Head’s Newsletter – 6th October 2023
Dear parents and carers.
Another action-packed week at Wollaston where from Monday through to Thursday we welcomed in the region of 80 prospective Year 6s and their families to tour the school and to see it in operation. Once again our student ambassadors, acting as tour guides, were outstanding and a great representation for the school and all our visitors received a warm Wollaston welcome from the rest of the community as they toured. All students can be very proud of themselves for the way in which they have represented their community over the last few weeks and the kindness with which they have interacted with our visitors.
I have also been fortunate to have the opportunity to meet with some of our parents this week and discuss topical issues such as toilets in school, school trips and school communications. A key aspect of our work this year will be to implement a new parental engagement strategy. This will afford parents and carers the opportunity to come to school and meet with staff, to hear about our plans and strategies in a number of different areas of school life and of course to offer feedback from a parental point of view. I will communicate this strategy and the prospective dates for each forum prior to half term. Upcoming communication from work the senior team are currently doing will focus on our toilet strategy, providing clarity on which toilets are available to use during each part of the school day, how they are supervised and how students may access them during lessons should they need to. A second communication, which is likely to arrive in your inbox after half term, is one that will provide clarity around our school trips offer for each year group. It is fair to say that annual trips for each year group have been impacted by the pandemic and the educational recovery, however, this is now something we are keen to re-establish.
Notices
A reminder that students may access the school site from 0800 each day and should have left site by 15.10 unless they are accessing homework club, a revision workshop or masterclass or have a club or fixture. Please could all parents remind students that they should not return to the school site in the evening unless they are with a community group accessing our facilities as part of an organised letting.
Wollaston School Student Leadership News
Eco-Ambassadors
Mr Pugh writes: “Last year the Eco Ambassadors took on the ambitious aim of earning the school ECO school status and the honour of a green flag. Throughout the year the group of students led the school on several initiatives. These included: installation of recycling bins in open spaces, posters around school reminding people to turn off the lights, building and maintaining bird feeders and the project which had the biggest impact – Trash Mobbing. This involved going around the school with black bags and litter pickers and collecting as many bags of rubbish as possible from around the site, the activity was so popular that it even became a house competition with forms competing to fill the most bags!
After submitting a proposal to the UK Eco Council we were delighted to receive our Green Flag earlier this term to confirm the awarding of ECO School status. The students are delighted with the decision and are rightfully proud of their efforts. The group will continue to promote the school’s ECO status over the coming years.”
Diversity Ambassadors
Next week, the diversity ambassadors will once again take part on a Wellingborough Area Locality Diversity, Equality and Inclusion conference, this year being held at Sir Christopher Hatton School. Last year the ambassadors attended the conference held at Wellingborough School and came back to Wollaston invigorated to make a difference and to put some of their ideas into practice. We look forward to the conference having the same impact this year!
Duke of Edinburgh Award News
Mrs Ayling writes: “We got back last week from a very successful Gold D of E Qualifying Expedition in the Lake District. The team of pupils were brilliant – particularly as it was quite wet and windy at times, and they were surviving on not much sleep and limited pasta! Their navigation was excellent, and they all successfully passed the expedition section of the award. We are looking forward to recruiting our new cohort in the coming weeks.”
Wollaston PE Dept. News
Mr Bennett writes “The Wollaston PE faculty have been exceptionally busy in the past two weeks and have been delighted with the support and enthusiasm from the students in their attendance of matches and practices. A full list of results to doc is an indication of the superb competitive opportunities that have been available.
Whilst the results have been mixed in some areas, we are delighted with all the players and their effort and commitment in representing the school. We have had an amazing number of students accessing sport so far this year with over 200 students involved each week in sport through a practice and/or fixtures. There have also been many standout moments:
- The netball results showing the strength and skill of the Wollaston teams and the numbers at practice continue to remain high.
- Our wonderful cheerleading club on a Monday after school continues to grow with 30 plus students now regularly attending and practising their routines.
- The Year 11 Rugby team remained unbeaten and won through to the final of the Rugby 7’s Tournament where they beat Bishops Stortford School to win the overall competition. Some hard and dynamic play and effective tackling led to extended periods of Wollaston pressure resulting in many turn overs and tries being scored. The moment of the day was a sensational drop kick conversion out on the side of the touchline scored by Ollie Wilson to send Wollaston into the final match.
- The Year 6 Open Evening was so well supported by our “Sports Leaders” and all were able to offer exciting activities and mini games to the Year 6 pupils during their tours and visit. The Leaders were so open and kind to the new arrivals and really helped promote the activities and the school.
- Fifteen of our sports leaders were also involved when 10 of our local primary schools visited bringing 12 teams of Year 3 and Year 4 pupils for a football tournament. The whole event was a success and the players were excellent in their play and sportsmanship during the competition.
Please do continue to look out for matches that we will have scheduled, and we wish the U18 boys good luck for their game against Samuel Whitbread School next week, as well as the U15 boys, the girls netball teams and the Boys U16 rugby team. Players will be sent a notification of any fixture involvement via the “Evolve Sport” messaging platform.
Thank you to the parents and carers for supporting the players and please could they keep confirming the players availability and when they will be collected at the end of the fixture as this really helps the fixtures and staff running the events.”
