SUMMER TERM EDITION 19 15 JULY 2021
The last two weeks have been ones in which the disruptions to school life as a result of the pandemic that we hoped were a thing of the past, have returned with a vengeance. Nonetheless, as has been the case throughout this term, this has not stopped students and staff making the most of every opportunity that they have had for learning and enrichment alongside being creative in achieving the same ends by different means. While the school community, alongside the rest of the country, came to terms with the result of the finals of the Euros, staff and students alike expressed their shock and outrage at the online racist abuse faced by some of the players following the match. Our School Anti-Racism Action Group met on Wednesday to discuss how as a school community we can show our support for Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka and that, as a school community, we do not tolerate racism.
The group also discussed our longer term plans to work with all stakeholders in the school to firmly establish an Anti-Racist culture throughout our community. In assemblies this week, students were encouraged to reflect upon their year and how they had shown courage and commitment to overcome the challenges that they have faced individually and collectively this year - to take pride in what they have achieved and the resilience they have shown. Moreover, they were encouraged to focus on our value of kindness and the role that every student in the school has in ensuring that all are respectful and respected, that we respect our differences and value every member of our community, and when we see others that do not, we are not bystanders and report it so that it can be addressed.
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As this newsletter demonstrates, a number of events to enrich the experience of the students and opportunities to try new things have been provided this term in the face of the restrictions of the pandemic. We are also very excited to look ahead with optimism at the chance to fully reinvigorate all aspects of school life next year as much as is possible. I would like to take this opportunity to thank parents and carers for your patience, understanding and support for the school in what has been an extremely difficult year for everybody concerned. I do not underestimate or take for granted that every aspect of being able to control the spread of the virus in school and provide education and support remotely requires a huge amount of flexibility, support and reinforcement from you as parents and carers. It is fair to say that everyone has played their part and is well deserving of a much-needed summer break.
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We very much look forward to what we hope is a much more normal school experience for students next year. Until then, I hope you and your family remain safe and well and are able to relax and enjoy the summer.
Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Public Holiday Please note that Warlingham School & Sixth Form College will be closed on Friday 22nd October 2021. This is in line with all Surrey schools who will be closing for one additional day in lieu of the Queen’s Jubilee Bank Holiday, which falls during the Spring half term in 2022.
Activities Week 2022 Next year, all things being well, we hope to run Activities Week between 11th and 15th July 2022. In this week, all Key Stage 3 students will be coming off timetable to take part in a variety of activities on site and in the local area. In addition, students will have the opportunity to go on a residential trip which will be year group specific. There will be space for approximately half of the year group in each case. Here are a selection of trips on offer:
Year 9 – PGL Boreatton Park, Shropshire
Approximate cost £460 including: ✓
All food
✓
Activities such as Raft building, Kayaking etc
Year 7 – Summer Camp in the Lake District
✓
Evening entertainment
Costs to be confirmed. Includes:
✓
Return coach travel
✓
Return coach trip
✓
Tents provided
✓
Food and drink provided all week
✓
Raft building activity
✓
Hike
✓
Ghyll Scramble
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All trips are an amazing experience for students who always come back having thoroughly enjoyed the week. Obviously, there is an expectation that behaviour is impeccable while staff are giving up their own personal time to give students these opportunities. We will be sharing more information and opening up WisePay in September for a deposit payment to secure places on the trips. This is likely to be in the region of £100-£150 per child. f you have any questions in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact me on: c.glover@Warlinghamschool.co.uk
Year 8 – Paris Residential Trip Approximate cost £560 including: ✓ Return Coach
and Ferry ✓ Tour of
Versailles ✓ Trip up to the
top of the Eiffel Tower ✓ Boat trip up the
River Seine ✓ Day trip to
Disneyland Paris ✓ All evening
meals + lunch on three days (students to bring packed lunch for first day and money to buy lunch at Disneyland)
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Year 11 National Citizenship Service Fortnight From 7th – 18th June, we were delighted to partner with National Citizen Service (NCS), to offer a twoweek bespoke programme of activities to all Year 11 students. This was an exciting opportunity to enable our young people to embark on new challenges, develop their resilience, employability skills and contribute towards their local community. The programme usually costs over £1,200 per student, but we are only one of two schools in the country to fully fund the NCS programme making it completely free for our students. Matthew Mussett, one of our Year 11 students, shares his experience of the NCS programme. NCS – Lessons for Life For Warlingham School & Sixth Form College, NCS 2021 began on Monday 7th June, a day which would signal the beginning of what I reckon was the hottest fortnight of the year so far. In this formative first week, activities which inspired traits such as teamwork, leadership and participation for all involved took place, the range of which I can only describe as engaging and diverse. My favourites among these were bouldering,
cooking, community challenge, and the arrival of the Royal Navy who taught us bomb disposal skills. Bouldering was perhaps the most fun as there’s no other feeling like climbing a wall without a harness. I felt like Spider-Man. The Royal Navy, for me at least, was surprisingly informative. With them, we completed a range of fun and interesting tasks and were given the realisation of some promising future prospects. Cooking was a healthy challenge, as cookery is something that is far away from my range of expertise and while I would say that the result wasn’t perfect, at least I came out of it with some decent potato frittatas and chicken fried rice.
The next I would say that the most day, we did important part of NCS is the a Community Social Action Project where teams take part to bring positive Mapping Challenge, change to the community where we spoke to members of our local community and learnt more about the people and the area. It was a fantastic way to improve our communication and build confidence when speaking to people in the general public, and gave us a greater understanding of our
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community, its issues and how we can try to fix them. Of course, I would say that the most important part of NCS is the Social Action Project. In general, this is the part of the programme in which the teams take part in something which in one way or another, brings positive change to the community. In our school’s case, this was restoring an abandoned outdoor area of Acorns Nursery. It had been disused for several years and was in a terrible state, with unsafe facilities, untamed woodland spots and in need of a make-over. Luckily, Warlingham students were there to make things right. In our designated teams, we focused on separate parts of the outdoor area to repair and improve. My team were responsible for fixing the gazebo and creating an area for the nursery to plant flowers, herbs and vegetables. As one of the team managers, it was my job to oversee the process and make sure everything was running on time. Working with my team, as well as others, was enough to keep me busy, despite being ravaged by rampant hay fever. The other group were in charge of creating a forest school area where the nursery children can learn about minibeasts, different woodland animals and varieties of trees. The final group
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oversaw painting the slide area, and they had lots of fun testing the slide to see if it was in good order.
I would absolutely recommend the NCS experience to anyone, as you are given the opportunity to develop traits such as leadership, teamwork, and participation. I have had a blast seeing it through, with setbacks teaching me lessons, just as much as the benefits gave me something good to remember.
The staff involved were fun, energetic and built our confidence. I will take the lessons I have learnt from NCS into the rest of my life. I imagine that any career which I choose to pursue will have something to owe to this intensely hot fortnight.
Year 8 English Dystopian Fiction This term, Year 8 students have been studying Dystopian Fiction during their English lessons. Working towards our destination question for this unit, ‘How do I apply creative writing techniques to create my own dystopian description?’, students explored settings, themes and characters in a range of influential texts from The Hunger Games to 1984, and The Maze Runner to Lord of the Flies. “By reading existing examples of dystopian fiction, we were inspired to develop our own creative writing techniques.” Billy Holmes (8L) The students were tasked with writing a description as suggested by this image.
descriptive devices and sophisticated grammatical features. Although there were so many great examples, we hope you enjoy reading the following disturbing dystopian worlds created by two of the students in 8xs1:
I really enjoyed creating examples of pathetic fallacy and personification.
All the students did really well to Tsaynab (8R) produce compelling and convincing descriptions which employed a range of
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Sitting to the side, in a forlorn back garden, is a swing set. Motionless. The metal, once shiny and new, is now orange with a thick rust. Creaky chains – straight out of a horror film - hold on for all eternity without reward. Unused and unwanted is the swing seat, wishing to hold a child, to bring a smile, to bring joy once more to a little face. Yet no one comes, no one comes to relieve it of its agony. Nothing dares. However, the swing set is not alone. It perches precariously on a bed of pale, overgrown, deadened grass. There is no gasping wind to move it, no icy rain to save it, no shining sun to make it beautiful again. Only a sky, blackened by smoke and toxic gasses hangs overhead, choking out
the once merry sun; no light falls onto the solemn picture, filled with only an ancient, dusty bench, a collapsed slide, an eerie, mouldy house and, of course, the swing set. The house rests dead in the centre, watching nothing, yet feeling everything. Smashed to pieces is a window… crouching, concealed at the side, hoping not to be seen. It can taste the dust and grime upon its ledge, lingering on its tongue for a moment before disappearing.
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Silently, on the right is its decaying, wooden door. It is not grand; it has no fancy, iron door knocker nor welcoming atmosphere about it. Upwards, is a chimney, made of old brick. Crumbling. Broken. Repulsive. There is no billowing smoke or warmth. Nothing that helps to remember the good days, the happy days. Still sitting in this forlorn back garden is the swing set; still, it is congealed with rust, still: it is unwanted. Nothing is different until… Suddenly a wind comes up from the ground and gently pushes it back and forth, back and forth. Screeching, moaning, and out of practise but, alleviated of its endless motionlessness at last, it is grateful. By Emily (8A)
Year 8 English Dystopian Fiction One gorgeous red rose sways in the breeze, hidden by the tall, thin shreds of grass that encircle it. The stem stands solemnly, trying to stand upright against the wind like a lone skyscraper. Blades of grass create a jungle of intertwined threads, making a shield around it that will protect it for years and years to come. In the distance, past the park, is a crumbling brick shack, covered in vines, ivy, and other forms of thriving, raging vegetation. ‘We are always watching.’ Reads a singular damp and decaying poster. It’s a relic of the past; still standing to show people what really happens when a revolution breaks out. Winding vines leach onto the shack, stealing its former beauty and destroying any chance of refurbishment.
over by Mother Nature. Every day the seats rust further and further, taking it closer and closer to the end of its life span. The legs are corroding quickly, soon it will be no more than a pile of rubble: yet another ancient remain in this dehumanised part of the world. The wind is hitting harder now, the swing has collapsed, and the building’s roof has fallen through. The grass is flattened, and the sky has darkened… now it’s starting to rain too. Despite it all, the last red rose stands strong and mighty, unphased by the annihilation that has passed it… and is surely still to come… By Oliver (8A)
Century-old trees watch over the field and protect it from harm, like a mother would a child. Moss branches swing in the humid air and form a sanctuary for all life. Nothing can disturb the balance of life shown here; no animal can topple the trees and no humans can pollute the air. Clean, pure air smothers everything, cleansing it of all sins and giving it a new chance in life. A rickety bench sits in the corner of the park, taken
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Year 7 Maths Tau Day Everyone is very familiar with Pi and at Warlingham we have celebrated Pi day with Year 7’s for many years with the highlight always being astounded by how many digits of π students can memorise. This year we celebrated Tau day instead.
Tau = 2π which = 6.28
I really enjoyed Tau day because of all of the fun activities set. My favourite activity was the multiplication and division maze. I like how the school implements games that are not only fun but teach students. Sebastian (7G)
Tau day is celebrated on the 28th June due to the date being written 6/28 in America. Students took part in various activities during their maths lessons, for example in the broken calculator task students could only use 2, 5, ×, -, () but had to find a way to make lots of different totals. They enjoyed learning about Tau and working together to solve mathematical problems. Some students have written about their experience.
Maisey (7M)
Tau day is a great day for people to show all their maths skills in activities. It is great! Summer (7M)
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Tau day was unique. It was interesting and the activities were good for working with the person next to you. It gave us time to talk and learn about Tau.
I would like to end the year on a note of looking to the future, rather than lamenting the past. There are increasing amounts of virtual opportunities available, many of them completely free of charge, to complete virtual work experience, work shadowing or insight days. These can last a day or a week and can provide valuable insights into the world of work as well as helping you to develop your employability skills and knowledge.
Finally, I would just like to remind all students that you have full access to the Unifrog careers platform where there is a wealth of careers and subject resource libraries as well as quizzes to complete, webinars to watch and case studies to read. Again, there is a link below. Any issues with access please let me know.
Two of the major providers of these opportunities are Speakers for Schools and Springpod. If you choose to take up the opportunity of one of these services, I would love to hear about it.
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E.M.P.I.R.E’s Summer Programme for Croydon’s Children in Care E.M.P.I.R.E (Croydon’s Children in Care Council & Care Leavers Forum) is a collective of young people who are all cared for by Croydon. The purpose of E.MP.I.R.E is to empower children looked after and care leavers with the confidence and power to influence policy change, shape the service and have their voice heard.
E.M.P.I.R.E offers that all children and young people will automatically become a member from the day they become looked after by the Local Authority. The theme for this year is Personal Development so they will covering the following topics: Life skills, First-Aid, Healthy Relationship, Sexual Health, Money Management, Cookery, Confidence Building and many more.
Please note that due to Covid-19 they have limited capacity for the activities and trips and priority will be given to active E.M.P.I.R.E members as part of their membership incentive package.
For more information on E.M.P.I.R.E’s summer programme, please contact: Email: empire@croydon.gov.uk Call: 07926 084741 Visit: website
E.M.P.I.R.E offers: ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Weekly Youth Hub sessions Online sessions Wellbeing calls/messages Free day trips Legacy Youth Zone membership Refreshments/hot meals at every session Travel assistance to sessions
E.M.P.I.R.E has an exciting summer programme open to Looked After Children & Care Leavers. Activities include a Sports Day on 28 July at Lloyds Park, Croydon. Arrival time 12.30 for the games 1-4pm
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Year 12 Work Experience at The Caterham Independent My name is Aaron Sugg, a Warlingham Sixth Form College student who has a keen eye for media and the world of journalism. Warlingham Sixth Form College offered their Year 12 students two days in which they were able to conduct either online work experience, or in person work shadowing. Due to Covid-19 regulations, finding work experience was a challenge for most, however, I saw the Caterham Independent advertising themselves online and thought it was the perfect opportunity to chase my interest in journalism. I am fascinated by the vast scope which is covered by Journalism and how, in today's society, the media plays a major role in every subject imaginable. From a young age, I have been heavily influenced by the
news and latest trends - it has recently been an aspiration of mine to pursue this interest. On the 7th of July 2021, I began my first day with the Caterham Independent Team. At 10:30 I met Louise D’Costa, the Editor of the local Newspaper, outside Soper Hall. It was lovely to finally meet Louise after being in contact with her for so long. Louise took me up to their office, where I met Ros Brookman, the reporter of the paper, where the two spoke to me about their latest July edition and the process of creating it. I learnt that the Caterham Independent is mainly funded through advertising - they have to publish
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a certain amount of adverts on each page to gain their income. Louise and I discussed the effects Covid-19 has had on the Newspaper. She took it upon herself to make the decision to cut the amount of pages, from 24 at the end of 2019, down to 20 at the start of 2020. When the virus was at its most economic destructive peak, the Caterham independent decreased to 8 pages. Louise recalled that saving money on printing was vital to maintain a stable income and profit. As a team, the Independent decided to reduce the advertising price by 75%. In light of this compromise, the local businesses that recognised the paper’s communitive approach to the nearby economy are now bringing in more advertisements for the paper as a whole, almost compensating for the kind adaptation of the Caterham Independent Team. Furthermore, to cut costs Louise distributed the Caterham independent by hand, alongside the rest of her family. However, the paper has built up their pages to 16, and “hope to be at 20 once again by the end of the year”. I sat down with both Ros and Louise over coffee and they showed me around Quadrant House where they have a hot desk with other small local
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businesses. We discussed my interests and potential articles I could write for the newspaper. After confirming what I’d be doing over the course of the next couple of days, I offered my help in the long run. The Caterham Independent is made up of a team three and were looking for help in the summer holidays, consequently I suggested myself! I am currently in the process of writing a few articles for the Caterham Independent, conducting interviews and making phone calls where appropriate. The newspaper team have been so approachable and welcoming, and I hope to work more closely alongside them in the future.
Sixth Form College Charity Football Match Raises £150 On Friday the 2nd of July, Warlingham Sixth Form College’s sportiest students played a football match in which all participants and audience paid a fee which went to charity – the Lily Foundation. The charity raises money and awareness of mitochondrial disease to support those families affected by the condition. The entirety of the Student Union was involved in the event but was primarily led by the Sports Committee who consequently organised the teams. The Finance and Events Committees were also key parts of the set up, for example, Finance dealt with supplying refreshments for the event, setting prices, and the collection of money. Members of the Events Committee were involved in the more practical side of things by ensuring the pitch was available, contacting site staff for all equipment and supplies, and overall ensuring the football
match ran smoothly. In total the event raised, just under £150 for the Lily Foundation, which the Union as a whole are really excited about, as it's their first proper event and achievement as the Student Leadership Team. Our Head Girl, Jasmine Rodrigues, said she was “proud of everyone” involved in the running of the event. She is looking forward to working with the Union once more in the lead up to the next fundraiser. Jasmine put me into contact with Hasty Zahawy, a member of the Sports Committee, who was primarily the leader of the event. Hasty participated in the match and said some people who attended “don’t regularly play football, so we managed to attract a wider range of personalities”.
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The rest of the Sports Committee were happy with Hasty’s role as organiser, as they recognised him as a keen football fan himself and contributed ideas where needed. As a Sixth Form College, we are full of enthusiastic and athletic individuals, meaning an event like this one wouldn’t be difficult to repeat in the future, to raise more money for charity.
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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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