Oulder Hill Community School and Language College

Oulder Hill Community School

We would like to welcome back all our students after the Christmas holidays – we hope everyone had an enjoyable and relaxing break and we are looking forward to a busy but enjoyable year ahead.

The following dates for the forthcoming half term are listed below:

Thursday 26 January – 6.00 p.m. to 8.30 p.m. Year 9 Options Evening
Thursday 2 February – 6.00 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. Parent Forum meeting – all welcome
Thursday 9 February – 1.00 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. – Yr.9 Review afternoon

Fund raising continued before the Christmas break with £30.00 raised for Christies Hospital through donations by staff to replace the purchase and sending of Christmas cards. Many thanks to those who gave to such a good cause.

Just before the end of the Autumn term the school held a Christmas lunch for the elderly in the community. It was a great success and we received a lovely email from the Manager of Meavy View Retirement Home – “just a note to say thank you so much. Our residents who attended have not stopped talking about what a great time they had. Everyone including staff had nothing but praise for the way the event was organised and presented. The meal was lovely and the entertainment and refreshments were great. This was a great boost for our residents to be part of the Christmas community spirit and we really can’t thank your team enough”.

We held a Christmas Sweet Shop Quiz and the winner was Jessica Harrison 7H who scored a magnificent 44 correct answers. Well done to all who entered.

Students in the Year 9 gifted and talented cohort competed against each other to design and produce a KS3 ‘Student of the Year’ trophy for each faculty to be used at Celebration of Excellence evening. The pupils worked in small groups and designed their own trophy which they then produced using our sophisticated CAD/CAM equipment in the Technology department. Each group then prepared a presentation of their ideas and prototype which they delivered to a judging panel. All staff then voted for their favourite trophy and after a very close vote, the winner was the group who designed and made the trophy for the ICT and Business Faculty.

The Year 10 gifted and talented cohort visited Lancaster University to find out what student life is really like. During the day they had a campus tour, they met with students from the university and they attended a masterclass lecture on Maths.

As usual, we have a great deal of sporting success to celebrate. Congratulations to those Key Stage 4 students who won an excellent basketball victory against Childwall High School last week. The final score was 72-36. One more victory will see the group into the Quarter Finals.

Our Key Stage 4 boys came runners-up in the Rochdale schools badminton competition beating last year’s winners Hollingworth in the semi final and narrowly getting beaten by Falinge in the final. The players involved were Marcus Sunderland, Jack Gough, Robert Heath and Joe Beal. Our Key Stage 3 boys went one better by winning their age group – well done to Daniel Harrall, Luke Barrett, Ellis Taylor and Oliver Greenwood. They had to play a combination of singles and doubles games and came top of their league having defeated Kingsway Park, Holy Family and St.Cuthberts. They then beat Falinge Park in the semi-final and Middleton Technology College in the final.

28 students went out to the Middleton Arena just before Christmas to compete in the annual Rochdale Schools Swimming Gala. The students behaved impeccably and were a credit to the school. We had plenty of success with many of our students finishing on the podium and all years finishing in the top three overall in their year groups.

Now on to football. Please say a massive congratulations to the boys in the list below, who came from behind twice to eventually overcome a very strong St Cuthberts Team 3-2 in the Rochdale Schools Cup. Oliver Fenton, Tom Williams, Michael Moore, Daniel Buckley, Josh Hughes, Ben Ratu, Joe Whitworth, Alex Maughan, Shaid Abdul, Reece Jones, Sam Fitton, Christian Steven and Sam Hirst. Man of the match went to Daniel Buckley who won absolutely everything at the back. Notable mention also needs to be made to Sam Fitton who claimed a dubious hat trick (last goal has gone to the dubious goals panel), Michael Moore who was a rock and great support to Daniel Buckley and to Josh Hughes, who was a solid stand in at right back due to Connor Fitton breaking his collar bone. Oliver Fenton was excellent in goal and Abdul Shaid was fantastic for running himself into the ground for the team.