WINCHCOMBE NEWS

Autumn 2018

A round-up of recent events in and outside school

Welcome to Winchcombe!

We were delighted to welcome around 600 visitors to school dur-ing our September Open Day and Evening. A quarter of our current pupils were involved in tours and

demonstrations.

All areas of the school were open to visitors - with displays, talks, tours, demonstrations, participation and hands-on activities. Photos above taken in Art and Catering, below:

Science, PE and Music

In this issue:

Open Day

Year 7 at Croft Farm

Year 11 Post-16 Fair

Year 10/11 Apprenticeship Show

RE Temple Visit

GCSE Art Exhibition

European Day of Languages

Langley Star of the Month

5 Minutes with Mrs Peters

Attendance News

Gloucestershire Healthy Schools

Norovirus warning

Gardening Club

WiSPA Update

PE News

Students’ Success Stories

Headmaster’s Message

We have not yet received all your permission slips to

enable us to include photos of your child in the News.

We love being able to share their stories!

Open Day (contd.)

Mr Neil Hall (Headteacher) addresses visitors in one of two talks during

the evening.

On Tuesday 18th September, staff and

students were delighted to welcome par-

ents and pupils to visit the school for our

annual Open Evening, writes Catherine

Cox (Y10)

The event is held to give parents and pri-

mary school pupils a chance to have a look

around the school and classrooms after

the majority of students have gone home,

so that parents and children can meet

teachers and heads of departments for

themselves and get a taster of our school.

Open evening was held from 6:00pm to

8:00pm and started with a short talk from

the Headteacher in the hall. After the talk,

families could either be shown around the

school by students acting as guides or take

a look around for themselves.

Open evening had a wide range of demon-

strations, games, displays, talks and food,

as staff and student volunteers explained

to families the activities they do in lessons

with their respective departments. These

demonstrations included: live art demon-

strations, Accelerated reader quizzes (with

biscuit rewards), cooking, table tennis in

the gym, cakes and biscuits in MFL, flame

tests, modelling sound waves and (though

not for the faint of heart) a live heart and

lung dissection in room 19.

Parents were particularly interested in

learning about the 2017 Japan Trip, Battle-

fields Trip and the 2019 Valencia Trip.

The live chemistry demonstrations wowed

parents and pupils alike and, of course,

the chocolate biscuit rewards went

down a treat up in the library.

Overall, plenty of youngsters had a

wonderful time at open evening – defi-

nitely making Winchcombe School a

consideration for them when they

choose which secondary school they

would like to attend. The staff and stu-

dents involved had a great time show-

casing the school. Everyone had an

amazing time and cannot wait to see

some of these new faces around the

school next year.

Catering Department display

Chemistry Lab experiments

Tours can be arranged at other times. Please contact the school office on

01242 602233 or email admin@winchcombeschool.co.uk.

Year 7 at Croft Farm

Like our new students in previous years, Year 7 spent two days at Croft Farm to get to

know their new classmates, forge friendships and generally have fun!

This year, everything was pretty much a water activity as the students battled the

elements. Mrs Thomas was extremely impressed by everyone’s perseverance.

Mrs Spaull writes:

We took our Y7 students to Croft Farm in September for two days as well as a night’s stay in wooden cabins. We didn't let the wind and rain put us off and still did lots of activities throughout the two days. We did land activities: Wall climbing, Peddle cars, zorbing, orienteering and archery. We also did some water activities : Zorbing, canoeing on the river and raft building. We had our Y11 House Captains and Vice Captains helping out on both days, and the Y7s enjoyed having older students to look up to and give them some confidence and great competition between them during the activities.

We had a great time at the disco in the evening dancing and getting to know each other whilst everyone relaxed. Overall, a great time was had by all pupils and staff; lots friendships were made and confidence grew in a relaxed and fun environment over the 2 days.

It was good, weird, fun AND exciting!

The best part was the disco

It was cold but there were some fun moments

Our raft was like the Titanic! It was a great two days and

if I could go back in time

I’d do it over and over...

...and a few words from the Y7s themselves:

On Thursday 4th October, we welcomed a hall-full of Post-16 providers to the school in the early evening.

Sixth Forms and Colleges from Cheltenham, Gloucester, Bourton-on-the-Water, Eve-

sham and more sent representatives, including some of our past pupils, to answer Y11 students’ and their parents’ questions.

One of the great things about Winchcombe School is that with no Sixth Form, students can choose where to move to after GCSEs, depending upon their interests.

We caught up with some of our ‘alumni’ to find out what they think about their current

educational establishments.

Year 11 Post-16 Fair

Cleeve School Sixth Form: Teachers

are nice and willing to help - it’s a friendly

school.

Chipping Campden School: An accept-

ing and friendly community. Relaxed but

focused environment.

All Saints’ Academy, Cheltenham:

We settled in quickly. You’re treated

differently in the Sixth Form and are

pushed to improve your grades.

Prince Henry’s Sixth Form, Evesham:

It’s a friendly school and some of us are

getting involved with things like the ‘World

Challenge’ and Sports and Music tours.

There is a good selection of after-school

activities.

Cirencester Sixth Form College:

You can leave the college site when you don’t

have lessons. I’m enjoying my courses - you can

do vocational ones as well as A Levels.

Cotswold School Sixth Form,

Bourton-on-the-Water:

Very friendly with excellent pastoral care.

On Thursday 2nd October - nearly 40 students from Years

10 & 11 were taken to Cheltenham Apprentice Show. Ben

Carley-Macauly (Y11) was one of them.

Year 10/11 Trip to Apprenticeship Show

“On Thursday the 4th of October a group of year 10 and 11 students at-

tended the Apprentice Fair at the Centaur. The fair had a wide variety of

companies from GCHQ and the NHS to Spirax Sarco and Taylor and

Wimpy. It was very interesting seeing the huge array of different appren-

ticeship options, ranging from vocational diplomas to master degrees. The

fair was a great insight into possible career pathways and is definitely

worth a trip.”

On Thursday,19th July 2018 the year 10

Religious studies GCSE group went on a

trip to the Hare Krishna Bhaktivedanta

Manor as part of their Hinduism topic.

We had to get to school by 7:00 because

we needed to get to London relatively ear-

ly. Upon arrival we were greeted by the

people who were looking after us that day.

We split into 2 groups one group was boys

and the other was girls. First we went on a

cart ride led by Oxen which led us to the

place were some cows were kept and we

learnt about what they do to help cow pro-

tection, we even saw a cow being milked.

Whilst the cows are

being milked, they

have music played

to them to help

them relax. After

we learnt all about

cow protection we

had a look at the George Harrison garden

which they have in memory of him because

he is the person who first set up Bhaktive-

danta Manor. All through the garden his

song lyrics were attached to various things

such as benches and trees.

Then we all went into a room and had a

talk that was specially made to fit what we

are currently studying in Religious studies

this talk was very enlightening and educa-

tional.

After that we had a

chance to dress up

in the clothes that

they wear and go

into a daily public

ceremony which

gave us a good feel

for how some Hin-

dus might worship

on a daily basis.

Then it was lunch time. All students had to

sit on the floor while the teachers got to sit

at a table. The food was very nice, we

were given some curry and rice and crack-

ers and bread. Then they gave us some

biscuits.

To end the day we got to buy things in the

gift shop and get our face painted if we

wanted to. All throughout the day we had

chances to ask any questions we liked.

If this was an option again I would definite-

ly do it because it was very educational

and expanded my knowledge of Hinduism.

By Eden Menell

R.E. Trip to the Hare Krishna Manor - last term!

GSCE Art Exhibition - also last term!

Mrs Davis, our Art Teacher, was delighted with June’s GCSE results, with grades

7, 8 and 9 featuring among them!

If you were lucky enough to find time to visit the exhibition of students’ work in the gym

in July, you may have spotted some of the creations below. Well done to all of last

year’s leavers who studied Art or Product Design.

European Day of Languages

This was, in fact, a WEEK of languages at Winchcombe School, as Daisy Theobold (Y9) explains:

Wednesday 26th of September was European Day of Languages and

as usual we celebrated it! There were lots of activities going on

around school and along with the MFL Ambassadors I helped organ-

ise the events. There was a special European Day of Languages menu

in the canteen and each day the meal was from a different country,

(Spaghetti Bolognese for Italy, Moussaka for Greece, Fish and Chips for

England etc).

On Tuesday, Catherine Cox in Year 10 began the weekly Japanese club for Y7-10 and

there are over 15 regular attendees who come to learn about the language and cus-

toms of Japan. There was also a whole school competition to match up the languages

spoken by 20 of our teachers. It was very interesting to find out all the different lan-

guages our talented teachers can speak, even Arabic and Punjabi!

One of the activities I put together, with the help of Jess Han-

cox in 9 Prescott, was a presentation on School Life in Finland.

Jess, Emily Hopkins in 9 Sudeley and I went to all the Year 9

tutor groups to share our findings. It went really well and

many people ended up saying they wanted to go to school in Finland!

Another activity was The Year 7 Inter-

boules tournament. Year 7’s from

different tutor groups competed to

win. The winner in the end was Sudeley and it was

great fun to help other students learn about French

culture. Here is a photo of the competition.

We also had a competition for all Y7s to produce a poster promoting languages and

the winner was Melis Oner from Prescott. The winning design is displayed outside the

front office and is amazing.

On Monday 24th of September, Cameron Fraser (8LA) and I toured a girl around our

school. Her name was Olivia Keen and she was in Year 11 at Prince Henry’s. She did

work experience at our school in the MFL department for a week. She was really nice

and I think she really liked our school and wants to be a languages teacher in the fu-

ture.

It’s safe to say, it was a pretty busy week! But a very enjoyable one too.

Langley Star of the Month

Miss Beard, Head of Langley House, would like to congratulate the following students

who have been nominated by their tutors as ‘Langley Star of the Month’ for Septem-

ber.

Year 7 - Amelia Reece

Year 8 - Archie Brooks

Year 9 - Ed Cowper

Year 10 - Tom Charles

Year 11 - Immy Harding

Langley Star prefect - Will Relf

All these students have done something ‘above and beyond’ and their tutors are im-pressed!

A 5- minute chat with Mrs Peters (our Attendance Officer)

Attendance Regular attendance means that your child can make the most of their education, improving their chances in adult life. School will also help your child’s social skills, such as making friendships and resolving disagreements.

Poor attendance at school leads to children not doing as well as they should do in their learn-ing. It can also affect them socially and emotionally.

EVERY DAY COUNTS – 1 DAY ABSENT PER WEEK = 2 MONTHS OF LOST LEARNING IN A SCHOOL YEAR Our school target is 96% and the Government’s is 100% How good is your child’s attendance? Below 85% - Really Poor 85-90% - Poor 90-94% - Could do better 94-96% - Okay 96-98% - Very Good 98-100% - Outstanding Being Late It is so important that your child attends school regularly and on time….

Did you know that being late affects attendance and they will get a late mark??

Arriving late can also make your child feel sad, embarrassed and unsettled. It can also un-settle the rest of the class and important learning might be missed by them all.

Did you know that if your child is late 10 minutes every date they will miss one whole week of school by the end of the year??? Reminders

School opens at: 08.15

Bell rings at: 08.50

Register closes at: 09.00

You are LATE after: 08.50

If your child is absent due to illness please call School before 09.30 EVERY day of absence. If your child has a medical appointment we will need a copy of their letter/appointment card BEFORE their appointment.

What is Unauthorised Absence?

We will not authorise absence for any of the following:

To go on holiday

To go on day trips

To go shopping

To celebrate a birthday

To care or look after siblings

Tiredness

End of the week or term

Believe it or not we have had some of these requests!

Let’s make sure your child/children are in school and on time!

If you need any help with attendance, lateness or social issues our Pastoral Team will be more than happy to help, just give us a call.

Ailsa Davies Y9 finds out a bit more about Mrs Peters:

How would you describe yourself? Firm but fair. I love a laugh and hope that I’m approachable. I’m outgoing and love doing new stuff.

Mrs Peters’ Attendance Information

What did you do before you came to work at Winchcombe School? I was an HLTA (High Level Teaching Assistant) at a primary school and also worked at Tewkesbury School in their library.

What are your hobbies and what do you do in your spare time? Go to the gym and do lots of fitness classes. I love reading and films and enjoy walking my dog. My children also take up a lot of my time.

What is your favourite place that you’ve ever visited and why? Sri Lanka - where I went for my sister’s wedding in the summer of 2017. I fell in love with the place and ended up getting a tattoo in their language! I also loved Dubai, which was amazing so we went back there in the winter.

Gloucestershire Healthy Schools Award

Avoid the Norovirus Bug this winter!

Mr Young (Assistant Head) explains the significance:

“It means we have passed a rigorous selection audit with distinction

and are a classified Gloucestershire Healthy School primarily for our

work on Anti Bullying and improvement in attendance.

We’ve also been working in collaboration with Cheltenham Town FC

on teenage physical and mental health improvements. Our next aim is

to become a Mental Health Champion School.

It’s been a lot of hard work, primarily by SLT (Senior Leadership Team)

and Heads of House plus Rachel Peters as Attendance Officer. How-

ever being a designated Healthy School is obviously a whole school

achievement.”

We’re pleased to announce our Glouces-

tershire Healthy Schools’ accreditation!

We’ve heard that there is a new, more prevalent, strain of the Norovirus this winter and we’ve seen a few cases of the winter sickness bug at school already this autumn.

We’re encouraging students to remember the importance of hand washing ra-ther than just hand gel! There are a few fun facts from the NHS below:

Preventing norovirus

It's not always possible to avoid getting norovirus, but following the advice be-low can help stop the virus spreading.

Stay off work or school until at least 48 hours after the symptoms

have passed. You should also avoid visiting anyone in hospital during this time.

Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly with soap and water, particu-

larly after using the toilet and before preparing food. Don't rely on alcohol hand gels, as they do not kill the virus.

Disinfect any surfaces or objects that could be contaminated. It's best to

use a bleach-based household cleaner.

Wash any items of clothing or bedding that could have become contami-

nated separately on a hot wash to ensure the virus is killed.

Don't share towels and flannels.

Flush away any infected poo or vomit in the toilet and clean the surround-

ing area.

Avoid eating raw, unwashed produce and only eat oysters from a reliable

source, as oysters can carry norovirus.

Our School Tennis/Netball Court Re-surfacing Project

Our fund-raising for funds (£20K) to resurface

the surface of the school tennis/netball courts

(see photo right) is still on-going. Sadly a cou-

ple of our recent applications for grants have

been unsuccessful. If you know of anywhere we

can apply for financial support for this or have

any fund-raising ideas, please let us know, or

even better - help organise them!

Please do consider making a donation to

help us meet our target! Thank you

Gardening Club

A few photos of the Gardening Club’s

horticultural success during the sum-

mer.

Miss Haynes (from the Science De-

partment) plans to start the club up

again after February half term 2019,

when things start growing again.

WiSPA are pleased to announce the following new trustees, appointed at the AGM on

15th October 2018:

Chair - Wendy Wakeman

Vice Chair - Sally Albutt

Secretary - Jo Marsh

Treasurer - Shaheen Charles

Many thanks go to Felicity Hall and Penny Ellis, the previous Treasurer and Secretary

respectively, who have stood down as their children have now moved onto 6th form.

WiSPA will be running a Chocolate/Sweet Tombola again at the Winchcombe Christmas

Fayre on Tuesday 4th December, and will organise a House Hamper raffle in the run up

towards Christmas as usual. You’ll hear more from the committee nearer the time as they

request donations and help.

The school is always very grateful to the WiSPA committee members for giving their time

and efforts to help raise much-needed funds for the school.

If you’re able to help in any way (not necessary attending meetings but with serving drinks,

helping out etc.) please email wispa@winchcombeschool.co.uk with your contact details.

One such occasion will be on 30th November, when around 10 people will be needed to

put the raffle hampers together.

WiSPA also has an Easyfundraising page

https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/winchcombeschoolpta/

Please do consider using this when you do your online shopping - it’s just an extra click

and the school will receive a percentage of your spend - at no extra cost to you!

WiSPA News

Photos by Emily Chilton Y7

Sports Fixtures News (autumn term)

Netball: Mrs Russell reports (4th October): Congratulations go to the following Year 8 netball girls who had a fantastic win against Cleeve School: Sophie Sharpe, Izzy Fletcher, Isabel Hodges, Lily Stanton, Mia Sullivan, Raegan Macdonald, Helena Price, Freya Davison and Eva Duberley. Their play was fast and fluent with passing the ball up and down court which was brilliant, es-pecially the interceptions from defence, Sophie Sharpe (Player of the Match) and Izzy Fletcher (Players’ Player.) Well done everybody - a good team effort.

Mrs Cook reports on match 16th October:

Netball: We won! Year 11 girls 22 goals to 9 v Pitville and Year 8 won 9 - 8.

Well done to Becky May for her amazing shooting. Amy and Jodie's interceptions were

brilliant - Well done to all the girls!

Mr Coles’ match report diary:

13th Sept: Great start to the rugby season by Winchcombe Year 8 with a great win away at Rendcomb College - 75 points to 15! Outstanding games for Dan Hammond , Eddie Lewis and Tom Hurcombe - well done boys!

18th Sept: Great result by the Year 9 Rugby team against St Edward’s coming out winners with 47 points to 10. Still a lot to work to do with this being the boys’ first game and only having had one training session. Well done boys keep the good work up! Good first games by Morris Osawe, Charlie Holmes-Fry and Ektor Georgousopoulos.

27th Sept: Well done to the Year 9 Rugby team - their first venture over the Golden Valley to play Severn Vale - a big Gloucester school. When the Vale boys ran out we knew it was going to be a long 60 minutes, their boys making Bobby Ballinger look small. But at the end the final score was 33 - 19 to Winchcombe, showing some great skill and heart. Next game is on Thurs-day the 4th of October against Cleeve in the County Cup at home. Well done boys great effort!

5th Oct: Winchcombe Year 9 boys entertained Cleeve School in their first County Cup. Cleeve started the better of the two teams putting Winchcombe under a lot of pressure in the first 20 minutes coming away with 2 scores. The second half started with Winchcombe on the attack but Cleeve had a breakaway try from their own half. Winchcombe were dominating the scrums that much Cleeve had to go uncontested from the pressure of the Winchcombe front row of Theo Young, Ed Cowper and Morris Osawe. Winchcombe came back with a great try from Oli-ver Madle showing great power. Final score Winchcombe 7 Cleeve 15. The boys have got to start turning the amount of ball and territory into points; this is the first game the boys have lost since Year 7 - unlucky, boys!

11th Oct: Year 9 Rugby Festival: First game was against Cleeve, Winchcombe boys had a slow start losing 1 try to 0. 2nd game against Chipping Campden with Winchcombe winning 14 points to 0. 3rd game v All Saints’ Academy, Winchcombe won 22 - 0. 4th game was against the surprise team of the festival - Pittville - who had only lost one game so whoever won this game would go through to the semi-final, Winchcombe played their best rugby for a long time coming out 24 - 0 winners. So on to the semi final where Winchcombe would have to face Pate’s who had not lost a game all season. Winchcombe started well but the Pate’s boys came out winners 10 points to 0. A great effort by the boys, being the smallest team at the festival. Winchcombe points through the day were scored by: Coby-John Wood, Oliver Madle, Josh Jeffries and Bobby Ballinger.

16th Oct: The Year 9 rugby team entertained Chipping Campden in their first meeting since Y7. Winchcombe got off to a strong start with some great offloads and support play by forwards and backs, running in 5 tries in the first half. The 2nd half was much the same with Winchcombe running in 3 more tries to finish the game 54 - 0 to Winchcombe, with only one conversion missed. Tries were scored by Bobby Ballinger, Josh Jeffries, Monty Stead, Ed Cowper and Theo Young.

Well done boys another great effort!

...to Elora Y8, who came 1st in the Vault and 3rd in the Beam in the 2018 Gloucestershire Levels Championship.

Superb results Elora!

Congratulations!!

If you have news about your child’s success outside

school and want to share it with the school community,

please do email details to their Head of House.

A Message from the Headteacher:

Mr Hall and all staff wish you a relaxing

half term break and look forward to seeing

you back on

Monday 29th October (Week 2).