Whenever I come to write this message for our newsletter, it forces me to pause and reflect upon the previous few weeks at school and how much has been going on. It is easy to take some of the things that happen day in, day out in schools for granted. However one of the positive side effects of the pandemic has been the fact we are all more aware of what we missed when we were in lockdown and operating under tighter covid controls last year. It has been a pleasure to walk the corridors and see teachers and students fully immersed in lessons and to see the extra-curricular side of school coming back to life. On that note - congratulations to our Year 11 Netball Team who became District Cup winners this week. Well done to Mollie Smith, Izzy Whittaker, Maddie Creenan, Hannah Cooper, Katie Raeburn-Ward, Ruby Baxter and Amy Deighton on their fantastic achievement. On Wednesday 22nd September our school community came together to celebrate the life of
our former student Caitlin Gallacher. All loss is hard to bear, but none more so than those who should have had so much life ahead of them. The positive impact of Caitlin upon our school community was so clearly evident in all those who spoke at the celebration of life ceremony. Caitlin was a wonderful young woman who epitomised our school values of commitment, courage and kindness in equal measure and the garden in her name is a fitting memorial to her and will provide a place of calm reflection for students who need it, long into the future. Our next newsletter will share photographs of the garden and reflections of the ceremony. This week’s assemblies saw the launch of Black History Month with the theme ‘proud to be’ led by Ms Tindall. It was fantastic to have students sharing their thoughts on how two influential black women (Doreen Lawrence and Amanda Gorman) make them proud to be black. I would like to recognise and thank Asia Bissember, Jasmine Rodrigues and Olivia
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Spencer for demonstrating all the qualities of the Warlingham Learner in their contribution to this week’s assembly.
Dates for your Diary ✓
Sixth Form Open Evening Thursday 14th October
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School Sponsored Walk Thursday 21st October – please remember to complete the online parental consent form
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Bank Holiday – School Closure (in lieu of Queen’s Jubilee) Friday 22nd October
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As part of the assembly, Ms Tindall launched our student voice survey which asks students to suggest ways to further improve our Black History Month. Alongside this, the survey asks if students think we are doing enough to challenge racism in our community. This will help inform and evaluate the work of our Anti-Racism Action Group which also features in this edition of the newsletter. This edition of the newsletter continues to provide parents with an insight into the curriculum that the students’ experience at school with a focus on the Maths Department. It is also a pleasure to introduce our new staff and the House Team. We are looking forward to welcoming parents and students in Year 10 & 11 to our College Open Evening next week.
We are delighted to introduce a new section into our newsletter where you will find highlights of what’s going on in a chosen subject. This week, we focus on Maths.
Key Stage 3 Firstly, we were extremely excited to welcome our new Year 7 students to Warlingham School & Sixth Form College. Year 7 have settled into their new Maths lessons extremely well and have continued to build on their Year 6 knowledge with an initial focus around the world of data. Students have learnt to analyse and display data in different contexts and have developed skills progressively through the unit of work.
Year 7s have recently completed their initial baseline assessment which will help support both students and teachers in terms of identifying key areas of strength and build upon areas of weakness. Students are moving on to the World of Number this week leading eventually on to Transformations.
Year 7 Example Question
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Key Stage 3
Year 7 Solution
...MAT HS Year 8s have made an extremely positive start this term. The year group has been enriched in the world of number and shape, interleaved by many of the key skills drawn out from the Year 7 curriculum map. Students are continuing to build on their successes from last year and at the same time developing an array of skills to help build on their resilience, particularly when tackling problem solving focussed questions. Year 8 are also preparing for their Key Assessment Points (KAPs) in two weeks and have been building on their understanding around many key topics, supported by developing their revision skills, including building a repertoire of flash cards and revision maps.
Year 8 Example Question
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Solution
Key Stage 4 Year 9s have started the exciting journey towards their GCSEs! The first topics in Year 9 are all about building on number, algebra and data knowledge and for our future learning across the next three years. A key element in Maths is based around problem -solving and so we develop our problem-solving skills right from the beginning. This is an example of an exam style question from the very first chapter:
As students journey through the Year 9 curriculum and into Year 10, we start to look at a broader range of topics. We will be using previously learnt skills and will be applying these across different topics, whilst building upon their problem-solving skills.
Year 10s have made a fantastic start and are progressing through the curriculum map. They are currently working on the algebra units underpinned by key elements from the Year 9 curriculum. Moving in to Year 11, we now start to reach the end of our GCSE Mathematical journey. We generally finish the syllabus part way through Year 11 and focus on building key exam techniques, exam practice questions and more problem-solving practice in preparation for the final GCSE exams. Year 11s are looking forward to their fast-approaching KAP`s and are working tirelessly on deepening their knowledge and connections across topics and at the same time developing their resilience with key exam questions. Here is a quick snapshot of some of the great work being produced by our Year 10 students this week. We have been particularly impressed with the students’ use of the green pen to upskill key areas of weakness, helping to deepen their knowledge and understanding through the curriculum model.
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...MAT HS Words from a Year 11 GCSE Maths Student
My name is Rajveer and I’m in Year 11 doing GCSE Maths with Mr Robins. At the start of every lesson, we do starter tasks that are from previous units. I find these very helpful as it helps me remember past units and keeps it fresh in my mind. At home, we have a wide range of resources that we can use to help us with Maths, such as Hegarty Maths that gives us a video that we can watch about the subject we want to learn and then a little quiz to put our mind to the test. We also have Maths Genie that gives us past GCSE Maths papers for the Foundation and Higher paper which I find really helpful as I am trying to aim for the Higher paper and when it comes to revising Maths the best way to revise is by doing past practice papers. I am currently on unit 11 for Maths and this includes topics such as compound measures, density and volume. This is a challenging unit but with all the resources and the help from my teachers, I am enjoying this unit and like learning as it also ties into Physics too.
Rajveer
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Key Stage 5 Our new Year 12 Maths students have already completed their first assessment, checking on their understanding of their transition tasks from the summer and have been honing their algebraic skills and making connections between how factorising and completing the square relates to a quadratic graph. Meanwhile, our Year 12 Further Mathematicians have been learning about different sorting methods in the decision unit alongside complex numbers – have you ever tried to square root a negative number? As always, it is a delight to see these students excel in a new environment and how quick they are to help each other. In Year 13, our A level Maths students have discovered that you don’t always measure an angle in degrees, but that we can use radians as an alternative (180 degrees = π radians). They have also been developing their understanding of Moments and Forces & Friction in the mechanics unit. Year 13 Further Mathematicians have been applying De Moivre’s theorem. All of our KS5 students have also been enjoying our new DQ booklets, so that they are slowly
building up a fantastic revision resource which they can refer to when preparing for their KAPs. We are looking forward to some of our Sixth Form Mathematicians helping us in lower school lessons as well as helping Year 7 pupils in Paired Maths. Not only does this give them the opportunity to gain hours towards the ADVANCE award, they are learning valuable skills such as communication, listening and patience as well as building new rewarding relationships. All Sixth Form Mathematicians are able to make use of our twice weekly excitingly named homework club, and credit must go to all those that are showing great commitment to their learning by attending every week. This term, we will also be putting on some Graphics Calculator workshops so that students can learn to make the most of this fantastic resource. We will also be looking forward to the UKMT Senior Maths Challenge where our students will compete amongst other students in this national competition. We are also looking forward to showcasing some of the excellent work at the upcoming College Open evening where we look forward to welcoming all aspiring A level mathematicians.
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...MAT HS Words from a Year 12 A Level Maths Student I chose Maths A level as my future aspirations involve studying medicine at university to become a doctor. Maths is one of the key skills for this career path as it links well with Science subjects and requires you to think in the same investigative way as you would need to as a doctor.
Isabel
The content so far for Maths has been challenging, however the huge jump in difficulty from GCSE to A level was eased by recapping GCSE content during the first fortnight of lessons, as well as by being given transition work to do over the summer holiday.
In this transition period, we ensured we had an excellent understanding of the key GCSE skills, meaning we had a firm foundation for A level Maths before starting the harder topics such as modelling and the discriminant. The support provided by my teachers so far with Maths has been amazing; not only do they help in lessons, but they also run an after-school session twice a week for anyone who requires further assistance, to ensure everyone is progressing at the same pace. My experience so far with this subject has been great and I am excited to continue with Maths!
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Useful Websites
www.mymaths.co.uk This is a website with interactive lessons and tasks for each subject in the KS3 and KS4 schemes of work, as well as some A level content. You can click through each of the tasks at your own pace. Username: Password:
warlingham kindness
enables them to access nearly 1000 videos and online tasks. The teachers can see what videos have been watched, what students put as answers to each question, and how much time was spent on each task, enabling us to personalise our classroom experience and home learning for each class. We use Hegarty Maths to set an array of home learning tasks as we find it a useful and beneficial tool to build on knowledge and understanding in class. www.pearsonactivelearn.com
www.hegartymaths.com We all know Hegarty Maths! Created by a Maths teacher, for Maths teachers, each student has their own individual password that they set themselves (and teachers can reset) and this
This is the website for the text books that we follow and use in our lessons. There are a bank of resources on this site, which directly link to the content in class. Username Y7: Username Y8-13: Password:
FirstnameSurname Is the same as your school username Active21
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...MAT HS They also sell GCSE flash cards which our GCSE students find really useful in the run up to their GCSE exams. www.corbettmaths.com No username or password required for this brilliant website - the entire site is accessible to all. This is really useful if you are looking to do a little bit of Maths each day, as they have a ‘5 a day’ resource which has five questions for every day of the year, with five different levels of difficulty to suit your needs. There are also videos for each topic in the GCSE syllabus, as well as text book exercises (lots of similar questions on the same topic – ideal if you just want to practice and build on key skills) and exam questions (more problem-solving based questions, good for exam practice). There are answers for every question on the website, meaning you can check your work as you go along.
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Mr C Glover
Meet the Team Mr C Robins
Welcome to the
Maths
Maths / Assistant Headteacher Mrs R Scott
Miss R Chandler
Department
Head of Department Mrs S Onley
Mr N Hellier KS3 Lead / Deputy Head of Sharman
KS5 Lead / Deputy Head of Maths
Ms V Wakeham
Mr B Valentine
Maths Teacher
KS4 Lead
Mrs H Ferdous
Miss N Patel Head of Accountancy
Maths / Deputy Head of Mallory
Mr S Wood
Miss C Harmer
Maths Teacher
Maths Teacher
Maths Teacher
Maths Teacher
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Votes for Schools As part of our registration activities, students have the opportunity to learn about and debate topics each week, using resources from VotesforSchools. This helps provide students with a wider understanding of current affairs, develops their empathy and kindness skills when considering sensitive issues, and also enables them to practise forming arguments and debating. Furthermore, they have their voices heard as VotesforSchools shares the voting outcomes with a variety of organisations, including governments and charities.
Over the past two weeks, students have been discussing the following topics. Their votes as a school can be seen here, alongside the votes for Surrey and the UK.
Should the UK do more for Afghanistan?
Should more children get free school meals?
Vote week commencing 20 September
Vote week commencing 27 September
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Calling all Year 11 Students and Parents / Carers…
attend this event. Please feel free to email me your thoughts.
Best Next Steps Virtual Event
Furthermore, if an apprenticeship might be of interest, there is this invitation:
As part of the Coast to Capital Careers Hub supported by The Careers and Enterprise Company, we have been given the opportunity to register for the Best Next Steps Virtual Event. This is taking place on Thursday 21st October. There are two sessions available, 1.30-3pm and 67.30pm. Due to the sponsored walk taking place, we will be unable to arrange for students to participate in the afternoon session but I would highly recommend students register for the evening session. During this event students will be able to watch videos and interactive content about available options post Year 11 and ask questions to careers advisers on hand via the live chat function.
You’re invited to RateMyApprenticeship’s Virtual Event on 20th & 21st October. Featuring 15 of the best apprenticeship employers in the UK, this is your opportunity to: ✓
Meet Aldi, Deloitte, Vodafone & more
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Ask any questions you have about apprenticeships
Parents/Carers should click here to register:
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Get exclusive application advice
Tickets are completely free. I would welcome any feedback from students or parents/carers if you
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PLUS win prizes!
Students should click here to register:
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The return of Work Experience for Year 10 I am very pleased to announce that we are returning to running an in-person Work Experience event for year 10 this year. This will be taking place between the 4th and 15th July 2022. Students will be invited to find their own placement at a company or in a sector that interests them. They will then be able to spend two weeks finding out about the job/industry and getting to fully experience a work place and everything it has to offer. Due to COVID-19, we have been unable to run Work Experience for the last two years so this is a great opportunity for all the students in the year group to have an experience that really makes an impact on them and their future career aspirations. In the past, we have had students offered part time employment and progressing to training and qualifications with the companies they have had their placement with so it can be a life changing opportunity. Warlingham School & Sixth Form College is excited to be joining with a company called Changing Education to support all our students to source a placement, complete all the necessary
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information and get the most out of this opportunity through guidance and feedback. Changing Education is able to work with us to identify strengths of the local labour market and trends in interests for our cohort to maximise the potential of placements arranged and what the students gain from the experience. Students will also be given support in how to approach these companies and apply for their placements. We will be launching this with the students very soon and they will be given access to an app to allow them to identify possible industries/sectors that they are interested in, complete all relevant documentation and to be able to track the progress of their application alongside writing a CV. This app will be completely secure and confidential. So, Year 10, time to get your thinking caps on and try and decide what type of placement you would like to apply for! Please feel free to email me with any questions.
Anti-Racism Action Group The work of our Anti-Racism Action Group continues this term. With the completion of most focus group audits and the creation of action points underway, we are excited about the year ahead. High on the agenda this year, will be the creation of a school charter in support of our commitment to Anti-racism at Warlingham School & Sixth Form College. We are at the very beginning of this process but will keep you updated as we progress. One of our other action points was to provide more Continuous Professional Development for Warlingham staff to support their knowledge of Racial Literacy and its place within the curriculum of each subject area. In support of this, a video clarifying what we mean by Racial Literacy and how it underpins our curriculum was shared with staff and we will continue to implement this within our curriculum as the year progresses. The information graphic that featured in the video can be seen on these pages. We launched our celebrations of Black History Month in main school assembly this week. We
are supporting the theme for this year which is ‘Proud to be’. In our assembly, three brave students shared with us how influential black women (including Doreen Lawrence and Amanda Gorman) make them proud to be from their cultural background. We also launched our student voice which asks students to suggest ways to improve our Black History Month celebrations and to get student opinion on whether they think we are doing enough to challenge racism in school. The survey was set on Satchel on 3rd October. In addition, we are also running a Black History Month competition which will start on 11th October. The competition will support and encourage the ‘Proud to be’ campaign. More details to come next week.
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Anti-Racism Action Group Warlingham is committed to being anti-racist. This term we have: ✓
Continued our work with the Anti-Racism Action Group
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Student voice - A Questionnaire set on Satchel to gather student feedback on Black History month and Racism within Warlingham School
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Leadership training - Racial Literacy training video shared with staff during whole school CPD session
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Curriculum Review - All departments within the school are reviewing their curriculum and as part of this process, they will be looking for ways in which Racial literacy can be implicitly and explicitly present in the topics taught and teaching strategies used in the classroom.
Together we will help create an anti-racist community at Warlingham School & Sixth Form College.
Anti-racism and antidiscrimination are important to everyone at Warlingham and our students showed their solidarity with the fight against racism in sport and society by choosing to take the knee before their Year 8 Vs Year 10 football match.
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Inspirational Literary Figures A Portable Paradise Roger Robinson ✓
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Roger Robinson is a writer who has performed worldwide. He was chosen by Decibel as one of 50 writers who have influenced the black-British writing canon. He was shortlisted for The OCM Bocas Poetry Prize, The Oxford Brookes Poetry Prize, highly commended by the Forward Poetry Prize.
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He is an alumnus of The Complete Works.
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His latest book A Portable Paradise was chosen as a New Statesman Book Of The Year and won the T.S. Eliot Prize 2019.
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He has toured extensively with the British Council and is a co-founder of both Spoke Lab and the international writing collective Malika’s Kitchen.
by Roger Robinson
And if I speak of Paradise, then I’m speaking of my grandmother
who told me to carry it always on my person, concealed, so no one else would know but me. That way they can’t steal it, she’d say. And if life puts you under pressure, trace its ridges in your pocket, smell its piney scent on your handkerchief, hum its anthem under your breath. And if your stresses are sustained and daily, get yourself to an empty room – be it hotel, hostel or hovel – find a lamp and empty your paradise onto a desk: your white sands, green hills and fresh fish. Shine the lamp on it like the fresh hope of morning, and keep staring at it till you sleep.
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Inspirational Literary Figures Bernardine Evaristo ✓
Bernardine’s novel Girl, Woman, Other won the Booker Prize 2019.
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She is the first black woman and black Briitsh person to win it in its fifty year history.
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The novel also won many other prizes including the British Book Award’s Fiction Book of the Year & Author of the Year, and the Indie Book Award for Fiction.
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It was a #1 Sunday Times bestseller for five weeks, the first woman of colour to achieve this position in the paperback fiction chart, spending 44 weeks in the Top 10. She received an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2020 and an MBE in 2009.
Diran Adebayo ✓
Born in London to Nigerian parents, Adebayo has been named one of the “best young British novelists” by The Times Literary Supplement and is known for his “musical” use of language.
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His debut novel, Some Kind of Black, won him many accolades including the Author’s Club First Novel Award, the 1996 Saga Prize, and a Betty Trask Award.
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Adebayo has also appeared on TV to discuss topics ranging from politics and pop culture, to sports and literature. He’s a talented author with words worth reading.
Practice 4 Progress and Target the TOP One of our focuses for this year is developing students’ metacognition. This is about understanding how we learn and how to further develop our memory. As a vehicle for this, students are being introduced to Practice 4 Progress techniques which can be used in a whole array of situations (in class and out). These techniques are research based and known to be effective in developing memory. More information about the Practice 4 Progress techniques can be found on the school’s teaching and learning website in the form of animation style videos. Please go to warlinghamTL.co.uk student page. We believe that these Practice 4 Progress are excellent tools to help develop our students as life-long learners.
develops use of the above mentioned P4P techniques into a revision strategy centred around Testing for knowledge, Organising information to develop conceptual links and Practising exam questions looking at the skills required to succeed in assessments. To find out more about this please go to WarlinghamTL.co.uk - Revision page. We believe that the Target the TOP system is an effective way to prepare for assessments both internal KAPs and external exams. Please note that not all year groups will be looking at the same techniques due to the schedule of the KAPs (Key Assessment Points). However, feel free to explore the various techniques with your son / daughter.
In addition to the Practice 4 Progress techniques, some year groups are being introduced to Target the TOP (Testing, Organise, Practice) which
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We’re Collecting Morrisons It’s Good to Grow Tokens Calling all Morrisons shoppers! We are collecting Morrisons ‘It’s Good To Grow’ tokens and would welcome your support. As part of their ‘It’s Good To Grow’ campaign, Morrisons are donating gardening equipment to school children across the UK in the hope of educating kids about where their food comes from. The scheme offers customers one ‘It’s Good to Grow’ token in their My Morrisons account via the app and website for every £10 spent in store or online. These tokens can then be donated to school to redeem equipment such as gardening tools, composting bins and seeds to get growing. We
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are hoping to set up an after school gardening club later in the year to revamp the Maple Room Garden so any donations of these tokens would be much appreciated for this worthy cause. You will automatically get a Grow token for every £10 spent. To start collecting tokens and donate to us, simply download the My Morrisons app, sign up for an account /click on your account, click on the Good To Grow banner and Manage Tokens and select Warlingham School to donate to. For further information, please email Tina Needs at t.needs@warlinghamtlt.co.uk.
Around the Houses We are extremely excited this year to be expanding our pastoral team by welcoming four new deputy Heads of House. Within their role, they will be working alongside their Head of House to offer support to individual students across the House, as well as supporting with tutor time in the mornings. We will also be running all the House competitions this year and I know the deputy Heads of House are excited to support their Houses with all the challenges ahead in order to win the House trophy at Prize Giving. The first inter-house competition this term was for volunteering to be a guide and helper at the Main School Open Evening for prospective Year 7 students held on 15 September. The event was a huge success and the students did themselves proud in acting as ambassadors for the school. Congratulations to Johnson for leading the way in demonstrating their commitment and kindness by their willingness to contribute, which are key aspects of the Warlingham Learner.
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Susanna Obmann I am honoured to have been appointed Deputy Head of Chichester House. I am looking forward to being able to support the mental health and wellbeing of a range of students and help them on their journey to becoming the most successful versions of themselves that they can be.
Blake Valentine As the new Deputy Head of Mallory House, I am committed to ensuring that Mallory students are thriving socially, emotionally and academically. I have been in Mallory since joining Warlingham and I am passionate and patriotic about the House. My goal is to make sure that Mallory leads the school in every competition through having a positive, proud and tenacious mentality and attitude.
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Dan Crenol I am very excited to be part of the best house in school – Johnson House! I will be working closely with Mrs Hunt to support all of the students to ensure they have an enjoyable, successful time at Warlingham. Students will see me popping into lessons and registrations, and can often find me in my room, B15, if they need any further support.
Roxie Chandler I have loved getting involved with supporting Mrs Bristow as Head of House. So far, I have introduced 'Tutee of the Fortnight' for Sharman which gives tutors the opportunity to highlight students who have showed Courage, Commitment and Kindness during registration time. I am looking forward to being a bigger part of praise and reward in school and supporting students in their school career.
Welcome to our new Staff Members This year we warmly welcome a host of new teaching and support staff members to Warlingham School & Sixth Form College. Some of our existing staff members have also enjoyed a change of role or promotion and we would like to congratulate them all.
New Teaching Staff:
New Support Staff: Nicola Mathie
Student Support Officer
Saba Tyson
Science Tech Manager
James Richard
Music Technician
Natalie Smith
Senior Admin/PA to Paul Foster
Nicola Turbett
Student Support Assistant
Farheen Syed
Teaching Assistant
Aimie Davies
SRW
Olivia Bradshaw
SRW
Nikita Patel
Maths
Steven Wood
Maths
Charlotte Burrows
Science
Susanna Obmann
David Holmes
Computing
Roxie Chandler
Danielle Baker
Science
Lucy McNally
English
Nikolas George
Science
Ernesto Gomez
MFL
Ross Pizzey
English & Geography
Yolandy Griffith
Music
Promotions & Role Changes: Rebecca Bristow Dan Crenol
Blake Valentine
Jen Rayner Jo Duvigneau Saul Ilandingtile
Head of House, Sharman Deputy Head of House, Johnson Deputy Head of House, Chichester Deputy Head of House, Sharman Deputy Head of House, Mallory Admissions and Admin Officer Subject Leader – French Science Technician
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Sponsored Walk 2021 We are delighted to announce that our biennial sponsored walk will be held on Thursday 21st October 2021. The whole school will embark on a 14km walk around Warlingham’s countryside on fully marshalled footpaths and bridal ways. This is an opportunity for the whole school to come together as a community after a long time apart during the pandemic and to take time off timetable to exercise in the fresh air in our local surroundings. We are raising money to improve our sports facilities including the refurbishment of our all weather courts.
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Your child should have now received their sponsorship form and sponsorship should be paid through your child’s WisePay account. Please remember to complete the online parental consent form.
Warlingham Sixth Form College Open Evening Thursday 14th October 2021 from 5.00 – 8.30pm
Invitation to all Parents/Carers and Students in Year 10 & Year 11…. Presentations at 5.30pm or 6.45pm in the Main Hall Join us for a short presentation incorporating talks from Senior Leadership, Mr Scott, and current and former College students, who will offer their personal insights on life at Warlingham Sixth Form College.
Subject areas open to visitors from 5.00pm – 8.30pm See the wealth of academic and vocational subjects we offer and meet our subject specialists to find out more about the courses offered, the assessment pathways and the opportunities that lie ahead. Register at the Main School Reception on arrival.
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The Warlingham Learner
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