December Winstanley Life - Winstanley Community College

Winstanley
‘Keeping you up to date with all things Winstanley!’ - December 2015
Dear Parents, Students and Members
of the Community
I have said before, and I will say again, it has been a great
privilege to serve the people of our community over the
last 8 and a half years. Students have come and gone,
with the foundation to flourish having been developed
during their years with us: whether it be an
apprenticeship with a local employer or a degree at
Oxford University, Winstanley students have continued to
excel in their chosen field.
As I am sure you do, I must thank the staff for their
continued commitment and hard work in aid of the
students’ development. It is true that school staff enjoy
generous holidays but my word they make up for it with
the intensity of work during term time and the long hours
they have to put in outside of the teaching day. Teachers’
additional hours are all in a good cause though, and it
has always been a pleasure to see ex-students returning
to Winstanley to thank the teachers for their
commitment whilst they were students with us.
It is a cliché to say that the pace of change in education
is increasing but it is nonetheless true. When the
current year 11s were in year 7, age-range change
was not in the public’s mind and the Government
had only just announced its expansion of the
academies programme. By the time the current
year 7s reach the end of their time with us, GCSE
grades will have been replaced by numbers, along
with any other change we do not yet know about.
Nonetheless, education professionals are used to
such upheaval and Winstanley staff will always
work tirelessly to ensure students are as well
equipped for life as possible and the school is in good
hands with Mr Williams in charge from January.
Wishing you all a merry Christmas and a peaceful New
Year.
Mr Russell
Principal, Winstanley Community College
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Life
Celebrating Winter
Sports!
At Winstanley we love sports no
matter what time of the year it
is! As a specialist sports college
we like to not just have a Sports
Day in the summer but also
celebrate everything that’s
great about winter sports too.
On Wednesday, 25th
November we held our
‘Winter Sports Day’ with Years
7, 8 and 9 taking part in a
wide range of activities
including football, rugby,
dodge
ball, table
tennis and cross-country. This
isn’t just about being competitive
but also about taking part as this
year pupils have asked for dance
and trampolining to be included
in the range of activities.
We have a number of pupils in the
school who have a high ability in
specific sports both in and out of
school and we believe that it’s
important to provide opportunities
for them to show off their skills and
shine!
There were points awarded across
all the activities and tutor groups were recognised for
their achievements. In Year 7 first place went to
Class A, Mrs Maces’ tutor group who really enjoyed
their first sports day here at Winstanley. Miss Hobbs’
tutor group 8B were in first place for Year 8 and Mr
Danns’ tutor group 9B were the winners for year 9.
Well done to everyone who took part, there was an
excellent display of our values during the activities
including supporting others, hard work and
excellence.
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Winstanley says NO to Bullying!
For Anti-Bullying Week (16th—20th November) pupils have been
busy designing posters for a competition run by our Pastoral Team.
We used the winning poster designs on our social media sites
throughout the week. There were so many entries to the competition
that we had six winners in total who were pleased to receive
vouchers of their choice. In first place were Summer from Year 7 and
Gemma from Year 10, in second place were Julia from Year 7 and
Kirstin and Lauren from Year 9, and in third place were Ashleigh from
Year 7, Riley from Year 8 and Chloe from Year 10. It was great to see
pupils really engaging with the issues and wanting to make a
difference with their posters. On Friday the 20th everyone wore blue
to show their support, and there was also be a cake sale and wrist
bands being sold at break-time with proceeds going towards the
charity ‘Bullying UK’ which provides help and support for children
and families. In total we raised £377.89, which was a great result so
soon after Children in Need.
The week aims to empower children and young people and to
encourage ‘talking schools’ where pupils feel safe and able to speak
to adults about issues and bullying. By participating in the week our
Pastoral Team hope to raise awareness of the impact of bullying, the
effects it can have in the long-term and providing strategies for
dealing with these issues in a school environment.
Mrs King, Pastoral Support Manager says “We work really hard with
the pupils to ensure that they understand what bullying is and how it
can be dealt with. We are always available to help pupils resolve
issues which are more often happening online. As a small school
pupils get to know staff well and feel confident to speak about issues
they may have, we have also created ‘Bullying Champions’ who are
pupils that have taken on a mentoring role and can be a friendly
point of contact particularly for younger pupils.”
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LADs day out!
Charity Cheer!
On Monday 7th December nine of our pupils attended the Live
We have had lots of recent fundraising
events here at Winstanley with staff and
pupils really showing their generosity.
Active - Do Something! (LADS) event at The Pavilion, Huncote. The
aim of the event is to encourage teenage boys to try a range of new
& exciting activities and adopt a healthy lifestyle/positive self image
using sport and education. The boys attending will take part in a
range of fitness based activities, including dodgeball, martial arts,
boxing and ‘boot camp’. The event was also attended by other
local secondary schools and around 110 boys took part in the
activities.
Our pupils Kamron, Taylor, Max, Adrian, Jake, Jamal, Dan, Cieran,
Kian and Connor took part in Boxing, Martial Arts and Boot Camp
they had a great day out, enjoyed meeting pupils from other
schools and all came away with a free t-shirt and goodie bag. The
day ended with a motivational talk from international pro freestyle
BMX champion Keelan Phillips who also demonstrated his skills.
Feeling Festive!
The Craft Club have been busy in the run
up to Christmas making all sorts of crafty
creations. They are looking forward to
taking their latest creations home to put
on their trees.
They have made pictures, as well as
some lovely cards to send to friends and
family. Phoebe has been making some
brightly coloured tree ornaments, while
other members of the group have been making some beautiful
white stars, which not only uses their craft skills but is great for
maths too! Ms Francis who runs the group every lunch time says
“the group has been very
popular this term and the
pupils have been having
lots of fun making
Christmas crafts, we have
lots of new and exciting
projects planned for after
christmas and into the
spring term.”
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Remembrance Day was marked with a
two minutes silence during form time for
pupils to reflect on the sacrifices made
during past and recent conflicts. We also
had some heroes of our own who ran a
stall during break-time raising money for
the Poppy Appeal. Well done to Elle
Saunders, Jack Mackness, Chloe
Whitmore and Mrs Wright who raised
£112.56 for this years appeal.
BBCs Children in Need
was a non-uniform day
and cake sale with all
pupils donating £1 for
participating. The
money we raised from
this was a grand total of £502.21 which
was a great result.
The following week we were all
fundraising again for Anti-Bullying Week.
Pupils were again asked to donate £1 and
‘wear something blue’ and there were
also wrist bands on sale from pastoral.
The total from the cake sale and nonuniform from this was £377.89 most of
which will be donated to Anti Bullying UK.
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Stars SHINE bright!
On Thursday
12th
November
GCSE pupils
from different
subject areas
came together
to put on a
night of arts
and entertainment. The school hall was
transformed with candlelight and round
tables to create an ‘venue’ atmosphere.
The idea was to give them performance
experience in front of an audience, this
was useful to our stunning singers who
conquered
their nerves
and
performed a
number of
songs some of
which were
solos.
Catering
pupils were on hand to serve some
tasty canapés with some professional
cooking and serving skills on display.
There were some fantastic drama and
dance performances too as well as a
display of artwork and sketch books.
Mrs Olner,
Head of
Music who
organised
the event
was really
pleased with
how well the
evening went
and with how pupils from drama, music,
catering, art and dance worked
together to create a wonderful
celebration of their hard work. Along
with the pupils she is hoping to arrange
another 'soirée' in the new year as it
really helps them to perform in front of
an audience.
Winstanley does
Masterchef!
Talented staff and pupils have taken to the
Winstanley ‘kitchen’ to compete against each
other and be crowned Winstanley Masterchef
Champion 2015! The heats started on Monday
30th November and Tuesday 1st December, with
8 pupils and 8 members of staff battling it out to
make the semi-finals on Monday 7th December.
Monday’s contestants Fergus, Gemma, Chelsea
and Le-chaie, Mr Rigby, Mrs Roberts, Mr Taylor
and Mrs Cooke were calm and highly organised in
the kitchen and set the bar high with some
stunning plates of food which amazed the judges.
Going through to the next round are Gemma
who made some beautifully presented Hunters
Chicken, Le-Chaie produced a tasty west Indian
style Chicken curry with dumplings, Mr Taylor
stunned judges with his vegetarian falafel
burgers and Mrs Cooke who gave her chicken
dish and unusual twist with some savoury
popcorn.
Tuesdays contestants were nervous after seeing
the high standards from the previous days action
but Mariyam, Gloria, Cairon, Jess, Mrs
Cartwright, Mr Parry, Mr Loades and Mr Howe
didn't disappoint the judges with lots more
original dishes for them to sample. Going
through to the next round are Mariyam with her
chicken fried rice with shrimps, Jess impressed
judges by making her own pasta for her
butternut squash filled ravioli with a buerre
noisette, Mrs Cartwright made roast loin of pork
with seasonal vegetables and a scrumptious cider
and rosemary sauce and Mr Howe stunned the
judges with his aromatic Thai chicken curry with
tempura prawns and fragrant rice.
We are really looking forward to see what our
talented chefs are cooking up for the semi-finals!
To keep up-to-date follow us on Facebook or see
the photos on Flickr (links on our website).
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Great Day at the
Skills Show!
Our pupils had a great time at the skills
show on Friday 20th November. The
Skills show is an annual event which
takes place at the NEC, Birmingham,
and brings together a wide range of
education and training providers under
one roof for pupils to explore the
opportunities available to them Post 16
and beyond.
The Year 8 and 11 pupils loved the
exciting and interactive exhibits and
there was so much to see and do they
were disappointed when it was time to
come home. It was a fantastic
opportunity to 'have a go' at skills experiences, meet colleges and
employers, listen to inspirational talks and discover amazing career
opportunities. The show was split into 5 categories so that visitors
could explore different areas of interest such as The Built
Environment looking at building trades like bricklaying, carpentry,
gardening and plastering, IT and Business Services, Professional
Services which included hairdressing with some stunning displays as
well as cooking, floristry and beauty therapy, Cultural and creative
arts and Engineering. As well as local colleges and universities there
were also major employers like the NHS, Army, O2, FESTO, National
Express, BBC, Civil Service, Crossrail, Jaguar Land Rover, Barclays and
Virgin. The show was supported by leading politicians, business
people and industry, including Theo Paphitis, Nicky Clarke and Theo
Randall. We look forward to attending
the event next year.
Pupils were amazed at the amount of
opportunities and career options
available to them, and the year 8s are
looking forward to visiting the event
again in the future. Lita from year 8
said ‘It was the best day ever!’, staff
who visited the show thought it was a
really worthwhile experience.
History links!
Mrs Roberts always has interesting and
exciting ways to help her pupils understand
historical events. Year 9 are currently
studying WW1 which most historians believe
was caused by a complex alliance system, the
First World War was both brutal and
devastating. Fought from trenches, on land
and at sea, it ended in countless tragedies
and a controversial treaty.
Members of 9JB used this ‘hands-on’ activity
involving ‘being attached to each other’ to
discover first hand the bonds between the
European countries in 1914. The activity
helped them to understand the alliance
system that pulled the countries into war.
Take a deep breath!
Year 8 have been learning about ‘lung
capacity’ in Science with Mr Harrison. They
had lots of fun using plastic tubing and water
to measure how much air capacity they had
in their lungs. Having a big air capacity in
your lungs means you can distribute oxygen
around your body at a faster rate. The air
capacity of lungs (or VO2 max) increases
naturally as children grow up but can also be
increased with regular exercise.
NEW!
Click the link on our webpage to
view photos of all the latest
events at Winstanley. Latest
albums include Winter Sports
Day, GCSE Soiree, Skills Show
and MasterChef.
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Not to be missed...
Banish the blues this Winter…
learn something new!
Don’t miss this
years stunning
Christmas concert
at Winstanley. Our
pupils have be
working hard
learning lots of new
songs and pieces of
music and have
spent lots of time
practicing whenever
they can. There are
familiar Christmas
songs as well as
some newer ones,
we will also have
our own steel pan
band playing too. If
you don’t have a ticket just come along and pay on the door.
Children’s Drum
Lessons
@ Winstanley Community College
How would you or your friends
like to learn to play the drums?
Drum Lessons on Mondays
3.00 – 4.00pm
4.00 - 5.00pm
5.00 - 6.00pm
Lessons - 10 week course £50
Suitable from age 8+
New course staring
11th January 2016
(Please enquire about a free trial lesson)
Upcoming Events/Term Dates
Thurs 10th Dec - Christmas Concert 7 - 9pm
(£2.50 per ticket)
Fri 11th Dec - Christmas Lunch (£2.85 per ticket)
Mon 14th Dec - Army careers talk for year 11
Mon 14th Dec - MasterChef final
Tues 15th Dec - Interview Technique Day Year 11
Fri 18th Dec - Reports to parents
Friday 18th December 2015 - last day (early finish at 12.10)
Full uniform as normal
Tuesday 5th January 2016 - start of term
15th - 19th February - Half term break
For a full list of term dates please see our website
To book or for further details please contact
Community Office Tel: 0116 2898688 ext 3
Email: community@winstanley.leics.sch.uk
Contact us:
Winstanley Community College, Kingsway North, Leicester. LE3 3BD
Telephone: 0116 289 8688 . Fax : 0116 289 3736
Email: office@winstanley.leics.sch.uk . communication@winstanley.leics.sch.uk
PTA: pta@winstanley.leics.sch.uk . Web: www.winstanley.leics.sch.uk
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