Warbler Issue 5 december 2017
Wilnecote Warbler ENSURING EXCELLENCE Issue 5 December 2017 Front Cover design by Niyah Rowe(Y9) & Elle Jones (Y10)
- Page 2 and 3: Louise Griffiths has become a value
- Page 4 and 5: How has the school developed in ter
- Page 6 and 7: Heads of House Mr Grant 94.6% Atten
- Page 8 and 9: 20
- Page 10 and 11: Performing Arts The Wilnecote Schoo
- Page 12 and 13: Careers Year 11 Practice Profession
- Page 14 and 15: Physical Education Autumn Term Roun
- Page 16: The Wilnecote School ENSURING EXCEL
Wilnecote <strong>Warbler</strong><br />
ENSURING EXCELLENCE<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> 5 December <strong>2017</strong><br />
Front Cover<br />
design by<br />
Niyah Rowe(Y9) &<br />
Elle Jones (Y10)
Louise Griffiths has become a valued reporter for the <strong>Warbler</strong> so we sent her along to spend some<br />
time with Mr Tonks and ask him some questions about his time at The Wilnecote School.<br />
How long have you been teaching at this school?<br />
30 years and one term which is 5922 days.<br />
What made you want to be a teacher?<br />
Early in my life I was not someone who wanted to be a teacher. You know there are some people, when they’re at school,<br />
who knew that they wanted to be a teacher. I didn’t do that. I went away and did a degree in history and economics and it<br />
was during my time at university that I thought, actually I quite like communicating with young people about this. And I had<br />
a good education, what I really want to do is to let other people receive a good education and do my best to help them get<br />
a good start in life. It’s about helping young people get positive experiences out of school so they’re ready for the rest of<br />
their lives.<br />
Who’s your biggest inspiration?<br />
That’s an interesting question. There’s not really someone in my life like a teacher or my head teacher, there’s no one who<br />
has inspired me in a specific educational sense. There are lots of people who I’ve come into contact with over 30 years and<br />
I’ve thought, yeah that person’s brilliant, but no one specific.<br />
If there are two people who I most look up to and they’re not people I know but they’re people in society and the world<br />
who I admire. The first one, who is now dead unfortunately, is Nelson Mandela. He spent so much of his life in prison for<br />
something he believed in but then he came out and wanted to be peaceful and didn’t want to go against the people that<br />
put him in prison. There’s a process called reconciliation which is working with people who had put him in prison. I think to<br />
have that kind of character that you don’t blame people or judge people who have done bad things about you and you<br />
remain inspired to work and get the best for your country is amazing.<br />
There’s someone else called Malala Yousafzai. She’s a young woman, she’s about seventeen or eighteen who got shot in<br />
Pakistan where she lived and had to come to Britan and live in Birmingham. Just her view of the importance of education<br />
is something that I find inspirational. I was actually at a head teacher’s conference just earlier this year in March and she was<br />
there. She got up and spoke in front of hundreds of head teachers and was really inspirational. The thing that inspires me<br />
the most about her is that despite everything that happened to her, she believes in the power of education and that<br />
education is the most important thing for any young person.<br />
What other subjects have you taught throughout your career?<br />
I came here and in my first few years I taught history, economics and business studies. As economics and business studies<br />
got more popular I stopped teaching history and just carried on with business studies, I still do teach a bit of business<br />
studies. I have over my time, on some occasions taught PE and maths I think for a year or two because there wasn’t anyone<br />
else.<br />
What was your favourite subject while you were in school?<br />
History.<br />
Why’s that?<br />
I just think that the stories that you learn about history and what went on are absolutely fascinating. It also tells you so much<br />
about now by knowing what happened in the past. I think the fact that history is all about people and their lives and their<br />
stories and how they’ve changed things is what fascinates me. So when I say history it’s more the history of normal people<br />
not Kings and Queens.<br />
What do you think you’d be doing if you weren’t a teacher?<br />
That’s very interesting. When I was younger I had aspirations to be the Prime Minister. I did consider and I was very close to<br />
becoming an MP about 20 years ago. But actually I decided what I’d rather do is channel my energy and the things I could<br />
do into education. But I think I might in another life, on another occasion have been an MP.
How has teaching changed over the years?<br />
I think now teaching is much more about learning. It used to be, this is when I<br />
was at school and starting to become a teacher that all we focused on is what<br />
we taught. If we taught something we would just expect the students to learn<br />
it and know it. Now it’s a much more active process. The best teaching is about<br />
us, as the teachers, helping the young people to learn and involving them in the<br />
process. So rather than a teacher just standing at the front talking we now<br />
engage the students in the learning and challenge them to do the learning<br />
rather than just relying on us as teachers. So that’s the big difference and it’s<br />
really quite difficult, and I’m not saying it’s easy, but it is much more about young<br />
people being an active part of the lesson.<br />
Do you remember your first day teaching at this school?<br />
Yes, I do.<br />
And how did that go?<br />
It was fascinating because at the time, it was September 1987, and I had come<br />
from another school. I had just moved to Tamworth and I didn’t know anyone.<br />
What I remember is that everyone made me feel very welcome and in those<br />
days we’d start, we’d have a couple days of training like we do now. But the first<br />
day of teaching was a Wednesday and I very vividly remember my first lesson<br />
which was a year 7 history lesson, actually one of the children in that class still<br />
works here in the evenings at the leisure centre. He’s called Paul Fitter and he<br />
was in my very first class in 1987 when he was 11 years old. But I think the school<br />
was very different then, where the tennis courts are now used to be where most<br />
of the buildings were. So when I came in 1987 where all the building are now,<br />
some of that was here and some of the buildings were the other side where the<br />
tennis courts are and going up the fields are where were most of the lessons<br />
took place. Where the bottom tennis court is now I could probably go and stand<br />
in the exact spot where I taught my first lesson.<br />
What advice would you give to your younger self?<br />
To be less a bit less arrogant and to realise much earlier that you don’t know<br />
everything while you’re young and that you’re always learning through your life.<br />
Do you have any regrets?<br />
No. I think it’s unwise to have regrets because you make decisions at certain<br />
times in your life and they may turn out to be not the best decisions but when<br />
you made that decision you were doing it to the best of all possible reasons and<br />
therefore if you go around regretting things you don’t move forward. If<br />
something happens in your life that doesn’t quite work out how you wanted it<br />
to think about it, learn from it and move forward. So I don’t regret anything. I<br />
think there are probably decisions that I took that in hindsight weren’t the right<br />
ones but that doesn’t mean I regret them because you learn from them and<br />
become better from having made decisions that don’t quite work out. For<br />
example for about 4 years I was the head of sixth form here and I was also, at<br />
the same time, a local counsellor in Tamworth which meant that I was the leader<br />
of Tamworth Borough Council which is a political role it’s not a job and so I’d<br />
spend all day working here then go and do lots of other stuff and I was trying to<br />
keep two options open. Honestly I should have made a decision earlier about<br />
what route I wanted to go down because I worked too hard, I tried to do too<br />
much and it ended up not working.
How has the school developed in terms of education?<br />
I think that the first thing I would say is that schools now have to be much more accountable like with all the league<br />
tables about which schools are doing better than others. I understand why that is but actually, at heart, I don’t think this<br />
school has changed that much, and in some ways I don’t think it should. My view of education is that it’s about helping<br />
and supporting individual young people to have opportunities to do things and become the best person they can and to<br />
achieve whatever they can whether that be good exam results or be part of a football team or just making friends and<br />
having the chance to do things. Whether that be go on the German exchange or whatever it might be. Those things<br />
haven’t changed and I wouldn’t want them to, but I do think that expectations of how well young people do in their<br />
exams and in their life has changed. I think the biggest change is the expectations on you, as young people, and I think<br />
sometimes now people expect too much of young people and don’t give them enough time to simply be young children.<br />
Is there anything that you could do to help improve the pressure on young people within the<br />
school?<br />
I think there’s a phrase, it’s called wellbeing. I think that we have to get the balance right as a school because clearly<br />
young people have to do well in school. They have to get good exam results because if they don’t get good exam results<br />
then the rest of their life could be more difficult. It’s about giving the opportunity to have lots of possible options after<br />
leaving school. So we have to help them and support them to do well academically. And that’s right but it could bring<br />
with it pressure and stresses. I think what we have to do is to understand that it brings stress and pressure and still get<br />
them to do well but at the same time support them in terms of listening to them, taking on board some of their<br />
suggestions and providing them with strategies and mechanisms to help them do better. I think that the whole idea of<br />
what we call ‘student voice’ and having students that can share with teachers their view of things is actually really<br />
important. So if I had wanted to do a bit more about something in the last few years it would had been working with the<br />
Heads of House, like Mr Adams is doing, to actively listen to students and have student voice groups about student<br />
wellbeing. So I think it’s about listening to them and working with them to provide things to help them, to understand<br />
how they learn and help them to do better.<br />
What’s one of the main things you’ll remember about your time at this school?<br />
Everything that I remember is to do with people and specific events that have happened and I think that’s the way it<br />
should be. I want young people who come to this school to have the opportunity to do things. Whether that be in a<br />
sports team, in a musical or a play or a concert, or whether it’s to go on a trip somewhere and as a teacher I’ve had the<br />
opportunity to do all of those things. I’ve been on the German exchange a few times, I’ve taken a trip to Russia, I’ve been<br />
part of a staff football team that won a tournament, and I’ve been part of a staff cricket team that won a tournament.<br />
Believe it or not about 17 years ago, I think it was 2001, I was in the school musical. I can’t sing but I was in Grease, which I<br />
love. Well they couldn’t get anyone to play a particular character so they asked me if I would so I did. And it’s not one of<br />
the main characters because I’m not particularly a good actor and I can’t sing so where there was a song that I was<br />
supposed to sing they got someone else to do it. I played this sleazy DJ called Vince Fontain. Somewhere I have a<br />
photograph of myself playing him. One thing I’m really proud of, because I live in Tamworth, I still do see people who I<br />
taught because they’ve got children here now or if I’m around in town and they still say hello. I think that’s the thing that<br />
I remember most and is the most important thing to me, as well as having opportunities to take part in all these events, I<br />
want the students who come to this school to have as many opportunities as possible.<br />
What advice would you give to students in this school?<br />
I think I’m going to repeat myself now, but you have 5 years at this school so take advantage of the opportunities that<br />
are available to you whether that be in term of subjects or extra-curricular or trips or teams or musicals. So take<br />
advantage of those opportunities.<br />
What do you think of Mrs Hartle our new head teacher?<br />
I think she’s a really really nice person who will or very quickly create a really positive impression within our school<br />
community. Whether that be students or staff or parents or just the community as a whole because she has charisma<br />
that means she will get on with people and be able to build relationships with them and actually at the heart of<br />
everything in the school is relationships with people because there’s lots of people in schools so we all need to work<br />
together for the best of the children and she has the personality to be able to do that. Plus, she’s also an experienced<br />
head teacher. This isn’t her first head teacher job because she’s been a head teacher in other schools. So she will also<br />
bring with her a wealth of experience to help this school continue to move forward.
Do you have any advice for someone who<br />
wants to go into teaching?<br />
Make sure you realise what a difficult job it is and how<br />
much hard work it is. These days’ expectations of people<br />
coming into the teaching profession, in terms of the<br />
amount of time they spend preparing lessons and<br />
marking work, are really high. So make sure that you’re<br />
aware of that. Secondly my advice would be if you really<br />
want to be a teacher and make a difference to the lives<br />
of young people, go for it. I think it’s a very fulfilling job<br />
to have. There are lots of pressures and stresses and so<br />
what you have to do is put to one side the daily stress<br />
and pressure and remember why you’re doing it. Every<br />
day I try and think about if I’ve done something positive<br />
or taught a lesson that had a positive impact on a<br />
student. If you have then that makes it worthwhile<br />
because you can make a difference to young people’s<br />
lives.<br />
What are your plans for after you retire?<br />
Well, what’s quite interesting as I’m actually going to<br />
still be working here two days a week, at least for the<br />
rest of this school yea, teaching year 10 and 11 classes.<br />
Other than that I have a number of things to do. I want<br />
to get fitter than I am by going to the gym and<br />
swimming. Secondly, the thing I will enjoy most is being<br />
able to drop my nine year old son and pick him up from<br />
school and just spend a little more time with him.<br />
Thank You<br />
-30 years and 1 term OR 5922 school days<br />
That is the length of time that I will have spent at Wilnecote when I retire as Headteacher at Christmas and,<br />
during that time, over 6000 young people will have passed through our school.<br />
On each of the 5922 days I have had a positive conversation or encounter with at least one child. And that is<br />
the aspect of the job that I will miss most – the daily interactions with students and staff. But it is the right<br />
time to retire, both for me personally and for the school.<br />
Wilnecote is a genuine community school with a long tradition of high quality learning, care and support. We<br />
have always tried to educate the whole child; to support the young people in our care so that they achieve<br />
academically but also so that they achieve in many other ways – in the Arts, in Sport, as student leaders. The<br />
events in our school calendar that I am most proud of are the German Exchange, the annual school<br />
production and our Sports Day at the Athletics Stadium and that is because each of these gives different<br />
children the chance to shine and to excel.<br />
I believe the future of The Wilnecote School is bright. We are in a strong position to move forward and we are<br />
indeed fortunate to belong to the Community Academies Trust, a family of school that share the same values<br />
as ourselves.<br />
I am fortunate to have worked with so many incredible people during my time at Wilnecote and I would like to<br />
end by thanking each and every one of you – students, parents, staff, governors and members of the local<br />
community – for the help, support, advice and good humour you have shared over the last 30 years.<br />
PS. You can’t get rid of me that easily. I will still be here after Christmas continuing to work 2 days a week as a<br />
Business Studies teacher.
Heads of<br />
House<br />
Mr Grant<br />
94.6%<br />
Attendance since<br />
September <strong>2017</strong><br />
Mr Herbert<br />
William MacGregor<br />
94.2%<br />
Attendance since<br />
September <strong>2017</strong><br />
Whole school attendance 94.4% since September <strong>2017</strong><br />
Mr Simpson<br />
94.5%<br />
Attendance since<br />
September <strong>2017</strong><br />
You have all made a fantastic start to this academic year. There is a really positive attitude and feeling around<br />
school. The behaviour of students in lessons and during break times is improving and you, the students keep<br />
raising the bar. Year 7's have settled in to life at Wilnecote really well. Year 8's and 9's have some really important<br />
decisions to make about what GCSE's they will be taking. Year 10's have made a brilliant start to their GCSE's and<br />
we would like to wish Year 11's good luck for their mock exams.<br />
See you all in 2018, ready to keep working hard together to make The Wilnecote School better for all of us.<br />
From all of us in the pastoral team we hope you have a happy Christmas and a wonderfull New Year.<br />
Monuments Challenge<br />
Well done to all the tutor groups that took part in the 'up-cycle<br />
challenge'. Lots of you joined in and the entries were brilliant! We had<br />
everything from the Great Wall of China to the Bull at the Bullring. It<br />
was great to see many people get involved and excited with a<br />
challenge that asked people to re-use things that would otherwise<br />
have been thrown away.<br />
The judges decided on winners for each house. They were, CG10,RP9<br />
& WM3<br />
The overall winner was The Statue of Liberty due to the amount of<br />
things that were up cycled on it.<br />
Well done to all involved and congratulations to the winners!!
Attendance<br />
We are delighted to announce that we start a new partnership with Warwickshire Education Service 'ACE' in<br />
January. They will work with the school, families and carers to strengthen the support we provide to help all<br />
students achieve a high level of attendance. The more time students are in school, the greater the chances are<br />
of them achieving results that help them move onto the next phase of their life when they leave us and also by<br />
being here, we can help keep them safe and to develop socially.<br />
Thank you to all families and carers who continue to work hard with their children and the school to keep their<br />
attendance high. In the long run, it will positively benefit the young people whose best interests we all share.<br />
Student Voice - The next steps<br />
Thank you to all students who give up their time to be part of Student Voice in school. The work they do provides<br />
opportunities for students to take part in activities such as house competitions and raising money for 'Children<br />
in Need' as well as having an input into how various aspects of the school are run. We have decided to restructure<br />
Student Voice from January 2018 to provide students with the opportunity to have a sharper focus to what they<br />
are working towards and in turn have greater impact in both school and the wider community. The groups we<br />
will be creating are:<br />
Community Engagement Group, Well Being Group, School Engagement Group and Junior Leadership Team<br />
Each of these groups will have specific areas to work on that positively contribute towards school life and also<br />
the wider community we serve and are a part of. I look forward to students being able to share their work in<br />
more detail with you in the next edition of The <strong>Warbler</strong>!<br />
Celebrating Success<br />
Year 7’s Lottie McLaren & Brooke Burton<br />
represented Staffordshire in a huge intercounty<br />
meeting in Coventry; with 10 counties<br />
from across the UK competing. The quality of<br />
the field was extremely high and with over<br />
100 girls taking part in the event.<br />
Both girls ran with great determination and<br />
followed their race plans well with Lottie<br />
being placed 22 nd overall.<br />
As both girls are specialist sprinters this is a<br />
phenomenal feat and one of which they<br />
should be immensely proud of.<br />
Congratulations to our School<br />
Business Manager, Mr Simon<br />
Dilkes, who along with his partner<br />
Miss Helen Heath became tennis<br />
Mixed Doubles Champions at David<br />
Lloyd Leisure, Birmingham on<br />
Sunday 26th November. They<br />
played a tight match, but<br />
triumphed 6-4, 2-6, 7-5, so many<br />
congratulations to Mr Dilkes and<br />
Miss Heath. This is the first ever<br />
success for them both in their<br />
sporting lives.<br />
We are happy to celebrate the<br />
talents and successes of students<br />
and staff, so please keep the school<br />
up to date with events for us to<br />
publicise. We hope that by sharing<br />
successes, it may help students to<br />
believe that they are capable of<br />
achieving things that they never<br />
thought possible, even if they have<br />
to wait until their later adult lives to<br />
see the fruits of their labour.
20
17
Performing Arts<br />
The Wilnecote School presents: Lord of the Flies<br />
From Wednesday 14th – Friday 16th February 2018 The<br />
Wilnecote School will be presenting its annual school<br />
production. This year we are performing William<br />
Golding’s highly acclaimed play Lord of the Flies.<br />
The play is a dark tale of what happens when a group of<br />
children are left stranded on a desert island without adult<br />
supervision. The play features a cast from across all year<br />
groups including main roles to Lucy Taylor Year 9, Bryony<br />
Wyatt Year 8, Jack Johnson, Lucy Williams and Maisie<br />
Hudson Year 11.<br />
More information, after the Christmas holidays, including<br />
ticket sales, will be available from the school website and<br />
via Facebook, so watch these spaces!<br />
Highly Sprung Workshop<br />
Last month a group of Year 8 and 9 students gave up their weekend to participate in a Drama workshop by<br />
Mark Worth from the performance company Highly Sprung.<br />
The workshop, which was based on Highly Sprung’s 2016 performance 'Witness', explored many of the issues<br />
that teenagers face such as social media and exams.<br />
Students explored these issues through movement and physical theatre, developing new performance skills<br />
and techniques. It was two days of hard work but the students were fantastic and by the end of the weekend<br />
they had produced a performance which they can be very proud of.<br />
“It was brilliant to see students challenged, working with students who they don’t normally have the<br />
opportunity to work with and performing in a new way. What was really impressive was the way students rose<br />
to that challenge, producing a really high quality performance.” Commented Miss Julius, Leader of Learning<br />
for Performing Arts.
The Wilnecote Music Concert <strong>2017</strong><br />
Earlier this term students from The Wilnecote School<br />
participated in the school’s music concert. It was a fantastic<br />
evening that saw students from across the school performing,<br />
including some of our new Year 7 students, Edith Hitchens and<br />
Rosie Reeves.<br />
The Wilnecote School has a tradition of producing Arts<br />
Spectacular evenings and the music concert marked a break<br />
from tradition with an exciting opportunity to focus on the<br />
Music department instead. It was wonderful to be able to<br />
show-off the department which has recently been awarded<br />
Silver by Entrust, Staffordshire Music services for the quality of<br />
it’s Music provision, both curricular and extra-curricular.<br />
The evening saw a mixture of performances including<br />
drumming by Will Rhodes in Year 8 and Daniel Winsper in Year<br />
9 playing electric guitar. It also saw a blast from the past when<br />
a group of Year 8 girls performed the Spice Girl’s hit ‘Stop’.<br />
“All of the students who performed did themselves and the<br />
school proud, as did the students from Tech Club who filmed<br />
and photographed the event.” Said Miss Julius, Leader of<br />
Learning for Drama and Music.<br />
She continued, “Special thanks to the music department’s Mr<br />
Hyden and Mr Adams and technician Carl Savage for all the hard<br />
work they put in to make the event a success. And of course<br />
thank you to all the students who took part and their friends<br />
and family members who supported them.”<br />
Photographs By Sam Nash-Fitzgerald (Y10). Edited By Izzy Chinn (Y9) & Paris Wallbank<br />
“Wow wow and wow. What a<br />
show. A massive well done to<br />
all the students, teachers and<br />
technicians that made<br />
tonight happen. The talent is<br />
fantastic. My son Jake got<br />
congratulations and hand<br />
shakes off people we don’t<br />
even know. I’m so proud of<br />
him and the support he has<br />
been shown. Here’s to the<br />
Christmas concert.“<br />
Vicky (Facebook)
Careers<br />
Year 11 Practice Professional Interviews<br />
As part of the Wilnecote Careers’ programme students<br />
in Year 11 experienced what it is like to attend a formal<br />
interview.<br />
A group of fifteen professionals, ranging from business<br />
managers and directors of companies to health<br />
practitioners gave up their time to support the event.<br />
Students were asked to prepare a Curriculum Vitae, in<br />
their English lesson and then bring it along to the<br />
interview. Included in their CV was their predicted<br />
grades and reference contacts which would be checked<br />
if they were going to be appointed to the position in the<br />
job or career. Also included on the CV are the student’s<br />
personal statement which outlines their skills and<br />
abilities, strengths and weaknesses, together with any<br />
experience they have gained in the ‘World of Work’.<br />
Each student wase involved in a 15 minute interview<br />
followed by a 5 minute feedback session on how they<br />
performed and advice and tips to help aid their<br />
preparation for their next interview.<br />
The event will prepared the students for interviews<br />
they will be asked to attend once they have applied to<br />
join either a sixth form, college or start an<br />
apprenticeship with a company.<br />
NEC Visit to World Skills Show<br />
A group of Year 10 students visited the NEC to attend<br />
the World Skills Show recently to investigate career<br />
pathways for their future.<br />
On arriving the students were set the challenge of<br />
performing an interview with one of the professionals<br />
who were on one of the company stands. The students<br />
worked in small groups and explored the venue seeking<br />
out the company stands using the event guide.<br />
The students gained a valuable insight into the wealth<br />
of career opportunities available to them and received<br />
advice on how to achieve a placement with that<br />
company.
Year 11 Practice Professional Interviews<br />
On Monday 20th November students in Year 11 took part in our<br />
second annual Revision Conference. Led by some of the school’s<br />
most experienced teachers, students were given the opportunity<br />
to work with a range of other people from their house.<br />
In a packed programme of events students were shown<br />
motivational videos, strategies for dealing with the daily<br />
distractions of teenage life, coping with exam stress and<br />
numerous interactive revision techniques. They were also given<br />
vital information about the formal examination process.<br />
The goodie bag of useful items went down well, particularly the<br />
Oreo biscuits which helped sustain energy levels until break time.<br />
Armed with this wealth of resources the students were then fully<br />
equipped to begin their preparations for their Pre Public<br />
Examinations.<br />
Year 9 Visit to Harper Adams University Newport<br />
Year 9 students visited Harper Adams University in Newport<br />
to attend a Year 9 Conference about potential careers in the<br />
Veteninary ,Science, Agriculture and Engineering sectors.<br />
The day began with an inspirational talk from one of our Great<br />
Britain Olympic swimmers, Jo Jackson, who won the bronze<br />
medal behind Olympic Champion Becky Adlington in the<br />
Beijing Olympics. The talk focussed on achieving a long term<br />
goal, coping with set-backs and developing the resilience to<br />
achieve your aim in life.<br />
The tour of the University campus included visits to the<br />
modern learning centres and facilities<br />
Engaging activities were the order of the day and the<br />
afternoon session involved a competition trial using a<br />
controlled mini digger session trying to move building<br />
materials from one place to another. The other session<br />
involved the students in analysing Shakespeare’s formal<br />
language and adapting it into a modern rap music phrase.<br />
The students really enjoyed their day and were a credit to the<br />
school.
Physical Education Autumn Term Round Up<br />
Boys round up<br />
It's been a busy term on the sporting front, both through our curriculum sports and games and our extra curricular<br />
events and activities. Here we will try to give a flavour of what has been going on.<br />
Football Training Every Tuesday after school 2:45 - 3:45pm<br />
This continues to be our strongest and most popular club. With teams competing in district league and county<br />
cup fixtures. With half the season now played the Year 11 team are unbeaten in all district league games and are<br />
through to the 4th round of the county cup. Our Y10 team were narrowly beaten 2-1 in the 3rd round of the<br />
county cup, which was disappointing, however they remain on track in the district as they are still unbeaten. It<br />
is over 3 years since this team were beaten by another Tamworth team. Year 7 to 9 continue to play district<br />
fixtures with the aim of making the finals in the spring. All year groups will play in the 6 a side futsal competition<br />
in January, which is something to look forward to. So watch this space for more information. Despite all the<br />
positive news we still need more players for the year8 and 9 team, please come along to training if you are<br />
interested.<br />
Sportshall Athletics<br />
At the time of going to print the Year 8 event has<br />
taken place although the results are not yet<br />
known. The Year 7 competition is likely to be<br />
held in early January, given the recent bad<br />
weather so we will have to wait for that event<br />
and result. A special mention and very well done<br />
to Connor Bradbury, Liam Bampton, Vlad Bizic<br />
and Michal Mankowski who represented the<br />
school in the Year 8 competition<br />
Badminton<br />
Well done to the Key Stage 3 boys team for winning the district event in November and qualifying to represent<br />
Tamworth schools at the county finals in January. The Key Stage 4 boys came runners up having come so close<br />
to also qualifying for the county finals, so well done to them too.<br />
Cross Country<br />
Back in September the three cross country events took place, at TEC, Wilnecote and Rawlett, with the boys<br />
entering a large team at each race. Dylan Morey in Year 7 and Joe Watts in Year 10 performed particularly well,<br />
however a very well done should go to each and every athlete who represented the school and participated.
Girls round up<br />
Its been another great term for the TWS girls with fixtures and tournaments in a full range of sports, numbers<br />
attending clubs across the year groups remains high – just need a few more Year 9’s to allow us to field 2 teams in<br />
netball.<br />
Netball<br />
Badminton<br />
Netball club is thriving despite the poor weather over<br />
40 girls are training regularly on a Thursday night.<br />
Matches and tournaments have been played as part of<br />
the Tamworth Secondary Schools Sports Association<br />
leagues with improving results. Year 11 have made<br />
especially good progress beating one of our biggest<br />
rivals in a thrilling game which saw, end to end play.<br />
The leagues resume next term and we have our fingers<br />
crossed for more exciting matches with further TWS<br />
victories.<br />
Sportshall Athletics<br />
Training night has seen increasing numbers as we enter<br />
the District competition phase. Year 8 teams have all<br />
competed with results due when the final events are<br />
completed; all students gave excellent performances<br />
with many wins in the heats.<br />
With the Year 7 event being postponed due to snow<br />
and ice, the team will have to focus on maintaining<br />
fitness, they are showing great potential – so no<br />
Christmas indulgence for them!<br />
Badminton club continues to be extremely popular<br />
with a wide range of abilities and year groups<br />
attending on a Tuesday night. The Elite Badminton<br />
training night is now full and sees our best players<br />
from KS3 and KS4 competing amongst themselves in<br />
singles, doubles and mixed doubles matches.<br />
This high level of participation has resulted in KS3<br />
girls (Abbie Hitchman, Amari Blackstock, Natalie<br />
Davies and Ruby Hepburn) and KS3 boys teams<br />
winning their District Competitions. They will now<br />
move on to representing Tamworth at the<br />
Staffordshire County Championships early in the new<br />
year. KS4 boys were sadly pipped to the post in their<br />
District Competition finishing second place.<br />
The KS4 girls (Beth Harriott, Holly Lawton, Maddie<br />
Lee & Eve Rowley) ended <strong>2017</strong> as District Champions<br />
for the 4 th consecutive year this time not losing a<br />
single game; once again they will represent<br />
Tamworth at the Staffordshire County<br />
Championships and are working hard to make it onto<br />
the Regional Finals. Good luck girls – you deserve this<br />
success and have earnt a celebratory meal out!<br />
Wilnecote Community Leisure Centre<br />
Starting<br />
January<br />
Just £10<br />
a month!<br />
Contact us:<br />
Call—01827 831 333<br />
Email—leisure@wilnecotehighschool.org<br />
Website—thewilnecoteschool.com/leisure<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Fit Club<br />
Get Acve, Get Involved!<br />
<br />
After school—Monday, Wednesday & Friday<br />
Fitness coach in each session<br />
Great introducon to use the gym safely<br />
Excise is a fantastic complement to studying<br />
Aged 14+
The Wilnecote School<br />
ENSURING EXCELLENCE<br />
VACANCY<br />
The Wilnecote School is a growing 11-16 comprehensive located just off Junction 10 of the M42. It is a member<br />
of the Community Academies Trust – A DFE sponsor and growing academy chain.<br />
Wilnecote takes great pride in shaping the academic, pastoral and social aspects of our students life. This is<br />
centred upon fundamental basics that include trust, respect and quality teaching. We currently have the<br />
following vacancies:<br />
EXAM INVIGILATOR (Casual) - 5 posts<br />
£7.78 - £7.90 per hour<br />
We are looking to appoint Exam Invigilators to commence after Easter 2018. You will be employed on a casual<br />
adhoc basis during the examination periods under the guidance of the Examination Officer. Experience of<br />
working in a school environment would be an advantage, although not essential.<br />
The role of exam invigilator is critical to the success of the school. At Wilnecote, Public Exams take place in the<br />
summer term but we also hold Pre-Public Exams (mocks) in December and other examinations and tests<br />
throughout the year.<br />
A successful exam invidulator will be:<br />
•Passionate about their commitment to the success of the students.<br />
•Committed to the integrity of the systems of the school and Exam Boards.<br />
•A team player, capable of dedicated supervision of students.<br />
•Able to follow instructions and guidelines and willing to receive regular training updates.<br />
Full training, guidance and induction will be provided.<br />
Full details of this post along with the application forms are available on our website thewilnecoteschool.com<br />
however, should you require further information please contact Jayne Shaw, Head’s PA & Administration<br />
Manager via email vacancies@wilnecotehighschool.org . Applications received will be acknowledged and<br />
dealt with after the closing date. Please note that we do not accept Curriculum Vitaes without a completed<br />
application form.<br />
As part of our commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children you will be required to<br />
undertake a criminal record check via the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS).<br />
Telephone<br />
01827 831300<br />
Address<br />
Tinkers Green Rd<br />
Wilnecote,Tamworth<br />
Staffordshire, B77 5LF<br />
Closing date: 9.00am on Monday 22nd January 2018<br />
Interviews will take place week commencing 29th<br />
January 2018.<br />
Fax<br />
01827 831300<br />
Website<br />
thewilnecoteschool.com<br />
Email<br />
office@wilnecotehighschool.org