Powerful Performances

Les Miserables

Throughout last week the anticipation built as I waited to attend the final performance of Les Miserables.  Everyday staff and students were talking about how wonderful, emotional and professional the production was and praising everyone involved. 

The Director's notes explains how they helped the students to understand the issues in the play by translating the title to impoverished.  There was nothing impoverished in this production, it was rich throughout with powerful emotions and well-timed comedy, superb music and choreography.  Back stage the Technical Team and Stage Crew enhanced each element of this complex show.

Everyone involved is to be congratulated; the students both on stage and behind the scenes were exemplary; Simon Donaldson, Simon Jolly, Chris Drake and Sam Remnant, our staff team, for choosing such an inspiring show and giving the students the confidence and enabling them to develop the skills to realise this production; other members of staff were also involved, as were parents, in the music, the costumes and acting as a taxi service. Thank you for everything you do to ensure that the students at our school have, in Josh Townsend's words 'this fantastic life experience'.

Both students and staff involved were tired and elated; members of Year 11 suddenly realising that this was their final Winston performance.  We will miss you and your incredible talent but you should be assured that you will always be part of Winston and welcomed back to next year's show.

 

 

Inspiring and Outstanding

Raising Funds for Woking Hospice

As a school we have decided to focus all of our charity fund raising this year on the Woking Hospice.  Events are being planned to try to contribute to an organisation that provides so much support for families in our local community.
I am also delighted to tell you that a number of our students, independently support this good cause.  Chloe is a student in Year 7 who has been working hard on behalf of the Woking Hospice.  See what she has achieved below.

Well done Chloe!

“Who killed Novice John?”

Class 7W1 worked very hard on Friday on the “Who killed Novice John?” investigation and were engaged by trying to work out who the culprit was. I’ve attached some pictures of the students hard at work. Miss Lister was particularly impressed by how well they worked as a group, to gather evidence on the murder. Several came up with excellent theories about who the murderer was, linking their suspicions to specific evidence. I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with for their homework , in the form of a wanted poster for Novice John’s killer.

 

Olympic Park Visit

On Monday 1^stFebruary, 28 lucky students from the Gifted and Talented sports programme had the opportunity to try three Olympic disciplines at the Lee Valley complex in London. From racing around the indoor Velodrome to taking on some tricky obstacles in the mountain biking it was an action packed day at the Olympic Park.  The students were a credit to the school and themselves and put 100% into all the events. Below are just a few pictures of this fantastic day and we look forward to running this trip in years to come.

 

 

 

 

  Lord of the Flies

Last week, the English Department, Mrs Southern, Miss Ruffle & Mr Chandler, took 37 students from Years 10 and 11 to see a stage adaptation of Lord of the Flies at G Live, Guildford.

We were all in agreement that the set was amazing and the violence of key scenes was well-staged with some carefully choreographed routines. The descent into savagery was disturbingly conveyed by the talented cast of young actors. Bringing novels, rather than a play script, to the stage is a challenging task but this adaption was a great success.

The production brought the story into the 21st century, taking quite a few liberties with the dialogue and there was EVEN a selfie stick!  *English teachers roll eyes* However, most students agreed that it was an effective and entertaining adaptation of Golding's classic novel about "the darkness of man's heart". Any alterations to the story resulted in some thought-provoking discussions during the interval and after the play.

We had a very enjoyable evening!

 

 

 

 

Spiritual, Moral, Social, Cultural.

Winston's Book Fair

Last week’s Scholastic Half Price Book Fair was a resounding success! Students took full advantage of some of the most recent publications, such as new titles by David Walliams and Michael Morpurgo and the latest editions of the Tom Gates and Diary of a Wimpy Kid series’, at significantly reduced prices. It was amazing to see so many KS3 students enthusiastic about reading for pleasure, and this enthusiasm is evident in the £1600 they spent on new books between them (a huge increase on the region-topping £600 spent last year) and will also be reflected in the number of free books they have earned for the school in the process.

Miss Ruffle’s Year 7s (below) were among the keenest readers, but Mrs Snowdon’s were the most eager with 33 books bought by a single class.

 Opportunities in Music

On Monday 25^th January the Music Department had a visit from Surrey Arts who ran a double bass workshop with Year 7 and 8 students. Students were shown how the instruments were played and were even given the opportunity to try them out. This is part of a project that Surrey Arts are running in conjunction with Winston to promote the double bass for which students will receive half price lessons. Students were also given demonstrations of instruments by Miss Ashworth (woodwind), Mr Allen (guitar) and Mr Drake (brass and piano). All of the students who took part were given a form to take home which they should fill in and return if they wish to take up an instrument. If any students wish to learn an instrument at Winston they should see Mr Drake in M1 who will be able to give them the information that they need.

Primary School Girls County Football Tournament

On Thursday 28th January, 5 of our year 10 students assisted in the organisation and running of the Primary School County Football Tournament at Woking Leisure Centre, supported by Mr Toovey. The boys where a credit to themselves and the school and showed fantastic maturity and leadership.

A big well done to the following students:

Sid, George, Martin, James and Sam.

 

 

Year 7 History
Year 7 classes (7WR and 7WM) hard at work.

Having studied William the Conqueror’s early Motte and Bailey castles and how castle building developed over a 400 year period, students were given the challenge of pitching the ‘perfect’ castle design to the Dragons’ Den. They were given a budget of £10,000 and a list of castle features to choose from – some difficult decisions had to be made about which of the pricey features would be sacrificed to stay on budget, while maintaining a siege-proof design! Groups then had to write and deliver a persuasive pitch to the ‘dragons’ (Miss Lister and their classmates!) about why we should invest our money in their castle. I was very pleased by the way students worked collaboratively and rose to the challenge. Perhaps there are some future architects in our midst?