WINCHCOMBE NEWS. A round-up of recent events in and outside school

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1 Autumn, 2016 WINCHCOMBE NEWS A round-up of recent events in and outside school In this issue: Year 7 visit Croft Farm GCHQ pay a visit European Day of Languages Boccia tournament Raft- & team-building at Croft Farm Year 7 and staff spent a thoroughly enjoyable day at Croft Farm getting to know their new classmates and falling in the water. Isabella Carter writes: Shakespeare Tempest I really enjoyed the trip to Croft Farm; it was a great day to bond with others, have fun and really get to know your After-school sport classmates. Canoeing down the River Avon was Students sporting fabulous, it was calming yet hard work and the raft building was great too, but when they were tested out, success our team were not too successful! The staff were friendly WSA fund hall projector and the teachers got involved too. It was an amazing way to end the week. Croft Farm was nearly my favourite thing of all time Ruby Mills Staying afloat while the barrels were still roped together GCHQ pay Winchcombe School a visit. Shhh Don t tell anyone! Recently, two people from GCHQ came into Winchcombe School and talked to students who are taking a language for GCSE about how useful a language can be in life and when you look for a job; they even taught us a bit of Mandarin as well. First lesson on Friday 16th September, we met two people from GCHQ who told us about their experiences with languages and how it has helped them get to where they are today. They said how many options knowing a language can open up and how much fun it can be as well. In the second half of it, we learnt a few simple phrases in Mandarin including but not limited to woman, man, safety, child and 1, 2 and 3. It was a great opportunity for the language students and has maybe made some of them re-think the road they will take on the way to their dream jobs. Lucy Payne (Y10) Catherine Cox (Y8) also explains: The GCHQ visitors taught us a few phrases of Chinese, which we then used to play bingo. We were shown some of the symbols standing for words and were also given an understanding of Chinese culture. By the time they left, some of us were already considering careers as linguists in the intelligence agency, though we're sure they don't play bingo all day! Rachel Perry 7SU MFL Team set up refreshments on Open Evening Winning Poster for European Day of Languages

2 European Day of Languages the story continues... Former Winchcombe pupil Lily Pattinson, who s now a Gloucestershire Echo journalist, accompanied Year 9 students as they visited Gretton Primary School to give pupils there a French lesson which they had planned themselves. Lily s story and accompanying photos can be seen online at Meanwhile in school, Henry Fleck in Y7 won the French language translation competition and we had over 20 entries for the French landmark quiz run by Mrs Barnes -all part of European Day of Languages. Guten Tag! Hola! Buongiorno! Bonjour! Gotcha! It s Boccia*! (pronounced Botcha ) * You may not know that: Boccia in the gym the Great Britain Boccia Federation (GB Boccia) is the responsible body for the Paralympic sport of Boccia in the UK Boccia is a sport designed for athletes with severe impairments and has no Olympic equivalent. It is a target ball sport similar in principle to bowls but is played indoors with soft leather balls. It is a sport of intriguing tactics, incredible skill and nail biting tension. Once you see it you will be hooked! Dene Magna School from Mitcheldean are masters of the art of Boccia. They visited in September to compete in a fun competition with some of our Year 7 and 8 students. Part-way through the tournament, Karis Bedford in Y8 told me, It s good, but I think we re losing and Abbie Hunt and Lauren Houghton-Brown in Year 7 declared it to be quite hard and that you need to be accurate. If students want to hone their Boccia skills, Mrs Russell runs a club every Monday lunchtime in the gym all students welcome. Carry On Shakespeare! Evie Guyll (Y11) and Eloise Ashworth (Y9) write: Winchcombe School is participating in a Shakespeare Festival to celebrate 400 years of his death. Our school is performing The Tempest alongside three other schools. We rehearse every Thursday after school, where Mrs M-K is striving to get the most out of the performance. The dedicated cast are thoroughly enjoying performing and loved their visit to the Roses Theatre in Tewkesbury for a workshop. The different twist on Shakespeare will be amazing to watch. Rehearsals for The Tempest Tickets for the Shakespeare Festival (Tues 8th November) are available direct from Roses Theatre website selling fast!

3 Q: What s on after school? A: Quite a lot of Sport! A Typical Tuesday: Cycling with Mr Bridge and a Cycle Club coach Year 10 Rugby match To find out exactly what s on when, take a look at the list on the school website: School Information > Useful information > PE Clubs

4 Congratulations!! To Riley Mitchell, Leonie Clarke and Charlotte Hurcombe for their success with the Coadycrew at the Dance Championships And to the members of the school Equestrian Team: Lucy Hayling, Ruby Mills, Hannah Marsh, Amity Turner, Sophie Godfrey, Polly Turner, Harry Greasby, Olivia Dawkins, Lucy Boorman, Ellie Godfrey, Jemima Turner and George Hance. They all showed great team spirit and represented the school with determination! If you have news about your child s success outside school and want to share it with the school community, please do details to their Head of House.

5 A big Thank you to our wonderful WSA! We re delighted that, thanks to the WSA s tireless fundraising last year, we have been able to install a new projector in the hall shown here at the Year 7 Parents Evening. The WSA would like to thank everyone who has contributed in any way including the local Co-op store who made a donation of 250 from money paid for plastic shopping bags. The committee asks if all parents could please remember Easyfundraising when they do online shopping and also to bring a wallet on parents evenings to support the refreshment stall it all helps! The WSA main fundraiser this term will be the Christmas Raffle please look out for messages after half term. Mr Hall and all staff wish you a restful half term and look forward to seeing you back on Monday 31st October (Week 1).