Wheatley Park School
Terms 5 and 6 Newsletter July 2024
Headteacher's Message Dear Parents/Carers, This year, we’ve been working hard to further strengthen students’ sense of belonging. To thrive at Wheatley Park, we believe they must first feel accepted, connected and united. So, for example, we have increased the number of warm greetings students give and receive, enjoyed celebrating our differences during Diversity Day, and, by the time you read this, our first ever Wheatley ParkFest will hopefully have drawn our community even closer together. But is it working? Do students feel greater belonging? Here are three indicators that might suggest so. Firstly, student attendance has improved and persistent absence (attendance below 90%) has reduced compared to last year. This is in no small part due to great support from you as parents/carers but may also reflect a stronger sense of wanting to be part of school life. Secondly, students responded more positively than average to 17 of the 18 questions in the annual RLT Stakeholder Survey (we still need to do more to encourage reading), providing the most positive responses across all nine secondary schools to questions relating to behaviour and bullying. (WPS parents/carers and staff provided equally positive responses, and a summary of the trust-wide findings can be found here.) Finally, and purely anecdotally, dancing seems to be on the rise! Whether it was spontaneous dancing during Battle of the Bands and Diversity Day, Year 11s hitting the dance floor even earlier than usual at their prom, or flash mob dancing to the Macarena and Cha Cha Slide during Sports Days, this surely signifies a healthy sense of belonging. That said, we are by no means perfect and there is always more that can be done to engender belonging. For instance, one focus next year is on refreshing our culture of ‘visible care’ to ensure this is just as prominent a feature of our behaviour approach as the ‘visible consistency’ we strive for. Thank you for your immense support this school year, so much of it going on behind the scenes as you help your child(ren) in multiple ways to get the most out of school life. I do hope you have a wonderful summer. Tim Martin Headteacher Quick RemindersDrop Off and Pick up Our Sixth Form car park is the only place to drop off and pick up your child(ren) by car. Using the road into Holton increases the risk of accidents, while using Morland House Surgery, Ochre Close or Breame Oak Drive causes inconvenience to local residents. Smartphone Survey We are keen to know your views on smartphones via this RLT-wide survey which closes on Wednesday 24 July. Become a Teacher! You may or may not be aware of an alarming shortage of people training to become teachers, despite it being the most fulfilling job in the world! We work closely with our local School Centred Initial Teacher Training provider and Oxford University’s Department of Education to help develop trainee teachers and would happily chat to any parents/carers considering a change of career. Contact head@wheatleypark.org for more information. THANK YOU AND GOODBYE Our thanks and best wishes to the following staff who are sadly leaving us at the end of this academic year: Rachel Brown, our Head of Drama, leaves us after 18 years of incredibly dedicated service to the school. As well as being an inspiring teacher and highly-respected middle leader, Rachel has invested herself in all aspects of school life - not least, an impressive catalogue of school productions that have brought so much joy to so many. Students have often found their vocation through the stimulating drama experiences that Rachel has engineered. Latterly, her leadership of our LGBTQ+ group has provided invaluable support. We wish Rachel well when she takes up her new post at the Whitelands Academy. Sarah Davies steps down from her Teacher of Music/Drama post here after 9 years. Sarah has supported countless students to thrive through her expert teaching and warm pastoral care (including as co-Head of Year for a period). She has shaped powerful experiences for students through her deep involvement in extracurricular music and drama. She leaves us to take up a new post, also at Whitelands Academy. Val Wolstenholme has had many roles here over the past 9 years and has made an enormous positive contribution to the Wheatley Park community at so many levels. In particular her work during COVID-19 played a critical role in supporting our whole community to cope at such a challenging time. We wish her all the best in her very well-deserved retirement. Katie Ridgeway leaves us after 7 years of exceptional service as Teacher of History, Acting Head of History for a while, and more recently as Professional Tutor overseeing trainee teachers. She is a superb practitioner who has had an enormous positive impact through her teaching, form-tutoring and commitment to the wider aspects of school life, from overseas trip coordination to teacher karaoke stardom! We wish her well when she takes up her new post at the Cherwell School leading History at Key Stage 4. Lisa Munro will be leaving us after 5 years of thoroughly committed service. She joined us as a Teacher of French and Spanish, later taking on the role of Second in Languages. Lisa has inspired countless students with a passion for languages through her masterful teaching and the rich extra-curricular opportunities she has coordinated. She will be relocating to Scotland where we wish her all the best. Ellie Steele joined us as a Teacher of Business and Economics 5 years ago and was confirmed as Head of Business and Economics from September 2022. Thereafter, she has grown these subjects to be some of the most popular within the school, enabling students to succeed from all starting points due to her super clear and responsive teaching. We wish her well in her new role as Head of Year at The Swan school. Hongyang Wu has been the driving force behind our burgeoning Mandarin programme for the last 3 years. Her infectious energy and enthusiasm has inspired many students to take a keen interest in both Chinese language and culture. We wish her all the best as she relocates to Manchester. Jill Holley has been in post as a Teacher of History for the past two years after training with us previously. Jill’s expert knowledge combined with her deeply caring approach will be sorely missed as she moves back to her native Ireland to be closer to family and friends. Kelly-Anne Taylor leaves us (for a second time!) as she relinquishes her post as Team Leader in maths to take up a Senior Leadership role at the Aureus school where she will no doubt have a transformative impact. Elli Bromley has done highly impactful work with us this year, firstly covering a maternity leave in English and then doing some intensive academic mentoring in Year 11. We wish her all the best at Chipping Norton school from September. Gabriel Kan has built really positive relationships with both students and staff during his five months here as a cover supervisor. We wish him well as he takes on a full time teaching role at the Europa school next year. Finally, we are indebted to Richard Cave and Pushpa Chaure, both of whom are completingvery long tenures as governors. Both have devoted countless hours of their time to the school on an entirely voluntary basis, with Richard taking on the demanding role of Chair of Governors for the last two years. We wish them well and hope they remain in touch.
Attendance: Be here to be healthy, happy and successful
In order to further raise awareness of the importance of good attendance here is our final update regarding attendance at Wheatley Park this academic year. Across terms 1 to 5, just over half of all students in Years 7 to 10 achieved over 97% attendance (Green Zone on our Attendance Diamond). This equates to missing no more than 5 days off across the school year. A very special mention and well done to the 18% of students that were hear every morning and afternoon session during this time. Thank you for everything you have done to support your child to be here and achieve these targets in order to be happy, healthy and successful throughout this academic year. Looking ahead to next year please note: The government’s new statutory attendance guidelines begin this August with some changes to expectations including a national framework for parent fines due to unauthorised absences. Our new policy available on our website has been written in line with these new guidelines and in conjunction with our feeder primary schools. Thank you for your feedback regarding reporting your child’s absence. As a result our new policy states: Parents are expected to contact the school before 8.30am on the first day of absence and each subsequent absence using our attendance form available on the school website (contact > Attendance). Use of this form is strongly encouraged but in exceptional circumstances if this is not accessible please report your child’s absence on 01865 877623. In addition to being able to see your child’s attendance you can now also update your contact details directly in your MyChildAtSchool account. Term 6 finishes on Wednesday July 24th at 12:15pm. Thanks again for your ongoing support.
Sixth Form News
Alumni Day - Friday 12th July On Friday 12th July We welcomed back 14 former students who left our school between 5 to 10 years ago . I am so grateful to our ex- students. They all produced a short video of their life from the start of sixth form to now and then came in for the day to talk to our students about their very different experiences. It was a very gratifying to be part of this and observe the interactions. We have been running this event for a number of years and it is a great privilege to see the progress our former students have made and how their journey can contribute to our present students' decisions for the future. Reading and Oxford Brookes University All of Year 12 visited Reading or Oxford Brookes University for their respective open days in June. This was an opportunity to experience a campus university and a city university to see what each has to offer. There were a wide variety of different activities taking place and the feedback from students was very positive. Sixth Form Induction We welcomed over 120 Year 11 students to our induction day on 20th June, where they were able to experience each of their chosen subjects and talk to current students about the Sixth Form. We have also had applications from 25 students currently attending other schools for our Sixth Form. We look forward to welcoming them in September as we continue to see growth in our numbers from 150 just a few years ago to possibly around 230 next year. Year 13 Leavers We had our final goodbye at The Oxford Retreat on 24th June in a relaxed atmosphere of food, drink, Euro 2024 and conversation. We wish all of our Year 13 the best of luck as they move onto university, apprenticeships, gap years and employment. Futures Day Year 12 have been considering their futures after sixth form and to help them in this we have had 3 Universities in to talk to them, (Oxford, Sheffield and Portsmouth), 2 apprenticeship providers (Nielsens and EY) where we have former students who came in to share their experience, and a gap year provider. The hard work of applying is now their priority. Work experience All of Year 12 will be out of school for the last full week of term gaining vital experience with various employers across the county, country and beyond even as far as The Seychelles! Mr G West Head of Sixth Form Pre-general elections talk As Starmer and Sunak went head to head and hopeful political candidates up and down the country geared up for the 4th of July, preparations at Wheatley were also well underway for the general election. Members of staff spoke about key concepts such as constituencies, political parties and the history of democracy on the new Wheatley Park General Election Podcast, which (aside from needing a catchier name) was made available to students in bitesized episodes in the run up to the election. The sixth form were lucky enough to also watch an interview and take part in a Q&A session with local candidate Caroline Newton who spoke about how important it was to engage with the political world and how she ended up playing her part in it. And, as the country turned out to vote on election day, so did Wheatley Park. Students took part in a shadow election on 4th of July (if they chose to) at mock poll stations across the school site. The results were interesting - not just in terms of which party received the most votes but also in terms of voter turnout; the year group with the highest turnout was the Sixth Form (79%) which might have been in part thanks to their Q&A with Caroline Newton. Overall, the results somewhat mirrored those on the national level: The General Election provided students with the opportunity to learn more about Britain’s politics, developing their ability to make educated, well informed decisions about important matters. Not only is this skill an invaluable one, it also puts the country in very safe hands for the future. Tomos Hawkins, Year 12
Sixth Form News cont.
The Labour Party
34.6%
Liberal Democrat
21.3%
Green Party
17.4%
Reform UK
13.7%
The Conservative Party
3.9%
Workers Party of Britain
2.6%
The Social Democrat Party
1.4%
Summer News Update from the ECO Group
We have focused this term on nature. During May and June we had two successful talks from speakers who kindly gave their time to tell us about what free places we can visit in our local community and how we can get involved in projects to protect wildlife. Howe Trustees - Maggie Fyffe, Wendy Stanton and Tim Dixon gave a lunchtime talk in May to a group of interested students. The Howe estate is a local area that is open to all. It encompasses a range of habitats including fields, hedgerows, ponds and woodland. We learnt that the Howe trust has been working to restore the natural areas using well researched methods of low intensity intervention and careful management. For example having sheep to graze the fields, reducing the cutting regime of hedgerows and filling gaps and among other actions they have just restored two ponds. The most exciting thing we learnt was that everyone can use the Howe trust areas. From the allotments to the fields, all are welcome to walk / run / fly kites or whatever suits the area. The Howe are producing a map to help local people better understand where they can go and how to get on to these areas of land, but their website also has a series of photographs of these locations. We had a second talk from Sustainable Wheatley who came in and gave a presentation on where they have worked to make sure that there is enough habitat for populations of bats and where they have cleared paths, so that people can have a place to walk in the nature reserve under the old railway bridge. We also found out about the great things that go on locally like the Wheatley Swap Shop, next open in September at the Merry Bells. A chance to drop off unwanted items and later pick up anything from clothing to toys to household items for free. At school a group of students have been looking at nature across the site with me this term. We have done some pond dipping (in the Moat) and found many different species thriving; hundreds of water mites, some waterlice, a water spider, water boatmen, diving beetles, water scorpion, and at least 4 types of larva of damsel and dragonflies and an unusual (as yet unidentified) larva. We were pleased to see how few items of litter there were in the moat. Specifically we saw NO plastic bottles in the moat. This is testimony to the great work of a) the Year 7s and 8s who have been litter picking on Thursday and Friday mornings and b) the efforts of everyone who buys and uses the drinks bottles sold at the food outlets on site to recycle their bottles. A huge THANK YOU to everyone who has recycled this term you have saved some of the earth's resources, and I hope you gained from the CASH for TRASH scheme we have in place whilst doing so. A group of helpful Year 7s, 8s and 9s took part in the Meadow site survey last week. This involved teaching a quick bit of ecology and getting students to identify plant species and, with the help of some kind staff giving up their time to support us, we managed to note down data from 35 quadrats. This is a decent sized study for the area and we found that although our species diversity index did not increase since last time we did actually see a number of new species in the meadow including those pictured (Black Medic, Rag Wort, ). Everyone was also introduced to the brilliantly named Timothy grasses! Next year we will be again focused on trying to make the site litter free, and will do more sessions on making the meadow an area of greater diversity. In September we’ll let you know how you can sign up to get involved. Ms Chanarin, School Sustainability Lead
Arts Department News
Drama A new Drama club for Years 7 - 10 has been highly successful this term. The students are creating pieces of drama in a range of genres including murder mystery and comedy using scripts and improvisations as a starting point. Art We held our Art and Design Exhibition down in The Old House on Friday 5th July, which included displays of our A Level Art and Photography work, as well as GCSE Art and Textiles. It was a really fantastic evening and lovely to see students and families getting time to look at all the brilliant work that has taken place this year. Year 8 Year 8 students have been studying repeat patterns and natural forms. As part of this students took natural form photographs, focusing on composition, angle, lighting and zoom. Here are a selection of some of the excellent photos they took. Well done Year 8!
Arts Department News cont.
Library News
Library News cont.
Mr Martin’s Book Raffle Students have taken part in Mr Martin’s Book Raffle all year. The most recent winners are in Years 10 and 12. Congratulations to Melba Manyumbu, Tyler Livingstone, Neve Wilson and Archie Bearchell who won a copy of the book ‘Happy Head’ by Josh Silver. Congratulations also to Simon Galvonoskis, Lewis Holton, Polina Leonenko and Ryley Ray who have won either ‘All the Light We Cannot See’ by Anthony Doerr or ‘A Dark Inheritance’ by H.F. Askwith. We hope they enjoy reading these books. Years 7 & 8 Book Club We have enjoyed meeting every fortnight to discuss and share ideas about the books we are reading. As a group we have recently finished reading ‘Scare Me’ by Teri Terry, a ghostly thriller. It had a twist at the end that we weren’t expecting. We recommend it if you enjoy supernatural mysteries. We are now reading ‘I Must Betray You’ by Ruta Sepetys. This is a fascinating book set during the 1980s in Romania, during the time leading up to the revolution. Ruta Sepetys has written some very popular and thoughtful historical books. They are well worth looking at. New members of the Book Club are welcome. Year 9 & 10 Book Club We have recently finished reading ‘Gwen & Art are Not in Love’ by Lex Croucher, a humorous and imaginative story set amongst the myth and legend of King Arthur, and ‘All That’s Left in the World, by Erik J Brown, a dystopian novel about courage, hope and humanity. We are now reading a Victorian classic, ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ by Oscar Wilde. We will be finishing this gothic horror over the summer holidays. New members of the Book Club are welcome. Year 7 Celebrating Reading - Term 6 Year 7 have been creative with some of their favourite reads, making new book covers, writing poems and illustrations. It was great to see so many wonderful pieces. Congratulations to Zakia Zaidi, David Nightingale, and Lilian Zen-Aloush who have won prizes for their artistic interpretations of books. Also Annalise Beadman, Leo Brandish and Ollie Smith for their great poems based on books they have enjoyed. Here is a snippet from Ollie’s poem about the very popular series, ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ - “a chronicle of struggles, of trials and tries, of middle school woes, of social pretence and lies” … “of embarrassment, of awkwardness in disguise, of growing up, of learning to compromise”. Year 7 have also been writing Book Reviews for a Summer Reading List and to share with Year 6 in September. Their Recommended Reads will be sent out to Year 7 families at the end of Term 6.
Year 9 enjoyed a trip to Cardiff Bay to consider sustainability and regeneration of the docklands. Our walk around the bay highlighted Cardiff’s global connections e.g. BBC filming locations, international naval forces and ports and the change Cardiff had experienced. We also appreciated ice creams on the barrage while overlooking the bay! Finally we explored the Welsh Parliament building (Senedd) discussing the Welsh government’s approach to climate. Year 8 cricket The Year 8s' First fixture was against Lord Williams, at WPS, on 18th June. Great performance all round with 8 different bowlers getting in on the action. Many bowlers picked up wickets but a special shout out goes to Henry Ainger-Jones who picked up 3 wickets. WPS managed to bowl LWS for 59 in 17 overs, which then set WPS a target of 60 for WPS to win. Some great batting performances all round again, with WPS managing to get the target within 15 overs and 6 wickets to spare. Congratulations to the students who represented the school: Nathan Peacock, Addittya Nair, Henry Ainger-Jones, Finley Spooner, Josh Lamb, Aleks Edwards, Pavlos Pavlides, Standley Timms, Arthur Hill, Tom Easdale, Adan Hanif and Mohammed Tariq. The Year 8s' second fixture was against Oxford Spiers Academy at WPS, on 19th June. The team seemed to attack the game from the off and produced some stellar performances from all the batsmen. Special mention must go to Nathan Peacock and Pavlos Pavlides, who together managed to hit 143 between them, with Nathan hitting 78 runs and Pav hitting 65 runs respectively. WPS set Spiers a target of 177 to win which was a huge ask. Many bowlers for WPS picked up wickets but a special shout out to Jackson Ball who picked up 2 wickets in his first competitive cricket match and crucially bowled out the opponents key man. WPS managed to bowl Spiers out for 117 and won the match by 59 runs. Well done to the students who represented the school: Nathan Peacock, Addittya Nair, Henry Ainger-Jones, Finley Spooner, Josh Lamb, Aleks Edwards, Pavlos Pavlides, Stanley Timms, Arthur Hill, Tom Easdale, Adan Hanif and Jackson Ball. The Year 8s entered a 6s cricket tournament at Aston Rowant. This is a shortened version of cricket, where only 4 overs are bowled per innings and batters retire when they hit 25. The teams were split into pools playing 2 different games in each pool. They started out with a narrow loss in their first game but picked up things in the second game winning by a comfortable margin. Then they went through to a 3rd place playoff where they demolished the opposition, with some standout performances from Nathan Peacock, Pavlos Pavlides and Additya Nair. Big shout out to the students who represented the school: Nathan Peacock, Addittya Nair, Henry Ainger-Jones, Finley Spooner, Josh Lamb, Aleks Edwards and Pavlos Pavlides. Rounders Year 7 played against 7 South Oxfordshire schools at the are Rounders tournament. They showed improved game knowledge and teamwork as they applied their skills into a competitive situation. Players of the match were spread between nearly all of them. Well played all. Year 9 has a great tradition in the South Oxfordshire Rounders tournament. This year was no exception! They were placed a close 3rd out of 7 schools. It had to go to a count back on rounders scored as it was so close. Well done all! Athletics Quad Kids Year 7 had 2 teams entered into the South Oxfordshire Quad Kids. They encouraged and supported each other really well through all four events and came out as South Champions! They are off to the Oxfordshire School Games Final! Congratulations to all athletes. Super 6s These students put on a display of incredible teamwork to ensure they kept themselves in contention for medal places despite some setbacks. Proud doesn’t come close when you really see the students embracing the school values beyond the school setting. The girls placed 6th in their competition and the boys came 1st in theirs, but it was their combined points score that placed them as a team 1st overall - that’s the difference teamwork makes! South Oxon Athletics A team of 60 students represented Wheatley Park at the South Oxfordshire Athletics competition. A great team effort with some amazing individual performances. Team results were: Year 7 boys - 1st Year 7 girls - 4th Year 8/9 boys - 1st Year 8/9 girls - 2nd Year 10 boys - 5th Year 10 girls - 3rd Toplink Our annual Toplink event took place on what perhaps was the one day of summer we had! The heat didn’t deter our wonderful visiting students from taking part in team building activities in the morning before splitting into their team events of cricket, tag rugby, rowing and basketball. Our student leadership team prepared some wonderful opportunities to allow the students to get to know each other, meet new faces and have their first taste of the sporting experience at WPS. We were super proud of all students taking part and leading throughout the day. Sports Day This year’s Sports Day was a huge success with every pupil participating to gain points for their form. All pupils threw the javelin, shot putt and did a long jump to create a form total distance. Despite the slightly inclement weather all pupils gave each event a go and worked hard keeping spirits high. At the end of the day a huge number of pupils signed up for the 1500m to accrue even more points for their form by completing the distance without stopping. With improved weather on Thursday, DJ Lawrence spun the tracks and led the dancing as the pupils competed in the various distance races in front of their peers. We had some tremendous races and outstanding individual performance. These points were added to the field events results to give the following final standings.
The first part of the trip we went to visit Lulworth Cove, we trekked down a long passage, which although was definitely tiring coming back up, it was worth it to see the beautiful cove. This was definitely one of my favourite parts of the trip because of how breathtaking the area was. Rhitika
GCSE Geographers have been involved in a multitude of field trips this term … Year 10 visited Swanage and Lulworth Cove to investigate coastal processes and attempts to protect against erosion damaging the coast. We enjoyed a walk along the cliff and some ice cream and fish and chips on the beach front, alongside collecting data, such as beach profiles, interviews and environmental quality surveying.
Summer term Geography Field Trips
We had time to split into groups and ask the locals questions. It was fun as you had to step out of your comfort zone a bit but it was still enjoyable’ Maya.
Swanage was very beautiful (and my favourite part of the trip) and overall I enjoyed the trip thoroughly and would definitely recommend!’ Jess C
Year 11 Ball photographs
Year 7 Camp - photograph around the campfire
ParkFest 2024
Key Stage 3 Awards
On Saturday 20th July Wheatley Park School held the 1st ever ParkFest, which was a resounding success enjoyed by all, celebrating the school community.
Year 9
Sports News
Sports News cont.
Year 7
THU 22/8/24 GCSE RESULTS DAY 9am-11am
THU 15/8/24 GCE A/AS LEVEL RESULTS DAY Year 13: 8am-11am Year 12: 9am-11am
THU 05/09/23 START OF TERM for all students
For the full calendar please refer to our website or follow this link: https://www.wheatleypark.org/index.php/parents/calendar
KEY UPCOMING DATES
WED 24/07/24 END OF TERM 6 12.15pm
WED 4/9/24 START OF TERM for Years 7, 10, 12, 13
MON 2/9/24 STAFF INSET DAY 1 TUE 3/9/24 STAFF INSET DAY 2