Dear Parents and Carers,

As another year comes to a close, we have asked students to reflect upon their greatest achievements in school this year and the values and qualities they have demonstrated to achieve these. There are so many things for the students to be proud of, as every one of them will have either overcome, improved or excelled in a number of ways, both academically and socially. With this in mind, the issuing of the final Warbler of the year couldn't be better timed, as it provides so many examples of students excelling as young people and in so many varied ways.

A broad and varied school experience is something that we strive to improve upon each year, so helping our students become well rounded young people who have a love of school and learning, and develop the confidence required to take risks and get involved in new things. I am sure that as we continue to move forward as a school, more and more students will take the opportunities available to become involved in activities that develop the many qualities one needs to be really successful in life.

As I move onto new opportunities myself, my abiding memory of the students will be one of positivity, happiness and being a group of young people who have the ability to do whatever they want in the world. I wish them every success in the future and hope they all blaze a trail of positivity and happiness, wherever life may take them.

Enjoy reading this edition of the Warbler - I am pleased you get to see a few of the many confident and happy faces I see every day.

I wish you a safe and enjoyable summer with those close to you,

Simon Adams

Wilnecote School students showcased their resilience, determination, and teamwork during a successful Duke of Edinburgh Silver practice expedition in the stunning Peak District. Eleven students embarked on a thrilling three-day adventure, camping for two nights, that tested their outdoor skills and pushed them to new heights.

After a full day of classes on Thursday, the students eagerly gathered their gear and set off for the Peak District. Accompanied by their experienced expedition leader, Mr. Croydon who was supported by Mrs Ager and Mr Savage. The group embarked on their journey, filled with excitement and anticipation.

Their first destination was a picturesque campsite, where they arrived after a scenic drive. With the evening sun casting a warm glow over the landscape, the students pitched their tents, ensuring a comfortable and secure base for the night. The campsite buzzed with energy as they prepared for the challenges that awaited them.

The next morning, the adventurers awoke to a crisp dawn and the smells of various breakfasts started to fill the country air. They packed their tents, packed rucksacks and laced up their boots ready to set out on their first walk, which included the renowned Tissington Trail. This former railway line, surrounded by stunning natural beauty, tested their endurance and provided them with an exhilarating experience.

Navigating the Tissington Trail allowed the students to witness the breath-taking landscapes of the Peak District. From rolling hills to cascading streams, they immersed themselves in the wonders of nature. The trail also offered a chance to reflect on the rich history and heritage of the area, providing a well-rounded experience for the young explorers.

This year saw our first ever Cultural Capital day for key stage 3 students. The focus of the day was to provide some experiences outside of our usual curriculum that our students may not have had the opportunity to take part in before. We had 21 different activities on offer ranging from loom weaving to Japanese embroidery, water polo to Tai Chi and decorating totem poles to playing classic board games to name but a few.

Students were given the opportunity to select the 5 that sounded the most interesting to them and all were given at least one of their chosen activity. Groups were mixed with students from years 7, 8 and 9 in each group. Out staff, teaching and support, worked tirelessly both in preparation and on the day to plan, prepare and deliver these fantastic opportunities. Throughout the day, there was a buzz of excitement and enjoyment with students really getting involved in each activity. There were a number of students who were a combination of disappointed and nervous about some of their given options but once they got started, they all made the most of the time and all came out with smiles on their faces.

The day was a huge success with water polo, gardening and baking naan breads coming out as favourites as voted by the students. These kinds of opportunities help our students to not only experience new things, but also to develop life long skills such as working with others who they are not familiar with, team work and resilience. We are already in the early planning stages of the next one in 2024.

Timings of the school day are altering slightly from September 2023, in line with Government expectations. Following a consultation process, the school from September will end at 3:00pm. We have considered a range of issues when deciding how best to use the additional time, to enhance opportunities in teaching and learning as well as around wellbeing for both students and staff. We have decided that the timings across the day will be as follows

8:30-9:30 – Period 1

9:30-10:30 – Period 2

10:30-10:55 – Break

10:55-11:30 – Tutor Time (including PHSE)

11:30-12:30 – Period 3

12:30-13:00 – Lunch

13:00-14:00 – Period 4

14:00-15:00 – Period 5

Key things to note are:

• An increase in Tutor Time to enable more effective PHSE provision and time to build a relationship with the Tutor
  
• An increase in break time, to enable greater opportunity to purchase food, go to the toilet and gain some downtime from class
  
• Lunchtime being at the same time for all students, so seeing no split lesson in the middle of the day, and increased opportunities to staff additional activities and provision for students during this time
  
• Back-to-back periods at the start and end of the day, so enabling the opportunity for subjects to be paired as double periods, if felt appropriate, as this may be advantageous for some GCSE practical subjects.
  

On Friday, 30th June, The Wilnecote School bid farewell to their Year 11 students in a spectacular fashion at this year’s highly anticipated prom. The event, hosted at the Drayton Manor, marked the culmination of their exams and provided a well-deserved opportunity for the students to celebrate their hard work and achievements.

As the evening unfolded, the atmosphere buzzed with excitement and anticipation. One by one, the students made their grand entrances in an array of captivating modes of transportation. While many arrived in stylish Range Rovers, there were a few extraordinary displays of creativity that caught everyone’s attention. Notably, some daring students opted for mobility scooters, a vibrant camper van, and one adventurous attendee even emerged from the boot of a Land Rover!

The night was filled with non-stop dancing, as the disco played an array of tunes that ranged from nostalgic classics to contemporary hits. Although the more modern tunes made some teachers feel their age, they had everyone on the dance floor. Unsurprisingly, it was the timeless anthems like S Club 7’s “Reach for the Stars” and the infectious rhythm of the “Macarena” that garnered the most enthusiastic response.

The school Eco Squad (our new name with thanks to one of our student members) have been busy trying to ensure the school is able to recycle more!

Following the huge success of The Big Battery Hunt, Mrs Glover has been able to secure a permanent battery collection box in the library. As a school and community library space, students and the local community are encouraged to bring their used batteries into the library for safe disposal by a registered nationwide recycling company. Lets see how quickly we can fill the box up ready for its first collection!

During a meeting with the school site team, the squad discovered that the school had no easy means to recycle glass, plastic and cans. The Site Team were amazing and following a chat with the council about this, the school have had additional wheelie bins delivered for specific recycling. Keen to help with litter, in particular plastic bottle litter around the school site, the squad now regularly don high-viz jackets and use litter pickers to ensure dropped rubbish goes into the correct recycling bins. With the addition of a specific plastics bin in the library office, the squad is taking small steps to encourage more recycling amongst their peers. Mrs Glover and Mrs Taylor are very proud of what the small Eco Squad group have achieved so far and hope that these small steps will make big changes to the school recycling ethos over time. Well done squad!

Students from years 8,9 and 10 took part in the Staffordshire School game’s toughest challenge on the 4th of July. The aim of the event is to develop resilience, team-building, leadership, communication and problem-solving skills. Students had to work together in a team to complete 4 challenges, for each challenge, they had the chance to win bronze, silver or gold awards. There were assessed on communication, teamwork, resilience, determination and problem-solving.

The challenge the students completed were:

• Shelter builder: Students were required to build a waterproof shelter, complete with bed and decorations, all students needed to be able to fit into the shelter, they were supplied with 3 tarps and all other materials needed to be found in the woodland. Students were surprised by a sudden downpour of rain, but luckily they had successfully completed their shelter.
  
• Bell boating: Students were challenged to row as a team to a set location alongside another school. One of our students was picked to be the motivational speaker to keep the team consistent.
  
• Raft building: Students were challenged to build a raft out of 4 barrels, 4 ropes, and 2 logs. Following a demonstration on how to tie knots, during this activity, all students got extremely wet but they did it as a team.
  
• Mini Challenges; students had to complete 5 mini challenges where they worked as a team to complete the challenges. However, we completed an extra 3 due to racing through the challenges and communicating and assessing the problem first.
  

I am very proud to say that the students walked away with 3 gold and 1 silver award. They pushed themselves to achieve and supported each other without hesitation. The students showed determination and resilience, they allowed each other to express ideas and worked as a team throughout the day.

Miss Devine said, "I just want to say well done to each and every one of you, you should be very proud of yourselves”

The vast majority of parents/carers have now downloaded and are using the Go4Schools App to view VPs and behavioural events.

In school we have also encouraged students to download the app, it will be the students and the parents/carers responsibility to ensure that students attend their detentions preventing any further consequences. Students must check the app before leaving at the end of the school day, keeping in line with our Mobile Phone Policy.

If you are having trouble downloading/logging into Go4Schools then please contact the school via office@wilnecotehighschool.org.

Dear Parents/Carers

At The Wilnecote School, we understand that the rising cost of living is having a negative impact on the budgets of our families. We are beginning to see the impact of the crisis in the way our food provision service is used. We have every sympathy with those adversely affected by rising prices across food, petrol and energy bills, but the school is unable to sustain increased levels of debt incurred by some users of our restaurant. Simply put, if debts are incurred and not remedied it is the school budget which pays for them. This means that money which should be spent on the education of our students through the delivery of the curriculum, or to provide extracurricular activities, or to improve facilities, is used to pay for these individual debts. We are sure all parents/carers will agree that this is not acceptable or fair.

Therefore, we now have a strict DEBT policy relating to the school meal service.

Parents/carers of those children NOT in receipt of free school meals, must pay in advance for the school meals using their online Parent Pay account. Students will not routinely be allowed to access the food service if they do not have credit in their account. We understand that on rare occasions oversights can occur. Please be reassured that, if payment is genuinely forgotten, the school may grant a debt allowance of £3.00. However, this must be paid off before any further meal is provided. Whilst that debt of £3 remains, students will be unable to use the restaurant and therefore parents/carers must provide a packed lunch. In a case when the payment of the debt is not received nor a packed lunch provided, the office will phone the parent to ask them to remedy the situation by either placing credit on the account or making alternative arrangements.

For those children who are in receipt of Free School Meals, it is important to realise that students who are entitled to Free School Meals have a set daily budget of £2.41. This meal must be taken on the day. If the allowance is not used it is not rolled over to the following day. If the daily amount of £2.41 is exceeded, this becomes a debt which will need to be paid back.

If you believe your child(ren) may qualify for entitlement to Free School Meals, please contact office@wilnecotehighschool.org for more details. This allowance is a statutory right, and it is important that you use it if you qualify. We will help and support you all we can with your application. Please be aware that, although the policy has been applied from after the Easter holiday in 2023, any current outstanding debt is included within it and therefore any students with a debt on an account will be unable to use the restaurant until all the full outstanding debt is cleared..

Any long-term debt on an account may impact upon access to and/or attendance at to other non-curricular school activities and events which have a charge. e.g., ski trip, prom etc.

We hope that by implementing this policy we are able to help our parents/carers (and students) manage their school dinner money more effectively (particularly given the current cost of living crisis) and at the same time ensure that all money in the school budget is used appropriately for the benefit of all.

If you have any concerns about how the policy will affect you or your family, please do not hesitate to contact the school using office@winecotehighschool.org.

Thank you for your co-operation in the matter and please be reassured that no student with a genuine need on any given day will be disadvantaged by this.

Yours faithfully

M Stevenson - Operations and Facilities Manager

L. Bingham - Senior Financial Manager

On 17th July 1586, the involvement of Mary, Queen of Scots in the Babington Plot was discovered by Elizabeth I’s spies. There had already been two previous Catholic plots to assassinate Elizabeth (The Ridolfi Plot 1571 and the Throckmorton Plot 1583) and Elizabeth’s advisors (the Privy Council) wanted her to execute Mary. However, Elizabeth would not do this, as Mary was both her cousin and a legitimate Queen. The Privy Council, therefore, needed irrefutable proof that Mary was plotting against Elizabeth if they were to convince her of the threat that Mary posed. The Babington Plot gave them this evidence.

The plotters had first met in June and Babington first wrote to Mary in early July, sending coded letters to her in wine barrels taken by Gilbert Gifford. On the 17th July, Mary replied approving of the plan to assassinate Elizabeth. Again, the coded letters were transported by Gifford. However, Gifford was a double agent working for Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth’s spymaster. The letters between Mary and Babington were given to Walsingham and his code-breaker, giving Walsingham all the evidence he needed to prove Mary’s involvement in the plot.

Once he had enough evidence, Walsingham had Babington and the other plotters arrested in early August. They were tortured and confessed. In September, they were executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered (the traitors’ death). The letters gave Walsingham and the Privy Council the evidence they needed to finally convince Elizabeth of Mary’s treason and to pressurise her into signing the death warrant. Mary was finally executed in February 1587.

On Monday 26th June, 35 year 9 students were given the opportunity to meet with a newly published author.

Matthew J Putland is an ex-student from Polesworth High School and someone who knows The Wilnecote School very well through his playing for a local football team!

Matthew recently had his first book, Solar, published and he used this experience to talk to the students about the process of writing and publishing.

The author explained to the students how he used his love of sci-fi and films to gain ideas allowing him to brainstorm for his first book. He then went on to talk about how he broke down the task of writing over 350 pages into mini challenges to make the process less daunting.

The students went away with some hints and tips not only about publishing, but also about how to prioritise tasks and break things down into small challenges.

On Tuesday 11th July a group of Year 10 GCSE Drama students put on a performance of Dennis Kelly’s dark comedy DNA. The cast have spent a whole term working on the performance, attending after school rehearsals and learning their lines at home.

Everyone really pulled together to create a fantastic performance which really showed their talents as performers and their understanding of the play (which they will have to write about in their exam next year).

The students did a wonderful job of exploring the relationships between the characters such as Jan (Hannah Elsmore) and Mark (Chloe Allsop) who are always together and finish each other's sentences. Finley Smith was unnerving as the quiet but intimidating Phil and created a lovely contrast with the chatty Leah (Darcy Corbett).

Miss Julius, Head of Performing Arts said "Every single student involved was brilliant and should be really proud of what they achieved. I’m looking forward to seeing what they produce for their exam performances in the new academic year."

This year we had 29 students from years 7 and 8 take part in the 2022-2023 UK Junior Math Challenge. The challenge involved a series of increasingly difficult questions, involving shape, number, geometry, and problem solving. Some questions pushed the students beyond their current level of math, involving topics that aren’t taught until year 9.

Every student represented The Wilnecote School proudly. Stand out results included ‘Best in School’ Kevin H who received a Gold Award, and ‘Best in Year 8’ JP Hickey who received a Silver Award. Other recipients of the Silver Award included Callum Reynolds and Oliwia Stankowska in year 7, as well as Darci B, Dafydd H, Charlie I, Daisy P, Zack S and Reuben S in year 8.

Due to their excellent results, some of the students then took part in the Junior Kangaroo Challenge. This was a step up, meaning harder questions and more complex math. The Wilnecote School was represented by Kevin H, Charlie I, Reuben S and JP H. Each student used the entirety of their subject knowledge to work their way through the challenge, with Kevin being awarded a result of Merit. This is only given out to the top 25% across the country.

We look forward to seeing more students represent The Wilnecote School in the competition next year, and hopefully improve further on what have already been an amazing set of results.

The summer term sees the return of our annual World of Work sessions and what have become our very popular Speed Networking event. Through the persistent hard work of the careers team, over 40 visitors arrived to school on Friday 7th July ready to talk to our year 10 students. The visitors came from a wide range of careers including the forces, the NHS, an undertaker, a sales director, an engineer, different entrepreneurs, and even our local councillor who was a Wilnecote student himself a few years ago.

The students were in small groups and had 10 minutes with each of the visitors. The adults talked about their career journey that has led them to what they do for work now. Students were encouraged to ask questions and learn as much as they can in the short time they were given. The wide range of visitors meant that students met lots of people with a variety of routes, qualifications and experiences that has led them to where they are now. Students learnt about job roles and sectors that they have never heard of before and may asked insightful questions.

As a school, we consider careers education a core part of the experience for all students who attend here. Our ambition is to expand the opportunities they see available to them and to raise the aspirations for all. The support of so many local people, giving up time from their work to come and inspire the next generation is always a delight to witness. Following this successful event, our students completed some enterprise and team building activities before embarking upon three days of work experience where, again, we have had some amazing feedback from the employers. Well done to all of year 10 across the careers activities, a lot of new learning and experience was gained. We look forward to doing similar again in the next academic year with a new cohort of year 10 students.

Rounder, rounder, rounder!

The Wilnecote School rounders teams have been out in force every Tuesday and Thursday after school to master batting and perfect their fielding and wow, did this dedication to practice pay off!

Year 7, competed for the first time in a district final, mastering effective decision to prevent the batter from scoring unless they hit an exceptional distance. Year 9 and 10 teams held their own across the season, increasing their total rounders scored in each of their matches. They thoroughly deserved the tight 3rd place in the district finals and should be proud of their progress particularly catching out some of the oppositions big hitters! Well done girls.

Year 8 run rings round the opposition in rounders

It was the Year 8 rounders team who stole the limelight this year. With the bowler, backstop, first post combination reaching perfection and the exceptional deep fielding into second and fourth post the year 8 girls won the district title without losing a single game. In fact, this season they remain unbeaten and hold this year’s award for winning by the biggest margin 24 1/2 rounders to 6. Well done an exceptional rounders season, be proud of yourselves.