12 October 2026
Suddenly, it seems, our Year 7 students have almost half a term of Woldingham life and studies under their belts – and what a lot they’ve packed in!
Making new friends is fundamental to settling in quickly, and on the first day of term Year 7 quickly got to know the others in their tutor group as they worked in teams to solve various puzzles in our Outdoor Education Centre. Just over a week later, they enjoyed a full day of outdoor activities designed to mix up the year group beyond tutor groups. This included several miles of orienteering on footpaths around Marden Park (great preparation for our whole school sponsored walk in the spring term) and shelter building. Head of Year Mrs Jenkins put their shelters to the test by pouring water over them and was impressed that many passed with flying colours. Later the same day, it was lovely to see many parents joining their daughters in our Year 7 Treasure Hunt, also something of an orienteering expedition to get to know the school and grounds better, with the added bonus of learning a bit about Woldingham’s history and some interesting facts about the school.
Each of our Year 7 students have been paired with a student in Year 10 in our Big Sister mentoring programme. They also had the opportunity to meet students from other year groups as they prepared for and performed in the annual extravaganza of drama, song and dance that is House Festival on the first Friday of term. With only a matter of hours to put a show together, members of Barat, Digby, Duchesne and Stuart, from Year 7 to Upper Sixth, worked hard learning lines, song lyrics and choreography, and making costumes for the ever-popular Year 7 fashion show.
Year 7 have also joined a wide variety of lunchtime and afterschool clubs and societies, enjoying activities including art, board games, crochet, debating and much more. Some have already represented the school in hockey matches; others performed beautifully in our Music Scholars’ Recital; while Year 7 boarders have enjoyed weekend activities including paddleboarding and kayaking, a BBQ, a visit to Oxted, our local town, and a walk in the North Downs. The girls also threw themselves into our very pink WoW Week (which involved the opportunity to throw pies at teachers – all in a good cause), and spent a day at Wintershall, near Guildford, for their Day of Reflection, where they focused on this year’s Sacred Heart goal of ‘Social Awareness, which impels to action’.
On October 1, the girls travelled into London with the English Department. The day started with a mudlarking workshop on the bank of the River Thames. The girls, armed with wellies and gloves, uncovered all sorts of hidden treasures: from glass and pottery fragments, to shells, masonry, and even bones! Mudlarking is a key theme in the novel October October, which Year 7 will be covering in the spring term, so this was a wonderful opportunity for students to give it a go for themselves. After the workshop, the girls enjoyed a performance of Much Ado About Nothing at the Globe Theatre, giving them the opportunity to peer inside Shakespeare’s world, as they start to study A Midsummer Night’s Dream in class. The trip will be the inspiration for the girls’ English Marden Diploma project in the second half of term, for which they will write a diary entry from the perspective of an Elizabethan actor or theatregoer and create a prop or stage set for a version of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Shortly before the half term break, on the 960th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, Year 7 will gather in the auditorium to join a special live broadcast from the British Museum, currently home to the Bayeaux Tapestry. Hosted by BBC Newsround presenter Emma-Louise Amanshia, and featuring two British Museum curators, the broadcast will enable Year 7 to explore how the how the Bayeux Tapestry shapes the story of 1066 and how narrative, perspective and bias affect the history we learn.
After all this, not to mention well over 150 lessons, Year 7 will be ready for a well earned half term break, before returning with batteries fully charged for autumn term part two.