Little Shop Of Horrors

The Show is Underway!

On Monday 16th January, students from every year group at the Winston Churchill School became the cast and crew of the production of ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ and made their way to the Rhoda McGraw theatre. The cast was shown the set that they will be working on and the props that they will use to add to their performance. Four giant puppets make up the centre piece of this show, growing in size throughout the performance. After a few costume finalisations, they threw themselves into dress and technical rehearsals with a professionalism rarely seen in performers so young. Students were offered training in how to use the set and new technical equipment by external professionals and took the new challenge in their stride. 

As the show opened, it was clear that the dedication and talent of the whole cast and crew was definitely evident in their wonderful performance. The reviews following the first showing spurred on the entire company to further heights as they welcomed their first primary schools on Wednesday. Teachers and students alike cheered and laughed throughout a stunning morning showing. 

The opening cast flawlessly showed why they were selected for the parts. Seymour, played by Dom in year 11, brought an authenticity to the role, playing alongside Seven as Audrey Two. The role of Audrey was played by Emma, who effortlessly displayed an incredible stage presence throughout. The first performance was a complete success and the passion and team spirit of the cast shone throughout.

On Wednesday and Thursday, year 11 completed each day by returning to their academic studies. Ensuring they continued with their commitments to GCSE by taking over the theatre's atrium for sessions in English, Maths and Science. Their focus astounds me each day and I am awe of those undertaking a leading role in this production while keeping on top of their learning. 

Writing for the production has shown me how incredibly dedicated the students of Winston are to the arts. Their talent a passion is evident throughout the entire performance, and I know you will enjoy the show when you see it!        

Emily 

Keep Reading

 Book Fair! 🕮

The Scholastic Book Fair starts on Monday 23^rd January and will run for 2 weeks in the Library. Below is a selection of some of the books that will be available at the book fair! Every student will get the opportunity to visit either in their English lesson or during form time. Payments can be made in cash on the day or via the school payment system Scopay. It's always great to get as many students involved with the book fair as possible because as a school, we get a commission depending on what sales we make so this means we are able to buy new books for our ever-growing Library.

Miss Dodds

New Experiences

 Wellington Outdoor Education

Winston became the 1^st partnership school to take students to Wellington College's new Outdoor Education Day. Twelve students from Year7 had the opportunity to take part in a variety of activities, all led by an outdoor instructor.

The tasks involved aimed to provide an environment of challenge and failure, which our students were tasked to overcome. In the beginning there was a lot of shouting and individuality but by the afternoon the students were more team orientated and thoughtful in their planning which led to better outcomes.

Finally, a high ropes leap of faith proved to be out of the comfort zone of everyone involved. For some, just getting up the ladder was an achievement but it was great to see everyone encouraging and cheering each other on. The final thought of the day for our students to take away was: "Sometimes we are too close to a problem to see everything. Take a step back to make a better change."

Mr Martin

The Van de Graaf Generator

On Thursday and Friday , Dr Lau used the Van de Graaf generator, among other demonstrations, to recap the physics topics across her classes . Static electricity allowed the 'brave' volunteers from both 9CE and 7WN (both pictured)  to feel their hair follicles get charged and let their hair "fly" away.  The insulated generator creates positively charged electrons and the student gets slowly positively charged, too as they touch the silver dome. Due to the fact that like charges repel , they will try to get far away from each other as possible , therefore the hair stands up."

Opportunities to Participate

Boys Basketball

There has been an explosion of Basketball at Winston this year! 

As well as taking part in the usual District Tournaments, Year7 have this year been entered into the Junior NBA Cup for the first time. The squad have been given an NBA team (Oklahoma City Thunder!) and are supplied with free kit to represent them. The team made a confident start in their 1^st triangular, winning one and narrowly losing another. There are 8 more games to come in the group stages this Spring.

Winston have also entered the U16 National Basketball Cup for the 1^st time. Although competing against Yr11's, our squad is predominately made up of Yr10's who have shown that they are more than capable of competing. Fixtures against more established Basketball schools (John Fisher, Bohunt etc.) is great experience for the players. 

Finally, the Yr7 & 8's continue to enter the usual District Tournaments and the Yr10's and 11's begin their District League fixtures this term. It is great to have increased participation and a buzz around Basketball this year. 

Mr Martin

Chelsea FC Foundation Programme

A number of workshops, provided by Isaac from Chelsea FC are held weekly here at Winston which focus on a variety of topics such as reading, social media and sustainability. 

This time it was the turn of our cohort to visit Isaac at Stamford Bridge. 2 minibuses arrived full of excited students, ready to spend their day here. To begin, the students were taken around Stamford Bridge by a tour guide who took them to various points of the stadium, including the tunnel, press room, team dugouts and changing rooms. A visit to the interactive museum followed over lunch. 

In the afternoon, students were tasked in groups to develop ideas for a sustainable and eco-friendly project that they could implement. Groups considered recycling of old football boots, making blankets for the homeless and eco-gardens to name a few. Over the coming weeks the groups will refine their ideas before presenting and bringing them to fruition. Students are learning the importance of creating a sustainable lifestyle, ways they can impact it as well as using techniques in design, problem-solving and teamwork to form ideas in order to overcome current issues.

Gasp Mechanics

This half term 8 boys from Year 10 and Year 11 completed the GASP Mechanic's 6-week project. Over the six weeks course the boys learnt about the different aspects of mechanics including working on different types of engines. The group also worked on improving teamwork and communication skills. The course finished with the boys building a small Go-Kart. Well done to the students who took part and thank you to Mrs Walton for driving them over there every week.

  

Let's Get reading

 Reading for Free!

The Winter Concert

 

Enjoy more performances from our Winter Concert.

I apologise for the late posting but this programme is challenging to use when trying to upload video footage!  Additional technical help was required.

Core Skills Group in Action

 Core Skills Climbing

The Year 10 Core Skills students last week started there climbing course at Surrey Sports Park. As part of there Asdan qualification they must learn a new challenging skill.  The students were given a safety chat from the instructors at the sports park and then before you knew it they were flying up the climbing walls. Most of the class had never climbed before but seemed to take to it very quickly. The group really supported each other well and especially encouraged those who were a little scared of heights to overcome their fears. The group will continue the sessions into January.        

Christmas Wreath with the RHS

Last week the Year 11 Core Skills group were lucky enough to have a visit from Clare and Julie from the Royal Horticultural Society as part of their Winter Engagement programme. Th session took place in our outside garden classroom. The session began with Clare showing us how to warm up the willow sticks so we could bend them to make a Christmas wreath shape. Once we had twinned the pieces of wood together to make the shape, we used lots of Christmas themed foliage to cover our wood. Finally, the students used dried oranges, pinecones, and cinnamon sticks to decorate the wreath all Christmassy.  The students were extremely focussed throughout the task and some of them even took their wreaths home for their family members.

The Core Skills Group would like to say massive thank you to Clare and Julie from the Royal Horticultural Society for coming and teaching them how to make Christmas Wreaths. It was great fun !

 The Core Skills group are looking to continue with there gardening theme and want to upgrade and re deign the outdoor classroom / garden. If you or your company would be interested in helping them or donating any resources, then please email Miss Exworth  r.exworth@wcsc.org.uk

Winston Churchill School Foodbank Donations

The Year 10 Core Skills Group have spent the last half term planning and organising Winston’s Yearly Foodbank Christmas Hamper appeal. The group spent several lessons marketing the appeal including making posters and planning assembly announcement and researching the amazing work that the Woking Foodbank do.  Once the marketing information was out and around the school the boxes, wrapping paper and generous donations of food came flying in. The class then spent several lessons wrapping and packaging the hampers fall of Christmas goodies. Then last Friday a few of students from the class accompanied Miss Exworth and Miss Knight to the Woking Foodbank HQ on the Lansbury Estate to deliver our Christmas hampers.

The Core Skills group would like to Thank the kind and generous donations to their appeal from the Winston Churchill School Community.