Learning at Winston

 Math's Investigation

Year 8 students have been investigating the math's behind the creation of a perfect shaped cone,  as part of their studies into angles. Students had to investigate the angle size of the segment to create a specific height cone. All part of investigative learning in mathematics.

May the 4th Be With You!

Yesterday was May the 4th Be With You (or otherwise known as Star Wars Day!), a globally celebrated day amongst Star Wars fans. It was only right that we celebrated in the Library with our own Star Wars event. After school, students from Year 7 and 8 spent time enjoying all things Star Wars. The students watched some behind the scenes footage from The Mandalorian, took pictures posing as their favourite characters, took a quiz to find out which character they would be and explored some of the 'new in' Star Wars books that the Library has to offer. There is still a display featured in the Library showcasing some of these books so if you missed out on the after school event, come along and take a look.. and a Star Wars bookmark!

It's been fantastic to have students back in the Library making the most of the space before school, at break times, and after school. 

We currently have a Winston Book Awards in the pipeline so watch this space...

Miss Dodds

Enjoying Sport at Winston

 Alternative Sports at Winston

With a strong emphasis on bringing our students back together again from recent lockdowns, the PE department designed an alternative sports curriculum for core PE lessons. This has been for the past 3 weeks and our aim was for the students to have fun; for everyone to get involved; and to try a wide range of sports that they have never tried before - together. 

From Footgolf, Quidditch, KorfBall, Danish Longball, Stoolball to Tchouckball, these new cultural experiences have been accepted with open arms and have provided lots of opportunities for every student to step out of their comfort zone with their peers; to re-form friendships working face-to-face; and to excel in ways they have been previously unable to, or even have access to. 

Danielle Y8 said, "It has been so much fun to do different games."

Alex Y9 said, "Danish Longball is like playing football, cricket and dodgeball all in one!"

Isabelle Y8 said, "The alternative curriculum has been fun because we have learnt about different sports but actually got the chance to use some skills that we normally play in lessons."

Max  Y7 said, "I have never tried Footgolf before but really enjoyed it in my PE lesson." 

Playing sport together has the power to inspire and unite and our students have definitely realised this, as you can see from these photographs:

Mrs S Walton

WCSC PE Department

www.wcsc.org.uk

Developing New Skills

 Year 10 Food Preparation

The Year 10 Food Preparation and Nutrition Class were instructed by Kevin our school Chef to portion a whole chicken. We are very grateful to Kevin and catering Academy for their support with this aspect of the course.

The students learnt knife skills, ways of reducing food waste and about the life span of a chicken. Every student was given a chicken to portion.  Over the next few lessons they will be cooking the different portions of the chicken and creating their own dishes to showcase their skills.

Art Display

Year 9 art work based on the Mexican Day of the Dead.  The students enjoyed drawing their masks and then making them in clay.   

Dirt at Winston!

 Geography Project

Winston has been selected to take part in an exciting new programme called “Dirt Is Good” that will help our students think about the ways they can take positive action to help other people and nature.

Year 7 students will work on a project during one of their geography lessons per fortnight. Teachers were asked to nominate students to lead the project and the leaders attended an online launch event on 22nd April. 

Students can focus on local or global issues, but the key aim is to get students working together. We look forward to seeing the projects they develop. 

The Garden Project

Mrs Alexander and Mrs Havers have been working on the garden project, to bring this area into full use, including the growing of vegetables.

The photographs to show the work has been done in the garden thanks to Mrs Havers and her husband; they cleared the area next to the steps which will allow us to plant vegetables.  The main issue is maintaining a good water supply and Mrs Alexander has asked the site team to find a creative way to make this happen.

Getting Ready for Summer

 You Said...

Students have requested bike storage with a canopy over the last few years.  At last we have been able to create a purpose built area, each section with a canopy, capable of storing at least 116 bikes.  The facility will be locked throughout the day.

Painting MFL

Although students are not using the corridor in the MFL block currently, as part of our Covid-19 measures, this has provided an opportunity to decorate and smarten up this area of the school.  Thank you to our team of ex-Winston students for working so hard to get the painting completed on time.

Science Block

At last each science room will have new windows, with high level ones that open!  Surrey County Council are currently installing all the windows, which will take a few weeks to complete but will certainly be an improvement, especially through the summer months.

Fire Alarm

Surrey County Council are also replacing our fire alarm system, updating the technology and the detector points.

Additional Outdoor Dining Space

More picnic tables have been ordered and should be in place for the start of term.  These heavy duty tables made of recycled materials, will be placed under the canopy on the lower patio.

Improved Drainage

As our weather becomes more unpredictable and heavy rain on a sloping site can result in flooding, Mr Phillips has taken the decision to increase the drainage on the lower patio in an attempt to reduce the potential for damage to our floors, should we have significant rainfall.

Winston Book Week

 World Book Week

As World Book Day, Thursday 4th March, was before students were permitted to return to school, Miss Dodd thought it was only right to delay the celebration and so Winston Book Week was celebrated last week with events ranging from an 'Instagram' Library photobooth, The Masked Reader and author talks at lunchtime. 

The students really enjoyed sharing what they're reading with the 'Instagram' Library photobooth. This will become a permanent feature in the Library so if you want to share what you're reading at the moment, pop in and ask Miss Dodds about it!

Throughout the week, different departments tried to incorporate 10 minutes of reading into their Period 1 lessons. This picture was taken from one of Mrs Sweetman's German lessons, where the students were using an English-German dictionary to help them solve a World Book Day quiz in German - well done Year 7!!

The English department enjoyed dressing up as their favourite book characters on Thursday. With characters ranging from Harry Potter, to Macbeth, were there any characters you could spot?

Three different virtual author talks took place at lunchtimes during the week. These kicked off with illustrator Jonny Duddle giving a masterclass on how to draw Dobby from Harry Potter, followed by Katherine Rundell - author of The Explorer - talking about the necessary ingredients for a good adventure story and it finished with Cressida Cowell discussing all things creativity! The students really enjoyed these and it provided them with something a bit different to do at lunchtime!

During form times, students from different year groups nominated books for the Winston Book Awards that will be running in the Summer Term. Students who had Library lessons also continued this and voted for further categories such as Best Fiction Book and Best Non-Fiction Book. All students in the school were given a book token to buy a World Book Day book available in supermarkets along with essential shopping. Some bookshops may extend the vouchers when the shops re-open later in April (please check with individual bookshops for this). 

Overall, it was a fun week with lots of students sharing what they enjoy reading and what they're currently reading. Hopefully as COVID restrictions ease, we'll be able to have an author in again to school to talk to the students in person.

Miss Dodds

Being a Pirate!

 

Treasure Island  

Ms Warburg-Gurel's Year 7 students have written short pirate songs and shanties to complement their work on Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.  A story of pirates and buried gold and a focus on honour. 

I hope that you enjoy their presentations as much as I did.  Thank you for sharing this work with me.

Home Test Kits

A huge thank you to our senior prefect team for coming into school on Thursday 8th April to organise the distribution of the NHS Home Test Kits.  

Shinal, Benjamin, Poly, Benjamin, Georgie, Michaela, Lalian and Grace.