Good evening

We have had an excellent day today with useful training taking place for staff who are eager to put this training into practice! I hope students and families have also had the chance to make the most of the four-day weekend!

As usual, we have lots of news to update you upon including some trips as well as some more operational items!

Arbor

Thank you for your ongoing patience whilst we fully migrate our systems to Arbor. Inevitably there will be some unknown bumps in the road with such a large-scale operation as this change of system, but we are confident that it will provide a simple and easy to use interface between school and home. Students should now have full access to the app via their mobile devices and can of course use an internet browser to login. A reminder that homework is now being set on Arbor rather than Go4Schools.

The Play that Goes Wrong:

The drama team write: ‘On Wednesday evening, 66 pupils went down to the Duchess Theatre in London to watch the production of Mischief Theatre’s ‘The Play that Goes Wrong’.  Without exception the pupils were outstanding ambassadors for the school and laughed their way through the hilarious performance; with members of the public commenting on what great children they are! With the best seats in the house, the pupils have been inspired by seeing professionals tread the boards and everyone ended the night asking what performance might come next!’

A Night of Shakespeare:

We are extremely excited to announce that The Wollaston Foundation Theatre Company will be presenting their inaugural show ‘A Night of Shakespeare’ in the New Performing Arts Studio on Wednesday evening with tickets available on Parentpay for those who wish to come.  Bookings will close on Tuesday 26^th November at midday so please ensure you have secured your seat if you wish to attend!

Children in Need

As usual we showed our generosity of our community with our fund raising around Children in Need. The final count donated has come to £1181.21. Thank you to all parents, students and staff who donated.

Baby Basics Charity

Next week (Tuesday 26^th) we have a group of students who will be taking donations of baby basics to the Baby Basics Warehouse to prepare moses baskets full of donations from Wollaston School community in readiness to be distributed to vulnerable mothers. Thank you to all students, families and staff who donated to the Baby Basics charity. All donations have been greatly appreciated.

National Poetry

Miss Bradshaw writes: ‘We recently enrolled students in a national poetry competition organised by the Young Writers Association as part of their English lessons. We are proud to announce that 72 students have been successfully selected for publication in the latest poetry anthology. Once the anthology is published, the school will receive two copies, allowing us to see our students featured in a published book.

Next half term, Young Writers will be announcing the schools and individual winners from all of the entries. If I receive any positive news from this then I will update you!’

Key Dates

Tuesday 26^th November Year 11 & 13 Mock Exams commence

Wednesday 27^th November A Night of Shakespeare

Thursday 28^th November Year 10 Parents’ Evening

Thursday 5^th December Year 7 Parents’ Evening

Best wishes for the week ahead.

Simon Anderson