Christmas Begins

The Winter Concert

The Music Department at Winston created a superb concert to celebrate the skill and enthusiasm of our students.  The breadth and depth of music at Winston was showcased in this huge event, which included 186 students.  We enjoyed performances from all the ensembles, including the students in Year 7, who demonstrated how much we have to look forward to in the years ahead.  Each year the Music Department grows, providing an increasing number of opportunities for our young people.  It is my intention that this growth will continue and that under our Director of Music, Mr Drake, that we will form a Music College within Winston.  Unlike other schools, the numbers taking music at Winston grow year on year, providing a high quality experience that can be enjoyed by all. 

 

Thank you to Mr Drake, Mr Phares, Miss Ashworth, Mrs Mellor and everyone involved, it was a great evening, culminating in 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'.

 Brass Ensemble

 A Cappella Group

 Junior Percussion Group

 The Year 7 Ensemble.

 The Junior Session Band

 Rock n Pop Club

 The Senior Percussion Group played the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies. 

They designed their own costumes!

 The Choir

 The Wind Band

 The String Ensemble

 Chamber Choir

 The Orchestra and the Choir

Bishop of London

From Winston to Bishop of London!

We were delighted to hear that Sarah Mullally, a former student of The Winston Churchill School, has been appointed as the 133rd Bishop of London, the third most senior position in the Church of England.  I believe that she attended Winston sometime between 1973 and 1978, however, we do not have any records from that period.

Everyone at Winston would like to send their congratulations to Sarah.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Mullally


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/18/sarah-mullally-appointed-bishop-of-london-church-of-England

Christmas at Winston

Year 7 Christmas Panto Trip December 2017

Last night a group of 25 year 7 students went to The New Victoria Theatre in Woking to see the Christmas Pantomime - Robin Hood.  Shane Richie played a dashing Robin and as well as the story of how Robin saved the day and married Maid Marion we were entertained with magic tricks, live animals and acrobatics.

The students were extremely well behaved and had a thoroughly entertaining evening.

Carols at St John's Church

A large congregation enjoyed some beautiful Christmas music and readings at St John's Church.  We were welcomed by some members of the wind band before experiencing an hour of reflection and joy as we were led by our students through the story of Christmas.

The choir were exceptional and their performance of O Holy Night was very moving.  This was also the carol that was performed on radio Surrey at the weekend.

Thank you to the Music Department and to St John's Church for creating a lovely event, recognising the importance of Christmas.

 The Choir

 The Jazz Band

 The Chamber Choir

The Folk Group

Christmas Challenge

Celebration Assemblies

We have been celebrating the success of our students during special, hour long, assemblies.  There have been a huge number of individual successes, as well as results for Tutor Groups.  Attendance at school and performance in subjects go hand in hand and I was delighted to see the significant numbers of students who have 100% attendance. We also recognise the young people who make a huge difference to our community.

Year 8 Enigma

8WE were doing some excellent problem solving in their lesson today.  They were working very well together, all sharing ideas to help develop their logic and maths skills.  A number of the students were showing great progress with the Winston Competencies - building on their resilience, collaboration and analysis in particular, to tackle some very tricky problems.

Year 10 Christmas Extravaganza

Students in Year 10 planned and ran a Christmas fair, with performances from their talented students throughout the afternoon.  They were raising money for The Woking Hospice, our school charity.  There were games, competitions and plenty of sugary things to eat!  Well done Year 10.

Busy Wednesday

Lindsey Hilsum at Winston

The Channel 4 News' International Editor Lindsey Hilsum joined us in school on Wednesday, as part of the Speakers 4 Schools' Programme.  She started her career as an aid worker with Oxfam and UNICEF before becoming a journalist.


In recent years she has covered the early weeks of the Trump administration, conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Ukraine, terror attacks in Europe and the journeys of refugees. Previously she reported the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.


Lindsey was able to show a section of her reports from Syria to our students and then discussed the challenges involved in this dangerous work. She was very interested in the views of our students and how they access the news.  There then followed a discussion as to how young people can be sure of the validity of news items, which sources are most reliable and how this is shared.


Our students enjoyed the opportunity to explore a range of issues and we would like to thank Lindsey and the charity Speakers 4 Schools for this valuable opportunity.

Christmas Lunch

Our students enjoyed a super Christmas lunch cooked and served by Catering Academy.  It was a great atmosphere as students and staff tucked into perfectly prepared turkey, roast potatoes, stuffing and beautifully cooked vegetables.  There were crackers and Christmas Music to complement the meal.  Thank you to everyone for creating such a lovely experience.

The staff were served lunch by the Senior Leadership Team, who dressed up for the occasion!