Open Evening

Open Evening

Winston welcomed Year 6 parents and students to explore our school and have the opportunity to speak to staff and students about the opportunities available for their sons and daughters.  Over 500 of our current students volunteered to help run the evening and they were a credit to our school.  Our visitors were very impressed with the confidence and knowledge displayed by the Tour Guides and Prefects. Thank you to everyone who took part, your time and commitment to Winston is appreciated and to our visitors for taking the time to consider Winston as an option for their child; we look forward to seeing you next September!
Enjoy the images below of our Open Evening.

  

Parents had the opportunity to  hear from Mrs Johnson-Walker, Headteacher. 

Tour Guides waiting to help parents and the Year 6 students.

Welcome to Radio Woking!

Using our recording studio.

Making a Difference

Inspiring Determination

Chloe is an amazing young women who is determined to make a difference to others.  I reported before the summer break that Chloe was fund raising for the Woking Hospice by organising a raffle.  This proved to be a challenging experience but Chloe persevered and eventually raised the magnificent sum of £1,730.  When she presented the cheques, Chloe was taken on a tour of the new hospice being built on Goldsworth Park.  Congratulations Chloe, we are all very proud of you.

 

Our Flood: The Reasons

Year 8 Geography students have been investigating why the school suffered flooding following the storm overnight on Friday 16th September.  They have been reviewing the geography of the site and the drainage, learning new vocabulary and piecing together evidence to support their analysis of the situation.

 

 

 New Carpet

The corridor along the side of the hall has been repaired following the flooding and now looks great having been fitted with a new hardwearing carpet.  Thank you Mr Hill for working throughout the weekend to get the work done.  We all appreciate it.

 

 

Assembly this Week

Mr Mohamed explored the issue of Being Safe both at school and at home.  The aim being to raise awareness of both individual personal safety but that of others who may need support.  Students were given a range of strategies and reminded of the sources of help and support in school and the range agencies that are available and how to contact them.  The use of the internet and social media sites was also a focus, as these present some significant challenges for young people.

 

 

Great News!

Chichester Festival Theatre

 

We are delighted that our school Drama Department has been selected to take part in National Theatre Connections 2017. The National Theatre were inundated with applications from across the UK with over 1,000 groups applying to take part in this hugely prestigious festival for students aged between 13 and 19. Only 250 groups, including sixth form students and first year University groups, were selected to take part.

The Festival aims to encourage young and talented actors from around the country to tackle inspiring, challenging and thought-provoking original pieces of writing, specially commissioned for Connections by the National Theatre from some of the world’s leading playwrights.

We are performing a brand new play, ‘The Snow Dragons’ by Lizzie Nunnery. Lizzie is an award winning playwright who writes extensively for theatre and radio. Her critically acclaimed production of ‘The Swallowing Dark’ played to packed houses at the Liverpool Everyman in 2015.

Our production will be held here in school over 2 nights in late February 2017 and then again at Chichester Festival Theatre between March 21^st and 26^th 2017.

 

 

Learning at Winston

Year 7 Information Evening

It was lovely to welcome so many parents to the Year 7 Information Evening.  It was a record turn out and parents had the opportunity to meet the Form Tutor, visit the Year 7 Centre and understand something of the curriculum and experience offered to their child during their first year at Winston.  There was very positive feedback from parents about the first few weeks at Winston, students are embracing all of the opportunities offered and are keen to participate both in lessons and in extra curricular opportunities.



Assembly This Week

Mr Parsons introduced the Winston Competencies to all of our students this week.  These competencies are the key characteristics required to become an effective learner and that will be used throughout life.  These skills will be embedded in every lesson and will become part of the language we use at Winston with regard to learning.





Parents received a pack.

Geography on the Patio!

Students in Geography were taking advantage of the good weather to explore their environment, as they learnt how to analyse and describe it.



Language Learning at Winston

I was able to visit some MFL classes this week both in German and French.  Students were learning both new vocabulary and grammar.  Students are encouraged to use the target language throughout the lesson but when there is a technical point to learn, using English is the most effective way of getting the point across.

Year 7 in a French lesson.

Year 7 in a French lesson.

Year 7 in a German lesson.

Year 7 in a German lesson.

 Year 9 in a German lesson

Strictly comes to GCSE Music

I was walking past the music department this afternoon and happened to walk into Mr Drake's GCSE Year 11 students Waltzing! They have just started looking at AoS3 of the GCSE specification which covers Dance Music. They were brilliant and all joined in but there could only be one winning couple and our class champions were Sam Rawson and Anya Marsland.

Our School

Rugby Tournaments

Over the past two weeks has seen Winston Churchill host several preseason rugby tournaments, organised by Mr Briggs. Schools from around the county have competed in shortened games. The aim of the tournaments was allow the boys to hit the season running and blow out any cobwebs from the summer. It was brilliant to see our new Winston recruits in year 7 being able to field two teams in their competition and also show a lot of promise for the coming season.

The following schools attended – Salesian College, Fulbrook School, Weydon School, Heathside,  

Reigate School, Richard Reynolds, Hinchley Wood, Gordons, SJB and Collingwood.

CNN Inspirations

On Wednesday evening seven AS Religious Studies students with Miss Elkington and Ms Strachan attended the recording of ‘CNN Inspirations’ at the McLaren Thought Leadership Centre. We had to arrive an hour before the television programme started recording which meant we could enjoy orange juice and canapes with the other guests in the McLaren lounge.

The show programme, hosted by Max Foster and Samuel Burke, invited inspiring individuals to discuss their stories and explain how they survived incredible challenges. The guest we heard from were Eva Mozes Kor, Martine Wright and the brothers Rob and Paul Forkan.

Eva is a Holocaust survivor who advocates for both awareness and forgiveness. She survived Auschwitz from 1944-45 and was recently made famous by embracing one of the last remaining camp guards during a trial in Germany.

Martine was a victim of the London terror attacks in 2005, who spent nine months in hospital, losing her legs in the process. Wright learnt to walk again on prosthetic legs before eventually representing Team GB in sitting volleyball at the 2012 Paralympics.

Finally Rob and Paul Forkan lost their parents in the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami which devastated Sri Lanka. Rob and Paul have dedicated their lives to helping aid orphaned children across the world through their company Gandy’s Flip Flops.

We heard how all the individual experiences motivated them to make a positive change in the world; before getting chance to ask our questions on how to respond to personal tragedy. Thomas Walgrove, Thomas Arundale, Fiona Stalker and Tom Judd were all lucky enough to ask their questions.  Hopefully on our next CNN trip Thomas Newton’s question will also make the cut!

The programme will be broadcast on Friday 30^th September at 20:15 and Saturday 1^st October at 3:00, 11:15 and 21:15. I hope you can spot the WCSC students and staff!

 Smoothie Making Bike

If you want a smoothie at lunchtime then you are going to have to work for it at Winston!  Catering Academy introduced a new piece of equipment into the server area this week>

 

Students were using peddle power to blend the fruit.

 

The Flood

It will take some months to repair the damage to the school but work is underway.  The Site team are stripping back the varnish to allow the wooden blocks the opportunity to dry out.  We are hopeful that this will enable us to save the floor.  We aim to have some of the new carpets fitted over this coming weekend but others are made to order, therefore, the work is likely to be completed at half term.