Dear Parents and Carers

Another busy term and a newsletter full of information and highlights! Thank you to those parents who have responded to our ‘newsletter survey’. From this feedback it would seem that nearly 75% of parents would prefer an electronic version of the termly newsletter, so we have published “online”. If you would like a hard copy please do let us know and we would be pleased to send one home to you.

This is the real business end of the year when heads are down and hard work in lessons is the order of the day. However, there is always fun to be had... The 240 Year 12s certainly

enjoyed their ‘Fresher’s Week’; the students who gave up so much of their time and effort were showered with thunderous applause for their staggeringly good School production of ‘Oh What a Lovely War’; school trips to Shrewsbury (on a netball tour), the Sixth Form Biology trip to Dorking, a visit to the Sight Village in Kensington, a Sports Science taster day at Brighton University, an Oxford University presentation at St Bedes School and an A-Level lecture days in London to name but a few. The Houses and students have been working hard to raise money for good causes including a True Adventure MUFTI day raising £1,200, and a Children in Need event that raised £1,866.68. There have, of course, also been the usual plethora of extra-curricular activities. I would encourage you to discuss with your son or daughter all the provision that is available and detailed in our ‘Enrichment Programme’. This can be found on the School website under Information / Extra-Curricular.

I am very grateful to the staff who make all these opportunities possible. The extent of learning beyond the classroom is phenomenal and not found in many schools. The staff are to be commended as they do this willingly and purely for the benefit of the students. Staff already have a heavy workload of planning and delivering high quality lessons and spend many hours marking and feeding back to students’ on their work; to also provide such a rich, diverse and high quality enrichment programme is hugely impressive. I am sure you are as appreciative as I am of all the staffs’ efforts to provide the best possible educational experience for your son or daughter.

May I take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support and ask that if there are any queries or issues that you contact the relevant person in School using the staff list on the School website as a guide (please always include Claire Kent, our Communications Officer, into any correspondence). This will ensure that we can continue to work in partnership so that your son or daughter is happy and successful at Oxted School.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year .

Mrs N Euridge Head of School

Staffing Update

We have received the following resignations from teaching staff who are leaving us at the end of this term, I would like to thank them all for the contributions that they have made to Oxted School:

Ms J Boomer (Head of Mathematics). Ms Boomer has decided not to return following her second maternity leave Ms Boomer was an outstanding Head of Maths and will be missed. I am delighted to report that we have successfully appointed Mrs A Bergamo as our new Head of Maths. Mrs Bergamo will join us from February half term. We are fortunate that the talented Mrs Bennett (Acting Head of Maths) will continue to lead the Maths team until Mrs Bergamo be-gins at Oxted.

Miss K Constable (Teacher of English), Mr T Moore (Teacher of Science) and Mr R Stobie (Teacher of Science), Mr S Senik (Teacher of History) Mr M Sood (Teacher of Business Studies) Mrs P Fisher (Part-time Teacher of Business Studies) and Mrs C Martin (Part-time Teacher of FDT)

We also will be wishing Mrs A Driver (Teacher of Science) all the very best as she begins her maternity leave in January.

We are very pleased to welcome the following new staff:

Mrs P Waller (Teacher of English), Mr D Walmsey (Teacher of Science) Miss J Goh (Teacher of Science) and Mr C Baynes (Teacher of History) and Mrs M Fideli (Teacher of Business Studies)

Our new staff will be introducing themselves to their tutor groups and their parents in the New Year. Comparison of National GCSE Best Entry Results with Oxted School

This term we received information that has helped us to place Oxted’s GCSE results in the national context. We were delighted to see how well our students have performed as this graph illustrates. The trend in our performance has dramatically improved whereas most schools have seen their standards decline. The staff, students and parents are all to be congratulated on this fantastic achievement! Academic Tutoring

Staff and students, with the support of parents, are working extremely hard to maximise each young person’s academic achievement. A proven and important feature of this work is our very comprehensive academic tutoring programme, aspects of which you can gain insight into from the reports by Mr Milne and Mrs McNamara overleaf. For further details, including and evaluation of the Academic Tutoring Programme, please visit the school website, Curriculum/Academic Tutoring Programme.

Key Stage 3 Update by Mrs McNamara, Assistant Headteacher

Years 7, 8 and 9 are rising to the challenge of meeting and even exceeding expectations! As a School we have refined and reviewed all our interventions to increase levels of achievement. At each data entry point the Progress Leaders (Mr Stodart in Year 7, Mr Duffin in Year 8 and Mr Hilton in Year 9) are using the grades that have been input by staff to decide whether or not intervention is required. In addition to intervening where necessary to ensure that progress is maintained, it is also important to reward our students’ who have made good progress. In Year assemblies in September 116 Year 9 students and 163 Year 8 students were presented with certificates commending their excellent progress and commitment. The criteria for awarding the commendations was achieving two or more sub-levels of progress and having Attitude to Learning grades that were all 1s and 2s. Two or more sub-levels of progress each year will build to an outstanding four levels of progress from Year 7 to Year 11.

For each of Years 8 and 9 it was possible to begin some intervention from the start of the year based on the grades awarded at the end of the last academic year. In Year 8, in particular, this has given the opportunity to address the dip that can occur between the enthusiasm of Year 7 and the focus of option choices in Year 9. As with every cycle of intervention that takes place, a review of the impact of this first intervention of the year has just been completed, and we were delighted that as a result of the intervention almost all have made progress since their last set of grades. Two of this mentored group have made such significant progress that they will be amongst those receiving commendations from Mrs Euridge in early December.

In Year 8 and Year 9 some students have been placed onto a Progress Tracker which required them to identify two or three subjects on which to focus and then meet fortnightly with their tutor to discuss progress. These students have responded very positively to this intervention.

Linked in with their Mentoring and Intervention programme for some students are the Academic Tutoring mornings for all students. The first of these mornings took place on Wednesday 19 November. I am grateful to Mr Milne who did a lot of the preparatory work before the day to set up a process that students and tutors could use to get real value from the one to one conversations they had that day. The Progress Leaders also played their part in giving tutors clear direction in the ten days leading up to the Academic Tutoring morning. The process was a change from previous years and so students have been surveyed to get feedback in order to plan for the second morning in March. Over 90% replied that ‘I prepared for my meeting with my tutor to ensure that I explained what I want to achieve this year, and how they could help’, a similar percentage replied that ‘I know what I need to do to ensure my grades improve further’.

We are also working hard to engage more with parents. There has been a Parent Information/Meet the Tutor Evening for each year group; this is a new initiative for Years 8 and 9. The format for each evening was very similar, an overview of key dates, a reminder of where information can be found on the School website and an explanation of how parents, subject teachers and form tutors can work together to support students. Each of the Progress Leaders spoke about their role in monitoring student progress and co-ordinating interventions; at the end of the evening parents had the opportunity to speak briefly with their child’s tutor. Across the three evenings just two tutors did not attend, both due to illness. Parent feedback was that the evenings were very useful. The presentation from each evening was uploaded to the School’s website.

I am pleased to report that Year 7 students have settled well at Oxted School. Mr Stodart, Year 7 Progress Leader, told the students on their first day that he wanted them to focus this year on being HAPPY - Hardworking, Attending, Punctual, Participating Year 7 students. The evidence, so far, backed up by a very positive first Parent’s Evening on Thursday 27 November is that they are well on their way to being just that.

Year 9 students will begin their option choice process in the new year and I would encourage them to visit the School’s website so that they can begin to reflect upon the different subjects that are available.

Key Stage 4 Update by Mr Milne, Assistant Headteacher

In both Years 10 and 11 students have their heads down, are working hard and beginning to see the fruits of their labour. I have been very ably supported this term by our Progress Leaders: Miss D Holmes (Progress Leader for Year 10) and Miss R Lowes (Progress Leader for Year 11). A core focus of our work with these year groups is the effective use of Academic Tutoring to ensure that every student makes progress towards achieving their TAGs.

The Progress Leader is responsible for working with the students to help them develop the positive habits and attitudes needed to ensure progress. They work with tutors and teachers to identify those students who might need extra support and guidance at various points throughout the year. Some students are supported by individual subject teachers and others, who are not making expected progress in a number of subjects, are being mentored by their tutor to help them get back on track.

Every student has been issued with an “Aim High” booklet in which they record the targets identified and agreed with their tutor. The students are also asked to identify two to three subjects that they feel they can improve still further and ask the subject teacher to help them form specific targets that will help them make real progress. These targets will be reviewed, modified and new ones set at five occasions during the academic year. This will occur on the three occasions that grades are issued and refined during the two occasions when Academic Tutoring takes place. This is an exciting development as the students can take control over their learning with the support of home, the tutor and subject staff.

We want the students to make full use of every data capture point throughout the year. Before every data capture point students are asked to reflect on their work over the half term and the feedback that they have received from their teachers and award themselves a CWG. The following week they are issued with their grades from their teachers. They then compare these two grades (the ones they expected to receive and the ones that they were issued). Their tutor then asks them to work with their teachers to create three SMART targets which are centred on understanding why their teacher gave them a grade and what they need to do to improve their grade.

Exam Buster and Growth Mind-Set Workshops

Key Stage 4 students have undertaken the following sessions:

An Exam buster session designed to explain to students the importance of understanding the wide range of revision techniques that exist and the crucial role of exam preparation in securing success

A Growth mind-set workshop that introduced them to the importance of how they see things and that this can have a powerful effect on how they perceive the world and themselves

Oxted School Alumni – Future’s Friday (open to Years 10 - 13) This term we introduced ‘Future’s Friday’ where we invite former students, registered on the Alumni database, to address students on a Friday afternoon about their experiences, education and career paths since leaving Oxted School.

We have had four guest speakers with a variety of backgrounds address students from Year 10 to Year 13. The speakers covered areas such as doing a BA in Art at Goldsmiths College, taking a gap year, working abroad, making the most of life’s opportunities, working in Marketing and Advertising and careers in Geoscience. These Friday sessions have been very popular and have been positively received.

The program of ‘Future’s Friday’ will resume in January 2015, the details of guest speakers will be given to Form Tutors in advance to notify the students of the subject they will cover and these will also be posted on the School’s Facebook page.

Key Stage 5 Update by Mr Bennett, Head of Sixth Form

The sixth form leadership team have had another very busy term! There is currently a full scale teaching and learning review being carried out and led by the new dedicated KS5 Progress Leader, Miss J Williamson. Meetings have been held with Heads of Department to review and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the current Sixth Form Teaching and Learning Policy. The over-riding aim is to share good practice, to ensure greater consistency and to raise all departments up to the standard of the very best. A comprehensive teacher and student survey related to teaching and learning in the Sixth Form has been completed and evaluated this term and a programme of lesson observation will take place in the New Year. The aim is to launch the revised Sixth Form Teaching and Learning Policy next term.

The new mentoring programme put in place at the start of this academic year continues to bed down. In Year 13 performance data last half-term identified a target group for 1:1 mentoring by tutors and the newly appointed KS5 Progress Leader. Students met with the Mrs Euridge and Head of Sixth Form. Parents were contacted and the programme of mentoring to be explained. The mentoring programme lasts for 6 weeks and involves meetings with the mentor on a regular basis. Students have been asked to identify a time for independent study and a specific study space has been set up for mentored students and is supported by SLT.

The outcomes of this mentoring will be reviewed at the end of term and following Year 13 mock exams with the publication of the next data set. The overall response of the students has been positive. We held an academic board between The Head and those in most danger of underperforming as well as an attendance panel held between identified students and the Head of Sixth Form.

The use of data to identify students and to target intervention is much more refined than ever before. We have also held a parents’ evening for Year 13 and commendations were presented to a significant number of students based on their excellent progress. Students with 95% plus attendance have also been commended and their parents written to.

In Year 12 we are currently identifying a similar group for 1:1 tutor mentoring and intervention. Once again students will be met, the mentoring programme discussed and parents contacted. Mentoring between tutors and students is aided by a student mentoring booklet. Mentored students and others specifically identified by departments were invited into the Year 12 Raising Achievement Evening. This event was very successful with parents, staff and students finding the experience to be a extremely positive and helpful.

Year 13 students completed their mocks in December and Year 12 will sit their mock papers in January 2015. All mocks will be held in halls and under strict exam conditions and papers set and marked to strict examination criteria. Assemblies and tutor activities have focused on effective preparation and there has been significant preparatory work done in departments through revision sessions and Period 6 support sessions.

We have developed a sophisticated Unit Mark Score (UMS) converter that can accurately show the likelihood of students achieving their Target Grade and highlighting any need for AS retakes. Year 13 tutors have received training in using the UMS converter and used it effectively during Academic Tutoring.

We continue to provide significant support for Year 13 currently making University or Apprenticeship applications including 9 Oxbridge candidates who have been offered interviews. The UCAS Clinics will continue to run every Wednesday and Thursday until the UCAS deadline on Wednesday 14 January 2015.

We have also implemented a Year 12 Ambassador programme. Students have been trained in mentoring lower school students and, following the whole school Academic Tutoring morning, a significant number of our Year 12 Ambassadors have been allocated to a student in the lower school.

Parent Council Update The active Parent Council is now a strong feature of our calendar and provides really useful feedback on our School improvement initiatives. With over 30 regular members this enables a good mix of views to be considered in planning for our next steps as a School.

To date the Parent Council has assisted us by providing feedback on the following: our Homework Policy, the impact and maximise the role of the tutor programme, uniform changes, our effectiveness in tackling low level disruption, refining our communication strategy and curriculum developments. The Parent Council has been very helpful in assisting us in shaping our School day. Parents might recall that the leadership team were very keen to ensure that students saw their tutors in the morning as previously staff met with their tutees in the afternoon. The rationale for this decision was to reflect the importance that we now place on tutors being at the heart of our students’ educational experience. Therefore, we believed it was vital that these key staff met their students earlier in the School day to ensure that the students were well equipped, focused and ready to learn.

The impact of this decision was that the break periods were later in the day than last year and parents were concerned that students would be hungry, fatigued and disengage from extra-curricular activities. We therefore worked with the Parent Council to make some adjustments to the length of the two break periods, provide additional food outlets and designed a ‘before and after’ survey for students to complete in order to inform our future plans. Please see below for the outcomes of this survey: Evaluation of School Day Survey Results * Old day survey was taken in June 2013 and new day survey October 2014. Over 120 students responded to each survey.

From the data it would appear that the change to the School day has had largely a positive impact and that students have adjusted to having two breaks each day. Another survey will be carried out in term 2 to see if the positive response is sustained.

Another related issue to this is that Heads of Houses all confirm that the introduction of the new day has significantly reduced behaviour incidents during break-times.

Questions Old day New day

Do you eat at break-time, lunchtime or both?

Break 22.3%

Lunch 19%

Both 58.7%

1st Break

16.7%

2nd Break

11.1%

Both 72.2%

Do you consider that feeling hungry affects your learning

at any point in the day?

Yes 62.6%

No 37.4%

Yes 39.6%

No 60.4%

If you use the canteen at 1st break time do you have

enough time to get and eat your food?

Yes 64.5%

No 35.5%

Yes 74.6%

No 25.4%

If you use the canteen at lunch time/2nd break do you

have enough time to get and eat your food?

Yes 70.6%

No 29.4%

Yes 86.1%

No 13.9%

If you take part in a lunch time/2nd break activity do you

have enough time to fully take part and enjoy the

activity

Yes 17.5%

No 82.5%

Yes 27.0%

No 73.0%

Old School Day

New School Day

Behaviour and Standards

Behaviour at Oxted School is typically good and I am always impressed by how few of incidents that occur in comparison to the hundreds of lessons taking place during the two-week timetable.

We are a comprehensive, inclusive School and we give students chances to improve when they misbehave. However, we do not tolerate any behaviours that affect the learning and progress of the majority and therefore punishment is swift and usually very effective.

With relation to behaviour at School, our main priority is to further reduce low level disruption and continue to improve the behaviour of students travelling to and from School. Teaching colleagues, middle leaders, senior leaders and Governors receive data on the number of incidents that occur in lessons and the percentage of different groups that cause disruption. We are aware of where the incidents occur and we work closely with students, teachers and parents to improve behaviour across the school.

We welcome reports from the general public when our students let the School down and do not behave in way we would all expect. Our Communications Officer (Mrs Kent) should always be informed so we can ensure a resolution is found and the culprits are punished. Our Behaviour policy is clear, if students misbehave wearing the Oxted uniform or bring any issues into School, then they will be sanctioned.

We are all working incredibly hard to move Oxted School to ‘Outstanding’ so Mrs Euridge or I will never tolerate a student bringing the School into disrepute. Nearly two thousand students travel to and from School on a daily basis and are an absolute credit to us all. A few examples of the lovely feedback we have received include:

A member of the public who was travelling on the bus from Oxted to Godstone, was “very impressed” by the courtesy and good manners shown by our students who leapt up to offer her a seat

“I would like to sing the praises of the boys who attend your School; they are a real credit to the School. I arrived at the station and was struggling with my suitcase, when a very pleasant young man asked if he could assist me with my case. I gratefully accepted his very kind offer, I would like to say a very big thank you to him for his kindness”.

'We would like to commend the following Oxted students for helping a member of the public who was in a very difficult situation'

Matthew Robinson 11DE, Tommy Lewin 11DE, Charlie McComb 11FW, Harry McComb 9FC, Robson Walker 9DM

We believe it is only a very small number that are not always behaving in the most appropriate manner and we would encourage you to discuss this further with your son/daughter to ensure that they are not at all culpable.

Mr R Harding, Assistant Headteacher/Behaviour & Inclusion

Oxted School Trust

Have you contributed to the Oxted School Trust? All monies raised benefit the students here at Oxted School, and in the past we have helped to fund a school minibus, outside canopy areas and various other departmental requirements. Please visit the Oxted School Trust page on our website to contribute now if you have not already done so: www.oxtedschool.co.uk/54/oxted-school-trust

A huge thank you to all those kind parents and carers who have already contributed to further enrich the opportunities for all our students.

Oxted School Pause for Thought at 11am Tuesday 11 November 2014

“Taking a Stand” I ask you to stand with me

For both the injured and the lost I ask you to keep count with me

Of all the wars and what they cost I ask you to be silent with me

Quietly grateful for our lot As I expect you’re as thankful as me

For the health and life we’ve got All those still risking their all

And I ask that you remember with me The names of those that fall

I expect that you are proud like me Of this great nation of ours too

So enjoying allits freedoms like me Support those upholding them for you I hope that you are hopeful like me That we’ll soon bring an end to wars

So you’ll have to stand no more with me And mourning families no different from yours ‘Til then be thankful you can stand with me

Thinking of those who cannot For standing here today with me

At least we Show they’re not forgotten

By John Bailey (a former regular soldier and now serving Territorial Army)

The Human Zoo Theatre Company return from the

Edinburgh Fringe Festival to perform at Oxted School

The Human Zoo Theatre Company, made up of former Oxted School students, returned from performing a month long run of their debut production, The Hive, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2014. We are delighted that the theatre company returned to Oxted School to perform The Hive for students in Year 10 in the Drama Studio on Thursday 9 October 2014. Former Oxted student, Rosalind Hoy, Press Officer and Company Manager of ‘The Human Zoo Company’, wrote the article below about the

Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

“If you had said this time last year that we would have just returned home from performing a month long run of our debut production at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival I would never have

believed you”.

Having won the Les Enfants Terribles Award, which secured us a Pleasance venue for a month and a small cash injection, Edinburgh was in our sights. The Hive tells the story of Koto, who dares to think that there might be something beyond the walls of his underground, 8x8 cell. As he begins to question all that he knows Koto finds himself on an epic voyage to the surface of the earth. This journey leads him to Miri, another citizen of The Hive. Together they rebel against the dictatorship that governs their isolated lives, and begin to re-discover the

long-forgotten joy of human connection.

Our use of puppetry, poetry and ensemble work earned us some really kind reviews and all day handing out leaflets on the Royal Mile ensured we had a successful run, even earning us a spot on the coveted ‘SOLD OUT’ board! Something else people commented on was the company’s sense of togetherness. This comes from the fact that most of us have been working with each other since we were eleven! To return to Oxted School, the place we all met, for our final performance brings the process full circle and is the perfect way to end such an amazing

run.

Rosalind Hoy, Former Oxted School Student

Christmas Card Competition This year’s runners up for the Christmas card competition were Iona Anderson 10TR and Christina Griffin 13ST. Congratulations to Ai Yamano 10TS who designed the winning Christmas card.

Oxted School Supports Children in Need

During the week beginning Monday 10 November the PE department invited students to wear their onesie for netball or their favourite football shirt for football in exchange for a small donation to Children in Need. They had a fantastic response and raised over £530.

On Friday 14 November staff and students had the opportunity to wear their own clothes for MUFTI day in aid of children in need. The Science department took it one step further and went for a mad scientist theme. MUFTI day raised over a staggering £1,300. Well done to everyone who took part.

Friends of Oxted School Forthcoming Dates: Committee Meeting - Wednesday 14 January 2015, 6pm-7pm New members always welcome, please email spickford@oxtedschool.co.uk if you would like to be involved Quiz Night - Friday 16 January 2015 Doors open 7.30pm Maximum teams of 8. Tickets £10 per head to include a fish and chip supper and a licenced bar Team sheets need to be returned to Reception by Monday 12 January 2015. Further details available on the School website Oxted School Ball - Friday 13 March 2015 If you are interested in booking a table, please email oxtedschoolball@hotmail.co.uk Tickets are £45 per head

Scholastic Book Fair

Thank you to all the Key Stage 3 student’s who placed orders for the Book Fair. We were able

to purchase £200 of new books for the library due to your purchases. Please remember to

collect any ordered books from the library.

Mrs R Cornick

Librarian

Primary Outreach

English Department - Letter Writing Initiative

In early October, Year 6 children from our feeder primary schools were invited to write a letter to a Year 7 Oxted student about the transition from primary to secondary school. Four schools, St Mary’s, Holland, Godstone and Churchill primary schools joined in this initiative and their Year 6 children produced beautifully written and presented letters to “A Year 7 Student” detailing a bit about themselves and asking any questions they had about the move to secondary school.

In total we received 200 letters and the English department arranged 200 individual replies written by our Year 7 students as part of their English lessons.

We would like to thank the English department for their support with this and especially all the Year 7 students who wrote replies. The letters back were neatly written, well-constructed, mature and answered the individuals questions. The primary school children loved receiving their letters and consequently we hope to run this again in the future.

Miss K Ridley, English KS3 Co-ordinator and Mrs A Cilia, Primary Link Co-ordinator

Geography Department

Eight of our enthusiastic Year 8 Geography students have been involved preparing for an initiative with year 5 children from our feeder primary schools.

The students met regularly to develop a “Trade Game” which we then took out to the schools. Our first session was on Wednesday 12 November at Dormansland and Geography ambassadors: Ben Hogan, Brandon Howgate, Fergus Smith, Eloise Jeffery, Natasha Burton, Angharad Roberts and Anna Rastelli ran the session with a class of Thirty year 5 children.

Our students found the event rewarding and were fantastic ambassadors for the School. They explained the task brilliantly to the children and ran the session very professionally. Feedback indicated the children loved the session, enjoyed learning some geography and wanted our students to go back and teach them more!

We have additional sessions planned with Holland School, Godstone School, Churchill School, St Stephen’s School and St Catherine’s School.

Many thanks to Miss Barber and Miss O’Keefe and also to the students involved for their commitment and hard work.

Mrs A Cilia, Primary Link Co-ordinator

IT Department

IT co-ordinators from our feeder primary schools were invited to a computing meeting here at Oxted with an invited guest speaker.

Our visitors appreciated the opportunity to discuss the merits of different systems, programmes and shared common issues across all the key stages. Feedback was positive and we plan to hold a follow up meeting next term before the primary children are given the opportunity to come into Oxted to engage in a “movie moments” initiative.

These cross key stage forums are key to consistency in the transition between schools and beneficial to children at all stages of their education. Mrs A Cilia, Primary Link Co-ordinator

Drama Department

On Monday 17 November KS2 children from St Mary’s Primary School visited Oxted to attend the dress rehearsal of the School production “Oh What a Lovely War”.

The performance was well received by the children, who enjoyed their trip.

For most of the audience it was their first real experience of live Theatre with lighting, sound and costumes and hopefully it will give them aspirations to one day audition for a future production at Oxted.

Oxted staff commented that they were a lovely audience, quiet and attentive and the cast appreciated having an audience to perform to. Mrs A Cilia, Primary Link Co-ordinator

Primary School Sports

On Tuesday 11 November and Monday 17 November Oxted School hosted the Year 5/6 and Year 3/4 Quicksticks competition for the Tandridge area. For both competitions we had 20 teams entered from 8 different schools. Ten of the Oxted School Sports Leaders helped out with the umpiring of the games and they did an absolutely fantastic job. Our five Sports Ambassadors were in charge of the central score table and picking students out who deserved Sportsmanship Awards. This event was bigger and better than it has ever been before with a record amount of teams entering and it would not have been possible without the help of the Leaders and Ambassadors. Well done team!

We had two handball competitions and also ten of our Sports Leaders have been selected to do their Sports Ambassador training in order to provide even better leadership to our primary school students. Miss R Newman, PE / SSCO / Deputy Head of Stocketts

Science Department

The Science department has been involved in running science sessions at Limpsfield Infants and a Science based assembly at Hurst Green Infants school.

At Limpsfield, we focused on “sound” with the Year 1 classes using five activities:

Making sounds with tubes of water, elastic bands and rulers Talking about the size and structure of different animals ears Making a jigsaw of the human ear Completing a chart of the loudness of sounds Looking at sound waves using an oscilloscope

In the assembly we talked about how science is all around us and the children saw a number of visual experiments including density of liquids, rockets, custard and lots of “magic tricks” involving colour changes.

We have also arranged a practical Science session for primary school teachers to give them some practical ideas of experiments they could do with their children using everyday, non-specialist equipment to demonstrate the various topics that they cover.

Mrs A Cilia, Primary Link Co-ordinator

Art Department Twenty four Year 5 children from Churchill Primary School and thirty from St Mary’s Junior School visited the Art department at Oxted to make Matisse style Christmas cards. Mr Mann and Mrs Woledge introduced the children to the style of paper cutting and layering by Matisse and provided materials for them to design and create their own Christmas cards. Ably assisted by a group of our sixth form, the children produced fantastic pieces of work. They were enthusiastic about the task, worked really well and enjoyed the event enormously. One of their teachers remarked that she was amazed at how much her children had achieved in just one hour and how they had loved the experience.

Mrs A Cilia, Primary Link Co-ordinator

Construction, Engineering and Design Challenge 2014

On Tuesday 14 October, Mrs Braunstein from the Science Department took eight of our HLP students to a Construction, Engineering and Design event at the Royal Alexandra and Albert School.

They combined with students from other schools to form teams, giving them the opportunity to build on their teamwork skills by working with people they didn’t know.

Using only paper, sellotape, string and nuts and bolts, each team built a bridge spanning a gap of 1m. The team building the construction capable of supporting the greatest mass was declared the winning team.

This was a good opportunity for our students to mix with like-minded students from a range of state and private schools, exploring technology ideas and completing a competitive challenge.

Mrs A Cilia, Primary Link Co-ordinator

Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize

A group of Year 8 students formed a judging panel to vote for their favourite book from a shortlist of six contenders for the Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize.

The group met weekly with Mrs Heath and Mrs Cilia from the end of the summer term when they were in Year 7 until October as Year 8 students. The students read the six books and then we discussed various aspects from appeal and illustrations to content and language.

The students involved were: Anna Rastelli, Ianthe McKenzie Smart, Poppy Dorlandt, Gracie Horton, Aaron Townsend, Joshua Sparks and Sam Clargo.

The students enjoyed the quality of the books and each one had their favourite but after discussion the panel voted “The Usbourne Big Book of Stars and Planets” their overall favourite describing it as “Awesome”, “Beautiful” and “Brilliant”.

The books will now be included in the wonderful stock of Science books held in our School library for students to read.

Mrs A Cilia, Primary Link Co-ordinator

Astrodome

Astrophysicists, Dr Sadie Jones and Chris Frohmaier, from Southampton University brought their new large astrodome to Oxted School on Tuesday 25 N o v e m b e r . A l e v e l P h y s i c s a n d G C S E Astronomy classes visited the dome along with the level 3 Science BTEC class and students from Year 8 and Year 9 Science clubs.

Students watched the planetarium production of “We Are Astronomers” and a recent report on the Rosetta Spacecraft. Using the Stellarium programme we were treated to a time-lapse image of the night sky showing the different constellations visible in the northern hemisphere at different

times during the night. The session reinforced some of the GCSE Astronomy concepts and introduced ideas on space for the A-level Physicists as well as giving interested students the opportunity to learn about a future career in astronomy.

Mrs A Cilia, Primary Link Co-ordinator

Science Trip to Wadham College, Oxford On Friday 17 October, sixteen Year 11 students had the fantastic opportunity to visit the Science Department at Wadham College, Oxford as part of their outreach programme.

The day started with an introduction to the college and department, followed by ‘grill a student’ session where students had a tour with current students and the chance to ask whatever questions they wanted about university admissions and university life.

After lunch in the college dining hall, our students were able to attend a range of workshops run by University lecturers including Plant Science, Engineering, Chemistry and Computer Science. This was followed by free time to explore the centre of Oxford. The day culminated in a lecture on ‘The Invention of Modern Science’ chaired by Melvin Bragg with contributions from astrophysicist Jo Dunkley, Mathematician Marcus Du Sautoy and the President of the Royal Society, Paul Nurse.

Quotes from the students included: “I really enjoyed learning about what University life is like and seeing what different subjects entail”. “Alan Chapman was a very interesting guest speaker, the archetypal mad scientist!”. “I really enjoyed the group workshops, learning about particular subjects in detail”. It was an excellent day which gave the students the opportunity to really see what university life is like at Oxford and what it is like to study a Science subject at University.

Miss J Williamson, Science Teacher/KS5 Progress Leader Chemistry Workshop

The group under the

Bridge of Sighs

Teentech 2014

On Wednesday 12 November nine Year 8 students travelled to the Surrey Science Sports Park, part of the University of Surrey to take part in the annual Teentech event. The event, hosted by the former “Tomorrow’s World” presenter, Maggie Philbin is designed to enthuse students about Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths (STEM) and make them aware of the applications of science in our everyday lives. The students visited 3 zones: The Challenge Zone where they used robots to move bean bags and balls into a basket. The Insight Zone where they visited company stands to learn about education and career opportunities and how STEM features in various industries. The Innovations Zone where they devised a computer game.

As always the students had a fantastic time, learning about STEM in our world and the opportunities that are available in their future careers and education. One student took time to send a message to the staff involved, indicating just how much he enjoyed himself.

“Thank you for organising this extraordinary one time event. I thoroughly enjoyed finding out about all of the different companies and machines, I had an awesome day.”

Thank you to Mrs Heath for driving the students to Guildford for the event. Mrs A Cilia, Primary Link Co-ordinator

‘Wicked’ PSHE Trip

On Wednesday 26 November, students in Year 8 had the opportunity to go and see the Wicked production in London as part of our PSHE programme. The st rands throughout the performance encompassed many important issues that can face the students in their everyday lives, such as friendship, dealing with family, prejudice and standing up for the rights of others. The production was fabulous and students enjoyed themselves immensely. Mrs U Codling, Head of PSHE

Christmas Dinner Is Served Christmas dinner was served to over 200 students on Wednesday 10 December by the Senior Leadership Team. The Caterlink Team were very close by to supervise!

Year 10 and Year 11 PSHE Workshops

In November Year 10 and Year 11 attended PSHE workshops. Peer Productions presented ‘The Teenage Pregnancy Project’ to Year 10. The show explored the reality of being a teenage parent and addressed the social, emotional, economic and health implications for young teenage parents.

Year 11 attended two workshops. The first looked at their Growth-Mindset and how important it is to take risks in their learning to challenge themselves further and the second session was led by Positively Mad and looked at various ways to develop their learning.

Mrs U Codling, Head of PSHE

Bletchley Park Enigma Machine

Students from Years 8, 9 and 10 had to get cracking when Tom Briggs visited from Bletchley Park, bringing with him the Enigma Machine that Benedict Cumberbatch handled in The Imitation Game, there were some starry eyes amongst the groups. Inspired to become modern day Alan Turing’s, students were given a whistle-stop tour through the history of code breaking. They had the opportunity to imagine being a German Enigma operator in 1942 and how Bletchley Park was able to break the code. Getting their hands on an original German Army machine students then encoded and decoded their own message. Finally, they were shown how they could become a modern day code breaker by building their own machine with little more than an empty Pringle tube - utterly inspiring! Mr N Varley, Mathematics

Oxted Cheerleading Academy

Oxted Cheerleading Academy has gone from strength to strength this year. The Oxted Mini Stars are hard at work learning their routine for the Gym and Dance show. Oxted Rising Stars have now done their try outs and the squad is learning how to stunt. The Oxted All Stars are building on their success from last year and half way through learning a brand new competition routine. Well done girls, keep up the hard work!

Miss R Newman, PE / SSCO / Deputy Head of Stocketts

Cyber-Bullying Assemblies Upcoming pop star Hannah Jane Lewis came into Oxted School to deliver a session on cyber-bullying to Years 7-11. Hannah is a singer song writer and delivered her message about the effects of cyber-bullying through talking about personal experiences and singing. In each of the sessions Oxted School students listened extremely well and asked really intelligent and mature questions as well as engaging in discussions. Afterwards Hannah remarked what an amazing body of students we have at Oxted School. Well done to all involved!

Miss R Newman, PE / SSCO / Deputy Head of Stocketts and Mr Butt, Vocational Education / Anti-Bullying Co-ordinator

Swimming - District Success

Oxted School’s Senior Boys team consisting of Sam Jones, Michael Belton, Tom Michelmore and John Coates who successfully defended their district swimming title at Caterham School in November. The Intermediate Boys team consisting of Patrick Dancer, Sam Gibbs, Thomas Coveney and Ryan Belton also tasted success in being crowned District Champions for the first time whilst the Intermediate Girls team consisting of; Maria Lee, Elizabeth Coveney, Cecily Bateman and Hannah Bond finished in a highly respectable 3rd place. This success for the swimming squad follows from a strong showing in the Surrey S c h o o l s R e l a y S w i m m i n g Championships earlier in the year.

Pictured below are the swimming squad involved: Sam Jones, Michael Belton, Sam Gibbs, Patrick Dancer, Freddy High, Ryan Belton, Max Brett, Felix Sarup, Luca Fassio, Jack Dibble, Tom White, Luca Gale, Holly Dancer, Jessie Slack, Ella Staveley and Connie Budgen. Mr G Sillience

Year 7 Inter-House Swimming Gala On Tuesday 21 July all Year 7 students went to the School swimming pool for our annual inter-house swimming gala. It was a lovely summer’s day and students who were not competing were on the bank in their houses to cheer on the swimmers! The competitors got ready and waited poolside for their races. They were orgnaised and supported by their Heads and Deputy Heads of House and Learning Coaches. It was a brilliant event with some close races and fierce competition. The overall results were:

1st = Grants 2nd = Foyles 3rd = Stocketts 4th = Tenchleys 5th = Detillens Mr Holloway (Deputy Head of Grants at the time) was so pleased with the Grants victory that he entertained the crowd by jumping straight into the pool! He was quickly joined by Mr Green. We look forward to the celebrations at the gala next summer! Miss R Lowes, PE/Year 11 Progress Leader

Surrey Visually Impaired Cricket My name is Josh and I am blind. I am in Year 12 and, my life has been changed through sport.

Finding accessible sport can be a challenge and it took me a very long time to find a sport that was right for me. I always felt very frustrated with myself because previously at school I had to do sport alongside my sighted friends which always left me at a significant disadvantage. Therefore, I grew to hate sport and anything to do with it.

Around two years ago, the Surrey Visually Impaired Cricket Team was launched by Gary Dunford to try and promote VI cricket. I had played a little cricket at primary school so I had a vague idea of how the game worked, but not much else. I decided I would try it out as one of my other visually impaired friends was also interested. At the first session, one of the coaches realised I had real potential to take my cricket to an international level and join the England team.

Over the last two years, I have been constantly training and improving my cricket through a regional development programme set up to develop the next generation of England players. I train in the development programme for a weekend a month in addition to all my country training I do. All my hard work paid off in June. The blind England Cricket coach Ross Hunter came down to Surrey to watch me play as he had taken a real interest in me and my style of play. I really wasn't very optimistic for my chances of selection because I am only 16 and therefore very young for selection to the team. However, Ross was really impressed with how I played and I was invited to come and train with them over the summer.

As you can imagine, my first emotions were of shock and surprise. I was also very nervous about training with England cricketers and the prospect daunted me. I went to the July and August training week-ends and it was like nothing I had ever experienced. It was a major step up from the county level cricket I had been used to playing and the fitness required was like nothing I had ever experienced. However, everyone there was really nice and positive and although I didn't get selected for the Cricket World Cup in Cape Town in November, I am really hoping to be selected for the Ashes next year.

Josh Nonet-Black 12GS

Year 8 Rugby The team have been working hard on the phases of the game and not just on the basic skills. I can see a lot of potential in this team and therefore have been testing them against some of Surrey’s best private and state rug-by schools. The team have found this very hard and are struggling to break these teams down. I must congratulate all of them as they are showing fantastic resilience and instead of dropping their heads and giving up, they continue to pick themselves up, turn up and want to learn and develop. This shows real courage, well done boys.

Mr D Wheatley, Head of Boys’ PE/Vocational Learning Co-ordinator

“Champion” Performances and District “Domination” In Cross Country

Our Cross Country athletes continue to show their talent at Regional and local Level. After successfully qualifying for the SE England Regional Final of the English Schools Cross Country Cup at Knole Park, our Juniors and Intermediate teams close the gap on their Surrey school opposition, retain their third best school in Surrey ranking and secure creditable top eight SE England school ranking. Our improvement from the Preliminary Round was some comfort for missing out on a place in the National Finals. The importance of running with flare but without fear was shown in top 1twelve performances of power and precision by Harry Fisher (7th Junior), Christian Lee (7th Intermediate) and Tom Knight (12th Intermediate). Their success was matched by our emerging junior group of athletes Tyler Simms, Oscar Voller, Matt Domingues and Michael Bossick. A day of cracking runs from talented athletes!

Most recently, the 2014 South Surrey Boys Cross Country Championships saw Oxted field their largest number of athletes in recent years in District Trials involving the strongest athletes from all local schools. It is pleasing to report that we maintained our traditional top school in South Surrey in terms of both team and individual strength. With a place in the Surrey Schools Cross Country Championships at stake for the top District athletes, Christian Lee (South Surrey Intermediate Champion) and Will Bardsley (South Surrey Senior Champion) cruised through the field as real champions to dominate and win in style. Harry Fisher (South Surrey Year 8 Champion) and Joshua Watson (South Surrey Year 9 Champion) looked similarly impressive and were never far from the front in their races. The confidence, spirit and authority of our runners across all age groups was particularly pleasing and shows the progress we have made since September.

Oxted now have the prospect of athletes who finished in the top 10 (unofficially some 16 Oxted athletes) representing South Surrey District in the Surrey County trials on Saturday 17 January 2015. Congratulations to all our athletes who regularly represent the school at Cross Country.

Mr J Manson

Year 11 Football The Year 11 footballers have had a mixed start to the season. They are putting in some brilliant performances and really playing well as a team However we are not getting the results expected. We have had some tough draws in the National and Surrey Cup. I feel that our luck will change with the New Year and as we learn to cope with our new formation and develop into playing more men’s standard of football. I am expecting good results and us to challenge for the Tandridge league and cup this season, we just need to find our scoring boots. Continue with the hard work boys, the results will come. Mr D Wheatley, Head of Boys’ PE/Vocational Learning Co-ordinator

Year 9 Rugby

The current Year 9 rugby team were the first year group to take part in Saturday rugby fixtures from Year 7, and have continued playing comprehensive fixtures against top independent and grammar schools ever since. From their experience gained they have become one of our most successful and dedicated school teams to date, the extent of their success was reflected in four Year 9 players being selected to represent the County Under 14’s Surrey Rugby: Max McAuliffe (school captain), Sam Regan, Owen Hulme, Rhys Clutterbuck, and Harry Hardisty.

Since September we have played nine games, won eight, losing once to previous Surrey champions Howard and Effingham.

The team is based on a large and robust pack of forward (George Walker, Matt Gardiner, Finn Jenner, Xav Copp, Felix Sarrup, Max McAuliffe (captain), Owen Hulme, Rhys Clutterbuck, Oli Evans, Ben Hookway, Oli Sweeney). The pack contains some very dominant ball carriers, and also are very effective at the break down.

The back line comprises of: Sammy Carlisle, Ben Johnson, Sam Regan, Harry Hardisty, Tom Corbett, Mickey McNamara, Charlie Watkins, James Bruce, Dean Bennett whose pace, lines of running and attacking prowess enable an effective off load game.

Player of the term: Tom Corbett – who has scored some scintillating long distance tries, showing an excellent turn of pace.

Mr J Faulkner, Head of PE

Year 7 Rugby The Year 7’s have had a challenging start to their first U12 season. Currently they are still waiting for their first victory but with every match they are showing real improvements and creating some exhilarating rugby to watch. To give credit to the boys they have faced some of the strongest private schools teams in the county consistently showing real pride in their badge and excellent endeavour. With matches still to play we hope to close out 2014 with a well-deserved Win.

Mr T Bridgland, PE/Deputy Head of Tenchleys

Year 10 Rugby The Year 10 team have had a slow start to this season with a range of fixtures being re-arranged. The first test was a Cup fixture against The Ashcombe School. The boys worked hard and started the match demonstrating some real grit and determination using our large forward pack to rumble up the field. Unfortunately the Ashcombe were more than prepared for this and showed that organisation and continuity can undo even the biggest of packs and the game ended a convincing loss. The next challenge was away at Warlingham with a depleted squad, Oxted switched on and the boys worked well as a team linking together to produce some very exciting rugby and an all-important win. With more fixtures on the horizon I look forward to this team progressing and taking their game to the next level.

Mr T Bridgland, PE/Deputy Head of Tenchleys

Year 9 and Year Girls’ Rugby After the success of introducing girls rugby last year we wanted to focus on improving the opportunity Oxted girls have to participate, Year 9 and 10 girls have taken part in two emerging schools festival so far this year, the first in Wimbledon where they were lucky enough to meet six women from England’s women’s world cup winning squad, as well as getting a chance to hold the trophy. After this fantastic opportunity the girls then competed in a second emerging schools competition at Old Reigations RFC. The Oxted girls demonstrated some real talent with our A team winning every match and the B team only facing one loss. It is clear to see that Oxted have the potential to create some very talented female rugby players! With external coaches being arranged for after Christmas I look forward to developing a strong girl’s rugby culture at Oxted.

Mr T Bridgland, PE/Deputy Head of Tenchleys

Key Stage 4 Netball Tour 2014 On Friday 19 September 2014, thirty-seven Year 10 and Year 11 students travelled to Condover Hall in Shrewsbury for a JCA residential netball tournament weekend. Oxted School entered four teams in the tournament. It was great to play some different school teams from around the country and the standard of netball was very high! All teams improved as the tournament progressed and the girls learned a lot from their games. Teams were organised into different pools and all played 4 or 5 games on the Saturday. Their success in the first round sent them through to various levels of the compe-tition on the Sunday.

The Year 10 A team led by Miss Sayadi finished sixth on their first day so went through to play for the year 10 plate. They played really well on Sunday and finished 2nd in the plate – they were delighted to receive runners sup medals for their success! The Year 10 B team led by M r W h e a t l e y a n d M i s s B u r r e l l finished third in the first round and qualified to

play for the Year 10 cup. The competition was even tougher on Sunday – the girls played very well but did not qualify for the final round.

Miss K Sayadi, Head of Girls PE and Miss R Newman, PE/SSCO/Deputy Head of Stocketts

Year 9 Netball

What a great start to the new season the Year 9’s have had. They have come back better than ever and their passion and dedication to be successful is contagious. The girls have got three results under their belts so far which include two wins and one draw, a huge well done to all of the girls. The girls are committed and attend every week despite the dark and cold conditions this half term. Well done girls I'm looking forward to working with you for the remainder of the season. Hermione Francis, Maddie Brooker, Eloise Jenner, Rebecca Davies, Hope Maynard, Imogen Newbold, Ellie Currie, Maisie Strange, Ella-Maria Mercado, Mollie Hookway, Amy Kerner, Jodie Endacott, Charlotte Strange and Abby Taylor.

Miss K Sayadi, Head of Girls’ PE

Key Stage 4 District Badminton Tournament

At St Bedes on Thursday 27 November 2014

Oxted travelled the short distance to St Bedes for the annual Centre Parcs badminton tournament. The team comprising of five GCSE PE students; Tom Knight, Harry Daniels, Charlie Crockett, Louis Kenyon and Tom Coveney played two games in group 1 against St Bedes and Oakwood. Tom Knight was our number 1 seed and Louis Kenyon number 2, who both played singles and doubles. With Harry, Charlie and Tom Coveney making up the 3 doubles teams. The first fixture against hosts St Bedes saw us play a very experienced team of club badminton players, and although we fought valiantly we lost. The second game we faced Oakwood, who we defeated three games to two. On the whole an excellent experience for the boys, especially for their GCSE PE practical. Mr J Faulkner, Head of PE

Year 9 Football Having won the District League last season the Year 9 football team have continued where they left off and remain unbeaten. An extremely tough and physical encounter in the Surrey Cup saw the team edge Edenham School 3-2 with Josh Yates scoring a superb hat-trick. The next round of the Cup will see Oxted play Archbishop Lanfranc of Croydon.

Wins against St Bedes in both the District Cup and League have made for a good start with many more games coming thick and fast after the Christmas break.

Finally, we are delighted to announce that on Sunday 23 November the five-aside team were crowned District Champions winning the tournament held at Oakwood School. The boys beat the hosts 2-0 in the final. Well done to Lee Peacock, Harvey Westerman, Josh Yates, Harry Pickford and Matt Barker. Special mention goes out to Louis Jones who was Oxted's player of the tournament.

Mr M Everall, PE/Head of Grants

Key Stage 3 Hockey

A huge well done to the girls who attend hockey club each week. These girls have demonstrated dedication, passion and commitment to their hockey at Oxted School. A special mention to Taya Williams and Millie Boodle who each week show leadership through their roles as captains and Taya even took on the role of coach and planned and delivered a whole session for the other girls. I am looking forward to seeing the girls compete in the District Tournaments in the new term. Miss K Sayadi, Head of Girls’ PE

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Year 8 Football Match Reports Tuesday 30 September Oxted v Overton Grange English Schools Cup Competition Won 3-2 Two fairly matched teams played well cancelling each other out. Oxted found themselves 2-0 down against the run of play. Tyler Simms pulling one back just before half time. A good counter attack from Nathan Hogan saw him fouled in the box resulting in a penalty. Nathan stepped up to take the penalty to make it 1-1. With a few minutes to go captain Ryan O’Donoghue scored a fantastic free kick to win the match 3-2 and send Oxted through to the next round.

Wednesday 5 November Oxted v Tonbridge Wells Boys Grammar English Schools Cup Competition Lost 6-0 After a long journey Oxted did not start well. Finding themselves up against bigger, quicker and stronger opposition meant that Oxted were always under pressure. Being 3-0 down at half time meant Oxted were always chasing the game. Rob Street played particularly well in the second half. TWBG were deserved winners and finished the game with a 6-0 victory knocking us out of this competition and leaving our boys a long journey home.

Tuesday 7 October Oxted v Blenheim Surrey Cup Competition Won 3-0 Oxted travelled to Blenheim for the next round of the Surrey Cup. Oxted started really well dominating possession and putting the opposition under pressure. This pressure continued into the second half and Oxted were deserved winners playing some of their best football. Rob Street, Nathan Hogan and Callum Molyneaux were the scorers.

Tuesday 18 November Oxted v Overton Grange Surrey Cup Competition Won 2-0 Oxted now faced Overton Grange in the Surrey Cup, a team we had already beaten-in another cup competition. Full of confidence Oxted dominated in the first half scoring a well worked passing move from the right leaving Nathan Hogan space to score. The opposition never gave up but Oxted’s defence was very compact and stopped every attack. Rob Street pushed forward in the second half and scored our second. Oxted controlled the game and it finished 2-0 a well deserved win. We will now wait to see who we face in the next round.

League Fixtures

Tuesday 21 October Oxted v St Bedes Won 4-1 Oxted travelled to St Bedes to play a League fixture. Oxted conceded the first goal as our defence were caught asleep. This sparked Oxted into action and from that moment they dominated scoring four goals without reply. Scorers were Nathan Hogan, Callum Molyneaux, Tyler Simms and Rob Street.

Wednesday 12 November Oxted v Warwick Drew 2-2 Oxted again travelled to the Warwick School for another league fixture. Struggling to start well Oxted conceded two goals both were gifts given to the opposition. Both teams were evenly matched and the game was end to end. Tyler Simms pulled a goal back. With time running out Rob Street pushed up front to pile on the pressure. With seconds to go Nathan Hogan claimed a goal of a defend leaving the game as a draw. Probably a fair result for a very close game.

Mr S Owen, PE/Head of Stocketts

Shoebox Appeal On Tuesday 18 November two cars left Oxted School filled with 206 beautifully wrapped shoeboxes: their destination, orphanages and poverty stricken children in Eastern Europe. Last year our boxes along with hundreds of others were personally delivered by a group of volunteers from Redhill and Reigate who sorted several thousand before taking them to needy children in Belarus. The photos show a number of the children who were overwhelmed by their woollen gloves, their toothbrush as now they did not have to share one and other items such as the puppet on the child’s hand. Thanks go to Mrs G Heath of the Science department whose husband’s company supplied a huge box containing colouring pencils, the Cox family who every year put at least 20 boxes together over the 12 months and Detillens who filled a total of 75! Twenty three faces will be lit up by the contents of the boxes filled by 7TE and 9DK who provided 12 and 11 respectively. As you sit down on Christmas day and reflect on the events that have occurred – presents, delicious food and drink, fun and merry-making, perhaps you will turn your thoughts to those who will be receiving the gifts that you and your son/daughter’s have provided. If you did not participate this year in bringing a smile to another child’s face there will be another opportunity next year. Mrs C Pilgrim

Charity Food Drive Following their very successful Charity Food Drive, 9DK present Rosemary from the Caterham Food Bank, with a car load of donated food .

4, Beechwood Road Caterham Surrey CR3 6NA 07523983122 info@caterham.foodbank.org.uk 6th November 2014

Dear Miss Mason, Many thanks for your food drive donation from Oxted School to Caterham Foodbank. The food you collected equates to approximately 125 meals that can be given to local people in need in our communities. Caterham Foodbank provides 3 days worth (10 meals) of non- perishable food to people in crisis. We are very grateful to churches, schools and individuals for their generosity in enabling us to continue in this work. I’ve attached a thank you poster for you to display. Thank you for your support. Gill Bailey Project Manager

New and Funky Textiles in Key Stage 3 at Oxted School

Year 8 Cushion Making

Year 7 Mobile phone cases

and pencil cases

Year 9 Recycling Project

Stocketts House

Message from Mrs N Lincoln

I would like to introduce myself as the new Learning Coach for Stocketts

House. I have worked at Oxted for the last seven years and I am excited

and looking forward to building strong working relationships with the

Stocketts students supporting them in achieving their full potential. I can

be con tac ted by e ma i l n l i n co ln@o xted schoo l . co .u k .

Stocketts House Charity

The Stocketts students have chosen a new House Charity for 2014/2015, we

are delighted to support. BORN POSITIVE.

What is the charity?

They are committed to supporting the ongoing development and wellbeing of orphan and vulnerable children in Mozambique, mostly affected by the HIV pandemic

They aim to provide support to the relatives of orphan and vulnerable children in Mozambique and find homes for them

They see orphans and vulnerable children being integrated back into the structure of a family unit with their own relatives and in their culture and encourage self-sustainability

What would your money do? They work with partners to identify those children who have been/are going to be

re-homed with relatives They make a personal home visit, assess the situation, identify the needs and their

severity They look to ensure the basics are covered in the areas of food, healthcare and education

for the child

Mr S Owen, Head of House

House News Since September we have had Inter-House rugby, dodgeball, Languages, football and literacy (word reading). The House teams are very keen to further improve participation rates of all competition to ensure that all students partake in healthy and enjoyable competitions. For decades now, the Champion House competition is awarded at the end of the year, this is now calculated by the total number of House points awards minus the behaviour points issued for every student in their Houses. Foyles have won the Champion House competition for the last three years. Fortnightly updates are shared with students in House assemblies. Grants are currently leading the overall Champion House competition by over 2,000 points. House colours are traditionally awarded to students at the end of the year (Bronze, Silver and Gold). We have further improved this system by now also awarding ‘Working Towards’ certificates at the end of every term – Bronze, Silver and Gold awards can be achieved based on their House points ‘net points’. We believe this will continue to motivate students to gain the overall House colour at the end of the year. Attendance now plays a part of the newly revised rewards system with students receiving House points for excellent attendance. Last year for the third year running, the School met its target for overall attendance, this year we have made the target even more challenging and the school attendance has steadily increased every week since September. Students must try to attend every day as it is vital for their success and well-being; we encourage you to be firm with your children and make sure that they very rarely miss any lessons.

Foyles House

Students in Foyles have voted for this year’s House Charities and selected Cancer Research UK

and Taylor-Made Dreams (TMD).

Cancer Research UK’s main vision

is to bring forward the day when

all cancers are cured. In the 1970s,

less than a quarter of people with

cancer survived. But over the last 40 years, survival has doubled – today half will survive. Their

ambition is to accelerate progress and see three-quarters of people surviving the disease

within the next 20 years.

TMD enable children with life-limiting illness to achieve their dreams when life is short and

also provide holistic therapeutic support for the family on their difficult journey. The

Community Fund award would be used to make the dreams of terminally-ill children in the

East Sussex region come true.

Foyles have already held a cake sale raising £120 and ran a stall at the Christmas Friends of

Oxted School Fair raising another £80.

£200 already what an amazing start – well done Foyles!

Our next big charity event will be the Foyles Variety Show on

Wednesday 21 January 2015 at 7pm. This is open to all students and

staff of Oxted School and should prove to be a fantastic evening of

fun and entertainment. Tickets will be available shortly!

Mr J Williams, Deputy Head of House

Detillens House

Detillens House raise money for Shelter

Detillens House have chosen Shelter as their House charity

2 0 1 4 - 2 0 1 5 . D e t i l l e n s h a v e b e e n

inspired to act following the Shelter statistics that 90,000

c h i l d r e n w i l l b e h o m e l e s s t h i s

Christmas. Tutees from 9DK have spearheaded proceedings by

organising a staff raffle and a cake sale, with all the proceeds

going to Shelter. Other students in Detillens House have been

so inspired and moved by the work Shelter undertake, that

they are offering to run a disco and other activities throughout

the year. Detillens House, Leading the Way.

Ms K Mason, 9DK Tutor

Tenchleys House

Tenchleys students were asked to design what they thought would

make a great logo for the house. Mr Green, Head of House,

selected three from the entries and we asked all tutor groups to

choose which of the three was their favourite. 'Mr T' was the

favoured logo and will now be used on as many house related

literature and posters as possible.

The tutor groups selected charities they would like us to

support over the next two years. We then put

the most popular choices to a vote and

Macmillan was the successful charity. Over the

next two years we will raise as much money as

we can from fundraisers, cake sales,

competitions, sponsored walks and many more

activities.

Mr G Green, Head of House and Ms S Marshall, Tenchleys Learning Coach

Grants House

The Grants team would like to say a massive thank you to all students who brought in

shoeboxes for the Christmas Shoebox Appeal. Your generosity has been overwhelming and will

be greatly appreciated.

Grants House continues to support the British Heart Foundation as their House

Charity and would like to use this opportunity to ask that if you have any

spare clothes that you would like to donate towards the charity to please

place these in the charity bags and bring them to the Grants Office.

A massive further ‘thank you’ to all of the Grants students who provided

chocolate for the chocolate tombola that formed part of the House stall at

the Friends of Oxted School Christmas Fair on Saturday 29 November.

Grants are very happy to reveal their logo competition winner which will now be put forward

for Grants House publications and clothing.

The winning designer of the logo wishes to remain anonymous and

we would like to congratulate them along with all of the other

entrants on such a fantastic array of entries.

Mr M Connell, Deputy Head of House

Great Respect And Noble Team Spirit

True Adventure We are reaching the final stages of pre-expedition for the Costa Rica and Nicaragua Expedition in 2015. This term has been manic with the training weekend in Aldershot, all groups met their expedition leader and spent the weekend involved in teamwork, protocol and planning activities in a bid to prepare and build the ventures into a collective team.

There was a very successful MUFTI day with lots of different activities and fundraising events through the day. We have also been involved in two Christmas festivals with lots of group fundraising to build the teams

£1000 for their project phase of the expedition. Well done to all involved.

Please be aware that there is a Meet the Leader evening on Thursday 26 February 2015, where parents will get a chance to discuss medical and kit related items and meet the expedition leader’s while in Costa Rica. More details will be forwarded in the New Year.

Mr D Wheatley, Head of Boys’ PE/Vocational Learning Co-ordinator

Small Business Saturday On Saturday 6 December, Oxted High Street was pedestrianised in conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce to celebrate Small Business Saturday.

The True Adventure team were allowed to use this as an opportunity to fundraise. We ran three events - Santa’s Grotto, a chocolate tombola and a make your own Christmas pudding baubles stall.

Throughout the day lots of the expedition party came and supported the running of each of the stalls and helped raise around £850, that we hope will be match-funded by Barclays Bank. The stall and the Santa’s Grotto were even visited by Dame Judy Dench.

Well done to all who were involved in the organising and running of this event. Mr D Wheatley, Head of Boys’ PE/Vocational Learning Co-ordinator

Music Department

The Music department has had another successful and busy term. We have been enjoying the use of our new Mac suite in one of our classrooms. This has greatly benefitted our GCSE and A Level students as well as enabled our KS3 students to develop their music technology and composition skills. There will be a Music Technology club starting for students after the Christmas holiday.

On Tuesday 30 September our KS3 musicians performed in the KS3 concert. It was a fantastic evening of many genres of music. Well done to all those who performed. On Tuesday 14 October our A2 students and new BTEC Music Performance students gave their first concert of the year. All students performed to an excellent standard, congratulations on your hard work.

We have of course been performing in the School show ‘Oh What A Lovely War’, with staff teaching the cast the songs and students and staff performing in the band. Well done to all those involved. We have had a very busy December with the Year 11 GCSE Music concert on Thursday 4 December, the very first BTEC Music performance concert on Tuesday 9 December and of course our Carol Service on Monday 15 December. Our choirs also performed on Saturday 6 December at the switching on of the Oxted Christmas lights.

Upcoming events: Please join us for the Year 10 GCSE Music Concert on Tuesday 20 January 2015 at 7pm Main Hall. We will be taking part in a joint schools concert at Woldingham School along with St Mary’s and Tatsfield on Wednesday 25 February 2015. The Year 11 GCSE Music final concert will be on Tuesday 10 March, 7pm in the Main Hall and the A2 Music students’ final concert will be on Tuesday 17 March, 7pm Main Hall. The BTEC Music concert of ensembles is on Thursday 19 March 7pm in the Main Hall. The A-level performance exams are Friday 20 March and Year 11 performance exams are from Monday 24 March - Tuesday 27 March 2015. Please join us for our annual Spring Concert on Tuesday 24 March 2015 in the United Reformed Church.

Mrs S Homewood, Head of Music

Carol Singing, Oxted Small Business Saturday 6 December

‘Oh What A Lovely War’

When the centenary of the start of the First World War approached in 2014 it seemed

appropriate to select ‘Oh What A Lovely War’ as the School show: it would allow our actors and

audiences the opportunity to question the old certainties about the glory of war and to

consider what war actually means to those who are involved. It would be a fitting contribution

to the national commemorations of the ‘War to End Wars’.

Now, the ODD Youth Theatre always likes a challenge but this show really was one! There were

more than 40 scenes, a cast of 65, a terrific live band of staff and students, 200 costumes,

multiple images from the First World War, a crew peaking at 50 students and staff, authentic

weapons of war and modern radio microphones. The show was a sell-out. There were songs, a few battles and some jokes but no lead roles as

this is essentially an ensemble piece. But there were some standout performances: Megan

Saunders as Field-Marshall Sir Douglas Haig, Izzy Boorman as the MC, Ellie Smith as Field

Marshall Sir John French, Tom Read as the Sergeant, Sam Tamplin as an incomprehensible

Drill-Sergeant, and Hannah Fox as Emmeline Pankhurst. The rest of the cast were also

magnificent; always in the moment; always committed no matter what they were doing or the

role they were playing. We must not forget the pathos of the earthy, long-suffering British

Soldiers, the tragic but Pythonesque French Cavalry, the all-singing, all-dancing showgirls, the

down-to-earth home-front girls, the sparky, heckling crowd or the haughty officer’s wives.

We must also mention the wonderful solos and duets sung by Tara Grater, Hannah Fox, Owen

Thurston, Rosalind Fraser, Kai Munroe, Sophie Moss, Izzy Borman, Teddy Stevenson and Head

Girl Amy Miller, who always claimed she couldn’t sing!

This was an exceptional cast who undertook five and a half weeks of rehearsal before half term

and no fewer than 50 hours afterwards.

Mr D Morris, Faculty Leader for Creative Arts

Every cast at Oxted is unique and wonderful in their own way but this year’s are

especially significant to Mr Morris as ‘Oh What A Lovely War’ is his last show at Oxted School.

To commemorate Mr Morris’s last, ‘last night’, Oliver Lansley, once himself a member of such

a cast gave a short speech. Oli is now a successful writer, actor and founder of the award

winning ‘Les Enfants Terribles’ Theatre Company, but in the 1990s he was Romeo in his own

School based production of Romeo and Juliet, Orsino in Twelfth Night, the young Ancient

Mariner in ‘The Ancient Mariner’, and Judge Danforth in ‘The Crucible’. Here is a taste of

what he said to the audience on Saturday evening after they had watched a triumphant final

performance of ‘Oh What Lovely War’: “For at least as long as I’ve known him, Mr Morris’s

priorities have always been the same – his students. His passion for young people and

relentless optimism about what they can achieve if they simply set their minds to it, is

extraordinary. He doesn’t patronise and he doesn’t condescend – he simply opens his door and

anything you are prepared to bring to the table he will match ten-fold. He empowers his

students and that, I feel, is the greatest compliment you can pay a teacher”.

Mrs N Euridge, Head of School

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Dates for the Diary JANUARY 5 First day of Spring Term

13 Parent Council Meeting

15 Year 11 Raising Achievement Evening

16 Friends of Oxted School Quiz Night

20 Year 11 Music Concert

21 Foyles Variety Show

22 Year 9 Parents’ Evening

29 Year 9 Options Evening

29 GCSE Astronomy Trip

FEBRUARY 2 Year 9 French Trip - Europa Centre

4 Year 9 Spanish Trip - Europa Centre

5 Year 13 Raising Achievement Evening

5 Year 12 Parents’ Evening

5 Year 9 German Trip - Europa Centre

10-12 Gym and Dance Show

16 Half Term (School Closed)

23 First Day Second Half Term

26 True Adventure ‘Meet the Leader’ Evening

MARCH 2-6 Year 10 Spanish Exchange Trip to Barcelona

3 Parent Council Meeting

3 Year 12 Geography Field Trip

10 Sixth Form Music Concert

13 Friends of Oxted School Ball

14 Junior Choir Trip - Leith Hill Music Festival

16-20 Science Fair

17 Year 11 Music Concert

18 Academic Tutoring Morning/INSET Afternoon

19 Year 12 Higher Education Parents’ Information Evening

19 Year 12 Geography Field Trip

20-25 Spanish Exchange Students

21 Year 11 Silver D of E Training day

24 Spring Music Concert

25 D of E Award Ceremony

26 Years 11,12,13 Raising Achievement Evening

28 Ski Trip departs

29 Year 8 – Year 10 Rugby Tour departs