Welcome to the Wilnecote Warbler for the second half of the spring term.

This is my final Warbler message to you all. Whilst I am excited by my new role and looking forward to a new challenge, there is a real sadness for me in leaving The Wilnecote School. The whole community made me so very welcome when I joined the school in January 2018 and I have thoroughly enjoyed the school improvement journey we have been on together. The challenge of a global pandemic was faced collectively, the burden shared and the brighter moments celebrated. I leave here with a stronger conviction than ever in the power of collective action and teamwork and the importance of community.

I must pay tribute to the commitment of the entire staff body – both teaching and support – who have been unfailing in their desire to see Wilnecote become the best school it can possibly be. Their moral imperative permeates everything they do and they are so passionate about their subjects and roles. I would also like to draw attention and give my thanks to those, all too often, unsung heroes of school life – our cleaning and catering staff from Chartwells who live and breathe the place and ensure that the school and its occupants are able to undertake their work in a pleasant environment and in good heart. I will particularly miss what our students have determined to be “the best food in Staffordshire”

And I will so miss our students – funny, self-deprecating and with a great appetite for learning. I talked to them in assembly this week to let them know how highly I think of them and to exhort them to live up to the amazing potential they have. One of the most rewarding things about being a teacher (aside from school lunches) is when we meet our students as adults and see the amazing impact they are making in the real world. I have had my meal made for me in a restaurant, my prescriptions made up, my house plastered and painted, my blood drawn, my tyres checked, some architectural plans created and had my computer fixed by young people I have taught History to at some point in the past. I look forward to experiencing the same joy in witnessing the growth and happiness of Wilnecote students in the future.

May I take this opportunity to wish all our families a very Happy Easter and a restful holiday. Thank you for the wonderful experience you have afforded me at The Wilnecote School - for the professional joy working with your children has given me and for the great partnerships we have shared in educating them. It has been a real privilege to be Headteacher at The Wilnecote School and I wish the school, its students and all our families all the very best in the future.

Yours faithfully

Sian Hartle

It was a pleasure to be able to return, finally, to live performances following the pandemic, with the rousing musical ‘The Wizard of Oz’ which entertained audiences with its collection of well-loved songs and enchanting characters for our first musical on stage for three years.

A magical journey from Kansas to Oz took place over three nights in February as The Wilnecote School told the tale of young Dorothy and her dog Toto, who after meeting witches, a talking scarecrow, tin man and cowardly lion realised that there certainly was ‘no place like home’.

After an initial audition process last September, key roles were allocated and then began a busy rehearsal schedule which included after school, evening and weekend rehearsals – very soon the whole cast were working as a proper theatrical company. With such a young cast, many of whom had never performed in live theatre, we were blown away by the amount of talent and commitment shown by the company.

Mr Hyden, Head of Music said "As ever a school production can only work with the help and enthusiasm of others, whether helping backstage with sales, make up, lighting, costumes, props and scenery. The whole team spirit has been phenomenal. A heartfelt thanks to staff colleagues, pupils, parents and friends of the school who without their help and commitment these performances would not have been possible’.

Thank you to everyone who came along and supported the production, BUT most importantly a huge ‘thank you’ to our talented cast and production team who worked tremendously hard to put this performance together.

We hope you enjoyed the show!

It all started in January with a planning meeting between Mrs Glover and Miss Julius. After some brainstorming and lots of ideas, four key activities were planned for World Book Day on Thursday 2nd March.

The first planned activity began before February half term when students were invited to design and build a scene from a book in a shoebox. The entries were fantastic, with one student designing and making three different scenes, all from different books. Mrs Hartle was invited to choose the winner, and Scott Powers was chosen with his amazing creation. Scott was awarded a Waterstones gift voucher for his efforts. A huge well done to Scott and all students who took part. The entries are currently on display in the library so please do pop in during community opening hours to take a look.

As is usual on World Book Day, all members of staff were invited to dress up as a book character, with departments encouraged to choose a theme or particular book. Alice in Wonderland, His Dark Materials, Julia Donaldson books and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory were very quickly snapped up as department choices. To add a twist, year 11 students were also invited to come to school as their favourite recognisable book character – with several Harry Potter character choices and even a Bob the Builder, it was going to be a fun day! As the day approached, character details kept pinging into our inboxes with anticipation building to see everyone’s costume. The school was a buzz of excitement as students arrived at school, hoping to catch a glimpse of who staff were dressed as. To add to the fun, students were given the opportunity to take part in a staff character hunt. Armed with entry forms, students spent the day trying to identify the characters with the added challenge of naming the book the character features in and the author. All entries have been handed to Mrs Glover,

who is delighted to announce Maddie Alsop and Louisa Sansome as joint winners with the most correctly identified characters, book titles and author details. Well done to you both.

To demonstrate that everyone is a reader, staff were invited to take a seat in the “reading chair” for 15 minutes during the school day to purely sit and read. With plenty of staff taking part, and the chair being in a well-used space, many conversations took place during the day, with students keen to find out what staff themselves were reading. During one lunchbreak, extra chairs were required to allow students to join the reading space and read!

World Book Day also extended into tutor literacy sessions. A quiz was put together by Miss Julius challenging students to use clues to match a book to a member of staff. Who knew one of the Assistant Heads enjoyed The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole as a teenager, or that one of the Art teachers loved (and still does) horror books, particularly the Point Horror series by R L Stine. Well done to Gabby Arnold, Freya Cheshire, Mollie Hickey, Lillian Wykes and Summer Webb from Cuttlestone 1 who managed to correctly identify 14 out of 15 members of staff.

World Book Day – what a fabulous day with everyone (staff and students) having the opportunity to get involved. Brainstorming for March 2024 is already underway!

As part of the GCSE Drama course students have to see a live theatre production which they then write about in their final exam so on Wednesday 22nd March the Year 11 Drama group set off to Lichfield Garrick to see their production of Teechers Leavers ’22, a modernised version of the John Godber classic. The play is a satirical look at the education system and with plenty of references to Tick Tok, Lockdown and online learning students were easily able to relate to the characters and storyline. The physical theatre style of the play and use of multi-rolling (3 actors play all of the parts) made the performance highly energetic and engaging.

At times students were crying with laughter at the exaggerated characters and scenarios, some of which weren’t a million miles away from their own experiences of school. Students also had the opportunity to listen to a post show talk by the performers who explained the process they went through when re-imagining the play and trying to make it relevant to a modern audience. This was a great opportunity for students to learn how professional actors work and the collaborative experiences involved in putting on a theatre production. It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon and students will now have plenty to write about in their exam.

I’m Elizabeth Hitchens and I’ve been trampolining for over ten years at the Wilnecote Leisure Centre, at first it was just for fun but the club does competitions and I wanted to give it a try.

This year I competed in the British Schools Gymnastics Association trampolining competition representing The Wilnecote School. The first round was in December for the West Midlands region Year group 9-10, the competitors were from schools in Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire and I successfully finished in first place.

Finishing in first place meant I was entered into the Central Zone competition which included the top 5 competitors from Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire and Wales. I came 10th in this competition so didn’t qualify for the National finals but I enjoyed it so much I’m looking forward to trying again next year. Paul at G-Force is a great coach!

Mrs Turner

Head of Languages

Welcome to the Languages Faculty.

This half term we have welcomed back Mrs Turner from maternity leave. She has thoroughly enjoyed being back in the classroom and seeing the brilliant progress our students are making in languages!

This half term we have been learning about Karneval in Germany. Celebrated in February, Fasching is a traditional German celebration – also known as Karneval or Fastnacht. It is a carnival season, which has been celebrated for centuries by people worldwide who have German heritage. One of Germany's best-known and largest carnival celebrations takes place in Cologne. Fasching is celebrated in all German-speaking countries. Its timing in the year is poignant, as it is just before the fasting season of Lent, which is when many people will forsake food as a sacrifice for religious reasons. Fasching allows a person to have a huge celebration, indulge, enjoy and embrace all that is good before things are out of bounds during Lent. The masks and costumes of today date back to medieval times when they were not in place as fun decorations but were worn as ways to avoid punishment and persecution, as carnival goers would mock the strict rulers of the day. Had they not used masks to disguise themselves they would have been caught.

In French, we have been learning about ‘poisson d’avril’ – France’s equivalent to April Fool’s Day. Why call it “April Fish”? Who knows! There are endless theories suggested by historians such as suggestions that April was a bad month for fishing, or a time (depending on the era) when fishing was forbidden, since newly spawned fish had to grow. So, to serve fish to eat in April was impossible – claiming to see or eat one could only be a joke. Many French children make paper fish and then go to school and tape them to unsuspecting classmates’ backs.

We wish all students a wonderful Easter holiday and look forward to hearing about all the April Fool’s pranks!

German Karneval photos

French poisson d’avril photos

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, From Easter 2023 The Wilnecote School will 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 will be 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 when they return after the Easter break will be unable to use the restaurant until all the full outstanding debt is cleared.

We believe by setting a date three months from now we are ensuring that there is enough time for all families to clear any outstanding debt, if you feel this is not the case, please contact office@wilnecotehighschool.org to arrange contact about an alternative solution.

For clarity, all current debt needs to be paid off before Monday 17th April 2023.

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

Wednesday 1st March saw the launch of "Wellbeing Wednesday" in the school library. The aim of the lunchtime sessions is to give students the opportunity to take a mindful break from the hustle and bustle of school life - an opportunity to calm their minds midweek, ready to engage back with their studies. The library became a technology free area and a quiet space with students being able to choose their activity from doing a jigsaw, reading a book, completing some mindful colouring sheets, playing chess or just simply having some time-out.

The first week saw an amazing buzz (all be it a quiet buzz) in the library. Students loved attempting to start the 500 piece map of the world jigsaw and the comments such as "I didn't know the world had so many countries" and "look how big America is compared to England" demonstrated a learning opportunity to boot. The colouring sheets were also popular, with many students asking me to keep their sheets until the following week so they can continue. Several students took the opportunity to read, with some quiet chatter taking place about storylines and plot twists. Wellbeing Wednesday - quite a hit!

In a week in which one leader’s term of office ends (it’s Mrs Hartle’s last week at The Wilnecote School), it seemed appropriate to choose an event involving another leader who was reaching his end point during this week in History.

On 31st March 1968 President Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th President of USA, announced to the nation that he would not be standing for re-election as President in the forthcoming American elections. Johnson had sent American troops into Vietnam and the cost of the war, both in men and money, had escalated rapidly. From spending of $400-500 million a year in 1964, by 1968 Johnson’s government was spending over $26,000 million a year and the war was becoming increasingly unpopular with the American public. It was, however, the Tet Offensive earlier in 1968 that damaged Johnson’s position beyond repair. Although from a purely military perspective the Tet Offensive was a success for USA, it was a political disaster for Johnson as Americans questioned how the Communist Vietcong had been able to launch the attack in the first place. Johnson’s support fell by 14% to only 26% in opinion polls and he knew that he could not win the Presidential election as a result.

In fact, this week was a significant week for the Vietnam War in many ways. On the 29th March 1971, Lt. Calley was found guilty of the My Lai Massacre, having been charged with the murder of 109 unarmed civilians and found guilty of personally killing 22.

Two years later, on 29th March 1973, the last American combat troops left Vietnam. Although military advisors remained to support the South Vietnamese army, this ended direct American military involvement, 9 years after the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution had sent US combat troops in.

All these events are studied by Year 11 as part of the GCSE History course.

Are you interested in recycling?

Do you care for the environment?

We need you.

The Wilnecote School is proud to launch “The Eco Team”. The club is student led and will focus on improving recycling within school and the local community, with a little bit of wholesome house competition thrown in too.

Speak to Mrs Glover in the school library if you wish to join the team and take part in your first recycling challenge.

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.