our vision of bringing together all elements of our community and working together to actively tackle all forms of conscious and unconscious discrimination within it.

The Anti-Racism Action Group met for the first time before we broke up for the summer and members

The Warlingham Learner celebrates differences and treats people equally. explained why they felt so strongly about being part of such an important action group. It reconvened on Wednesday 9th September to put a plan of action in place.

As a group, we felt very passionately that we wanted to reflect on views linked to our school and curriculum; to learn; and to develop an understanding of whiteness and bias in order that we can make a real and genuine difference. In light of this, we have put together a plan of action that has genuine reflection at its core and we have organised into smaller focus groups.

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Anti-Racism Action Group

EdulinkOne: new parent app

We hope to use genuine reflection and research to understand how bias and discrimination - conscious and unconscious - affects all students and staff members. In the first instance, the role of these groups will be to undertake deep and genuine reflection of what exists/doesn’t exist within the area of their particular focus group; to review representation and identify particular areas for addressing. This reflection will give rise to specific plans of action later in the year.

To make genuine progress, it is vital that we involve all members of our school community. Therefore, we would welcome any comments or suggestions that you may have regarding the important work of this group. The Co-Chairs of the Anti-Racism Action Group are Blake Valentine and Charlotte Christie.

Please contact one of us via email should you wish to contribute or participate in any way: B.Valentine@warlinghamschool.co.uk or click here C.Christie@warlinghamschool.co.uk or click here We do hope you will continue to follow our progress.

We intend to keep learning and sharing what we learn, and in turn, act to overcome bias and discrimination within our school, our trust and wider community.

We have recently launched a new parent app and website called Edulink. It is an app and website (www.edulinkone.com) which provides lots of information to you as a parent / carer about your son / daughter at school, including achievement and behaviour points, timetable information and attendance. This will replace the SIMS Parent App. EdulinkOne is an essential piece of software that will allow you to update contact details via the data collection tab and will also be used to book parents’ evenings appointments in due course.

All parents should have received a setup email direct from EdulinkOne, which would have provided them with a user ID and a link to allow you to set a password. If you have not yet received this setup email, please contact our data team be emailing info@warlinghamschool.co.uk with FAO: Data Management in the subject line. Alternatively, click here to launch your email client and email us directly. Once set up, you will find it very intuitive to use. However, should you need any support, please email Data Management, as described above.

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Show my Homework We are excited to be launching Show My Homework (SMHK), an online tool to help you keep track of your child’s homework. SMHK will allow you to see the details of the tasks your child has been set, all their deadlines and their submission status and grades.

We have decided to introduce this system to improve the way we communicate with parents and give you greater visibility into the home learning we set.

The COVID-19 bubble arrangements have meant that a rolling programme is in place for launching SMHK to the students. However the system is very simple to use and we are encouraging students to explore it independently in order to support our in-school launch. It would be beneficial if you could encourage and support your child through this process.

There is also a SMHK app which we strongly encourage students with mobile phones to download, as it provides the ability for students to receive reminders.

You will be provided with login details to your own personal account, which can be linked to your child’s home learning calendar. Here, you will be able to see your child’s “To-do List” and any home learning that is overdue. In order to link your account to your child’s, you must use the code provided. The codes will be sent home with the students over the coming days- please look out for it.

If you or your child have any questions about the service, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the team at SMHK, who are always happy to help. Just click here to visit their online help centre, or phone them on 0207 197 9550.

Steps for students login in at home:

Support Videos

Click on this link for the satchel:one login page.

Parent / Carer guide: Click Here

Select “Student”.

Students should enter their school email address and password and then click “Sign in with Office 365”.

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Student guide: Click Here

Katie Merritt: Tenacious and warm-hearted!

Katie is one of our Year 13 students who is currently thinking about her application to university. She hopes to do Medicine at a top university and in order to achieve this goal she needed to take the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT). The UCAT is an admissions test used by a consortium of UK Universities for their medical and dental degree programmes. It is a two-hour computer-based test which assesses a range of mental abilities and consists of five, separately-timed subtests which each contain a number of questions in a multiple-choice format.

Katie took this test recently and achieved the very high scaled score of 2,880. This has opened many doors and hopefully this time next year, she will be off to Medical School to go on the next stage in her career path. In order to get to this high level of achievement, Katie had to show amazing commitment.

The UCAT is arguably the hardest test young people have to take.

When you first practise doing these tests, they often lead to a really low initial grade. The only way to succeed is to bounce back and show amazing courage. Katie’s tenacity has led to an outstanding result. This ability to keep going when things get hard is one of the qualities we encourage in the ‘Warlingham Learner’.

Katie has always thought of others before herself, particularly with her commitment to the charity, The Lily Foundation. I can see her in a few years’ time being a committed doctor who will always demonstrate empathy and kindness towards the patients in her care. This quality of empathy with others is another one that we value in our students and do our utmost to nurture.

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Governor Vacancies Due to recent governor retirements we have some vacancies for Parent Governors at Warlingham.

Skills and Qualities Needed

Being a governor is a fascinating and rewarding role, which gives you a chance to learn and to develop new skills and friendships, and to feel like you’re making a difference. We are looking for people who want to invest time and energy in being part of our local governing body so we can continue to make progress in delivering outstanding learning outcomes for all of the students at Warlingham School & Sixth Form College. The commitment we ask our governors to make is described below.

Your Commitment We ask governors to be prepared to commit time and energy to the role, which will include: •

attending training,

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visiting the school,

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participating in Governor’s meetings (currently virtual), and

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reading a significant volume of papers , especially prior to meetings and visits.

There are currently two main governors’ meetings per term with ad hoc meetings as well. Meetings normally take place at 6pm on a midweek evening in school.

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Legal

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Human Resources

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Accountancy / Financial Services

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Risk Management and Audit

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Health and Safety

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Facilities and Premises

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Wellbeing

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Education

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Asking challenging questions

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A good dose of common sense

Governors come with a variety of different backgrounds and they bring different personal and professional knowledge and skills which can be beneficial and valuable to the local governing committee. We are particularly keen to recruit people who have the skills and experience outlined above. You do not need to have any experience of being a governor - online and face-to-face governor training is available.

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Our lunch offering The school canteen, run by Twelve15, offers a lunch pack which costs £2.45 and includes the following: •

Freshly-baked baguette with a choice of fillings or layered salad or a cold pasta pot

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Fresh fruit and a cookie or traybake

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Water or Juice

Lunch should be pre-ordered a week in advance. We advise you to do this as early as possible as there is a deadline for completion of the form each week.

Full details are available on our website - please click here. This page is updated each week to reflect the deadline for completion of the online form.

There is also a link to the form for the week ahead.

Alternatively, students can complete a paper form at their lunch collection point.

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Johnson House has made a stunning start this year with lots of merits and cause for celebration. 7W is currently in the lead for merits, with 9A and 8W hot on their heels! In addition, 9W, 10A and 11A did not have a single behaviour point at all in the first week!

Liam Wells has achieved his brown belt in Karate; he is brown and white now. He also teaches Karate to other children once a week.

Ruby Weatherill is a member of the Royal Academy of Dance, Ballet and Contemporary Dance - she does public performances with the Academy.

A number of our students have demonstrated their commitment to Warlingham values outside school. Eddie Brett, one of our new 7A students, cycled over 300 miles during the summer to raise money for charity. Georgia Lavine continues to fly through her piano grades having passed Grade 3 at Christmas and now Grade 4 with merit.

Form 8R is top of the Chichester merit tables after Game Week 2.

Individual Honours - Merit Table 1.

Annabel Radivojev 2.

Alieu Hewson / Hannah Bennett / Charis Bridgeman 3.

Jack Lineker / Rhyan Amin

Well done, Johnson House!

Well done on a great start Chichester!

Dan Gunn Head of Chichester House

Bethany Hunt Head of Johnson House

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Sharman Year 7s have been amazing, showing great courage during their first few days and making real efforts to ensure that everyone is included and no one is left out.

Mallory students have made a brilliant start, demonstrating great maturity in the manner in which they are conducting themselves in the current circumstances. This follows the amazing year they had, leading the House Competition from the start to end of last year.

Students in 7N have been especially kind to each other and are showing great resilience in the current situation, working very hard and supporting each other in class. Meredith, Casey and Floria achieved 11 merits in their first week which is very impressive!

I want to thank all Mallory students for their diligence, commitment and attitude last year, regularly winning the House Attendance and Merit competitions, as well as Cross Country, Rugby and Open Evening Guides. Students have continued to demonstrate this determination as they battle Johnson House at the top of the merit table!

Lauren Stevens is becoming very skilled on the Piano. She passed Grade 2 with Distinction last term and is aiming for Grade 3 this year.

Well done, everyone!

Well done!

Philippa Hurst Head of Mallory House

Karen Lynch Head of Sharman House

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