Head’s Newsletter -18th March 2024
Dear parents and carers
We have a rather full newsletter this week- testament to the range of opportunities on offer full of great things your children have been doing! It has been great to see Year 11 continuing their pursuit of glory in the summer exams with food technology practical assessments taking place all week – staff have been effusive about the quality of the cooking and the preparation that has gone into the process . We also had our GCSE PE students doing practical assessment this week and again staff have been very positive about their progress.
Finally, our annual trip to Dance Live is upon us next week and we wish the performing arts team the best of luck! I was fortunate enough to see the performance this week and it is amazing! Well done to all involved.
PE News
Mr Bennett writes ‘ The PE team have been wonderfully busy this week.
- The Girls Year 7/8 netball teams played Weavers School on Tuesday and were tested throughout the games.
- Tuesday night saw Wollaston School sponsorship of the Northampton Town vs Blackpool EFL 1 match. This involved sponsorship of the match ball and programme with a number of students and staff attending and sampling the Northampton Town hospitality! A full report will be given in due course for the event.
- Wednesday saw the Year 8 Boys playing Weavers in the district league winning in a very convincing fashion.
- The Year 8 girls were in the semifinal of the County Cup football however were beaten by a very strong Caroline Chisholm School. The football played was exceptional at times and the students were a credit to the school.
- Wednesday was also the opportunity for the Year 11 girls to play ‘Rugby 7’s’ at Oundle School in the Northmapton Saints 7’s competition. The girls were superb and progressed through the early rounds beating all teams before them. They ended up facing one of the favourite schools and were narrowly beaten before the final game.
- Thursday had the Year 8 girls football team back in action in the distrct competition and they performed well against both Weavers and Wellingborough School.
- The PE department are also massively proud and pleased with the efforts of the year 11 students in their GCSE PE practical exams this week. It has been an amazing and busy week of sport and PE and we look forwards to next weeks match also.’
Careers News
My Myers writes: ‘Many thanks to all those involved in the recent World of Work Day for Year 8. An extra special well done to all students who were able to complete the booklet describing what they observed and took part in. It was fascinating to read them all and observe the amazing range of tasks and workplaces cultures that the students experienced. Some comments from the students can be seen below :
- ‘the work I experienced today would teach me many life and business skills’
- ‘you need to be able to communicate well with others and also listen in difficult or stressful situations ………..you also need to listen to other people’s ideas because it might make your own job easier or quicker because they may be more experienced than you are.’
- ‘a lot of the jobs are hard and you need hard work and have perseverance to get the jobs done’
It was also a pleasure to host Neil Balderson from Dr Martens this week and a number of 6th form students gave up their lunch time to listen to Neil explain the engineering role that the company has available.
Please also pass onto your children that Dale Willis from ‘My Great First Job’ will be starting his spring/ summer webinars next week. The first session , Tuesday 19th March at 7pm is about effective communication for young people. The relevant link is below:
Finally , there is still time for Year 11 students to see me if they are uncertain of their future destination after leaving school this summer and should let me or their form tutor know if they would like an appointment.’
COMIC REFLIEF NETBALL MATCH
Libby Starnes and Abigail Barrett (Year 11) write: ‘Friday the 15th of march, our Year 11 netball team organised a charity netball tournament for Comic Relief, against two teams of teachers! There were 3 games that consisted of the Year 11 team vs both teams of teachers separately and a game of teachers vs teachers. They were very competitive games with some rule breaking from the teachers and lots of dramatic falls but fortunately for them, the second teacher team were victorious, winning both matches that they played. Throughout the day lots of money has been raised for Comic Relief including any donations from students to come and watch the matches. We would like to say a massive thank you and well done to everyone who participated in today’s matches. We hope this can become an annual event for the Year 11 netballers as way to have some fun before exams!’
Year 8 News: Wollaston Behaviour Curriculum
Advance notice to parents of Year 8 that following a successful roll out and impact with Year 7, Year 8 will be starting a behaviour curriculum next Wednesday designed to support them with understanding our expectations and routines. This will involve two weeks of morning sessions that will span the Easter holidays to ensure that we are supporting the year group to demonstrate exceptional behaviour.
Key Dates
Wednesday 20th March- Dance Live
Thursday 21st March – Year 12 Parents Evening
Best wishes for the week ahead.
Simon Anderson