WCSC Headteacher's Blog

Friday, 27 November 2015

This Week

Governing Body Workshop

Governors spent an interesting evening, in the Churchill Suite, attending a number of sessions aimed at developing a deeper understanding of the work of the school. The sessions included:

Session 1: The work of the NW Short Stay School

Mr Burrows and Mrs J Taylor

Session 2: The Prevent Strategy

Mr Parsons and Mr Mohamed

Session 3: The Stream

Mr Fricker and Mrs French

Session 4: Building Resilience

Mr Drake

Governors find that these opportunities enable them to meet the staff and for staff to meet the governors and to share an understanding of each other's role.

They all agreed that it was valuable to hear about each development, as well as the personal opinions of staff, regarding individual iniatives and the work of the school.

Year 11 Breaking Point

Year 11 students experience an opportunity to reflect on the choices they will face in the future with regard to their personal safety and that of their friends. The play and follow up discussions were around the issues of alcohol and driving and making positive choices.

BBC School Report

I am delighted to announce that Winston will be taking part in the BBC initative School Report on the 9th March 2016. This has been organised by two Year 10 students, Thomas Walgrove and Yasmin Howbrook. The BBC have given the students permission to produce their news items a day early, as the published date of 10th March is our school Inset Day! I am looking forward to the seeing the students rise to the challenge, as this has to be a student led project which replicates the day in the life of a journalist. Every department has agreed to take part. More details of our event will be published after the Christmas break.

Maths In Camden!

"On Monday 14 students went to London to join a number of other schools from around the country for a GCSE maths conference featuring 3 well-known mathematicians. The first session was led by James Grime, who introduced us to the history of codes and how to break them. He had a real Enigma machine that he took apart and showed us how to use which was fascinating and proved mathematicians can save lives! Then the 'stand-up mathematician' Matt Parker came out to discuss why maths is so important to technology, zooming in on mobile phone displays and how binary is used (with a lot of jokes along the way). After lunch was the main 'act' - Marcus Du Sautoy, a professor of maths at Oxford University and television personality. Marcus spoke about how to 'cheat death' by ensuring we could always win games (including Monopoly). The students were all excellent, asking good questions to the speakers and getting involved by going up on stage. They even took part in musical chairs to help Marcus explain the lemming population! A really enjoyable and informative day."