Blog week ending 23rd June

Spotlight on our Modern Foreign Languages Department

Our MFL Department, led by Mr Dufton is a thriving hub of excellence in language and culture that equips students with transferable skills that are highly valued by employers and supports our students to be truly global citizens.  The career opportunities for linguists in a rapidly changing world are extensive, our curriculum combines language skills with social and cultural context that put simply, can get them places!  Our MFL team are well travelled multi-linguists and embody the power and benefit of learning additional languages.  WGSG currently offers Mandarin, Spanish and French at GCSE and from next academic year will be offering Italian in Year 8.  Our WG6 provides A level study of Mandarin, Spanish, French and German. 

We offer a diverse range of extra-curriculum and enrichment opportunities including the extremely popular MFL international cuisine sessions where we made (and enjoyed!) paella, Chinese dumplings and crepes.  The MFL department supported our recent Cultural Dress Day, revelling in the shared and celebrated cultures and languages represented across our school.

Year 10 Language and Culture Week is scheduled for later this term and will include overseas trips to Paris and Valencia as well as Mandarin visits in London. In school there will be more opportunities for cooking, taking part in a singing competition, and exploring potential career and university pathways.

Mr Dufton, Head of our Modern Foreign Languages Department is pictured below teaching his wonderful, hardworking Year 10 class about the climate and geography in towns and cities across the Spanish-speaking world.

Mrs Rubbera, Teacher of Spanish and French is pictured below working with her Year 7 French students as they practise their spoken pieces ahead of the end of Year exams.  Students practised in pairs providing support and feed-back as they finalised their pieces.  Great work!

Year 10 MEP students have done a wonderful job in their Intensive study on Tourism Project. They learned slang and persuasive language in Mandarin and strategies of marketing. They produced eye-catching posters to promote places in the UK to the Chinese audience. On top of that, every group worked extremely hard and creatively on the video. They shot different scenes, wrote scripts, as well as adding animation. Their creative work will be shown and displayed when they travel to the University of Kent to compete with other MEP schools. We wish them good luck!

Our lovely Y7 Mandarin students are pictured below trying to solve the puzzle of making paper rice dumplings (Zongzi) to mark the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival.

Mandarin students have been learning through different activities and projects.  Year 12 selective Mandarin had a taster session in Chinese calligraphy and ink painting. They practised and then wrote and drew on rice paper! The students were very keen.

Students also visited the British Museum this week. They had a glimpse of the imperial court, daily life and trades in the last century of Qing Dynasty. They also had a stroll in Chinatown afterwards. They were totally immersed in Chinese history and culture!  Mrs Cai, Teacher of Mandarin is pictured in the first photo (front, left)

Our WG6 Year 12 French class recently visited the French Institute in London and the Ciné Lumière.  They explored the Médiathèque, checking out the enormous range of French literature.  We then watched a French classic film, “Le Mépris” by Jean-Luc Godard, starring Brigitte Bardot.  Reactions were mixed to the film itself, but it gave us a good taste of French cinema, a topic we are currently studying in class and it was a nice opportunity to visit the “quartier français” of London.

We are incredibly proud of the engagement and achievement of our students, WGSG is amongst the top schools in the country for proportion of students studying a language at GCSE – a great testimony to our MFL department and its forward-thinking and ambitious students.  To find out more regarding our MFL curriculum please click here

Our  Carnegie shadowing group went down to Wilmington Grammar School for Boys to join their group for a live streaming of the book awards’ winners ceremony.  Our students enjoyed all the shortlisted books but for both of our groups there was a stand-out winner,  Ruta Sepety’s, I Must Betray You – and we clearly weren’t the only group of that view as it scooped the Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice Medal.   The overall Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing went to The Blue Book of Nebo by Maonon Steffan Ros.  Both of our library groups (and English teachers and librarians!) enjoyed a lively debate and discussion of the books over an awards lunch before watching the winners announcment live from the Barbican in London. 

All shortlist books (and many long-list) are available in our library and I would urge all students to check them out!

Our students have contributed poems and illustrations to a wonderful digital Young Poets Anthology entitled ‘Resilience’ which is based on one of our REACH school values.  To view the digital book please visit our Library page by clicking here

Congratulations to our student athletes who took part in the recent Kent Schools’ Track & Field Championships.  Our incredible students put in great performances, winning medals and achieving new PBs and are already hoping to represent WGSG in future events.  Well done, a fantastic acheivement! 

Manroop J (Y7)

100m, 3rd place, result 13.80 (seconds), received bronze medal, new PB\

Long jump, best jump 4.10m

Rebecca T (Y8)

100m Heat, 7th place, result 13.32 (seconds), new PB

200m Heat, 3rd place, result 29.95 (seconds), qualified for final, new PB

200m Final, 7th place, result 30.52 (seconds)

Keriema B (Y9)

100m Heat, 2nd place, result 12.99 (seconds), qualified for final, new PB

100m Final, 3rd place, result 13.06 (seconds), received bronze medal

Zara O (Y11)

200m Heat, 1st place, result 25.82 (seconds), qualified for final, new PB

200m Final, 4th place, result 26.21 (seconds)

Mrs O’Donnell’s Year 7 Art class have been working collaboratively in pairs to create a collaged artwork that responds to the work of the Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes (pictured with her artworks below).  Milhazes currently has an exhibition at the Turner Contemporary in Margate and is widely recognised as one of the leading abstract artists working today.

Year 9 Physics students have been investigating environmentally friendly, renewable sources of energy and how they might be effectively adapted and scaled to power a town.  As part of the topic students designed and modelled their own ‘energy island’ to demonstrate how different energy resources could be best utilised when considering the needs of the community living there.  In teams, students created a poster to summarise their research and recommendations before presenting their island and it’s features to the rest of the class.  A selection of which are pictured below.  Congratulations to our winning teams from 9U2, Matilda, Caitlin, Eleanor, Emma and Amy and from 9U3, Sangavi, Thanika, Jessica, Vivian and April (their entries are the top two featured)

Careers Update.  Whether students have a clear idea of what they would like to do in the future or are still deciding, it’s essential that they know what their options are.

To support Year 10 students to make well-informed decisions about their future careers and subject choices we use tools such as Unifrog.  This is complemented by talks from a range of speakers to learn more about their options at 16 and personal guidance meetings.  On Tuesday we were joined by Chelsea from ASK apprenticeships and Alex from Electrosonic. Alex shared insights about ‘What the company does and why this is important’ and shared insights about what inspired her to choose her career path. Chelsea gave an excellent talk about apprenticeships and engaged with students about her career path

Students also have opportunities to engage with the world of work.  For instance, the Year 10 Geography trip offered a real-life context for students’ learning, and for some students this can even inspire career choices.

What can I do with a geography degree? | Prospects.ac.uk

Our Year 12 WG6 Futures Week provides a host of speakers, activities and events to support students' navigate their future career plans and aspirations.  The sessions were planned to provide an interactive ‘check-list’ to ensure next-step discussions and decision-making were fully supported and that students had all the necessary information and stimulus at their disposal.  Sessions included;

Emily from the University of Essex delivered a compelling talk regarding the considerations when choosing a course and university (left). Rich from Canterbury Christ Church University talked students through the processes and considerations of applying for University via UCAS online and how to apply for student finance.

Workshop on competing a Masters degree. This excellent session was put on by Miss Brice MSc who has been completing her teacher training with WGSB this year.

Personal Statement Writing Workshop. Students left the workshop having written a first draft of their individual personal statement for university or a covering letter for apprenticeships/employment and an action plan to enhance it further.

An Alumni morning for our Year 12 students. We had twenty three ex-Wilmington Grammar students take time out of their morning to chat about their pathways and their jobs with our current students.

Our alumnus, Dr Imran Rouff (pictured with Dr Musami, WGSB Head of Biology) delivered a brilliant and instructive talk on careers in medicine.

Contributors from the NHS came to speak with students regarding Apprentice Nursing Associates opportunities and the vast range of roles and careers the NHS offers.

PTFA Update.  Pre-loved Uniform sale – is scheduled for Sunday 9th July 11am-1pm. if you have any out-grown or unwanted uniform items please do consider donating them to our PFA Shop.  We offer a range of uniform in excellent condition and will be offering items for sale in school ahead of the new school year.

Easyfundraising & Amazonsmile - By signing up and using the below link when you shop online with more than 3,300 well-known online stores such as Amazon, eBay, John Lewis will earn free donations for WGSG at no additional cost to you.  Please click here for further information and to sign up.

Forthcoming Dates;

Year 12 Written reports home – Monday 26^th June

Year 10 MEP trip – Wednesday 28^th June

WG6 Prom at Birchwood Golf Club – Friday 30^th June

Best wishes,

Michelle Lawson

Head Teacher