BLOG WEEK ENDING 12TH JULY
As we head to the close of the academic year, we couldn’t have planned for a better finale. STEAM week is without doubt one of the highlights of my (and our students’!) year. Across the school students have been involved in activities designed to prompt exploration, inspire and entertain in equal measure. These enrichment activities allow students to get hands-on, to explore the application of STEAM subjects in ‘real-life’ scenarios and via challenging and hugely enjoyable group activities. Stepping outside of the usual classroom environment and bringing a subject to life comes with its own unique excitement and thrill for students, that undeniable ‘school trip feeling’. STEAM Week plays a key role in our overarching programme of extra-curricular clubs, careers and life programme and trips, all designed to enhance classroom learning, to broaden horizons and inspire our students to dream big.
I hope to see as many of you as are able at our PTA Summer Fair and STEAM Week exhibition tomorrow from 11am (please see the flyer in the PTA update below)
Congratulations to our 104 Duke of Edinburgh adventurers who successfully completed their Bronze Award in spite of our rather ‘challenging’ summer weather! This thoroughly rewarding scheme gives students the opportunity to learn practical life-enhancing skills, build resilience and supports independence. Thank you to all staff who accompanied our students.
Students then managed a mop-up session that included drying the tents(!) and hammering the tent poles straight again!
WG6 Media student and journalist David T acted as our ‘roving reporter’ throughout the week, recording activities and supporting groups. David provided the below report.
“This week Years 7-9 underwent a range of activities as a part of STEAM week which is a week where a more hands on and interactive approach to learning is taken as a chance for students to leave their classrooms and have a fun time trying out a range of tasks. I helped out with groups and captured some of the moments that the students took part in and this gave me a chance to experience the fun of the week first hand! The Year 7s model railways was an activity where they were given the chance to build their own railways and cities bringing in a range of creative approaches to their respective towns allowing their ideas to flourish and their visions gradually come to life as the week progressed. Additionally, there were groups who were tasked with making their own graphic novels as they drew inspirations from established pieces of work and their own ideas, I was able to see and witness great pieces begin to form. There were many other actualities from the cooking to the thunderbirds and even to drama pieces being made which truly challenged students’ creative side and allowed great pieces of art to be formed which is truly one of the goals of the week as a whole. The week gave me an insight into the range of ways art and education can be expressed and allowed me to learn a range of new skills which was truly and amazing experience.”
Students have produced a Sci-Fi Graphic Novel Anthology following on from last year’s own collections. For each episode in the two volumes, Phoenix – an entity who can inhabit any living being – travels through time and space, researching the universe. Students approached the task with creativity and enthusiasm, producing a wide range of styles and engaging plots as Phoenix travels to a variety of worlds and meets a variety of beings. Here are some quotes from students involved: Zion 7D said, ‘It was an astonishing experience that really taught me how to adapt to new things and it pushed me to the limit in a good way.’ Filippos 7S said, ‘It taught us a great sense of patience and I am proud to be surrounded by motivating peers.’
The Wildlife group have been learning about the wildlife here on our school site before researching suitable bird feeders to make for our school site and for our outside spaces at home. Our team of naturalists also made a purpose built home for the newts in our pond to hibernate in over the winter months. A section of our garden beds has been set aside for a student herb garden which our gardening club will manage and maintain going forward .. and our Food and Nutrition department will make very good use of!
Our music department has been exploring the concept of Music & Space. Using Hans Zimmer’s Interstellar (Space Sounds) and Holst’s the Planets as inspiration students have been working on their own composition to represent a planet of their own unique design.
Our Food and Nutrition department coached student chefs to follow a complex recipe to create a four element dish which comprised of, chicken curry, garlic and coriander naan bread, rice and raita dip. Our Food and Nutrition curriculum highlights the science of cooking, how ingredients and cooking processes can influence the outcome of the finished meal as well as embedding valuable life-skills that support independence. Certainly our student chefs were justifiably proud of the accomplished meal they produced!
Thunderbirds are Go! Year 7 Student, Fred, is the grandson of legendary film maker and director David Lane, responsible for the popular 70s show, Thunderbirds. Inspired by a visit from Fred’s Dad and a talk that including wonderful props from the original show (including Lady Penelope’s car, FAB1, pictured below!) and as an homage to the incredible model making and filming; students have designed and built their own film set and storyboarded and filmed a new, special WGSB Thunderbirds film.
Murder by the Book! Our librarian challenged students to spend a day learning problem solving skills so that they could investigate a who-dun-it ‘crime’ using clues and evidence hidden around the library to help identify the ‘murderer’. Great deduction skills on show, maybe we have some future detectives in our midst!
Our Year 7 puppeteers have been working with willow and tissue paper to build three-dimensional sci-fi masks. These beautiful creations are sculptural masterpieces, well done everyone!
Model Railways. Student engineers, designers and electricians came together to design and build a new train model including landscape, stations and track.
At WGSB we aim to provide all students with the opportunity to shine and showcase their strengths and talents, whether academic, creative, community or sporting. Thank you to all the amazing contributors to our recent Summer Arts Festival. It was a marvellous evening celebrating the artistic and creative talents of students across our school.
Sports update from Mr Lynch. Sports Day Results. What an amazing sporting week! 720 students took part in team sports over four days, followed by some amazing athletics on Friday to round off the week . I’d like to congratulate every team and competitor on an exemplary sporting performance which shone with collaboration, individual skill and friendly House competitiveness! The results are in for Friday’s athletics competitions (drum roll please!). The results of the team events will be revealed in the end of year presentation!
Friday’s Scoreboard
1st – Stevenson
2nd – Brunel
3rd – Darwin
4th – Hawking
5th – Telford
6th – Newton
District Athletics update. WGSB together with 16 other local schools in Dartford and Gravesham entered the district athletics competition. In total, each year group competed in nine different events. As a school we achieved an amazing feat of six different gold medals. Congratulations to the following students:
Year 10
Connor L 10H won the 1500M
Theo S 10S won the 800M
Overall the Year 10 team came 2nd out of the 17 schools entered
Year 9
Chidum U 9T won the 800M
Overall the Year 9 team came 6th out of the 17 schools entered
Year 8
Jaden G 8S won the 100M
Jai O 8N won the 800M
Year 7
4 x 100M team won the relay
Despite only 1 gold medal, the Year 7 team won the entire competition. An amazing achievement from them. Special thanks to Mr Pope and other PE staff, Mr Powell, Mr Hook and Mr Corrigan for their support in training some of the students and accompanying them on the day. Thanks also to our WG6 helpers, who were excellent representatives of the sixth form.
Congratulations to Samyath S of 8D who took part in the Kent Futures badminton tournament, which was held at Medway sports centre, Gillingham. Samyath played a total of seven highly competitive singles matches, winning six, which earned him a space on the winners podium! Well done Samyath for winning the Bronze in the U14 Singles category!
Careers Update. Year 10 and Year 12 have been out on work experience this week and what an amazing week it has been. The Year 10 students have had some fantastic work experience opportunities with companies such as the European Space Agency, Capita, Sony, Wilmott Dixon, Natwest, KPMG, Whitecode Consultancy, Advanced Player Development, Edison Investments, EY, Alstom Transport, Barclays to name a few.
24% of Year 10 students have gone to schools, 22% architecture/construction & engineering, 15% into business and finance sectors, 13% into NHS/Healthcare, 7% IT/Media, 6% sports and 3% law sector.
For those Year 10 students without work placements they have also had a great week with visits to Ravensbourne University to make a TV show in their TV Studios, a visit to the City of London to https://aecom.com/ and also a visit to Ebbsfleet Development Corporation to learn about planning a new town.
The Year 12 students are also having a wonderful week at some amazing work experience opportunities with companies including British Airways, MACE, Deutsche Bank, BAE Systems, TFL, Vodaphone, Kiet, Broadsword Events, AON and Wilmott Dixon.
16% of Year 12 students have gone to firms in the finance sector, 16% to schools, 14% to construction and engineering sector, 11% to NHS and healthcare, 8% to law, and 7% to IT / creative media sector.
Our Year 12 students are also making the most of the university summer schools and are attending Imperial London, London Queen Mary’s, Warwick, Cardiff, Leeds, Nottingham, Reading, Swansea and Surrey universities for residential summer schools that will boost their chances of a successful application to these universities.
Safeguarding Matters. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. If you have a concern about a young person at WGSB, please contact the school office or email [email protected] Please note that this email address is inly monitored during working hours in term time.
If you have an urgent safeguarding concern outside of school hours, we recommend calling the police on 999 or Kent Social Services directly on 03000 411111/ Bexley Social Services on 0203 045 5440.
If you have a wellbeing concern, Kooth is a free online counselling service, providing young people aged 11-25 years with a safe and secure means of accessing support with their emotional health and wellbeing needs from a professional team of qualified counsellors: https://www.kooth.com/
Helping your children to stay safe online
10 tips to stay safe online
Be careful about talking to people you don’t know and trust in real life – anyone can pretend to be a child online. If you do talk to people you don’t know, don’t give away personal information – such as what street you live on or where you go to school, or share your location with them. Say no to any requests they send you for images or videos of yourself, and stop talking to them
Set your profiles to private, to limit what others can see
Think carefully about what you share and with who. Once you’ve shared an image, you’ve no control over what the other person does with it. Remember, it’s illegal to take, share or view sexual images of under-18s, full stop
Be mindful of your digital footprint. What you post online now could come back to bite you later, like when applying for jobs, college or university
If you see something upsetting, or someone bullies you, tell an adult you trust. Report it too
When reading news online, ask yourself what the source is, when it was published, and whether it could be a hoax or made up. Read beyond the headline too
Remember, people try to make their lives look more exciting and interesting online. There’s a lot people can do with photo editing to make their photos look better. So don’t assume everything you see is a true-to-life representation
Watch out for hoaxes and scams, like messages you’re meant to forward on or that ask you for payment details or your password
Take any content that seems to glamourise gang lifestyles with a very large pinch of salt – it’s not as glamorous as it looks. Be wary of schemes promising easy cash for receiving and transferring money too, they’re almost definitely criminal activity
Watch out for loot boxes or other parts of games where you pay money to take a chance on getting a reward – you can get sucked into spending lots of money on them
Source: The Key Safeguarding (thekeysupport.com)
Don’t feel confident starting a conversation with your child about what they’re up to online? Read this advice from the NSPCC: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/talking-child-online-safety
Sextortion – a guide for parents
Sextortion is when victims (often teenage boys) are tricked into sending nudes and then blackmailed for financial gain. Perpetrators will pose as young, attractive girls online and spark up conversations. They will find out details about them and soon turn the conversation to things of a sexual nature. They then ask them to send nude images or to go on webcam, naked. Once this happens, the offender will send a message telling them that they have the images saved and will publish them online and send them to their school and their families, unless they pay them.
Source: Two troubling new safeguarding trends to be aware of | Tes
You can find more information and a useful guide to help parents prevent and deal with incidences of sextortion on the Internet Matters website HERE.
Support over the holidays
Please find links below to organisations providing support over the summer holiday period:
Mental Health:
Food Banks:
Kids Eat for Free and other meal deals:
Money Saving Expert cheap restaurant deals
PTA Update. Our Summer Fair is coming up on Saturday 13th July – please see flyer below for full details.
The Army Assault Course is back by popular demand. The entry fee is £5 and can be paid via ParentPay. There are prizes for the winning team (who completes the course the quickest) and the individual who raises the most sponsorship. Sponsorship forms can be collected from Mr Powell once the entrance fee has been paid.
We are also holding a raffle and tickets are now on sale on ParentPay, prizes include:
Bluewater vouchers
Restaurant vouchers
Gift sets
Pre-Loved Uniform – please can we ask that you donate any outgrown or unwanted uniform items to our PTA Pre-Loved Uniform Shop. Please send it to the school office marked for the attention of the PTA. If you wish to purchase any items please email [email protected]
We would also like to welcome you to the PTA’s new online portal where you can view upcoming events run by the PTA, please click here. You will need to register for an account, it will only ask for basic information – your name, phone number and email address. You will see that you can view the price list for the Sports Week refreshments, volunteer to help us at the Summer Fair on 13th July and most excitingly, you can bid on our online auction where we have some fantastic lots on offer such as 2 x VIP Tickets to see Peter Kay at the O2 or a round of Golf x 4 at Dartford Golf Club. There are currently 12 lots to bid on. The site is now live so HAPPY BIDDING everyone!!
Thank you as always for your continued support.
We have received some wonderful news and a delightful photograph! Please join us in congratulating Mr and Mrs Dent on the birth of their second daughter, Aurelia, Yara, Dent who arrived in this world safely on the 1st July. We are very much looking forward to meeting you Aurelia.
Looking for a new career opportunity? It is our firm belief that a motivated, supported and empowered staff are at the heart of our students’ achievements. Endeavour MAT’s staff development programme offers our staff opportunities for career progression across our Trust schools for the next generation of exceptional teachers, support staff and leaders. All our schools take pride in being warm, friendly and supportive workplaces. You can be assured, regardless of your role, you will be working with people who enjoy their work, are proud to be here and who will want to welcome you to the team. To view our current vacancies, please click here. Current Vacancies – Endeavour MAT (endeavour-mat.co.uk)
Forthcoming Dates;
PTA Summer Fair & STEAM Week Exhibition – (see above posters) Saturday 13 July
Summer Community Afternoon Tea (see above poster) – 15 July
Year 7-9 Written Reports home – 15 July
Year 12 work experience – 15 – 19 July
End of Term 6 – 19 July at 12 noon
Best wishes,
Stuart Harrington
Head Teacher
