Weekly Bulletin – Week 6

What a busy week we’ve had again with year 7. The MacMillan Coffee Morning last Friday was a tremendous success and I would like to offer my thanks to all those Year 7 students who bought baked goodies and cakes to school and to you for purchasing tokens so that your child could choose to buy something from the wonderful array of tasty treats. We raised an incredible £2,465.04, almost triple what was raised last year!

In tutor time Year 7 continue to demonstrate great presentation skills during show and tell; it has been lovely to see the interesting topics they have been sharing with their form. They have also carried on making tissue paper flowers to support the school production of My Fair Lady. This week Ms. Clarke announced the exciting opportunity for Year 7 to take part in auditions to be part of this school production. These will take place at lunch on Friday 24th October. All details can be found on tutor group google classrooms.

Well done to the Year 7/8 Football team who played their first league match on Thursday after school against Hampton High (scores to follow next week). We have our second league match next Monday at home v Turing House. Good luck!

Congratulations to 7PRE who are currently top of the tutor group Epraise leaderboard. They are closely followed by 7SSN in second place and 7EVA in 3rd. Keep working hard to earn Epraise points as points do make prizes!

Next week sees the first Drop Down Day of the year. On Wednesday, Year 7 will come into school to take part in The Lion King: Getting Ready To Roar activities to learn about the wide range of highly skilled professionals required to put on a live performance. They will consider how many employability skills are common to many jobs and the students will reflect on their life experience. They will then identify these skills to help them write a job application to join the company of the Lion King. After this we will travel to the West End to watch the stage production of The Lion King. What an exciting day this is going to be!

Please can you continue to encourage your child to take part in the Readathon ‘Read for Good’ activity. We would like Year 7 to read as much as possible over the month of October and collect sponsorship money for doing so.

A reminder about Pink Day which will take place on Friday 24 October. We will be encouraging students in Year 7 to come to school dressed in Pink and make a donation to charity in return for doing so. Donations can be made via the relevant link in your Parent Pay account. All proceeds raised will be split between Cancer Research and CoppaFeel breast cancer charities. We’ll end the half-term in a blaze of pink!

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Bashford-Hynes, Head of Year 7

This week we held an assembly to emphasise the importance of regular attendance. Linking it to the inspiring success of the Women’s England World Cup winners—showing students how dedication, commitment, and showing up every day can lead to achieving great things.

This week we held a fire drill and the whole year group behaved very well, lining up in silence while waiting for the registers to be done. We are very proud of their efforts.

So far this term Year 8 have already accrued more than 3,500 Epraise points! Congratulations to 8FLY who are currently topping the tutor group Epraise leaderboard. They are closely followed by 8ESU and 8PCO in second and third places. Keep up the hard work Year 8!

Next Wednesday 15 October we are holding this term’s Drop Down Day. Year 8 will be off timetable and taking part in African cultural activities including African dance and drumming lessons, paper bead making and traditional art styles. It is a really fun day and a great way to get immersed in another culture.  

Please can you continue to encourage your child to take part in the Readathon ‘Read for Good’ activity. We would like Year 8 to read as much as possible over the month of October and collect sponsorship money for doing so.

Have a lovely weekend!

Ms M Rook, Head of Year 8

It has been another fantastic week for Year 9! We have seen great focus in lessons and continue to hear some really positive feedback from tutors and subject teachers. We had a fire drill in school this week and year 9 was exemplary throughout – well done!

Our top three Epraise forms this week are as follows: 9PIR, 9PAH and 9EBH. Topping our Epraise individual leaderboard this week Mabel J 9EBH, Eleanor P 9PAH and Ava R 9PAH so very well done to them – keep it up! It is wonderful to see Year 9 demonstrating the enjoy, achieve and empower aspects of school life and continuing to accumulate well earned Epraise points.

Well done to the Year 9 Netball Team who played against Orleans Park School they lost 26 – 5 but it was a great game and experience for all who took part – the camaraderie and teamwork displayed in this match was exemplary. Well done girls! Well done must go to Jasmine and Tilda who were awarded Players of the Match.

Well done to everyone who helped raise over £2,500 in our MacMillan Cake Sale on Friday. It was a truly successful example of the school coming together as a community. 9PAH were decorating cupcakes to add to the sale during form time and some of their toppings were very imaginative.

Please can you continue to encourage your child to take part in the Readathon ‘Read for Good’ activity. We would like Year 9 to read as much as possible over the month of October and collect sponsorship money for doing so.

Next week we have our Autumn Term Drop Down Day which is focused around GCSE Options. This is a wonderful opportunity for students to sample subjects and experience aspects of the KS4 curriculum.

A reminder about punctuality. We do recommend that students arrive at school at 8:30 to allow 5 minutes to get to their form time. Form time starts at 8:35 and we do expect students to be punctual for that. We appreciate your support with this at home.

Thank you for all your support and here’s to another busy week at Waldegrave!

Mrs N Lyddon

This week we focused on thinking about lessons we can learn from the older generation. During our assembly on Wednesday, Year 10 were asked to sit down with an older person (Grandparent, relative, friend, neighbor) in their life for 30 minutes. Put their phone away, ask one of these questions, and really listen. The questions are as follows:

What decision changed the course of your life?

What do you wish you’d worried less about?

What’s something you’re still learning about yourself?

Who was the most influential person in your life and why?

We are going to follow this up in a tutor time in a couple of weeks and see what our Year 10s learnt from speaking to an older person in their lives.

The Globe Players came into Waldegrave yesterday to perform ‘An Inspector Calls’ from the GCSE English syllabus. The production was excellent and it was great for students to be able to see this in performance. This will all be very useful for their GCSE knowledge!

I would like to celebrate all students with their recent first mini practice assessments in their new GCSE subjects. I have been so impressed with their focus and diligence with their revision and have been pleased to hear form teachers about how proud they are.

Our top Epraise forms for Year 10 this week are 10SAN, 10POR and 10FCO and in total Year 10 has earned 274 Epraise points this week. Well done everyone and keep up the hard work!

Next week we have Drop Down Day when Year 10 will all be involved in the Speak Out Jack Petchey challenge. If you would like more information on this then please take a look at their website here.

The session will culminate in a showcases of selected Year 10 speakers who will be chosen from their English classes. We would love it if you spoke to your child/ren about this over the weekend and encouraged them to think about a topic they may want to speak about – this can be anything which they feel passionate about.

Happy weekend.

Mrs O Mortimer

This week was a very exciting week as we had the Globe Players performing productions of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth for the Year 11 students. The productions were excellent and it was great for students to be able to see this in performance. This will all be very useful for their GCSE knowledge!

Ms Salsbury also delivered a brilliant assembly on ‘Celebrating Difference’ especially focusing on autism and how it impacts young people and especially girls in day to day life. This was very powerful, especially focusing on how we can all help by ensuring that we are inclusive to all in society and educating the students on practical steps that they can do in school to be kind to those who might have hidden needs.

Well done to the Silver Duke of Edinburgh students who completed their assessed challenge over the weekend. The students were happy and positive , on their return and they seemed to have missed the worst of storm Amy. Well done to all involved. You should be really proud of yourselves!

In tutor time this week, key information was given to students about their upcoming examinations. Letters have also been sent home.

Lastly, don’t forget the Waldegrave Sixth form Open Evening is coming up on Thursday 16 October. There are 3 slots to choose from: 5-6pm, 6-7pm and 7-8pm. Don’t forget to book your tickets for this event.

It’s a great opportunity to come and talk to subject teachers and current students about life in the sixth form and the subjects students may be interested in studying at A Level.

Thank you and have a lovely weekend!

Mrs H Porteous