Head’s Newsletter – 31st March 2023
Dear parents and carers.
Thank you all for your support during the last term. All children have been a credit to families and the school, and we are very much excited for what the summer term will bring.
Year 10 Mock Examinations
The Year 10 students will be given the experience of formal mock exams next term. The students will sit exams for maths, English and science in formal settings, led and officiated by JCQ-qualified invigilators. These core exams will take place in the weeks commencing 1st May and 8th May. Students can access the timings of these exams, as well as venues and seating plans, on EduLink – under the ‘Exams’ icon.
For their chosen option subjects, Year 10 students will sit further mock exams within their allotted curriculum time for each subject. These will take place in timetabled classrooms, a schedule for which will be published next term. The window for these option subject mocks is within the weeks commencing 5th June, 12th June and 19th June.
An assembly with be given to Year 10 prior to the formal sittings to explain the procedures that they will need to follow. This is an opportunity to gain the experience of both the process and the pressures associated with exams as well as be a great opportunity to capture the progress made this year.
STEAM Competition
Mr Pugh writes, “After finally having time to review all of the entries to the STEAM creativity task we are delighted to announce all of the winning entries across Years 7, 8 and 9. There were some truly outstanding entries and a wide variety including comic books, stories and videos. It was a lot of fun reading and watching all of them and all the students who entered should be incredibly proud of their efforts.
The winning entries will be added to the school website over the Easter holiday so that all parents and students can look at them and see for themselves what talented pupils we have at Wollaston School.”
FLAIR Surveys
As I have referenced previously, we have employed a company called FLAIR who will do some work with us on attitudes towards race within the school community. During the second week back we will ask all students to respond to a short, anonymous, survey. The questions will provide an opportunity for students (and staff) to reflect on their views and experiences related to race while at school. The responses will give us a better idea of student and staff experiences and help us to understand in which areas we can improve. The findings from this research will also help guide our policy decisions and educational experiences that we can provide children with to aid their personal development.
Student Ambassador Conference
Session 1
On Thursday the 30th of March, we had our 2nd Student Ambassador conference, first of all we had an introduction and welcome from Miss Ayres. Then each of the seven ambassador groups completed a team exercise about leadership qualities and traits (challenging our communication skills and teamwork capabilities). It was very interesting and eye opening to see everyone else’s ideas as it was very varied between each group of ambassadors. After this task we were asked three questions relating to leadership qualities and skills required so we could reflect on what we had just learnt. We realised not all these skills are necessarily essential to be an everyday leader!
Session 2 & 3
In session 2, the ambassador groups separated into our working groups with our corresponding staff leader. Each group went off to work on their action plans created back at conference 1. This was a great time to collaborate with peers and staff leaders. An example of student collaboration was the eco/ STEAM teams working on the trash mob scheme in session 3 followed by an evaluation of the day.
This conference has been very beneficial to all the student ambassadors, and we have really enjoyed working on future projects to come and promoting these in the new term.
Evie Bush and Max Pittham Year 9 (Community Ambassadors)
Year 13 Business Presentations to Scott Bader staff
Mr Myers writes “Year 13 Applied Business students have been busy preparing and presenting their Business plans to Scott Bader staff this week. The comments from Scott Bader staff (below) give some idea of the work undertaken. We are most grateful to Scott Bader staff for their time and expertise.
“This was special to me as I sat on the other side of the opportunity when I went to Wollaston School, and it was the same teacher who was organising the recent event. I was impressed with how the students came across, they were very professional and showed passion behind their ideas.” (Tymon Page, product development at Scott Bader)
“I really enjoyed the opportunity having been working with Wollaston School for a number of years now in my role of Enterprise Advisor. I really enjoyed watching the presentations and seeing how passionate each student was about their chosen business idea. It was really good to see how positively the students engaged with us and how professional they were when responding to our questions. It was also great to see the students grow in their confidence as they went through their presentation!”
(Hannah Gifford , Human Resources manager at Scott Bader)
Safeguarding and wellbeing bulletin
Please click HERE to read the latest safeguarding and wellbeing bulletin from Ms Walker
Best wishes for the Easter Break
Simon Anderson