Newsletters

NEWSLETTER 22

Dear all,

This week we have finally completed the lateral flow testing process in school. I would like to say a huge thank you all the staff, Governors and the Volunteers that we had from Wiltshire Council, clearly without them this massive task would not have been possible. Altogether we completed 3149 tests in 9 days of testing – brilliant! Everyone should now have their home testing kit and as a school community we ask that tests are administered every Monday and Thursday.

The best part of this week has certainly been seeing the children settle so well back into lessons and back into their normal routine. It has also been a real delight watching many of the practical activities re-start. This week we have been able to restart cooking in our Food Technology lessons, as well as practical Design and Technology and a range of after-school clubs. Whilst the restrictions prevent us from restarting all activities, we are hopeful after Easter we be able to get everything back to normal.

I hope you are all able to have a restful weekend.

Paul Skipp

Headteacher

Latest News

19 Mar 2021

Covid-19 Isolation Work

In order to support students who may find themselves having to work from home due to self-isolating or quarantining we have put in place 2 weeks' work for every student on their homework area in class charts. There is a guide included showing how to access this.

19 Mar 2021

Year 7 Spotlight!

This week Mr Mirza’s marvellous group 7G take the spotlight.

19 Mar 2021

Free School Meals

Those Year 9 students who are self-isolating and are entitled to free school meals will receive a payment on Monday 22 March to cover the 8 days that they are absent from school.

Forthcoming events

Year 11 Parents Evening

3:30pm – 6:30pm

March

LAST DAY OF TERM

All Day

March

Year 12 & 13 Parents Evening

3:30pm – 6:30pm

March

Easter Holidays

Please remember that our last day of this term is Wednesday 31^st March and we return on Tuesday 20^th April. Term dates can always be checked on our website. Term Dates

Close Contacts

This term and moving forwards, if we have a positive COVID-19 case our approach to asking students to isolate will be slightly different than before Christmas.

From now on, we will be doing all we can to identify and only isolate close contacts of a positive individual. To enable this we now have proximity software built into our seating plan software. This enables us to quickly identify those students sat near any positive case. In addition we then analyse movements at break and lunch and discuss the friendship groups and other potential contacts with the positive individual in question.

Our aim has always been to ensure we keep our school community as safe as possible as well as maintaining a high quality education and we strongly believe these measures will strike the right balance.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra GCSE Concert

On Wednesday 17^th March the Year 10 GCSE Music students joined a live streamed concert put on by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. The concert had to happen virtually due to the pandemic. The concert was presented by Patrick Bailey, a BSO Associate Musician, and he took the students on a musical tour through history. The concert programme included:

Finale from Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No.5

Finale movement from Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto

The Intermezzo from Harry Janos by Kodaly

The Music from the Little Orpheus video game by Fowler and Curry

Defying Gravity from Wicked by Schwartz

As well as listening to the orchestra performing these pieces live, Patrick Bailey discussed musical elements within the pieces prior to them being performed using key musical terminology that the students are using in their GCSE lessons. The students were given programme notes to be able to analyse the music themselves.

We were very fortunate to have this concert funded by Wiltshire Music Connect. It was a great opportunity to watch and hear a high-class orchestra performing live, particularly during this current climate where all the concert venues and theatres still remain closed. Hopefully as things start to open up over the coming months we will get the students to a live, in person, performance!

Mrs Maguire

Polite Notice

All items purchased through Parentpay, or rewards redeemed through ClassCharts will be delivered to your child during their Tutor time. Students should not come to the Faculty Office to collect any items. Also, they cannot come to the Faculty Office to see how many points they have, or to redeem them. They must complete any transactions at home and await delivery. We aim to deliver all items within a day or two of purchase.

This is to ensure that the Faculty Office and Library areas remain as Covid safe as possible.

Many thanks for your co-operation.

Mushroom OR Halloumi have taken full advantage of the extra daylight hours to produce the first egg of the year!

Long may this continue so Mr Little can get baking for the staff!

We are delighted to announce that Abi Davies in 10D took part in the Big Bath Sleep-Out in March and she raised over £600. We are so incredibly proud of her! Abi will be receiving her certificate from the Julian House Homeless Charity in our end of term celebration assembly with her tutor group.

With huge congratulations,

The Year 10 Team

Over lockdown the Art Department, Site Team, John LeBrocq our Media Technician and a vast array of TA's have worked hard to improve the Art Department environment.

Displays in art rooms have been freshened up, our photography room has been revamped, a booth for 6th form artists has been created to work in and a gallery in the Chiltern hallway has also been created.

I am so happy and proud of what has been achieved. Now, we just need the students to continue to produce their beautiful work so we can keep adding to the gallery.

Mrs Knee

Head of Art & Photography

The TAs all helped out to paint the 6^th form room

Return of Laptops

During lockdown the school loaned laptops to a number of students to support online learning.

Can I ask that these are now returned to Wingfield reception as soon as possible.

Should anyone have any concerns please contact your child's Year Leader.

Many thanks.

IT Department