'Service Before Self'

 Thinking of Others

Year 7 have recently been competing to earn as many achievement points as possible, specifically in the aspect of 'Service Before Self'. This particular achievement point is given to students who go above and beyond to be kind and helpful to people around them - all excellent characteristics that we want to nurture.

The students who gained the most of these particular points, over a period of 2 weeks, were invited to a special celebration on Friday afternoon, where they had a biscuit decorating party! 

Lots of icing was consumed, mess made, and fun had! Some of the creations including a couple of fabulous WCSC students, are included here.

It was a real pleasure to be able to reward these fantastic, kind students and we look forward to more celebrations in the future!

Miss Hazzlewood

Head of Year 7 

Key Stage 4 Recital

 Year 10 and 11 Excel

On Thursday 20^th March the Music Department held our third recital event of the half term, this time for Key Stage 4 students. 29 students from years 10 and 11 took part in the 2-hour concert in the Performance Space, with the audience treated to outstanding performances by all of the students involved. Amongst the performers were Susanna, who performed one of her grade 4 flute pieces and Archie, performing a grade 5 saxophone piece. Both began learning their respective instrument in September 2021 as part of our Year 7 instrumental scheme and it is phenomenal to see that the scheme is producing excellent musicians in such a short space of time. Another highlight of the evening was a fantastic guitar solo from Jacob, who not only performed live but had also recorded and produced his backing track in advance of the night. 

The Music Department would like to congratulate all of the students who took part not only for their superb performances but also for their professionalism. We would also like to say a huge thank you to Miss Wells and the student tech team who provided the lighting and sound for the event.

With the year 8 and 9 recitals already having taken place, we have now seen 68 different students perform as soloists this half term. This is an exceptional number and shows the strength of music at Winston. We are now looking forward to seeing a number of our student bands performing in our Battle of the Bands competition on Tuesday 25^th March, and have exciting plans for the Summer Term (details coming soon).

Mr C Drake

Director of Music

Charlie's Promise

 An Impactful Experience

On the 14th of March we had the honour of welcoming in Martin Cosser from the Charity Charlie’s Promise to our school. Martin gave an insightful and inspirational talk to all our year 9 and 10 students on the tragic murder of his son, Charlie Cosser, which took place in the summer of 2023. Martin has made it his mission since tragically losing his son to raise awareness of the dangers of knife crime and speak to as many young people as possible in the aim of preventing another family going through what he and his family have had to.

Martin spoke openly about his experiences. He took time to signpost websites such as Fearless to students where they can make anonymous reports about knife crime concerns. He also spoke about the missed opportunities on the night of Charlie’s murder to prevent the incident and the long-lasting effect losing his son has had on him and his family. The students found this emotional and raw and applauded Martin for his bravery.

In their following Winston Extra lessons and during tutor time, students in year 9 and 10 were given the opportunity to discuss their thoughts and feelings. 9CAN commented the following after their following up session in form: “We discussed how brilliant he was at telling the story of Charlie's murder and how him banging on the table (to mimic police banging on his door) and counting the hours made it feel so much more real. The photos and videos he took were heartbreaking to watch but again, further established how real it all was.”

We are very grateful to Martin and his family for providing this opportunity for our students to get a much deeper understanding of the worries of knife crime and how they can contribute to helping tackle this problem.

Mrs Harnett

Head of Winston Extra

Winston Book Week

 Winston Book Week: The Story continues...

In this chapter of Winston Book Week, Year 7 had an inspiring author visit, an exciting trip to Matilda and we had lots of competitions running!

After Year 8 author visit on Tuesday, Year 7 were next in line with a visit from Michael Mann, author of fantasy adventure books 'Ghostcloud' and 'Nightspark', on Wednesday 5^th March. 

He gave an inspirational talk about his journey as an author and the story behind his books to the whole year group during an assembly, with the opportunity for students to ask questions at the end. The students asked interesting questions such as 'Which is your favourite of your books you've written?' and 'Why did you want to become an author?'. He even gave out some special bookmarks for those students who asked interesting questions!

After the assembly, Michael came to the Library to run 2 smaller workshops for those students interested in creative writing. He talked to them a little more about the inspiration behind his stories and some tips for writing their own stories. The students had the opportunity to 'reimagine' a local place like Michael did with London for his story, to inspire their own creative writing. Some had ideas for Wickes being used as a shelter during a zombie apocalypse, others had an idea where the Basingstoke Canal had completely dried up in a world where there were extreme high temperatures. Michael suggested using places we already know as settings in our own stories as it makes it easier to be specific about details. 

Michael then stayed during Year 7 lunch where he signed some bookmarks and copies of the books for the students and the Library copies. He even left some signed bookplates and some bookmarks with Mrs Jones which were given out as part of the prizes for some of the competitions running!

Students had the opportunity to enter into multiple competitions during Winston Book Week, with prizes being given to those in Year 7 and Year 9 with the highest Sparx Reader points for the week, the top being over 2500 in one week!! We also had a competition running in the Library for students to guess the book from a page that had been displayed in the Library. Correct answers were then placed into a prize draw to reveal 2 winners. Lastly, we had the Book in a Box competition, where students could design a scene from their favourite book in a box. One entry used lego, another using lights so there were definitely some really creative ideas! A huge well done to all the winners from the competitions, these were announced in assemblies last week and prizes given. 

Another busy Winston Book Week is over, and hopefully students have ended the week feeling inspired to read. Year 7 and Year 8 students will continue to reflect on the author visits in their Library lessons, and the Book Vending Machine is ready for all the prize winners!

As always, happy reading! 🙂 

Mrs M Jones

Discovery Space Manager

French Connection

 Making Connections

Fifty-three of our Year 7 students have taken part, for the second time, in a French pen pal project that Mrs Fulton organised together with a teacher in Brittany.

The partner school is called Collège Giles Gahinet and is based in Arradon, near Vannes, in Southern Brittany: https://www.college-gahinet-arradon.ac-rennes.fr

Having received responses to their Christmas letters, students were excited to work on some Easter letters and cards.

Mrs Fulton was once again delighted with the creative outcomes and the students’ ability to write at length after only two terms of learning French!

Students are now looking forward to receiving the cards and letters from their pen-pals, which should hopefully happen within the next two weeks.

Mrs Finney, Head of MFL

Ms Fulton, Teacher of French