Challenges for Students

Assembly: Safe Online

This week our assembly theme has been how to remain safe online.  Students have been shown some very powerful films showing how easy it is to be taken in by devious older men, posing as teenagers and pretending to care.  The images show how conversations start and how young people are drawn in.  It then concludes with a real life tragedy, Kayleigh's Love Story, a film produced by Leicestershire Police, which can be found on You Tube.

Individual Success

Aaryan (9JKI) has engineered this robotic arm featuring colour sensors, phone mount and connectivity and infrared sensors which is capable of gripping and lifting objects. It fits over the arm simply and is adjustable to the user. Having won and come second in his age groups in 2015/16 respectively at lego robotics conventions, Aaryan is hoping to further develop this and take the top spot this year!

Year 10 Success

Mr Fisher has put together another issue of Top 10.  This has also been emailed home.

District Swimming Gala 2017

 

In 2016 we were able to finish 4^th overall at the District Swimming Gala at Woking’s Pool in The Park which was a great achievement from our students, and although this year we finished 5^th it was still a superb effort from all the students involved. The 5^th placed finish owed a lot to the fact that unfortunately we were unable to field a full squad and as a consequence missed out on competing in five events which potentially could’ve seen us finish slightly higher up that 5^th. That being said all students who did compete represented the school with great commitment and pride for the department and school. Highlights from the event included finishing 2^nd in the points for Year 11 overall and 4^th in points for Year 7 in their first year which is an amazing achievement. It is clear to see that we have some very talented young swimmers coming through the school and this is exemplified by Kiera Heney in Year 7 who won both her individual events in Backstroke and Fly. Another stand out for KS3 was Ewan Howell who won is 50 metre front crawl race in what turned out to be an extremely fast heat, impressive stuff. Along with Ben Howell and Oliver West being very good for the Year 7, Oliver was able to pick up a 3^rd place finish in the 50 metre breast stroke. Our year 10 team of Megan Wallis, Sam Bishop, Hannah Robinson (who was swimming up a year) and Henry Herring (who came in at the last minute) were very unlucky to pick up a number of 4 place finishes but very impressively picked up points in every race. The last word has to be on the Year 11 team, which included David Bindschedler who was swimming up a year from Year 10 (and, who are were competing for the last time having competed for the school since Year 7! Maya Hartwell (who gained a 1^st and 2^nd place in Fly and Backstroke), Synead Van Heerden and Ben Bishop (who took 2^nd and 3^rd place in the backstroke and fly respectively) have been great ambassadors for the school over the last 5 years and I has been a pleasure to take them along every year. Thank you to all students who competed on the day and did the school proud, onto next year!

The Author and the Bath Bombs!

Winston Loves to Read

Winston will welcome children's author Sita Brahmachari next Wednesday. She will be delivering a presentation to all Year 7 students and selected Year 9 students will participate in creative writing workshops in the morning. At lunchtime she will be joined in the LRC by Waterstones, selling and signing her books (all books will be £5 or less) and speaking with students. 

Here are some of Sita's current titles:

Young Enterprise

I received the following email from our Year 10 Young Enterprise company...


Hello Mrs Johnson-Walker,

 My name is Haleema, from Year 10.

I am speaking to you on behalf of the Year 10 Winston Churchill School Young Enterprise (WCSCYE) team. 

On Saturday 11th February, our company, WCSCYE Bath Blends, will be selling bath bombs in Woking Centre Town Square and we were wondering if you could possibly post the attached photo (hand painted by yours truly) on your blog.

This is a major selling event for us, and we will be representing the school, and by posting it on your blog, it will raise awareness for our company.

We also have a social media platform on Instagram (run by myself, again)  which has been newly started, and will hopefully also benefit us, especially due to the increasing importance of Social Media in the modern world, throughout all ages, however mainly targeting young adults, or similar age groups to us.

Thank you so much for your co-operation,

Yours sincerely,

The WCSCYE team

Joseph!

Our Amazing Students

Throughout the week students were buzzing about the school production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  I was asked on numerous occasions when I was going to see the show, so the anticipation for this performance grew during the week. 


The result of months of hard work and commitment was an exciting, fast-paced show which delighted the audience. Mr Donaldson, his staff team and the students had created a vibrant showcase for our students.  They are an exceptionally talented group of young people, able to switch from serious to humorous with great timing and confidence.


There are so many terrific performances but special mention must go to Rhiannon Drane, the Narrator, Ben Moore as Joseph and Tyrese Shipp as Reuben for outstanding leadership and compelling performances throughout the week. 


All of the music was provided by our own pit-band of current students and staff producing the quality you would expect from professional musicians.  On stage were 177 performers and back stage a further student team of stage hands and technicians controlling the lights, sound and effects. 

Thank you to everyone one involved in this superb story-telling.

The Full Cast

Below: warming up before the final performance.

Learning at Winston

Assembly

Students in Year 7 had the opportunity to make their voices heard today in assembly.  The School Council were talking about the ways in which they make a difference to the school and then they asked students to put any of their ideas on post-it notes to make our school even better.  Student were strongly encouraged to become involved and to work together to make a difference.



Great Work

The task was to produce a pretend research paper as if each student worked in a lab! Mr Weale was incredibly impressed with the piece of work below.

Well done Lottie Ruddle in Year 9.

 

Charles Dickens' Museum

The students wrote...

It all started on a cold morning…my class and some teachers came for a day trip to London. On Thursday 26^th January year 7 students went to London to visit the Charles Dickens' Museum

We had a wonderful time and this is how it started…

First we all had to arrive at Woking station by 9 am. We got on the train at 9.40 heading to London Waterloo.  From Waterloo we went over the bridge to see the London eye, Big Ben and Houses of Parliament. We took some photos. It was very cold yet beautiful!

After that we took the tube to Covent Garden where we heard a man singing. Then we got the opportunity to visit the London Transport Museum as Mr Clayton spoke to their staff and we were able to go on a trail collecting stamps. It was a lot of fun and we all loved going on some of the old buses and engines.

Finally was time to leave and go to the Charles Dickens'  Museum visit.  In this one you couldn’t touch anything because some objects were 180 years old! We had a tour around the house and learnt about Charles Dickens' life and what he achieved. The Museum had 6 floors, lots of rooms and stairs!

It was funny to see how they washed the clothes in those days, using a bucket and a wooden dolly.  At the end of the tour we had a workshop where we had to and it was interesting to guess the names of certain household items, who would use them and which room they belonged.

At the end of the tour we had a workshop where we had to and it was interesting to guess the names of certain household items, who would use them and which room they belonged.

Frog Play

Following on from the success of the Year 7 Frog Play quiz on their knowledge of the Winston competencies and the school itself Miss Blackman is launching fortnightly quizzes, which are department specific. Over the last fortnight Year 7s have been tested on the keywords and knowledge of Design Technology and Home Technology ahead of their rotation after half term. There was again a fantastic uptake and below are the winners of certificates awarded in assembly today.  On Monday a Geography Quiz was launched, year 7 have another week to put their geography knowledge to the test – remembering they can have as many attempts as they need to reach 100%!

Thank you Miss Blackman!

 

DT Quiz		HT Quiz
Gholkar	Aria	Jennings	Belle
Bowen	Samuel	Kendall	Oliver
Ahmed	Firas	Jeeves	Jodie
Herni	Thomas	Baker	Samuel
Khan	Ethan	Stafford	Kerry
Jacobs	Daniel	McClements	Caitlin
Gilfether	Ellis	Forbes	Jasmine
Penrose	Alfred	Padilla	Diane
King	Lucy	Boot	Shane
Hussain	Sana	Furtuna	Christina
Walker	Archie
Hamid	Subhan
Pantparsad	Nick
Omar	Amaan
Eicke	Indigo

Our Students At Work

Farnborough 6th Form College at Winston

Students from all year groups had the opportunity to visit the Farnborough 6th Form College stand, in the hall, at lunchtime today.  Students were able to collect some literature about the college and discuss with the representative the opportunities available.



Demonstration of Bread Making

This demonstration was after the class had previously all made an adapted yeast based dough. All three students then were chosen to lead part of a lesson. The class were attentive and made notes while watching the demonstration. The successful outcomes were demolished with gratitude and the students received much praise from their peers.

Esme Pesto & Cheese Twist and Berriman and Darley demonstrated Fruit& Mixed Spice Soda Bread.

Young Carers

On Tuesday 31st January parents of our young carer students were invited to Winston for a coffee morning in the Churchill Suite.  This was an opportunity to meet with Mr Ludlow and Mrs Hinchley, our family support workers, and Eileen from Surrey Young Carers to advise them of how we aim to support these students in school and for them to ask any questions they may have.

 The event ran very well with eight students in attendance and around 10 parents. We spoke informally with all the parents about how we aim to support the students in school and strategies we were looking to put in place. Parents made comments such as ‘it’s so lovely to hear there is support for these students.’

 It was very well received by all the parents and students.  Games and refreshments were made available to all which went down very well.

 This was a great success and a fantastic way to start our journey to promote Young Carers at Winston and encourage these students to be proud of the excellent job they do!

Year 9 Art

The work you can see below is currently on display in the cabinets in the main foyer of the school.  Opportunities for creativity are an important dimension to the educational offer at Winston.

Year 10 Art

Showcasing Winston

Assembly this Week

It was wonderful to hear Ben and Rhiannon perform a song from our school production, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, in our school assembly today.  We hope that as many students and their parents as possible are able to join us at the Rhoda McGaw Theatre next week.  Many of the local primary schools will be attending the afternoon performances and our students are looking forward to showcasing their talent in a professional theatre.

Young Enterprise

Congratulations to WCSC YE on their certificate of commendation at Tuesday night's Y Factor competition. It was noted not only by the judges, but also by the teachers of other participating schools, local business advisors and two local mayors how impressive their display was, as well as their product, BathBlends. (Ours were the only students who had made their product themselves). Students really came into their own demonstrating their excellent communication skills as they answered judges' questions (and even made a few sales).

"We started the competition very nervous as we looked around the room and saw many great ideas and great companies: there was Hydro that had a 3-D printer, The Little Tin Can Company whose stand was unbelievable using fencing, plants and artificial grass, GoBillou had created cookbooks that helped you learn a language (they were the winning group). The judges loved our company and were very impressed with it. We worked as a group and got everything sorted out, we had a striking display board beautifully painted by Haleema which we used to display ingredients and prices. We tried our best and got to meet and speak to many different people, including the mayors of Woking and Guildford who were both very nice, and we got to sell some bath bombs! It was a brilliant event and was very fun to take part in." - Ore Anifowoshe

Ella's Sculpture

Below is a picture of Ella’s sculpture, which is on display at the Lightbox in the Henry Moore exhibition.  She’s been attending their Young Curators course since the start of December, where they have been working with a sculptor.  She’s loved it and the final pieces the students produced have been put on display in the new Henry Moore exhibition.

Well done Ella!