End of Year Update from Mr Anderson

Dear Parents and Carers,

For the final time this academic year we bring you news from Wollaston! We have had a great end to term with once again our students and staff rising to a challenge in the face of the extremely hot weather conditions that we have faced this week. I must acknowledge that the adaptability and common sense approach our students have demonstrated in managing the heat meant that we were able to operate the school as normal and without issue, lessons were able to continue, albeit with the occasional room change to a cooler part of the building! Please do pass on my thanks to them.

It is also the time of year when we express our gratitude and say goodbye to staff who are moving on to new challenges (or exciting plans in retirement!). I would like to thank all staff listed below who are leaving us not only for their service at Wollaston School but also the contribution that they have made towards our culture and community. I am sure all staff and students will join me in wishing them well in their future endeavours!

 

Staff leaving

Faith Hester

Chloe Dixon

Tom Carey

Benn Kirkham

Abbey Hodson

Seb Goss

Zoe Correa-Humphries

Wendy Pearmain

Janine Griffiths

Alison Milner

Sarah Gregory

Thaddy Asongyani

Amy Tucker

Jan Morton

Oliver Indge

Rachel O’Neil

Lauren Martin

Louisa Nixon

 

Whilst we say fond goodbyes- we are also excited for our new recruits who start with us in September. We have been impressed with the quality of candidates that we have interviewed for these new positions and have been able to recruit exceptional staff to join us at Wollaston School. I am sure they will all receive a warm Wollaston welcome in September!

Evan Smyth – Teacher of English & Head of Year

Abigail Bradshaw – Teacher of English

Oliver Burton – Teacher of English

Ben Brooks – Teacher of Science

Karen Monkman – Teacher of English

Libby Tiernan – Teacher of Dance

Arun Sampla – Teacher of Maths

Manbir Dhami – Head of Health & Social Care / Teacher of Sociology

Amy Franks – Cover Supervisor

Ian Lewis – Head of Humanities

Thomas Webberley-Brant – Teacher of PE & Maths

Melissa Yeoman – Head of Year 7 & Teacher of Social Science

Stephanie Johnson – Teacher of Art

Clare Read – Teacher of English

Danielle Olechnowicz – Teacher of PE

Rebecca O’Neill – Teacher of Humanities

Ian Simmons – Teacher of English

Zaman Ali – Teacher of Science

Natasha Clark – Learning Support Assistant

Justyna Widera – Personal Carer / LSA

Samantha Billing – Personal Carer / LSA

 

Sports Days

Thank you to the PE Faculty, wider staff and all of our students for a highly successful Sports Day. Mr Bennett, head of Faculty, provides the following report:

The KS3 Wollaston sportsday was a wonderful day of sport and good friendly competition. The students and staff were involved and active throughout the day in a varitey of different sports and activities. In the morning the tutor bases visited different sports with their staff and tutors. This included volleyball/dodgeball/football/rounders/benchball/kwik cricket. During the morning the engagement and activity levels were spectacular and brilliant to see the fields and sports facilities abuzz with activity and competition.  The Key Stage 4 Sportsday was held the afternoon before on the 14th July and a couple of stand out races were brillaint to see.

Luckily the clouds and wind picked up a little in the afternoon and meant that the students and athletes were able to feel more comfortable and ready for the track events in the afternoon. The races included 100m, 200m, 800m, and the 4X100m relays.

 The competitors pushed themselves hard to win for their houses and there was some brilliant races and competitions. There were some lovely moments of care and sportsmanship when some runners struggled and it was a brilliant atmosphere. The crowd support was loud and very encouraging and the whole event was a great success.

Congratulations to the champions: Nightingale House the overall sportsday Winners.

Thank you to all of the PE team and 6th form students who made the whole sportsday a huge success and a memorable one.

 

Personal Development Day

As we all know, success at school is only ensured by a focus on both academic achievement and the personal and social education which ensures that all students are able to thrive as individuals and as positive citizens in society.  Mrs Walker has led another excellent personal development day – and full details can be found below:

Personal Development Day (KS3) Summer 2022

On Thursday 14th July KS3 engaged in their final Personal Development Day of the year. As always, these days are designed with a range of objectives relevant to particular year groups, opportunities to reinforce key messages from the PSHE curriculum as well as address issues that have arisen and where we feel some additional input will help our young people gain the knowledge and skills needed to address concerns or challenges that affect them.

Year 7:

Their day was focused on building skills for independence ready for both the summer and for next year when they will cease to be our youngest students at the school and become role models for the new year 7s.

The activities that the student participated in included memory relay, online safety and personal hygiene. In addition a team from the Fire and Rescue Service spoke to the students about being safe around water ready for the summer and also brought their fire engine to school!

To support September’s new Year 7s, the pupils wrote a letter to them to explain what their experience has been this year and offering some hints and tips to being successful at Wollaston.

 

Overall this was a very successful day for the year 7s!

Mr H Atherton, Head of Year 7

 

Year 8:

In Year 8 there were three key themes: Internet Safety, Being an Upstander and Learning Skills. Underpinning this was a focus on how to be reflective and resilient to become the best version of themselves in order to be successful.

Throughout the day there were a variety of tasks which ranged from guest speakers, drama based scenarios and writing their own school report for the year as part of a reflection process to help set goals for Year 9. Across the day they learnt about what it takes to be an upstander and the positive impact everyone being an upstander can have on our school community. They also had the chance to experience learning a wide range of study skills and how their brain works and the benefits of positive thinking.

We hope that all students found the day very useful and can use all of the practical skills discussed throughout the day to give them a great boost for the start of Year 9 and to ensure that they have the best platform possible to be successful.

Mr J Logan, Head of Year 8

 

Year 9:

Pupils had the opportunity on this day to consolidate their development of aspiration, dreaming big and setting themselves personal challenges. In addition, pupils also received some further training surrounding internet safety to ensure that our students are not only aspirational but also able to keep themselves safe online. Many of the students demonstrated fantastic levels of reflection and application throughout the day which will no doubt be a positive drive in helping them to achieve their goals as they make the transition from KS3 to their KS4 and important GCSE studies.

Mr M Jackson, Head of Year 9

 

A huge thank you for these days goes to our heads of year for their work in organising these days, our teams of tutors and additional colleagues for their input in creating and delivering individual sessions, our external providers who add so much to the experience and last, but not least, to our wonderful Wollaston pupils for their engagement with the activities.

Have a lovely summer break and please remember that if you are in need of help or support over the summer period, a booklet of support services as well as well as other links to support, is available on the school website HERE 

Mrs A Walker Assistant Headteacher

 

Public Services Discipline Week and Visit to Irchester Country Park

Our BTEC Public Services students enjoyed the annual discipline week experience – which tests their ability to thrive in the demanding world of Public Services. Please see below Full details provided by Mr Beeby and Mr Bodicoat.

Last week the public services took part and successfully completed the Annual Public Services Discipline week. This is an intense period of training where students are essentially treated like armed forces recruits. Placed in small teams the students completed a range of different physical tasks. The students showed immense resilience throughout the week, they were tested, and very much taken out of their comfort zone. The week cumulated in a 4 hour mud run at Irchester Country Park. Throughout the week students developed their teamwork, communication, and leadership skills. It was a real pleasure to see not only the separate teams develop and gel together but it was great to see the whole class gel together as one public services class.

 

Battlefields trip

Last weekend saw Mr Foster take students across the channel for a battlefields trip that had been 5 years in the making with Covid delaying the original trip. It was a very successful trip that saw history students visit Flanders, the Somme and Arras.

There were many heartening moments for students when they were able to find names of relatives or people from their village, and helped students get a deeper understanding of the just how the whole of the commonwealth were involved in this conflict in Europe. The trip also provided students with the opportunity to  visit the caves of Arras, used to launch surprise attacks on the enemy, and is referenced in a key part of their syllabus.

 

School Updates

Over the last few weeks, we have communicated some key updates and reminders about uniform, mobile phones and the timings of the school day. We will also issue some further reminders in late August in preparation for September so please do take the time to read this information and discuss it with your child in preparation for an exciting start to the new year.

For information on term dates for 2022-2023 please click HERE

 

School Buses

We have been working with the school’s transport teams to update the route information to take into account our earlier start time in September. Unfortunately, they are unable to share the new timetables with us at this time, however we will share this with you as soon as we receive the information.

 

And finally, from all staff at Wollaston please do have a wonderful summer and we look forward to welcoming your children back in September!

Simon Anderson

HEAD OF SCHOOL