Press

WOODCOTE
WWW.WOODCOTEHIGH.COM
Press
Celebrating our EU Students & Staff

In This Issue...
Headteacher’s Welcome
Dates for your Diary
Praise & Awards Evening
Making the Front Page
Step into Dance
Let Your Feet Compete
Frylands Wood Activities
London Youth Games
Open Events
Summer Music Concert
Cakespeare Competition
Sports Awards Dinner
Eggciting Science
Cricketers
Basketball Festival
Daniel Spargo-Mabbs
Dance Showcase
Kew Gardens
Y11 Leavers Ball
ISSUE 10 JULY 2016 WOODCOTE PRESS

HEADTEACHER’S
welcome
Recent political events have focused the issue of
immigration under a national lens. Woodcote,
like nearly every other Greater London school,
celebrates a wonderful multicultural mix of
students and teachers.
There are over 32 different “first languages”
spoken at home, yet the vast majority of these
students speak and write fluently in English at
school.
It’s always fascinating to see how new students
with no previous experience of English pick up
language skills. In no time at all they are able
to converse fluently with their friends and feel
an integral part of the Woodcote family – ready
to learn.
It‘s saddening to read that incidents of hate
crime and racism are on the increase across the
country since 23rd June. This has not been
reflected at Woodcote or amongst youngsters
as a whole, and in many ways, recent events
have brought all our students closer together,
whichever country they come from.
We have welcomed many students from EU
countries over the years, whose parents work
locally and are fully integrated into our
community. Currently we have students from
Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy,
Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Romania.
The uncertainty following the referendum
decision to leave the EU must weigh heavily on
the minds of these families.
Whilst we as a school can do little to influence
the current political situation, we can
guarantee that we will continue to work
with each and every one of our students
to help them to achieve the best that they
can and continue to grow into adults
who contribute positively to society in a
meaningful way.
We are not an inward looking school; we
celebrate diversity in all its forms
and believe in tolerance, harmony,
acceptance and accord. We will not
accept prejudice in any form or political guise.
All our students have worked really hard for
their A Level, Btec and GCSE exams in the
summer and we are confident that when we
gather in August for the results days, we will
be able to celebrate success across our diverse
student body.
A LEVEL RESULTS - THURSDAY 18TH AUGUST
Year 13 8.30am – 1.00pm
Year 12 11.00am – 1.00pm
GCSE RESULTS – THURSDAY 25TH AUGUST
Year 11 10.00am – 1.00pm
Year 10 12 noon – 1.00pm
Good luck to you all and may I wish everyone
a happy, safe and harmonious summer break.
Mark A Southworth
Headteacher
Any uncollected results for year 13
& year 11 students are posted out
first class that day.
Any uncollected results
for year 12 & year 10
students are given to
form tutors to give out
when students return in
September.

DATES FOR YOUR
Diary
5th September INSET DAY
6th September INSET DAY
7th September Start of Autumn Term 1
Y7 ONLY 8.25am - 2.30pm
7th September Y12 Enrolment 10am-12pm noon
8th September Whole School starts 8.25am
14th September Y7&10 Photo Day
21st September
22nd September
23rd September
28th September
3rd October
4th October
5th October
20th October
Open Morning
Open Evening
Sponsored Walk
Careers Fair
Y11 GCSE Evening
Work Experience Briefing
Open Morning
6th Form Open Evening
21st October last Day of Autumn Term 1
31st October Start of Autumn Term 2
Students Arrive 8.25am

Sir Jack Petchey has not only been awarded an
OBE and CBE but was knighted in the 2016 New
Year Honors’ for services to young people in
East London and Essex through the Jack Petchey
Foundation.
Sir Jack seeks to increase young people’s
aspirations by rewarding their achievements
and encouraging them to take pride in them,
focussing on the positives rather than the
negatives and thinking of others.
The following students were awarded for many
of these attributes and presented with a gold
medallion at the Jack Petchey Presentation evening
at Fairfield Halls:
Victoria, Arian, Oliver, Ben, Sasha, Luke, Jessica,
Amaney and Joseph.
The Jack Petchey Foundation was also very
generous in donating £750 towards a motivational
trip to Frylands Activity Centre, as outlined in this
newsletter.
Thanks to the PTFA (Parents, Teacher and Friends
Association), who donated £1,200 towards new
flashing lights and a well needed, enclosed sound
and lighting booth for the technicians, we were
able to put on a more professional event this year
and for all future school events. A big thank you
to the “Techno Team”, who consisted of Mr Palmer,
Mr Samuel, Mr Harrow and Callum Year 10.
Over 100 students were presented with awards for
excellence, improvement and effort in all subjects.
Tickets were sold out, which meant the hall was
filled with over 400 students, family and friends.
entertaining performances. We were also very
privileged to have a guest speaker, Talan
Skeels-Piggins.
Talan was a Paralympic skier for Great Britain and
the world’s first paraplegic motorbike racer. He
delivered a very motivational speech regarding his
experiences, so much so,
some parents gave him a
standing ovation.
Mrs Nicholls
Mrs Nicholls
Jack Petchey Co-ordinator
Thank you to Ms Baumann, Mrs Pais, Miss
Beagle and Mr Ayles for providing some really

PTFA
Summer
and local poets, S L MacNally and John Wheeler.
The event made a healthy contribution to the
PTFA’s fundraising account. The PTFA were also
pleased to offer again, this year, free burgers to all
our new Year 7s who came along. There was also an
opportunity to pick up some nearly new uniform
from our School Uniform Stall. Local companies
donated a great range of prizes for our raffle and Ms
Bailey, alongside making all our scones, arranged
for a huge cake to be made for our Guess the Weight
Fair
The PTFA Summer Event was blessed with a
sunny day again this year.
Staff, pupils, parents and members of the
community gathered for burgers, Pimms
and candy floss, whilst watching our school
performers. The audience enjoyed Ms Beagle's
drama group perform a song from Annie and
Mrs Pais’ dance group also put on a brilliant
routine.
gymnastic groups. We were also very lucky to
have Brit School pupil and YouTube sensation,
singer Lottie Jade who had plenty of Woodcote
pupils up on their feet and joining in.
For those with a more energetic day in mind,
there was Beat the Goalie and Soak the Teacher
of the Cake stall.
Many thanks to all our helpers on the day, PTFA,
parents, staff and pupil Ambassadors. Also to our
amazing MC for the second year running, the
multi-talented Mark Aarons.
Andrea Wathern
PTFA
Alongside our talented school performers, the
audience was entertained by local jive group
dancers The Cats Whiskers, Zodiac and ACRO
put on by the ‘good sports’ in our PE Department
headed by Mr Stone. For the wordsmiths among
us, there was a poetry slam performance at
Rosie's Tea Tent, with Mrs Blair's English pupils

Step into
Dance
Let Your
Feet
Compete
Making the
front page
The Guardian Trip this year was
another roaring success as 20 year 9
students joined the prestigious offices of
the global newspaper.
We were welcomed to the Education
Centre and proceeded to create our own
newspapers based on the news of the day.
We had to choose top front page stories,
research, write and proof read before
breaking.
‘We gained a lot of
experience in approaching
it as a career.’
We were down to the wire after lunch
as we edited, sub edited and inserted
pictures for our top stories of the day.
The students were wonderfully behaved
and did the school proud with their
gripping stories and attention to detail.
17 students (years 7-11) have worked hard over
the last term rehearsing with our ‘Step into Dance’
teacher Tanya Russel Watson. They have been
preparing for the spring sharing at the Croydon
event held at the BRIT School. This year there
were 13 events in all over a three week period and
attended by nearly 1500 dancers in 129 pieces!
Woodcote students excelled themselves in the
dress rehearsal and thoroughly enjoyed their
performances throughout the evening too.
The dance was a medley of different dance styles
ranging from street, hip hop and dancehall styles.
The dancers performed with energy and completely
engaged the audience!! Their behaviour off stage too
was excellent.
Woodcote students will continue to learn and
improve and are hoping for an invite to the live
‘Step into Dance’ live event during the summer term.
Woodcote High School entered their Street Dance
team into a ‘Let your feet Compete’ competition run
by Croydon Schools’ Partnership.
The group worked exceptionally well to improve
and tighten their choreography. Woodcote students
received a second place runners up medal and a
school trophy from this event. Students thoroughly
enjoyed this event held at ‘Fairfield Halls’ in Croydon
on a Friday evening in June. Thank you to Mrs Shah
who supported Mrs Pais on that evening.
A huge ‘Thank You’ to Tanya Russel-Watson for all
her hard work with this group.
They were a credit to the school and it
was a brilliant experience to see where
English can lead for future careers. We are
excited to be going back again next year
and show off our eager reporting skills.
“It was really interesting to
witness a day in the life of being a
reporter and we gained a lot of
experience in approaching it as a career.”
Jade, Year 9

The sun thankfully shone on our day to
Frylands Wood Scout Camp for a day of
activities with twenty four year 10
and nine year 12 school Ambassadors.
The group were split into 4 teams ably led by
Miss Williams, Miss Osborne, Mr. Downham and
PC Lindsay and carried out four activities, which
included wall climbing, team building, an
assault course and orienteering. There were some
outstanding performances all round and the staff at
the camp commented at the end of the day on what a
pleasure it had been to have Woodcote students visit
the site.
The thing that sticks in my mind is the
hugely competitive nature of the group and the fact
that they all worked for each other as a team. They
were inspirational. Staff wise, Miss Williams got to
the top of the very high wall, Miss Osborne, followed
by our photographer, Miss Payne, scaled it with remarkable
ease and Mr. Downham took about 15 minutes…………
to go up about 3 feet!!
Student wise, Beth, who had never tried the wall
before was reluctant to do it once, actually got to the
top twice and conquered her fear of heights, whilst
Clara, who was also not too sure, got to the top with
no trouble at all in an impressive time.
Other performances of note were Megan, who
we later found out took part in the assault course
race final with a broken hand, Joe for the best
time on the same activity, Chelsie for having a
go at everything, despite recovering from an
injury and the year 12’s for keeping me amused, particular
Dhillon with his pirate impression.
A very good day all round, with only a few
injuries! Thank you Jack Petchey Foundation.
Mr Kellingley
Student Volunteer Co-ordinator

Under 15
London
Youth Games
- Handball
Building on recent successes this year, with the
London School Games, the U15 girls teamed
up with selected students from Croydon High
School to compete in the final London Youth
Games competition of the year. Girls had a
tough first game against Barking and Dagenham
winning 2-1. Kasia scored two
fantastic goals and Cristiana produced one of the
performances of the tournament in goal, so
much so, she managed to get injured making 3
major saves, which kept Barking’s number 9 at
bay.
Cristiana then later missed the remaining
group games. Up stepped Sophie to go
between the sticks. Next opponent was Waltham
Forest and the girls played excellently again with
another exceptional performance from Sophie,
this time keeping a clean sheet and breezing
past them 6-0!
Haringey were next and the girls looked to
be plain sailing again, until an extremely bad
injury for Kasia meant that she would be ruled
out of the overall competition with muscle
damage. The girls managed to soldier through
and win the match 4-1, putting them in a
promising position to qualify into the knockout
stages.
The final league match saw the girls facing
a very strong Havering side. Croydon struggled
to make the breakthrough early and saw
themselves failing behind by a goal. The
knockout stages looked to be out of reach at
this point and Croydon may have had to rely on
performances from other Boroughs to qualify.
Then within the last minute of the match, Holly
stepped up and produced a fantastic equaliser
slotting the ball comfortably into the bottom
right hand corner… GAME ON. The girls had
definitely qualified.
Even better when results in other games went
our way and the girls had actually topped the
group, which then drew us up against Richmond.
The girls fought very hard but were unable to
progress any further than the quarter-finals.
A tough loss but I was still very proud of the
girls and their performances this year. A tough
competition plagued with crucial injuries. For
some students this would be their last year to
compete in the London Youth Games for others
it is just the beginning.
Mr Ayles
Photos: Left - Hannah, Abi, Kasia, Alannah,
Jemma, Adriana, Imogen Christina & Leah at the
Copperbox Areana for the London Youth Games.
Below - The handball team at Woodcote Sports
Awards Dinner, winners of ‘Team of the Year’.

Summer
Year 7 Entry 2017
Open
Events
Open Mornings
Wednesday 21st September 2016
Wednesday 5th October 2016
9am Prompt
At 9.45am you will be brought back to the
Main Hall to hear the Headteacher’s talk,
which will finish at 10.30am.
Come to our
Open Evening
Meet the students, the teachers and
the headteacher - During the evening there will also be
two Headteacher’s talks, one at 7.00pm and one at 8.00pm
Thursday 22nd September 2016
6.30pm - 9pm
Music Concert
On Wednesday 6th July, the Music Department
held its annual Summer Music Concert. The
audience was treated to a variety of musical
performances by soloists, duos, rock bands,
choirs and percussionists, in different genres
from pupils in Years 7-11. The pupils had a
fantastic evening showing their musical skills
to an appreciative and enthusiastic audience.
Mr De Cruz-Jones led the Year 7
Percussion Ensemble and Miss
Parker performed with one of
our Year 7 flautists, Thomas. Mr
Harrow and Ms Baumann also accompanied
the pupils.
Thank you to our Head of Music, Miss Head,
for all of her support with this event.
Woodcote High School,
Meadow Rise, Coulsdon, CR5 2EH
www.woodcotehigh.com 020 8668 6464

Cakespeare
Competition
During the 2nd-6th of May, Woodcote High School
celebrated the 400 year anniversary of William
Shakespeare’s death. During Shakespeare week,
students took part in various activities such as
Shakespeare quizzes and finding out interesting
facts.
Teachers also shared their
favourite Shakespeare quotes and these
were displayed around the school.
Shakespeare week culminated in “Cakespeare”
where students had to bake and decorate a cake
inspired by the works of Shakespeare. These
were then displayed and judged in the main hall
during lunchtime.
Mr Mak’s Favourite Quote - “This above all: to
thine own self be true” William Shakespeare -
Hamlet
It was fantastic to see so many students take
part in the activities and wonderful for both
students and staff to celebrate such an
influential and prolific writer.

WOODCOTE
SPORTS AWARDS
2016
This year was the 7th Annual Sports Awards
Dinner at Purley Sports Club. Another very
successful, yet hot evening of celebration. The
students were exemplary and received awards
in recognition of their commitment, effort,
improvement or ability in particular sports.
The evening ran smoothly with slideshows
of pictures, awards and a three course
dinner, similar to what you would experience
at university, giving the students an insight
into the PE Department. This experience is
vital, as sport is a very social activity
allowing the students to dine, socialise and
celebrate an all in one evening like adults.
I would like to express my thanks to the PE
Department for supporting me in the
organisation of the evening. For my last event
it was bigger and better than ever.
Miss Rutledge

Eggciting
Science
This June Woodcote Science Department welcomed
10 new additions in the form of chickens! The eggs
and incubator arrived on the 6th June and the
hatching was eagerly awaited by both staff and
students. On Wednesday the first egg (number 7 for
those who were guessing and correctly predicted by
Mrs Smee and Mr Goodwin) was the first to hatch.
This was caught on video by Ms Payne and was
spotted on screens across the school for the next 2
weeks, much to the delight of those who missed the
event.
with only a few being pooed on! For those who
didn’t see them in lesson (or fancied helping clean
them out) Lab 8 was open before school, during
break time and after school for visitors and name
suggestions.
We were all very sad to see the chicks go to their
different homes and free range farms on the
Friday but look forward to repeating this again
next year. A massive thank you to all the staff and
students who helped out and visited us in Lab 8.
The rest of the chicks then followed in quick
succession and by Thursday at 3pm all of them had
hatched, some deciding to arrive during science
lessons. This led to many interesting questions from
the students about how they hatched and why they
were so quick to stand, despite being stepped and
sat on by their brothers and sisters.
From Mrs Smee (teacher), Eggburt, Simba,
Ghandi, Nugget, Gibbons, Chicky McChickface,
Shrek, Caramel, Elizabeth II and Dixie (chickens)
Over the next week and a half the chicks visited many
science classrooms and played an active part in the
lessons. Students had a chance to learn about their lifecycle,
genetics and variation. A few brave students
per lesson also volunteered to handle the chicks,

CricketerS
A team of 10 year 7 and 8 girls went to
Addiscombe Cricket Club to play in a Croydon
tournament. The girls had not played cricket
before and so were a little
apprehensive about their chances.
However the sun was shining and after a few
excellent catches and some amazing bowling,
especially from Katherine, we seemed to be on a
winning streak?
The girls all played extremely well in their
positions as well as some fantastic team work.
We lost narrowly in the last game meaning we
actually came second.………
runners up in Croydon for a game they have never
played before shows how committed our Woodcote
Students are to PE and sport.
Basketball
Festival
Woodcote represented the Crystal Palace FC
Foundation in a Basketball England 3 v 3 event
at the University of East London. The event
hosted a number of other Premier league
foundation teams such
as Arsenal, West Ham
and Spurs. The U16
and U18 teams were
up against some great
talent but their effort
and own talent resulted
in hard fought games
and one dramatic sudden
death win, thanks
to a cool Devahn freethrow.
The U16’s in particular performed
excellently and ended the tournament having
W2 and L2. Although the team did not make it
through to the knockout stages, the two teams can
be proud of their commitment and performance on
an enjoyable day for all!
This year we have worked
closely with the Daniel
Spargo-Mabbs Foundation to
encourage our students to make
the right choices when it comes
to alcohol, smoking and drugs.
The foundation have delivered
workshops of 2 hours to Years
9, 10, 11 and the Sixth Form.
Year 7 and 8 have had extended
assemblies explaining the
dangers of these substances and
the choices students are able to
make.
The foundation is extremely
successful and has had some
very positive feedback from the
National Press.
I hope this relationship with our
school continues to grow to help
Woodcote students make the
right choices in their lives.
Miss Rutledge

Woodcote’s
DANCE
Showcase
Well done to all the dancers who took part in
this year’s Dance Showcase.
The show was a great success and was sold
out on both nights. The students have been
preparing since January for the show, working
at break times, lunchtimes and afterschool on
their dances. Mrs Ah-Sam, who covered Mrs
Pais from May to February (maternity leave)
also helped and choreographed some of this
year’s work for the Dance Showcase. The
final week was hard work and we were
running out of spaces for students to practice.
We had a Sunday dress rehearsal and then
students were frantically practicing on the
Monday to make sure it was all a success.
The Year 11 GCSE dancers were working on
a performance piece based on ‘Rosas Danst
Rosas’ as part of their GCSE unit. Some GCSE
students were also able to show case their
own choreography. The Year 10 GCSE group
had chosen their own stimuli and costumes for
their dances including ‘711’ by Beyoncé and a
contemporary dance to a ‘Thousand Years’.
This year we had a mixed boys’ dance group
consisting of Years 10 and 12. Some students
had the chance to audition their own work for
the show including a few lovely duets by Year
8 and 9 students.
We had some dance choreographed by a
visiting artist, Tanya Russell-Watson from
‘Step into Dance”, who worked with an
afterschool street club. This group performed
two dances ‘Adventure of a lifetime’ and ‘Freak’.
The KS3 dance club is running itself now. I am
so happy to see the students organising and
choreographing ideas themselves. We are low
in numbers at this club so more year 7, 8 and
9 are welcome.
The piece from Fairfield Halls was inspired by
‘Woman in Black’ and had people trembling
in the audience.
Overall this year’s show has continued from
last year to run smoothly. The students were
all very professional on and off stage. Thank
you to all the staff and student support
throughout the show. Many thanks also to
Mrs Ah-Sam who kept the dance going while
I was away.
Mrs Pais

extremely hot and humid. It smelt a bit damp as
well. We went up a big staircase, which took you
right to the top and you could see all the plants
from a birds-eye view. It was a bit scary and my
legs started to hurt from climbing the steps. You
could also go down to the Aquarium and there
was a 3D film. There were also loads of fish.
Kew
Gardens
On Monday 11th July, Year 7 went to Kew
Gardens. We travelled by coach for about 1.5
hours. We got off the coach and walked to
Victoria Gate (the entrance). We walked
through and sat and waited for the other
classes on some grass. Once every class had
arrived we went off in our class groups.
There were 2 teachers in each group. Our groups’
first destination was a big building called the
‘Princess of Wales Conservatory.’ We went off in
groups and had to look for Chinese water lizards.
There were five to find but my group only found
one. There were different parts and some were
very humid, others cold.
Next we went to a very humid building called the
We then had lunch and went to the gift shop.
Shortly afterwards we went to the Tree Top Walk.
We had to walk up some stairs until we reached
18 meters. It was petrifying, especially as it
started to rain as we got up there and the
walkway started to gently wobble.
‘Water-Lily House’ with a pond in it, which had
loads of beautiful lilypads.
After that we went to an enormous building
called the ‘Palm House.’ In the Palm House it was
Then we went back to Victoria Gate and waited
for the other classes and then once everyone was
there, we walked back to the coach.
Eleanor 7B3

A LEVEL RESULTS
THURSDAY 18TH
AUGUST
YEAR 13
8.30AM – 1.00PM
YEAR 12
11.00AM – 1.00PM
GCSE RESULTS
THURSDAY 25TH
AUGUST
YEAR 11
10.00AM – 1.00PM
YEAR 10
12 NOON – 1.00PM

Year 11
Leavers’
Ball
Year 11 Class of 2016 celebrated their
Leavers Ball on the evening of Friday 8th
July.
All students turned up to the prestigious
Epsom Race Course in a variety of
transport, ranging from vintage cars to London
buses and Limousines, looking fantistically
glamorous. Students enjoyed the music
and danced the night away. We had amazing
views from the Queens’ Stand and the
atmosphere was exciting as they tucked into
a lovely three course dinner. Once the food
was finished, then the dancing began.
Selfies, videos, and some interesting dance
moves, (mostly from Mr Deale) with some
very loud singing and a few routines, made
for an evening they will never forget.
We wish them all the luck in the world for
their futures and look forward to seeing
them in August for their results day, where
they will recieve all the photos from the
event on a disc.
Miss Rutledge

Created and Designed by Woodcote High School
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