Category: Community News

In April, Year 8 student Florentina was invited by the Argentine Polo Association to play in a tournament for ages 13-16. Florentina was one of six members from England who flew to Argentina to join 60 young people from around the world!

Each team member stayed with a host family for the duration of their visit. The polo tournament was held at Campo Argentino del Polo, popularly known as The Cathedral of Polo. It was a long four days of matches before the final, and Florentina even got to play on the second best polo pitch in the world, which she described as “amazing!”

“It was such an incredible experience and I would love to be able to do it again!” she said.

Category: Community News

Lizzie, Year 10, has been part of the Girlguiding youth steering group 'Amplify' for the last year. Amplify is a group of 30 young members from all across Girlguiding, who meet virtually once a month. They work with staff and volunteers, ranging across inclusion and diversity, strategy, Girlguiding council and chief guide team, to provide ideas and feedback.

As part of this group, Lizzie was invited to be one of the 400 young people viewing the King's Coronation from St Margaret’s Church next to Westminster Abbey.

We hear she had a great day - she spent the night at the Girlguiding HQ with an early breakfast at Lambeth Palace, then watched the coronation from the church and got to be one of the first to see the King and Queen as they came out of Westminster Abbey!

Oxford Mail covered the story here.

Category: Community News

Jasmine and Orla in Year 8 are members of the Wallingford Wildcats hockey team, and took part in the England Hockey State School Championships at the Nottingham Hockey Centre on Friday 5th May. This report comes from Emma Seymour, the Under 14s coach for the team:

The combined Oxfordshire state school teams were recognised by England Hockey as creating another opportunity for enabling state school students to come together to play hockey. Having girls from Icknield, Grayfriars, Didcot Girls, Wallingford schools as well as one home school player highlighted the strength of state school hockey.

The girls topped their pool, playing teams from Peterborough, Skegness and Birmingham, conceding zero goals and scoring a total of 20 goals over 3 matches.

After winning what we thought was the quarter final 6-0 (confusion from the opposition), we won our official quarter final against Deanery CoE High School, 2-0.

This saw the girls take on Wycombe High School in a well fought semi-final, winning 2-1.

The final was against Rosebery School from Epsom, Surrey.  After the weather had held out for us against the forecast all day, the heavens opened and a deluge of rain slowed down both teams. However the opposition was strong and defended our continuous and determined advances. A near goal hitting the post was sadly not enough and the opposition scored, resulting in 1-0 defeat.

Throughout the day, the girls played with poise, presence and power and should feel very proud of their achievement - second in the whole tournament, only two goals conceded and new friendships made. A win for school hockey!

A highlight of the day was having the opportunity to talk to Elllie Rayer, GB player, who was a delight and inspiration. She even allowed her Olympic and Commonwealth medals to be held by the girls and coaches alike.

Category: Community News

A couple of weekends ago, Wild about Wallingford, GreenArt and a team of volunteers planted over 300 trees and hedging plants (supplied by The Woodland Trust) in the Pat Granados Biodiversity Garden.

This short video shows the green-fingered team hard at work – thank you to everyone involved! We look forward to the coming spring, and the years ahead, to see your effort brought to life.