Reading at Winston

Innovation in the Library

Mrs Southern’s 9WE/En turned booksellers in their recent lessons in the LRC with Mr Fisher. Working in groups they were tasked with designing, scripting and creating various performance based marketing tools for books they had chosen to endorse. Some made trailers, others used the Woking Radio Suite to record podcasts, pitches and interviews. Students had to analyse the book as a product, to consider it’s audience, reception, and relevance to contemporary readers such as themselves, and they demonstrated their understanding of this in some truly exceptional pieces.

Here are some examples of their work.

Luke and Charlie

Charlotte, Chealsea and Reka

2015 Learning Partnership

Work has been progressing between the four schools in our partnership, Collingwood College, The Bishop David Brown School and The Magna Carta School.  On 26th January The Partnership will hold a TeachMeet aimed at sharing good practice and developing strategies to support learning in the classroom.  We are working together on staff recruitment and offering opportunities to staff to develop their leadership skills across the four schools.  The focus of our activities is aimed at taking each of the schools to the next level; we all want to deliver an outstanding experience for all of our students.

Winston Loves Reading

 Half-price Scholastic Book Fair

This week (18^th-22^nd January), Scholastic is visiting Winston to offer all students and staff HALF-PRICED BOOKS!

Each KS3 student will be have 30 minutes to tour the Fair in their English groups; all Winston students will be invited to browse and buy books throughout the week, including break and lunchtime sessions.

As Winston continues to celebrate reading and literacy skills, we are thrilled to offer students an opportunity to expand their minds (and personal libraries) in preparation for our school celebration of World Book Day, Thursday 3^rd March. 

Les Miserables: Good Luck Message

From the current cast of Les Mis in London!

Thank you to the current cast of Les Miserables for this lovely message, to members of our production, being staged from 2nd - 6th February at the Rhoda McGaw Theatre. Have you bought your tickets yet?

 

Choices and Contributions

Options at Winston

Part Two

As part of our introduction to the option subjects, Mr Mohamed organised a Subject Fair for students and their parents, to enable discussions to take place with regard to the structure of each course.  This was followed by a presentation in the hall, as some features of the examination system have changed significantly and the aim was to provide an overview, which helps to inform decision making.  For students this is the first time that they have had the opportunity to select part of their curriculum and the staff were impressed by the range and quality of questions that were asked throughout the afternoon and evening. 

Making a Difference

I was delighted to recieve two letters this week, recognising the contribution that Winston students and staff make to the local community.  We asked students to contribute items to make up parcels for members of our community, on behalf of Woking Lions and secondly our music students attended the Brookwood Christmas Tree event and played during the evening. 

The 2015 Learning Partnership

At the most recent meeting of the Headteachers and Principals of the four partner schools a number of key decisions were taken with regard to the types of activities that will take all of our schools forward.  One of the first will be a TeachMeet to be held at Winston on Tuesday 26th January, between 5.00pm and 7.00pm.  We are expecting approximately 200 staff from across the four schools to attend, to share effective teaching strategies.  Other aspects of our work includes developing the work of Learning Support Assistants and working together on recruitment strategies.

1st Week of 2016

 Year 9 Options

Mr Mohamed began the options process for Year 9 students this week.  Students were provided with an overview of the decisions that need to be made and a timeline for completion.  At Winston we are able to offer a huge variety of option subjects, as we have staff expertise and the economies of scale needed to meet the needs of our students.

Assembly

The theme for this asembly was 'Just Because You Can, Should you?'

It looked at the issues and challenged students to think about the ethical dilemmas faced by countries today.  These included modifying DNA, growing new body parts and the development of weapons.  Other challenges were considered regarding the use of the internet and monitoring our citizens.  The assembly finished by raising the ethical question of supporting the Syrian refugees, fleeing war and in need of our support. 
The students were asked to consider whether there is a difference between the law (can we do it?) and ethics (should we do it?).

Basketball Success

Since the start of term the year 7 Boys Basketball Team have played in 3 tournaments against 9 of the school in the district. The boys were superb and reached the final in 2 of the 3 tournaments, unfortunately, overall the boys didn’t win but came runners up. We would like to congratulate the boys, Jos, Antony, Lewis, Ben W, Ben F, Ben B, Josh and Darart on this fantastic achievement.