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Welcome to Wallingford School
Please use the tabs at the top and menus at the side to find what you are looking for. Can't find it? Contact us!
Announcements
Mwezi
We have received this from the parent of a student at school and wanted to bring it to people's attention. It is obviously a very important cause and it is so encouraging to see someone trying to make a difference of this type.
It may be that there is someone reading this who can help in some practical way. At the very least, each person who reads the document will be more aware of a serious problem for people living less comfortable lives than our own.
Mwezi Leaflet
Lauren Carter 9EH
We are delighted to announce that following a rigorous audition last month, Lauren has been accepted into The National Youth Theatre. This is a huge achievement as every year only 500 students from around the country are successful, and The NYT has an extremely high reputation. For her audition Lauren had to prepare a monologue, take part in a three hour workshop and sit through some tough questions in front of an interview panel. What is particularly impressive about Lauren's success is the fact that it is very rare for somebody of her age to be accepted, the average age of participants is 16/17 year olds.
Lauren will be taking part in a two week Summer workshop, and will have the opportunity to learn more about theatre from talking to professionals.
We are very proud of Lauren, and wish her every success.
Jo Laugharne
Success for Wallingford Chemistry
Wallingford teams have done exceptionally well in in recent Royal Society of Chemistry competitions. Having already won the Thames Valley heat of the 'Top of the Bench' competition the KS3/4 team of Madge Kelly, Sam Miller, Hugh Streets and Matthew Osbourne (pictured) competed against 30 other teams from around the country in the national finals at Loughborough University.
In the national KS5 Schools Analyst Competition the Year 12 team of Anna Herlihy, Alice Middleton and Matthew Reggler competed against 13 other schools and were unlucky to come second by a tiny margin to Sevenoaks School in the regional heat at Greenwich University.
WALLINGFORD TOPS THE GAMES LEAGUE TABLE
At the time of writing this we are sitting very nicely at the top of the South Oxfordshire school games league, having gained more success in all of the sports activities than all of our rivals. A particular well done needs to go to the girls and female PE team for making a huge difference in turning our girls into competitive performers and pushing the ethos that winning is as important as taking part in a competitive situation.
HOWEVER......YEAR 8 WIN THE TREBLE!
An Evening of Expressive Arts
A variety of music, dance and drama from students of all ages. Saturday 1st June at the Corn Exchange, Wallingford.
Click the poster for more details.
Blues & Beer Festival
The Wallingford Blues and Beer Festival takes place on the 7th and 8th June. Profits go to supporting youth projects and live music in Wallingford and the surrounding area. This year's children's charities are: Footsteps Foundation, South and Vale Young Carers and Wyfold Riding for the Disabled.
Click the poster for more details.
Oxfordshire Girls U15 County Champions
The U15 Girls Rugby team were undefeated in the Oxfordshire School games county finals held at Oxford Rugby Club on Tuesday 30th April 2013. With a depleted squad of 8, the girls managed to battle out results left, right and centre.
Year 8 County Rugby Champions
The Year 8 Girls are County Rugby Champions! In the County Finals Tournament held at Banbury Rugby Club the girls were runners up in their group. In the semifinal they beat Chiltern Edge School, and in the final went on to beat Bartholomew School by two tries.
The photo (click to enlarge) shows the squad, all of whom played in every game.
MFL - A level and beyond
On Wednesday 24th April, we were delighted to welcome Dr Helen Swift from Oxford University's Medieval and Modern Language faculty and Hannah Jackson, a first year student reading French and Russian.
Year 11 and 12 pupils who are considering continuing languages at university, starting a new language, or combining a language with another subject were able to find out about the possibilities open to them (over 4000 courses including a language on offer at UK universities!), and think about how skills in languages could benefit them personally and professionally in many different ways.
Over tea and cakes (bien sûr!) pupils chatted with Hannah about what it's like to be a languages student at Oxford, and how she had chosen her course. With important decisions to be made about applying for university, the session will help our linguists to consider their options in a more informed way - we are very grateful to Dr. Swift and Hannah for taking the time to visit us.
Wallingford Methodist Church Art Competition
Wallingford School students had great success at the Wallingford Methodist Church Art competition and attended a presentation evening last Thursday (18th April), where they were presented with their awards by the Mayor. The students had the opportunity to see their work on display in the local art exhibition and were commended on the high standard of work submitted. A huge congratulations to all the students!
Chiltern Chase 2013
Although we enjoy giving young people lots of opportunities for their own sake, and we are always keen to secure the best results we can, it is always a joy when we come together to do some work for charity. Later in the year we will be doing another whole school charity walk (of which more later) but we are also keen to support another charity event.
We have an important connection to the Bone Cancer Research Trust because of the impact the disease has on young people and the pain we all felt at the loss of Alex Lewis. This year the organisers of the Chiltern Chase multi-terrain race have decided to donate half the profits from their event to BCRT and approached us for some help to raise as much money as possible.
The race is on Sunday 9th June. The organisers would like as many of our students as possible to; register in the event, run on the day and support others who do through sponsorship. What we would really like is to have as much participation as possible to show that our young people care about the plight of others and want to make a difference. It is also a healthy way to spend a weekend morning and might also be a sensible way to enjoy a break from revision for those sitting examinations.
The school will arrange to transport students to and from the venue from our main car park and will find a way to cover the cost.
Our hope is that people will Google Chiltern Chase (if such a verb really exists) and register for the event. If not we would be grateful if they felt able to sponsor their friends or even turn up to support them on the day.
We would like the students to find friends to enter the event with and form teams of three. If they are in years 7 to 10 and support each other round the course on the day we will write to their families and ask permission for them to have an afternoon off school either out of lessons or at home. This is not because the students are self-interested but we want to show how much we appreciate things they do that are not about academic achievement. Nobody will have time out of school or lessons without parental consent and we will check that nothing vital is missed. Click on the image to the right to see a flyer from the organisers that provides more information about the race and how to register.
It may be that this is not something your daughter/son is able to get involved with, which we understand entirely. In July we will hold our biennial sponsored walk for another charity, which will give everyone a chance to do something to benefit others.
Thanks you for your support and for encouraging such generous consciences in your children.
Yours faithfully
NJ Willis
Headteacher
Wallingford School Athletics teams successfully represent Oxfordshire in the South East Sportshall Athletics Finals
Congratulations to the following pupils who were successful in three rounds of Sportshall Athletic competitions and represented Oxfordshire in the South East Regional Finals at Surrey University against 10 County teams.
Year 7 Netball Team Third in County Championships
The Year 7 Netball Team qualified for the county finals. On the 20th March we travelled to the Oxford Community Arena to compete in the Oxfordshire Schools County Netball Final. The team played exceptionally well beating 4 other teams to win their pool. In the semi finals Wallingford were losing 5-0 at half time. In the second half they dominated play and scored 5 goals but unfortunately lost 7-5. Third in the whole county is a fantastic achievement. Well done to Ellie Seares, Ellie Tanner, Charlotte Satchwell, Jessie Miller, Lucy Stickland, Lucy Cole, Phoebe Gitsham, Niamh Arnott, Naomi Light.
Year 9 Sportshall Athletics Sports Leaders
All 4 of our Sportshall Athletics teams in year 7 & 8 have reached the County finals. A fantastic achievement. How did they do so well? They are very talented athletes - of course - but they also had coaching in term 3 and 4 from our Yr 9 Sports Leaders who give up their free time to help younger pupils participate and excel in sport.
Furthermore the Yr 9 Sports Leaders were trained and guided by the Sixth Form Sports Leaders. Also some very committed Sports Leaders run a club for year 7s every week called Active Club - this club makes a huge difference to the young people taking part.
Our Sports Leaders have officiated at: the Year 3 & 4 Football Tournament, Year 5 & 6 Swimming Gala, Year 5 & 6 Hockey Festival, Tag Rugby Tournaments, Year 3,4,5 & 6 Netball Tournaments and Year 5 & 6 Sports Hall Athletics. We are very proud of our Sports Leaders - they demonstrate many valuable qualities including enthusiasm, commitment, initiative, empathy, tolerance, respect, confidence and reliabilty.
Thank You Sports Leaders!
Ms Thomas
Red Nose Day Harlem Shake
Bigg Band in Derry
On the weekend of 8th March Wallingford School Bigg Band travelled to perform in Foyle College's Jazz Evening, in Derry Northern Ireland.
This year Derry is the European City of Culture. The Foyle College Jazz Band played at Wallingford School's 350 anniversary celebrations in 2009 and we were delighted to perform in Foyle College's celebrations in return.
BTEC Sport Trip to Blewbury Golf Range
On a beautiful Tuesday the BTEC Sport group took a trip to Blewbury Golf Range. We had 3 experienced golfers teaching the group which helped improved the standard. Charlie Lee was deemed most accurate when chipping with a Putting Wedge, however the big hitter was Michael Stockford who drove over 180 yards on numerous occasions. The enjoyment and quality of the day was well above par.
Mr Halls
Team Photos 2013
If your son or daughter features in one of our team photos, you can purchase a copy. See the Team Photos page for more details.
Exam Timetables
See the Exam Information page for Summer Exam timetables.
2013-2014 Term Dates
Next academic year's term dates are available for download:
Cross Country County Finals
On Tuesday 29th January I took a selected group of pupils to represent Wallingford School in the Cross Country County Finals for Oxfordshire. There were over 40 schools and 600 pupils. Each pupil tried their hardest and ran extremely well. Special mention must go to:
- Izzy as she placed 5th in the U15s Girls race (being only 13)
- Gabriel finished in the top 20 of the U15s Boys race
- Matthew was 31st in the U15's boys race at only 13 years old too
Izzy has been selected to run for Oxfordshire at the English Schools Championships!
Mr Halls
Oftsed Report
You can download a copy of the Ofsted report from our November inspection, as well as a letter from the Head.
Wallingford Volunteer Centre
Have you ever thought about being a volunteer? Wallingford Volunteer Centre are looking for more people to help out in Wallingford and the surrounding villages.
After School Homework Club
Exam Results
The students who sat public examinations in 2012 are to be congratulated on achieving some very impressive results.
Of all the A Level courses followed 60% were at Grades A* to B. In fact 34% were A or A*, which is very pleasing indeed. We are so pleased for them and particularly for those who needed the results on the day to secure a university place. We could not have expected any better.
Our GCSE results are particularly pleasing and our best ever by 14%.
75% of students got 5 A* to C grades including English and Maths. That is wonderful and richly deserved. We were not entirely surprised but they are at the top end of our predictions and it is reassuring to know that the students got the results they had worked so hard for.
We should also say congratulations to their families. It is not easy to support teenagers through such a process. I hope a lot of very proud and relieved parents treated themselves to a celebration as well.
14% of all exams sat were A* and 33% were A or better.
10% of the cohort (19 students) got 10 passes at A or better, with 14 students getting at least 6 A* grades.
Sarah Hirst (12 A* grades), Matthew Reggler (12 A* grades) and Harriet Bush (11 A* grades) got 35 A* grades between them.
The whole year group deserves a great deal of credit, as do their teachers. A lot of people have to work very hard over a long period to produce such excellence. While the teaching staff really have shone this year we know we are lucky to work with such able and conscientious young people.
Congratulations!
