Memorable Learning

 Skin Diseases

This week, Mr Rose discussed communicable diseases with his Year 9 Biology classes.

To help the students visualise and remember a variety of bacterial, viral, fungal and protozoal skin diseases, they modelled them on their hands (and in one case face!)

It turns out that salt dough, runny strawberry jelly, wallpaper paste, currants, treacle and poster paint make very realistic Necrotising Fasciitis, Leishmaniasis and Ringworm. The students enjoyed making their skin conditions as realistic and gory as possible - definitely a class to remember.

Year 7 Athletics Interform

On Thursday 26^th May, it was the chance for another round of Year 7 Interform competition. This time the chosen sport was athletics. It was the job of the sports reps to organise and submit their team. All tutees had the opportunity to represent their form group in the 100m, 200m, 300m, 800m, javelin, long jump, shot put and relay.

 

The competition was lively and it was great to see the field buzzing with energy. Approximately 80 students took part and many more were there to support. It was an opportunity for students to try something new, push themselves and understand what it feels like to compete. Twelve of our Year 10’s were also present to lead the measuring, timing and recording of the results. 

 

Hopefully, this also gave the Year 7’s a taste for what’s to come at Sports Day and will enthuse them to attend athletics club, to develop their potential. Congratulations to 7ALI who won overall! 

 

Top 5 

ALI – 151 Points 

HBS – 99 Points 

CSP – 93 Points 

GRO – 82 Points 

HHS – 66 Points 

Developing New Skills

 Astronomy

The images below taken by Jessie in Dr North's Year 10 Astronomy class. All the students in that class got to see Sunspots with their own eyes, which was amazing.

The images were taken on Jessie's phone by mounting it on one of our telescopes which had a Solar Filter over the primary lense.

Two telescopes were used to image the Sun and both successfully resolved these Sunspots.

Sunspots are transient features on the Sun and are areas which are substantially cooler than the rest of the surface of the Sun. Complex Magnetic fields build up and inhibit the transport of energy from the Sun's core, resulting in a cooler surface temperatures in regions which are the size of the Planets. These 2/3 sunspots are on the scale of the diameter of Jupiter, which is approximately 11 Earth's in diameter.

Supporting our Community

Two Year 7 students, George and Harrison, demonstrated an outstanding commitment to their school when they spent time with Ms Brooks, compiling the 330 induction packs for year 6 students. They demonstrated an amazing work ethic and outstanding teamwork with comments such as "it's not a competition between us, we have to work together". They set themselves targets to achieve  and reviewed the way they worked. This was later reflected upon in their Winston Extra lesson when they wrote about the competencies: collaboration, we had to work as a small team, and all play our part to ensure the target was achieved.  Analysis, we reviewed our effectiveness and changed our methods accordingly, ensuring it was fit for purpose. Communicate, we had to communicate effectively with each other as there was several different jobs which all fitted in the sequencing of each pack. 

The students were asked to help for 30 minutes, but their resilience shone through as they didn't want to give up, they wanted to make an impact and they definitely did. So many staff, both support staff and teaching staff, stopped to have a positive conversation and interactions with the boys. 

Mrs Smith Year 7 Leader

Active Learning

 Studying Science

Mr Rose's Year 9 students have been studying photosynthesis. 

To see evidence of this process, they boiled and crushed a variety of leaves found within the Winston grounds. They then used Benedicts Reagent or Iodine solution to check for sugar or starch production respectively. The results enabled the students to understand how sugars are made in the palisade mesophyll.

Dr Lau has been teaching her Year 7 students about diffusion. 

She cut up cubes of Agar jelly which had been made with Sodium Carbonate so they were alkaline; and stained with an indicator to make them bright pink.  When placed in a dilute acid, the acid slowly diffused into the jelly cubes to turn the indicator colourless from the outside surfaces inwards. The students were excited to see the cubes changing colour before their eyes.

Later in the week, Mr Spain did the same experiment as a practical with Science Club. 

Science Club runs every Thursday after school and is a great opportunity for students to do exciting hands-on work. 

All students are welcome!

Cash in the Mathemattic ￡￡￡

This week that maths department are welcoming back Mr Pound for another week of Cash in the Mathemattic.  Each year group from 7 to 10 are looking at a different area of personal finance and financial awareness including day trips, holidays, bank accounts and tax/national insurance.  Students will be awarded for their contributions to lessons with some Winston money which could earn them a prize when Mr Pound visits their lesson.

Children Making a Difference

 English Schools Athletics

Last week saw the return of the much anticipated first round of the annual English Schools Athletics Tournament. It felt fantastic to get back out competing on the athletics track & field with other schools in and around the Surrey district.

We had just over 60 students taking part with each athlete competing in 1 track and 1 field event or relay race. All years from Y7 - Y10 came together to create x4 teams of U13s and U15s in both the boys' and girls' categories. This competition is always quite early into our summer curriculum so technique may not be quite so polished. This year we hosted an athletics intervention during the first week of the Easter holidays to improve their technique and confidence levels and we were pleased with the number of students who committed their time to this.

We were extremely proud of every single student who represented our school and gave it their best effort considering the timescales we had. There were some stand out performances with Harrison W; Latham R; Isabelle H; Tegan M; Isobel W; Holly M; Florence H & Lucy W. This bodes well for the future, and especially for our next tournament - KS3 district athletics championships on the 15^th June! 

We have athletics club on twice a week after school until 4pm - Tuesdays & Wednesdays. Please come down and have a go and improve your technique so you can be in with the chance to represent your year team in our next district schools' competition.

The Brilliant Club

The first cohort of the 'Brilliant Club' is coming to the end. Students have just presented some of their knowledge before getting ready to plan for their assignment and then they will be submitting after next week's session. 

Mr Curtis watched the students present their knowledge on E M Forster and what they've learnt so far and he was very impressed. 

John, the tutor, has been fantastic and the group feel that they have really benefited from his teaching and the style he has used here. 

We will have the grades of their assignment at the end of June and visiting a University in July for them to receive their graduation certificate. 

Jubilee Art

Ms Pinion has planned a special jubilee art project. Each student has made a clay flower/ organic form which will be assembled together to create a larger piece. Students in other classes are welcome to come along to Art club on Monday to contribute if they wish and possibly during lunchtime next week.

Teachers will also be invited to contribute. 

These clay pieces will then be assembled to produce the final piece but you will need to watch this space to find out how the project will come together!

Feeding Minds and Bodies

 Posh Fish Fingers

We have been very lucky to be supported by Fish Heroes again and they delivered Wild Alaskan Salmon to be used in class demonstrations to encourage pupils to include sustainably caught fish in their diets. The Year 7 students learnt how fish can be sustainably resourced, the benefits of adding fish to their diet, as well as skinning and creating posh fish fingers for their family meal. 

Thank you Fish Heroes for supporting our students with a fabulous fish delivery. 

Miss Reynolds

Mental Health Awareness Week

In support of Mental Health Awareness week the year 7 tutors collaborated, which resulted in a hub of activity in the Year 7 Centre, on Thursday morning.  Students had a choice of activities, including cup cake decorating and offering to others as an act of kindness and reduce the sense and feeling of loneliness. Some did mindful colouring with calming music in  the back ground, there was yoga outside, as well as other sports.  One group were sharing things they had in common with their partner, the more common cards collected the better, this enforced the art of a conversation. Others were writing letters to each other, while Ms Nye organised some singing and dancing.