The Festive Spirit

Turning on the Lights

A huge thank you to the Winston Wind Band, who performed at the Brookwood Lights event on Saturday night. Organised and directed by Miss Shlackman, the band did really well to entertain the crowd with a range of Christmas carols.  This was our first public performance in nearly two years! The band comprised of Emily, Lydia, Ollie, Taran and Charlotte (and some music teachers too!).

They should be particularly commended because Brookwood School who had been scheduled to perform with their choir didn't turn up, so they had to play for most of the evening, and did so with real musicianship (and humour in the freezing cold!)

Door Number 2 on our Advent Calendar.

Today's performers, at break, were Josh and Athidh. 

Enjoy the video performances below:

Josh Playing

Athidh Playing

A Musical Advent Calendar

Our Musical Advent Calendar

This year I asked Mr Drake to put together a series of live performances as a musical Advent Calendar.  As we have been unable to pack the hall for our Winter Concert, it seemed appropriate to find a way to allow some of our students to perform and celebrate their musical talents.

Today, at break the following students performed:  Taran, Ollie, Athidh, Archie, Sam and Daniel; all from Year 9. 

After the Rain

Mr Johnson took this image following  the rain.

7CM on the Blog!

E-Safety at Winston

Mrs Smith told me that 7CM couldn't wait to be on the blog! They had approximately 45 minutes to create a 'fit for purpose' e-safety song. Their groups where randomly selected and they had to collaborate within the given time frame. It was evident in the planning that they were able to consider and develop ideas effectively and the level of compromise, listening and taking on board the views of others, was outstanding. With just a a 45min planning session I think you will be impressed with the outcome…. Other year 7s classes also enjoyed the action....

Reading and Running!

 Our Library Remembers

This month, the Library has been host to our Remembrance Day display. The display includes information about people from the local area who were involved in WW1, along with a selection of historical fiction and non-fiction texts all about WW1, WW2 and Remembrance Day. We also have Mr Phillips' book, Remembering Woking in World War One, that focuses on people from the local area, their stories and Winston student's views about the war 100 years on. 

Year 7 students have worked hard during tutor times to write some acrostic poems using the words 'poppy' and 'remember' and thinking about the vocabulary that comes to mind when they think of Remembrance Day. Students included words such as 'reflect', 'respect', 'memorial' in their poems and talked about some of the symbols of Remembrance. They were thoughtful and reflective when deciding what they wanted to write in their poems, a big well done to Year 7... here are just a few fantastic examples!

Our Christmas display will soon be going up, so if you are looking for a fantastic Winter read... come along to the Library!

Miss M Dodds

Discovery Space Manager

Running at Winston

Recently Winston have competed in both the English Schools and District X-Country events held at Tiffin School & Lightwater Country Park respectively. Although running individually, students compete within their school teams. This meant students showed teamwork and encouragement to achieve the best they could for one another. Watching our students pass the finish line it was clear nothing was left in the tank. Was great to see the determination shown and the astonishment of some faces who excelled way past their expectations. It's amazing what results you can achieve if you take that step outside your comfort zone.

Headline Results

English Schools Cup

Intermediate Boys - 4th

Top 10 Finish - Isaac M (Yr8) & Bayley J (Yr10)

District Cup

KS3 Girls - 3rd

Top 10 Finish - Lucy W (Yr7), Charlie H (Yr9), Miranda A-H (Yr9),  DylanL(Yr9), Bayley J (Yr10) & Alex B (Yr11)

Well done to everyone that competed! It takes a positive mindset, courage and resilience to not only accept selection in the 1st place but to also run long distances in the cold. Running club continues with Mrs Lyddon after school on Mondays, which is open to all. A great opportunity to prepare for the upcoming athletics season!

Something New

Mycology Club

This year the science department introduced a new after school club that focuses on fungi.

 Mr Rose have been working with Year 7 and Year 8 students on some very exciting stuff, indeed. Yesterday, in Mycology club the students learnt to clone mushrooms. The pupils used fresh mushrooms on agar plates after disinfecting them with ethanol. They were introduced to antiseptic techniques to avoid contamination once the mushrooms were dissected. If they were successful, then the results would be visible within 5 days of cloning.

Year 7 Maths 

7WT had a great lesson using one of the card games developed by the maths department to help them remember the different number properties.  The students enjoyed the competition element as well as peer assessing each other's work.  At the end of the lesson students commented on how much fun the lesson was and how much they could remember.

Thermite

During today`s demonstration , 10W4 observed the highly exothermic reaction between aluminium and iron (III) oxide that produces molten iron. Mr Rose explained that aluminium is above iron in the reactivity series , and how it is used as fuel in this redox reaction to reach temperatures as high as 2000 degrees Celsius . Students learnt that the practical use of this reaction would be the welding of the railway lines .

Engaging Science

 Halide Displacement

On Tuesday, 10W4 witnessed a colourful demonstration of Halide displacement as part of their reactivity series topic in chemistry. Mrs Blatch demonstrated the halogen displacement using the organic chemicals cyclohexane and cyclohexene with salts of bromine , iodine, and chlorine, while Mr Rose explained the theory behind it. The students were able to identify the significance of the colour change and its layers related to how the most reactive halogen displaced all the other halogens from solutions of their salts. They also understood that the least reactive halogen displaced none of the others , however itself was displaced by all of the others.

Bacteria

Yesterday , harmful and harmless bacteria were introduced to the pupils in 8CT . While Dr Lau explained differences between harmful and helpful germs and their uses and adaptations, the students had the opportunity to identify certain species like E.coli on prepared slides under the microscope. 

Making Salts

On Tuesday , 10C1 practiced making salts with Dr Gonzalez. The aim of this required GCSE practical is to prepare a dry sample of soluble salt from an insoluble oxide. The students handled sulphuric acid and copper(II) oxide to produce copper sulphate crystals.

Mussels at Winston

 Free Mussels!

We were lucky enough to be one of the 200 schools in the UK that were given free mussels, online training and free resources to be to teach  the pupils about food sustainability, seasonal foods and food miles. The fish hero programme is promoting the cooking of fish in schools and that every child should experience cooking with and tasting fish/seafood before they leave school. 

The results today produced by our Year 11 students were outstanding, especially with such short notice. They were given a selection of recipes and chose different ones. They all tried the mussels, having cooked them for the first time, presented the dishes well and all sat down at the end to enjoy their outcomes.

Miss Reynolds