Getting Involved

 International Women in Engineering Day - 

Livestream Event 

This year marks the 10^th International Women in Engineering Day. In an industry traditionally dominated by men, figures show that just 16.5% of engineers are women.

We need to encourage more women and girls to take up engineering careers. Without doing so, we risk wasting potential talent in the field. With this in mind, for #INWED23, International Infrastructure group Balfour Beatty live-streamed an event which 70 of our Year 10 Winston girls attended. They were able to watch interviews with inspirational engineers from the construction industry discussing their career paths and passion for their work. The theme for this year is #MakeSafetySeen, focusing on the women who keep us safe at work, home and online.

With this fresh in their minds the students took part in a hands-on challenge led by Dr Anna Lau. We spotted a few future aeronautical engineers in the room!

Dr North

World Games Day

On July 11th, Winston welcomed 350 Year 5 primary school students from five local primary schools for a day of activities and fun at our annual World Games Day!

The task of leading the whole day and looking after the Year 5's was given to 100 of our Year 10 leaders (with some help from a few Year 8 & 9 students). This involved team leaders who organised where students should be, encouraging them, assisting with pastoral needs and building positive relationships as well as activity leaders who organised 23 different activities which were delivered with structure, enthusiasm and participation in mind over 15-minute sessions. These activities ranged from a drumming workshop, team work games, cricket, tchoukball, long jump, tug of war and reaction drills. The highlight for most Year 5's however seemed to be the water station where there was an opportunity to throw wet sponges at our leaders!

Our students worked hard to set up, deliver and pack away over a full day. They understood what it meant to put the needs of others before themselves, as although extremely tired were able to put all their energy and enthusiasm towards the Year 5's to give them the best experience possible. It was great to have such trustworthy, passionate, reliable and organised students to work together as a team to put on a great day of activities.

All Year 5's were gifted a participation certificate and 2 students from each team were given a separate certificate from their team leaders which celebrated those that demonstrated core sporting values e.g. teamwork, resilience, sportsmanship etc.

Some feedback from the primary staff included:

"Our children had a brilliant time and loved all of the activities and their activity leaders."

"Thank you for the fantastic day we had at World Games Day - the children really enjoyed it."

"Special mention to Ben on Rugby, Aaron on tug of war, Benjy on tennis and the team leaders in charge of team China"

We look forward to seeing many of these Year 5 faces again at Induction Day next year!

Mr Martin

Winston at Chelsea

 Junior Edge of the Box Club

Last week a selected team of Y9 & Y10 students travelled to Stamford Bridge, the home ground of Chelsea FC, to take on the role of 'Young Entrepreneurs' and participate in their social responsibility programme.

In the weeks leading up to the event they assembled their teams and started preparing their business presentations. Their given task was to think of new and innovative solutions that Chelsea FC can employ to help the environment and to reach their sustainability goals.

The day started with a tour around the stadium and an exclusive visit to the changing rooms and press facilities. Their aim on the tour was to look around the grounds with a business perspective and to understand the commercial aspect behind a football club. 

We were extremely fortunate to meet and present to a panel of executive decision-makers from Chelsea FC who are responsible for ESG and small business partnerships. Chiswick School were also in attendance and each group took to the 'Dragon's Den' stage to present their business ventures.

It was encouraging to see the judges so involved and they all provided real-life feedback for the students' considerations, particularly as this could be their future career path. It was a great opportunity for all students to step out of their comfort zones and deliver their efforts. 

It was even better to hear that the judges' decision for the overall winner was a team of Winston students - Mila, Ruby & Lana with their creative, cost effective and climate conscious business ideas - Congratulations girls!

Thank you to Chelsea FC and their Foundation program for a worthwhile insight into entrepreneurship.

Mrs Walton

Keep Reading

 Summer Reading 🕮🔖

The Summer Reading Challenge in partnership with local Libraries is generally run for Primary age students but may be of interest for Year 6 into Year 7 or current Year 7 students. The challenge runs until 23^rd September and involves students setting themselves a reading goal for themselves. Watch the below video for more information or head to the Summer Reading Challenge website. 

https://youtu.be/zRdViB06cAk
https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/

The local library is free to join and students and adults alike can take books out for free. Usually, the local libraries host other free events throughout the year too!

World Book Day provide a range of ways to keep involved with reading whilst away from school including access to some free audiobooks. These include some for younger and older readers and some condensed classics such as 'A Christmas Carol'. The World Book Day page also has other ways to get involved with books such as activities and competitions.

 https://www.worldbookday.com/world-of-stories/

Lastly, we will officially be launching it in September, but we have recently added some ebooks to our Library catalogue through the use of Eplatform, which is an ebook hosting platform. Students will be able to access this through our online Library webapp Accessit and can find a range of books on there that are available to read online. All students will be receiving guidance of how to use this in September, either in their Library lessons, English lessons or during form time as well as there being guidance available on Frog. 

If you wanted to have a look at our ebook catalogue, you can do so through the following link: https://wcsc.eplatform.co/ but from September, students will mainly use this through Accessit. 

Happy Reading over the summer! 

Mrs Jones

Discovery Space Manager

Year 7 Experience

Year 7 Classics Taster Day  

The Ancient World came to life at Winston last week as Year 7 enjoyed a day of Classics activities including ancient languages, literature and history.  

Subjects included: History and Classical Civilisation, Ancient Greek and Egyptian Hierglyphs, English and Winston Extra, MFL and of course, Latin, which is available to all students as they enter Year 8.   

Professor Alston, and his PhD students Emily and Harry from Royal Holloway University, challenged students with ancient languages. Whether it was writing their names in Hieroglyphs, or decoding the Ancient Greek alphabet, students showed a great amount of ingenuity. They also enjoyed an invitation to a makeshift ‘Roman Villa’, as students all assumed roles in the household: masters and mistresses, ancestors and deities, slaves and visitors! 

Woking College Classics teacher, Mr Wheeler and his A level students gave students a taste of the Ancient world by studying coinage, and examining what it can tell us about society’s of the time, and what our own money shows about ours. 

For almost all, today was their first Latin lesson and students were translating a short story, using their ingenuity and deduction skills to translate from Latin into English. They seemed to find it much easier than they anticipated…and that goes for Italian and Spanish too, as students used Latin vocabulary to translate Modern European languages. 

Resources from the day’s activities can be found on Frog, La: Classics Taster Day, as well as a summer competition where students are invited to produce a creative a response to a Greek myth, either one they discovered today, or another that they are familiar with. 

All of these sessions were either led or supported by GCSE Latin students, who showed incredible leadership skills as they taught their younger peers new topics and subjects and helped them to develop new skills. 

Thanks to all our visitors, staff and students who gave up their time to give so many students these opportunities. If the day piqued their interest, then students in the Aspire and Enigma streams are invited to sign up to extra-curricular Latin lessons which start from September. Look out for a letter sent home before the end of term. 

And lastly, thank you to the film studies students who put the following film together of the day: 

Year 7 History

Year 7 students were challenged to think about all the events that they have studied over the year - from 1000-1700 - and decide which they think was the most significant.

With 700 years of History to choose from, they had to say which event causes the most change, is remembered, had an impact on the largest number of people, and has affected the future.

The clear winner was the Black Death! With many students confidently talking about the impact on villages in Britain, the population in Europe, and some of the bizarre treatments medieval people used to try and stop it.

A selection of their fantastic posters are below:

Participation

 Sports Days 2023

Sports Day, an annual event that brings together the entire school community, was a resounding success this year, showcasing an outstanding display of participation, talent, competition, and enjoyment for sport. The atmosphere was electric as students and teachers gathered to celebrate the spirit of athleticism and camaraderie.

Day ONE:

We kicked off proceedings on Thursday 6th July with the Year 9 and 10. Over 400 students gathered on the field to compete in a range of athletics events. The Year 10 students took on the challenge of competing in a heptathlon event, individually competing in seven events (Hurdles, 200m, 800m, Shot Put, Javelin, Long Jump and High Jump) accumulating points in each event. The Year 9 students selected which events they would like to enter and were excited to get involved! The atmosphere was great, and the students gave their all, pushing their physical and mental limits. All students exhibited remarkable determination and sportsmanship. The day came to a close with the Year 9 relays with 9THA coming out on top!

Year 9 Performers of the Day:

Ayaan Ahmed - Gold in Hurdles, Silver in 100m and 200m

Jenny Hall - Gold in 300m, 800m, and Javelin

Well done to Ayaan and Jenny!

Year 10 Results:

Girls: 1^st Isobel Wathen, 2^nd Holly Maher and 3^rd Scarlet Inman

Boys: 1^st George Phillips, 2^nd Dylan Lewis, 3^rd Teo Stan

Well done to all the Y10's who took part in a gruelling, yet enjoyable event.

Day TWO:

After the excitement of day one, we headed into day two, Friday 7^th July. It was the turn of the Years 7 and 8 to showcase what they were capable of. The sun was shining, the music was playing and the students excitedly marched onto the field to register and get their team colour wrist bands. 500+ students were eager to participate in their track and field disciplines in an attempt to win medals.  While the competitive nature was strong, it was truly heartwarming to witness the inclusive nature of the event, as students cheered on their peers, fostering an environment of support and encouragement. At the end of the day, the whole school community came together to enjoy the form relays, and the firm favourite, the teacher relay! 

Sports Day was not only a day of physical prowess but also a celebration of teamwork, discipline, and perseverance. It provided an opportunity for students to showcase their talents, build self-confidence, and develop essential life skills that extend beyond the sports field.  As the day drew to a close, the sense of accomplishment and fulfilment was evident on the faces of every student and we like to think everyone left with a renewed appreciation for the power of sport in shaping character, fostering healthy competition, and creating lasting memories.

Y7 performers of the day:

Bella Capilla - Gold in the 100m, Bronze in the Discus and 200m

Dapo Oglabende - Gold in 100m and 200m

Y8 performers of the day:

Lucy Wheeler - Gold in 1500m and Discus

Alfie Hardwick - Gold in the Long Jump, Silver in 1500m, Bronze in the Discus and 300m

Relay Winners:

Y7 - DFI

Y8 - ALI

A massive thank you to Mrs Martin and Miss Exworth for collating all the results over the two days, Mr Major, Mrs Thomas and the tech team for the music and film footage, staff who came up and supported the event, the Year 8 and Year 10 sports prefects and leaders who officiated events and finally the PE department for all their hard work in providing such amazing opportunities continuously for our students to enjoy.    

Finally, I would like to thank Mr Cotton.  After 12 year's service, Mr Cotton is moving on to become a Head of PE at Christs College, Guildford. Over the years, Mr Cotton has always put our Winston students first and provided them with countless opportunities; National Schools Sports Weeks, clubs, fixtures, numerous sports tours and trips, fun and engaging PE lessons, and has been a dedicated form tutor to mention a few.  He will be greatly missed by staff and students alike, but we know he is going to thrive in his new role, as well as becoming a dad for the second time this week, so we wish him all the best in the future, and hope he manages to get some sleep over the summer holidays! 

We are already looking forward to next year to enjoy the talent and enthusiasm our students here at Winston show for sport!

Mrs Daniels

Head of PE