This Week

Assembly

We welcomed back to the assembly rota Mr Chandler and Mr Stockman, who presented a thought-provoking session on the Art of Communication.  Students were asked to consider how their tone, style, voice and appearance, as well as their body language could be interpreted.  The key message: When communicating, the aim is to ensure that your ideas are clearly articulated and therefore, understood and that this is a skill we all need to develop, to help us in life both within and beyond school. It was stressed that listening is a very important part of communication!

 

Frog Quiz Winners!

Welcome to Year 6

It was a great pleasure to welcome our new cohort of students to Winston for the very first time. After an introduction to Mrs Smith, the Year 7 Year Leader, Year 6 and their parents joined Year 7 and Year 10 students for a sample Winston lesson and to ask questions about joining Winston.  Current Winston students were an absolute credit to our school; we were all impressed with the way that you handled the evening.

We hope that you enjoyed your first experience of a lesson at Winston!

 

 

Young Enterprise

Congratulations to Bath Blends, our Year 10 Young Enterprise, competing in the West Surrey Finals tonight. The competition involved submitting a 10 page company report, setting up a trade display and delivering a presentation. They won two awards on the night! Best presentation, kudos to Jack Hardiman, Emily-Jane Eldred, Rohan Kalia and Sabina Ofori, supported by Ore Anifowoshe and Ethan Connett and the team were First Runner Up of the competition, which allows them to move forward to the Surrey Finals on 11th May at Guildford Cathedral.

We would all like to emphasise how proud we are of them, especially competing against five independent schools, who all fielded sixth form teams.

Well Done!

Winning at Winston

The McLaren Challenge

In preparation for the McLaren challenge later this month, Miss Blackman hosted an innovation challenge, to take place in the Technology Department, between teams who could sign up for the event in advance to compete against others.

 

The competition was initially only open to Year 10, however, we had a last minute Year 9 team sign up, who competed against the older students. The challenge, which would judge their ability to design something successfully but also work in a team, was to build a strong tower which could hold weights. 

 

The winning team was the Year 9s, who will now work with myself and Mrs Brown to design and make a self-propelled car, to race against other schools at McLaren.  This group of boys impressed us so much with their building skills and their ability to work in a team; their tower also held an amazing 1 kilo of weight!

 

The Winston Churchill School McLaren challenge team are:

Oscar Mays

Michalis Grouzis

Nathan Hutt

Dominik Buocik

Aaryan Shenoy

The Winning Team!

More Winners!

 Year 7 winners of the Frog Quiz.  Will you take part in the next quiz? 

There is a new one on Frog now!

We have had two hugely successful and challenging Frog play quizzes over the last fortnight, with a quiz for Music and for RE. Many students as before showed a lot of resilience and hard work in having multiple attempts in reaching 100% with Miss Ashworth’s quiz for music having a record breaking number of students who will receive certificates for music in assembly on Friday. Mr Magwa’s RE quiz was also very competitive with the students reaching 100% have all received at least two prizes beforehand so are receiving a special certificate for their recognition of their commitment to revising key vocabulary.

Music Winners:

Thomas	Herni
Jodie	Jeeves
Samuel	Baker
Ross	MacDonald
Alfred	Penrose
Jasmine	Forbes
Sophie	Weller
Genna	Vine
Federico	Stella
Shinal	Patel
Archie	Walker
Jessica	Dunipace
Mia	Barclay
Amber	Pike
Emilie	Laurent
Fotios	Tsalouchidis-Gryparis
Rehaan	Ahmed
Amaan	Omar
Hafsah	Mahmood
Poly	Moschouris
Eleanor	Choi
James	Clayton

RE Winners:

Thomas	Herni
Alfred	Penrose
Jasmine	Forbes
Shinal	Patel
Archie	Walker
Amber	Pike
Amaan	Omar

This week a French Quiz has been released I wish all the very best of luck with this quiz.            

Assembly: Supporting Others

Our assembly this week has been all about the Bishop Ngala Secondary school which is located in the Kilome constituency in Mukaa . The school is part of the Makueni district in the Eastern province of Kenya. We have been raising money to sponsor some children through their education at this school.  each Year Group will support and track the progress of two children.

We have direct contact with the school and have recently sent out some unwanted sports kit, as you will have seen on a previous blog.  Students exchange letters about their experiences.



 

 

 

Almost There!

Join Us

Support Your Child

Tickets are selling fast after the success of the last Quiz Night.

Mr Ludlow and Mr Toovey will compare a great evening.

Fund raising for the Library Project: We are almost there!

Currently we need to raise £50,000 for equipment and we need your help. This library is being created for the use of every student in our school and ultimately for community use as well.  As you would expect, Governors will only sign off on this project if the funding is secure.

Therefore, I am asking for help in the following ways to ensure that your child has the best learning environment we can provide:

1. A cash donation, for example £20 per family but any size of contribution would be very helpful

2. When shopping on line please use Easygiving, details are on our website, through the PTA link, especially if you are booking a holiday or buying insurance.

3. Click on the adverts on my blog every time you look at it.

4. Buy a brick and have your family name in our new library for the next fifty years of Winston.

Mrs Cotter and Mr Fisher are busy planning a number of other fund raising events and I will be asking you, later this week, to consider if the company you work for will help, by match funding the money raised by the PTA, a registered charity.

This year is the 50^th Anniversary of The Winston Churchill School.  We are celebrating this with a number of activities including a production at the Rhoda MaGaw theatre, specially written by Mr Jolly and Mr Parsons, a commemorative postage frank and our library and planetarium.  An essay written by Sir Winton Churchill was in the news this week and is relevant to our new building as it was about the importance of astronomy to our future and yesterday it was reported that astronomers have detected a record seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a single star.  I want to provide our students with the opportunity to explore this area of science.

Please help us to create a facility that will stand the test of time

 for the next fifty years.

Reading and Performing at Winston

The Snow Dragons

As you will have remembered from previous blogs, Winston has been invited to perform in the National Theatre Connections Festival and in preparation the students gave the first performances of The Snow Dragon this week.  They were joined by a representative of the Chichester Festival Theatre and Jane Fallowfield, Associate Director of the National Theatre. Jane spoke to the cast for approximately 20 minutes at the end of the Tuesday evening production, having been very impressed with the performance and its staging.

A brief synopsis of ‘The Snow Dragons’:

“ Raggi and her friends spend their free time in the woods and mountains around their sleepy fjord town playing games of Vikings, dragons and war.  When soldiers occupy the town, they watch from their hut in the mountains: their friends and families beaten, silenced, abducted... Let down by the adult world they form The Snow Dragons, ‘the last line of resistance’ carrying out sabotage missions. But this is no game, and true courage requires great sacrifice.”

Following on from our performance in school, the cast will be taking their production of ‘The Snow Dragons’ to the Chichester Festival Theatre on Wednesday, March 22^nd at 7pm.

World Book Day was absolutely jam packed at Winston!

It kicked off with the WBD Breakfast Party where Year 7 students, who have demonstrated their enthusiasm for reading right from the start of the year, coupled with the habitual LRC users were invited to enjoy croissants and hot chocolate as a reward. Which they thoroughly enjoyed!

 

Year 7 tutor groups listened to a special radio programme recorded by students for the day which included discussion, drama and some impressive language skills!

Before the bell rang for break time the whole school was involved in Drop Everything And Read.

It was Miss Perkins' and Mrs Ballam's turn in the chair sharing excerpts of their favourite books at break time. The crowds have been growing all week and we look forward to an even greater audience for Mrs Allen's and Miss Elfaituri's reading.

 

Waterstones Woking set up shop in the LRC at lunchtime giving students the opportunity to spend their WBD vouchers. All students should have received these vouchers from their form tutor. They can be exchanged for one of the £1 WBD titles or used to receive £1 off of any book at most bookshops and supermarkets until 27th March.

 

Mr Fisher launched the Excelsior Award today. Shortlisted graphic novels and manga books are on display in the LRC and students are invited to read, rate and review them using the forms on FrogOS and vote for their favourites. This will run until Easter, the school that submits the most completed reviews will receive a prize from the Award.

The school's focus on books isn't confined to a single day, we celebrate books throughout the year and will continue to promote the advantages of reading for pleasure across the curriculum.

Winston is a school that reads ... students and staff!

Diversity

Neurodiversity

Assembly, last week, was taken by a group of students, led by Mrs Harper, Head of Learning Support, sharing with all our students the ways in which we all think differently and how this impacts on daily lives.  Helping students to develop understanding and empathy for others is an important part of the work of the school.  Our students presented some very challenging concepts in an engaging way.  Special thanks goes to Zac and Liam for their pre-recorded interview on the way ADHD can impact on concentration and learning. Very impressive!

Pancakes

This morning Mr Ludlow arranged for our students, who attend our ‘Start the day the right way’ programme, came into school before the start of the school day to make pancakes. The students were amazing from start to end with their preparation, collaboration and kindness. As well as being successful in making their own pancakes, they also helped each other and offered to make staff cups of tea.

These students and along with some others also were treated with some pancakes cooked by the canteen to enjoy at break time. It was great to see over twenty students in total attend both opportunities along with Mrs Taylor, Mrs Hinchley, Mr Fisher and Mr Ludlow. A very successful morning which put many smiles on many faces. Thank you to Mrs Vadi and Mrs White for your help and being so accommodating.

  Day 2 of Reading Week

At break time students enjoyed listening to Mrs Harper and Mrs Sigrist read some of their favourite stories in the LRC. This was followed by a whole school Drop Everything And Read (DEAR Time) at the beginning of third period where teachers were invited to incorporate reading into the beginning of their lesson.

 

But amongst everything going on, the best part of my day was watching Year 7 students reading together and listening to their discussions. It was lovely to see Shane, Dylan, Ruben and Jack in the LRC at lunchtime excitedly reading Vampire Hunter together. An interactive book, they control how the story unfolds by choosing what decisions the characters make. They were collaborating on their decisions, persuasively communicating their reasoning and demonstrating resilience by re-reading the text until they made the most favourable choices; the Winston Competencies.

 

Keep it up boys!

Year 11 Boys Basketball

A huge well done to the year 11 Boys Basketball team who finished second in the District this season. Despite being the reigning champions the boys were unable to retain their title and lost in an enthralling final against SJB. I hope the boys continue playing basketball as they leave Winston and continue on their journeys. Thanks for being such an awesome team.

 Mr Toovey

We Need You

Your PTA

PTA Meeting - 2nd March 2017 - 7.30pm - Rm4

 
Come along to the PTA meeting this week where we'll be discussing and preparing for the Indoor Boot Sales, upcoming Quiz Night and Winston Showcase. There will also be an opportunity to share your own ideas about how to raise money on behalf of the school.


We'd love more parents to get involved in the school community, you don't have to be a committee member to join our meetings, all are welcome! Refreshments provided.

Letter from Zoe Johnson-Walker, Headteacher

We are nearly there! The Library Project is now out for tender and this takes us a step closer to having a great new facility for your children.

Currently we need to raise £50,000 for equipment and we need your help. This library is being created for the use of every student in our school and ultimately for community use as well.  As you would expect, Governors will only sign off on this project if the funding is secure.

Therefore, I am asking for help in the following ways to ensure that your child has the best learning environment we can provide:

1. A cash donation, for example £20 per family but any size of contribution would be very helpful

2. When shopping on line please use Easygiving, details are on our website, through the PTA link, especially if you are booking a holiday or buying insurance.

3. Click on the adverts on my blog every time you look at it. 

4. Buy a brick and have your family name in our new library for the next fifty years of Winston.

Mrs Cotter and Mr Fisher are busy planning a number of other fund raising events and I will be asking you, later this week, to consider if the company you work for will help, by match funding the money raised by the PTA, a registered charity.

This year is the 50^th Anniversary of The Winston Churchill School.  We are celebrating this with a number of activities including a production at the Rhoda MaGaw theatre, specially written by Mr Jolly and Mr Parsons, a commemorative postage frank and our library and planetarium.  An essay written by Sir Winton Churchill was in the news this week and is relevant to our new building as it was about the importance of astronomy to our future and yesterday it was reported that astronomers have detected a record seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a single star.  I want to provide our students with the opportunity to explore this area of science.

Please help us to create a facility that will stand the test of time, over the next fifty years.

In anticipation of your support

Yours sincerely

Zoe Johnson-Walker