The Warbler Issue 2 - May 2017

Wilnecote Warbler
ENSURING EXCELLENCE
Issue 2
24th May 2017
Cover photo taken by Becky Wingfield (Y9)
Ellesse Oates
Celebrating Success

Welcome
Welcome to the second edition of the ‘Wilnecote Warbler’, our
new school newsletter.
Since the Easter holidays our assemblies have focussed on the
idea of perseverance, resilience, not giving up and how this leads
to success and achievement. This theme is reinforced in our
newsletter. The interview with Ellesse Oates is fascinating and
the commitment she displays to her sport and to achieving her
ambitions is something that we can all learn from. I am very
proud of her and hope to see her representing Team GB at the
Olympics.
I am also very proud of our Year 11 students who, as I write, are nearing the end of the first
week of their written GCSE examinations. I am well aware of the amount of hard work and
effort they have put in to the learning and revision process during their GCSE courses and, in
particular, the last couple of months. Their conduct and attitude thus far have been
exemplary. Keep up the good work.
The Wilnecote School, as you will be aware, views achievement in a much broader sense than
success in examinations, important though that clearly is. That is why we celebrate the many
and varied activities of the young people who attend our school. You can read about some of
these on the following pages, including our Peer Wellbeing Champions and our Maths
Challenge participants.
Finally I would ask you to read Miss Howell’s article about attendance – excellent attendance
is essential to the success and achievement that the Wilnecote Warbler celebrates.
I hope you enjoy this newsletter and that it gives you an interesting flavour of life at The
Wilnecote School.
Stuart Tonks
Headteacher
Dates For Your Diary
May
26
June
5
Break up for
Half Term
Art Festival Starts
July
Return to School
Sports Day
13
Year 10 Mock Exams July Last Day of
start
21 Summer Term
23 Year 11 Prom
June
19
June
July
3

Heads of House
Mr Grant
94.6%
Attendance since
September 2016
Mr Herbert
William MacGregor
94.4%
Attendance since
September 2016
Whole school attendance 94% since September 2016
Mr Simpson
92.6%
Attendance since
September 2016
We would like to take this opportunity to say a massive ‘good luck’ and ‘goodbye’ to our Year 11s. We hope you
are successful in your GCSE examinations and that all of your hard work pays off. We wish you all the very best
of luck and want you to be successful in the next phase of your lives after The Wilnecote School - whatever that
may be.
With Year 11s so close to leaving school, it gives all the other year groups the chance to reflect on the stage that
they are at in their Wilnecote journey: Year 7s, coming to the end of their first year, looking to build on a great
start and continuing to develop; Year 8s will be starting their options year, working hard so they choose the right
GCSE subjects for them; Year 9s beginning their GCSEs in September, it’s very important to get off to a good
start in Key Stage 4 and finally, Year 10’s, beginning their final year at school – the pinnacle of their school career
so far.
So to all of you at different stages of your journey through The Wilnecote School, keep working hard and striving
to be the best you can! To round off why don’t we use a very pertinent quote from our very own Ellesse Oates
from Year 10:
“You get nowhere without hard work and commitment. Believe in yourself and, if at first you don’t succeed, go
back and work even harder, the rewards will come.”
Student Support
In the Community Academies Trust’s drive to ensure excellence, the SEN and Inclusion departments have
now merged into Student Support. The aim is to create a co-ordinated resource that is more able to respond
to the needs of our students.
In addition to in-class support, the department will also include set literacy support to ensure each student is
‘secondary ready’, as well as academic mentoring and a series of fixed term programmes for both academic
and social support, this will ensure all our students are better equipped with the skills for their future.
From September 2017 there will be a homework support session offered four days a week after school. This
will form part of allocated hours and is available to all students as this is an area that many students struggle
with but can make the greatest difference.
The Student Support department is managed by our SENCO and Inclusion Manager and overseen by one of
our Directors of Learning.
If you wish to discuss any issues regarding SEN or Inclusion, please either e-mail us at
studentsupport@wilnecotehighschool.org or contact Student Support on 01827 831346.

Attendance
This year at The Wilnecote School we are having a particular focus on achieving high levels of attendance. Over the last few
years, our annual attendance rate has been just over 94%, which is roughly in line with the national average. Of course, our
goal now is to be above the national average and our long term target is to reach 96%.
Excellent attendance is crucial to a child's overall education. It is impossible for us to provide our students with the highest
quality of education if they are not attending consistently and accessing the many educational opportunities and
experiences available to them. Educational research has evidenced that regular absence from school can result on
significantly reduced attainment in GCSE examinations. Clearly it is vital that we do everything in our power to ensure that
all of our students have the very best chances to achieve academically and a focus on attendance is just one of the ways in
which we do this.
Our Attendance Policy, available to download from our website, outlines the procedures we follow to monitor attendance
and the strategies we put in place to address attendance concerns. As many of you will be aware we always aim to send an
automated text message home by mid-morning to inform you if your child has not been registered within the first half hour
of the day. The message requests that parents make urgent contact with the school to inform us of the reason for absence
and this helps us to ensure students who are absent are safeguarded. Additionally, it enables us to monitor absences, as well
as ensuring we meet the legal requirement of recording all reasons for absence on the official register.
In order to maintain our focus on high attendance we make contact with parents if their child's attendance falls below 95%,
highlighting any potential concerns and offering support if required. If that student's attendance continues to decline and
there are no apparent mitigating circumstances for that decline, the school may choose to set an internal target for
improvement, which again will include support from the school to help students to succeed. Unfortunately, for a small
number of students, this approach may not prove effective and at this point the school may have no option but to engage
the Local Authority's Local Support Team, who will work with the school and families to help overcome barriers to
attendance. In extreme cases the Local Authority will set a legal target, the failure of which could result in prosecution.
The subject of holidays in term time has also received much publicity in the media this year, as you will no doubt know. Please
be aware that in line with government expectations and Local Authority guidance, it is our policy not to authorise holidays
in term time. Leave of absence request forms, however, are available for exceptional circumstances, such as funerals and
should be completed prior to the intended absence. Again, please be aware that a leave of absence request for a holiday is
highly likely to be refused, due to our strong belief that full attendance during term time is in the best interests of all our
students.
While we do place a high emphasis on attendance, we recognise that there are occasions when it can prove difficult for
students to attend, either through ongoing illness or through emotional difficulties that may emerge. In these
circumstances, we are here to help and are keen to work alongside parents to address any problems which may be affecting
their child's overall school experience. Our full time attendance clerk, Ms Hepburn, along with other members of our
pastoral team, are available to meet with students to help address any problems that may be affecting their attendance,
ideally nipping problems in the bud before they get too big. Our pastoral team are also proactive and happy to meet with
parents to support them in ensuring their children have the best opportunities to access their education. These members of
staff are easily contactable by calling the school.
Thankfully, the vast majority of students tell us that they enjoy school and are keen to get the most out of their education.
Regular assemblies highlight the latest House attendance data and good attendance and punctuality are recognised weekly
with students receiving Vivos, through our school rewards scheme. Annually, 100% attendance is recognised through
certificates and prizes and on a weekly basis we encourage our students to engage in healthy competition, helping their
House to achieve the highest percentage attendance.
We are all too aware that none of the above would prove successful without the support of our parents and we continue to
be grateful for the parental support we receive in ensuring high attendance remains a key feature of each student's
academic experience at The Wilnecote School.
Miss J Howell
Deputy Headteacher

Peer Wellbeing Champions
As a school we are delighted when young people
volunteer to help others. Sixteen Wilnecote students
have volunteered to become Peer Wellbeing
Champions and have now started training with
Prohealth UK. This involves working on various
modules alongside Councillors working for Prohealth
UK and doing a set amount of voluntary hours.
Students will get to know lots about wellbeing,
emotional health and an awareness of how our
mental health affects our daily life.
Students are required to complete three units. The
final unit is a demonstration of practical skills. Some
of our students have now completed and passed Unit
One and are well on the way to gaining their
qualification: NCFE Level 2 Award Peer Mentoring.
photo taken by Izzy Chinn (Y8)
Students from The Wilnecote School are not the only people working on this project; students from
people across Tamworth working onand thisLichfield project; are students also taking from across part and there is a website called Well4u that has
Tamworth been set upand forLichfield the programme. are also taking part and there
is a website called Well4u that has been set up for the
programme.
Further information: https://www.prohealthuk.org/
Fran Taylor
Student Support Co-ordinator
Skills for the Future
Further information: https://www.prohealthuk.org/
Year 11 Students get valuable interview experience
Over the past few weeks Year 11 students at The Wilnecote
School have participated in a series of practice
‘Professional Interviews’ as part of their careers work in
school. A group of local businessmen, company directors
and owners gave up their time to work with students. They
discussed, presented and explained their ‘employability
skills’ and how these might help them get a job in the
future.
Mr Upton, Careers Adviser at The Wilnecote School,
commented, “The students responded brilliantly to the
experience and presented themselves really well,
impressing the assembled professionals with their energy,
enthusiasm and experiences. Each student is now in the
process of securing their next stage of education either at
college, sixth-form or applying for an apprenticeship and
practice such as this will be really useful to them going
forwards.”

Celebrating Success
In this edition of the 'Warbler' we are focussing on Year
10 student Ellesse Oates, who recently came a
magnificent sixth at the British Gymnastics
Championships in Liverpool.
She has competed around the world and has to mix
school work with a busy training and competition
schedule. Being interviewed by fellow students, here’s
what she said:
Q) How long have you been doing gymnastics?
A) “I have been doing it for 8 years, so since I was about
7 years of age.”
Q) What do you specialise in?
A) “It changes really but I have had most of my success
on the vault and bars. I guess my strongest discipline is
the vault.”
Q) How did you get into gymnastics?
A) “Well as a little girl everyone loves rolling
around throwing themselves about and
that’s what I did (a lot!). Then one day I
showed my dad how I could climb up and
swing on a tree (and was quite good at it) so
my parents said they would take me to
gymnastics to let off some of my energy and
hone my skills.”
Q) Who is your inspiration and why?
A) “My inspiration has always been Beth
Tweddle. Since I started I always wanted to
be her.”
Just in case you are not sure who she is, Beth
Tweddle’s Gymnastics achievements include:
Olympic Bronze Medalist, triple World
Champion, six-time European Champion,
Commonwealth Champion and seven-times
consecutive National Champion.
Ellesse meeting Beth Tweddle while
performing on BBC's Tumble (2014)

Q) You have recently met Beth Tweddle. What was it
like meeting her?
A) “I loved it! I was only 7-8 when I first met her, I did a
training camp with about 20 other girls - it was really
fun and certainly gave me the motivation to continue
with my gymnastics and to train even harder.”
Q) What do you enjoy about doing gymnastics?
A) “I love competing, showing lots of people how
dedicated I am to the sport. I especially love it when I
am at a competition and my name gets called out and
all the little girls in the audience are cheering and
looking up at me, knowing that (like I was with Beth
Tweddle) I am their inspiration.”
photo taken by Izzy Chinn (Y8)
Q) Tell us what you have been up to with Team GB?
A) “We had a couple of training camps at the start of
this year. At one of the camps we had an American
coach –Mary Lee Tracy – who came in to help us and
give us some tips. She passed on loads of useful advice
and information. Then, in March, we had European
trials which was over a two day period.”
Q) How much training do you do?
photo taken by Izzy Chinn (Y8)
A) “I do about 35 hours a week, whether during termtime
or holiday time. It is a massive commitment for
both me and my parents, who do all the driving to
training and events and support me massively.”
Q) Do you enjoy the competition?
A) “Yes I’m a very competitive person and I really enjoy
competing. It makes all those hours of training
worthwhile!”
Q) What are your main goals in gymnastics?
A) “I want to go to the big international competitions
with the girls' team and I want to go to the Olympics
and represent Team GB!”
Q) What advice would you give to
fellow Wilnecote students?
A) “You get nowhere without hard
work and commitment. Believe in
yourself and, if you don’t succeed,
go back and work even harder. The
rewards will come.”

Wed 24 May 9:00 0:45 EDEXL/GCSE 5BS0101 Intro.to Small Business
Wed 24 May
GCSE
13:15 1:00
Exam
AQA PH1FP
Timetable
Physics Unit 1 Tier F
Wed 24 May 13:15 1:00 AQA PH1HP Physics Unit 1 Tier H
Thu 25 May 9:00 1:30 EDEXL/GCSE 1MA1 1F Non Calculator (F)
Thu 25 May 9:00 1:30 EDEXL/GCSE 1MA1 1H Non Calculator (H)
Fri Date 26 May Start 9:00 Length 2:15 Board AQA Component 8702/2 Code English Component Literature Paper Title2
Mon 05 15 Jun May 9:00 1:00 2:00 OCR A017/01 B603/01 Rel HistStuds: B: ASPEthics INT Rltn Wrien Usa Freedom Wrien
Mon 05 15 Jun May 13:15 9:00 1:00 2:00 AQA OCR B604/01 45451 Rel D & Studies T: FoodB: Technology Ethics 2 Wrien Unit 1
Tue 16 06 May Jun 9:00 0:35 1:45 AQA 46551F 8700/1 French English Unit Language 1 TierPaper F 1
Tue 16 06 May Jun 13:15 9:00 0:45 1:45 AQA OCR B563/01 46551H French Geog B: Unit Geogrphcl 1 Tier HKey Thms Wrtn Fnd
Tue 16 06 May Jun 13:15 9:00 0:30 1:45 AQA OCR B563/02 46552F French Geog B: Unit Geogrphcl 2 Tier FKey Thms Wrtn Hgh
Tue Wed16 07May Jun 9:00 0:50 0:35 AQA 46552H 46651F French German Unit2 1 TierH
F
Tue Wed16 07May Jun 13:15 9:00 1:00 0:45 AQA 46651H BL1FP Biology German Unit 1 TierFH
Tue Wed16 07May Jun 13:15 9:00 1:00 0:30 AQA 46652F BL1HP Biology German Unit12 TierHF
Wed 17 07 Jun May 9:00 1:30 0:50 EDEXL/GCSE AQA 5IT0101 46652H Living German in Unit A Digital 2 Tier World H
Thu Wed18 07May Jun 9:00 1:00 1:30 AQA OCR A451/01 CH1FP Chemistry Compung: Unit Cmptr 1 Tier Sys F& Prgmng Wrn
Thu08 18Jun May 9:00 1:30 1:00 EDEXL/GCSE AQA 1MA1 CH1HP 2F Calculator Chemistry(F)
Unit 1 Tier H
Thu Fri 19 08May Jun 13:15 9:00 1:30 EDEXL/GCSE 1MA1 5PE0101 2H Calculator Theory of Physical (H) ED.
Fri Mon 0922 JunMay 9:00 1:00 1:45 AQA 8702/1 BL2FP Biology English Literature Unit 2 TierPaper F 1
Fri Mon 0922 JunMay 13:15 9:00 1:00 1:30 AQA OCR B561/01 BL2HP Biology Geog B: Unit Sustain 2 Tier Dcsn H Mkng Wrn Fnd
Fri Mon 0922 JunMay 13:15 9:00 1:00 1:30 AQA OCR B561/02 BL3FP Biology Geog B: Unit Sustain 3 Tier Dcsn F Mkng Wrn Hgh
Fri Wed 0924 JunMay 9:00 1:00 0:45 EDEXL/GCSE AQA 5BS0101 BL3HP Biology Intro.toUnit Small 3 Business Tier H
Fri Wed 0924 JunMay 13:15 1:30 1:00 OCR AQA B354/01 PH1FP Music: PhysicsListening Unit 1 Tier Test F Wrien
Fri Wed 0924 JunMay 13:15 1:30 1:00 EDEXL/GCSE AQA 5BS0301 PH1HP Building Physics Unit A Business 1 Tier H
Mon Thu 25 12May Jun 9:00 1:45 1:30 EDEXL/GCSE AQA 1MA1 8700/21F English Non Calculator Language (F) Paper 2
Tue Thu13 25Jun May 9:00 1:30 EDEXL/GCSE 1MA1 3F 1H Calculator Non Calculator (F) (H)
Tue Fri 26 13May Jun 9:00 1:30 2:15 EDEXL/GCSE AQA 1MA1 8702/2 3H Calculator English Literature (H) Paper 2
Wed Mon14 05 Jun 9:00 1:00 2:00 AQA OCR A017/01 CH2FP Chemistry Hist B: ASPUnit INT 2Rltn Tier Usa F Freedom Wrien
Wed Mon14 05 Jun 13:15 9:00 1:00 2:00 AQA CH2HP 45451 Chemistry D & T: Food Unit Technology 2 Tier H Unit 1
Wed Tue 06 14Jun 9:00 1:00 1:45 AQA 8700/1 CH3FP Chemistry English Language Unit 3 Tier Paper F 1
Wed Tue 06 14Jun 13:15 9:00 1:00 1:45 AQA OCR B563/01 CH3HP Chemistry Geog B: Geogrphcl Unit 3 Tier Key H Thms Wrtn Fnd
Wed Tue 06 14Jun 13:15 1:30 1:45 OCR A021/01 B563/02 Hist GeogB: B: Brt Geogrphcl Scty Chngd Key1890-1918 Thms Wrtn Wrtn Hgh
Thu Wed15 07Jun Jun 9:00 1:30 0:35 AQA 8360/1 46651F Further GermanMathemacs Unit 1 Tier F Paper 1
Thu Wed15 07Jun Jun 13:15 9:00 1:00 0:45 OCR AQA B601/01 46651H Rel German Studies Unit B: 1Philosophy Tier H 1 Wrien
Thu Wed15 07Jun Jun 13:15 9:00 1:00 0:30 OCR AQA B602/01 46652F Rel German Studies Unit B: 2Philosophy Tier F 2 Wrien
Fri Wed 1607 Jun Jun 9:00 1:00 0:50 AQA 46652H PH2FP Physics GermanUnit Unit2 2Tier TierF
H
Fri Wed 1607 Jun Jun 9:00 1:00 1:30 AQA OCR A451/01 PH2HP Physics Compung: Unit Cmptr 2 Tier HSys & Prgmng Wrn
Fri 16 Jun 9:00 1:00 AQA PH3FP Physics Unit 3 Tier F
Fri 16 Jun 9:00 1:00 AQA PH3HP Physics Unit 3 Tier H
Mon 19 Jun 9:00 2:00 AQA 8360/2 Further Mathemacs Paper 2
Tue 20 Jun 13:15 2:00 AQA 45501 D & T: Graphic Products Unit 1
Mon 26 Jun 9:00 2:00 AQA 45551 D & T: Product Design Unit 1

Year 10 Mock Exam Timetable
YEAR 10 M OCK EXAM TIM ETABLE
M ONDAY 19TH JUNE
TIME SUBJECT & PAPER ROOMS DURATION
08:30 English Literature Paper 2 HALL, COMMON ROOM 105
11:10 ICT Paper 1 COMMON ROOM & 71 60
13:40 History Paper 1 71 & 70 60
TUESDAY 20TH JUNE
08:30 Mathematics Paper 1 HALL & 71 90
11:10 Business Studies Unit 1 & 3 71 & 70 30 & 60
13:40 History Paper 2 COMMON ROOM & 70 60
W EDNESDAY 21ST JUNE
08:30 Mathematics Paper 2 HALL & 71 90
11:10 Computing Units 1 & 2 71 & 70 45 & 45
13:40 Religious Studies COMMON ROOM & 70 60
THURSDAY 22ND JUNE
08:30 English Language Paper 1 HALL, COMMON ROOM & 71 105
11:10 Drama 71 & 70 90
13:40 French & German Reading COMMON ROOM 45 (f) & 60 (h)
FRIDAY 23RD JUNE
11:10 Geography Paper 1 71 & 70 90
13:40 French Listening COMMON ROOM 35 (f) 45 (h)
13:40 German Listening 71 35 (f) 45 (h)
M ONDAY 26TH JUNE
08:30 Physical Educaon Paper 1 COMMON ROOM & 70 90
11:10 Physical Educaon Paper 2 COMMON ROOM & 70 75
13:40 Geography Paper 2 71 & 70 75
TUESDAY 27TH JUNE
08:30 French & German Wring COMMON ROOM & 71 60 (f) & 75 (h)
11:10 Music Listening 71 60
W EDNESDAY 28TH JUNE
08:30 FOOD, GRAPHICS & PRODUCT DESIGN COMMON ROOM & 71 120
11:10 CLASH STUDENTS 70 120
THURSDAY 29TH JUNE
All Day Art Exam 11 & 19 5 hours
M ONDAY 3RD JULY
08:30 Food Praccal Exam 29 & 30 3 hours
TUESDAY 3RD & W EDNESDAY 5TH JULY
All Day Languages speaking exams 68 & 69
FRIDAY 7TH JULY
PE PRACTICAL MODERATION DAY
VENUES & ACTIVITIES TBC
French & German: Speaking exam times will be confirmed by your languages teacher

UK Maths Challenge News
Last month a number of students from The Wilnecote School
took part in the Junior UK Maths Challenge. The event challenges
not just mental arithmetic but the ability to problem solve under
a time pressure. Results are compared to schools all over the
country and students are awarded gold, silver and bronze levels
by attaining certain benchmarks.
All the students who competed did really well with particular
success achieved by a number of students, as below:
photo taken by Becky Wingfield (Y9)
Year 7 - Bronze
Year 7 - Silver
Year 8 - Bronze
Year 8 - Silver
Year 8 - Gold
Lorenzo Kordal
Sam Dishington
Cira Wyton
Sinead Livingston
Lucy Taylor
Harrison Richardson
Beth Rawlings
Caitlin Wiggers
photo taken by Becky Wingfield (Y9)
A very well done to year 8s Sona Urbanova (pictured above) who received
gold for her fantastic efforts.
Mathematician of the Month
Every month one student from each maths set is awarded the title 'Mathematician of the Month'.
The students receiving an award will have impressed their teacher with their enthusiasm and hard
work. Congratulations to this months recipients, who are:
Year 7 7M1 Brandon Jordan 7M2 Kenan Blakely
7M3 Caton Middleton 7M4 Jake Brown
7M5 Amber Morey
Year 8 8A1 Emily Walker 8A2 Lily-Rose McKay
8A3 Lewis Collins 8B1 Sinead Livingston
8B2 Jessie Snell 8B3 Amber Morey
Year 9 9M1 Adriana Maskova 9M2 Alex Watkins
9M3 Malachi Nash 9M4 Sam Nash-Fitzgerald
9M5 Jenny Prendergast
Year 10 10A1 Connor Blakely 10A2 Katie Hughes
10A3 Jack Johnson 10B1 Mason Simmons
10B2 Vincenzo Fontanella 10B3 Senna Pascoe
year 11 11A1 Chloe Maker 11A2 Libby Skilleter
11A3 Marcus Jackson 11B1 George Cooper
11B2 Connor McCullough 11B3 Ellie Howes

AQA Food Technology
A celebratory treat was held for three students
who have completed their final AQA Food
Technology unit. The students are Leo Holloway,
Leah Thompson, and Abi Hill (aka the 3 Amigos).
For their final unit they had to prepare a two
course meal. This involved costing their
ingredients, shopping for their ingredients and
finally cooking their chosen meals. They have
consistently worked hard and gained valuable
knowledge and experience in a life skill proving
their ability to be independent. Mrs Campion was
more than happy to act as their waitress for a
well deserved treat with Mrs Dayus and Mrs
Taylor joining in the celebration.
Fairtrade French
Over the past few weeks students in Miss Lakin's Year
9 French class have been working on a project all
about Fairtrade. At the end of the unit of
work students had to design and create a product that
would raise awareness of Fairtrade. They then had to
pitch the product in French, giving a group
presentation. Prizes were given for the most creative
design, best teamwork and most professional pitch.
"All of the students embraced this project and gave
excellent and professional pitches, with all of them
making their presentations in French of course! The
standard and the variety, in content and style, was
incredibly high and very impressive", commented
Miss Lakin.
In support of the British Heart
Foundation the Heads of House
present Footy Fives.
Rules:
Teams of 5 players
Years 7-9 only
Teams can be mixed - ages and houses
Heats played during tutor time
£1.00 per player entry fee
Trophy and medals for the winning team
Collect your sign up sheet from the House Office
Sign up sheets to be returned to the House
Office by Friday 26th May with team fee
Footy Fives

The Wilnecote Scho0l
Tinkers Green Road
Wilnecote
Tamworth
Staffordshire
B77 5LF
Contact Us
School email for general enquiries
office@wilnecotehighschool.org
Student absence email
pupilabsence@wilnecotehighschool.org
Telephone Number
01827 831300
Fax Number
01827 831314