Head’s Newsletter -8th December 2023
Dear parents and carers
Wollaston is certainly feeling very festive after this week with the OAP Christmas Party hosted by our students and staff, the Christmas trees going up and reminders of next Wednesday’s Christmas lunch being posted around the school! I am very proud of our students and staff who hosted the OAP party, a Wollaston Christmas tradition that I know is appreciated by our local community. What has added a little bit of magic to events this year is that our students were joined by some ‘little elves’ from our trust primaries to make sure that the entertainment was on point!
OAP Christmas Party
Zena Cunnington, Lillie Saph and Chloe Wilton (Year 9) write: “On Wednesday the 6th of December, a range of the community ambassadors, with the help of Scott Bader, hosted a Festive Christmas OAP party for 85 guests. We left the school premises at 9.00am to help set up for the event. While William took the roles of compere, the Year 7s greeted our guests and the Year 9s and 10s served drinks before we began serving food.
There was a wide variety of drinks and snacks to choose from including mince pies, mini fruit pavlovas, pin wheels and mini quiches -all hand-baked by Wollaston students. We were later joined by Irchester and Cogenhoe students who sang wonderful Christmas carols for us. The hand chimes were played by students from Bozeat primary, ending in a round of applause by the guests, it made us all feel very festive!
Many prizes and gifts were won in the raffle and the competitive Christmas quiz was enjoyed by both guests and students. Christmas music kept everyone in the festive spirit, as well as a surprise visit by Santa (who had an uncanny resemblance to Mr Sheldrick!). Tilly Orton, Emmy Jackson and Chloe Wilton decorated the pavlovas, as everyone else served the fresh drinks, tasty sandwiches, filling snacks, and mouthwatering desserts.
The guests were delighted by all of the incredible options of both sweet and savoury dishes especially the handmade sausage rolls which was one of the favourites of our guests!”
News from the PE Department
Mr Bennett writes “Last Friday, the Wollaston School PE department were delighted to run a trip to Wembley.
The trip was an opportunity to see the England Lionesses play at Wembley against the Netherlands. Girls who had shown a sustained commitment to training and playing football this term were invited to join the trip and experience the international performance level of the women’s game.
The girls who attended were superb in their support and behaviour and were wonderful ambassadors for the school. A massive thank you to Mr Kirk and Mr Crook for arranging and running the trip and also Miss Olechnowicz, Mr Roberts and Mrs Lea for their support with the trip. A great example of elite sport was witnessed with an exciting winning performance and was certainly something that the girls were so excited to be part of.
A massive congratulations to Hannah Wayman who competed in the North European Artistic Gymnastics competition in Sweden recently. She was leading the competition after Round 1 of the preliminary stages. Hannah qualified for the Beam final and came 5th overall. This is an outstanding achievement for Hannah to be so successful at this level and we are so pleased for her.
Mr Crook took the Year 9 football team over to Malcolm Arnold for a fixture this week which ended in an exciting 6-5 victory to Wollaston. Wollaston scored in the last minutes of the game to take the win and showed some outstanding play with both high quality and skill.
The Girls U13 team which was made up of Year 7 and Year 8 players were at “Goals” in Northampton for the County 7-a-side tournament. They were winners of their group and progressed to the semi-finals. Unfortunately, a tough decision went against them with a goal disallowed which meant that they did not progress further. Mr Crook and the girls were very disappointed as they had shown a higher level of performance than that of the progressing teams.
Mr Roberts has been very busy with the Sports Leadership club on a Wednesday evening with over 20 students taking part and developing their wider sports skills and leadership approaches. We look forwards to the opportunities of mixing with other schools and events in the upcoming year and 2024.”
Key Dates for the Diary
- Wollaston Christmas Dinner: (Extended lunch for all: 12.40-13.40) 13th December
- Christmas Jumper day! Tuesday 19th December
- Last day of term! Tuesday 19th December
- First day of the new term: Thursday 4th January 2024
Best wishes for the week ahead!
Simon Anderson