Music at Winston

 Winston Making Music

The end of the Summer Term has seen a number of music activities taking place at Winston as we have continued to provide opportunities for our students to make music together. 

 

Thursday 8^th July: Winston Young Musician 

 

The Music Department was really pleased to be able to showcase some of the exceptional musical talent of our Year 11 students at the Young Musician of the Year event which took place on Thursday 8^th July. All of the students involved performed beautifully, in a range of styles from Jazz to Musical Theatre, and Popular Music to Classical. In addition to performing each student gave a short interview about their time at Winston and their plans for the future. The event was videoed by a professional film crew providing students with the invaluable experience of performing in front of multiple cameras. The full video will shortly be available via the CentreStage website but in the meantime enjoy the short preview video. 

Tuesday 20th July: The Staff Band

Thank you to Mrs Laurent and her team.  She encouraged our staff to form a band and they were persuaded to perform at the staff BBQ!

 

Year Group Ensembles 

 

This term the Music Department have been running year group ensembles to enable our instrumentalists to come together and make music. Each ensemble has recorded performances which will be available, in full, on our Music YouTube channel (WCSCMusic) but please enjoy the preview video showing what we have been doing.  

 

Year 7 Instrumental Scheme 

 

The Winston Music Department are excited to be offering a new instrumental scheme in September, to give our new Year 7 students the opportunity to learn an orchestral instrument. During this half term, we have been blown away by the generosity and support of our local community who have donated numerous instruments to the scheme. We have been gifted saxophones, clarinets, flutes, violins and cellos, as well as drum kits and guitars, all of which will enable to us to give our youngest students an invaluable opportunity to learn an instrument and gain a new skill. For further information and to sign up for the scheme please visit https://frog.wcsc.org.uk/year6 .  

If you (or anyone you know) have any instruments that they would be happy to contribute to the scheme, please do let the Music Department know, as they will be put to very good use, and will support one of our students in learning to play. 

Summer Term Celebrations

 Young Musician of the Year

The Music Department was really pleased to be able to showcase some of the exceptional musical talent of our Year 11 students at the Young Musician of the Year event which took place on Thursday. Nine students took part:

Joel Phillips - Drum kit

Michaela Bleeker - Voice

Jo Stathopoulos - Piano

Emilie Laurent - Voice

Thom Baker - Drum kit

Grace Harrison - Bassoon  

Hannah Borthwick - Voice

Aria Gholkar - Violin

Freddie Garner - Drum kit

The students performed beautifully, in a range of styles from Jazz, Musical Theatre, Popular Music and Classical, and were creditable in their support for one another. They also gave short interviews about their time at school and their plans for the future. Although we were unable to accommodate an audience, the students were videoed by a film crew so that they have a lasting memory of their musical journey at Winston, and the well-deserved recognition of their contribution to the department over the last five years. 

                                                                    Images taken during filming.

 Athletics

The school is celebrating our athletic success this summer term. There have been some outstanding achievements:

Year 7 Stars

• Isabelle Mellor - 2nd Place - Shot Putt, KS3 District Championships
• Aayush Gurung - 1st Place - Discus, KS3 District Championships
• Holly Fernandez - Top Y7 Female Performer, 2021 Sports Day
• Isaac Mellor - Top Y7 Male Performer, 2021 Sports Day

Year 8 Stars

• James Skeet - 2nd Place - 200m, KS3 District Championships
• Isaac Jolliffe - 3rd Place - Javelin, KS3 District Championships
• Josh Crouch - 2nd Place - Discus, KS3 District Championships
• Tamsin Strang - 3rd Place - 4x100m Relay, KS3 District Championships
• Ella Trice - 3rd Place - 4x100m Relay, KS3 District Championships
• Tiana Buffong - 3rd Place - 4x100m Relay, KS3 District Championships
• Holly Maher - 3rd Place - 4x100m Relay, KS3 District Championships
• Holly Maher - 1st Place - 300m, KS3 District Championships
• Isobel Wathen - 2nd Place - 100m, KS3 District Championships
• Isobel Wathen - 1st Place - Long Jump, KS3 District Championships
• Tamsin Strang - 2nd Place - 1500m, KS3 District Championships
• Isobel Wathen - Top Y8 Female Performer, 2021 Sports Day
• Dylan Lewis - Top Y8 Male Performer, 2021 Sports Day
• Isobel Wathen - 2nd Place - 100m, English School Athletics Championships
• Holly Maher - 1st Place - 300m, English School Athletics Championships
• Lois Lamnea - Joint 3rd Place - Hurdles, English School Athletics Championships
• James Skeet - Joint 3rd Place - 100m, English School Athletics Championships

Year 9 Stars

• Bayley Jackman - 3rd Place - 800m, KS3 District Championships
• Toby Stephens - 1st Place - Shot Putt, KS3 District Championships
• Isabelle Heney - Top Y9 Female Performer, 2021 Sports Day
• Harrison Wood - Top Y9 Male Performer, 2021 Sports Day

Given the climate we have all been in over the past 18 months, all students who stepped forward to represent Winston in these competitive sporting tournaments were amazing and they all behaved maturely and respectfully. We, and they should be very proud of themselves.

Well done all!!

Mrs S Walton

Safeguarding Support

 Have a Happy and Safe Holiday

Engaging with Literature

 Inspiring Literature

Having finished reading A Midsummer Night's Dream, 8WE and 8CS have been exploring the play through creative projects. Each class has designed a wedding suitable for some of the characters in the play, as well as creating shoebox dioramas of a key scene to help them consider the choices a director must make while staging a production of the play.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream wedding

Ellie-Mae challenged herself to design an entire wedding in 20 minutes, focusing on making a menu inspired by key quotes and events from the play and where best to seat characters for fun conversation and to avoid arguments.

Caitlin chose a cherry theme, inspired by Helena's quote "Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, But yet a union in partition" and planned to continue this in her menu. She was sure to include a stark warning about the dress code so that Helena didn't feel jealous that her guests looked better than her!

Teo and Mia focussed on invitation designs that reflect the personalities of the characters, both setting their weddings in Athens where the play was based.

These students thought about which locations might suits the couples, with Eleanor deciding that upmarket Helena and Demetrius might like a fancy wedding the Central Park, New York, while her classmate was inspired by the fairy subplot and Lysander and Hermia's desire for escape so chose to set their wedding in an enchanted forest.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream shoebox diorama

 8CE and 8WE chose a scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream and recreated it in a shoebox.

 

This student was inspired by the clearing where the Athenian couples rest one evening, and tried to make it attractive and welcoming by including a bonfire to warm up by and a log to sleep against.

Emilia has also staged the scene where the couples rest, using the distance betwwen the athenians to indicate their relationships at the time. While Hermia and Lysander are happy to be relatively close, upset Helena has to keep her distance from Demetrius who no longer returns her affections.

 

Lizzy has depicted Helena’s confusion and dismay by having her character on an extended stage with the forest setting in the background. She has considered how the physical choices of an actor can convey emotions without words.

Ollie and Olivia have considered the secrecy of the play, showing one character hiding behind a tree to eavesdrop on a private conversation between two others. They’ve added modern English quotes to the scene, thinking about how they could ensure a modern audience understands what’s happening.

Treasure Island Chairs

7WS used their knowledge of piracy from Treasure Island to dress up a classroom chair as a pirate, thinking about how they could use limited resources to bring their ideas to life. Several groups used their pirate-chair as a springboard to create wanted posters for their pirate, detailing their crime and the reward for their capture.

 

 

Empowerment

 Empowering Our Students

Never Accept Inappropriate Behaviour from Others

Empowerment Workshops

This week, year 7, 8 and 10 took part in 3 workshops looking at how they can empower themselves and others. The workshops were broken down into 3 categories:

Year 7: Build confidence in ways out of situations

Year 8: Empower young people to make the right decision

Year 10: Develop Emotional Intelligence

Year 7 explored group culture and what it feels like to be around older students. Discussions and interactive activities encouraged our youngest cohort to think about how they behave in groups, the impact that this has and how they perceive the older year groups to be. The workshops culminated in a fantastic theatre in education session where groups used their experiences to create a dramatic performance of how they can speak up in group situations and help the Year 6 students feel more confident at secondary school. 

Year 8 questioned the label 'snitching' and what it means. The values honesty and loyalty were considered, and students reflected on what they would do in certain scenarios. and how they can speak up in a way that they are comfortable with. The discussions were honest and real and the importance of their role when reporting an incident was looked at. The year group concluded their workshops by creating information posters, promoting their top tips when making the right choice to speak up. 

Mrs Kovic was working with Year 8 students and they explored the idea of being a bystander this morning and the impact that this brings. We enjoyed working through a series of scenarios and experienced the variety of feelings, that certain behaviours and body language can bring. We then brainstormed how we can help ourselves out of these situations.

Year 10 looked at the impact of language and how certain words and phrases can make others feel. Harassment, sexualised language, and behaviour were challenged and discussed with the opportunity for students to comment on a depersonalised situation. Most importantly, the year group worked within their tutor groups to look at 'Pathways out' of these situations and create a plan of action to help keep themselves and others safe. 

We look forward to delivering workshops to our current Year 9 students in the Autumn term. 

Thank you to Mrs Kovic and the team for devising this supportive programme.

Your Discovery Space

 Thank you Miss Dodds

While many schools closed their libraries this year, Miss Dodds has gone above and beyond to ensure that students have had access to brilliant books throughout lockdown and back in school. Sharing online reading resources, virtual author talks and events for students to access at home; managing bubbles in the discovery space, quarantining books and continuing to stock the library with new and exciting literature for all students. Today was yet another exciting opportunity organised for our students to highlight the importance and enjoyment we at Winston take in reading for pleasure. MISS Dodds is already busy planning events for the Autumn term, so keep an eye on the school calendar for more exciting opportunities like this. 

Winston Book Awards & Author Visit

Wednesday 14^th July

We were very fortunate on Wednesday 14^th July to be able to hold our first in-person author visit for over a year due to Coronavirus! Sufiya Ahmed, author of books such as ‘Secrets of the Henna Girl’ and ‘My Story: Noor-un-Nissa Inayat Khan’, joined us to give a talk to 80 Year 7 students in the hall, along with a code-breaking workshop for a smaller group of Year 7s in the Library. She also co-hosted the very first Winston Book Awards with Miss Dodds. The students were very excited at the prospect of having a ‘real-life’ author in school!!

Sufiya started off her day with talking to Year 7 about her journey to becoming an author and her jobs before she started writing. She used to work in government and even worked alongside former Prime Minister Gordon Brown! She then went on to tell them all about the story of Noor-un-Nissa Inayat Khan GC, a British spy in World War 2 who served under Winston Churchill as a Special Operations Executive. A lot of the students hadn’t heard of her, but Sufiya told us that she actually played quite a big role in History as she was the first female wireless operator to be sent from the UK into France to aid the French Resistance during the war. She was captured after being betrayed and later executed at a concentration camp. Noor was posthumously awarded the George Cross for her service in the SOE, which is one of the highest awards given for services to Britain.

The students found it really interesting to hear about someone who had been chosen by Winston Churchill as a spy in the war. It was lovely to see them engaging in an author visit, something that is a little different to the other opportunities they’ve had so far this school year. Several students along to the Library at lunchtime after being inspired by the author talk to purchase a signed copy of Sufiya’s book! We have a couple of signed copies in the Library if you didn’t manage to come and buy one.

 

After the talk, we headed over to the Library where Sufiya led a code-breaking workshop with a different group of Year 7 students. The students became spies for the session, trying to crack the different codes in order to complete the mission for Noor. It was great to see students working with peers who they maybe had not worked with before and they all worked hard together to complete the task set. Sufiya was also on hand to provide support to those that needed a few more hints to complete the mission – some of them were quite tricky! Well done to the students who took part for showing resilience, ingenuity, and teamwork skills!

 

 The final part of the day was the Winston Book Awards help in the Discovery Space. Miss Dodds was excited to be able to finally hold this event, after wanting to do it last year! It was fantastic to have a group of enthusiastic readers from Years 7, 8 and 9 taking part in a range of activities to celebrate books and also thinking about our Winston Competencies and skills.

At the start of the term, students nominated books for different categories such as Best Fiction, Best Autobiography, Future Classic and Most Inspirational Read. A group of Year 9 students then worked with Miss Dodds over a number of weeks to create a shortlist for the awards. At the event on Wednesday, we awarded the books that had won each category. These books will be marked in the Library so that students know they have won an award in the Winston Book Awards. Miss Dodds also gave out some student awards for things such as Most Borrowed Books and Student Librarian of the Year. Well done to the winners noted below, they all took home a certificate, a copy of Sufiya’s book and a copy of a book nominated for one of the award categories.

Creative Writing Award (selected by Mr Collins & Miss Elfaituri): Daniel W and Amy C (Year 10)

Avid Reader Award: Jacob D (Year 8)

Reading Achievement (selected by the Learning Support Team): Jasmine (Year 7)

Student Librarian of the Year: Fern and Lucy H (Year 8)

Most Borrowed Books: Amala (Year 7)

 

Speaking to the students after the event, they seemed to really enjoy the whole experience, and liked being able to ask the author questions such as ‘Why did you want to write about Noor’s story?’ and ‘What books have inspired you?’.

Thank you to all students who engaged in the day with confidence, respect, and enthusiasm. A huge thank you to Sufiya Ahmed for visiting our school and working with our students. Miss Dodds can’t wait to hold more author events for other year groups in the near future… watch this space!

 Phoenix

Last week, students at The Winston Churchill School pulled together as a community to perform the key stage three production of 'Phoenix'. 

The production ran over four days and featured timed scenes with face masks and a reduced audience of 40. The play itself, a huge logistical challenge for both staff and students, showcased the wealth of exceptional talent and leadership present in each student at the school. 

The play, written by Mr. Harrington-Tucker and Mr. Penfold, features a girl named Monroe (played by Emma H) who suffers a life-changing accident. She leads her friends Fontaine (Hannah M), Weaver (Holly P), Niro (Toby L) and Ford (Archie S) to a famous Hollywood film studio in the hope that they can catch a glimpse of the Revengers set, Monroe's favourite film franchise. Followed closely by studio security, the five of them find themselves trapped in a storage cupboard filled with old rejected film scripts. To pass the time, they read each of the manuscripts and watch as each of them comes to life in their collective imagination. But the group is all too aware of an impending appointment that can make all the difference in Monroe's life, together they work to convince her to make a critical choice. 

Every role throughout the rehearsal process including Technical Manager, Script Supervisor and Artistic Director was held and maintained by pupils who trained and led a unique student leadership team, allowing each child to take ownership of their own performance. 

For most of the parents, it was the first piece of live theatre witnessed in over a year and the cast and crew worked full-tilt to produce the show in one term (instead of the traditional two), working together with a near-professional mindset to produce a finished production. Each of the students involved rehearsed, ran lines, painted, designed, directed, collaborated, sourced costumes, and built set under extremely challenging circumstances, overcoming the adversity that has faced every young person since the first lockdown. 

A link to a professional recording of the performance will be available later in the week to parents who wish to watch the performance and support the project. As a school, we are immensely proud of each child's achievements and hope that they will have fond memories of the show for years to come. 

Todd Harrington-Tucker

English and Drama Teacher

Deputy Year Leader (Year 7)