Sixth Form News
- Category: Sixth Form News
Last term, head students Archie and Emily visited Merchant Taylors' Hall for a Digital Wellbeing Conference. Over to Emily for her account of the day:
The Digital Wellbeing Conference on the 24th May was the first event Archie and I attended as head students. Despite an early start to catch the 7am train, we were excited to be back at the beautiful Merchant Taylor’s Hall, where we competed in the Livery Academy Awards in December of last year.
The premise of this conference was to explore the challenges, but also opportunities, digital technology presents and to take part in workshops to develop strategies for improving digital wellbeing in our schools.
The first speaker began by discussing the amazing things our devices can do for us; a new use for my phone, I discovered, is the ability to tell when a steak is perfectly cooked! However, we were also reminded that, whilst the assistance and entertainment our devices provide has become an integral part of day-to-day life, it is important to remember they can work against us, and not for us, if we are not careful.
The second talk was sobering, as we heard stories about children and teenagers being coerced and pressured into producing self-generated images. As student leaders, we hope to implement some ideas the speaker gave, such as working with small groups of students and delivering educational sessions to help prevent this exploitation from occurring.
The final talk was given by a clinical psychologist, who encouraged us to reflect on the amount of time we spend on our devices, and informed us about the dangers of 'doom scrolling'. The importance of digital detoxes was emphasised as a way to support our mental health and improve our productivity.
Going forward, the student leaders intend to set up student focus groups to find out what the student view is of the digital landscape and what worries and concerns they have. We will use this information to form part of the groundwork for creating a digital wellbeing charter. We thoroughly enjoyed our day in London and thank the Merchant Taylors' Company for the opportunity to learn more about digital wellbeing.
- Emily Dunn, Year 12, Wallingford School
- Category: Sixth Form News
We are tremendously proud this morning of all of our Year 13 students as they receive the results for their A Level and BTEC courses. The results are excellent and a tribute to their hard work, talent and ambition. This is a group of young people who did not sit GCSE examinations due to the pandemic and are now experiencing a “reset” of grade boundaries to pre-pandemic levels and the way in which they have coped and performed in this context has been hugely impressive.
Destinations are wide and varied and almost all students have managed to secure a place at their institution of choice including at universities such as Oxford and Cambridge and a fascinating mix of competitive courses at universities across the country and abroad.
Our students are going on to study courses ranging from Medicine, Mathematics and Veterinary Science through History, Geography and German to Computer Science, Chemistry and Natural Sciences, Marine Biology and Economics, Aerospace Engineering and Product Designand many more; courses in sport and nutrition, business, marketing, media and the creative arts are strong threads which run through many of the destinations. In addition, students are going on to foundation courses, competitive higher level apprenticeships and excellent opportunities in work-based training.
In summary, for the students in Year 13 this year:
• 8% of all entries gained A* grades
• 31% of all entries gained A*-A grades
• 59% of all entries gained A*-B grades
• 86% of all entries gained A*-C grades
• 100% of all entries gained A*-E grades
A huge thankyou must also go to the staff at Wallingford School who have supported these young people over the past two years and also to their families who have shared their journey for every step of the way.
Congratulations to each and every young person who has received their results today and we wish them well for their undoubtedly very bright and promising futures.
- Category: Sixth Form News
We are tremendously proud this morning of all of our Year 13 students as they receive the results for their A Level and BTEC courses. The results are excellent and a tribute to their hard work, talent and ambition.
Destinations are wide and varied and almost all students have managed to secure a place at their first choice institution including Russell Group universities from Edinburgh to Exeter and a broad mix of competitive courses at a really good range of universities.
Our students are going on to study courses ranging from Medicine, Mathematics and Veterinary Science through History, Geography and German to Computer Science and Natural Sciences, English Literature and Economics, Aerospace Engineering and Anthropology and many more; courses in design, sport and nutrition, business and the creative arts are strong threads which run through many of the destinations. In addition, students are going on to foundation courses, competitive higher level apprenticeships and excellent opportunities in work-based training.
In summary, for the 141 students in Year 13 this year:
• 15% of all entries gained A* grades
• 43% of all entries gained A*-A grades
• 73% of all entries gained A*-B grades
• 90% of all entries gained A*-C grades
• 100% of all entries gained A*-E grades
A huge thankyou must also go to the staff at Wallingford School who have supported these young people through two years which have not always been straightforward and also to their families who have shared this sometimes uncertain journey and been there with them for every step of the way.
Congratulations to each and every young person who has received their results today and we wish them well for their undoubtedly very bright and promising futures.
John Marston, Headteacher
Wallingford School
- Category: Sixth Form News
Last year our A Level Product Design students were asked to design a new gateway to lead from the new housing estate in Warborough to St Laurence Primary School. The group of six based their ideas on the winning designs from the primary school students (you can see one of the many models created during the design process in the photos below) and collaborated with a team to get the end result.
Yesterday Mr Holden and Miss Walker took the Year 13s to see the finished gate and the students were very impressed with the outcome. We were told that there have been many lovely comments about how great it looks.
Local projects within the community are a fantastic way to introduce design students to real life design processes and get them interacting with end users and stakeholders.
- Category: Sixth Form News
We want to say a big well done to the 11 candidates who put themselves forward to be part of next year’s Student Leadership Group!
Last Friday, all 11 students delivered enjoyable, engaging and thoughtful speeches on the topic of what they would like to change and prioritise in the school community.
We look forward to revealing the new Student Leadership Group in the coming days!