Month: June 2019

To consolidate their Classical Studies, Year 8 had a wonderful (albeit rather soggy) day in Bath on Friday 7th June visiting the Roman Baths which are the best preserved Roman ruins anywhere in Britain. The pupils had a fascinating guided tour of the Sacred Spring, the Roman temple, the Bath House complex and the exhibits in the new interactive museum, followed by an opportunity to sample the spring water from the Pump Room. An informative and memorable day was had by all.

Year 6 pupils had an enjoyable morning on Friday 7th June designing and making African beads, guided by visiting artist Jessica David.  Jessica David is an artist and designer based in Leicestershire. She is known as ‘The bead bench’ and makes intricate jewellery using polymer clay. To enrich their scheme of work on Africa, Year 6 pupils were given the opportunity to explore some of the techniques that Jessica uses to create her designs. They researched African patterns inspired by nature and created three bead designs. They then moulded the clay considering line, shape, form and proportion and ensuring they used colours representing the theme. The polymer clay beads will be baked to harden and used to create necklaces and keyrings in their Art lessons.  

This week has seen the first recording sessions of Radio Winterfold. As part of our Year 8 Leavers’ Programme, pupils interviewed Mr Mitchell, recorded a ghost story and produced a funny facts slot. Following their performance of Archie Dobson’s War, Year 6 had fun recording the radio play. The potential of this room is vast, both as a live recording space for pupils and as an editing suite. Key ICT skills can be honed, as well as essential skills in public speaking and interviewing. The next plan is to allow the radio site to go live on the internet later this year.  Follow @RadioWinterfold on Twitter for updates. Many thanks to the Friends of Winterfold, Mr Price, Mr Loughton and the Winterfold community for making this exciting vision a reality. 

Year 1 spent a great day learning about Shakespeare in Stratford-Upon-Avon on Tuesday 4th June. During a workshop at William’s birthplace, the children learned about Shakespeare when he was younger and what life was like in Tudor times.  The children learned to write with a quill, designed a glamorous pair of gloves for a rich Tudor, made a horn prayer book, dressed up into Tudor clothing, played with Tudor toys, made Tudor houses, visited Mary Arden’s Farm and produced their very own Shakespeare play on stage!

Well done to Team Winterfold who took part in the Regional round of the World Scholar’s Cup, hosted by Bromsgrove School on 1st and 2nd June. The event, which was a celebration of learning, brought together many subjects and challenged teams to work together.  Instead of focusing on memorising facts, this academic event challenges pupils to increase their understanding of different subjects and relate them to the world around us.
Our team has now qualified for the global round; they will be part of a community of scholars from over 80 countries, from The Hague, to Mumbai.