Year 10 Sports Leaders

We were delighted that our Year 10 Sports Leaders were invited to this year's Surrey School Games at St George's College in  Weybridge. They took charge of one of the six sporting festivals and successfully ran the badminton and physifun carousel for groups of Year 4 & 5 children from seven different primary schools in the district. 

Each leader managed an activity station aiming to engage and inspire every young participant. They taught them new racquet skills that easily transfer to most other forms of physical activity and better physical health. They created a positive experience for all, allowing each student to feel confident and motivated.

   

Our Year 10 Leaders demonstrated such effective communication, with the emphasis on fun and trying your best. Each leader was a brilliant role model displaying the key values that epitomise the Surrey School Games:

• Honesty
• Teamwork
• Self-Belief
• Respect
• Passion
• Determination

Every primary school purposefully approached our school to pay their congratulations to our sports leaders, highlighting that they are all a credit to the school and have been so engaging with the younger students. The organisers echoed this and gave them the opportunity of closing the festival with a presentation and handing out the awards.

Well done to each and every leader, we are extremely proud of you, your conduct and your behaviour and we are excited to see how you will continue to shine in the future!

Mrs S Walton

WCSC PE Department

Planning for the Future

 Year 10 Planning for the future!

Year 10 have taken part in lots of opportunities and experiences in the summer term. Two of note, have been work experience and a day in the life of a college student at Woking College. 

Work Experience - 27^th June -1^st July

For the first time in a few years the school embarked on work experience. Parents, students, and the school, all worked together to help the students find placements they would enjoy and benefit from throughout the week. Ms Smyth, our careers advisor, worked particularly hard to ensure every child had an opportunity that week. 

The feedback from the week has been incredible. The positive comments from employers were overwhelming and every student and parent should be so proud of their effort throughout that week. Employers praised their organisation, their politeness and respect, their ability to solve problems and their kindness towards others.  All skills and competencies we all work hard to promote and instil within them. 

If you would like more information at all with careers, please do contact Ms Smyth who would be happy to assist and there is a careers portal on Frog with more information. 

Woking College Event - 8^th July

Year 10's second experience included a visit to Woking College as part of their transition to Colleges and Sixth form for September 2023. Year 10 experienced college life, wearing their own clothes and completing five different KS5 classes that they choose. 

Students really enjoyed the day and got a lot from the experience.  It gave them a lot to think about such as where they want to be in a year's time and what courses they want to choose.  The principal of the college Brett was very impressed with the Year Group and they continued to enhance the reputation of the school in the borough. 

There will be college and sixth form open days in the Autumn/Winter term, and it will be important to be aware of when those are to help your child make the most informed choice next academic year. 

Year 10 have set themselves up so well for Year 11 and beyond. A fantastic effort from all. 

Mr Curtis, Year Leader

 Year 7 Art

Year 7 have been learning about pattern in Art. They have created various designs inspired by Islamic art exploring various aspects of symmetry. They have now selected their best design and have made and printed a selection of patterns using printing ink as a final outcome.

Enjoy the outcomes of their work below.  Well done Year 7!

 

Work Experience

 Year 10 in the World of Work 

Our Year 10 students were on work experience last week.  They have done superbly, finding their own placements, with the support of family, the community and school community.  They have been involved in a diverse range of roles and industries, including service industries, animal care, construction, local government, IT, education, charities, hospitality, retail, sports, research to name a few. 

They have worked on important skills to prepare themselves for their futures and positively represented themselves and our school in the community.  The response we have had from the employers and students is impressive.  Some of the skills highlighted by employers and students alike are communication skills, listening, questioning, fitness for purpose, analysis, resilience and problem solving.

From a local paper (Woking News & Mail):  "P has been diligent, hard-working and very competent. The skills she has learnt involve researching and writing copy for a variety of newspaper articles."  She may even be published this week!

Local council (Woking BC): "L has been able to use her writing and comprehension skills to develop an excellent case study for our Planet Woking website. She attended an online meeting with me and met our digital advertising / social media consultants to understand how we work in partnership with them to communicate and engage with the public. L has been a credit to Winston Churchill - polite and efficient and has engaged positively with me during her time with the Green Infrastructure team."  They have published an article on their website Planet Woking, written by the student about 'Plastic Free July' Plastic Free July - An article by Lauren Sweetman - Planet Woking

Art Gallery (The Tate):  "Both students were an absolute credit to Winston, and it looks as if they enjoyed their time with us.... the team would be very pleased to welcome them back in the future."  Feedback from the students:  "I will most definitely come back! (and I would love to work here in the future)  Thank you so much for this experience"  She felt she had learnt "how to professionally interact with members of the public" and "how much more there is to Tate (behind the scenes & events etc)"

A secure mobile communications company (Serbus):  "J has been an excellent member of our team for this week.  J has been punctual, polite and keen throughout.  J has shown a natural aptitude for accounts/book keeping and has been allowed to do much of the company invoicing and bank payments, culminating in making some transactions with minimal supervision - the aim being to ensure he trusted his own judgement.
J has also produced a number of documents for presentation to the management, related to marketing merchandise and external meeting room venues that he was asked to identify and price."

A Retail store (Tesco, Knaphill): "They have picked up quickly around date rotation and all tasks that have been given.  They are very polite, Communication skills are getting better each day they are with us."

A construction company (Thakeham Homes):  "We have ensured that the student has experienced a wide range of activities within as many of our departments as time has allowed.  We had a fantastic day at our development at Pease Pottage where she was able to have a tour of our show homes, sales and then time on the construction site where she was shown our plots in progress from literally the ground up.

Her confidence has grown through the week enormously and she has been a pleasure to have here.  She has asked questions, shown enthusiasm and had a positive attitude to everything that she has been shown."

Charitable Homeless Day Service (Guildford Action):  "J has been amazing.  It's quite a challenging environment but he has helped with admin, speaking to service users and attended a group off premises.  He has really great listening skills and is smiley and friendly.  Some of the jobs he's had have been a bit boring but he has just got on with it.  He has arrived on time every day, dressed appropriately ad worked really hard."

Restaurant (Island House):  "Willingess to learn, positivity, listening, engagement, open minded"

Web Design & Development (Akiko Design):  "The student was treated as any other member of the team, with respect, openness and professionalism.  The behaviour of the student was excellent, polite and confident.  The student has learnt how to build a website, using basic HTML & CSS, Wordpress and installing plugins."

A hair dressers (Peter Jones Hair Design):  "good time keeping friendly, good communication with older people and improved day by day, willing to learn new skills."

A primary school:  "They have had opportunities to work with younger children supporting them with their learning tasks, reading and at play times.  They have also helped to run our sports day events.  The students who have worked with us have been punctual, willing to take direction and on the whole shown good initiative. They have shown patience and kindness to our pupils too."

As a student or parent you can explore the Careers Section on Frog for a wide range of information and opportunities.  The schools works to the Gatsby Benchmarks and has a programme of careers education beginning in Year 7, through to Year 11 and support with transition.

Top Musicians

Young Musician of the Year Crowned

On Thursday 30th June our fifteen Young Musician of the Year finalists battled it out to be crowned Winston Young Musician of the Year for 2022. Each of the students performed a piece on their instrument or voice, showcasing the incredible musical talent that we have here at Winston. The audience were treated to a range of music on a variety of different instruments, from drum kit to flute and voice to trumpet.

The competition was judged by Anna Power, the head of A level Music at Woking College, who was extremely impressed with the standard of all of the performances. She gave feedback to each of the students who performed. Below is a brief snippet of what she said about each performance.

Hamish – Drum kit: “Sensitive dynamics, fantastic control and great variety….just the kind of drummer you would want in a pit band”.

Ollie – Flute: “A confident performance and a great tone – pure and clear. Also showed great finger work and a real feel for jazz”.

Katie – Voice: “A very expressive performer with excellent diction and good control of dynamics. Really bought the song to life”.

Paola – Acoustic Guitar: “Excellent finger-picking style. A sensitive and intricate performance”.

Taran – Trumpet: “Great tone and tuning, clear articulation and good variety of legato and staccato”.

Athidh – Piano: “Fantastic use of dynamics and tempo. Really captured the folk dance style”.

Nyah – Voice: “Excellent diction and intonation. An extremely expressive and committed performance”.

Sadie – Electric Guitar: “A very expressive performance with effortless changes between lead and fingerpicking”.

Sarah – Violin: “A great clear sound within the ensemble. Lead the group well from the front”.

Archie – Xylophone: “A really confident performance. Amazing levels of control to really capture the humour of the piece”.

Olivia – Voice: “Fantastic diction, rock-solid intonation, and a beautiful tone. Really bought out the contrast between the verses and choruses”.

Emily – Flute: “Beautiful tone, and excellent breath control and intonation. Elegantly shaped phrases and really neat finger work”.

Josh – Piano: “A fluid and relaxed style of playing with great control of dynamics, from the sensitively played melody to the assertive arpeggios”.

Ollie – Guitar: “Great technical control with some fantastic whammy bar moments! Good contrast between chords and the solo”.

Thomas – Drums: “A really enthusiastic performance which showed great stamina. Really captured the style of the Foo Fighters and made great use of the whole kit”.

It proved incredibly difficult to split the students but, in the end, Anna awarded second place to Year 9 student Archie for his incredible performance of ‘The Two Imps’ on orchestral xylophone. She then awarded a joint first place to both Nyah (Y11), for her vocal performance of ‘Cabaret’, and Hamish (Y10), for his drumkit mash-up of ‘When You’re Here/Can’t Wait To Be King’.

 

 2nd Place – Archie

Joint 1st – Hamish and Nyah

Both Nyah and Hamish will be performing solos with one of our large ensembles at the Winston Christmas Concert in December.

Challenging our Students

 Speakers4Schools

Students from Year 10 welcomed Kate Lander, CEO, Ivy House, London to our school on Monday to talk about her life as a Chief Executive Officer for a large Financial Institution.

The talk came about through our long-standing partnership with Speakers for Schools, a charitable organisation, founded in 2010 by ITV’s Political Editor Robert Peston. The aim of the Charity is to end educational inequality by giving all young people access to the same prestigious networks available to the top fee-paying schools in the UK. Through talks from today’s influential figures via their Inspiration programme, their work experience programme linking state school students to industry-leading companies and networked support partners, they are helping to level the playing field for young people of all backgrounds.

Kate spoke in the Discovery Centre about her early years growing up in the Midlands and how she developed a set of personal values that has made her incredibly appreciative of the things she has achieved. She gave our students an insight into what it was like working in the Finance sector in 2008 when the banking crash occurred and Lehman Brothers bank failed.

She linked her love of Sport with her own personal success in finance, explaining that Sport gave her a real sense of her own identity and enabled her to be much more self-confident.

She encouraged our students to make themselves memorable, by creating a clear identity for themselves and living within those personal values, telling them that when they find something that they are passionate about, the world will be a much happier place in which to live.

In a lively Q&A, she spoke at length about the role of women in the financial world and how women are taking on more leading roles than ever before within a wide range of FTSE 100 companies

Latin Seminar

Following on from the work 10E Latin completed with Dr Efi last term, today we had the privilege of visiting the beautiful Royal Holloway University. We attended a seminar on the presentation of Roman women in art and literature which was insightful and allowed us to consider more deeply the expectations placed upon different genders by society in a different historical context. This was followed by a tour of the campus and grounds of the university, including the sports facilities, accommodation, impressive library and student union shop. The tour, generously hosted by Livia who is currently working on her postgraduate thesis, gave us an idea of what university life could be like and further insight into what the study of Classics can lead to.

We're very grateful to Dr Efi and Professor Richard for giving up their time to offer us this experience, and others throughout this year.

Professor Richard Alston will be visiting Winston next week as part of our Year 7 Classics Taster Day, which we are very much looking forward to.

Dr Efi, the Classics Professor that's been working with Mr Fisher's Year 10 students this year, gave them this card today, with a copy of Carol Ann Duffy's The World's Wife. 

Induction Day 2022

 

Welcome to Winston Year 6

For the first time in three years we have been able to hold Induction Days during the summer term.  The children were very excited and embraced the activities with enthusiasm.  The aim of the days is to enable the students to find their way around and to feel confident about the start of the Autumn Term.

Parents were then able to come to a welcome evening and they had the opportunity to ask  key questions of some of our peer mentors and staff.  It felt great to hold our event after years of the pandemic and lockdown.

Our media students have complied the film below of the Induction Days.

Instrument Workshops

The Year 6 students had the opportunity to attend the instrument workshops that were run by Winston musicians during the Induction Day on Tuesday.  Our aim is to encourage as many students as possible to learn how to play an instrument.  The Year 7 Music Scheme, will underpin this aim.