December 2017 8

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December 2017

Mike Frost Headteacher

A fter what has been one of the

busiest starts to a new aca-

demic year, I would like to

take this opportunity to thank all the

staff for their hard work. I’d like to thank

the Governors for their guidance and

support and I would like to thank the

parents/carers for their resilience and

continued support for their children and

the school. I would also like to thank the

pupils for coming into school and making

an effort, even when it is really hard to

do so. It is part of what makes Woolston

Brook such a unique school – everyone

trying together. With all this in mind I

have to say that I wish everyone a very

Happy Christmas, I hope everyone has a

peaceful holiday and comes back ready

for a fantastic 2018! Happy Christmas!

thegazette Headteacher's

Woolston Brook School, Warrington

Comments Play in a day

By Tansy

S taff and students engaged in the

first annual English event, that re-

quired each house group to create,

over six lessons, a Halloween

themed production, which they then

performed to the whole school. Each

house group could choose a short

script or devise an original piece,

which was the route taken by three

out of four groups. The idea behind

the day was to explore creative arts,

developing speaking and listening

skills, to give students the confidence

to speak/perform in-front of others

and to have some creative fun, de-

veloping confidence and team work.

The school has a whole cohort of

performers, who really shone on the

day. There was a variety of roles

within each group. Some students

designed the sets, while others fo-

cused on hair/make-up and cos-

tumes and of course, some students

performed (a brave thing to do in-

front of peers). As this was the first

time, it was a real challenge for the

students and the staff, but each

group performed something, so

hopefully next year, it will be even

bigger and better…

December 2017 2

D amien, Jack and Joel took part in an experiment to discover if all solids can

turn into a liquid. The pupils first de-cided between them which materi-als/items could be melted and those that could not. The investigation then took a further step by testing out some of their theories.

They heated chocolate, butter, wax, marshmallows, sugar and cheese. They discovered that the materials

take different lengths of time to melt. The sugar did not melt, the pupils decided that this was because a high-er temperature was needed that what the microwave could output. After the wax melted Joel decided to put some in the freezer to see if there was a change in state because it gave a lower than room tempera-ture. He checked after 2 minutes and was excited to see that the wax had

completely set back into a solid.

Later the pupils discussed metals and plastics deciding that they too like the sugar would need high tempera-tures to melt. The boys were con-gratulated for their experiments and theories by heating chocolate in a fondue set so that they could dip the left over marshmallows as a treat for being excellent scientists.

States of Matter

Saffron

Our long standing cleaner rose had to retire after years in dedicated service.

Goodbye Rose

lovely autumn

day at the park-

blowing the cob-

webs

Victorian boat trip By Annamarie

Primary pupils visited the Ellesmere

Port Boat Museum. They took part in

interective activities in the morning

and had the amazing opportunity to

go on a

moving barge in the afternoon along

the canal. The pupils had been re-

searching Victorians transport system

and later at school made Victorian ice

cream.

H a l l o w e e n

Primary pupils have thoroughly em-

braced Halloween activities this year.

All pupils got involved wearing cos-

tumes, playing duck apple/ Hallow-

een hoopla and enjoying a Hallow-

een party. All day children created

Halloween spooky stories and we

took part in drama.

December 2017 7

Ingredients:

1 banana, 250ml milk, 50g Greek

yogurt, 25g oats,30g desiccated

coconut, a few drops of vanilla

extract, maple syrup or honey to

taste, Squirty cream, snowflake

sprinkles., clear plastic cups or

glasses

Method

First prepare the banana – peel

and slice it into rounds, then lay

them out on lined baking tray

and freeze for a couple of hours

or overnight. Before making

the smoothie, prepare the cup or

glass that you are serving it in by

drawing on a fun snowman de-

sign with the marker pens.

To make the smoothie, add the

milk, Greek yogurt, oats, desic-

cated coconut and vanilla extract

to a blender. Remove the banana

pieces from the freezer and add

them to the blender too. Whizz

together until completely

smooth, then taste and add a

little maple syrup or honey to

sweeten if needed. Pour into the

prepared cup or glass and, just

before serving, top with squirty

cream and snowflake sprinkles.

Tansy’ and Susie’s Easy Snowman Smoothies Care UK Refugee Charity UK

By Stuart __________________________

Care UK collect clothes, toys

and other provisions that will help Syrian refugees. They send a container of what is collected once per month and is then dis-tributed around the camps in Syr-ia. Our pupils, Robbie, Jayden, Ryan Elson, Kyle and Jimmy Prescott helped sort and pack toys for the Christmas container. They showed a real interest and compassion for how the refuges are having to live.

Attendance

Class Attendance Prizes: 1st place GH; 2nd place RR; 3rd place WW.

Pupils with 100% attendance for the term: Jayden Bennett, Ashdon Crampton, Jack Ford, Kacie Groves, Chris Hewitt, Damien Johnson, Ben Livesey, Johnny Maughan, Simon Maughan, Mason Thornton

Pupils with improved attendance, ranging from 7% -20% increase in their attendance, comparing the summer term to this current au-tumn term: Robbie Arrowsmith, Ryan Berry, Amy Chester, Chris Hewitt, Connor Jones, Lucas Sexton, Shannon Watson.

Well done to all the pupils, prizes in

December 2017 6

By Stuart

St Rocco’s: Charlie’s Gardening Club Charlie’s Gardening Club has been developed by the patients and the bereaved at St Rocco’s Hospice. Matthew Lomax, Leon Davies and Chris Hewitt have attended each week to help maintain the garden over the past 5 weeks.

Outreach Sports Leader Mentoring As part of the student’s Sports

Leader and Prince’s Trust Qualification the Sports Leader Mentors have delivered ses-sions to year 5/6 pupils at Great Sankey Primary School. Tom Carr, Tom Rowan, Na-than Billingham and Connor Jones have grown in confi-dence and started to de-

liver as-pects of the ses-

sion. During lessons, Tony has been analysing and reviewing each session which has helped de-veloped body language and delivery style.

Feedback from the school has been positive and the Great Sankey pupils have engaged and enjoyed each session. After Christmas we are looking to develop the Outreach Sports Mentoring into more primary schools.

Primary RESPECT Course

As part of the Cardell’s Alter-native Education Pro-gramme Matthew, Laydon,

Leanne, Johny, Finley and Lewis have completed a five week RE-SPECT course.

During the sessions at Birchwood Fire Station they took part in ac-tivities such as hose running, fire safety and team building tasks.

December 2017 3

A clubbercise class was held in school

in November. Gill, a parent of a pupil,

taught the class to 25 enthusiastic

clubbercisers in a darkened room with

disco lights and LED glow sticks. This

was set to a soundtrack of old and new

club hits with a fusion of dance, toning

and combat moves. Friends of Wool-

ston Brook were delighted with the

£166 that was raised from the en-

trance fee and raffle.

clubbercise

Ro c On

P ro j e c t

By Stuart _____________________ RocOn is a project that brings primary school chil-dren into St. Rocos Hospice

over a four-week period. During these sessions they learn about the hospice and engage in activities to devel-op their awareness of living the best they can. Volunteers from the hospice and patients support the pu-pils in small groups. This RocOn we partnered with Burtonwood. Chris Hewitt and Leon Davies were the mentors and they helped support the project. It was amazing to observe how the mentors of Woolston Brook supported both pupils and patient volunteers. They demonstrated real compas-sion, empathy and the feed-back from pupils and volun-teer leaders was fantastic. All the evidence gained will support their Prince’s Trust qualifications.

Primary pupils

had the fan-

tastic oppor-

tunity

to

attend

Pettypool

Outdoor Activity Centre

for the day. The pupils

had the opportunity to build

a den, Climbing Wall, Crate

staking and Archery. All

pupils involved loved the day and we looking forward to going back.

next year.

December 2017 4

By Will

Pupils in school have

been highly creative

during the Autumn/

Winter term. Year 11’s

work for portfolio sub-

missions towards the

GCSE exam have really

concentrated on obser-

vational drawing. Years

7-10 have also made

careful drawings of nat-

ural objects such as sea

shells, and old walking boots. We

even loaned monkey, bear and

dolphin skulls from Warrington

Museum for added inspiration!

GCSE pupils have begun to extend

their course submission work by

using photography, to comple-

ment their drawings and 3D ob-

jects. Two pupils went to visit the

Anthony Gormley statues at Cros-

by beach. There, they staged dra-

matic scenes to give the effect of

being chased by the ghoulish iron

figures in the tide.

Once back in the art class they

were then able to experiment

with photography effects to make

‘Chilling’ images and these are

now intended to be a book jacket

cover for a short story that Cam-

eron has written.

As well as gallery vis-

its to the Lady Lever

Gallery to view the

‘Japanese Prints

and Costume

Exhibition’,

year 10 pu-

pils also

had the

oppor-

tunity

to

work

with a

practic-

ing

artist.

Louise

Weir

who is well

known as

an

artist and illustrator for the

‘Ministry of Sound’ came in to

school to deliver a workshop on

landscape art. Each pupil got to

see a practicing artist working,

and then take part, using lots of

techniques with ink,

and

draw-

ing with

branches,

twigs and

feather

quills. Later

in the day,

Louise

demonstrat-

ed how to create watercol-

our backgrounds to show

the seasonal colours and

the reflections in wa-

ter. These were later

combined in

Photoshop

layers to

give

amaz-

ing

re-

December 2017 5

sults. Louise commented, “How

fantastic our students are” and

added pictures of the day, and

the work being made, alongside

her own, on her artists’ website.

We were delighted to have for-

mer A* pupil, Remi Evitt-Healy

back in school to run a Horror

makeup workshop with some

pupils. Remi was able to demon-

strate his expert skills at apply-

ing authentic-looking cuts and

scars and lashings of fake blood.

The pupils pick up so many

great tips and Remi was able tell

us about his A Level art studies

at Priestly College… Well done

Remi!!

The success of this day resulted

in all pupils then creating a

‘Winter Inspired’ landscape on

the lead up to Christmas. The

pictures show-case the excep-

tional talents and the hard work

of our children here at Wool-

ston Brook, and we decided to

make them into Christmas

cards.

The cards could be bought indi-

vidually, or in packs of six, for £1

and £5 respectively. They were

very popular and raised over

£60 for ‘Friends of Woolston

Brook. We hope to continue this

and will make cards available at

various times of year. Any funds

raised in future will really help

to support gallery trips and in-

viting practicing artists to give

workshops.