An Evening of Outstanding Music

 Young Musician of the Year

On Thursday 29th June our Winston Young Musician of the Year for 2023 was crowned in the Performance Space. The evening saw a record 17 finalists take part, with each one giving a phenomenal performance to give our adjudicators an incredibly challenging decision. In the end Liv and Emily were awarded joint 3rd, Ollie 2nd and Josh (for his outstanding piano performance) was crowned our winner. The Music Department would like to say how proud we are of all the students who took part. We are incredibly lucky to have such an amazing set of musicians to work with. 

We’d also like to give a special mention to Year 10 student Will who ran the lighting, sound and cameras for the evening.

Being at Work

 

Work experience week

Last week, nearly 300 of our Year 10 students took part in work experience.  They worked in all sorts of different roles and industries, practising their skills, such as communication, listening, asking questions, planning and collaboration.  They have been completing work experience diaries and will spend some time reflecting on what they have learnt and achieved, to help them in the next stage of their career journeys.

It has been a difficult year finding placements but students and families have shown great resilience and continued to look for opportunities right up until the start of the week.

We would like to thank all the businesses for providing valuable careers education opportunities and help our students get ‘ready for work’.

Feedback from the employers shows how worthwhile work experience can be:

 

“All students have been polite, respectful and helpful”

 

“Great interaction with students, both verbal and non-verbal”

 

“shown an interest in what she has been asked to do and has picked up things very quickly. We hope she has enjoyed her time with us”

 

“Extremely polite, hard working and has exceeded all expectations on every task that has been given. Happy to make her a job offer when she turns 16 years old”

 

“a great addition to the team this week and a credit to the school”

 

“very polite young man. He is keen to learn and has taken great interest in the work our Mac Operators do in our Design Studio”

 

“useful work with our computer software. He has installed virus checkers, Deleted unnecessary software and multiple copies of items. He has updated passwords and made sure our computers run well. He has also shredded some of our archived documents”

 

“Very polite young men. Both of which were very good at sorting problems out, that were thrown at them. Their communication with customers was also excellent”

A few students completed work experience in school and also took part in virtual work experiences in an area of their choice.  These 'on demand' work experiences are designed for young people and can be found on the Springpod website, as well as our FROG Careers site.  They are worth considering during spare time, as they give insights into many different industries and careers.

Our in school students enjoyed an inspirational talk and workshop on future work and skills with Dr Andy Adcroft from Surrey Business School.

National Schools' Sports Week Report 1

 NSSW – Aqua Sports Trip (Written by Leah and Will) 

Written by Leah

On Wednesday students went to an Aqua sport trip where they did four activities windsurfing, sailing, kayaking and raft building. 

Lots of students fell into the lake while windsurfing, the teachers must have found it hilarious. On the odd occasion a gust of wind would make us surf away. “One time I ended up going away from my partner and I had to paddle back to them,” said Leah.  

We learned communication and collaboration during raft building since we needed to work together to move, make and sail the raft. The knots were quite challenging, and it was hard to tighten them. While we were racing someone lost a shoe, so we had to find it. Luckily it was floating. 

Overall, everyone had an amazing time and would come again if they could. A huge thank you for the teachers that organised it. 

 

Written by Will 

On Wednesday 21st June, a selection of students including me signed up for an aqua sports trip. They did 4 activities, kayaking, sailing windsurfing and raft building. For me, the best activity was the windsurfing. You had to stand up and hold a sail without falling in which was almost impossible. In raft building you had to use your collaboration skills to build a raft with the rest of your team and bring it into the water. In kayaking we had to try stand up in out kayaks without falling and in sailing you had to navigate a boat to a buoy and back. 

Reviews of SIX

 Celebrating SIX

Last week, students from all year groups came together to perform their own production of SIX: Teen Edition. The event took place over two days and the team of dedicated students and staff took full advantage of the new state of the art technology in the Performance Space. Both showings ended in a full standing ovation as audiences leapt to their feet, and I am so proud of all the students involved. In this most recent production, students took are more active role in the planning, organisation and running of the event from theatre/ events management to the distribution of tickets and programmes. The musical has received some feedback from the wider community, and we would like to take a moment to share it with you. 

'Watching this production makes me want to go and see it in London - these students didn't skip a beat. Amazing!'. 

'Thank you so much for inviting us to come at watch your production of SIX. I have seen it performed at the Woking theatre and I can honestly say I thought your production was as good. 

The music, dancing, singing and acting were all fantastic. Our children absolutely loved it. It was particularly good for those children who had friends/ siblings in the production as they loved seeing them dance/ perform. A number of the girls go to the same dance company and so it was inspiring for them to see what the older girls could do. 

On the way back to school they were very excited!!! They were singing the songs!'

'The atmosphere was absolutely buzzing when I went to collect my son from his school yesterday, everyone was saying how amazing the production was!!!

Well done to everyone…you pulled it out of the bag yet again (only hope I actually get to see the next one!😉).'

'I just wanted to message to say how much we enjoyed the show and really thought it was one of the best we’ve seen (and that’s not just flowery hyperbole!) Also, the first show we’ve seen where the mics worked! 😂 They all performed so well, the dancers / dancing was so well choreographed and performed and the singing was fantastic. Thank you for giving my daughter this opportunity as she really has grown in confidence and has found her calling. We are so proud of her.'

'We were blown away by the talent on display. It was great for our pupils to see such inspirational performances and they were buzzing about it and singing the songs all day. (Also, they could not believe young people were actually playing all the instruments they could see!'

'Amazing - West End standard! The teaching staff and pupils should be so proud of this, the vocals were outstanding and the collaboration in a school was so refreshing'. 

'It was sensational - so many talented students'. 

Sport at Winston

 Year 7 Basketball

Our Year 7 Jr. NBA Basketballers headed to the K2 Centre in Crawley having made it through the group stages and qualifying rounds to make the Conference West Final.

Upon arrival, the team were hyped to be there, entering the sports hall to the sounds of the resident DJ to their right and the prizes on offer laid out on a table to their left. It was a great opportunity for them all to play against the best in the area in front of a crowd which really did feel like an NBA environment.

If the team won the Conference West Final they would progress into the afternoon's main final against the Conference East winners. The team faced John Fisher School (eventual overall winners) and despite being neck and neck after the 1^st quarter, John Fisher grew into the game and showed their quality to increase the points gap, winning 44-28 overall. After the disappointment of losing there was still a 3rd/4^th play-off to play vs. The Downlands Community College and a chance to learn from mistakes made in the morning game. The team showed a lot more tenacity and organisation on the court, finishing 32-23 winners earning themselves a bronze medal. 

The team can be proud of their 1^st year together as a squad, finishing 3^rd overall out of the 30 schools that entered. They can only improve and strive for a top 2 finish next year. Thanks also to Year 10 students Olly & Dom who helped give their advice and inspire the boys.

Year 9 GCSE PE Group

A group of Year 9 students who have recently begun their option choice of GCSE PE visited the Surrey Human Performance Institute at Surrey Sports Park. The purpose of the visit was to inspire the group and engage them with future theory topics which are to be taught on the course. Our students were able to learn a variety of field tests which many athletes could use to check progress over time and were able to discuss what components of fitness were being tested. Some students were also able to debate the validity and reliability of some of these tests for different sporting athletes.

Students went round in groups and completed a variety of tests: the Sit & Reach test, Press Up & Sit Up tests, Illinois Agility, 505 Agility, Agility 'T' test, Hand Grip Dynamometer, 20m Sprint and vertical jumps using the Optojump equipment. The tests became competitive between one another and they were also able to compare their scores to national averages.

Finally, the whole group came together at the end to complete the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test. This time they were competing against Mr Martin! However, it was an embarrassing result for the group as Mr Martin beat everyone with energy still left in the tank. We'll give the group 2 years to train for a rematch in Year 11!

                           KS3 District Athletics

Despite clashing with an Inset Day, we still had many committed and enthusiastic athletes prepared to compete at this years KS3 District Athletics. Many had trained one or twice a week since April for this competition so it was time to put that training into action.

Only one student could be selected for each event from each year group, so the pressure was on as an individual to help contribute points for the team's overall score. Despite having to also compete with the heat, our students put everything into their events, organising their time wisely and preparing themselves mentally. It was also great to see all the encouragement each student was giving during their rest periods to others in the team.

Altogether, we had 2 x team top 3 finishes and 19 x individual top 3 finishes which can be seen below. We are very proud of the group and their efforts, especially the Yr7 Boys team who came 1^st overall! 

Team Results

Yr7 Boys - 1st

Yr7 Girls - 10^th 

Yr8 Boys - 2^nd 

Yr8 Girls - 7^th 

Yr9 Boys - 4^th 

Yr9 Girls - 5^th 

Individual Results

1^st - Dapo O (100m), Mathew H (Discus), Dapo O / Mathew H / Ali H / Jamie L (Yr7 Boys Relay), Layla B (High Jump)

2^nd - Ali H (800m), Finn N (Shot Put), Dan M (High Jump), Sonny T (Hurdles), Jorge M-R (200m), Ayaan A (Hurdles), Lulu M (Hurdles)

3^rd - Jamie L (Hurdles), Liam M (Javelin), Ryan T (1500m), Archie W (Javelin), Seb K (High Jump), Vladyslav K (Shot Put), Lucy W (1500m), Holly F (Long Jump)

We now look forward to KS3 & KS4 Sports Day next week!

 

Reports by Mr Martin

Welcome to Winston

 Guess Who has been in School Today!

We welcomed our new Winston students into our school today.  They have had a packed day of activities beginning with an assembly.  The students were a credit to themselves, their families and their primary school.

I am sure that you are looking forward to Wednesday!  

Remember to wear your PE kit.