Head’s Newsletter – 28th April 2023

Good evening

It has been an eventful week at Wollaston with the Dance Live final taking place in Portsmouth, the Year 11 rugby team in the county cup final, Year 9 vaccinations and Duke of Edinburgh expeditions taking place as well!

As a staff, we have been thrilled to see our young people rise to the challenges before them, whether this is in representation in after school events or in class and in particular for students preparing for summer examinations.

Our Dance Live finalists unfortunately were not victorious although I am told that they absolutely ‘smashed’ their performance and were a credit to the school and families. We are immensely proud of the team who took part and the commitment, dedication, resilience, and collective endeavour that it takes to perform to such a high level.

 

NEU Strike Action Tuesday 2^nd May

A reminder that Tuesday is a day of strike action by the NEU and the school will be open to Years 11,12 & 13 only. Where teachers are working, remote learning will be set, and teachers will be available through TEAMs or email. Please refer to my previous communications this week for full details of the arrangements.

 

Flair Survey

As communicated last week, we are in the window for completing the FLAIR survey. This is a survey designed to establish a clear picture of race within our community. Over half the school have now taken the survey and we will look to complete this in the next week and anticipate the results, which we will share with you, towards the middle of June.

 

Anti- Bullying

This week’s pastoral curriculum has had an anti-bullying theme as we look to consolidate the work we have done this year around anti-bullying and encourage students to understand what bullying is and also what it isn’t, how we deal with incidents of bullying at Wollaston and also how to report bullying. For parents there is some useful information on our website which can be found here. I am also pleased to announce that in June 10 of our students will attend training by The Diana Award to become anti-bullying ambassadors.

 

Student Success

Mr Mills writes “Over the Easter holiday Jessica Sillis in Year 12 performed superbly as part of the England Under 19 bowling team.  Taking part in the European Championship Jess was an integral part of the team that won a bronze medal over the 10 day event.  This was the first time in 13 years that both the male and female teams had won a medal at the tournament and Jess’ individual performance was a major reason they achieved this success.  Her top score was 246 and she averaged 190 over the 24 games bowled.  It is a real testament to her that Jess has managed to maintain such high performance levels in the sport whilst simultaneously working extremely hard at her A levels.  We’d just like to say a massive congratulations from the whole school for such a great achievement.”

 

PE Update

Mr Bennett writes, “Wollaston School sports have been back in full swing. The after-school clubs are up and running and have been well attended. The cricket club on Tuesday luckily had wonderful weather and the new nets and well prepared field were great to use.

The Year 11 GCSE PE students were involved in their examination and practical moderation and the students performed fantastically in their chosen activities. The behaviour throughout the day was exemplary and something that made us proud to be part of Wollaston School.

Sporting highlights this week include the wonderful Girls Year 11 & Year 10 rugby tournament that was organsied by the Northampton Saints and played at the Bedford Ath rugby ground. The girls lost 1 game and won 3 games in the group stages which meant they went into the higher Cup for the final rounds. They unfortunately came up against a school with a strong rugby background and also a very large pool of players to choose from and lost out in the semi final stage. The girls were superb throughout the day and Mrs Kaye was delighted with their efforts.

The Year 11 boys were in action in their County Cup final and were involved in a real strong and fierce contest with Caroline Chisholm School. The opposition turned up with a large amount of confidence, but Wollaston shocked them with their character and robust gameplay. Wollaston went into half time 14-12 in the lead and much the better team. Wollaston started the second half well scoring quickly and putting a real hold on the game.  Chisholm however put some phases of play together and came back into the game and took the lead with the last three minutes of the game. Sadly time ran out for Wollaston and they lost 24-19. This was a real shame as Wollaston were the better team for many parts of the game and the boys were terribly disappointed not to come out on top. The Year 11 boys and the squad has built up over the last two years and they have been a credit to the school and a delight to coach and be part of. Well done and thank you year 11!

Netball news just in. District finals. Wollaston has been successful, and all 4 teams have reached the final games. Year 7, Year 8, Year 9 and Year 10 girls.

We would like to add training sessions for the teams on Thursday 4^th May and Thursday 11^th May with the finals currently scheduled for the 16^th May. All netball players are welcome and invited to train to make the final squads.”

 

Best wishes for the week ahead.

Mr Anderson