Students celebrating excellent results at Oathall Community College.

Many congratulations to Oathall students who are once again celebrating another year of excellent GCSE results. The college has improved on last year’s successes in many subjects.

DSC01321In English, students have eclipsed previous high standards with 77% achieving A*-C. In mathematics, 68% achieved passes at A* to C. The college’s relentless drive for academic success has seen continued improvements this year across the curriculum.

More than half of all grades awarded were B or higher and a quarter of all grades were at A or A*. There were some fantastic results in individual subjects; in biology, chemistry and physics 53% of grades were at A or A* and 34% of students taking art achieved A or A* . In PE 49% of students, in media 42% and in geography 39% succeeded in achieving these highest grades. These really are outstanding results.

Students excelled in modern languages with 25% of grades across all languages being awarded at A or A* at this standard. This is particularly noteworthy as the vast majority of students study languages at the college. (more…)

The 13th National Students’ Art Exhibition

Congratulations to year 11 Art GCSE students Ellie Angus and Jess Brown whose portrait paintings were both selected to be exhibited at The Mall Galleries earlier this month.

JB-Portrait-web EA-with-portrait-webThis is the 13th year of the National Students’ Art Exhibition held under the patronage of the Royal Society of British Artists. It features the best young artists in the country, a truly inspirational exhibition celebrating gifted and talented students in Schools, Colleges and Academies.

James Horton MA RBA (President): ” It is vital and perhaps more so than ever before, that as a society we should strive to maintain a serious approach to developing new talent and ensuring that skills in all media are properly taught and the results recognised and applauded in order to preserve our cultural heritage.”

Hola! Bonjour! Guten Tag!

Students at Oathall have been busy celebrating the European Week of Languages. Everyone had the opportunity to develop their cultural knowledge of European countries. Year 7 students participated in a sensational Eurovision contest. They sang songs in French, Spanish and German. The winning group will be announced shortly (watch this space!). Students also had the opportunity to sample European cuisine with Year 9 classes cooking European pastries with Mr Maier. And students in Year 8 and Year 9 tried out Spanish tapas with Señor Henri and German food with Frau Stockley.

Other cultural activities included working on a project about a European artist, learning how to play ‘la pétanque’ and studying the film‘ Les choristes’. Oathall staff demonstrated their hidden talents as they were challenged to say ‘hello’ in any language by Year 8 students.
We would like to thank everyone for their enthusiastic participation.

A bientôt ! Bis bald! ¡Hasta luego!

Oathall students pay their respects to the fallen soldiers of the Great War

Oathall student Ruby Roe had the unique opportunity last week to lay a wreath at the grave of her great-great grandfather, Harry Freeman. Ruby visited his grave on a World War I history trip to Belgium. 44 students in year 9 travelled from Oathall for a tour of the battlefields and cemeteries surrounding the town of Ypres.  The trip took place to give students a greater awareness of the conflict. They visited sites and cemeteries to gain an understanding of the bravery and suffering of the fallen and to reinforce what they had learnt in the classroom.

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Students get a taste of work at Nestle

On 5 June, eight handpicked students spent the day at the Nestle offices at Gatwick. The visit was a follow-up to a Design Technology workshop held earlier in the year. On that occasion, Nestle staff visited students in Product Design classes. They worked alongside our students to talk about the design and manufacture process.

Following that workshop, Nestle selected eight of our students to visit their offices at Gatwick. They made their selection based on students’ problem-solving skills and leadership potential.

NestleThis visit was a competition to win a summer paid work-experience job with Nestle. Students worked with other young people from secondary schools and FE colleges completing activities and challenges and practising interview skills.

Accompanied by DT teacher Mr. Maier, the group found out more about Nestle, their product range and the career opportunities in their industry.

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Meet the 2015-2016 Student Leadership team

We are pleased to announce the selection of 2015-2016 Head Boy, Head Girl and Senior prefects team. Students in Year 10 applied for the roles and then underwent a rigorous selection process. The first part of this involved writing a letter of application and a giving a short presentation at a year group assembly. This was followed by a staff and student vote. Headteacher, Mr Rodriguez and year 10 leader, Miss Gyngell interviewed the shortlisted students. After much deliberation, they made their final selection which we are pleased to announce here:

Left to right: Top row: Mr Rodriguez, Mirabel Brown, Isabel Oakley, Elliot Lewis, Ed Thompson, Tom Koniotes, Lucas Foreman, John Moore, Freddie Guthrie, Christopher Symes Bottom Row: Sam Candfield, Julia Karwat, Petra Demjan, Jasmine Wickens, Victoria Gough, Niamh Noakes, Freya McLennan, Isabelle Searle, Hannah Smith, Amy Maitland.
Left to right: Top row: Mr Rodriguez, Mirabel Brown, Isabel Oakley, Elliot Lewis, Ed Thompson, Tom Koniotes, Lucas Foreman, John Moore, Freddie Guthrie, Christopher Symes Bottom Row: Sam Candfield, Julia Karwat, Petra Demjan, Jasmine Wickens, Victoria Gough, Niamh Noakes, Freya McLennan, Isabelle Searle, Hannah Smith, Amy Maitland.

2015-2016 Prefects team

Head Boy and Head Girl
John Moore and Julia Karwat.

Deputy Head Boys and Girls
Azhar Ahmed, Petra Demjan, Freddie Guthrie and Freya McLennan

Senior Prefects
Mirabel Brown, Sam Candfield, Lucas Foreman, Victoria Gough, Alexandra Houlders-Worsfold, Tom Koniotes, Elliot Lewis, Amy Maitland, Niamh Noakes, Isabel Oakley, Isabelle Searle, Hannah Smith, Christopher Symes, Ed Thompson, Imogen Watmore, Jasmine Wickens.

Lunchtime musical concert

Oathall musicians went along to watch Ensemble Reza’s cellist Sarah Carvalho-Dubost and guest bassoonist, Susana Dias for a lunchtime concert at the Haywards Heath Methodist Church in Perrymount Road last week.Music-Ensemble Reza

They were treated to a varied and very interesting programme which included music by Beethoven, Brahms and The Pink Panther theme. The cello and bassoon playing together is an unusual but very beautiful combination and Mrs Mac Taggart and the musicians will be trying this combination at school rehearsals to see if they can create the same beautiful timbres.

Eve Mustin who was one of the students who attended the concert said,

“I really enjoyed going to see Ensemble Reza’s concerts. The bassoon and cello complimented each other well and I recognised some of the pieces and composers. The musicians were amazing and very inspirational. Overall, it was a fantastic musical experience.”

Great Gardening Bake-Off

Students from all year groups have been busily baking cakes this week to enter into the Great Gardening Bake-off. The competition is part of the Chelsea Fringe Event – Strictly Gardening being held at the Orchards Shopping Centre, Haywards Heath on Saturday 16 May. Entries are being submitted from local secondary schools and in keeping with the theme, every cake must  have at least one vegetable ingredient. On the day the best eight will be tasted and judged by Café Elvira’s chef. More photographs can be viewed on our Flickr pages.

Congratulations to Year 7 Student Emily Brock for coming first in the competition! 

 

125th Anniversary of West Sussex County Council

125th WSCC presentation
from left to right: Myles Rice, Connie Went, Stephen Hillier, Lila Jones, Helen Wilson, Mr Willer and Adam Bishop

An engraved glass plinth has been presented to Oathall’s senior prefect team to mark the 125th anniversary of West Sussex County Council.

Stephen Hillier, County Councillor visited Oathall and handed over the plinth to Head Girl, Lila Jones, Deputy Head Girls, Helen Wilson and Connie Went and Deputy Head Boys, Myles Rice and Adam Bishop. Councillor Hillier joined the students along with Assistant Headteacher Mark Willer for afternoon refreshments and discussed a wide range of issues affecting young people in the Haywards Heath area.