Taiko Drumming

 Working Together

On Friday 10^th February the Music Department welcomed the Hampshire Music Service Taiko Drumming team to The Performance Space at Winston. During the day four different groups of students took part in workshops. The first group to take part were our Year 10 Music leaders and their Year 7 instrumental students, and they were then followed by 7CM. After break our Year 10 GCSE Music students enjoyed putting together a full Taiko performance, and to end the day there was a workshop for a combined Year 8 and 9 group. Each of the groups was given the fantastic opportunity to try out all of the drums, which are part of the only complete set in the UK, putting together different pieces of music. The students involved were excellent, concentrating hard to ensure that their end of workshop performances were the best that they could be. 

The BBC at Winston

 Careers Event

Before half-term, we were delighted to welcome the BBC to visit Winston, as part of their 100-year celebrations tour.  Throughout the day they did careers presentations to all of our Year 9 and 10 students.  

Students were given the opportunity to find out more about careers at the BBC and ask questions about work in a creative industry.  They then saw a live interview with George Stroud and Rachel Fursman, who both work for the BBC.  George Stroud is a Composer and Rachel Fursman is a Senior Broadcast Journalist on the BBC news. 

Well Done Year 8!

The Year 8 team organised a breakfast this morning for some students and their achievement in English. Students were picked based on their English books for presentation, hard work, and consistency throughout their books. It was a lovely event, enjoyed by all. Well done Year 8!

Winning Ways!

 Quarter-final WIN! 

Yesterday afternoon, the year 8 and 9 girl's football team took to the field to face Cobham free school in the quarter-final of the County cup. 

With a 3:30pm kick off the students took to the field in a starting formation of 3-5-2. The first half started strong with the wind in our favour, we managed a 3-0 climb to the half time whistle. Some fantastic goals scored by Chloe and Lily with an own goal assisted by our own Charlotte T!

In the second half Cobham free school came back with a spring in their step and had a few good runs down our goal end but Jenny, Izzy and Imaan worked well to ensure it stayed out of the back of our net. Celebrations were almost had with goal scored by Winston however this was disallowed due to an offside technicality. Ava took a freekick, from just outside the box, an excellent strike met by an excellent save from Cobham's keeper, very unlucky for us! But, positively, we still we remain at 3-0. 

The final whistle blows and it's a 3-0 for Winston! Now onto the semi-finals. 

Well done girls. Excellent, excellent play! 

Year 7 Girls Football

 

 

The Year 7 girls played their first round national cup game away in Chichester, Sussex in the Year 8 competition. 

 

After a really strong first half where they led 1-0 thanks to Kitty’s goal, we were forced to defend pretty hard second half as the older team pressed on.  About 10 minutes from the end they scored an equaliser, but the girls kept going and a through ball from Tilley found its way into the net to put Winston 2-1 up.  We managed to hold out for the last few minutes to secure a really impressive win, as the opposition were at least a year older.  The girls are now awaiting their next opponents but we know it will be another away trip, this time to Dorset.

Mr Phillips

Ski Adventure

Skiing in Killington, USA🎿 

So, the skiing part of our American adventure has come to a close. There’s some achy bones and joints out here but overall, it’s been a huge success. 

I am sat here in the “Snowshed” on our final afternoon reflecting on all the comments I have had from the instructors. Zero to hero in a week for so many of them and the progress from every single one of them has been incredible. Every group has managed to explore the extreme ends of the mountain. All the groups are parallel skiing. There’s been some tears and some bruises but the resilience in our students is inspiring. 

The top groups have put Miss Morrison and me through our paces. It’s safe to say that my old legs are tired, and I never want to see a tree run again in my life! I’m also not sure the kids will ever let Miss forget the time she blamed “the snow” for her wipeout! 

Our students have made us incredibly proud in Killington and I hope they take some amazing memories away from Vermont. A special mention to the Year 11 boys who continually go out of their way to be helpful for us and the general public we come across. 

On to New York!

Mr Collins

Chelsea Supports Winston

 Chelsea Supporting our Students

Fifteen of our students were selected to participate in a programme run through Chelsea Football Club.

As explained in an earlier blog a number of workshops, provided by Isaac from Chelsea FC were held each week, at Winston, which focus on a variety of topics such as reading, social media and sustainability. 

Students were tasked in groups to develop ideas for a sustainable and eco-friendly project and they have been refining their ideas over a number of week, culminating in a presentation held in Performance Space last week.  Student learnt the importance of creating a sustainable lifestyle, as well as using techniques in design, problem-solving and teamwork to form ideas in order to overcome current issues.

Their presentations were outstanding, with each group presenting to a panel of judges.   This requires confidence in the members of your group, good subject knowledge the ability to articulate your ideas clearly.  It is not easy to stand up in front of your peers and staff, with the spot light on you!  Yet these students handled the pressure incredibly well and did an amazing job.  They were all winners.

Well done to every one who took part.  Chelsea presented the school with a signed football shirt. A special thank you to Miss Exworth and Mrs Walton for setting up and organising the programme. 

 Speakers4Schools

Dan Healy:Managing Director, FTI Consulting

Award winning strategist and researcher, fusing together primary research, analytics, psychology and behavioral economics techniques to understand behaviour and forecast future scenarios. Working with various governments, corporates, investors and NGOs, he was one of the few to forecast the fault lines that lead to the Arab Spring, Trump’s conquest of Clinton and the legacy of Covid-19 on both consumer behaviour and corporate business models. Back to back winner of Holmes Report SABRE award for best thought leadership with ‘True Cost of Financial Crime’ for Refinitiv/LSEG and ‘Resilience Barometer’ for FTI Consulting.

Students studying Business Studies and History took part in online polls to see how quickly data can be collected and used.

Dan gave the students a valuable insight into the research that politicians and businesses use to guide their decision making, including sharing research that had been presented at the World Economic Forum, Davos. Students were shown survey responses that revealed people are more influenced by fear, anger or distrust in their voting decisions than by economic ideas. The students were also interested to see the data showing that people will form opinions about the news from social media posts, and reshare as facts, rather than doing their own research.

Several Year 11 students with interest in politics, starting their own business, and going into marketing, were able to talk to Dan about their future careers. Seeing real world information gave the students a deeper understanding of how the world of business and politics operate.

Ms Nye

Deputy Subject Lead for History and Year 8 Tutor

Working Together

 Primary Latin Reading 

Competition.

This week we were thrilled to welcome Year 6 students from local primary schools for a day of learning Latin and our inaugural Primary Latin Reading Competiton, organised by Mr Fisher. Students arrived with no prior knowledge of Latin. They learned some essential grammar, translated a story from Latin into English, and prepared and performed an adaptation of 'tres porci parvi' in Latin, as well as enjoying a film on Ancient Egypt in the Planetarium.

Students competed in their performances, judged on their accuracy and expression of Latin. Those from Goldsworth Primary and The Hermitage performed admirably, with some thoughtful characterisation, but St John's Primary clinched the win with their staging and intonation, and we look forward to bringing them with our own students to the Guildford Latin Reading Competition next month.

To begin the day having no knowledge of a language and end it with a convincing performance in that language is very impressive and we applaud the enthusiasm and resilience of these young students. We know that a few of them will be joining us in September and we can't wait!

ad WCSC Latinam amamus

Blood and Circulation

Mr Gunnoo has been using practical resources with 11C1 in order to recap the biology GCSE topic "Blood and Circulation".

The students built arteries, veins and capillaries as part of their deeper understanding of the circulatory system; with the emphasis on the differences between them.