Hello everyone and welcome to this edition of The Wilnecote Warbler.

With the end of this academic year approaching, it is a very busy time here at school with lots to look forward to. Year 11 are doing their GCSE exams and looking forward to Prom. Year 10 are preparing for World of Work Week and Work Experience as well as their PPE exams. There are also whole school events such as Sports Day coming up. There are lots of opportunities to get involved and I encourage all students to do so if they can.

We are also building our new Junior Leadership and Prefect Teams for September. If you are in Year 10 you should have heard about this in assembly. The deadline for applications is Friday 9th June and I really encourage you to apply. There are so many of you out there who have a lot to offer, and I would love you to be involved. If you have any questions about the roles and/or the application process, please ask.

There aren't many school weeks left and I know you will all be looking forward to a well-earned rest over the summer but make the most of the time you have in school by choosing to take part in all of the opportunities available to you. Have a lovely final half term.

Miss S. Julius

Assistant Headteacher

After smashing the opposition at the District Sportshall Athletics Championships, The Wilnecote School Year 8 Sportshall Athletics team went onto represent Tamworth District at the County Championships.

After last year’s bronze medal, the girls were determined to at least match this achievement. This time they were accompanied by our boys’ team, who had the advantage of hearing all about the girls’ experiences and were able to take the advice the girls offered to relax the nerves before taking to the track and field.

Since the District event just before Christmas, the teams had been training hard, strengthening their skills and developing their fitness to improve their performances. The group attend training regularly, support each other to improve and enjoy the competitive nature of the sport.

This year the group had a secret weapon… the expertise of a national speed bounce champion Brooke Burton. Brooke, an ex-student, is studying sport at Sutton College, she was happy to coach the group specifically at improving their techniques on the reversaboards, standing long jump and speed bounce. Brooke was invaluable in providing some insider information to increase the point score on each event. In return, Brooke was able to use the training sessions as part of the coaching element of her 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.

Welcome to the Art, Design and Technology faculty.

It's been a busy time this half term in the ADT faculty with exams for students and moderation for staff. We are extremely proud of our Year 11 students who prioritised their deadlines and completed their practical exams in an impeccable manner.

We wish them all the best in all other subjects.

Year 11

Since January, our GCSE Fine Art, Photography and 3D Design students have been working hard towards their externally set exam project. After analysing the work of others, recording from the world around them, and developing their ideas with varied media and techniques, students produced a range of outcomes during a 10-hour exam sat over two days.

In GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition students started the academic year exploring chemical and functional properties of pasta ingredients, then moved on to researching, planning and preparing a three-course meal inspired by North and South American cuisine which they created in a 3-hour practical exam. Well done to those students and good luck for your written exam on June 20th.

Year 10

Year 10 Fine Art students have started to select their own personal theme for a sustained project entitled 'Details'. With teacher guidance, they choose their own starting point and start exploring their own ideas which is an exciting time for a Fine Art student. Soon they will start to develop oil pastel skills in preparation for their mock exam.

In Photography, Year 10 students are finalising a project themed on 'Letters', where they have produced their own alphabet from the letters they have found within the shapes and forms of objects and the environment around them. Students have developed their photo editing skills in an online app called PhotoPea and have had to be extremely organised to keep up with the deadlines. Future project themes for our photographers will include 'Natural Forms' and 'Distorted Portraiture'.

After recently completing a lighting prototype based on 'Geometric Structures', our Year 10 3D Design students have now moved on to a nature themed mask project. Starting with researching the Green Man and recording the shape and texture of leaves, students have now started to explore their own sea life focus which will be developed into either a functional mask or sculpture.

Year 10 Food preparation and food nutrition students have recently researched European cuisine and planned and prepared a dish which they produced in their recent practical mock exam. Results ranged from meatballs to fish and chips! Students are now revising for their upcoming written mock exam.

In our Key Stage 3 curriculum Year 9 Art students have been studying the theme of birds and producing observational studies. They will move on to developing collaging techniques after half term through analysing the work of Nancy Standlee.

Year 8 have been learning about colour and have developed their watercolour painting skills while observing the paintings of fauvist artist Henri Matisse. They are currently developing colour pencil skills and producing insect observational studies. Year 7 have focused on recording the elements of tone and texture and are currently producing realistic oil pastel teddy bear studies. They have previously mastered pencil rendering skills and will move on to the theme of 'Still Life' after half term.

Throughout the academic year our Key Stage 3 Design Technology students rotate on a specialism carousel. Students develop skills in areas such as Textiles, Food, Graphics, 3D Design and Engineering, while understanding and learning how to design to solve problems for different users and situations. After half term, students will move on to their final rotation of the academic year. For most classes, Year 7 will be learning about bridges and what elements make a strong structure. Year 8 students will be developing their knowledge of typography and logo design in Graphics, while Year 9 will learn about mechanisms through designing a toy automata product.

We're also very excited to welcome a new member of staff for September, Mr Sean Ogleby, who has accepted the position of Head of Design Technology. This is such an exciting time for Wilnecote as this is an area of the curriculum we have been developing, and with Mr Ogleby's knowledge in resistant materials will come a whole new world of possibilities for our future design students.

Lastly, we look forward to celebrating our students hard work this year with our annual Art and Design exhibition taking place next month. We hope to see you there!

Mrs Rebecca Smith

Heat of Art & DT

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 25th May 1915 the second Battle of Ypres ended. Ypres was a strategically important town in Belgium, as it lay on the route to the coast and the Channel ports. Britain and its allies needed to keep control of the ports to allow reinforcements and weapons to be shipped across the channel to France and Belgium. The German army had tried to break through to the coast in 1914 but Britain had held on to Ypres, so the attempt had failed. The second Battle of Ypres, which was fought to secure control of the strategically important high ground to the South and East of Ypres, began on 22nd April and involved the first use of chemical warfare in World War One. The Germans released tons of poisonous chlorine gas on the allied lines, which had a devastating effect on soldiers who had not yet been equipped with gas masks. However, the Germans failed to follow up on their initial success and the battle ground on for a month. In the end, Britain held on to Ypres. British and Canadian casualties were 59 000 whilst the French lost 22 000 and the Germans around 35 000.

World War One is studied in Year 9 History and as part of the History of Medicine in the Year 10 GCSE course – which focuses on the First World War injuries and how they were prevented and treated.

The pictures above shows German troops releasing the chlorine gas. and soldiers try to protect themselves with cotton pads over their mouth and nose.