Christmas Wishes

Merry Christmas from Winston 

The staff and governors at Winston wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

🎄🎅🎄🎅🎄🎅🎄🎅🎄🎅🎄🎅🎄🎅🎄🎅🎄🎅🎄🎅🎄🎅🎄🎅🎄🎅🎄🎅🎄🎅🎄🤶

Year 9 German Lesson

The Christmas Truce

Late on Christmas Eve 1914, men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) heard German troops in the trenches opposite them singing carols and patriotic songs and saw lanterns and small fir trees along their trenches. Messages began to be shouted between the trenches.

The following day, British and German soldiers met in no man's land and exchanged gifts, took photographs and some played impromptu games of football. They also buried casualties and repaired trenches and dugouts. After Boxing Day, meetings in no man's land dwindled out.

A Winter Concert

The Winter Concert

Our school has an outstanding Music Department, which provides unrivalled opportunities for our students.  The Winter concert that took place on Wednesday evening showcased the quality, the skills and the variety of music at Winston.  It was a joy to watch all 203 students participating in making music together.  Seventy of those students were in Year 7 and formed a choir to sing 'Revolting Children' from Matilda.  There were great performances from The Session Band, The Junior Session band, The Percussion Ensemble, The Choir, The Upper School Choir, The String Group, The Guitar Ensemble, The Keyboard Group and The Concerto Ensemble, to name but a few.  The Orchestra were absolutely amazing and is now so large that rehearsal space has become a priority.

We are the only school in the area that can offer this range of high quality experience.  When other schools are shrinking their offer we intend to expand music at Winston and provide your children with great opportunities.  

The department has developed under the leadership of Mr Drake; his passion for engaging children with music is unparalleled and  his team, creating an outstanding department.  A special thank you must also go to the Music Captains, Oliver Aldrich and Holly Brewerton, who ensured that everything ran smoothly and that all the students were organised and felt confident.

 

 

 

We are now raising funds to provide the music department with additional facilities, if you think that you can help us please contact Stuart Phillips, our Business Manager, s.phillips@wcsc.org.uk.

Christmas in France

Paris Christmas Markets 2018

At the beginning of December, 40 GCSE French students took part in a 4-day residential trip to Paris.

Before reaching Paris on the first day, the group made a quick stop in Lille to visit the first Christmas market of the trip. Students used their French to order and taste some of the delicacies found in French Christmas markets, such as hot apple juice and crêpes.

 Some students even successfully haggled in French to reduce the cost of their food! Other students were more keen on finding nice souvenirs to bring back home.

After a good night’s sleep at our hotel, we set off to visit Paris. The first stop of the day was the Sacré Coeur, followed by a visit to the Christmas Market in La Défense – one of the biggest in Paris! In the afternoon, students went on a walking tour of the Louvre area before heading towards Les Halles and its Christmas market. The day ended with a wonderful meal at the Hard Rock Café.

On Monday, the group was very eager to get on the coach as we were going to see Paris’s most famous monument – the Eiffel tower! Students were really impressed by this iconic monument and took lots of photos! After lunch we went on a relaxing boat cruise on the Seine. Afterwards, we headed to Ile de la Cité to visit the magnificent Notre-Dame Cathedral and its surrounding area before going to our final Christmas market of the trip in Saint Germain des Prés.

Finally, our last moments in Paris were spent in a very nice crêperie where students ate delicious savoury and sweet crêpes which they enjoyed ordering in French.

It was a very enjoyable trip and I am sure that these memories will last a lifetime.I would like to thank the accompanying staff: Mrs Sweetman, Mrs Henderson and Mr Roda.

- Miss Retzepter

Christmas Week at Winston

Celebration Assemblies

Year 11 enjoyed a huge celebration in their assembly on Monday, including a final community sing-a-long of 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'!!

Year 10 were equally proud of their achievements and celebrated their success with great voice and some super music from the Year 10 Music Group.

Carols at St John's Church

A large congregation enjoyed some superb music and quiet reflection time during our carol service, held at St John's church.  Regardless of faith, Christmas is a time when we try to think of others and take time to enjoy a few days with people we care about and who, in return, care about us.  Our students provided through readings and music a wonderful atmosphere in which to think and to start our Christmas celebrations.

Deutsche Weihnachtsplätzchen

Twenty Year 7 students recently took the opportunity to bake some tasty cinnamon Christmas biscuits in a voluntary after school session in the food technology room.  Students were given the recipe in German and had to decode the method, weigh out the ingredients and prepare the biscuit dough before cutting their dough with the Christmas cutters.  Students were extremely responsible and listened really well to all instructions. 

At the end of the session, there were three students who received prizes for their biscuits or their approach to biscuit making and there were runner up prizes for all other students.  Many thanks to Mrs Vadi who kindly allowed us to use her room after school and stayed to supervise and to Miss Pflanz and Miss Gersdorf who assisted the students with the session and helped them with their German. 

Frohe Weihnachten!

Ms Allen

Christmas in Germany

German Christmas Markets Trip 2018

On Saturday 8^th December, 38 students from years 10 and 11 travelled to Germany to experience the wonder of the Christmas markets in the three iconic German cities of Köln, Koblenz and Aachen.

During the four day residential students stayed at a youth hostel on the Rhein and on day two enjoyed a boat trip on the river where they learnt some key historical, geographical and cultural facts about Köln, before visiting the gothic cathedral and climbing one of the spires for a panoramic view of the city. 

After a lunchtime visit to the Christmas market at the base of the towering cathedral, students learnt about the production of chocolate, from cocoa bean to end product, at the famous Lindt Chocolate Museum. The huge chocolate fountain proved a big hit! Some students were spotted going back more than once! 

 After the evening meal at the youth hostel students conscientiously started to complete their diaries in German, practising key GCSE vocabulary and structures in the process.

On day three we visited our partner school in Andernach where students received a very warm welcome as well as some home baked German biscuits and traditional Weckmänner (dough figures) from our German hosts.

Winston students excelled themselves in their presentations on the three following topics: ‘The EU Referendum and Brexit’, ‘How we commemorated the centenary of the First World War in our school and local community’ and ‘The differences and similarities between our two schools’ before breaking out into small groups where they interacted and exchanged thoughts and viewpoints with German students.

Winston students delivered their presentations on the various themes in a confident, articulate and humorous manner which was very well received. All students engaged in lively discussion and debate and were a credit to Winston. It is hoped that the partnership between our two schools will continue to develop and we will be able to take part in further collaborative work in the near future. We look forward to the German school’s visit to Winston in March.

After this busy morning at school, students enjoyed a walking tour of Koblenz, the two highlights of which were exploring some segments of the Berlin Wall, now a memorial to the victims of a divided Germany and standing at the ‘Deutsches Eck’ where students learnt about Kaiser Wilhelm the First underneath an imposing statue where the Rhein and Mosel rivers meet. Students then enjoyed the many Christmas markets Koblenz has to offer.

On day four we stopped off en route home at the traditional Christmas market in Aachen which offered a wide variety of craft and food stalls and proved to be a favourite.

The coach driver said the students were the best school group he had ever worked with. Staff all agreed that it was a pleasure to take such a polite and well behaved group where every student fully embraced everything the trip had to offer!

I would like to thank the staff who accompanied this trip: Ms Allen, Miss Pflanz, Miss Gersdorf and Mr Higgs.

-Miss Finney.