Headteacher Blog_21st July 2017
Dear parents, as the year draws to a close, I’m delighted to say that we have finished the year as it started, with a huge range of activities on offer to our students. Here is a brief summary of events and news from the past fortnight.
Rock Challenge
I am delighted to announce that further to our successes in the southern final of Rock Challenge at Portsmouth earlier this
year, our students were nominated for three national awards; Best Choreography, Best Soundtrack and Best Drama. We heard at the end of last week that we are the national winners of the Rock Challenge Drama Award for 2017. I am immensely proud of all of our students and would like to thank parents for their support for this event. I have no doubt that the group will be back with an even stronger entry next year and wish them well.
Year 12 Geography fieldwork visit to Pembrokeshire
Last week, Mrs Collins, Miss Gregory and Mr Foster took
a group of year 12 students to Pembrokeshire to conduct some geography fieldwork in connection with their A-level examinations. The groups focus their coastal studies around the tourist resort of Tenby where they developed hypotheses for their assessed coursework individual investigations and collected and analysed fieldwork relating to a range of physical geography topics.
Sixth Form Ball
On Saturday, 15 July, Over 150 Sixth Form students took part in 
their last formal get-together at the Park Hotel in Northampton, to celebrate the end of their formal education. A formal meal followed by an award ceremony and disco made for a memorable occasion, as shown in the photo below.
Under 15 County Cup cricket semi-final
On Tuesday 18 July, our year 9 and 10 male and female cricketers took on Bishop Stopford school in the County cup semi-final for their age group. Our players scored 113 runs off 20 overs, but unfortunately lost to a strong opposition, who scored 114 runs with a few overs to spare.
Bethan Solomon sends a demon ball down to the Bishop Stopford batsman
Year 9 Students’ Rewards Breakfast
A
t the end of the year. Mr Bradbury was pleased to reward 10 students who have 100% attendance throughout this academic year and have no negative points for the whole year, with a special pancake breakfast to thank them for being such positive students all year. They have set a very high bar for all students in the year group going forwards into year 10 in September.
USA trip departs
On 19 July, 82 students accompanied by 9 members of staff set off to the western states of the United States of America. The group flew to San Francisco and will spend a couple of days visiting the attractions in that city before departing for several of the highlights of California and beyond, including Yosemite National Park and Death Valley before travelling over the state border to Nevada, where they will stay in Las Vegas. They will then head for the Grand Canyon before returning to Los Angeles in California and visit some of the highlights of L.A. such as Universal Studios before returning to the UK on 27 July. You will be able to follow their progress on the trip enviously on our Twitter feed on the school website.
Hairspray
Last week, our performing arts actors, 
dancers and musicians took on the challenge of performing the musical Hairspray for three nights to packed audiences. Our students received rave notices from a wide range of individuals for their acting, choreographical and musical skills
Drake House takes accolade as Wollaston House Cup winners for 2017
After a closely fought competition that changed hands several times during the year, I’m delighted to announce that Drake House are winners of the Wollaston house cup for 2017. The cup is awarded for a whole number of elements throughout the year, where students gain points for attendance, excellent progress as well as taking part in events such as the pumpkin challenge, charity events during RAG week, sports day and several others. This year the points totals were as follows:
1st . Drake House. 16,425 points
2nd. Nightingale House. 16,150 points
3rd. Churchill House. 15,550 points
4th. Austen House. 12,550 points
As a reward for their achievements, all members of Drake house were invited to a concert performance by a former student, Deanna Chase, who now has a career in musical performance and has performed in the television show, The Voice. Deanna sang some of her best songs for the audience and engaged in a question-and-answer session with the students. We would like to thank Deanna for returning to Wollaston and wish her well in the future with her career.
Longest serving member of Wollaston School cafeteria retires
After 25 years’ service at Wollaston school, providing tasty meals to literally hundreds of staff and thousands of students, Mary Lloyd is retiring this summer. We wish to thank Mary for her wonderful service to the school and send our best wishes for a very happy retirement.
Learning Support Staff becoming Braille specialists
I am very proud of the fact that we are an inclusive school, 
Wollaston, and welcome students of all abilities and backgrounds. Over the last few years, we have worked hard to improve access for disabled students and staff and I’m pleased to say that we have taken this on a stage for September, with several have our learning support assistants becoming skilled in Braille, to meet the needs of blind students. The accompanying photo shows are staff hard work. Learning the Braille alphabet and how to prepare work in Braille.
Finally, as I approach my last few days in post as Headteacher Wollaston school, may I thank students, parents, staff and governors for their wonderful support during my time in office and wish you all the very best of luck in the future.
Best wishes
Joe Cowell
Headteacher