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 25th 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?
