Welcome to this week's parental bulletin with the latest news for Year 8.
WEEKLY BULLETIN
26 SEPTEMBER 2025
ENJOY - ACHIEVE - EMPOWER
HEADTEACHER’S MESSAGE
KEY SCHOOL DATES
We had our final Thames Young Mariners trips this week for our Year 7s who were blessed with bright sunshine. This followed the Year 11s sunny weekend in Ashdown Forest, Sussex, who were completing their training expedition for the Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award. Both trips were lots of
Y12 - Geography Fieldwork - 29 September & 1 October Y10 - Art Trip to Kew Gardens - 1 October Y12 National Portrait Gallery - 3 October World’s Biggest Coffee Morning at Waldegrave (Macmillan) - 3 October HOLIDAYS & NATIONAL DAYS
A MESSAGE FROM OUR HEADTEACHER
fun and everyone put in their best efforts. On Tuesday we had a visit from a student choir from Jordan. These students were paired with buddies throughout the school, joined in lessons, enjoyed our school canteen lunch and shared a wonderful cultural exchange as the choirs shared a performance of songs together in the afternoon. Thank you to all the Year 7 and Year 13 Parents who attended our Information Evenings this week. We hope you found the evening useful, we certainly enjoyed meeting you all. This week we began our annual Open Mornings and it is always a joy to welcome so many lovely new prospective families through our doors. Our Year 8 pupils have been fantastic ambassadors for Waldegrave while taking these families on school tours. Year 13 Geography students have also undertaken fieldwork trips this week, visiting Battersea Power Station and Brixton exploring urban environments and collecting primary data to support their coursework. Next week they will continue these fieldwork trips with a visit to Bushy Park, which we are so lucky to have on our doorstep. We are all very much looking forward to next Friday’s Macmillan Coffee Morning. Students are invited to bring in homebakes which will be available for purchase on the day. Parents can buy £1 tokens through ParentPay. For more information please see the poster on page 3.
October - Black History Month
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! Send us your achievement stories and photos to share by email to 2 October - Yom Kippur (Jewish) & Dussehra (Hindu) 2 October - National Poetry Day
info@waldegravesch.org STAY CONNECTED WITH US:
~ Ms Tongue, Headteacher
HEALTH AND WELLBEING
In their September newsletter, the organisation Young Minds have highlighted some of the key issues affecting young people and provided links to really helpful tips to manage them. These include Tips for coping with anxiety about change and advice for parents around school anxiety and refusal, which features this helpful and practical video. It also has this positive reminder of the power of music to support our wellbeing. In the article Music: A pathway to mental wellbeing and connection, the writer explores how music has supported his mental health and helped him process his emotions. He says: “Music is more than just a collection of sounds; it’s a profound form of therapy, a raw expression of the human spirit, and a vital tool for mental wellbeing. Science shows that music can heal, demonstrating how it’s deeply connected to our mental health, helping to mend emotional wounds and past scars.” Young Minds free parent helpline 0808 802 5544 runs Monday to Friday.
A little help goes a long way... make a one-off donation here or click below to learn more CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT
A MESSAGE FROM HEAD OF YEAR 8
This week the Year 8 students and tutors practiced the Open Morning tours which then kicked off on Thursday. Many prospective new students and parents have already visited and many more will be attending next week. Our wonderful Year 8 tour guides will be able to show them around and tell them about all the exciting things we get up to here at Waldegrave. This week we had a guest speaker come in and talk about air pollution and hosted a workshop on Green and Healthy Travel as a part of Our Air, Our Action – Richmond Council’s environmental project. They learnt about how the travel sector causes air pollution and is responsible for a high amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Pu- pils agreed that how they travel was very important and so we are asking all pupils, teachers and staff to try and switch one journey a week to a sustainable travel journey. This means leaving the car at home and switching to either walking, cycling, scooting or taking public transport just once a week. We’re excited to hear how you all get on! Waldegrave has also launched our Book Champion Competition where the most dedicated readers in each tutor group will receive prizes. We look forward to hearing about all the wonderful reading the students get up to over the next few weeks. This week in the spirit of the Women’s Rugby World Cup, we held the inter house rugby tournament with 5 play- ers from each form representing their house. Many of the tutors made it down to spectate and we were blown away by the skills and spectacular performances of the students. The final was between Eliot and Franklin with Eliot House taking the win. The player of the tournament was Sham from 8PCO and special thanks to everyone that took part and the supporting spectators it was a wonderful atmosphere.
Have a lovely weekend!
MS ROOK, HEAD OF YEAR 8
BOOK OF THE MONTH
‘Arsenic For Tea’ by Robin Stevens A murder-mystery, with two curious girls as the main protagonists – Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong. As chaos unfolds around them, they tend to try and solve them like full-on detectives, but unpaid, of course. This is the second book in the series, so I recommend reading the first book first. But a brief summary is – the two girls are at Daisy’s house (Fallingford) for a tea party Daisy’s mother was throwing and Daisy’s whole family was invited. When mysteriously one of them fall extremely ill and pass away due to poisoning. Who could have done it, and how? It was thrilling to read it, going on the way to the answer with our protagonists. To suspect a character and finding out the truth is like a whole adventure without having to move around. I picked this book from the series specifically because of how suspenseful it was. Almost every character seemed like the culprit, every single one of them acted edgy, so it was even harder to work out. Of course there are other books in the series as well, one as good as the other, so if you enjoyed this one, there are many more.
- K Ng, 8PFO
HOW TO CONTACT YEAR 7 HEAD OF YEAR AND TUTORS
Please contact us with any queries or problems you may have. To get in touch with a member of staff from your child’s year group, you can: Please contact us with any queries or problems you may have. To get in touch with a member of staff from your child’s year group, you can: Send an email to KS3@waldegravesch.org Or you can contact the school via phone by calling: 02088943244 WALDEGRAVE SCHOOL Fifth Cross Road, Twickenham, Middlesex, TW2 5LH HOW TO CONTACT YEAR 8 HEAD OF YEAR AND TUTORS Send an email to KS3@waldegravesch.org Or you can contact the school via phone by calling: 02088943244 WALDEGRAVE SCHOOL Fifth Cross Road, Twickenham, Middlesex, TW2 5LH
MUSIC TASTER SESSIONS FOR ALL The music department will be running a taster session for the whole school on the week 15th-19th. Feel free to turn up to any of the open rehearsals to have a go! All are welcome. See you there! If you have any questions, come over the Performance Arts Block or ask your Music teacher.
BEHAVIOUR FOCUS For our first school term the school’s leadership team has chosen to focus settling back into our classroom routines. We have discussed our common-sense daily expectations with pupils during tutor times but as a reminder please see below for you to discuss at home.
Live Lounge Concert MU2 1st October 2025
3.30 - 5pm
Concert on the 20 October th
The following items are not endorsed by Waldegrave School.
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