theRedhillAcademy newsletter October 2018 Happy Birthday to us!

On October 1st the school was able to celebrate its 70th birthday. The school opened on October 1st 1948 as the Redhill County Secondary School. The school log book from the time makes fascinating reading. It tells us that there were eight teachers (including the Headmaster Mr W. L. Weddle) and 147 ‘scholars’ - 76 girls and 71 boys. There were seven classrooms, staff rooms and boys’ and girls’ toilets. Unfortunately there was no milk as the milk permit didn’t start until October 3rd! However, 24 students had a meal at lunch. Miss Bond of the School Meal Department took charge as the schools two helpers had no previous experience of this type of work. The school playground was not available due to the dangers of building materials, a mechanical digger and moving lorries. So, at break the students were assembled on the Recreation Ground which was approximately 200 yards from the school. The official opening was on the 16th of October 1948 and we still have a copy of the original programme from that day. Reading through the log book shows just how far the school has come in seventy years. We continue to be very proud of the successes of our students who once again achieved excellent examination results this summer. During the holiday we also made further improvements to classrooms and other facilities so we can confidently say that after seventy years we are looking in good shape. Later this year we will be holding a 70th anniversary event. It would be fantastic to see if anyone who was amongst those original 147 ‘scholars’ could be found. If you have any photos, memorabilia or other items connected with the history of the school please let us know so that we can make this a birthday celebration to remember. Mr A Burns Mr N Matthews Principal Head of School

www.theredhillacademy.org.uk www.twitter.com/redhillacademy [email protected] Sixth form Success

This year we have another set of excellent results including our highest ever number of A* grades with 9% of grades at A*, and almost 50% of all grades at A*- B. We are really proud of how hard both students and staff worked to make results day a real celebration of success. The number of A* grades has meant that we have a record number of students successfully gaining places at top universities and the most competitive courses, including Oxford, Cambridge, Durham and Medicine. We have been working closely with the University of Cambridge whose HE+ programme encourages and supports bright students at state schools to apply successfully to the best universities. We are very excited that from this year we have been selected by Cambridge to be the North hub. We will be working closely with their academics to stage conferences held at Redhill and visits to Cambridge to demystify the process. Two success stories are; Roma Ellis - 4 A* grades in Chemistry, Physics, Maths, Further Maths She has successfully gained a place at Newnham College, Cambridge to study Natural Science. Ben Watkins - 3 A * grades- English Literature, History, Philosophy and Ethics. He has successfully gained a place at Magdalen College, Oxford to student History. He also has a choral scholarship so will be joining their world famous choir. This is a testament to Ben’s talent as a musician as very few state students manage to secure a place on the Magdalen choir. I am sure you will have enjoyed Ben’s performances at Redhill in the past. We are so proud of all our amazing students, we have worked hard through our Oxbridge programme to support Ben and Roma this year and they have demonstrated that they are amongst the best students in the country. We passionately believe that our students should aim as high as possible and they have proven how high they can go. All our students have performed brilliantly and 80% are moving on to university this autumn, whilst others are taking up higher apprenticeships e.g. at Boots head office. We wi