Year 7 French students have taken part in a baking session lead by Mrs Fulton and our French Tutor, Mady, to learn about the history and tradition surrounding La Galette des rois (the Kings’ cake) and its significance in French culture.
Students learnt how French families celebrate the Festival of the Kings on 6th January, when French Christians mark Epiphany.
Mrs Fulton explained to the students that a small charm is placed inside the Kings’ cake and whoever gets the slice with the charm in it becomes the king or queen for the day and they have to wear a crown.
Mrs Fulton and Mady were impressed at the students’ baking skills and how well they followed the recipe and worked as a team.
Congratulations to Lottie who became the ‘Galette des rois Masterchef Champion 2025’ and who got to wear the crown as a result!
Congratulations also go to Chloe, who was the runner-up, and to all the French students who baked and decorated such impressive Galettes!
Thank you to Miss Rusted, Mrs Belkaima and Year 10 French prefects, Nora and Elif, for supporting the session and to Mrs Vadi for letting us use the Food room!
On Tuesday 4th of January Mr Drake and Mrs Antony combined their year 7 music classes to create a giant ukulele orchestra.
The students were able to perform Demons by Imagine Dragons which they have only been learning for a few weeks. Mrs Antony's class started off by playing the melody for the first verse, then Mr Drake's class took over the melody and Mrs Antony's class played the chord accompaniment. Students then chose whether to play the melody or the chords for the rest of the piece. Some students only learnt to read tab notation 2 weeks ago and have practised hard to bring the performance together.
As Year 8 tackle Shakespeare's timeless comedy 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', they have begun interpreting the text and drawing conclusions about Shakespeare's comedic representation of Helena, Hermia, Demetrius and Lysander.
Students were tasked with rewriting a scene from Act 2, Scene 2 into contemporary English, making it relevant to today. Student's rehearsed and some performed in front of the class, receiving lots of laughter from peers as Lysander fell hopelessly in love with Helena, as a result of a misplaced love potion.
The messages and themes presented in Shakespearean plays are still very relevant today and the students had fun showing this!
The Scholastic Book Fair 2025 ran for the last 2 weeks in the Library, with students in Years 7-10 visiting during one of their English lessons and Year 11 students having the opportunity to visit during tutor time. As always, it was a huge hit with the students and as a school we sold such a huge amount of books! Altogether, we sold over £1200 of books and stationery to staff and students. The PTA also very kindly gifted some money to be spent on books for Year 7 students so the Book Fair was a fantastic opportunity to obtain these books which will be distributed to Year 7 form groups in the coming weeks! All of this means we have now gained approx £1000 in credit to spend on books with Scholastic. This will be used to keep the Library stock up to date, stocking the new Book Vending Machine and fulfilling pupil requests for books and is a valuable resource for the Library throughout the year.
Students purchased a range of books and were excited to see books that had been very recently released, along with some older favourites. Scholastic were able to send some great value packs as well this time, meaning students were able to buy books for as low as £1 per book!
We have, of course, bought a selection of the popular and recently released books that were on the Book Fair for the Library and those are now featured on a 'From the Book Fair' display at the front of the library. From stories about witches to a Minecraft handbook, there should be something for everyone!
Also dotted around the Library are some other 'New In' displays. Fancy a comic style book? Want to find out something from the past? Or just fancy a new fiction book? Look no further than these smaller displays for your next read!
Now that the Book Fair is over, it's time to start getting preparations in place for Winston Book Week - watch this space!
Despite looking very dramatic this demonstration was managed to ensure that it was safe.
Mr Malik carefully followed the CLEAPSS guidelines to ensure student safety.
This week Year 7 have been learning about physical and chemical reactions in their science classes.
Mr Malik explained combustion of fuels, to 7WN, with the classic 'Methane Bubbles' demonstration which the students loved.
Year 8 Science
In Science this week, Year 8 have been learning about bones and joints.
This has included watching a dissection of a chicken leg with Dr Lau and constructing life-size skeletons with Mr Pearson and Mr Gunnoo.
It kept the students busy all lesson. No LAZY BONES here!
All skeletons are happy to appear on the Blog.
Year 10 PE
Year 10 girls took to the fresh outdoors this week, for some strength and conditioning in their PE lesson with Mrs Smith. Starting with some bounding followed by a speed pyramids and finished off with some ladder work and parachute sprints!!!
It was great to see the commitment to physical activity.
Our Music Department has been named Music Department of the Year at a glittering ceremony, in London, on Thursday 30th January 2025.
The whole team were present, Mr Drake, Ms Antony, Ms Shlackman, Mr Elliot and Mr Mealin and were supported by Mr Harrington-Tucker, one of our governors, Mrs Roddan and members of the senior team.
It was a fantastic moment, when we were announced as the winners and the team went onto the stage to receive the award. This recognises years of hard work, determination, investment and innovation and has met the target that I set for Mr Drake, when I appointed him, to ensure that our Music Department achieved a local and national profile. Images below!
Just consider below the full range of opportunities that our children and those in our feeder primary schools have at Winston.
In this large but fully comprehensive school the department
has developed:
Children who love music making
An orchestra of 120 students
A choir of 140 students
A flute choir
Senior Session Band
Junior Session Band
Brass ensemble
Wind Band
A brass quartet plays the last post on the playground,
surrounded by 1500 students every year.
String ensembles
35 - 45 students taking GCSE Music each academic year
50 students taking a level 2 Music Tech qualification each
academic year.
Introduction and use of Macs and the appropriate software in
lessons.
The teaching is inspirational, evidenced by the results
Winston has developed a team of 5 full-time music teachers
We develop/coach graduate music assistants/tutors to become a
full-time music teachers
Introducing a Year 7 music scheme, encouraging every young
person to try learning to play an instrument, with a focus on children from
disadvantaged backgrounds.
Huge concerts twice a year.
Recital evenings for both KS3 and KS4.
Introduced a Young Singer
of the Year competition.
Older more experienced students teach instrumental lessons initially to Year
7, so that they are able to have free lessons!
Working with local primary schools to help them to inspire
children to engage with music making
Leading the pit band, producing live music for huge musical
productions
Introducing a Young Musician of the Year Competition
Helping young people to form bands and running a Band night
Ensuring that musicians play in assemblies and for parents'
evenings
Creating the living advent calendar during the month of
December
Introduced and ran Music Tours abroad for up-to 80 children,
playing in town squares.
A Primary Pupil Orchestra
A Primary Choir Day
A Primary Music Day
Playing in the local community for special events such as
fetes or turning on the Christmas Lights
Manages a team of over 20 peripatetic instrumental and voice
teachers
Since our initial cast meeting in October, students have been working flat out on producing and rehearsing the main school production of 'Legally Blonde'. The show has been a fantastic experience to work on and as we enter the final weeks, the excitement amongst the cast and crew, who cannot wait to share their work, is building.
With each new year students are brilliant and taking on multiple aspects of the performance. Undertaking leading roles or working behind the scenes in wider teams. Everyone has shown an amazing level professionalism and drive to make this show a success.
The ensemble has been working hard to learn the bigger numbers in the performance. On Thursday, they finished a piece inspired by a 90s workout DVD. This number involves incredibly complex logistics and asks a lot of our advance dances, who must use skipping ropes in tandem, dance and sing, all at the same time! The end result was mind blowing and I felt incredibly proud of the cast for working on something so challenging.
The dance captains have worked hard to make the choreography more accessible that ever, live streaming the dance moves to the largest Ensemble we have ever had and providing additional videos to the whole cast so they can attend intervention and other academic commitments.
On Tuesday, the whole cast have been coming together to learn the songs with Mr. Drake and the music department. This year has seen the return of the Golden Tickets for excellent effort throughout a long rehearsal process. These students are welcome to perform in every single showing at the Rhoda McGaw Theatre. We have also issued more Platinum tickets than ever. These have given many members of the ensemble a chance to take on a leading role.
Named cast have been coming together to undertake the exceptionally tricky task of blocking complex performances and musical theatre. I can safely say that the talent they have displayed will not disappoint in February. Principle cast have also been attending workshops with some West End professionals in order to improve their own practice. With one visitor playing a current leading role in a popular west end musical and another on the way!
I consider myself lucky to be working alongside a cast of such amazing young people. I cannot wait to share their efforts with you in February when the show opens. Tickets are available via a link on the school website but are going fast, most evenings have sold out. I would like to take a moment to thank you, as our community, for the incredible support you show us at these events.
