Blog Week Ending 19th December

Uncategorised December 19, 2024 | 0

I would like to wish you all a happy and restful Christmas break with those you hold dear to you. On behalf of all school staff, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our families for their constant support. Your engagement and positive contribution have a tangible and positive impact, enhancing students’ education and sense of school community.

This term has felt particularly celebratory (even by our high standards!) across our school, and indeed our Trust, there have been countless opportunities to come together to share Christmas events, and via student assemblies, to celebrate individual and House successes and aspirations. A few of which are featured in this blog.

Our Catering team (pictured below) pulled out all the stops for our Christmas lunch … thank you! As you can see from below, and the subsequent cleared plates .. it was thoroughly enjoyed by all!

Miss Holledge, Head of Performing Arts organised a very seasonal trip for our students … a visit to the theatre to see a wonderfully festive Pantomime .. Sleeping Beauty! Students (and staff!) thoroughly enjoyed the high-energy performance and opportunities for audience participation!! Year 7 students have been exploring the Pantomime genre in their Performing Arts lessons and this was a perfect conclusion to the topic!

The Wilmington Grammar Carol Concerts were wonderfully uplifting events. Students from WGSG, WGSB and WG6 joined to celebrate with beautiful performances and seasonal readings. The quality of the students’ pieces was exceptional, with a mixture of musical genres and drama pieces. Thank you to Miss Cullingham, Mr Williams and the other staff who helped make the evening special, as well as everyone at St Michaels and All Angels Church. Most of all, thank you to all the student contributors, you were amazing – a perfect Christmas Concert.

On Wednesday 11th December, the SEND team held their first review for this academic year. Twice a year, parents and carers of students with SEND requirements are invited to make an appointment with their child’s key worker to come in and meet 1-2-1 to discuss the provisions and support that are in place. It’s also a welcome opportunity to hear from the student’s point of view.

For this academic year, we made the event less formal to create an occasion for parents and carers to not only talk to staff but also to each other. We offered a drop-in session where they could come in at their own convenience and enjoy plenty of tea and cake with the team and other parents/carers. We were very pleased that so many people were able to join us, and we look forward to running this again in Term 5.

In addition to the reviews, parents and carers are welcome to contact the SEND team at any point during the year by emailing [email protected]

WGSB SEND team from L to R: Mrs Ibitoye, Mr Long, Mrs Miller, Mr Hansford, Mr Sage (SENDCO), Mrs Norman, Mrs Fletcher, Mrs Harrison

Senior Citizens Christmas Afternoon Tea. Students, staff and our wonderful PTA welcomed guests from our local area as well as relatives of staff and students to join us for an afternoon of great company, food and entertainment! Guests enjoyed fish and chips, seasonal sweet bakes and chatting to, and being waited on, by our students! The musical programme included student pianists, a cellist, a guitarist, singers and a dramatic gospel reading. The student hosts and entertainers were praised for their professionalism, great conversation and politeness. All guests received a student-made and designed Christmas card and mini box of chocolates as well as a free raffle ticket .. top prize was a Sunday dinner for two at The Plough with a further 20 great prizes. Thank you to all the staff and students involved and of course to our guests!

Please watch out for us advertising our next one in March

This week we welcomed back our WG6 student alumni of last year for a reception and A Level certificate presentation evening. To see them confidentially pursuing their next steps was particularly heartening and rewarding for all staff present. Our Wilmington Grammar Alumni embody our aspirations and hopes for all students across Endeavour Mat and we are incredibly proud of the independent and accomplished individuals you have become. Our Alumni play a key role in our Careers Programme providing support and inspiration in the shape of talks, one-to-one support, work experience and degree apprenticeship opportunities.

House System Update. Congratulations to Turing House who are topping the leader board for Merit and Character points! These, together with House competitions and inter house activities (which included speed-Rubik’s cube, football and VR games!) are added and then given ‘rank’ points for the overall position, currently Brunel in pole position at the end of Term 2. Our House prefects will work with staff to plan future events as well as be an integral part of wider school-life discussions and decisions.

PTA Update. .. We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our students, supporters and families a lovely (and relaxing!) Christmas break. In the New Year we will be working on new events for us to get together and enjoy .. whilst raising money to help enhance our children’s education!

If you would like to consider joining the PTA please email us directly [email protected] You can also visit our PTA website to keep up to date with future events, projects we fund around the school and track our fundraising profits. https://www.pta-events.co.uk/wgsb/index.cfm?event=shop

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 only 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/

Electronic gifts for children at Christmas. Christmas brings lots of new gadgets and gizmos for young people. Receiving these new devices brings concerns around online safety and how parents can keep their children safe. Please click on the link below and on the attachments with this newsletter for information from the UK Safer Internet Centre and Kent Police on age guidelines, online safety and parental controls. There is also information on the use of E-Scooters. https://saferinternet.org.uk/guide-and-resource/parents-and-carers

Parent Teacher Conference on Sextortion. Kent Police will be hosting their first online workshop for parents and teachers. The event will be held on Microsoft teams Wednesday 22nd January 2025: 1600 -1700 hours. The subject covered will be “sextortion” and will give guidance on what this is, signs to look out for and what to do if you or someone you know finds themselves a victim of this type of crime. Please click here to register for the event

Support over the holidays. Please find links below to organisations providing support over the Christmas holiday period:

Mental Health:

Food Banks:

Kids Eat for Free and other meal deals:

Money Saving Expert cheap restaurant deals