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WOODCOTE
WWW.WOODCOTEHIGH.COM
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Happy Easter Everyone!

In This Issue...
Headteacher’s Welcome
Dates for your Diary
Football Results
Easter Egg Competition
Dance at Fairfield Halls
LMC Renovations
PTFA News
Mock Results Assembly
We’ve been Tweeting
Playing Amongst the Best
Team work makes...
STEM Week
A Good Year for Rugby
Netball Results
ISSUE 09 MARCH 2016 WOODCOTE PRESS

HEADTEACHER’S
welcome
We’re Bottom of the Table!
It’s just not something we are used to!
Woodcote has always been up there in the top
echelons of Croydon Schools.
GCSE performance, achievement in the English
Baccalaureate, levels of progress in English and
Maths, sporting achievement and in other areas,
we have always done well and are often head and
shoulders above others.
However, earlier this year the Educational
Funding Agency released a league table which
was very bitter sweet to everyone at Woodcote
High School. The school’s efficiency metric
showed us to be both at the top and at the
bottom of a table respectively.
“How can this be?” “I hear you say!”
Well, in terms of Croydon Schools, Woodcote
provides the best value for money because the
outstanding results we deliver cost the tax payer
far less per qualification than almost every school
in Croydon. In other words, we do more for less!
Looking at the table another way though reveals
a very different picture.
The amount of funding that each school in
Croydon get varies radically. Woodcote is in the
bottom two schools for funding it receives. The
Croydon funding formula means that the highest
funded school gets almost double the funding of
the lowest.
amongst secondary schools in Croydon.
Being at the bottom of the funding table means
that we are unable to do some of the fabulous
things that we have done in the past, without a
little support.
Traditionally we have offered an enormous
amount of support to our year 11 and 13 students
in the run up to their examinations in terms of
after school and holiday revision, as well as study
skills workshops and even some residential
revision courses.
There is no way we would want to cut back on all
of this support, so this year we are asking parents
for voluntary contributions towards the cost of
holiday revision and study skills workshops. Of
course, we don’t like having to do this and we
would never turn students away from revision
sessions, but we feel that most of our supportive
parents would be happy to contribute to these
activities, which are so worthwhile in preparing
our young people for external examinations. Of
course, it goes without saying that if individual
circumstances make it difficult to contribute we
will ensure that this is no barrier to students
attending the activities.
Mark A Southworth
Headteacher
It is fair that schools with more disadvantaged
backgrounds or with English as a second
language, should receive more, but the
table highlights some of the real funding issues

DATES FOR YOUR
Diary
25th March
28th March
29th March -
8th April
11th April
14th April
2nd May
9th May
16th May
27th May -
6th June
14th June
22nd June
23rd June
14th July
21st July
22nd July
Good Friday
Easter Monday
Easter Holiday
Easter Holiday
Students Arrive at 8.25am
Academic Review Day
Bank Holiday
Parents’ Think Tank
Exam Period Begins
Half Term Begins
Students Arrive at 8.25am
Praise & Awards Evening
Art Exhibition
Sports Awards Evening
Sports Day (TBC)
Trips Day
End of Summer Term

Football
Report
Quarter Final
ESFA National
Cup
Despite some good play by our students
Langley School’s number 10’s first goal
presented Woodcote with an uphill
task. We then tucked in a second early
in the second half with 2 more goals
in the second half effectively ending
Woodcote’s hopes of reaching the last
four in England.
The visitors managed to weather the
storm for most part of the first half –
defending well from a very high quality
attacking side in Langley. The deadlock
was finally broken after a bombardment
of shots on goal, first blocked by
Hinton, second drawing a fine save
from Wallington which was then
followed up with the ball hitting the
woodwork, just as Woodcote thought
the danger was over, Woodcote were
dispossessed and unfortunately
conceded a penalty, number 10 stepped
up 1-0 Langley!
Moments after the in-form striker then
added a second, which looked to have
put the tie to bed; however Woodcote
still stuck at it reverting to a 4-5-1
formation. This new look to Woodcote
enabled them to contain Langley better
with Lolu and Jasper coming close to
scoring, unfortunately lacking their
usual sharpness.
Woodcote’s determination and
attitude towards the game in the second
half was fantastic with everyone putting
in 100%. A 4-0 defeat but something
the boys will take away and learn from
which will prove invaluable in their
search for the treble (League, Croydon
Cup and Surrey Cup).
WOODCOTE
HIGH SCHOOL
YEAR 10&11
REVISION SKILLS
WORKSHOP
THURSDAY 14TH APRIL 2016
WWW.WOODCOTEHIGH.COM
020 8668 6464
ENQUIRIES@WOODCOTEHIGH.COM
A fantastic opportunity has arisen for our year 10 & 11 students to participate in a revision skills and
study workshop with national expert Kevin Hayes. The workshop will cover revision techniques,
study skills and tips and hints to prepare for this summer’s GCSE exam season in a funny, relaxed
but thought-provoking session.
GUEST EDUCATIONAL SPEAKER KEVIN HAYES
STUDY & REVISION SKILLS AND ATTITUDE TO WORK SESSIONS
Kevin has been working with people on personal development since 1990, in
corporate, academic and health care settings. He has Psychotherapy training.
He has been training in schools, colleges and universities around the
country since 1995. Kevin’s life & work experience gives him clear insight
and understanding of the important aspects of human beings being human.
Students can apply to attend one of four 1 hour 30 minute sessions
8.30am - 10.00am
10.15am - 11.45am
12.15pm - 1.45pm
2.00pm - 3.30pm
Places are limited on each course and will be allocated on a first come first served basis.
There will be a £3 charge* for each session and workshop places can be booked on wisepay through the
school website www.woodcotehigh.com (look under ticket and event bookings).
*This is a voluntary contribution. If you wish to attend and feel due to your circumstances that you are unable to contribute then please contact Mr Deale on r.deale@woodcotehigh.com

Woodcote
Dancers
Creeping
Across
The Stage
At
Fairfield
Halls
Each year a group of dancers from all across the
schools in Croydon put together a dance to
perform at the Croydon Schools’ Dance
Association Concert at Fairfield Halls. Each school
can do whatever dance they like as long as they fit
the theme provided. Previous themes have included
technology, quotes and science. This year the
theme was literature, which we used to inspire our
dance based on The Woman in Black.
Twelve dancers in total performed a scary and
spooky piece choreographed by a group of girls
in year 11. It was an extremely successful show at
Fairfield Halls this year.
GCSE Easter Revision
Tuesday 29th March to Friday 8th April
In the run up to the 2016 GCSE exam season we are delighted to be able to
offer Year 11 students a full programme of revision sessions covering both
GCSE and vocational programmes.
To cover the expenses of putting on this comprehensive programme each
session will cost £2.50*; however, a discounted price of £25 will be available
for a Revision Pass which will cover the entire 9 day period.
Places are available to book on wisepay through the school website
www.woodcotehigh.com (look under ticket and event bookings).
Please sign up quickly as places will be allocated on a first come first
serve basis.
*This is a voluntary contribution. If you wish to attend and feel due to your circumstances that you are unable to contribute then please contact Mr Deale on r.deale@woodcotehigh.com

LMC
Renovations
The idea behind “Project LMC” was to promote
reading by creating a comfortable, more welcoming
area for students and classes to come and enjoy this
pastime.
The new, modern, low book cases have enabled us to
make students aware of what a fantastic book
collection we actually have by displaying old and new
books in a more attractive and encouraging way and
most importantly the books are more accessible to
everyone, especially our mobility students. The
project was funded through a range of fund raising
activities and contributions from the PTFA and the
Jack Petchey Foundation. It has taken over a year to be
completed and could not have been successful without
the help of several people who went out of their way to
make the project achievable.
Our acknowledgement and thanks go to the following
people who helped make the completion of the project
possible:
The Parents Association (a big thank you as they
kindly donated £1,050), Site Officers, particularly
Mr Palmer (who dismantled and erected the old book
cases, which was a mammoth job), Jack Petchey
Foundation (grant towards comfy chairs and new
books), Mrs Bolton, Hayley’s grandma (for knitting
mobile sock cases to sell), Mrs Puttock (surveying
advice), The Parents (for making cakes and biscuits
to sell), Leah Year 9, Leyla Year 13 (for giving up their
time to sort books), all the LMC Monitors (for
bringing in cakes and sorting books), Year 10 Students
Poppy, Lauren, Sophie, Adi, Katy, Ryan, Paige, Sarah,
Year 7 and 8 students Ayla, Ela, Charlotte, Tianna,
Eleanor (who all came in half term to organise the
books and get the area ready), Tianna and Charlotte (a
particular mention as they came in early and
sometimes worked late nearly every day during half
term), Sam and Ryan (for scanning old books to sell
on webuybooks.com resulting in a £126 profit)
The nominations of the house competition to name
Woodcote’s new reading area were:
Book Nook - Mrs Payne, Holmes House
Paradise City Book Lounge – Charlotte, Thompson
House
Star Books – Kimisha, Moore House
Reading Lounge – Charlotte, Thompson House
Bookworm City – Aretha, Redgrave House
Comfy Corner – Keerthana, Thompson House
A final decision was made to name it the ‘Reading
Lounge’.

Congratulations to Skye on winning the PTFA Easter
Egg. Skye’s named was picked out of a hat by
Mrs Bulley on Monday 21st March. It also happened to
be Skye’s Birthday that day.
Happy Belated 16th Birthday and Congratulations.

Mock
Results
Assembly
For some it was a day to rejoice, all their hard work
had paid off. For some it was a stark realisation of
what they need to do in the next couple of months.
In order to inspire the somewhat demotivated
students and to continue driving the already
motivated, Miss Rutledge arranged for a guest
speaker to come in, namely Talan Skeels Piggins,
GB Paralympic SKIER. His story is that of not just
success and achievement but also struggle and
perseverance.
The assembly was a great success. The students that
needed it were supported and interventions put in
place to help improve ahead of the summer.
Others were rewarded and helped to focus on
how to improve even further.
Let’s hope for more happy faces and tears of joy in
the summer.

What have we been
Tweeting about...

Playing
Amongst the
Best
In February, Woodcote High travelled to Thomas
More to compete in a volleyball tournament to
determine who would represent Croydon at the
London Youth Games.
After three eventful matches, Woodcote A topped
the results table followed in close second by
Woodcote B. This meant that Woodcote would
represent Croydon in the London Youth Games.
So, on the 4th of March we travelled up to the
University of East London. Our expectations were
not high as we knew we would be competing
against the best in London who train every week,
compared to our only training session an hour the
day before.
However, after the first 2 matches we were
pleasantly surprised as we found out that we had
made it to the next round, and if we won we would
make it to the semi-finals. Unfortunately, we just
missed out on a place in the semi-finals after two
gruelling matches. However, it was a great experience
as we had the chance to represent our borough,
Croydon, and play volleyball amongst some
of the best players in London.
Team Work makes the Dream Work
Both netball teams have attended every
single training session this year and
been committed to improving in each
match.
There is actually enough year 8's to fill
3 teams with the amount of girls that
come to training. All credit goes to
them and their captains for all the hard
work this season.
Year 8 A and B netball teams both
finished first in their league and came
2nd and 3rd in the Croydon Schools’
tournament respectively.
Woodcote High School’s
2016 PRAISE &
AWARDS EVENING
TUESDAY 14TH JUNE
7PM - 8.30PM
TICKETS
AVAILABLE VIA WISEPAY
OR SEE MRS NICHOLLS
A team captain Polly
B team captain Sophie
LIcensed bar available

exciting demo competition – DEMOlition –
between Mr. Gibbons and Mr. Goodwin. It proved
to be very popular, with the corridors of the science
block packed with excited students, with some even
trying to sneak a glimpse of the action from outside
on the field! Mr. Gibbons and Mr. Goodwin took it in
turns to show off their best explosive demos, but in
the end, Mr. Goodwin was the 2016 demo champion,
beating Mr. Gibbons in the final round with his
explosive bottle of hydrogen and oxygen.
fire and element cupcakes!
After school, Miss. Miller and Mr. Goodwin opened
the doors of the Year 7 Science Club to all year groups,
where students were able to enjoy some optical
illusions and methane bubbles.
The penultimate week of term has been an exciting one
at Woodcote, with the Technology and Science
departments celebrating National Science and
Engineering Week with a range of activities from
building challenges and gory dissection, to loud bangs,
On Monday 14th, Mr. Hewitt hosted a number of Year
7 students in a bridge making activity, where students
demonstrated excellent enthusiasm and knowledge
about what makes a successful engineering project.
The group involved created a very successful bridge
using 98 of the 100 lollipop sticks provided, with their
design managing to hold every weight during testing!
Very Well Done!
Not one for the squeamish, Tuesday lunchtime was
host to Mrs. Smee’s gory eyeball dissection workshop,
with students across the year groups joining in to
carefully take apart the intricate components of a
sheep’s eyeball…
On the Wednesday, Mrs Slade
continued the fun with a
catapult competition. Several
students from Year 7 – 10 got
into teams of 4 with the
challenge of building a
catapult out of card, elastic
bands and masking tape, to
propel a glider. The students
took this challenge on and
were really positive! Working
together, they produced 4 different styles of catapults
and 4 gliders. Teams A, B, C and D took to the
corridor outside DT2 and tested each catapult and
glider.
Well done to all of the teams that took part, it was a
difficult challenge to take on in just an hour. But big
congratulations to Team A! Their glider went the
furthest, a good metre and half! Well done!!
Thursday was a very busy day of celebration, with the
The day ended with the Science and Technology Café,
with the centre of attention being the periodic table
of cupcakes – 108 cupcakes for the different elements!
The cupcakes were made over two evenings by a
number of students from Year 7 up to and including
the 6th Form, supported by Science and Technology
teachers and led by Ms. Bailey.
The last day of the celebrations will see students
turning sticky glue into gloopy slime with Miss. Essex.
It’s been a really fun week, with lots of students getting
involved – some have attended all activities!
Thank you to all who came along, and a special thanks
to all those who supported or led activities during the
week and made it a successful and enjoyable week.
Bring on National Science and Engineering Week
2017!
Contribution by
Mrs. Slade, Mr. Hewitt and Miss. Price

Year 7a Netball team finished 1st in their tournament
7a team finished 2nd in the league
7b team finished 3rd in the league
Year 9 netball team finish 1st in the Croydon Schools’ Netball
tournament and are runners up in the Croydon league
A Good Year for Rugby
Rugby has really taken off with participation this year
both with the girls and the boys! Our Year 7 students
have been fantastic and the Year 8’s have shown real
commitment to Rugby despite their lack of fixtures.
The girls’ training sessions have also been brilliant
and many of them have begun to play for Chipstead.
Niamh and Katherine have stood out and now
represent Surrey!
been asked to trial with Harlequins! The team’s
highlight of the year so far has been the combined
Year 7 and 8 win over the Dunnottar School at Reigate
RFC, where all the boys put in a fantastic performance
to win 65-5. However, we are all looking forward to
our crunch varsity match with The Beacon School up
at Chipstead Rugby club. A good year for Rugby and
hopefully many more to come! Come on Woodcote!
Our Year 7 boys have done very well at our Croydon
Schools tournaments and Byron, Levi and Rohan have

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Meadow Rise, Coulsdon, Surrey, CR5 2EH
020 8668 6464
www.woodcotehigh.com
Woodcote High School is an exempt charity and a company limited by guarantee, registered
in England with Company Number 08053276 and has a registered office at
Woodcote High School, Meadow Rise, Coulsdon, CR5 2EH