Catering

Created on Wednesday, 21 December 2011 10:54

Catering

WEEKLY MAIN MEAL CANTEEN MENU

Menu for week commencing: 6th May 2013

Learning beyond the classroom

Created on Wednesday, 21 December 2011 10:54

Learning beyond the classroom

Lower School Life

Created on Wednesday, 21 December 2011 10:50

Lower School life

At Wheatley Park we begin working with many of our students in our partnership primary schools long before they start with us in the September of year 7. Projects have included working with Garsington Opera and Thrift Music Theatre including Photography, Singing, Film-making and Drama.

Our transition programme is tailor made to the needs of all students and parents with extra provision for those coming from outside the partnership and for those students with Special Educational Needs or those needing extra support in making the important first steps into learning at secondary school.

We are always open to talk to prospective parents and students andwelcome visitors to come and look at our school in action any working day of the year.

In year 7 and 8 we help students to develop their learning skills through a broad, exciting curriculum.

Year 7 students are grouped into form groups with the emphasis on supporting students to make excellent progress in all subjects. Every student has academic guidance and any student who is not on track to reach their targets is given additional support. As we get to know students and they have established good learning relationships with their peers we being to change groupings to ensure our learning ethos is focussed and appropriately challenging for all our learners.

We are proud of our pastoral work in the lower school and the work of the lower school student leaders. We work with students from year 11 who assist in the smooth running of tutor activities and our students also have opportunities to work with the Head Boy and Head Girl led Student Ministries.

Partnership with parents is important to us and we welcome opportunities to discuss the progress and well being of all our students throughout the year.

We encourage participation and leadership in learning and offer a broad programme of additional learning opportunities to enrich the curriculum. In year 7 this includes the very popular year 7 camp and in year 8 a day trip to France, alongside numerous opportunities in Sport and the Arts and other clubs.

Celebrating success is important to us in the lower school and a key focus in assemblies and tutor time. Heads of Year set challenges for their year team to encourage team work and work together and to develop independent learning skills. Recent PHSE projects have linked year 7 with the Olympic Game preparation ‘Be the Best you can Be’ and have encouraged students in year 8 to raise money for charity and to set themselves targets and goals as part of out Motive8 programme.

Safe at School

Created on Wednesday, 21 December 2011 10:51

Safe to Learn

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School Ministries

Created on Wednesday, 21 December 2011 10:52

Student Ministries

Ministry Meeting November 2012

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Upper School Life

Created on Wednesday, 21 December 2011 10:50

Upper School Life

wpsgcse.wheatleypark.org

World Challenge

Created on Sunday, 18 November 2012 13:28

World Challenge

Introduction

Every two years students from Years 11-13 have the opportunity to take part in a World Challenge expedition to one of many amazing destinations across the globe.  In recent years these have included Madagascar, Tanzania, Vietnam, Brazil, Costa Rica and Nicaragua and in 2012 India. In 2014 students will be travelling to Malaysia and Borneo where they will work on a local project and trek through the jungle/rainforest.

India 2012

On the very last day of the summer term thirty-one students arrived at Wheatley Park, not looking forward to a summer of relaxation after a year of school, not looking forward to the spectacle of sport that was just around the corner but instead ready to embark on a challenging month long expedition to India.  This was the culmination of an eighteen month build up programme involving fund-raising, team building,  training expeditions in the Forest of Dean and lots of fitness work to prepare us for what awaited us on the other side of the world.

A long flight was followed by an unforgettable eighteen hour bus journey into the Himalayas.  A couple of days of acclimatisation in Manali flew by and suddenly we were climbing mountains, crossing freezing rivers and camping under the stars (in the monsoon season!) during a two week trek reaching altitudes of 5100m that challenged us in many ways.  It was, however, an incredible experience with many highlights and we all felt a great sense of achievement at the end.  Without pausing for breath the we headed for the overnight train from Chandigarh to Jaipur where we began our project work, in a school and orphanage.  There were lots of opportunities to interact with locals, especially the children, play games and teach English as well as several days of physical labour.  We improved the sports facilities at the orphanage and built foundations for a classroom at the school, all in some stifling Indian heat.  The final phase involved some well-earned "relaxation" as we spent a few days sampling the sights, sounds and tastes of Jaipur and visiting the Taj Mahal in Agra.  Before we knew it the month was over and we were soon on a flight back to the UK to find out what we had missed and to exam results that had been waiting patiently...

Costa Rica and Nicaragua 2010

During the month the students kept a group journal recording their experiences, here are some extracts:

30th July, School Project  Granada, Nicaragua

Today we had a productive beginning to the day, a large chunk of both the gravel and painting was completed.  I taught a two hour lesson today to 23 students, it was so much fun.  We sang heads, shoulders, knees and toes something like five times.  The kids appeared to really enjoy it which was fulfilling.  After the lesson the kids hung around after and we all became a lot closer to them.  So much so that we went and played football with their families at half three and came back at ten to six!  We lost but it was still so much fun.  We got a picture with the team we played against which I was happy about as I really enjoy those sorts of memories.  Tomorrow we’re going to a lagoon which should be amazing as we haven’t swam or showered for a long time! 

10th August, Main Trek, Los Maribios Volcanoes, Nicaragua 

Today we finally climbed Momotombo, our very last volcano.  We had to get up at 4 in the morning and were walking by 5.  The first half of the volcano was quite an easy walk, it seems like everyone is a lot fitter now compared to San Christobal.  We barely had any breaks and I was actually enjoying myself walking up a volcano, which I never thought I would say!  But the next half was the scariest moment of my life and probably everyone else’s.  We had to climb a slippy rocky path with gales of scarily strong winds blowing around us.  I thought we would never make the top.  We all made it to the summit but couldn’t go to the crater because the gas was way too strong.  Coming down was hard, everyone slipped over so many times and we’ve all got battle wounds now.  When we finally managed to get to the bottom Memo gave us a cold fizzy drink and some watermelon.  Beats tortillas and cheese any day!  I’m sure everyone was really proud of themselves for completing the five volcanoes in five days.  When we got back to the hostel we had to sort out the kit but after that we were able to shower and go shopping.  Then we had dinner with Memo who showed us some of the photos of us all climbing the volcanoes.  It was a really nice end to the trekking phase.