Unique to Winston!

Assembly this Week

Our assemblies this week celebrate the theme of participation and what better way of highlighting this than showcasing our school production of Grease!

Tickets have completely sold out for the six performances, as we are all excited to see everyone of the two hundred students taking part both on stage and behind the scenes.

Mr Drake also took this opportunity to award music colours to two students.

 Thank you Brian May!

Brian May has kindly donated several copies of his new book to our library.  Mr Parsons and the students below sent him this image as our way of saying 'Thank you'!  

Book Fair

The Spring Book Fair will be running from Tuesday 29th January until Thursday 7th February, upstairs in the Discovery Space. 

Years 7, 8 and 9 will be visiting the Book Fair during their English lessons. Years 10 and 11 (as well as the younger years if they want a second look) are welcome to come during both form time and after school on the 30th January and  1st, 5th & 6th February.  Students are able to pay in cash and on Tucasi, so please let them know!

This Week

Wasted!

Year 8 experienced ‘WASTED’ – DRUG AWARENESS PRODUCTION is this week. The programme is run by the very experienced Theatre ADAD.  This theatre group engage young people with a realistic performance of the gateways into and the impact and dangers of using substances, including smoking and alcohol. After the performance students participate in discussions, clarifying issues and reinforcing positive messages.

#WakeUpWednesday

This #WakeUpWednesday, National Online Safety have created a free online safety guide for schools to share with parents and carers about Grand Theft Auto (GTA); the 18+ rated game in which sex, violence, profane language and nudity form the main themes of the game. Popular for its criminal narrative, the GTA series encourages users to break the law in order to succeed and progress through the game.

With over 100 million users on the game's online social club alone, Grand Theft Auto is hugely popular amongst young people under the age of 18!

Please feel free to share our guide for parents and carers across your social platforms:

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/natonlinesafety/status/1088005920678952960 
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/NationalOnlineSafety/photos/a.1681508315488685/1953266721646175/?type=3&theater 
DOWNLOAD: https://nationalonlinesafety.com/resources/platform-guides/grand-theft-auto-online-safety-guide-for-parents/ 

Creating a Geographer!

‘A graduate from Royal Holloway visited Winston and worked with year 9 students. Students looked at topical geographical issues in the news and created an ideal geographer’

Lost Property

We would love to reunite the following items with their owners!!  I am sure that parents have spent a considerable sum of money on the coats and other items that are found around the school.  We have advertised to students to come to collect their possessions, with little impact.  If these items are not claimed they will be sent to a charity shop.

Good News!

Congratulations to Year 9

Our Year 9 Netball Team has progressed massively since the start of year 7; we have grown stronger and more confident as a team and this has resulted in us being undefeated in a league match since the start of year 8. Our season had already began positively, we hadn’t lost a match and we were hoping this would carry on throughout our upcoming games. However, this would be difficult as our next opponents were the district champions Gordon's School.

The match started extremely well, with brilliant feeds into the circle, accurate shooting and tight defending and at the end of the first quarter the score was 6-2 to us. We decided as a team to not make any changes to our positions and we headed into the second quarter with an encouraging mindset. Gordon's came back with more energy and fight, yet it wasn’t enough as we scored 9 goals in seven minutes which left the score at half time at 15-9 to us. In the third quarter, we managed to score another 7 goals with Gordon's only scoring 3 which meant that we went into the last quarter with a ten point lead.

At this stage of the game, we were confident that we could win but we didn’t want to let that affect how we played, so we said that we would compete as if the score was 0-0. Eventually, after a tiring game we managed to beat Gordon's School with a final of 28-16. Well done girls!

GS- Kiera Heney

GA- Christi Shipp

WA- Emma Putley

C- Genna Vine

WD- Olivia Swan

GD- Phoebe Tickner

GK- Mara Otero

SUB- Shinal Patel

By Christi Shipp and Olivia Swan

Assembly this Week

Olly and Shehneela, Head Boy and Head Girl, talked to the students about a change in the way that their roles will be filled in the future.  The students have decided that following an application and interview process up to three students, for each post will be finally determined through an election.  Everyone on the student body will have the opportunity to vote.  The students were being asked, today, if they approved of this plan.

Mr French then went on to talk about the place of rewards and if they have an impact on performance. 

Students were able to consider what motivates them and how they could improve their performance.

Year 11 Opportunity

Year 11 students had the opportunity to consider taking part in the National Citizen Service programme, which will run for three weeks this summer.  The programme aims to develop the whole person through a range of challenges, meeting new people, public speaking, cooking, leading to a social action project.  The opportunity then culminates in a celebration.  The programme costs £1500 but is subsidised and therefore, the maximum anyone had to pay is £50!   

Catching Up!

 "The National Museum of Computing" 

Following a visit to the National Museum of Computing this is what the pupils had to say?

Initially, we got to "The Museum of Computing" situated in Bletchley Park and were all excited for the day. We got there and had an introduction talk about how Computing had developed through the years. We found this interesting and were eager to go and learn more. During our tour, we looked around with the staff, learnt a lot about the technology in there, analysed the working of the world's first computer "Colossus", made specifically for code-breaking at Bletchley.  This was one of the highlights of the day. We were also privileged to see the workings of the computers of the earlier 20th Century. It was fascinating to see the contrast between the past and the present technology.  We were reminded on how we take our current technology for granted.  In the afternoon, we did two classroom sessions- one based on writing lines of code where we could make a game which was fun to play, and another where we were writing answers to questions as a chatbot would do. We compared logic between A.I. and humans.  Being able to have a go at programming was a very good experience as it certainly sparked a great deal of interests in the field. We also developed a passion for the Computer Science curriculum.  The topic of Artificial Intelligence was also discussed during this session, which had us thinking about the future of technology and its impact on society.  At the end of a very enjoyable day, we learnt a lot and were looking forward to sharing the experience in the classroom.

SCHOOL COMMEMORATIVE BOOK ON WW1

As parents will already be aware the school is compiling a book on those who gave their lives from the vicinity and

surrounding areas of the school during 1914-1918.  We are also covering family links and other activities in the area and comparing them to

today, through the words of our students.

This work is progressing well but we are now looking for some local businesses that would be happy to donate some funds to help us print

and distribute the publication when completed.  For your support we will mention you in the book itself and in any publicity we undertake.

Any donation large or small will be much appreciated.

We have also had a good response to family links to our current students from those that either served or died in the conflict.  However, it is not too late to send in any details and particularly those accompanied by a scanned photo of

the relative in military uniform.

Any information or offers of support need to be forwarded to Mr S Phillips at

s.phillips@wcsc.org.uk or on 01483 485248.

Tickets are Selling Like Grease Lightening!!

Year 11

Opportunities to Join the Winston Team

I will be recruiting new staff over the next few months, to join us in September or possibly earlier and will try to keep you up-dated as to progress with this process.  Over the next six weeks, I will be advertising for the following positions:

Head of Department: History

Head of Department: Art

Science Teacher

French Teacher

It is also good to hear from graduates seeking a gap year job or a route into teaching.  We have an innovative programme and offer a highly supportive environment in which to develop your skills as a teacher.  Come and talk to  some of trainees to find out how it works and the benefits of joining a great profession.

Mr Phillips is also seeking some reliable young people, at least 18 years of age to support the work of the site team during the holidays.  They would need to be physically fit and willing to participate in training.  This opportunity could begin as early as the week commencing 18 February 2019.  Simply email Mr Phillips s.phillips@wcsc.org.uk an expression of interest.

Later, in March, I will also be advertising for a Library Manager, to take over our new facility.

If you can support the school by passing this information on to anyone you think might be interested in a position at Winston, it would be appreciated.

Mock Results

Year 11 gained a taste of what it will be like to receive their GCSE results in August.  At 2.30pm this afternoon the tutor groups lined up and collected their envelope, in exactly the same way as they will in the summer.

Students approach the opening of their results in a number of ways, some preferring to wait until they are alone and other are eager to share immediately!

The key message sent by Mr Fricker, The Year Leader, is that with determination and commitment there is time to further improve on these outcomes.

Assembly this Week

I had the pleasure of delivering assemblies this week to Years 7, 8 10 and 11; Mr Jennings took the Year 9 assembly to introduce the options process.
My assembly focused on how important it is not to give up when faced with a challenge.  I related this to the life of Sir Winston Churchill and the spirit of Dunkirk and then brought the theme up-to-date with the current challenge of Brexit!

Spring Term

New Website

I trust that you have had an opportunity to look through our new website . The bright, fresh look has been developed by Mrs Cochrane.  As with all websites, it will remain a work in progress, with items being added and up-dated.

Solving the Whitechapel Murders!

Year 8 have been engrossed in a history enquiry, trying to solve the mystery of Jack the Ripper and the Whitechapel murders. They have had to gather and analyse evidence about each of the suspects and  then investigate three of the suspects in more detail.  The three suspects are the ones that the students have found compelling evidence, leading them to believe that they could be the murderer.  Group presentations will then be made to the class, presenting their case.

Y8 Geography: Enquiry Based Learning

Having developed a scheme of enquiry for their Environmental Geography Unit 8WE have recently been investigating the impacts of natural resource use through an enquiry based approach to learning. In "expert" groups students investigated the wider socio-economic and environmental issues stemming from effects of human use of natural resources. The groups collaborated using Office 365 software to produce presentations on topics such as river pollution, sea pollution, air pollution, resource depletion, land degradation and habitat loss. The images here show the students using the tablets in the Discovery Space to share their presentations in "Jigsaw" groups and develop their breadth of knowledge and understanding. The learning and engagement of the students has been excellent!

Final Christmas Event!

Christmas Market Stall

Over the past  four weeks a team of Language Leaders from years 8, 9 and 10 have been busy designing and then building a German Christmas Market stall! They showed great enthusiasm and commitment throughout the project and were rewarded for their efforts by receiving a special recognition certificate in the the school's 'Winter Wonderland' competition.

 MFL prefects and a wider team of Language Leaders then ran the market stalls during break times throughout the last week of term where they sold traditional wooden German Christmas decorations as well as waffles and crêpes with chocolate sauce which proved to be very popular! They also ran a raffle to win a Lebkuchen - a traditional German biscuit which is a popular Christmas gift. Mrs Mellor drew the raffle and the lucky winner was Sophie in Year 7.

Well done to all who took part!

Miss Finney