Making a Difference

Visiting Poet

Year 9 students were treated to a special performance from the London poet, Adam Kamerling, in assembly this week, to coincide with their study of poetry in English. He demonstrated to students that poetry as an art form is still alive and well, and that they consume it every day through song lyrics and rap, perhaps without having realised.  Poetry is present through humorous and relevant verses presenting 'current' themes such as hunger and homelessness. 

Adam led workshops with two groups of students, elected by their teachers as a reward for their diligent class work, challenging them to create their own pieces while considering voice, character and perspective, with excellent and thought provoking results.



 

Preventing Meningitis

 

Students born on or after 1st September 1999 will receive their vaccination via the school by late summer 2017.  Older children may be called in for a vaccination by their GP.  The poster above provides contact details for further information.

 

Assembly this Week

Assemblies this week have been delivered by Mr Byrne on the theme of  resilience and how you can make a difference to you own life now and for the future.  That each student has the ability and opportunity to make a difference to the lives of others. This was a powerful message.

 

 

 

 

 

Bookends!

Below are the photographs of a Year 10 Design and Technology project to produce bookends.  This mixed-media project combined traditional wood work processes with the use of acrylic and the laser cutter. 

 

 

 

 

 

McLaren Challenge 

Miss Blackman held the McLaren challenge heats today, in the Design and Technology Department; four teams participated and the winners, by a long distance, was a team of girls. However, there is a special mention to the boys, who came up with the slingshot idea. We look forward to developing the car with them and bringing back the trophy in March!

 

 

Powerful Performances

Les Miserables

Throughout last week the anticipation built as I waited to attend the final performance of Les Miserables.  Everyday staff and students were talking about how wonderful, emotional and professional the production was and praising everyone involved. 

The Director's notes explains how they helped the students to understand the issues in the play by translating the title to impoverished.  There was nothing impoverished in this production, it was rich throughout with powerful emotions and well-timed comedy, superb music and choreography.  Back stage the Technical Team and Stage Crew enhanced each element of this complex show.

Everyone involved is to be congratulated; the students both on stage and behind the scenes were exemplary; Simon Donaldson, Simon Jolly, Chris Drake and Sam Remnant, our staff team, for choosing such an inspiring show and giving the students the confidence and enabling them to develop the skills to realise this production; other members of staff were also involved, as were parents, in the music, the costumes and acting as a taxi service. Thank you for everything you do to ensure that the students at our school have, in Josh Townsend's words 'this fantastic life experience'.

Both students and staff involved were tired and elated; members of Year 11 suddenly realising that this was their final Winston performance.  We will miss you and your incredible talent but you should be assured that you will always be part of Winston and welcomed back to next year's show.

 

 

Inspiring and Outstanding

Raising Funds for Woking Hospice

As a school we have decided to focus all of our charity fund raising this year on the Woking Hospice.  Events are being planned to try to contribute to an organisation that provides so much support for families in our local community.
I am also delighted to tell you that a number of our students, independently support this good cause.  Chloe is a student in Year 7 who has been working hard on behalf of the Woking Hospice.  See what she has achieved below.

Well done Chloe!

“Who killed Novice John?”

Class 7W1 worked very hard on Friday on the “Who killed Novice John?” investigation and were engaged by trying to work out who the culprit was. I’ve attached some pictures of the students hard at work. Miss Lister was particularly impressed by how well they worked as a group, to gather evidence on the murder. Several came up with excellent theories about who the murderer was, linking their suspicions to specific evidence. I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with for their homework , in the form of a wanted poster for Novice John’s killer.

 

Olympic Park Visit

On Monday 1^stFebruary, 28 lucky students from the Gifted and Talented sports programme had the opportunity to try three Olympic disciplines at the Lee Valley complex in London. From racing around the indoor Velodrome to taking on some tricky obstacles in the mountain biking it was an action packed day at the Olympic Park.  The students were a credit to the school and themselves and put 100% into all the events. Below are just a few pictures of this fantastic day and we look forward to running this trip in years to come.

 

 

 

 

  Lord of the Flies

Last week, the English Department, Mrs Southern, Miss Ruffle & Mr Chandler, took 37 students from Years 10 and 11 to see a stage adaptation of Lord of the Flies at G Live, Guildford.

We were all in agreement that the set was amazing and the violence of key scenes was well-staged with some carefully choreographed routines. The descent into savagery was disturbingly conveyed by the talented cast of young actors. Bringing novels, rather than a play script, to the stage is a challenging task but this adaption was a great success.

The production brought the story into the 21st century, taking quite a few liberties with the dialogue and there was EVEN a selfie stick!  *English teachers roll eyes* However, most students agreed that it was an effective and entertaining adaptation of Golding's classic novel about "the darkness of man's heart". Any alterations to the story resulted in some thought-provoking discussions during the interval and after the play.

We had a very enjoyable evening!