Year 8

Welcome to the Year 8 information page - 

Weekly Newsletter - 15 10 2026

Half-Term Headlines

Wow, Year 8, what a start to the academic year we have had!

You have earned 50,000 reward points and are still the leading year group. This is a fantastic achievement and reflects the positive attitudes and consistent effort that so many of you are showing each day.

Your reward points include:

• 10,096 for meaningful engagement
• 7,200 for being ready to learn
• 5,000 for independent learning
• 3,500 for silent listening

We are so proud of how you have embedded the new behaviours for learning into your lessons. We have also enjoyed coming around to see your learning in action and to celebrate the commitment you are showing across the curriculum.

We have seen savoury rice being cooked in food technology, chairs being designed in Resistant Materials, learning about rocks in science, exploring Romeo and Juliet in English and lots of you getting stuck into a range of sports in PE, including rugby, football, badminton and netball.

Well done for your engagement. The behaviours and routines we build into our learning now will support us as we move into Year 9, choose our options and enter our examination years.

Half-Term Reflections and Looking Ahead

This week, in assembly, we are going to be looking at being kind to each other and creating a supportive learning environment. Part of the assembly will encourage students to reflect on how they contribute to their classroom environments. We will also encourage everyone to consider how they may have affected the feelings of others, both positively and negatively, and how we can celebrate one another.

To continue embedding positive character into learning, we would like Year 8 students to reflect over half term on:

• What has gone well for them?
• Which lessons are they enjoying?
• How are they treating others with kindness, and could there be any changes?
• How can they contribute positively to their classroom environments?

We look forward to using our first assembly back after half term to return to this theme. Together, we will continue moving forward with support and kindness for one another, helping to develop a strong sense of belonging in Year 8.

World record attempt in library - thank you Ms Wernham

On Thursday 16th October, 32 Year 8 students and 4 staff members took part in a Guinness World Record attempt for the most people reading online over 12 hours.

We were online with people and schools from all over the world, including Malawi.

The event started with a tasty snack from the canteen and then we had an online talk from Nathanael Lessore, the author of our Year 8 reading book 'The King of Nothing'. The author read us a section from his new book and posed a number of scenarios and questions for us to react to.

We also voted on what should happen next in the book. Then we read our own books for 10 mins together for the World Record attempt.

The event ended with a free bookmark for everyone. Thank you to everyone who took part and happy reading!

Thank you to parents for support.

Food Bank Donations

Thank you to everyone who has donated to the first food bank drive.

Team Ambition — 8ASE, 8MHR, 8SJO and 8CSL — donated the most items so far.

We will continue to support the Horley Foodbank after half term, when we will be collecting items for six weeks. Every donation, however large or small, will help to support local families.

Oval League Round-Up

After five opportunities to collect Oval League points, the current standings are:

• 3rd: Team Ambition — 8 points
• 2nd: Team Belonging — 9 points
• 1st: Team Character — 12 points

There is still plenty of time for the standings to change, so keep getting involved and looking for opportunities to earn points for your team.

Coming Up:

Poppy Appeal

Year 8 will be supporting the Poppy Appeal. If you would like to support the Royal British Legion and the Poppy Appeal, Year 8 students will be visiting the Year 8 tutor groups to sell poppies to students. Any pennies and pounds will be greatly appreciated for this important cause.

Reading Challenge

Mr Dove and Mr Sharman, in the Year 8 tutor team, would like to celebrate reading for all students. Please see below for the year-group-wide reading challenge. All individual reward points received through the reading challenge will also contribute to the Oval League.

Thank You

We would like to say a heartfelt thank you to all our Year 8 parents and guardians for your never-ending support and patience. Thank you for ensuring that our students are ready to learn with the correct equipment and uniform, and for engaging with us so that we can support students further.

We are genuinely excited about our journey with Year 8, the Class of 2030. The beginning has been brilliant, and we cannot wait to see what is to come and all that you achieve.

Miss Dornan, Mr Medcalf, Mrs Langton, and the year 8 tutor team.

Weekly Newsletter - 08 10 2026

Striving for excellence:

Hello to all parents' carers and students. Welcome to this week's newsletter

Again, we are in the position to reflect and celebrate, on all the positive achievements of Year 8. Year 8 remain in the lead, with a staggering 40,000 achievement points. A huge well done to the following students, who are in the top ten students for reward points across the whole school:

Arthur S, Alice M, Winston W, Millie H, Ailis O (8JSH), Bethany W (8MHR), Aardhrav V (8KBI) and Arthur S (8JJA).

Keep up the incredible engagement and positivity year 8, we are so proud of you all.

Food bank Donations:

We launched our food bank donations last week in assembly. We hope to show our support for our community by donating to the food bank, on behalf of Year 8 and Oakwood, at October half term. All items donated to the food bank will support students in the Oval League too. We will then join the whole school food bank drive after half term so that we can support the Oakwood school donation that takes place towards Christmas.

Donations can be bought to tutor time for tutors to collect

Some suggested items for the food bank include:

• Tinned meats and fish: tinned meat, hot dogs, and tinned fish, such as tuna and sardines.
• Tinned meals and vegetables: tinned meals, tinned vegetables, such as carrots, potatoes, peas, green beans or tomatoes, tinned spaghetti and baked beans.
• Tinned fruit and puddings: tinned fruit, tinned custard, and rice or sponge puddings.
• Dry goods and staples: cereal, pasta sauce, instant noodles, rice and instant mash.
• 

Feeling good: Assembly delivered by Mr Rose: 

This week's assembly was themed around Surreys 'Feel Good Week' which promoted a positive, proactive message about mental health and wellbeing, encouraging students to recognise that mental health is a normal and important part of everyday life. The assembly emphasised belonging, emotional awareness, self-care, resilience, and seeking support when needed. The overall takeaway for students was to feel supported, reassured that emotions are normal and empowered to cope with them.

Key message from Mr Rose - "Mental health matters, everyone belongs, and nobody should face challenges alone. By recognising our feelings, looking after ourselves, supporting others, and asking for help when needed, we can thrive together."

Message for Parents

As part of Feeling Good Week and World Mental Health Day, we encourage families to continue these conversations at home. Parents can support their child by:

• Taking time to talk regularly about how they are feeling and listening without judgement.
• Encouraging healthy routines, including sleep, exercise, balanced nutrition, and time away from screens.
• Helping them develop positive coping strategies when faced with stress or challenges.
• Looking out for signs that they may be feeling overwhelmed and reassuring them that it is okay to ask for help.
• Work in partnership with school to ensure your child feels safe, supported, and a strong sense of belonging.

Year 8 win the open evening map competition

Students were given the opportunity to design a map that would be used at our open evening. Well done to Myles H (8AML) who showed his creativity in creating the winning map. Map below!

Bike Amnesty Donations:

We would like to rehome and upcycle bicycles to encourage a greener and more active journey to school. If you have a bicycle that is no longer being used and could be donated, please consider supporting this initiative. Giving a bicycle a new home can help promote healthier travel and reduce waste.

Well done year 8. As we look ahead to next week, let’s keep striving for excellence and celebrating success. We look forward to another positive week together.

Miss Dornan and Mr Medcalf

Weekly Newsletter - 01 10 2026

Excellence without exception: continued success

Year 8 continue to strive for success, approaching 31,000 reward points and remaining in the lead. An impressive 97.2% of all conduct points received by Year 8 are positive, with meaningful engagement and being ready to learn still the highest contributors. This week, points for silent listening have increased, so well done, Year 8, for progressing with this new behaviour for learning.

Sightseeing Trip to London

Mr Edwards, Mrs Bartlett and Mrs Harding took some wonderful Year 8 students on a sightseeing trip to London. The trip had been rescheduled from July due to the heatwave, and the students enjoyed a great day exploring the capital city.

They experienced a variety of London sport, including the Thames Clipper, the Underground and the cable cars. This was a fantastic opportunity to experience London with a History teacher and a Geography teacher as their tour guides. The students represented Oakwood brilliantly throughout the day and made the most of this memorable experience.

Year 8 Successes Beyond Oakwood

We are pleased to celebrate two great achievements from our Year 8 students.

William D, 8CSL – At a recent national competition in Southampton, William ranked sixth in the country for his age group. This is an incredible achievement. Well done, William!

Amelie H, 8MHR – Amelie competed in the British Judo Kata competition in the adult category. Well done for this great achievement, Amelie. She also completed the Night Shine Walk, a 10km walk in London for cancer research, raising £160 in sponsorship.

Conor G 8JJN -Took part in the National sailing regatta in Southport Liverpool. It involved two very full days of racing and came 5th individually and team 1st. What an amazing achievement. Conor also had the opportunity to meet Princess Anne who is the Admiral of the Sea cadets.  

Please do let us know about external achievements, as we take great pride in celebrating them.

Boys Football team: Opening fixture success

The boys enjoyed a super opening fixture for their county cup campaign in Twickenham with Mr McCurdy. Jensen G 8MHR opened the scoring within the first 30 seconds, before Max VP 8JSH and Agney 8AML joined the scoresheet in the first half. Jensen G 8MHR then completed a hat-trick, taking his total to six goals and contributing to a 6-3 victory.

The team played well together throughout, with excellent supporting play from Kian L and Ben D 8JSH. Josh C 8ASE, Winston W 8JSH and Robin E 8TDO provided assists for the goals. Well, done, boys—keep up the super play and teamwork in the cup and the league.

Open Evening: Year 8’s Contribution

Approximately 90 Year 8 students supported our school community at the Oakwood open evening this week. They were excellent tour guides and subject supporters, taking great pride in showing the Year 6 pupils their fantastic school, which they are so proud to be part of.

A special shout-out goes to 8JSH, who had more than half of their tutor group representing their school. This was a fantastic demonstration of school spirit and community involvement.

All students who participated had points contributed to their OVAL League team. The points contributed were as follows:

• Team Ambition: 27 students representing
• Team Belonging: 33 students representing
• Team Character: 29 students representing

With these points added, the current overall standings are:

• 3rd: Team Ambition
• 2nd: Team Belonging
• 1st: Team Character

Well done to every Year 8 student who took part and helped to make the evening such a success.

Coming Soon: Horley Food Bank

We will shortly be announcing our Oakwood support for the local community food bank. We are passionate about this valuable resource in the community and will be promoting donations among Year 8. Donations are welcome to begin from Monday 5^th October, we hope to send a collection from year 8 prior to half term and then another one closer to Christmas. For every item donated, students can receive 1 point towards their OVaL League team (this is capped at 10 points)

Stay tuned for more information about how students and families can support the Horley food bank.

Miss Dornan and Mr Medcalf

Weekly Newsletter - 23 09 2026

Year 8 have had another very positive week, with even more student celebrations to share. They have now achieved a fantastic total of 24,000 reward points, demonstrating that they are continuing to embed their behaviours for learning, by being ready to learn and meaningfully engaged in their lessons. Year 8 are also still the highest-achieving year group for reward points, demonstrating their continued commitment to their own learning and to the learning of others.

Magic Mondays

This week saw the launch of Magic Mondays, a new segment of our school diary. Each week, we celebrate the top ten students who have received reward points for our Ambition, Belonging and Character Values, as well as the top ten students who have received reward points for behaviour for learning. Students are rewarded with breakfast with the Headteacher during tutor time. Miss Dornan went along to see our Year 8 students who attended, and the atmosphere was lovely.  Well done to year 8’s invited: Jasmine O, 8ASE; Zack C; Teddi L; Lily L; Vedika N; Finley S, 8CSL; Robert H, 8JJA; Holly A; Arthur S; and Georgie S, 8JSH.

Student Representatives

Three Year 8 students were selected to support with interviewing a new year group leader—not for Year 8, do not worry! Teddy S, 8JJA; Jess B; and Arthur S, 8JSH, did incredibly well. They showed maturity and curiosity when questioning the candidate. Well done to you all.

Year 8 learning in action

Miss Dornan went on a learning walk of year 8 this week to see what they have been learning. The G population were in maths, learning ‘proportions’ and calculating money with and without calculators, in PE, the F population were learning the safety of trampolining, controlling the ball in football and the positions of netball, and the S population in science were learning new key words for their topics as well as calculating estimates.

Bugsy Malone – whole school production

The Creative Art departments spoke highly of all the Year 8 students who took part in the Bugsy Malone auditions. They showed ambition and courage, and we are delighted that so many students have made the cast.Our Bugsy Malone superstars are: Stanley Rogers, KWI; Suzie E, JJA; Abbie P, JSH; Bella R-P, JSH; Georgia B, TDO; Isla S, AML; Phoebe B, SJO; Phoebe F, SJO; Olivia W-T, KWI; Millie H, JSH; Annabelle M, TDO; Cemre K, KWI; Georgie S, JSH; Alanna M, JSH; Paige D, KWI; and Alice D, KWI.

Good luck with your rehearsals. We look forward to seeing the show!

Form Representative Meeting – with Mrs Bird

Mrs Bird ran a super form representative meeting today, where students discussed their thoughts and ideas about fundraising events and potential charities. These ideas will be collated and taken to the School Council so that a school charity can be chosen. Well done to all students who have taken part in student voice during tutor time, and to everyone who attended the form representative meeting.

Oval League Update

Last week, we revealed our first Oval League points. These were based on the average reward points per tutor group in each team. The rankings were:

3rd: Team Belonging – 1,200 reward points

2nd: Team Ambition – 1,268 reward points

1st: Team Character – 1,363 reward points

This week, students competed in the Oval League through a portrait competition. On Tuesday lunchtime, students went head-to-head to draw portraits of Miss Dornan and Mr Medcalf, with each meaningful drawing completed equating to one point for their Oval team.

The left two drawings were created by: Alice M and Alana M in 8JSH

With the portrait competition points added, the overall standings after two weeks of competition remain:

3rd: Team Belonging

2nd: Team Ambition

1st: Team Character

Next week, students can contribute to the Oval League by supporting meaningfully at the school’s open evening. Students who would like to support as a tour guide or in a department should see their tutor or a subject leader for a QR code for permission.

We look forward to another great week of engagement and learning from year 8

Miss Dornan and Mr Medcalf

Weekly Newsletter - 17 09 2026

Well done: a continued strong start 

Year 8 have had a tremendous start to the year, and it is only right to acknowledge their triumphant achievements. They continue to present themselves as a cohort with pride and maturity, the school photographers last week even commended them as a year group for their behaviour. Well done to all students for helping to create such a calm and sensible atmosphere. 

Tutor time community  

This week in tutor time, students took part in the first student voice of the year, with the focus on fundraising. Their form rep meeting will take place next week, where form reps from each tutor group will come together to collate Year 8’s voice, so that it can be taken to the school council by our Autumn term school council reps: Irene E, Teddy S, Olivia W-T and Tima R. Well done to all students for contributing to this, and to those who have taken on a role within student voice 

Reward points: year 8 take the lead! 

To continue with the positive celebrations, it is outstanding to see the engagement Year 8 have shown since returning. The headline figures, as I am writing this newsletter, are excellent: 

• Year 8 have gained 15,000 reward points, which is the highest number of any year group so far (can we stay at the top?) 

• 97.5% of total points in the year group are of positive value, with the highest amount coming from ‘meaningful engagement’ in lessons. 

We are so proud of you Year 8. Keep it up! 

Not only that, 8 of the students in the top 10 reward points in the school are from Year 8. Well done to the following students for being in the top 10 students across the school: Kian L, Zack C, Theo S, Finley S, Vedika N, Stanley G, Fletcher P and Arthur S. Well done to you all, how super! 

Published authors amongst us 

There is more to celebrate too, with over 150 of our Year 8 (and 9) students becoming published authors. Your poems in the published books are a joy to read. If you have written one, please do come and show me which one is yours! The published books are available to read in reception and the Study Centre. 

The Oakwood Values League (The OVaL League) 

Thank you to those parents and guardians who attended the parent information evening yesterday. It was great to see so many of you there, and I look forward to meeting you all again at the next event. As outlined in my presentation to you yesterday, last week we launched The Oakwood Values League to Year 8 with three teams: 

• Team Ambition: 8CSL, 8MHR, 8SJO, 8ASE   

• Team Belonging: 8KBI, 8AML, 8JJN, 8KWI 

• Team Character: 8JSH, 8JJA, 8TDO 

These three teams are named after our new school values, which Year 8 have already embedded so well. The students will compete in a range of events over the year to support the development of these values across the year group, and the students are already coming up with a creative list of ideas to be used.  

To start the league, we are going to track which team has the highest percentage of positive reward points. We will be sharing these with the students in assembly tomorrow, so you will need to read next week’s newsletter to see which team is in the lead in the Oakwood Values League! 

Looking ahead 

We hope Year 8 continue to embed their behaviour into their learning and at social times. We hope to see many of them supporting at Open Evening on Wednesday 30th September. 

Thank you for your continued support as we look forward to an exciting year ahead. 

Miss Dornan and Mr Medcalf 

Weekly Newsletter - 10 09 2026

Dear Parents and Carers,

I am delighted to share a celebration of Year 8’s positive start to the term. The year group has settled in well and has approached the new academic year with enthusiasm, maturity and a strong sense of responsibility.

Students have engaged thoughtfully with tutor time resources and the new information shared with them. They have also shown excellent conduct in assemblies and during our practice fire drill, demonstrating how cohesive and responsible the cohort is.

In tutor time, they have continued to participate positively and respectfully. Miss Dornan and Mr Medcalf have also seen a strong understanding of democracy in action through the election of Form Reps. Congratulations to all students who have been elected as Form Representatives and Eco Representatives; we look forward to seeing all that you achieve.

We have also enjoyed visiting lessons and seeing Year 8 in action across the curriculum. A particular highlight for Miss Dornan was seeing how engaged 8F4 were in History with Mr Owens, reflecting carefully and recalling what they had learnt in Year 7, whilst testing Miss Dornan’s knowledge on the wives of Henry VIII. It has been a pleasure to see students building on their previous learning and embracing the new challenges ahead.

Overall, we are very proud of the way Year 8 has started the year. This week in assembly, we will be focussing on our new value of belonging and exploring the community events ahead that will help us continue to build this within our year group. We thank you for your continued support and look forward to seeing the year group thrive this term. We also look forward to meeting you at our parents' information evening on Wednesday 16^th September.

Kind regards,

Miss Dornan and Mr Medcalf

Year 8 Team