13 December 2022
Outside the classroom, students have been busily participating in clubs, societies and activities signed up for at ClubsFest at the start of term. Current Affairs Club has kept the school’s finger on the pulse with regular email updates, STEM and Junior STEM Society’s lunchtime experiments are shared on the Science Department’s Twitter feed, and the hard work of some of our music ensembles and orchestras was enjoyed at the recent Winter Concert.
Things to look forward to in 2023 include a new Beekeeping Club, which Dr Klinge is organising. Students who think they would get a buzz from this can email Dr Klinge to express their interest. There is also one space still available in our weekly Climbing Club (see photos in gallery below) on Wednesday evenings. Students should contact club organiser Mr Rae if interested – you can read below his report on what our climbers have been up to this term.
Year 10 student Lilico (main picture), who joined Woldingham in September, also tells us about her first term of Taekwondo.
Mr Nick Rae, Climbing Club organiser
A great mix of students from Year 9 to Sixth Form have enjoyed a term of climbing at our local climbing centre, which offers multiple walls with different gradients, suitable for beginners through to competition-standard climbers. The walls have positive slopes, or neutral slabs, and also some ultra-tough negative 60 degree overhangs, where your legs simply dangle in space if you lose a foothold!
As well as being a physical body workout, climbing is an excellent mental workout and encourages students to develop their problem solving (climbers like to call the routes ‘problems’) as they pre-plan their route up the wall. Instructors helped our climbers develop their confidence with improved footwork and body positions. They have been working on ‘flagging’, ‘dropped knees’, ‘rockovers’ and ‘dynos’, and this technical progress has really paid off with students moving through grade 4, 5 and 6A routes and some successfully completing 6B and 6C routes. I’m really proud of all our climbers’ achievements this term. We have one space left for the spring term and I invite students to email me if interested in joining our thriving club.
Lilico, Year 10 – Taekwondo
I’ve never done Taekwondo before joining Woldingham, and it’s been fun. Our lessons usually start with a warm-up exercise, before we learn various kinds of kicking, punching and blocking. I find shouting – using Korean words – while practising punching and kicking a great stress reliever! The six of us taking Taekwondo – two Year 7s and four Year 10s – are at different levels, from beginner to junior black belt, and our coach, Tricia, makes sure it works for us all. Lessons have also covered self-defence, where we learnt how to deal with being grabbed by the wrist or the collar, and how to break plastic boards by punching and kicking.
I’ve really enjoyed learning something new and I’m looking forward to continuing with Taekwondo next term and, hopefully, getting my yellow tag.
