Week ending 13th October

All Year 7 students receive a free book funded by our wonderful PFA via the Bookbuzz programme.  The programme’s aim, (an aim shared and encouraged by us!) is to inspire a lifelong love of reading.  Students are able to choose a book from a range specifically selected as ‘fast-paced page turners’ to appeal to our students.  Mrs Smith, our librarian, hands out the books in their library lesson so they can start reading their new books straight away!  

Introducing, Ms Clark, our Head of Religious Studies, Philosophy and Ethics, and Teacher Ms Oseni.  Ms Clark is an exceptional practitioner with experience of leading departments and as an GCSE examiner, providing invaluable insight into supporting our students to achieve their potential.   “I am looking forward to working with our student leaders as we start to plan our whole school Cultural Day, it’s clearly a very popular and important celebration for our school community”.

Our curriculum provides an exploration of world faiths, beliefs and community celebrations alongside philosophical and ethical enquiry.  Our guiding aim as a department is to develop skills in analysis and critical thinking, preparing students as citizens who are informed about culture and theology and feel confident in applying their knowledge in an interdisciplinary way. In the lessons pictured below students have completed their exploration of Buddhism and are consolidating their learning in a revision and assessment session.

My name is Mrs Oseni, and I am a specialist teacher of religious Studies and Epistemic Insight.  I completed my PGCE and master’s in education at Canterbury Christ Church University, I was opportune to learn about Epistemic Insight as a module and I am delighted to be able to transfer my enriched knowledge into my students here, which has been beneficial to them equally. My experience of teaching RS using the hermeneutics approach has made it possible to bring about a mixture of challenge and learning in an outstanding way especially around and Epistemic Insight and teaching in schools across Kent has been a reinforcer. I hope to be able to take Wilmington Girls above their expectations and give them an opportunity to use the knowledge of RS within Epistemic Insight by making relevant connection within disciplines, and how disciplines can be investigated using teaching and learning approach such as metacognitive skills for example, high-order questions required for in-depth thinking.

It is important that young people can engage in diverse groups showing their different opinion, views and continue to maintain an open mind, with respect of one another – this is what Religious Studies (RS) is all about. As it so matters, these ideas strengthen, promotes, the discipline of the mind and of knowledge because it all sits well within the ‘REACH’ value of Wilmington.

Mr Wright’s Year 7 Computer Science students have been investigated the uses, both positive and negative of social media platforms with particular emphasis on safeguarding their online and personal safety.  Students discussed the advantages and pitfalls of social media prompted by key questions, including “can you completely remove something from social media/the internet?”.  The session prompted a lot of insightful input as students considered how they use the internet.

 

The 'Wilmo Challenge' has been launched for our Year 11 students.  This is a motivational and fun competition to encourage and reward the students for good attendance, effort in lessons and going the extra mile with revision and independent work in the run up to the mocks and GCSE's. 

We have our first 40 participants, but all students will take part in the challenge.  Each participant has a score sheet with 4 criteria. The Wilmo Challenge is also an inter-house competition, so each team are representing their houses to win points.  Good luck everyone.

Our Year 11 GCSE Art students recently visited the British Art Fair at the Saatchi Gallery, London with Mrs Langley, Mrs O'Donnell and Mrs Moules.  The British Art Fair is an annual showcase where 'Top dealers’ from London and across the UK gather at Saatchi Gallery to present the very best Modern British and Contemporary art and tell visitors all about the artists, their work and give specialist advice on collecting. Galleries are installed throughout all three storeys of Saatchi Gallery, London, creating an elegant museum-like atmosphere for the fair.

Our students enjoyed seeing a huge range of art in all media, including historical and contemporary artworks. They also gained insight into the commercial side of the UK art market - they were able to speak with the gallery owner's, representatives and some of the artists themselves.  It provided an excellent opportunity for students to find visual inspiration, new techniques and ideas to incorporate into their own GCSE projects. 

Our Library hosts a range of lunchtime and after school clubs including Chess and Scrabble Club – all are welcome!  For the full list of Clubs and Subject Support sessions please click here

Well done to our Duke of Edinburgh participants on the successful completion of their Bronze Award Expedition!  Our intrepid students set off from two different locations (Keston and Pratts Bottom) on an uncharacteristically hot October morning, completing a self-navigated walk to their campsite near Biggin Hill.  Students made their evening meals .. pasta and sauce being the popular dinner of choice(!) before settling down for the night in their tents under the stars.  Up bright and early at 6am for a quick breakfast before heading off again for the remainder of their expedition.  Mrs Shooman-Taylor was impressed with the level of resilience, navigation skill and teamwork displayed by the 95 strong group.  Congratulations to you all! .. and thank you to all staff who gave up their weekend to support the students.

Geography Fieldwork to Stratford and Olympic Park.  Year 11 Geographer's attended their second field studies day for the GCSE preparation. The visit was to Stratford, East London, to the site and surrounding area that hosted the Olympics 2012. The aim was to collect primary data to measure whether the regeneration of Stratford and the surrounding area had been positive to the built environment. The students visited four locations and carried out environmental quality surveys, noise surveys and measured footfall, as well as taking photos to help us with the write up on our return to the classroom. It was fantastic to see the enthusiasm of our geographers in the field and enabling to see much of the geography studied in class in the real world. The Olympic Park was a favourite location with many scorings reaching the highest; Westfield Shopping Centre also seemed very popular! The students are now writing up their findings and using different data presentation techniques to illustrate their data. Our WGSG Geographers will now be ready to tackle the examination questions as experts of urban fieldwork!

WG6 Update.  Year 12 attended a Skills Workshop with specialists, The Life Skills Company. The morning focused on Independent Learning skills including speed-reading, taking notes from video, condensing text, filtering and more.  All crucial skills to succeed at sixth form and beyond!

WG6 Year 13 Politics students travelled to City Hall, where they witnessed the monthly session of 'Questions to the Mayor', where Sadiq Khan answered questions from London's councillors. There were questions on the impact of the current crisis in the Middle East in London and Londoners, transport, poverty, living costs and housing. 

WG6 Enrichment.  Students are progressing with their chosen topics for this term, learning valuable new skills or enhancing existing ones.  Sessions include Mandarin for beginners – in the below photos students are already mastering characters and spoken phrases – after just two lessons!  Brilliant work.

In recognition of World Mental Health Day, I wanted to share with you how the theme of Making Mental Health & Wellbeing for All a Global Priority is reflected in our whole school approach at WGSG.  The importance of looking after personal wellbeing is high on our priorities of working together for positive mental health.  Throughout the curriculum we teach resilience which is underpinned by an understanding of effective strategies for ensuring personal wellbeing.

We have a graduated approach to mental health and wellbeing provision and we believe that the provision of support is designed to meet the diverse mental health and wellbeing needs of all of our children and young people.  To support the work of the charity Young Minds, students were invited to wear a yellow accessory and make a donation via our Just Giving page – so far, we have raised over £300 – thank you everyone!  Wilmington Grammar School for Girls is fundraising for Young Minds Trust (justgiving.com)

I am delighted to share the news that Liliya Z of Year 8 took part in Trampolining Inter Regional Cup Final in Birmingham, qualifying to represent the South East Region at this National event. This was a great experience for Liliya to compete in a large arena against some top national trampolinists.

Additionally, Liliya competed in the South East Regional Comp in Gillingham; her team came 1st and Liliya was placed 4th overall.  Congratulations Liliya!

Forthcoming Dates;

Year 6 Open Event – 19^th October

End of Term 1 – 20^th October

First DAY of Term 2 - 2^nd November

Year 11 Mocks – 6 November – 15^th November

Year 7 Parents’ Evening – 9^th November

WG6 Applications Open – 10^th November

WG6 Open Evening (at WGSG) – 29th November

PTA Update.  We are delighted to announce – we are now able to offer pre-loved uniform ALL YEAR ROUND!  Please see the below poster for details on how to check availability and place orders.  We are Planning our PFA Christmas Market and Gift Fair – if you would like to be involved in any way, please do not hesitate to get in touch – everyone is very welcome! WGSGPFA@GMAIL.COM

For more details on our PFA click here

Save the date!  Can you help? Could you or your business donate a raffle prize for our Christmas market - we are a registered charity so it would be tax deductible :) if you think you might be able to help please contact us on WGSGPFA@GMAIL.COM

Best wishes,

Michelle Lawson

Head Teacher