An Inspiring Week

Michael Grant Book Tour

 

We kicked off reading week by taking a group of Year 8 students to Wellington College to see Michael Grant talk about his new 'Front Line' series of books. He spoke about coming to writing later in life, and approaching it as a trade and means of making money as opposed to his life's calling as many authors do. 

 

Students enjoyed the experience and all managed to get a signed copy of his special WBD book. When asked if they enjoyed it one student answered 'actually, yeah!' Is there any higher praise than that of unexpected enjoyment?  

 

Michael Grant's new series, set on the front lines of WW2 imagines that women were also allowed to enlist and fight alongside men. Those, and others, will be available to students at the Waterstones Book Sale on Thursday 2nd March at lunchtime in the LRC. (Don't forget your WBD vouchers!)

Year 11 Exam drawing workshop led by Mrs E Hobbs (Head of Art at Woking College)

The following  students participated in an after school drawing workshop led my Mrs Hobbs (Head of Art at Woking College) to develop preparatory studies for their Art exam work. Students found the session stimulating and enjoyable working in a free expressive manner. Outcomes were highly experimental and abstract resulting in new ways of thinking and approaches to art making.

 Emily, Sarah, Mei-Ling, Charlotte, Nafi, Emily, Joshua, Anis, Rory, Kai, Jacob and Kyra.

Spring Activities

World Book Day

A week of events at Winston to celebrate our love of reading.

Master Class with Theo Fennell

To be a part of the day, the students entered a competition to design a piece of jewellery inspired by Theo’s work, the calibre this year was outstanding with amazing details of gemstones and design features that would be used in these fantastic pieces. The three masterclass groups where then set a series of challenges by Theo surrounding the theme of “Heroes and Heroines” where the students were asked to think of someone they hold in high regard and design a piece as a tribute to them. The work produced was really impressive as the students had thought deeply about their loved ones interests and the things they cared most about, to produce a piece they would be proud to wear.

The next steps for these students is to now develop these ideas further before they are sent over to Theo to select a chosen 8 to visit his workshop, a further two then may be offered work experience with him to develop and refine their skills.

Thank you to both Theo Fennell and Miss Blackman for arranging such an inspirational day.

Wasted Production

Students in Year 8 had the opportunity, as part of our PSHCE programme, to participate in a theatre production called Wasted.  This looks at the challenging issue of addiction including tobacco, alcohol or other substances.   

Using a combination of story telling and challenging questions raised an awareness of the issue of addiction and the impact it has on an individual and the family.

New Challenges!

The Ski Trip

Saturday 11^th February, 33 students and five members of staff departed Winston for the sunny slopes of Ponte Di Legno, Italy.  After a 22 hour coach (and ferry) journey, we arrived at the Bella Vista Hotel, settled in and sorted out our ski hire!  The students got an early night before our first morning on the slopes!!! Students were awoken by a cheery knock on the door at 7.00am every morning and then they skied/snowboarded for 5 hours a day and for 6 days!  The slopes were amazing and the sun shone every day!  Every lunch time we were spoilt with hot meals and a three course dinner in the evenings!  The Italian cuisine was amazing!  Students enjoyed the luxury of heated lockers so their boots were warm every session, an escalator ride up to the gondola and truly fantastic ski instructors! The resort was absolutely incredible! 

In the evenings, students participated in bum boarding, a film night, a games night, a quiz and ventured out to the local pizzeria for some spectacular traditional Italian pizzas! On the last evening, we also had a presentation from the ski instructors to award students with their certificates and results of the slalom race which students participated in the previous day!!  One of the student’s favourite things when they got back from a hard day’s skiing was to visit the crepe and gelato shop over the road from the hotel!  They were to die for!!!

It was great to see how much excitement and enjoyment the skiing brought to all students and it was fantastic to see how much they progressed from day to day!  They were a credit to the school whilst away and it was a pleasure to spend the week with all of them!

We would like to say a massive thank you to Dany and Elemental UK for such as amazing trip and thank you to our reps Tony and Penny who made the week a trip to remember!  We look forward to organising another trip with you again in two years’ time and look forward to taking even more students away with us!

What can I say…..such an amazing trip with amazing students!!  I would also like to say a big thank you to Mr Toovey, Mr French, Miss Singleton, and Mr Daniels for all their help on the trip as well!

Miss Howe

@winstonski2017 – Thank you for all your lovely tweets after the trip!!

Thank you to all the staff that went on this year’s ski trip.  My children are buzzing with great stories’ – Mrs Herring

Massive thank you to you all for looking after the kids! Fed had an amazing time JJJ - Mrs Carleschim

Thanks for all your hard work and for organising such an amazing trip! Nathan had a great time! – Mrs Powell

Thank you all for an amazing trip.  Jake had a wonderful time and is very proud of what he achieved. Thanks J - Miss Cummins-Taylor Pratt

Thanks for giving Ewan such a fab skiing experience! – Mrs Howell

Thank you for this week’s skiing. Neve has returned tired but very happy! – Mrs Sempels

Thank you to all who made the ski trip such an unforgettable experience.  Eve had such an awesome time! #thankyou – Mr Jasper

Thanks so much to you all, sounds like everyone had a brilliant week, Tilly certainly did! #veryhappy #verytired – Mrs Kingsford

A big thankyou to all staff who looked after our kids so well and made Eves first ski trip amazing! – Mrs Jasper

Please pass a huge thank you on to all staff and helpers on this years ski trip #winstonski2017.  Both Josh and Ellie have had the holiday of their life's. Grateful. X – Mrs Johnston

Year 7 Maths Challenge

This morning was the first session of the Year 7 Maths Stretch and Challenge Workshops.  These have been organised by both the Year 7 Leadership Team and the Maths Department. Thirty-seven of the top Year 7 mathematicians where coached by thirteen of our Year 10 maths students.  Each of the topics aimed to challenge the thinking of the Year 7s and to help them to develop their problem solving ability.  Once all the groups were underway there a brilliant buzz about the room.

The session run every Thursday during morning registration.

Positive Feedback!

Great Feedback!

I want to thank you and everyone for contributing towards making the play a success! I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to end. The highlight amongst others for me was to hear the songs sung and performed in different styles.

As said on Saturday, you indeed have an amazing team making it all happen. 

Please pass on my thanks to all the Staff and Students involved for their time and support in giving us another amazing performance by Winston Drama and Music department.

With kind regards

Maryanne Beare, Governor🌹

These words were echoed by the many parents and grandparents that wrote in to congratulate the team.

Young Enterprise - Bath Blends

 

Another successful sales event for our Young Enterprise students. They managed to sell all of their stock, much to the envy of companies from other Surrey schools. This half term will see them prepare for the regional competition by preparing a report and presentation, and the expansion of their brand from bath bombs to include handmade soaps and candles too. 

Don't worry if you haven't got yours yet, they'll be selling again at Year 10 parents' evening on Thursday 2nd March, and again at the PTA Indoor Boot Sale on Sunday 5th March. 

Frog Play Quiz

The second subject specific frog play quiz Miss Gould created on Frog Play for year 7 was extremely successful with 140 participants for the year group many having a good few attempts to get 100%. 
 
These are the students who will be getting certificates in assembly:

Aria	Gholkar
Alfred	Penrose
Genna	Vine
Archie	Walker
Amber	Pike
Grace	Harrison
Mara	Otero-Caamano
Ben	Allison

 
These students showed great ingenuity and resilience to  reach 100% in the challenging literacy linked geography key skills quiz.  There is presently a PE quiz assigned to the year group, I hope this will be the most successful yet!

Ski Trip

School Ski Trip

Everyone has arrived safely in Italy.  However, Miss Howe has been unable to contact everyone by phone and wanted this message posted to reassure parents that everything is fine.

Hands on Learning

Year 7 Anatomy

7CN, 7CT and 7WN have enjoyed and produced great pieces of work in their Sciences lessons this half term. They have recently covered human anatomy and its links to fitness. Areas included the skeleton, breathing, muscles, blood and how drugs affect the body. Students have been fully engaged, especially with the chance to watch dissections of the lung, heart and pigs trotter. Most also took up the opportunity to get hands on! A collection of questions from each class have ignited some good debates and students have demonstrated their application of knowledge to real life situations. They have been terrific to teach this topic to!

Winston Welcomed Sita Brahmachari

'Most of the basic materials a writer uses are gathered before the age of fifteen' Willa Cartha (Writer)
 
Wednesday was an exciting day this week as Winston welcomed acclaimed YA author Sita Brahmachari! She delivered a presentation to the whole of year 7, telling them her journey to writing and the inspiration behind many of her books. Sita stressed the significance of our past experiences and our relationships as forming our written identity as well as the stories we have to tell. Her stories come from those told to her by her mother and father and grandparents.
 
'Sita made it very entertaining and engaging and she made it so that everyone wanted to listen more. She shared her life story, how she became an author, using drama (becoming different members of her family) and audience participation (getting students on stage to act out a scene from her youth to demonstrate the moment she overcame her shyness and realised her voice was important.'
Aria Gholkar - ACH
 
'It was inspiring! I am quite similar to Sita in that I'm not the type of person that likes to share, but I felt connected with her and like I should share my ideas more.'
Ethan Whitford - NAS
 
'Sita used the metaphor of the Artichoke Heart (like her first book) which is vulnerable inside with tough outer layers to protect it. This is akin to people in that we put up barriers to shield ourselves from other people. It's also like a story in that there is often meaning to be uncovered beneath the text, if you only peel the layers away.'
Logan Dunn - DMA

'Days are like scrolls, write on them what you want to remember'

 
Two groups of year 9 students were involved in creative writing workshops with Sita. You can see, below, students interacting with Sita's 'story quilt' which contains lots of objects that inspired or influenced her stories. Students were asked to choose an object, ranging from a child sized pair of leather gloves to a game of jacks and a tailors' measure or a wedding sari, and imagine the story behind that object, writing in a stream of consciousness and allowing their imaginations to flow. Sita was very impressed with the very detailed stories that students created, discovering elements of the objects that she herself hadn't noticed before.

 

 

 

 

Sita was joined at lunchtime by Waterstones Woking, giving students the opportunity to buy some of her books and get them signed, or simply ask questions , even share some of their story ideas. 

If students have been inspired by Sita's presentation they are encouraged to enter the BBC Radio 2 500 words short story competition:

Year 10 Dance

Mrs Smith's Year 10 sports leadership dance group have been working really hard on their leadership skills. They have choreographed their own dances and today Yas and Holly taught their Micheal Jackson Dance to the group demonstrating, outstanding leadership skills.