Spooky Winston!

Spooky Science

Students enjoyed some exciting activities spooky science lessons on Wednesday 31st October.

Habeebah and Charlotte: were looking at how detritivores contribute to the decomposition of dead matter and how this links to the carbon cycle, involving mealworms with rotten apples!
Evie and Emma: were looking at reversible chemical reactions due to oxidation and reduction. When the chemical is oxidised, it turns blue and when it is reduced it turns colourless
Other students were looking at the structure of the eye and how it is adapted to detect as much light as possible and send signals to the brain

There was also an investigation into pumpkins as producers in a food chain and an opportunity to look at real animal bones, thinking about the structure of them and linking this to their roles in the body

The Prefects and 11CE did a fantastic job carving the pumpkins. They are very inventive.

Participation

Cross Country National Competition

On Thursday 11th of October, 23 Winston students travelled to Wellington Sports Ground, Southampton, to participate in the first round of the National Cross Country Competition. There were 4 teams across years 7 to 10; Junior and Intermediate Girls and Junior and Intermediate Boys, with the junior teams both running first. 

The course was over 2 kilometres long, with some short, punishing hill climbs in the middle, and the weather conditions were not kind either! Nonetheless, runners competed for an overall team score, with the lower the points scored, the better.

Every runner showed true resilience in completing the course, encouragement to their team mates and sportsmanship towards other runners! As a team, the Junior Boys had a strong performance and came 5th out of 13 teams. Well done to Louie, Alex, Joe, Cameron and Max. The best individual performance of the day came from Genna, Year 9, who came 3rd in the intermediate girls out of 50 runners!

Mr Martin and Miss Singleton would like to congratulate all runners for their performances on the day. Stay tuned for an update on the District Cross Country coming up in November!

GCSE Music

See below, one of our GCSE Music groups preparing for their mock examinations.

Assembly this Week

Our theme for this week was celebrating diversity and Mrs Strachen had researched and prepared a thought provoking presentation.  This reflected on points in our history and the people who have contributed to the rich diversity that our country is today.  Some of the slides are on the images below but students were also introduced to Shirley Bassey, singing 'This is My Life' and Labi Siffre singing 'Something Inside so Strong'.

Our Week at Winston

Assembly

Mr Byrne's assembly theme this week has been leadership.This is an aspect of education that we value highly at Winston.  Students are being asked about the skills and characteristics of leaders and are then being challenged to consider their own leadership style, with the concept that

'I am the leader of myself'.

Welcome Mr Mohamed

It would appear that you are a regular reader of my blog. 

 We trust that you are enjoying your new role in Mauritius!

WINSTON WELCOMEs AMY WILLIAMS, MBE, OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALLIST!!

Staff and students are looking forward to welcoming a former GB Olympic Hero to Winston on Thursday 1^st November! Partnered with Team Superschools, Amy will be providing students with an insight into the life of a professional athlete and life after competing.  She will share the high’s and low’s, the dedication, discipline and resilience required to push themselves in order to reach their full potential.  We hope students find the day inspiring and motivational and can use this experience as a stepping stone on their pathway to greatness.

Year 7 Lunch

Parents Join Us for Lunch!

 Roast chicken lunch with spicy vegetable wellington as an alternative.

 The salad bar.

 Enjoying lunch with Year 7 students!

We were delighted to welcome over one hundred parents, of children in Year 7, to share the experience of having lunch at Winston. Wednesday is 'roast day' and it proved to be very popular.  Our catering Manager, Carole, explained to me how popular the vegetarian meals  have become and that children's choices have changed over the last four years.  Having tried the spicy vegetable wellington I can see why it is so popular!

Learning at Winston

Year 9: Food From  Around the World 

Students in Mrs Vadi’s class were asked to produce primary and secondary investigational work, relating to a country of their choice. They were then required to prepare and present a dish from their chosen country. The outcomes looked delicious, inviting and demonstrated a range of skills.

Barista at Winston

Staff at Winston look forward to their coffee break on a Tuesday, when our Sports Centre Coffee Shop is open.  It is run by our students, training to take qualifications in barista and food hygiene, under the watchful eye of Mrs Clark.

Well done to the current team, they have proved to be very effective  and they are enjoying the experience.

The First Rehearsals 

A glimpse of one of the initial rehearsals of Grease, our next large musical production!
More details will follow.

This Week at Winston

Year 9 Geographical Enquiry

Year 9 students have been investigating the hypothesis "The Winston Churchill School should grow it's own food". Secondary research investigates food production methods; cost benefit analysis food miles and focuses on sustainability. These images show students conducting a soil survey around the school site to help assess the feasibility of developing our own vegetable gardens.

Hermitage in Space!

Ninety Year 5 children from The Hermitage School joined us, at Winston, on Monday morning.  They are working on a topic of space, our solar system and wanted to use the planetarium to explore the planets.

They were divided into three groups and had time in each part of the new facility: the planetarium, the library and children used our new computers to further investigate space travel.

Dear Mrs Johnson-Walker,

I just wanted to write and say a big thank you to you for allowing our Year 5 children to come on Monday and use your Discovery Space. They had a brilliant time and enjoyed all the different activities. A particular thank you to Miss Butcher the librarian and Mr Anslow the Science teacher for taking the time to talk to our students and helping them learn more about our Space topic. The children all had a fantastic morning.
Many thanks
Debbie Kimani

Debbie Kimani

Year 5 Team Leader 

Thursday 28th September: 

European Day of Languages

During the recent European Day of Languages, students celebrated the languages and cultures of Europe by taking part in a variety of events including an inter-form quiz, a European-themed photo booth and an MFL pop-up café - which proved to be very popular- where students were able to enjoy delicacies from a range of European countries during break time! Students also answered the registers in different languages and tried to guess the languages of the greetings on staff badges throughout the day.

Preparing to Remember WW1

A new range of resources has been purchased and can be found in our library, aimed at ensuring our students are aware of the significance of this conflict and the impact on individuals.  

We are planning to commemorate the First World War Centenary on Thursday 8th November, with the aim of including the whole school.  Leading up to that date, Mr Phillips, our Business Manager, is trying to source a website that will permit our students to research members of their family or people who lived locally who were involved.  

If you think that you can help us with this project we would love to hear from you.