Spiritual, Moral, Social, Cultural.

Winston's Book Fair

Last week’s Scholastic Half Price Book Fair was a resounding success! Students took full advantage of some of the most recent publications, such as new titles by David Walliams and Michael Morpurgo and the latest editions of the Tom Gates and Diary of a Wimpy Kid series’, at significantly reduced prices. It was amazing to see so many KS3 students enthusiastic about reading for pleasure, and this enthusiasm is evident in the £1600 they spent on new books between them (a huge increase on the region-topping £600 spent last year) and will also be reflected in the number of free books they have earned for the school in the process.

Miss Ruffle’s Year 7s (below) were among the keenest readers, but Mrs Snowdon’s were the most eager with 33 books bought by a single class.

 Opportunities in Music

On Monday 25^th January the Music Department had a visit from Surrey Arts who ran a double bass workshop with Year 7 and 8 students. Students were shown how the instruments were played and were even given the opportunity to try them out. This is part of a project that Surrey Arts are running in conjunction with Winston to promote the double bass for which students will receive half price lessons. Students were also given demonstrations of instruments by Miss Ashworth (woodwind), Mr Allen (guitar) and Mr Drake (brass and piano). All of the students who took part were given a form to take home which they should fill in and return if they wish to take up an instrument. If any students wish to learn an instrument at Winston they should see Mr Drake in M1 who will be able to give them the information that they need.

Primary School Girls County Football Tournament

On Thursday 28th January, 5 of our year 10 students assisted in the organisation and running of the Primary School County Football Tournament at Woking Leisure Centre, supported by Mr Toovey. The boys where a credit to themselves and the school and showed fantastic maturity and leadership.

A big well done to the following students:

Sid, George, Martin, James and Sam.

 

 

Year 7 History
Year 7 classes (7WR and 7WM) hard at work.

Having studied William the Conqueror’s early Motte and Bailey castles and how castle building developed over a 400 year period, students were given the challenge of pitching the ‘perfect’ castle design to the Dragons’ Den. They were given a budget of £10,000 and a list of castle features to choose from – some difficult decisions had to be made about which of the pricey features would be sacrificed to stay on budget, while maintaining a siege-proof design! Groups then had to write and deliver a persuasive pitch to the ‘dragons’ (Miss Lister and their classmates!) about why we should invest our money in their castle. I was very pleased by the way students worked collaboratively and rose to the challenge. Perhaps there are some future architects in our midst?

 

 

2015 Learning Partnership

TeachMeet!

Tuesday 26th January saw staff from all four partnership schools meet together at Winston to share items of good practice.  There was a focus on supporting mixed ability teaching and those students who receive the Pupil Premium Funding, as well as a wealth of other ideas.  The evening ran from 5.00pm until 7.30pm and was organised by Mrs French, our Subject Leader for Maths and Associate member of the Senior Leadership Team.  Thank you to everyone who attended and helped to make the evening a success.  We are now all looking forward to implimenting the ideas that were shared and planning the next event.

Interesting Friday!

Alex Morrison at Winston

The photographs below are of the BBC School Report Day workshops that Tom and Yasmin devised. The images show students at work throughout the day in their reporting teams, representing different subject areas.

Alex Morrison, the visiting BBC journalist, remarked on the ‘extremely insightful questions’ that students asked him throughout the day.

He was also impressed with all the ‘pleases’ ‘thank yous’ and ‘door openings’ he experienced around the school. During his radio interview he said  that students had been ‘polite, engaged and courteous’.

If you would like to listen to the full radio interview that Tom and Yasmin recorded – please click on the link below.

T:\MFL\BBc School Report Interview.mp3

  

Mock Results Day!

A drizzly Friday 22^nd January saw Year 11 receive their much anticipated mock exam results but the grey skies faded away for many, who were delighted to reap the rewards for some impressive focus and diligent preparation. The aim now is to keep this really good work going.

For some, however, their mood seemed to match the weather and some time for quiet reflection, along with discussions with teaching staff & parents, is sure to be needed to avoid those feelings on 25^th August.

In the coming weeks the dedication of our staff will again be clearly evident as our intervention & support builds on the mock exams and becomes even more focused. I encourage all students to embrace the additional opportunities being made available to them, in order to maximise their success at Winston.  

the staff at Winston wish everyone Good luck, as they enter the final stages of preparation for these key examinations.