Blog week ending 1st May
The start to this very short term is underway, with Year 11 and 13 students making their final preparations for their GCSE and A level written examinations which commence on the 8th and 9th May respectively. I know that the students have all been working hard in their lessons and on their revision – teaching and pastoral staff are on hand to offer support, and practical help. This is a pressured but exciting time, and we will do all we can to continue to put support in place but please do contact us if you have any concerns at all.
Students in Years 7 – 9 will be able to maintain the routine of attending school in their PE kit on the day they have a PE lesson during the summer examination window.
Across school during form time students considered the aims of Earth Day, asking ourselves ‘what can we do?’ Mrs Barclay shared the pledge of the organisation – to triple production of clean electricity by 2030, and the ways every one of us can play our part!
Additionally, Mrs Barclay set Year 9 students a ‘The Apprentice’ style task linking the Earth Day theme, ‘Our Power, Our Planet’ with their current curriculum topics. Students assessed our school site, before drawing up an annotated proposal of their suggestions, two excellent examples are below.
Our Year 7 PE students enjoyed an athletics and rounders lesson in the sunshine! Mrs Iles, Mrs Self and new teacher of PE, Ms Laker each worked with a group of students either honing their relay techniques, taking part in warm-ups and drills or playing rounders!
Ms Laker, (who is providing maternity cover until Mrs Shooman-Taylor returns to school), has had a career in public service, first as a teacher, then in the fire service and from there, the police, working as a detective before returning to her first love – teaching! Mrs Laker and her group concentrated on stretches before a warm-up jog and then working on their speed and agility with the running hurdles and agility ladder.
Mrs Iles group focused on rounders fielding techniques with students doing their utmost to score the maximum runs possible! Mrs Selfe’s relay group perfected the baton exchange in their races.
Year 9 Art Department Students at WGSG Explore Creativity at the Saatchi Gallery of Art. Last term, a group of our enthusiastic Year 9 students had the exciting opportunity to visit the Saatchi Gallery in London — a trip designed to inspire their creative thinking and deepen their understanding of contemporary art.
The focus of our visit was the stunning exhibition “FLOWERS – FLORA IN CONTEMPORARY ART & CULTURE”, which explores the enduring influence of flowers in art, design, and popular culture. Featuring over 100 works by more than 50 artists, the exhibition offered a fascinating look at how a timeless subject can be reinterpreted in fresh and dynamic ways. As well as spending time exploring the gallery, the girls enjoyed a guided tour of the exhibition and took part in a printing workshop, where they were able to get hands-on experience creating their own artworks inspired by the themes of the exhibition.
Throughout the day, the students demonstrated great enthusiasm, creativity, and maturity. They asked insightful questions and took full advantage of the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of contemporary art. We are incredibly proud of how the Year 9 WGSG girls represented the school and are excited to see how this experience will influence their upcoming art projects!
Year 10 Art GCSE students spent the day working with the student Art Takeover team at the Hayward Gallery of Art. The Hayward student art team were specially trained by the curators at the gallery and they designed and also led the day. Year 10 Art students were guided round the current exhibition work of African American Artist Mickalene Thomas. The monumental rhinestone decorated portraits of powerful females were stunning to see and really gave our students an insight into the styling of life in the 19 70’s and 1980’s through the patterns, colour palette and the installation work on view. Mickalene Thomas’s work celebrates the power of female identity through this confident and ambient exhibition called “All about Love”. Our students also enjoyed two fun workshops run by the student takeover team and they had the whole of the gallery to themselves for the day to respond, view and learn about the art of Mickalene and how it was curated.
Wellbeing Initiative. Leanne Hatton, Year 7 Support Manager arranged for our NELFT Emotional Wellbeing Team to come in and speak to a group of Y7 students about Ways to Wellbeing – providing tools and advice to support their emotional wellbeing. The interactive session took place in the school library and the students were really receptive, speaking openly about how they support their own wellbeing. We are looking forward to providing more sessions throughout the year.
Students have been grappling with Mrs Maycock’s April Maths Challenges, which can be seen below. The numeracy challenge is for KS3. Congratulations to the below students who have received certificates for their successful participation!
Ishana 7E
Aleha 7E
Aarna 7H
Muheeba 7H
Miss Cullingham’s Year 9 Drama students attended a West End performance of the musical Hamilton as part of their current curriculum topic. The students absolutely loved the show which was a perfect stimulus and inspiration for their next project, to create their own musical based on historical events or people. As you can see, students even had the opportunity to meet cast members at the stage door! An incredibly enjoyable and productive trip indeed!
Year 9 Physics students were investigating how the resistance of a resistive wire varies with length. They observed that as the length increased, the current decreased which means that the resistance increases. The resistance increases because the electrons has a longer way to travel through the resistive wire. After completing the measurements, they could identify that the resistance was directly proportional to the length.
Our WG6 Year 12 Geographers have been completing their preparation coursework ahead of their forthcoming residential fieldwork trip. In a previous urban field trip, students visited Southwark before travelling by Uber boat to Battersea Power station. This trip enabled students to perfect their field work data collection techniques ahead of the forthcoming residential.
Congratulations to Amelia in Year 9 who performed at the prestigious Bexley Festival of Music at Fairfield Halls in Croydon. It was an amazing experience for Amelia to play in a concert hall of that ilk – and an equalling thrilling experience for the lucky audience!
I am delighted to share the wonderful news that Mrs Shooman-Taylor has had a beautiful baby boy, Brooks, who was born weighing just over 8lbs, and as you can see from the below photos .. is thriving!
PTA Update – Our Year 11 Leavers Prom!
Mind North Kent have shared the below poster regarding their forthcoming community workshop.
Forthcoming Dates;
Year 13 Art A Level – 1 & 2 May
GCSE Written Exams – 8 May – 18 June
A Level Written Exams – 9 May – 20 June
Year 11 – MFL Speaking Exams – until 9 May
KS3 Parental Examination briefing – 13 May
End of Term 5 – 23 May
First Day of Term 5 – 2 June
Thank you once again for all your support in your child’s educational journey, we never take the excellent partnership we have with parents and carers for granted. In a world that has so many challenges for our young people the combined work we do is vitally important to securing their best future.
Best wishes,
Michelle Lawson
Headteacher
