Last Chapter

 Final chapter of Winston Book Week 2024...

To round off the Winston Book Week summary, I wanted to share the results of our 'Design a character's shoes' competition. Students were tasked with creating a design for a pair of shoes inspired by a book character. They could create their design however they wanted to, whether that be on paper, on a model shoe or on an actual shoe - and we had an entry for all three!

All three designs were fantastic and so well thought out that I couldn't possibly choose a winner between them, so they've each been awarded a prize and a shoutout in their celebration assemblies this week. A huge well done to Hasina and Salome in Year 8, Leen in Year 8 and Josh in Year 7. Each design was thoughtful and creative and a lot of time and effort went into each one. They were displayed in the Library alongside the rest of the Winston Book Week display and other students commented on how creative they all were. Take a look at the fabulous designs below...

What a week we had! It was very busy with trips, author visits and all things reading but Winston staff and students always make it such a fantastic week that is lots of fun so a huge thank you to everyone who helped out with the week. I already can't wait to start planning next year's Winston Book Week!

Mrs M Jones

Discovery Space Manager

Spring Captured by Students

 Spring into Winston

This half term, the well-being leaders focused on the theme 'Take Notice' from the 5 ways of well-being.

 We launched a 'Spring into Winston' photo competition where students and staff were asked to take notice of their surroundings and enter an image that they took that represented Spring to them.

Over 350 submissions were made by students and here are some examples of the winners and runners up. Well done to the following students who where awarded the top prizes:

• Evie Smith
• Jake Turner
• Jessica Mukerji
• Syed Abbas
• Max McColgan
• Oliver Bell
• Connor Hartland

Whitechapel

Whitechapel
Written by the History Prefects, 

"On 20^th and 22^nd March, 2 groups of Year 10 students journeyed to Whitechapel, in the East end of London to learn about the living conditions and issues with crime & policing Victorian England along with information on Jack the Ripper. On both occasions, students were toured by professional tour guides with extreme expertise on the topic.

Starting at Liverpool Street Station, the tour guides led students around the East End and allowing the students to have lunch at Spitalfields market. The tour consisted of visits to areas with large Jewish and Bengali populations, walks down dark, dingey alleys giving students an idea of the areas Londoners had to walk down on a day to day basis. The tour took students down streets where Henry VIII had soldiers train then they viewed former residences housing up to 20 people.

The tour guides frequently pointed out areas of interest like street art, synagogues and other places of worship along with showing students that the money produced within the City of London had no effect on the poverty stricken parts of Whitechapel.

The experts additionally signified areas of crime like “itchy park” named after diseases often transmitted it there and places related to the Ripper murders like residences and crime scene locations."

 Exceptional Work

Year 7 students have been learning about the subject matter of still life in their art lessons this term, studying the work of the artist Cézanne. 

This work is an excellent example of an artist research page showing beautiful presentation and skilful drawing from a super talented year 7 student .

Another Music First for Winston

                  Battle of the Bands 2024 🎸

On Thursday 21^st March Winston hosted the first Battle of the Bands ever! Some of the bands that signed up have been together and rehearsing for years, and some only a few weeks. The one thing they all had in common is that they all produced and rehearsed their performance independently from any teachers in the music department! The music department has been buzzing with excitement and frantic rehearsals for the last few weeks, so it was so fantastic to see what the students had put together.

Jack (Y10) was the host for the event as he had done such a good job hosting Battle of the Bands in School of Rock earlier this year- his energy really got the crowd going!

Below was the line up for the evening:

1.       Music Mayhem

(Coen, Leon, Steffan, Ethan, Evan and Athidh)

You Shook Me All Night Long- AC/DC

2.       Devil’s Godsend

(Ryley, Harry, Benji, Lucas, Ellie)

Boulevard of Broken Dreams- Green Day

3.       Prysm Rhythms

(Eden, Alice, Dimitri, Genny)

Black Sheep- Metric

4.       The Rocking Revolution

(Aneira, Matilde, Phoebe, Evie, Milo)

Bring Me to Life- Evanescence

5.       Banned

(Seth, Lana, Robyn, Lorna, Elias)

Livin’ On a Prayer- Bon Jovi

6.       Iron Will

(Jathan, Jeeveth, Fern, Zach, Nathan)

Feel Good Inc.- Gorillaz

7.       Parti Ram

(Amelia, Melissa, Isabella, Rose, Alessia, Phoebe, Makanaka)

Nothing Else Matters

8.       Mr Drake’s Minions

(Ella, Bonna, Ruby, Naya, Amelia, Molly, Dexter, Alice)

Rather Be- Clean Bandit

9.       The Manhattan Project

(Joel, Sam, Harry, Sadie)

Baggy Trousers- Madness

10.    Beat of the Hour

(Lexi, Max, Eloise, Lucas, Tom, Kurt, Zac)

Clocks- Coldplay

11.    ADASTO

(Archie, Dan, Athidh, Sam, Taran, Ollie)

You Can Call Me Al- Paul Simon

12.    Staff Session Band (not competing!)

Murder on the Dancefloor- Sophie Ellis-Bextor

Each band got up and performed with so much enthusiasm and talent that they made it really hard for the audience to vote for a winner! Staff Session Band entertained the audience whilst votes were being counted by Isabel and Jayden! Finally, it was time to announce the winning bands:

3^rd Place: Beat of the Hour

2^nd Place: Mr Drake’s Minions

1^st Place: ADASTO

As they were the winning band, ADASTO got up and performed another song for the audience who were all clapping along and loving every minute! Mr Major, Will, Holly and Rowan were our fantastic tech support who helped make the event feel like a real live gig rather than a school concert.

Well done to all the bands who performed- you all took a big risk to perform, and it paid off!

-          Mrs Antony

Assistant Director of Music

National Careers Week

Learning to Talk About Yourself 

National Careers Week saw the school embark upon an initiative to give all our Year 8 and Year 10 students the opportunity to have a real 'interview' with someone from our local community, to include businesses, parents, friends and family.

The school was buzzing with excitement with 600 students and over 60 interviewers participating in interviews.  In the weeks leading up to the event, students spent time during form time and at home preparing  answers to questions and how to greet employers.  Many were nervous but came out of their interviews with big smiles and confidence with what they had achieved.

Some of the comments we received from students were that they were 'happy, calm, proud of myself', 'it was good and not as bad as I thought it was going to be', 'relieved, surprised'.  

They had some valuable advice for future interviews, such as 'Don't worry Don't look nervous And don't underestimate yourself', 'Be prepared and listen to all of the feedback', 'Be calm and talk lots about yourself and listen'.

Our interviewers said

'Students were very polite, engaged and we had some really interesting conversations about their plans, strengths and areas to work on to help them succeed '

'Some pupils were nervous but quickly relaxed as the atmosphere was very positive.'

'It was so great to be able to listen and coach the children'

The enthusiasm and support from local employers, families and friends was phenomenal,  as we empower our students to grow their skills and navigate their journey through life, learning and work.

Lara Smyth

Careers Leader