National Careers' Week Part 2

National Careers Week

Mrs Smyth has complied the stats for this week's events and they are impressive:

• Visitors – 42
• Presentations/workshops – 28
• Lunchtime stands – 6  Open to all students
• Activities (incl the Army/Merrist Wood) – 14
• Student included in workshops/presentations – 1299

This does not include all the activities that went on in class and the lunchtime stands which were available to all!

Thank you to all our visitors, you have helped to inspire the students of Winston and a huge thank you to Mrs Smyth, who has worked hard to provide opportunities for all of our children.

  

There will be more images next week!

Year 9 Science

Mr Weale was really impressed with the effort from his Year 9 science class with their work on Organ Systems, in their Biology lesson. 

The class had to create life size drawings of their bodies and insert the main organs. They had to consider size and scale and use their mathematical skills, to ensure that they were as lifelike as possible! The idea was to understand the placement and functions of the the organs and the enzymes that are produced around the body to assist with digestion! The detail in the work is exceptional.  Well done Year 9!

World Book Week Chapter 1

World Book Week 📚

Our librarian, Miss Dodds, decided that a World Book Day was not enough for Winston and she has planned a full week of activities that help us all to celebrate the joy of books and reading.

The first half of Book Week has been jam packed full of different things going on in the library. On Monday, we started off with Mrs Alexander reading an extract from Becoming Michelle Obama as this is someone who has inspired her. It was interesting to hear a little about Michelle's childhood and how she always stood for what she believed in. Thank you Mrs Alexander for sharing this! 

On Tuesday, as part of Careers Week, we were lucky enough to have visiting author Marisa Noelle doing a talk in the Discovery Space, coinciding with Book Week! She spoke to mainly Year 8's but some other students also, about the process of taking a book from first idea right through to it being on the shelf. It was incredibly inspiring and the students had lots of questions for her. We're hoping Marisa will come back later on in the school year as her teen horror/sci-fi books are sure to be very popular with the students! Our staff reader on Tuesday was Mr Parsons, who decided to read a short extract from Pax - a moving story of the extraordinary friendship between a box and his fox, and their epic journey to be reunited. Thank you Mr Parsons!

Tuesday also saw the start of Manga Club after school! We created manga inspired posters to promote the club and looked at some 'New In' manga books for the library. We are hoping to expand the club over the next couple of weeks so if you are interested in reading and enjoying manga, come along on a Tuesday after school in the library.

The Aspire Carnegie reading group met again on Wednesday morning to decide which would be the first book from the Carnegie shortlist that they would read. Some of the books were more popular than others within the group, but the students are encouraged to push themselves out of their reading comfort zone. Each student chose a book to take out from the list, and went away with the idea of trying that book, ready to discuss when we meet next Friday!

It's been a busy week already in the library, so be sure to come along and choose something to read, take part the book week activities or decide on what career path you might want to go down. Watch this space for more Book Week news at the end of the week - including World Book Day pictures, more staff readers and another author visit!

National Careers Week

National Careers Week

2^nd - 6^th March 2020

Mrs Smyth has produced a packed week of events to support our students by raising                awareness of the opportunities that they will have moving forward into the world of work.

Students have either signed up or been invited to the special events, some of which are outlined below.

Today students were in a session asking questions about careers in bio-medical sciences 

and what its like to work for the NHS.  There are further sessions later in the week.

Woking College came in to give a presentation to all Year 9 students.

Programme of Events

Monday 2 March

Lesson	Workshop	Location	Staff	Students involved
Period 1	NHS:  Diversity of working in the NHS.  The NHS is the UK’s biggest employer and many different opportunities exist.	CCS	JSI	By invitation / sign up
Period 2	Woking College – Presentation to Year 9 students	Hall	Yr 9 teachers	All of Year 9
Period 2	WSP Engineering – Learn about different types of engineering and different careers with WSP, who were involved with the Shard – tallest building in the UK	CCS	REX / LSM	By invitation / sign up
Period 2	Royal Aeronautical Society – learn about the breadth of opportunities available in the world of aerospace and aviation, including engineering.	DSP	SAW	By invitation / sign up
Period 3	British Airways – get an insight into the aviation industry and business	DSP confirmed	MDO	By invitation / sign up
Lunchtime stand in hall	Brooklands College - Brooklands offers both full and part time education and training across a broad range of subjects and course levels.	Hall	LSM	All

Tuesday 3 March

Lesson	Workshop	Location	Staff	Students involved
Period 1	Exposure Digital Marketing – learn about careers in the marketing of products or services using digital technologies on the Internet with Exposure	CCS	JSI	By invitation / sign up
Period 1	NHS:  This talk will be about what it is like to apply for a job at the NHS and how you should prepare for an interview.	DSP confirmed	MDO / LSM	By invitation / sign up
Period 2	Foundations Estate Agents – learn about working for an estate agency that deals with sales and lettings.	DSP confirmed	MDO / JME	By invitation / sign up
Period 2	Construction Industry – come and see BMF and learn about the varied opportunities in the construction industry where there are no barriers to entry and careers available for women too.	CCS	REX	By invitation / sign up
Period 3	Author Marisa Noelle will be here to talk about the author path/career.	DSP confirmed	MDO RRO	By invitation / sign up
Period 3	Construction Industry – come and see BMF and learn about the varied opportunities in the construction industry where there are no barriers to entry and careers available for women too.	CCS	JME	By invitation / sign up
Lunchtime stand in hall	Woking College - the College provides an outstanding learning environment in which every student is valued and encouraged to achieve their very best.	Hall	LSM	All
Period 4	Construction Industry – come and see BMF and learn about the varied opportunities in the construction industry where there are no barriers to entry and careers available for women too.	CCS	JSI SWA	By invitation / sign up

Our School

This morning, a small group of Year 8 students joined Ms Dodds as part of an Aspire Reading Group. We will be looking at the books nominated for the Carnegie Medal Award 2020 and deciding on our own shortlist. The students read some extracts from the books and decided which ones they would like to read. We talked about pushing themselves out of their comfort zone in regards to what they usually like to read and it was great to see them engaging in extracts of texts they wouldn't usually read. We will be meeting weekly to discuss what we have been reading. 

Next Thursday, 5th March is World Book Day. As a school, we will be celebrating Book Week and there will be different events happening all week. As it is also Careers Week next week, the theme of Book Week will be 'Read to Succeed' and there are plenty of books in the library that fit in with this theme. Some of these can be found on the new display. Below is the itinerary of events happening across Book Week. EVERY student will be given a book token that can be exchanged for a free book from a range of specific World Book Day books at participating book stores, or use their voucher to take £1 off other books from £2.99. We are also very lucky to be able to welcome Waterstones into the Library next Friday who will be bringing with them a selection of these World Book Day books so that students can make use of their voucher. Author of Boy 87, Ele Fountain will be visiting Year 7 on Friday also, so stay tuned for pictures from this! 

Diversity: ASD

Miss Green's assembly, this week, challenged the thinking of our students regarding Autism and Asperger syndrome.  The presentation helped our young people to have a better understanding of what this means to a child that has this diagnosis and how we can all help to support the 98 students at Winston with ASD.

New Displays in Science

During half term the walls on the middle floor of science have been plastered and painted, which then ensures that the new images are displayed effectively.

Making Great Music Together

Great Music Making

On Wednesday 26th February the Music Department welcomed the British Army Band Sandhurst to Winston. They were with us for the whole day, rehearsing a Wind Band in the main Hall with 60 Winston students and 7 students from Worpleston Primary School, and a contemporary band in the Churchill Suite which had 15 Winston students in. During the day students experienced what it is like to rehearse with professional musicians and under a professional conductor, receiving phenomenal support for the Army musicians. The groups rehearsed a number of pieces, spending 30 minutes of intense rehearsal time on each piece. 

At the end of the day the two groups came together in the main hall and performed what they had been working on; including The Magnificent 7, The Contender, Uptown Funk, Castle On A Hill and part of a Beethoven Symphony. The concert ended with a fantastic performance of the Star Trek Symphonic Suite. In the concert a number of Winston students also got the opportunity to perform solo's within pieces with Ollie, George, Joanna and Dan all producing great improvisations and Emilie leading the contemporary group. 

The Music Department would like to thank the British Army Band for an absolutely brilliant day and we are thoroughly looking forward to welcoming the band back next year.

There is a film of the incredible finale at the end of this blog!  

School Developments

Investing in Your Children

I am delighted to inform you that the Governing Body has approved two significant capital projects, which will improve the facilities for your children. This will be an investment, in total, of approximately £1.3 million of planned spending over two financial years.  This money has been accrued through careful management of our on-site school businesses.

Parents were invited to view the plans on Wednesday 19th February, from which we received positive comments about the vision for our school.

Project 1: Performance Space

This additional new facility more than doubles the size of the existing Churchill Suite, raising the roof to provide an exciting new teaching and performance area.  The Rosla Block will also be up-graded to significantly improve this area of the school.  Performance Space will be fitted with the best technology infrastructure that we can afford to ensure that sound, lighting, heating, cooling, special effects and recording can all take place, managed and controlled by our students.  The aim is to ensure that students are able to access the space to learn how to use the technology and then to apply it to performances, recitals, visiting speakers and other school events.

This space will also be used for orchestra and choir rehearsals, as these groups are now so large that they have outgrown our existing facilities.  We also aim to hire out the facilities to community groups, at the weekends, to ensure that we build upon our income for future projects.

Project 2: The Science Toilets

At last we have the resource to replace the toilets in the Science Block.  The work will start towards the end of June once Year 11 have left and be completed by September, as school opens for the autumn term.  There is a significant amount of structural work to complete but all the students, who have seen the plans are very positive about the new layout and believe that it is worth the time and effort to create these new facilities.

Other toilet facilities across the school will retain their current layout, as we do not have the resources to replace them all at this time.

We will also be investing in two new Geography Classrooms and relocating Learning Support.

Public Health England Advice for Schools

Coronavirus: latest information and advice

As with all health issues, our aim is to provide relevant up-to-date information for our parents.  I am ensuring that as a school we are aware of developments and tasking the advice of Public Health England.  I hope that you find the following useful.

Novel coronavirus (2019-nCov) is a new strain of coronavirus first identified in Wuhan City, China. The Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England are carefully monitoring the coronavirus situation and have published information and advice for the public. As the situation is developing, please check the online advice for the latest and most up-to-date information https://www.gov.uk/guidance/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-information-for-the-public

Please share the above government advice to staff and parents/carers, as appropriate.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advise against all travel to Hubei Province due to the ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak. The FCO advise against all but essential travel to the rest of mainland China (not including Hong Kong and Macao) https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/china