A message from the Headteacher

Welcome to the latest edition of our teaching and learning bulletin. As we head into the half-term break, two major foreign excursions are taking place for Oathall students. As well as our ever-popular ski trip, we have, for the the first time, a group from the school visiting The Gambia. Many thanks to all the staff involved with these trips.

The current site improvements are continuing apace, with the re-roofing of the sports area nearing its conclusion. The replacement windows programme has now started and we hope to see much of the DT area completed during this coming week, with further areas being tackled thereafter.

It was a personal privilege to accompany a group of students to the special event in Haywards Heath to mark Holocaust Memorial Day and subsequently see the beautiful art work displayed in the Town Hall.

We look forward to the next round of the public speaking competition taking place next week at Great Walstead school. I know that the students have worked tremendously hard for this and I wish them every success.

Oathall students mark Holocaust Memorial Day

In January a group of Year Nine students took part in a special art workshop hosted at Oathall Community College, where students from a number of schools produced portraits which promoted either a current young activist or an inspirational young person from previous generations. Their work was then displayed at Haywards Heath Town Hall as part of a community event to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on 27th January. At the ceremony, attended by local schools as well as the Mayor of Haywards Heath and other important community figures, Year Eleven students Seren Billson and Jessica Ruddock represented Oathall in a special reading which reminded us to reflect on the Holocaust and its consequences so that such horrors are never repeated. We would like to thank the organisers of this important event for bringing the community together in such a meaningful way and our students for their hard work and representation of the College. Their fantastic art has been available to view at Haywards Heath Town Hall and will shortly be returning to Oathall for display around the school.

The Holocaust has been marked during year 9 History lessons and Year 8 students have been studying the genocide in Rwanda as a link to Holocaust memorial day in Geography lessons. There was a display in the library with books to support it that students could borrow.

Mrs C Edwards & Mrs J Smith-Hashim

Developing Environmental Awareness and Knowledge

Art and the Environment

'Global Canvas – Children’s Art Competition' is an annual art contest encouraging collaboration and creativity to display thought and concern for our planet’s environment. Each year, the competition receives incredible and insightful creative displays from all over the world, with an amazing array of interpretations of the year’s theme!

This year’s theme is ‘Endangered’, exploring the thousands of species of animal, plant and insect at risk of extinction across the world.

Each year we look for imaginative group entries from children aged 16 years and under, using creative media including art, sculpture, textiles, collage etc and including recycled materials to present a mini-exhibition reflecting the competition theme.

Mrs V Slater

Active Recycling

EcOathall has been busy this term. We have set up a disused pen and empty glue stick recycling scheme. These items are collected by members of EcOathall every two weeks. We also collect empty crisp packets from the canteen. Our dedicated students then drop off our recycled waste to community collection points at Lindfield Primary Academy and Blackthorns Academy. So far, our project has been a success and we look forward to collecting more plastic waste in the future!

Mrs S Lindsley

Down on the farm

Students have been focusing their attention on a new lambing season which starts with moving " Buster" our breeding ram to join the flock of female sheep. We are fortunate to have access to land nearby that allows us to hold a realist size of breeding ewes allowing students the necessary hands on experience needed to complete their studies. They learn about animal welfare, breeding characteristics and good stock husbandry to help ensure another successful breeding season that is set to start in April. Paint is applied to the rams chest so that we can see which animals have been served as part of their natural cycle. All breeding ewes were served and will be scanned after half term to show how many lambs will be due.

Mr J Blackholly

Understanding How People Live

Students in Ms Garrick's year 10 class have been making favelas (makeshift housing in Brazil) out of scrap materials such as cardboard, straws, lolly sticks and even cotton buds. The idea was to try and create a favela (squatter settlement) and develop student understanding about their form and structure.

Ms K Garrick

On Wednesday 12 February, three year 10 students are entering the World Wise Quiz . This is a quiz run by the Geographical Association in Brighton. They will be doing a number of 'rounds' based on different geographical themes such as map reading, current affairs, and general geographical knowledge.

Mid Sussex Orchestra Day at Oathall Community College – Friday 17^th January 2020

Students from five local schools joined forces to create an orchestra of 128 musicians for our second Orchestra Day. The musicians from Oathall, Downlands, St. Paul’s, Warden Park Academy and Burgess Hill Academy were supported by specialist music teachers from West Sussex Music and performers from Ensemble Reza who were able to guide and refine technique resulting in a fabulous performance at the end of the day.

We are very fortunate to have several experienced instrumentalists and musical directors teaching in our schools who, between them organised the event and conducted the pieces as well as providing support for the strings, brass, woodwind and percussion sections in the orchestra.

Students really enjoyed the day and have gained a lot from it; for some it was their first experience playing in an orchestra of this size. It provided an opportunity for our more experienced musicians to lead their sections, demonstrating techniques and helping others to follow their score and the conductors which they did with style.

The aim of the project was to enrich and broaden the musical experience of our orchestral players by providing them with an opportunity to play in a symphony orchestra under the direction of expert musicians in a positive, inclusive and social environment. We are looking forward to planning the 2021 Orchestral Day!

Mrs C MacTaggart

Senior Maths Challenge

We received the results from the Senior Maths Challenge earlier in the term with many students achieving highly . Seven students successfully managed to get a Silver Certificate and six got a Bronze certificate (see our previous bulletin for the details).

We had over 100 Year 9, 10 and 11 students participating in the Intermediate Maths Challenge, looking at problem solving skills and logical thinking.

We are taking two teams of four Year 10 students to compete in the regional Maths Feast Competition at Dorothy Stringer School.

Mr J Leonard

Creative Writing Project

This half term students in year 7 have been working on an exciting new creative writing project in English where they have undergone an imaginary quest. Students were asked to write in role as a hero who has to face a range of obstacles in their mission to storm the Goblins' fortress and confront their King! As they wrote, students had the chance to earn imaginary coins by using a range of writing skills. With their savings they could buy useful products from an imaginary travelling salesman in the forest to enhance their hero's efforts. This unit has proved particularly popular as it's boosted the quality of students' writing and allowed them to explore a genre they may have already been familiar with via books or films like 'Lord of the Rings'.

Ms A Chinn

Creative Writing Project from a student's perspective

Over this half term, Year Seven has been working on a fantasy writing unit in which we wrote a story about the main character and their epic quest to stop the evil Goblin King wreaking havoc on the magical lands. Although many of us used the Goblin King as our main villain, we were allowed to make up our own main character as well, if we wanted to. Throughout our stories, you will encounter twists and turns at every corner, dilemmas that need to be faced and familiar and unfamiliar characters falling into our paths. As well as this topic being a fun task that we look forward to, it is also helping us develop our vocabulary and helping us use creative devices more often; introducing us to new ways of writing down our thoughts. But, our teachers incorporated a game into it--for every creative device we used, we earned a certain amount of coins. These coins could be spent in a shop that comes up in our stories. For example: if you used a semicolon (;) you would earn 2 coins. But if you used Classical allusion (where you refer to Greek/Roman/biblical mythology accurately) you would earn 4 coins. This was another method that helped us use a different range of devices. I have picked a few sentences from a few of my peers’ work for you to enjoy. - Anna

‘Suddenly, a dragon arose from behind a sand dune, Its purple eyes full of hate, Its majestic tail waving in outrage. It had beautiful wings full with the colours of the rainbow; and if having brilliant looks wasn’t enough, it also had the powers.’ -Nye

‘One day a carousel appeared, no one knew where it had come from or why it was there. The carousel sang its own songs and spun at its own speed. The black silent horses blinked and moved up and down like they had a mind of their own…’ -Mia

Developing Learning Beyond the Classroom

...at the Brighton Science Festival

Our Year 10 Triple scientists went to Brighton on the 27th January and watched a series of well known scientists such as Robert Winston, Jim Al-Khalili and Maggie Aderin-Pocock. Hopefully we inspired some scientists of the future - the staff really enjoyed the day too!

This term in Science we have welcomed visitors from Brighton Science Fair who carried out workshops with some of our Year 7 students. They had a chance to make electric bells using electromagnets, to work in teams to problem solve, and to work within time constraints. They had great fun and it was a pleasure to welcome Jonathan and Richard who have visited for several years now.

Ms E Costelloe

March will bring us National Science Week and we hope that you will join us in raising the profile of Science in the world around us. The theme this year is "Our Diverse Planet". Alongside activities for that we will also be submitting entries for the national Biology and Chemistry challenges, as well as year 7 all competing in the "Race for the Line". Busy times ahead!

Year 11 students are heading into the final stretch and will be revising in class with their teachers. Please encourage them to dig out the revision guides and practice as many exam questions as they can! If they get stuck with anything, please do let their teachers know so we can tailor the revision lessons to their individual needs.

Ms E Costelloe

Developing Learning Beyond the Classroom through communication

Pen-pals’ letters with French ‘correspondants’

Students in Year 7bFr1 have been exchanging letters with pen-pals at a school in Nice in the south of France. They were so excited to receive letters from their partners and were particularly amused by the distinct style of French handwriting! Some students got postcards of the region, photos of their family and some goodies. Three weeks ago, our students sent their first letters. They introduced themselves, described their families, pets, and their favourite school subjects. The reaction of the French partners was quite amazing. As the photos show, they were delighted to get letters from Oathall students.

We hope that this project will instil confidence and help to foster positive attitudes towards learning a foreign language.

Monsieur Henri

Developing Learning Beyond the Classroom through competition

Congratulations to one of our students who has won 2nd Place in the St John's Inspire Programme after submitting an article tackling the question of 'How Tephrachronology can Teach us about the Past and Prepare us for the Future of our Planet'.

St John's Inspire Programme is designed to develop learning beyond the classroom in order to extend academic interest & aspiration.

Developing Learning Beyond the Classroom through experience

Active Learning

Students in PE embraced the Humanities Cross-Curricular Week by designing their own Fartlek training maps. Students had to create a route around the school to develop cardiovascular fitness.

The Year 8 rugby squad continues to train hard and develop their skills and tactics. In their first match of the season, they battled hard against Imberhorne. They conceded the first 2 tries but their work rate and organisation proved decisive in the end with a very impressive 35 - 20 win. Ben and Dylan were immense in the forward pack and Alex and Harry were dynamic and powerful in their running and attack play.

In their second match, they played Sackville on a very wet and muddy pitch and fought out a very tough draw at the end of full-time. The conditions were really poor but both teams were fully committed to the game. Alex again was the key in attack scoring 2 great tries but the whole squad deserves great credit for never giving up. Their next matches are against St Paul's and then a 7’s tournament at Downlands. Training for all players continues on Tuesdays or Wednesdays after school - please check the weekly plan.

Mr A Mills

Year 6s Learning at Oathall

We were delighted to welcome 10 students from Lindfield Primary School in January to experience some cooking in our kitchens. The students made low sugar cookies and got to try out what would happen in a lesson in secondary school, including the washing up! They did fantastically well and produced some very tasty results, we hope some made it home to parents and didn't all get eaten on the walk back to their school! We will look forward to welcoming another group next term.

Mrs S Kirkpatrick (DT Enrichment leader)

Finally...an appeal from two of our Year 9 students

Coco’s Foundation is a charitable organisation that inspires UK teenagers to support and help orphaned children’s communities within the poorest areas of South Africa. Their aim is to deliver each child’s basic needs such as food, water, shelter and professional emotional support. In the year 2020, me and a small selective group of other young people from around Sussex will be travelling halfway across the globe to South Africa in an area where half the adult population has been wiped out by AIDS and HIV, leaving many orphaned children hungry and alone.

While we are out there our primary aims will be to:

1. Build 2 orphanages.
2. To visit the children in schools, going to before and after school clubs.
3. Giving out food packages.
4. Helping the local community and doing a massive beach clear up.

For this to be made possible every girl going on that trip will need £3000 by July next year to leave for Africa in August. This is a massive challenge but also an opportunity to help those who are desperately in need of our help and I am asking if you would be prepared to donate to our Crowdfunding page to help me to achieve this goal.

I would like to thank anybody in advance who is prepared to donate.

Thank you.

Poppy Southerton and Paige Nesbitt