Winter Concert Part 1

 Celebrating through Music

Our Winter Concert was the culmination of weeks of hard work  and fun, rehearsing to impress parents, staff and governors.  The Music Department, under the leadership of our Director of Music, Mr Drake, have planned and organised a range of performances leading up to this concert. These included Open Evening, Band Night, Woking Hospice Light up a Life, Brookwood Lights and the British Army Band Day.  There has also been the living advent calendar.  The aim, as always, is to provide students with as many opportunities as possible.

Thank you to Mr Drake and his team, for creating an outstanding Music Department.

There are more video clips to come!

More Christmas at Winston

 Living Advent Calendar

At break on Tuesday Rock n Pop Club performed in the main hall as part of our living advent calendar. This is a group made up of Year 7 students and it has been run by one of our Year 11 Music Prefects, Jack. 

Today was the turn of Lilya, Florence, Luci, Emma, Molly, Alice and Olive (all Year 8) to perform. They have been working hard with Mr Elliott to put their performance together.

Testimonial Match for Mr Fricker 

At 3.45pm on a freezing Wednesday afternoon, two teams marched out onto the astroturf for a match to mark the end of Mr Fricker's time at Winston, as he moves on to a new role at The Hurst School.  Funds were raised for the The Childrens' Trust.

Both side have vowed to only play in warm weather in future!

Christmas at Winston

 

German Christmas Biscuit Baking

Year 7 students were given the chance to bake some traditional German Christmas biscuits with Regina, our German tutor.

First of all, students had to work out the German words for each ingredient before having a go at translating the baking equipment and task instructions.

Students worked very well together in creating their festive biscuits and Regina was impressed by their baking skills and team work.

Congratulations to the winners: Ceon, Logan, Natasha and Bella.

Special recognition prizes went to Leen, Amelia-Grace, Gemma, Ryan, Leila, Jack, Oliver and Bradley.

Well done to everyone who took part!

Thank you to Mrs Vadi for letting us use her Food room.

Year 7 Perform PANTO!

The Christmas Pantomime is a favourite and what better way to celebrate Christmas at school than making one of your own?!

This half-term Year 7 students have been focusing on key skills in pantomime and using their drama lessons to reinvent the famous Cinderella.

The lessons and rehearsal time included understanding and practising:

• The narration scene of buttons.
• Using and inciting audience participation.
• Using sound effects and music to enhance performances.
• Some groups even used their own time to script write and rehearse after school using the drama facilities! 

Today students brought in their own costumes, makeup, and put on panto performances to be proud of! Each group got to enjoy the performances of other individuals in their class as they joined in from the crowd! 

The charisma and skill brought to the stage was amazing! All of the students used skills, pantomime tropes "SHE'S BEHIND YOU!", and encouraged the audience to participate. I even found myself joining in with boos and laughter! 

Each performance was just as fantastic as the next!

Well done Year 7! 🎄

Miss Turner

British Army Band Sandhurst

Working with the Army Band

On Wednesday 7^th December the Music Department welcomed the British Army Band, Sandhurst, to Winston for a day of music making. Over 90 Winston students were joined by a further 23 students who came from Collingwood College, The Wavell School and Worplesdon Primary to take part in a day of rehearsals with 23 British Army Band musicians. The students were split into a function band that rehearsed two pieces and a concert band that rehearsed three pieces, all in preparation for a concert at the end of the day. During the day students had to work hard to quickly master the different parts that they were given so that they could play them fluently alongside the army musicians. The final concert took place in our new Performance Space to a packed audience of friends and family. The concert was fantastic and showcased the incredible work that had been put in throughout the day. Huge credit must go to the students who performed with accuracy and confidence.

As part of the day the Army also gave a very informative careers talk to the students. This gave students lots of information about what it is like to be an army musician and also the opportunity to ask questions.

The Music Department would like to say a huge thank you to everyone at the British Army Band, Sandhurst, for all of the support they gave to the students involved. It was a fantastic experience and we hope to welcome the band back to Winston again next year.

Mr Drake

Director of Music

Science at Christmas

 Science Club

 Miss Azam`s science club made snowy Christmas trees using salt and Potassium Ferrocyanide. They built their 3D models from green cardboard, decorated them with felt tip pens and let them soak in the above solution for 48 hours. They were excited to see the crystals grow on the tree cut-outs. The trees pictured here have been cut down for Christmas.

Year 7 Plum Pudding

7WN modelled atoms using poppit beads and plasticine. Dr Lau discussed the Plum Pudding Model with them while explaining electron orbital configurations.

Year 8 Osteology

Today, 8WN  investigated human anatomy. They studied the skeleton and then with Mr Hough`s guidance they were able to draw their own figure and label the bones.

Enjoying Music at Winston

 Year 7 at the Yehudi Menuhin Music School

The trip, which was organised by Mrs Antony, was for a group of Year 7 students to attend a concert at the world-famous Yehudi Menuhin Music School. It was a phenomenal opportunity for our students from Winston to experience music played by world leading instrumentalists who are just a little bit older than they are! The first piece played in the concert was Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker suite which feature two pianos (played by 12 different pianists during the performance) and a harp. The second performance was of the Snowman, given by the schools String Orchestra. The quality of the music was outstanding and inspirational for our students, who came away from the concert buzzing!

Living Advent Calendar

Thursday saw another advent performance in the main hall at break, this time from students in 7CM. They have worked on both Hold Back The River and Memories this term and gave great performances of both.

Athidh and Josh (Year 10) were our advent performers today at break, Friday 9th December.