This week, students in Year 11 and 13 have been undertaking assessments in the second of their two assessment windows. They have set about these with an excellent attitude, and we wish them well in demonstrating all that they have learnt and the skills they have developed over the course of the last two years. We look forward to supporting their progression to their next steps in the aftermath of assessments - whether it be Warlingham Sixth Form College, university, apprenticeships or the world of work. This week has also been Mental Health Awareness Week during which we have been raising awareness of mental health and wellbeing with students and staff. Students have been exploring the impact of the environment on our wellbeing in line with this year’s theme of ‘nature’. In Tutor Time, they have discussed the question “Do we take the benefits of nature for granted?” in their ‘Votes for Schools’ session as well as a Tutor session exploring ways to connect with nature to boost your mental wellbeing. Additionally, students have also been introduced to the Mental Health Foundation’s five
strategies to improve wellbeing: Be Active, Connect, Give, Take Notice and Keep Learning. One of the biggest impacts we have seen in school that reflects the picture for society as a whole is the extent to which our mental health and wellbeing has been heavily affected by the Coronavirus pandemic. Whether it is anxiety about protecting ourselves and our loved ones from the virus itself, managing month after month of uncertainty or coping without the normal social support networks and routines that help us keep balanced. Throughout the week, as staff we have had a daily focus for reflection on our mental health and wellbeing. Furthermore, we are training more of our staff to be Mental Health First Aiders and establishing a Wellbeing Group across the Tandridge Learning Trust. As teachers, we are passionate about lifelong learning and our own professional learning. Last week, we had a staff training and development session looking at cognitive load theory with Dr Rachel Avery as part of a partnership with Caterham
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School to learn from and with each other in support of delivering high quality teaching. A key part of our ongoing school improvement plan is to harness the growing knowledge in the field of cognitive science to develop our understanding of the learning process from the point of view of our students to support their development as a Warlingham Learner and maximise their achievement. Finally, you will be aware that the role for schools in the awarding of examination grades is substantially enhanced this year. The process of standardisation and moderation internally prior to the national deadline of June 18th after marking the assessments undertaken by students, will require an afternoon of remote learning on Monday 7th June from 2pm. Please note that students in Years 7,8, 9, 10 and 12 will be set work via Satchel:One to complete at home while departments meet to moderate and standardise in support of the students in Year 11 and 13.
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Thank you for your continued support and understanding as we adapt to the evolving landscape in support of providing all students with the best opportunities for progress and success.
Celebrating Mental Health Awareness Week This week, we celebrated Mental Health Awareness week, which is an annual event providing both staff and students the opportunity to talk about all aspects of mental health, with a focus on providing help and advice. The theme for this year is nature. According to the mental health charity Mind, spending time in green spaces or bringing nature into your everyday life can benefit both your mental and physical wellbeing.
boosts his mental health and the negative impacts he feels when he isn’t able to spend time in nature. The Votes for Schools this week asked students to debate whether we take the benefits of nature for granted. Finally, all students have been set on Satchel:One mental wellbeing tips, links and guidance to ensure everyone has access to the tools they need to support their mental health and wellbeing.
Students have been learning about the numerous ways in which they can get out in nature or be close to nature. They watched a video by Sir David Attenborough who expressed how nature
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Ways to connect with nature ✓
Find nature wherever you are (bedroom, park, garden)
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Connect with nature using all of your senses (listen, look, smell and feel nature)
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Get out into nature (visit natural spaces)
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Bring nature to you (have plants in your home)
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Exercise in nature (exercise outside)
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Combine nature with creativity (take photos, write, draw, or paint pictures of landscapes, plants or animals)
5 Winning Ways to Wellbeing
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10% Discount on School Uniform During Half Term Our school uniform supplier, Hewitts of Croydon, are offering a 10% discount off everything purchased online during Half Term from Monday 31st May—Sunday 6th June. Click here to visit their site.
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I am delighted to introduce you to a new careers document on the website. I have compiled a Careers Directory for students to access at any time in their education, which is designed to introduce them to some key websites for careers information. In addition, it also indicates some possible jobs that each subject they study can lead them to, along with real world examples with videos of people talking about their careers/jobs. The Careers Directory can be viewed here. I hope that you find this a useful resource and I would welcome any feedback via email.
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Year 11 Health & Social Care First Aid Certificate Our extremely hard working and dedicated Health and Social Care students attended a day of First Aid training on the last weekend of the Easter holidays. They learnt how to manage a variety of first aid scenarios and have really proved themselves to be great first responders! Forever First Aid trained us in how to conduct a Primary Survey which uses the DRS ABC method. We learnt how to check for danger then check if a Danger person is Response? responsive or not – by talking to Shout for help them, gently Airways shaking their Breathing shoulders and even pinching Circulation their ear! We then learnt how to properly open up a person’s airway, check their breathing and then check if they are bleeding. The DRS ABC Method:
This is a really important life skill to have! We also had a lot of fun with learning about how to treat someone who is choking, suffering from an asthma attack, someone who is severely bleeding, someone who is experiencing medical shock and someone who has experienced a burn/scald.
We then learnt how to put someone into the recovery position if they are unconscious and breathing and CPR including a COVID-19 safe CPR if they are unconscious and not breathing.
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Our favourite experience by far was learning how to treat people who are bleeding – particularly bandaging up heads! After a long time of not getting to complete practical learning activities, this was a very welcome course. Ms Obmann and Mrs Sayers would like to thank and congratulate the Year 11 Health and Social Care students who took time out on the weekend to complete this course. We would also like to thank all of our 2021 Year 11 Health and Social students for all of their hard work, you will be greatly missed!
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Warlingham Wins British Council International Award Earlier this year, Warlingham School and Sixth Form College were delighted to win the British Council International School Award Foundation Certificate for Introducing Internationalism. The International School Award prepares young people for life in a global society by increasing their understanding of other countries and cultures. It provides a motivational framework for teachers to develop themselves professionally and recognises a school’s commitment to developing global citizenship in young people.
The British Council congratulated Warlingham School & Sixth Form College and its pupils on gaining the award for demonstrating an excellent start in promoting the international dimension across the school and highlighting the benefits of learning in a global context. They praised our commitment to extending and embedding internationalism in our curriculum, a valuable aspect of our school’s ethos.
The award was achieved by the Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) Department for the broad and varied curricular and extracurricular programme we offer to our students through a variety of initiatives. These include the French Exchange Scheme, school trips to Salamanca and Paris, our Russian and German afterschool clubs, the MFL film club, use of a language Assistant recruited via the British Council, taking part in the "Prix de la Paix" organised by the Caterham Rotary Club and a whole school competition for the European Day of Languages involving a quiz with points for House.
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Most of these activities were enjoyed before the Covid-19 pandemic although the MFL Department showed its ability to adapt to the situation during lockdown with its innovative remote learning. During the last lockdown, our Year 9s and 10s wrote to our Exchange School in Bordeaux and our Foreign Language Assistant, Noelia Acuña Perdomo worked from her home in Lanzarote conducting lessons on Teams with our Sixth Form students delivering an authentic teaching experience. Furthermore, Noelia is in contact with Dario Figueroa, our Foreign Language Assistant from the previous year, who is now a teacher of English in a school in Argentina. Dario is preparing his students in Argentina to get in contact with our Year 10s so they can soon meet over Teams. Our Year 9 students have also been able to write to their peers in Tenerife thanks to Noelia accommodating this pen-pal exchange.
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The students are benefiting from this enriching experience building relationships remotely and improving their language skills. As we begin to slowly ease back into normal life, we look forward to re-commencing our trips and after school clubs so we can continue and expand our fantastic International programme for which we have been recognised.
Year 12 Advance Award At Warlingham Sixth Form College, we pride ourselves on offering The Advance Award - a unique scheme developed to provide a framework of engaging community experiences and learning enabling students to become well-rounded and prepared for their next step after college - be it university, apprenticeships or the world of work.
The award comprises four elements: Academic Success, Community Engagement, Employability Skills and Work-related Learning. See the enterprising initiative a group of Year 12 students have been working on as part of the Work-related Learning component of the Advance Award on the next page.
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Launching U-Mod Customised Water Bottles We are U-Mod, a Year 12 group of students working together in our enterprise enrichment activity to fulfil our task of selling a product for the Advance Award. In our lessons, we have decided to produce and sell high quality, customisable water bottles, of which you can choose what wording is to be put on it, e.g.names or initials, etc. These ideas were created in a long process beginning at the start of the year. At the start, we came together and assigned roles as a team together (Project Manager, Researcher, etc) and from there we have made a business plan, designing business logos and delegating tasks to prepare our business to be as successful as possible. Our water bottles are produced at a very high quality, keeping your cold drinks cold and your hot ones toasty! Alongside the good cause of purchasing from a local start-up enterprise in school, there is further incentive to purchase from us rather than other competitors. We sell our product at an ultracompetitive price of £9.99 with proceeds going to our chosen charity – WaterAid. Our high-quality water bottles have more benefits
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than just keeping your drinks at the desired temperature. They are also extremely beneficial to the environment. Once purchasing a U-Mod bottle, you will never have to return to a cheap plastic bottle ever again, thus no longer polluting the environment with the wasteful plastics and labels.
If you are interested in purchasing one of our bottles and helping out a great cause, you will be able to purchase it through WisePay very soon. Details to follow! Many thanks, The U-Mod Team
Year 12 & 13 Geography Trip to Iceland
Warlingham Geography Department welcome Year 12 & 13 Geography Students studying at Warlingham Sixth Form College in September 2021/2022 to join them for a sensational trip to Iceland!
When: Monday 7th to Thursday 10th February 2022 Please Email: R.Gardner@warlinghamschool.co.uk for more details
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The Warlingham Learner
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