Woldingham School

Woldingham School is a Roman Catholic independent school for girls, located in the former Marden Park of 700 acres (2.8 km²) outside the village of Woldingham, Surrey, in South East England.

It is a member of the global Network of Sacred Heart Schools.

History

The school was founded as the Convent of the Sacred Heart in 1842 in Berrymead, London by the Society of the Sacred Heart; the first Convent of the Sacred Heart in England. The Society had been founded in France in 1800 by Madeleine Sophie Barat (canonized in 1925) immediately after the French Revolution (1789–1799). The first Sacred Heart school had opened in 1801 at Amiens, France; others were soon established in France and across Europe.

The Convent of the Sacred Heart moved to Roehampton, London, in 1850. Shortly after the 1939 outbreak of World War II, the school was evacuated, first to Newquay and later to Stanford Hall, near Rugby. Because the Roehampton site was damaged during the air raids of 1940, the school decided, at the end of war, to find a new location. Marden Park was purchased by the Society in 1945, and the school moved in one year later. Early in the 1980s, the Society decided to commit the school to lay management under the trusteeship of the Society. In 1984, Philomena Dineen was appointed first lay Head of School for the newly renamed Woldingham School; she took up her duties in January 1985.

Woldingham

Coordinates: 51°17′12″N 0°02′18″W / 51.28669°N 0.03825°W / 51.28669; -0.03825

Woldingham is a village and civil parish high on the North Downs in Surrey within the M25, 17.5 miles (28.2 km) south-by-southeast of London; its buildings lie at 150–248m AOD. Situated between Oxted and Warlingham, the village has 2,141 inhabitants. Central London can be reached in 33 minutes by train and the village is served by the Oxted lines. Many of Woldingham's inhabitants work in Croydon or central London, making Woldingham part of the London commuter belt.

History

Early history

Two bronze fibulae, some stone arrow-heads and celts were found here about 1800.

Dark and Middle Ages

The village lay within the Anglo-Saxon administrative division of Tandridge hundred. It appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Wallingeham and was held by John from Richard Fitz Gilbert. Its domesday assets were: 1 hide. It had 4½ ploughs. It rendered £1. No church is mentioned in Woldingham in the Domesday Survey. A chapel is first mentioned in 1295 as appurtenant to Gilbert de Clare's part of Woldingham; there has always been a vicar rather than a rector.

School

A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students (or "pupils") under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools. The names for these schools vary by country (discussed in the Regional section below) but generally include primary school for young children and secondary school for teenagers who have completed primary education. An institution where higher education is taught, is commonly called a university college or university.

In addition to these core schools, students in a given country may also attend schools before and after primary and secondary education. Kindergarten or pre-school provide some schooling to very young children (typically ages 3–5). University, vocational school, college or seminary may be available after secondary school. A school may also be dedicated to one particular field, such as a school of economics or a school of dance. Alternative schools may provide nontraditional curriculum and methods.

Sixth form

In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form (sometimes referred to as Key Stage 5) represents the final two years of secondary education (high school), where students (typically between 16 and 18 years of age) prepare for their A-level (or equivalent) examinations.

England and Wales

The term sixth form describes the school years numbered 12 and 13, which are called the Lower Sixth (L6) and Upper Sixth (U6) by many schools.

The term survives from an earlier system when the first five years of English secondary schooling were known as forms. Pupils started their first year of secondary school in the first form or first year, and this was the academic year in which pupils would normally become 12 years of age. Pupils would move up a form each year before entering the fifth form in the academic year in which they would have their sixteenth birthday. Those who stayed on at school to study for A-levels moved up into the sixth form, which was divided into the Lower Sixth and the Upper Sixth. In some private schools, the term Middle Sixth was used in place of Upper Sixth, with the latter being used for those who stayed on for an extra term to take the entrance examinations that were previously set for candidates to Oxford or Cambridge universities. Other schools described these Oxbridge examination students as being in the Seventh Form or Third Year Sixth.