Oathall students return from The Gambia

Two Lindfield students from Oathall Community College recently returned from a school trip to The Gambia. Theo Billson and Ella Tingley were part of the group of 37 led by their teacher, Annie Murray, who spent just over a week based at The Gunjur Project in Gunjur. Here we catch up with them following their return home and find out what the experience was like…

Had you ever been anywhere near West Africa before?
ET: Nope! I’d never been anywhere in Africa before this trip, so it was a very new experience for me.

What surprised you most about The Gambia?
TB: That the children ALL wanted an education and enjoyed learning at school.
ET: One thing that stood out to me was all of the animals everywhere: wherever we went, there were goats, chickens and dogs just wandering around. A couple of times there was even a cow on the football pitch!

What did you learn about life in that part of the world?
ET: Everyone shares everything (even though they have very little); people refer to each other as ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ all the time. To them, it doesn’t matter who you are, or what you look like, you’re treated like one of the family.
TB: Yes, me too, it is very community and family orientated.

What similarities did you find to life here in Sussex? Any?
TB: There were plenty of mobile phones being used!
ET: There weren’t many similarities, but I must say that the sense of community is strong both here and there.

What was your accommodation like?
ET: It was lovely! The staff there were incredibly friendly too!
TB: We stayed in rooms of four sharing in the lodge. The accommodation was appropriate for the climate with a swimming pool and mainly outside shaded areas for group activity and eating.

Were you there to ‘work’ in the community? If so, what sort of activities did you get involved in? Which did you enjoy most?
ET: Yes, we helped out in the women’s garden, ran activities for schoolchildren and led sports sessions. We also bought food for some families who were struggling and delivered it to their homes. That was really moving, and we could all tell what a huge difference it would make to their lives.

What was the best recreational activity you did out there?
TB: Playing football with the local children.
ET: For me, probably visiting the market in a nearby town. It was really busy and nothing like I’ve ever seen before!

You both took supplies to give to the local community. What did you take and what difference do you think they will make?
TB: I took over twenty tennis racquets, plus clothing and tennis balls, which were donated by my tennis club. They were given to a local sports committee who were very excited to receive tennis equipment for the first time!
ET: I raised some money and used some of it to buy supplies to take with me. I took a range of things: clothes, books, tea towels and sanitary products, just to name a few! I also gave the headteacher 250 ‘Lindfield Life’ pencils.

Presenting the school in Gunjur with Lindfield Life pencils

What was the most challenging moment of the trip?
TB: The heat! It reached 42 degrees on the last day!
ET: Although this sounds cheesy - probably going home. It was very fulfilling, waking up every morning knowing that I would make people’s lives better that day.

Since returning home, is there one thing that you have personally taken away from your experience in Gunjur?
TB: To be grateful for what I have and realise how privileged I am.
ET: Yes, the people out there don’t have anywhere near as much as we do here, yet they’re still all really happy – especially the children.

Oathall's partnership with local gym

The fitness professionals behind Haywards Heath’s Switch Gym are launching a new joint health and fitness initiative with Oathall Community College.

Switch has kitted out a new £40,000 fitness facility at the college, complete with the very latest gym equipment, as part of its drive to introduce fitness to the lives of the local community. Pupils will be able to use the gym equipment during the school day as part of their physical education lessons with programmes designed by Switch coaches and PE teachers.

The installation from Switch Gym is a continuation of a package of support for the college, which recently included a £2,000 donation towards the new maths and science blocks.

Switch Academy director Chris Patch said: “We are delighted to announce our partnership with Oathall Community College. Providing professional gym equipment to the students is very much in line with our mission to get a positive health and fitness message out to the community.

“To be able to provide young people with the knowledge of how to look after their physical health from such an early age and take that into adulthood is very much part of our commitment to health and fitness education in the wider community. We are extremely proud to open our facility at such a centre of educational excellence.”

Oathall School’s Rugby World Cup Bake-Off

Each year Haywards Heath Rotary Club sponsors the Oathall Community College Bake-Off competition. This year’s competition theme was the Rugby World Cup in Japan.

Seventeen students entered by baking a cake at home and sending in a picture for consideration. These entries were then judged on creativity and skills with eight being selected to enter the final competition.

The competition took place in June with competitors being given four hours to bake and decorate their cake from scratch. The cake ingredients were provided by the Rotary Club and the decorations were provided by the students.

At the end of the competition the cakes were judged by a panel made up from WI members Kate Kent and Julia Vokes, and Mike Hoare and Nigel Vokes from the Rotary Club, Emily Hughes and Emma Brown from Oathall’s catering team, as well as Emily Brock, three times previous Oathall Bake-Off winner.

Cakes were judged on appearance, skill level, taste and texture as well as on creativity and originality. The winning cake (pictured with its creator) came top in all of the criteria. The judges were particularly impressed by the original use of Yuzu, a Japanese flavouring in the filling as well as the creativity and professional finish.

Every person who entered received a whisk and wooden spoon with the final entrants receiving an apron and recipe book. The top three entries also received gift vouchers as their prize.

Lindfield Gin Festival: 15th June 2019

By Anna MacMahon

Last June the Parent Teachers Association of Oathall Community College organised a super successful event in support of the school. In fact, it raised £6,000 which helped to purchase equipment for the new Maths and Science block; equipment which will help to inspire and create a new generation of mathematicians and scientists.

This year, we are incredibly excited for the return of this summer event, a highlight on the Lindfield social calendar! There will be 25 Sussex gins to sample, all with their own unique local flavour. We’ll see the return of the very popular main raffle prize: a wheelbarrow full of gin! Heartfelt thanks goes out to all the wonderful community shops, small businesses and other organisations that have so kindly donated contributions to the raffle prizes and supported us with other sponsorship opportunities. This year we are raising funds for new sound and lighting equipment for the school hall. We are proud to raise funds for our school and hope you will join us on this fun evening to help us reach our goal.

The Lindfield Gin Festival will take place on Saturday 15th June 2019, starting at 7pm in King Edward Hall. A ticket costs £15 (which includes your first gin token), with gin tokens being sold for £2 on the night. Book your tickets here: www.trybooking.co.uk/IOU

Oathall Farm wins National School Award

Oathall School Farm win prizes for Innovation and Enterprise at national awards

The Oathall Community College farm team leaders recently attended the ‘School Farms Network Education Alliance Awards’ alongside Head of Farm, John Blackholly. 

The team is thrilled to report that the Oathall School Farm collected the national winners prize for Innovation and Enterprise. Judges were full of praise about how the farm has developed creative ways to generate income, helping to sustain the wonderful and unique resource. 

Judges were greatly impressed with how the farm is run as a commercial business but at the same time has education at its heart.

Seven student farm leaders were also nominated in another category and we are equally delighted to report they received the national runners up award for Student Leadership. A tremendous achievement and one in which we are justifiably very proud, said Mr Blackholly.

“These students have been outstanding this year, contributing so much and working so hard on behalf of the Farm. They are an absolute credit to their parents and the School Community. They fully deserve this National Award and recognition from the Schools Farm Network, very well done team.”

The School Farm Awards 2018 are designed to celebrate and recognise the achievements of school farms, their schools and students from across the country.

For 2018 there were seven award categories and out of an impressive field of submissions, 17 schools were shortlisted and invited to the ceremony to find out if they had won one of the coveted winners’ plaques.

The standard of submissions across all entries was incredibly high, and the judges were delighted to receive submissions from schools across the UK, including primary schools, secondary schools and colleges, special schools and schools with alternative provision.

The judges enjoyed reading such a wide variety of submissions and finding out more about each unique School Farm: from school farms which use their sites to enable young people to develop their interpersonal, communication and sensory learning, to school farms which run extensive commercial activity, schools which run Open Days for the local community and finding new and innovative ways to work together.

Mr Blackholly explained: “We will continue to develop the Oathall Farm resource and look forward to submitting further entries in future years to recognise the work of other students who contribute so much to the farm’s success. Well done to everyone associated with our wonderful school farm.”

Oathall Community College - Crowdfunding science and maths excellence

Across the country, Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) are hosting quiz nights, fairs and coffee mornings to raise money for schools. At Oathall Community College they have decided to try something different for their next fundraising project.

“We wanted to be a bit more ambitious this year,” explains Karen Crockford, current Chair of Oathall Community College PTA. “We wanted to take advantage of the opportunity that having a new Science and Maths block provides and involve the local community in our fundraising through a crowdfunding campaign.”

Oathall Community College has secured funding from West Sussex County Council to completely refurbish the Science and Mathematics block. It will see the dated 1970s building replaced with a modern, purpose-built resource housing eight maths classrooms and eight science labs including prep rooms and an IT suite.

The new space will also have many small improvements to make a big difference. Headteacher Edward Rodriguez led some members of the PTA on a tour of the site last month and explained: “Little things like the raising of the windowsill height in the labs just makes sense. Students can also walk right through the building now, which will vastly improve the flow at peak times.” 

The PTA hopes to raise £25,000 to equip the building with state of the art teaching resources. Karen said: “This is not about replacing test tubes, heat mats and calculators; it is about providing students at Oathall Community College with the latest technological advances and resources to bring science and maths alive in the classroom and inspire a love of the subjects.”

Items to be purchased include digital microscopes, interactive anatomical models, a planetarium and a linear air trap.

Mr Rodriguez, who has been key in planning the space and specifying the new science labs, explained: “We have an opportunity to make this school a real centre for excellence. This extra equipment will enable students to try new experiments and, as a result, gain greater understanding of the subject.”

Crowdfunding is an online platform for raising funds by asking a large number of people to each make a small donation. It enables not only those directly involved in a project to make a contribution, but also people in the wider community to support a worthwhile cause. 

Karen continued: “For instance, we are hoping that former pupils and their parents will want to give something back in this way.”

For donors there are rewards on offer for their generosity including a public thank you on Facebook, your name entered onto a fabulous display of donors that will adorn the entrance wall, the possibility of having a plaque with your name on a microscope, the opportunity to attend the grand opening in September with a celebrity guest or even the chance to have a classroom named after you .

The crowdfunding campaign launches on Tuesday 22nd May and the team hopes to have raised the £25,000 by 22nd July 2018.

If you are interested in finding out more please email the PTA team at opta @ oathall.org, visit the Oathall Community College PTA Facebook page or visit the crowdfunding page at www.crowdfunder.co.uk/oathall-pta which went live on Tuesday 22nd May.