Windsor Girls' School - Merry Christmas - Windsor Girls' School

 
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Windsor Girls' School - Merry Christmas - Windsor Girls' School
Windsor Girls’ School
 18 December 2020

                         Merry Christmas
Well done to all students for ending the term, and 2020, with such positive and kind attitudes. Your
Tutors, Year Leaders and SLT are all very proud of you.
Windsor Girls' School - Merry Christmas - Windsor Girls' School
Dear Parents and Carers

In this final week of term we have been celebrating Christmas and the end of term, though these
celebrations have been a little different this year.

We held our Co-Headteacher breakfast virtually this week with eight of our students to celebrate
some outstanding achievements. These students were recommended by their teachers and we
were delighted to be able to congratulate them on their success.

Congratulations also to our trainee teachers for completing the first term of their Initial Teacher
Training in exceptional circumstances. They will be starting their second placement after the
holiday, so we wish them the best of luck in their new schools and look forward to welcoming them
back to complete their training at Windsor Girls’ School.

Well done to our Year 13 students, many of whom have now submitted their UCAS applications for
university entrance and met our school deadline. Lots of excellent offers have been received and
students will complete their final choices based on these offers in the spring.

All Tutor Groups have responded magnificently this week in donating food gifts for the Reverse
Advent Calendar on behalf of West Berkshire Food Bank. We feel very proud that our students have
shown such generosity in contributing to help those in need this festive season.

We are also proud of the students in all Tutor Groups who wrote cards to send to care home
residents and staff as part of the Cards to Care Homes initiative. These students have shown real
kindness and demonstrated the true spirit of Christmas.

Finally, we held a number of virtual events to celebrate Christmas on the final day of the term. Our
musicians sang and played seasonal songs and the staff band also performed their traditional set
and Tutor Groups took part in Christmas themed quizzes and competitions. Thank you to everyone
involved in organising these events and for enabling us all to enjoy some Windsor Girls’ School
traditions even though we had to do this differently.

We wish all of you and your families a safe and happy Christmas and look forward to seeing all of
our staff and students in the New Year.

Kind regards,

Mr P Griffiths and Mrs E O’Carroll
Co-Headteachers

Windsor Girls’ School         @WGSWindsorGirls     WGS Geography               @GeographyWgs
Careers at Windsor Girls’ School @careersWGS       WGS Aspiring High           @WGSAspiringHigh
Windsor Girls’ PE             @WGSPE               WGS English                 @WindsorGirlsEng
PE Instagram                  wgs_pe               Windsor Girls D of E        @wgsdofe
Windsor Girls’ LRC            @WGS_LRC             Windsor Music               @twbsmusic
WGS Science                   @WGS_Science         Friends of Windsor Girls’   @FriendsofWGS
WGS MFL                       @WGSMFLdept          WGS Sociology               @sociologyWGS
Windsor Girls' School - Merry Christmas - Windsor Girls' School
SIXTH FORM

                                                                                        Congratulations to our Year
                                                                                        13 students who have been
                                                                                        working so hard on
                                                                                        completing personal
                                                                                        statements. Offers continue
                                                                                        to come in and many
Year Information                                                                        students have been invited
                                                                                        for interviews for Medicine,
Donations for the Interact Christmas jumper day, in aid of Women’s Aid and              Education and Social Work.
Endometriosis UK are still being collected. Please pay £1 through
ParentPay.                                                                              Opportunities for
                                                                                        Apprenticeships continue to
Message from your Year Leader                                                           be advertised and many
                                                                                        more opportunities will open
                                        Year 9                                          up for applicants early next
Year 9 have experienced a very different learning experience this week having           year so keep your eyes
taken part in a full week of remote learning; I hope that you found the variety of      peeled.
tasks set by teachers interesting and useful in supporting your learning. I have
thoroughly enjoyed receiving photos of student work that has been completed to a        When students return in
high quality, a huge well done for all your efforts.                                    January, they will be issued
                                                                                        with ID reader cards. This
As we reach the end of your first big term as a Windsor Girls' School student, I'd      will include facilities to cover
like to congratulate you all for adapting so well to the challenges that this unusual   the cashless catering system
academic year has brought us. I hope that you all enjoy a well-earned Christmas
                                                                                        due to commence later in the
break with your families, whilst keeping safe and well.
                                                                                        month.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
See you in 2021, Miss Edwards
                                                                                        The Year 12 and Year 13
                                        Year 10                                         Student Leaders have done a
Year 10 have been working really well in the run up to Christmas. It has been           fantastic job co-ordinating the
lovely to see the festive spirit in each Tutor Group and everyone coming together       Reverse Advent Calendars,
to donate to the Reverse Advent Calendar. The amount that has been collected            you continue to make us so
really shows how dedicated and supportive Year 10 are in helping others; the            proud.
festive looking boxes have been a nice addition too. At break times, it has been
lovely to hear of Secret Santa exchanges going on and also to talk to many              We really hope you have a
students about what Christmas means to them and how excited they are for the            fantastic, restful break, and
break.                                                                                  you and your families all stay
                                                                                        safe!
I also want to add how well Year 10 have been engaging in live lessons after            Mrs Quéré and Mrs Jenkins
being informed on Wednesday that the Year group would have to self-isolate.
You have continued to work hard until the very end of term. We are aware that
some of you may be isolating again, whilst for others, this could be the first time. Please reach out to your Tutors or
myself if you want to speak about anything as we are here to help and support.

I hope you all have a well-earned Christmas break with your families whilst keeping safe and well. I look forward to
seeing you all in 2021. Merry Christmas all, from Miss O'Gorman

                                        Year 11
Well... what a term! A huge well done to all Year 11 students on this term – it has certainly been a busy one! Thank
you for all your hard work over the last few months, it has not gone unnoticed. As we come to the end of this year, I
want to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope you and your families enjoy the time
spent together and I hope you all continue to be safe. I would encourage you to rest and relax this holiday. You
have all worked incredibly hard over the last few weeks and you fully deserve the break. I look forward to seeing you
all in January.
Miss Castle
Windsor Girls' School - Merry Christmas - Windsor Girls' School
Christmas Events

To celebrate the end of term, students and staff participated in a morning full of activities with their
Tutor group on Friday, 18 December. The session celebrated the hard work of students throughout
this term and 2020. Whilst wearing their Christmas jumpers, Students took part in a series of tasks
including watching virtual performances from the Windsor Girls’ School Staff Band and Christmas
readings by the Co-Headteachers, and students in Years 10 to 13.

Students had the opportunity to celebrate with their classmates, whilst making kindness baubles and
competing in a Christmas Quiz. Staff and students were treated to virtual recordings of music
performances by the GCSE music classes and the WGS tradition of performing 12 Days of
Christmas was maintained through a virtual recorded performance. Messages from staff were
shared.
Windsor Girls' School - Merry Christmas - Windsor Girls' School
Reverse Advent Calendar

      ‘In these tough times, there are more people than ever
      relying on food banks. This is why the school chose to
      do a Reverse Advent Calendar in support of West Berks Foodbank. Each
      day, the students have been bringing items in to be collected in their Tutor
      rooms. On Wednesday, the Student Leaders collated the boxes from every
      Tutor group and we were delighted to receive such a huge number of
      donations.

      Thank you to everyone who donated!
      Your generosity will make a massive
      difference to people’s Christmas.’

      Emily Helsby & Daisy Willcock, Year 13

  10N Pass the Parcel
 10N enjoyed a festive game of pass the
 parcel in Tutor time on Tuesday.
Windsor Girls' School - Merry Christmas - Windsor Girls' School
Merry Christmas
Windsor Girls' School - Merry Christmas - Windsor Girls' School
Christmas Cards for Care Homes

Over 60 Christmas cards have been sent to care home residents and care home workers by the
students of Windsor Girls’ School. Students volunteered to write a message to thank the staff of
care homes in Berkshire or to wish the residents of the care homes a Merry Christmas.

‘When I volunteered at a care home during the pandemic I saw the impact that the Covid restrictions
limiting social contact had on the residents and I wanted to help send a message to all the residents
in care homes that will find this Christmas tougher than usual. We wanted them to know that we are
thinking of them and wishing them the best. Additionally, to the staff of these care homes to show
how thankful we are that they are devoting so much time and effort to help our community.’

- Maria Burr, Year 13

The community of WGS would like wish all care home residents and staff a wonderful Christmas and
a happy and healthy 2021.
Windsor Girls' School - Merry Christmas - Windsor Girls' School
Food Technology - Festive Baking

Students have been cooking up a festive storm in Food Technology lessons this week.
Windsor Girls' School - Merry Christmas - Windsor Girls' School
Year 9 Drama

We have really missed seeing the Year
9s making these projects. We hope that
the ones that were able to complete
them at home have enjoyed finishing
their theatrical box sets. The students
who were able to complete them in
school last week have done an amazing
job. Well done Year 9.
Windsor Girls' School - Merry Christmas - Windsor Girls' School
History
Year 9 might be self-isolating this week but they have been very active online uploading their
research into several medical pioneers of the Renaissance era, for example, Thomas Sydenham
and Ambroise Pare. Well done Year 9!

Year 10 have just finished their GCSE unit on Early Elizabethan England so as a treat played a
game in lessons called 'Welcome to the colony' in which they need to survive in an early Virginian
colony for 10 months! Great fun was had by all! They have also been learning about Elizabethan
Christmas traditions, many of which still exist today!

Year 12 and 13 have been utilising the SatchelOne quizzes this past week to ensure they are able to
recall knowledge on the American Revolution and the Civil Rights of Native Americans. A huge well
done to all three classes who managed to get an average this week of 83% correct throughout!

                                                                             83%
Year 9 ICT

As we end a challenging year, it’s safe to say Digital Technology continues to play an important role
in our society, learning and skills development. To bring some festive fun and coding skill together
we are using Google’s Santa Tracker in this week’s remote lessons. I hope the students have
enjoyed learning and playing on this website and maybe some competitions at home over
Christmas. The particular challenges we’ve asked the students to focus on are:

                                                              https://santatracker.google.com/gumball.html
                                                              https://santatracker.google.com/codeboogie.html
                                                              https://santatracker.google.com/mercator.html
                                                              https://santatracker.google.com/codelab.html
                                                              https://santatracker.google.com/speedsketch.html
                                                              https://santatracker.google.com/snowbox.html

We hope you and your daughter enjoy the ICT games and do develop coding skills that we will build
on into 2021. Have a restful break and please keep the balance with Technology, whilst I clearly
have an interest in it – it’s not as important as human interactions, connection with nature and
reflecting on life’s positives.

It’s got to be a Happier New Year in 2021!

Mr Stevenson, Mr Edwards, Miss Holgate – the ICT Team.
MFL - Spanish
The Year 9 students have been working beautifully at home on sport and Christmas in Spain.

Year 10s are developing their writing skills very nicely and have completed their first 90 words
writing assessment:

                                                          The Year 11s have been
                                                          developing their extended writing
                                                          skills:
MFL - Year 10 French

                            We are so proud of our Year 10
                            French students! Their end of unit
                            assessment was a speaking
                            presentation on Ma Ville. They
                            designed towns and prepared
                            information to share with their
                            peers. They have been working
                            on    their   pronunciation      and
                            confidence when speaking French
                            and the range of sentence
                            structures that they built into their
                            work was fantastic.       Here are
                            some of the beautiful towns that
                            they created:
‘

         Theatre Awards - Elvie Dsane
    ‘On the 6th of December the British Theatre Academy held an online award ceremony, the Vanessa
    Awards, to celebrate all the young performers that are with them, I was one of these young
    performers and had been put up for three different awards, one being “the most promising
    newcomer” and the others being “best supporting actress” and their singing award. It’s my first year
    with the British Theatre Academy and I was so lucky to get nominated for all of these awards. It’s a
    huge achievement and I am over the moon that I was given the opportunity to be seen by thousands
    of talented actors in the industry.’

    - Elvie Dsane, Year 9
PE - Sports Ambassadors
We would like to congratulate all of the students who were elected as Sports Leaders and Captains
for the WGS PE Department. These students are going to be responsible for assisting in planning
internal and external events & fixtures. They will be working closely with schools in the local area
and being active role models within the WGS community. We are excited for the year ahead and
cannot wait to see what they achieve.

                    PE - Active in Minds
This year in the PE department we are also taking part in a project run by Youth Sport Trust. This
programme, Active in Minds; allows a selected group of Year 9 students to engage in opportunities
to build confidence in themselves and their relationship with sport. This will be achieved through
using psycho-social tools and stress-busting strategies, as well as creating innovative peer
mentoring and physical activity opportunities. We also have the added support from an allocated
professional athlete, Ian Rose. Ian is a Silver & Bronze Paralympic medallist in Judo, along with
holding the title as the 1995 World Judo Champion.

                                    Sociology
                           ‘

Students in Sociology have been drawing on all their knowledge of sociological theories,
Functionalism, Marxism and Feminism and bringing this together to explore how Christmas traditions
reinforce society's norms and values. From watching the Queen's Speech, to using elves to make
sure children behave!
If you wish to get ahead, don't forget to use the following websites

https://www.tutor2u.net/sociology
https://revisesociology.com/

And also remember to follow our Sociology Instagram @windsorgirlssociology account, weekly
quizzes continue on Wednesdays and Sundays.

We wish all our students a restful break.
Year 11 Science
                       Independent Learning in Physics with Mr Hainitz

Mr Hainitz has been encouraging Independent Learning with Year 11 this term. Lesson by lesson
they build knowledge, then students are required to demonstrate and document this using written
communication skills. Work is marked according to agreed criteria and must encompass the
requirements of the specification. Some of our students have thrived when allowed the freedom to
work independently in this way. This deserves a huge well done to both Mr Hainitz and our Year 11
Scientists for their effort and focus as they are working diligently towards good academic
achievements this summer.
Year 9

                      Charlotte Roberts

                                                                             Claudia Goncalves

Year 9 students are reminded that they can access their remote learning resources at:

https://www.windsorgirls.net/year-groups/year-9/curriculum

           Millie Edwards

                                                                 Eleanor Stone
The Windsorian
Hi all,

The Community & Communications Committee would like to say thank
you to everyone for all the hard work you've done this year! We are
proud to release the first issue of The Windsorian for this academic
year.

It is an entirely student-run newspaper, and we have put together
articles about a variety of different things, from coffee reviews to books
to local businesses you should support, and much more. (You may
also notice that we have redesigned the layout completely; it was about
time for a change!)

By the time this notice in the Newsletter is sent out, the Christmas issue
of The Windsorian should be emailed out to everyone as well. We
hope you enjoy the articles and hope that some more of you will be
interested in writing for us next year. If you are, please email us at
thewindsorian@windsorgirls.net and we will get in contact with you as
soon as possible.

Additionally, we have also launched our committee specific email handle, so you can email us if you
have any questions or concerns that may involve our committee's responsibilities. You can contact
us at: communicationscommittee2021@windsorgirls.net

Best wishes and Merry Christmas!

From the Communications Student Leaders

      PE Extra-Curricular Activities
                      Monday              Tuesday           Wednesday         Thursday       Friday

 After School       Netball Year 9      Netball Year 10    Dance Year 9      Rugby Year 10
3:15pm-4:15pm        Sports Hall          Sports Hall        4 Motion            ASD
                        ESR                  CCE

                                                           Yoga Year 10      Rugby Year 9
                   Football Year 10     Football Year 9      4 Motion           SSCO
                      Back Field            SSCO
                        ASD
                                                                               GCSE PE
                                        Active in Mind                         Revision
                                             ASD                                 ESR
Maths

Students have enjoyed a Christmas themed lesson to finish this term in
Maths.

Year 13 soon realised how difficult A-level Maths colour by number could
be. Year 10 set 3 enjoyed a Christmas quiz, where bonus points where
given for dancing. Year 10 set 1 and set 6 enjoyed making snowflakes,
and if you would like to make one too we have included the link below.

The whole Maths department wishes everyone a safe and relaxing break,
and we look forward to seeing you in the New Year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT2oeNkTOAk

              Parking on Longbourne
We have had complaints from residents of Longbourne regarding parent and carer parking.

If parent and carer parking at 3:00pm pick up does not improve, residents will request a parking
restriction from RBWM from 2:00pm – 4:00pm, preventing anyone from parking along this road.

Longbourne have reported double parking blocking traffic and emergency vehicles, damage to lawn
areas and damage to their gates.

We have requested police assistance in dealing with this matter.

Please be considerate to residents and other drivers.
‘

    University & Apprenticeship Fairs

                                         Spring 2021 Events
    Thank you very much to everyone who took part in our events this year, since our first virtual fair
    in June over 55,000 students have joined us to explore their post-18 options. We're very pleased
     to announce that next January and February we will be hosting two brand-new virtual events
      with a huge range of exhibitors, interactive activities, live webinars and the opportunity to ask
     questions directly to universities, colleges and apprenticeship providers from all across the UK.

    UK University & Apprenticeship Search Virtual Fair
    Wednesday 27 January | 12:00 - 18:00

    Perfect for Years 11, 12 & 13 this event is designed to allow
    students to explore a wide range of universities, colleges and
    apprenticeships, whether you're just starting your research or
    making your final decisions. There will also be a new webinar line-
    up, and a competition!

                                 Find out More and Register for Free

                                  Meet the Russell Group - Virtual Event
                                  Wednesday 10 February | 12:00 - 19:00

                                    Designed for students aiming to study at a Russell Group
                                  university, this virtual event will allow you to explore all 24 Russell
                                  Group Universities and chat to their representatives. You can
                                  also take part in 13 live and interactive webinars throughout the
                                  day; including a new Parent and Teacher Support session.

                                  Find out More and Register for Free

     Want to receive updates about our future events, webinars and videos - as well as information
     and support from unis and apprenticeships directly into your inbox?
                                Sign-up for our free Email Updates
Teaching Assistant Vacancy

WINDSOR GIRLS’ SCHOOL
An Outstanding School
Imperial Road Windsor Berks SL4 3RT
NOR: 720 Sixth Form: 200+
Ages: 13-19
Telephone: 01753 795155

Windsor Girls' School is a Teaching School with NLE/NSS designation.

Teaching Assistant
Required for January 2021

Up to 20 hours per week (8.55am – 2.55pm) term time only

Salary £19,563-£19,954 per annum pro rata

(Actual Salary: £8943 - £9122)

You would join a small friendly team dedicated to student support. Previous experience in a
secondary school would be an advantage. There may be a requirement to undertake some
basic physiotherapy with a student, full training will be provided.

Windsor Girls' School was graded as outstanding in all categories by Ofsted in 2013. You
would join us at an exciting phase as we move from outstanding to exceptional.

See our website www.windsorgirls.net for the Job Accountability and Application Form.
Return by email to Tracy Burfoot, PA to the Headteacher at burft001@windsorgirls.net or
by post to the school.

Applications will be considered on receipt
We reserve the right to appoint before the closing date

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. All posts are sub-
                                    ject to an enhanced DBS check.
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