Woking High School Principal’s Letter The celebration of examination results last examination students plan what they need to August seems a long time ago as we are now do in order to achieve their full potential in the looking forward to Christmas and 2012 Olympic coming months. year. We began this Autumn term proudly We have been highly encouraged with the way in reflecting upon the best set of GCSE results in which our new Year 7 students have settled into the history of Woking High School. The class life at Woking High School. They are already part of 2011 achieved a 5+ A*-C pass rate of 76% of our fantastic community of students and the with many students gaining over 10 GCSE seamless way in which they make the transition awards at this level, 63% of students gained from primary to secondary is a very positive 5+ A*-C including English and Maths and 29% reflection of the excellent induction programme of all GCSE grades achieved were at A*-A in place at Woking High School. We are already level. These particular measures demonstrate planning for our 2012 intake and have been the excellent attainment and progress made delighted to welcome prospective parents and at Woking High School and are also vital in students to our Open Evening, Open Mornings every form of post 16 provision – from sixth and Afternoon Tea Any Questions? events. form colleges to employment and training. We are very proud of the achievements of all our Please can I remind you that I write a weekly students and the high quality of learning and blog on our website, highlighting all the teaching that enabled them to attain these successes and achievements of our students. excellent results. This is an excellent way to keep up to date with all that is happening in the very busy life Examination season is now a year long event. of Woking High School. You can read further Current Year 11 and 10 students have already details of the special events in this newsletter. sat GCSE modules in Maths and Science and completed Controlled Assessments in several Everyone at Woking High School is looking subjects. As I write, Year 11 students are sitting forward to the many events scheduled for the mock examinations. It is crucial that all Year remainder of this term. You are most welcome 10 and 11 students perform to the best of their to join us for the annual Horsell Schools Carol ability in each examination and assessment Concert (at St Mary’s Church) on Monday throughout Key Stage 4 as cumulatively they will 12 December and the Woking High School form the final GCSE that is awarded in August Christmas Concert on Wednesday 14 December. of each year. The opportunity to practise their Students will also have the chance to enjoy our revision skills, test their examination techniques, delicious Christmas lunch served on Thursday 15 analyse WWW (what went well) and identify December and a week of Christmas assemblies what would be EBI (even better if) will help our where we collect for our Oxfam Unwrapped TECHNOLOGY Winter 2011 Newsletter COLLEGES Principal’s Letter Charities Update Governors’ News Year 10 Dragons’ Den ‘Woking High School Christmas Present’ – this year a Woking High School finishes the term on Tuesday 20 farmyard. December at 12 noon and begins the Spring term on Wednesday 4 January 2012. May I extend a huge “thank you” to all parents who have supported the school in many, many ways, over the past With best wishes from everyone at Woking High School to term. Your ongoing commitment, encouragement and you, your families and friends this Christmas. contributions play a key part in the continuing success of our wonderful school. Jane Abbott, Principal Governors’ News We were delighted to welcome Helen Campbell, newly Governors were delighted by the record breaking elected parent governor and Jill Sanders who joins us performance of 2011’s Year 11 students in their public as our clerk. At present we have a vacancy for a further examinations, a fitting reward for all that hard work by parent governor and expect to hold a parent governor students and staff. election next term. We said regretful goodbyes to Nigel This term, among much else, we have reviewed our Karney, Girish Deshpande and Amanda Jackson who school curriculum, admissions policy and set a balanced have all had to stand down due to business pressures. budget for the coming year. We continue to analyse We have been most grateful for their very considerable whether or not seeking academy status would be right for respective contributions to the life of our school. The role Woking High School. of governor can be challenging and is not generally high profile but it is vitally important for the well being of our R Wernham, Chair of Governors school, our students and staff that the job is done well. The Autumn term has been a busy period for charitable Charity Update giving at Woking High with many events, such as workouts, special assemblies and mufti days, raising money for our chosen charities. In total we have raised £1,433.71. Year 7 students have shown particular enthusiasm and the level of response from our Samaritans’ Purse Charity Appeal was outstanding with well over forty boxes created. These will be used to give children in Asia a much brighter Christmas. The Year 7’s also raised over £350 for LEPRA, a charity promoting health in action for children with leprosy. An assembly was held to share an awareness of the disease followed by a workout activity during one of our Day 11’s. Special congratulations and thanks go to Miss Woodroofs’ 7A who raised over £114, a fantastic effort! M Crowley, Assistant Principal 2 Movember This year saw another great campaign at WHS for Mr Brown, Mr Burgess, Mr Giles, Mr Griffiths, Mr Movember. For those unfamiliar with Movember, men Jones, Mr Martinez and Mr Scott all took part are encouraged to grow a Moustache for the month this year, and as you can see from the photo the of November. The aim of this is to raise awareness moustache suits some more than others! For of Men’s Health, in particular Testicular and Prostate more information, or to donate you can visit http:// Cancer. Staff also give donations which are given uk.movember.com/” to The Prostate Cancer Charity and the Institute of S Giles, Director of Maths Cancer Research. For those involved it was great fun, although perhaps not all their family would agree! Year 10 Dragons’ Den I would like to share some excellent Year 10 news. The students took part in a Dragons’ Den style The following Year 10 students attended the competition and had to present their company Young Leaders Conference at Epsom and Ewell ideas to a board of directors. All our students High School: performed extremely well but, facing fierce competition, Christian Moulding and Jack Fairey Lokesh Rao successfully presented their entrepreneurial Sam Collett ideas to the dragons and walked away with the Jack Fairey top prize earning themselves a visit to a leading Ruaridh Wallace manufacturer in London to present their idea. Christian Moulding Corrine Spiller All students performed brilliantly and deserve to Helen Tinlin be congratulated. Thank you, from a very proud Xenia Cobb C Sweeney, Year 10 Learning Co-ordinator 3 Eco Prefects Maths Sensory Garden Currently the Eco Council are focusing on two key points which are: To recycle more paper. To reduce the use of electricity around the school and in classrooms. One way that we are tackling these environmental issues is by each class having a green recycling bin for paper. Every week the bins are emptied so the paper can be recycled and reused. In classrooms the use of lighting and electronic equipment is being reduced. If no one is in the classroom then the lights are turned off; this saves electricity and is eco BEING ECO PREFECTS friendly. At WHS we believe that taking the very best care In the summer of 2011, we were elected as Eco Prefects of our planet and its resources is an important part of the by our class. As Eco Prefects at Woking High, we are vision for a modern-day school. We also feel this can trying to make our school a more environmentally friendly positively affect students’ learning by understanding how place for everyone. Mr. Dyer co-ordinates the Eco Council sustainability benefits the school, the wider community committee and all activities we participate in. Our team and our planet. of twelve most definitely derives great pleasure from the We absolutely adore being Eco prefects, and always enjoy responsibility of making our school a greener environment the benefits of sharing our ideas with the other members for everyone. of the school society. Together we wanted to be actively involved in making We found the link below really interesting and useful, our school a sustainable place. ‘’The principle of care: please visit it. care for oneself, care for each other and care for the http://www.national college.org.uk environment”, this is sustainability. In addition we hope to assist in a variety of roles, primarily focusing upon By Divanshi Trivedi and Erika Da Costa paper recycling and electricity-saving proposals, attending Year 8 Members of the Eco Prefect Committee school council meetings and preparing a sustainability student update for this Parental Newsletter. Sensory Garden We have had a blitz to get the Sensory Garden ready been planted to brighten up the garden for Spring.