Wheatley Park School
Headteacher's Message Everyone working hard on the best curriculum It’s a real pleasure to provide parents/carers with a brief update on the academic year so far. Students have made a genuinely superb start to 2018-19. Their smart new appearance is being matched by really positive attitudes to learning. Last year we successfully established a calm and focused learning environment as a norm throughout the school. Of course, this alone does not guarantee ‘Everyone Learning’ successfully. So this year we are shifting the emphasis from simply ‘behaving’ to working hard. Already, over 2700 ‘purple postcards’ have been issued to students, celebrating high levels of effort in lessons and with homework. Student effort will only translate into effective learning if coupled with a carefully designed and expertly delivered curriculum, so curriculum development makes up the other half of our main improvement focus this year. Taken together, we believe that a culture of hard work in conjunction with a curriculum of the highest quality will help us build further on our GCSE and A level exam success this summer, which is reported in full on our website. Helping students achieve excellent qualifications is only one strand of our vision to provide a sustainably outstanding education for all. The following events, all of which have taken place over the last seven weeks, go some way to illustrating the breadth of experience we offer at Wheatley Park School: All Year 7 students enjoyed a Maths and Geography trip to Blenheim Palace 30 Year 9 students visited the Kingerlee construction company to participate in a planning challenge to redevelop Shipton quarry. A large group of Year 9 students battled storm force winds to develop survival skills on our annual Bushcraft residential trip. Some of our Year 10 students discussed artwork in the Bodleian Library and Merton College chapel to produce a film to be featured on the CultureStreet website. Year 11 students impressed employers in a wide range of settings during their recent week of work experience. A level textiles students sought inspiration around Oxford and in its Natural History Museum English and Drama ran theatre trips to see The Importance of Being Earnest, The Woman in Black, One Life Stand and The Fisherman. All year groups participated in a Big Learning Day, studying topics ranging from health and fitness to immigration and asylum. The whole school held a yellow-themed non-uniform day to raise money and awareness on World Mental Health Day. Alongside this, our extensive programme of extra-curricular activities is now in full swing, with students enjoying everything from Archeology to Trampolining Club. Finally, in tune with our second core value of ‘Everyone Caring’ it would be wonderful to receive as many donations as possible of the former school uniform to send to Siyabonga Secondary School in Soweto, South Africa, through the Borien Foundation. Clean and wearable items can be dropped off in carrier bags at student reception. Thank you as always for your much-valued support with all aspects of school life. Tim Martin Headteacher Welcome to new (and nearly new!) staff We extend a warm WPS welcome to the following new staff who joined us either at the end of last academic year or at the beginning of this school year: David Caheny joins us from All Saints’ Academy in Cheltenham as Head of RE Holly Dervey joins us as a newly qualified Teacher of Science Mary Douglas joins us from Waingels Academy in Wokingham as Head of Year 7 and Teacher of PE Victoria Falvey joins us as a Progress Coach based in our Space2Be (formerly AZP) area Miranda Halstead joins us as a newly qualified part-time Teacher of Textiles and part-time Cover Supervisor Frances Hancock joins us as a newly qualified Teacher of Geography Nicole Jeffs joins us as our new Librarian and Careers Administrator Heather Jenkins joins us from The Oxford Academy as our Interventions Lead Teacher Stacey Kendall joins the senior team from Elizabeth Woodville Academy in Northamptonshire as an Assistant Headteacher Robin Marsden joins us from King Alfred’s Academy in Wantage as our Head of English Daniel James joins us as a newly qualified Teacher of Science Annabelle Pearson joins us from Lord Williams’s School as our Head of Mathematics Rose Saunders joins us from the Ryde Academy on the Isle of Wight as a Teacher of English Gemma Sperry joins us as a newly qualified Teacher of Mathematics. Georgia Wardlaw joins us as a newly qualified Teacher of Food and Cookery We are thrilled to have so many high-calibre professionals joining our staff body.
Term 1 Bulletin October 2018
Sixth Form - MacMillan Coffee Morning
The Sixth Form Students held a coffee morning for MacMillan Cancer Support on Thursday 27th September. They baked and sold cakes during break time and managed to raise £166:62. A huge thank you to them!
The pupils collected fieldwork data to answer the question 'Is tourism good or bad for Woodstock' The pupils completed environmental quality surveys, traffic counts and pedestrian counts and got to explore Woodstock. They will now write up their findings once they have their chrome books after the half term as a report which will include graphs and charts as well as maps. Well done Year 7!
Blenheim Palace fieldtrip
CALENDAR AND EVENTS
THU 18.10.18
END OF TERM 1, 3PM
FRI 19.10.18
INSET DAY 3
MON 29.10.18
BEGINNING OF TERM 2, WEEK 2
TUE 30.10.18
CHROMEBOOK AND GSUITE PARENT EVENT, HALL, 6-7PM
THU 01.11.18
YR 12 & 13 PARENTS' EVENING, 4.30-7.30PM
TUE 06.11.18
SENIOR MATHS CHALLENGE YR 12 & 13
DUKE OF EDINBURGH BRONZE AWARD PARENTS' INFORMATION, 6.30-7.30PM, 6FCR
THU 08.11.18
SIXTH FORM OPEN EVENING, 6-8PM
TUE 13-THU 15.11.18
COLLEGE OF DUBOIS FRENCH STUDENTS VISITING
TUE 13.11.18
LANGUAGE TRIP PARENTS' MEETING, 6FCR, 6-7PM
WED 14.11.18
SENIOR TEAM MATHS CHALLENGE, 8AM-6.30PM
FRI 16.11.18
LGBT YOUTH CONFERENCE, 8.30AM-3PM
MON 19-THU 29.11.18
YR 11 MOCK EXAMS
TUE 20.11.18
YR 10 GCSE DRAMA TRIP TO 'BLOOD BROTHERS', 1.20-6.30PM, NEW THEATRE, OXFORD
FRI 23.11.18
YR 8 FRENCH DAY TRIP TO LILLE
WED 28.11.18
THEATRE GOERS TRIP TO 'ALLADIN', 4-11PM
THU 29.11.18
YR 10 PARENTS' EVENING, 4.30-7.30PM
FRI 30.11.18
INSET DAY 4
MON 03-THU 06.12.18
AS TRIAL EXAMS
FRI 07.12.18
SIXTH FORM WINTER BALL
THU 20.12.18
CHRISTMAS CONCERT, 7-9PM
FRI 21.12.18
END OF TERM 2 , 12.15PM
MON 07.01.19
INSET DAY 5
TUE 08.01.19
START OF TERM 3, WEEK 2
