Latest News

25th March 2022

A Room for Reflection
We are thrilled to see our new prayer room finally taking shape after weeks of planning. The room has been funded by Friar Lane and Braunstone Baptist Church and Maz and David from the church have been adding the finishing touches recently. It is hoped that the room will be used by all students who need a quiet space to pray and reflect, and will eventually reflect the vibrant mix of faiths that make up our school community.

18th March 2022

Red Nose Day
We had a whole week of bake sales in the run up to this year’s Comic Relief, with each of our school houses taking a turn to run a stall in the hall at break times. On Red Nose day staff and students wore something red and made a donation, it was great to see so many people joining in and showing their support to this fantastic cause. But, who would have thought the most popular activity of the day would be throwing things at Mr Megginson and Mr Bradley? Students really enjoyed the opportunity to throw rice pudding, mushy peas and beans, with a huge queue forming to take a turn!  Well done to both of them for being such good sports and providing such a fun-filled lunchtime!
TOTAL RAISED from all activities – £508.37 well done Winstanley!

11th March 2022

Supporting the people of Ukraine
Yet again we are amazed at the generosity of our students, parents and staff. With just 24 hours notice we collected a vast amount of items to send to the people of Ukraine. The items filled the SHINE Centre minibus, and were delivered to the Ukrainian Community Centre in Leicester, where they will be shipped out to where they are most needed.
Thank you so much to everyone who has donated.

10th March 2022

We can build it!
Some of our Year 8 girls took part in ‘Changing the Face of construction’ an educational initiative run by Blaby District Council. It is an event for girls to find out about the different roles within the construction industry and take part in games and activities related to construction roles. A big thank you to the volunteers:
Jo and Clem – Blaby District council
Tillie – Davidsons Homes
Yasmin and Nyasha – Lendlease

8th March 2022

Girls SHINE Brighter
On the 8th March we hosted our 3rd Annual Girls SHINE Brighter event to coincide with International Women’s Day. Our female students assembled to hear from some fantastic key speakers including Amanda Blanc, Group CEO of Aviva and David Wilkinson from the Space Centre. Girls also had the opportunity to take part in a ’round robin’ session where they were able to speak to women from a whole host of careers to find out more about their roles, career paths and the road to success. The event was hosted by our Prefects to encourage leadership skills and the importance of both boys and girls taking steps to #breakthebias and encourage a gender equal future.
Towards the end of the event we had a live link up and joined other schools in our MAT, this enabled our students to voice their own hopes and expectations for the future. Currently women only make up 8% of CEOs in the top 100 companies in the UK. By empowering our students we hope they will strive for equality so that women become influential decision makers of the future.
Special thanks to Julie – Jordan Motors, Jacqui – Practical Printers Ltd (Retired), Ben – Director of Learning, LiFE MAT, Sarah – Finance Manager, LiFE MAT, Fran – Security Operations Manager, Casie – Ex-Student from The Winstanley School, Alice – NHS OT, Shagufta – Leicester NHS Trust, David – The National Space Centre, Rachel – NHS OT, Beth – Open Hands and Kirsty – Director of Campus Services, Leicester University.

3rd March 2022

World Book Day

All of our Year 7 and 8 students have been given a new book and their WDB voucher to celebrate 25 Years of World Book day. Staff and students dressed up as their favourite book characters, the maths team chose the Wizard of Oz! Well done to everyone who dressed up[ – there were some fantastic costumes. See more on social media.

2nd March 2022

A Magical School Trip!
The English Department had an amazing time taking students in Years 8 and 9 to Harry Potter Studios this week! The students loved being able to visit Diagon Alley, walk through the Great Hall and open a bank account in Gringotts to store all their knuts, sickles and galleons. It was such a pleasure to be able to get back out on a school visit and we hope to offer many more in the future. A brilliant day out!

27th January 2022

Light The Darkness
Students at Winstanley have marked #HolocaustRemembranceDay by taking part in a remote assembly and lighting candles in their tutors groups. We also heard one of our ‘Stand Up’ Ambassadors, Amara read a poem, with some thought provoking words. During Tutor Time students have also been thinking about what we can learn from the holocaust to make the future a better place. Students have been discussing these thoughts and creating a group pledge based on this year’s theme – ONE DAY. It’s an important part of our school ethos to enable our young people to have a voice and encourage them to be kind, thoughtful and to respect difference, so that they become proactive citizens who strive for social justice.

24th January 2022

What have we learnt from the Holocaust?
Last week 10 of our students from Year 8 attended a powerful ambassadors conference led by the National Holocaust Centre and Museum. The students learned about hate crime and listened to talks by both perpetrators and victims of hate crimes. Speakers included Holocaust Survivor, Dr Martin Stern and representatives from the Sophie Lancaster Charity who discussed their experiences and the impact of prejudice and hate crime.
This week students will be thinking about their vision for the future and how we can all play our part in preventing hatred as we mark Holocaust Memorial Day on Thursday, 27th January.

18th January 2022

Bah Humbug!
Today our Year 10 and 11 students enjoyed a fantastic performance of A Christmas Carol, thanks to touring theatre group Quantum Theatre . The performance took place in the hall and featured just three actors performing all the roles. It really bought the story to life for students who are studying it as part of the English Literature syllabus. Watching a live performance from talented performers will help the students to understand the language used by Dickens in the correct context and will enable them to recall key phrases in exams.

13th December 2021

Supporting Others in The SHINE Centre
Students in The SHINE Centre have put together some fantastic care hampers for two organisations. They have carefully thought about what items would be useful for people who are homeless and living on the streets during the Christmas period.
They have also collected items for the Leicester based charity, Baby Basics and today Laura Hutchinson came to collect the items they had collected and to visit The SHINE Centre. She had a little chat with our students about what it is that Baby Basics Leicester do, and students asked some really good questions so they could find out more about the work that they do with local families. Baby Basics help about 55 families a month not just with baby products but with products for new mums, products for older siblings, toys, books and clothing for toddlers, as well as providing a safe space for babies to sleep and pushchairs.

10th December 2021

Awards Evening Success
Congratulations to Mrs Boyce, who won the OUTSTANDING EDUCATION CITIZEN AWARD at last night’s Leicestershire Live Education Awards evening. It is an amazing achievement, and fantastic recognition for her work enabling our students to have a voice and stand up for social justice.
We were disappointed not to win School of the Year, but glad that the award went to a school in our local area, well done to Braunstone Community Primary School.

2nd December 2021

Well Done Winstanley!
We’ve had another bumper collection of food and toiletries this year for Open Hands. Students have only had one week to put their tutor group hampers together for this week’s House Challenge, and their generosity has been outstanding! Open Hands are a charity based in the city that helps some of the most vulnerable people and families in need, in the city and through their food bank in Braunstone. Last year they also supported families at our school with a special Christmas hamper to help them through the festive season. We would like to thank everyone who has helped us to help others!

24th November 2021

No Pens Day
Yesterday staff and students took part in #NoPensWednesday which is a day organised by a national organisation to improve communication skills for students of all ages. It encourages teachers to try out new approaches and engage students in exciting pen-free activities to improve speaking and understanding skills.
Here are some of the activities:-
Both Year 11 and Year 8 took part in Poetry Recitation during their English lessons. Students really enjoyed sitting back and using their listening skills to appreciate the words and meaning of the poems.
Year 9 and 10 Media Studies students undertook magazine cover analysis in groups – being able to discuss the feature of the magazine using media language is a really good skill to acquire and one that they can apply to different aspects of the course.
Hospitality & Catering students took part in cookery practicals. Year 10 baked mini Christmas cakes and fairy cakes. Communication and good listening skills are vital in a busy kitchen.
Year 11 took part in virtual mock interviews with local employers arranged by Leicestershire Cares and our Careers Coordinators.
A fantastic opportunity to practice real-life communication skills ready for college or employment.
Year 7 took part in a role-play Q&A with the characters from their reading book, The Terrific Thing that Happened to Barnaby Brocket. Students played the parts of Francis and Captain Hoseasons. It was a great way to embed their understanding of the book and its characters.
In Maths lessons, students were exploring 3D shapes and grasping the concepts of area and volume through making models. There were some great logic puzzles to complete using coloured counters, which really got students thinking!
In Geography Year 7s watched and discussed how low income countries cope in temperatures over 50oC. In groups and using just two sheets of A3, one glue stick and one pair of scissors they had to create something to help keep people in poverty cool. They had a fantastic debate and it was great to see even the quieter students getting involved.
It was fantastic to see so many creative and innovative ways to support learning. The day also helps teachers to identify pupils who need additional support or need to learn using different methods. Well done to Mrs Hendra for coordinating another great #NoPensDay at Winstanley.

19th November 2021

Winstanley Wedding
The whole of Year 10 took part in a mock wedding to support the GCSE Religious Studies topic on ‘Marriage and the Family’ in Christianity. Students played the roles of the wedding party and Mr Turner as Father of the Bride. Rihanna and Ibrahim played the happy couple and representatives from Friar Lane & Braunstone Baptist Church led the service. Students all took part in the ceremony which was brought to life by the fact that we were in a real place of worship. The benefit of recreating a realistic event is that students really do remember the key facts and have excelled when answering exam questions on this topic in their assessments and exams.
Special thanks should also go to students who played an active role in the ceremony – Ellis who had the important job of best man, Julienne and Chelsea who provided some beautiful singing, Beth, TiaDora, Keisha and Megan who were the bridesmaids, Archie and Guvinder who did the scripture reading, Damien, Reon, Mason and Dawud who were ushers.
We want to especially thank everyone at Friar Lane and Braunstone Church who enabled us to provide this fantastic opportunity for our students. They really do make our students feel welcome and had recreated a wedding reception for the students who were rehearsing their roles prior to the event so that they could eat their pizza in style!

17th November 2021

Eco Club

This week our Eco-Club students completed another litter pick in the local community. Thank you to Geoff from the Braunstone Wombles for helping our students make a difference in their local area.

15th November 2021

Today saw the start of Anti Bullying Week at Winstanley, staff and students wore their Odd Socks for school to show their support and raise awareness of the effects of bullying.  This year the theme is ‘One Kind Word’ that can sometimes be all it takes to break the cycle of bullying.  All week the focus in tutor time will be kindness encouraging our students to make a stand against bullying and hate.

11th November 2021

Winstanley Remembers
We were very proud of our students today as we held our whole school Remembrance Event. The two-minute silence was held respectfully, and everyone was really impressed by the students who had an active role in speaking, welcoming guests and laying wreaths. We were pleased to welcome Cllr Satindra Sangha, Deputy Town Mayor of Braunstone Town, Cllr Phil Moitt from Braunstone Town Council, Tracy Gaskin from Blaby District Council, the Clerk to Braunstone Town Council and two of our school Governors.
We will be displaying some of the beautiful poppy tributes made by our students around the school for the next few weeks, as we think they were amazing!

18th November 2020

Workshop on Hate Crime
Today we were joined by Kelly and Dr Manny Barot from the National Holocaust Centre who are delivering workshops to our Year 8 students during this term. They spoke to students about how we can learn important lessons from the horror of the holocaust, how hate crime is still happening and how students can become ambassadors for social justice by recognising and standing up to discrimination and hatred. Students were really engaged in hearing about Dr Manny’s experiences and they also contributed to the class discussion about how they can become upstanders and speak out about unfair treatment and bullying. We are glad to be able to welcome back outside organisations who are able to provide authentic learning experiences for our students to enrich their curriculum. If you would like to find out more follow this link to watch the Stand-Up football video created for Holocaust Memorial Day 2020, students are also able to email their creative responses to the workshops and be featured on the page – https://bit.ly/37OEBnW

27th April 2020

Well done to all Winstanley staff who took part in last week’s 5K challenge. Staff either walked, ran or cycled 5K, donated £5 and nominated 5 colleagues to take part too. We raised £372 in total. We now challenge parents and students to have a go, details are on our weekly newsletter available later today. #supportingothers

18th November

Winstanley Wedding

The whole of Year 10 took part in a mock wedding to support the GCSE Religious Studies topic on ‘Marriage and the Family’ in Christianity. Students played the roles of the wedding party and were supported by Heads of Year (as mother of the bride and groom) and Mr Bennett as Father of the Bride. Mya and Brad played the happy couple and representatives from Friar Lane & Braunstone Baptist Church led the service. Students all took part in the ceremony which was brought to life by the fact that we were in a real place of worship. It created an authentic learning experience for all involved and made for a thoroughly enjoyable Religious Studies lesson.
Special thanks should also go to students who played an active role in the ceremony – Michael who had the important job of best man, Ashley and Shalom who provided some amazing musical performances, Vanessa, Julia and Iye who were the bridesmaids, Khalid who did the scripture reading, Sukhpreet, Toby, Rahul, Sam and Reegan who were ushers and especially to everyone at Friar Lane and Braunstone Church who enabled us to provide this fantastic opportunity for our students.

15th November

In Print!

Some of our students’ work has been published in a book of short stories. Students who requested copies received them during Tutor Time and were excited to see their work printed and published. Young Writer’s encourages students to create imaginative writing on a theme, this year the title is Mission Chaos. If your child ordered a copy they can be collected from the English Department. Congratulations to all the students who were chosen to be featured in this years edition.

14th November

Change Begins With YOU…

Today our Year 9 and 10 students were shown the film ‘Black Roses’ as part of ‘Anti-Bullying’ week.
The moving and emotional film was created by the charity ‘Sophie’ to raise awareness and prevention of hate crime following the horrific and mindless murder of Sophie Lancaster in 2007. Following the film students were able to ask questions of a panel made up from Odette Freeman – close friend of Sophie’s Mum, Julian Robinson – Victim Impact Worker, Inspector Emma Maxwell from Hinckley and Blaby Police and Isla Dixon – Hate Crime Officer from Leicestershire Police.
Sophie Lancaster and her partner were attacked by a gang of teenagers in a park in Lancashire, they were kicked, stamped on and left unconscious for nothing more than looking different. Sophie died over a week later of her horrific injuries. Her family wanted to ensure a lasting legacy to their daughter which aims to highlight her story and challenge mindset towards ‘difference’ and they work particularly with young people in preventing hate crime. To find our more follow this link – https://bit.ly/2Qi98lt

11th November

Winstanley Remember Together

To recognise Remembrance Day we held our first ever whole school Remembrance Ceremony. We were joined by Braunstone Town Deputy Mayor, Cllr Darshan Singh, Cllr Phil Moitt, Vice Chairman of Blaby Distric Council, Rev Keith Magee, Vicar of St Peters Church, Marianne Birtwistle from Friar Lane and Braunstone Baptist Church and representatives of our Board of Governors. The visitors met with our Prefects and Head Boys and Girls before we assembled outside the school to pay respects to lives lost in conflict and the fight for freedom. Head Girl, Lucia read aloud the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ by John McCrae before the last post was played by Mr Greenwood. A two minutes silence was respectfully observed by everyone, we are very proud of the respect shown by our students and the importance they all place on remembrance.

28th October

Year 7 Team Building Day

Students from Year 7 enjoyed a lovely, sunny day at Beaumanor Hall. It was a fantastic opportunity for them to get to know each other, learn more about their strengths, overcome barriers through resilience and have lots of fun outside the classroom.

25th October

Hot Chocolate Friday
Congratulations to Lucia, Kady, Ruby, Priviledge, Michael and Sukhjinder who were invited to Hot Chocolate Friday with Head of School, Mr Bennett for all ‘Shining Brighter’ in recent sporting events. Well done and keep up the hard work.

10th October

Hello Yellow

Just before October half term staff and students wore something yellow for school to raise awareness and show their support for World Mental Health Day. Students and staff also made yellow bunting to decorate classrooms adding their own thoughts, words and messages to support mental health issues in young people. During the day there was a focus on how we can take care of ourselves and others and we even had some visiting pets in Maths. Students enjoyed meeting pet rabbits bought in by Miss Sharp which demonstrated a great way to relieve stress and stay calm. Other fun activities included singing and dancing at lunch time and a #HelloYellow photo booth and cake sale at break time.

1st October

Workshops with Local Author

The Winstanley School are taking part in First Story this academic year. Acclaimed Leicester author Bali Rai will be working with 21 of our students in Years 8, 9 and 10, developing their writing skills and creating a published anthology of outstanding work by the end of the year. This is a real opportunity for our young people to broaden their horizons, experiment with a range of writing styles and challenge themselves to SHINE even brighter, all under the guidance of a published author with over 40 books to his name!

30th September

Church Visit
Year 9 students had a lovely welcome at Friar Lane and Braunstone Baptist Church today. Understanding what faith means to different people is a fantastic life skill and the basis of Religious Studies at GCSE. We are very grateful to religious leaders who welcome our students and talk to them openly about their faith, this will be one of many visits and talks for our Religious Studies students over the next few years where they have the opportunity to explore different faiths. We also heard from one of our ex-students about how she became a member of the church and she explained baptism which is a key ceremony of their church.

27th September

Lake District Challenge

Twelve of our Year 11 girls were selected to take part in an outward bound programme in the Lake District.  The trip was organised by Mr Turner who felt that it would be a great opportunity for them to challenge themselves, discover hidden resilience and set goals for their final year at Winstanley. They took part in some amazing activities which included gorge walking, canoeing, swimming in the lake, camping overnight and climbing mountains. The girls all had a great time and really engaged with the activities and worked well as a team as well as discovering more about their capabilities and inner strength.

 

26th September

Protecting the future

Last week students from Winstanley visited the National Holocaust Centre in Nottingham. They took part in a ‘No To Hate’ conference which included guest speakers from very different backgrounds who talked about their experiences and how we can protect the future by remembering the past. Students also had a look around the memorial gardens to remember those without a grave. The students enjoyed taking part and representing our school at the event and actively participated in the activities.

23rd September

Geography Field Trip

GCSE geography students visited Burbage Brook and Padley Gorge in the Peak District as part of their GCSE coursework. Data was collected on the velocity, width, depth and sediment size at parts of the upper and middle course of the river.  Students were fantastically behaved and enjoyed a valuable learning experience outside of the classroom.

18th September

Voting Matters!

Students in 9CC have been voting for Well Being and Anti Bullying Ambassadors in tutor time this week.
The votes will be counted and verified in the next few weeks and the students elected will take an active role in ensuring our policies and support networks are implemented in school.

16th September

Improving our Environment

Students have been busy in our staff garden replacing the raised beds and replacing our pond. Some of the students who work with Enstruct Training are working on creating a vegetable patch and have worked really hard removing the old, rotted beds and digging over the ground ready for some new ones. Students who work with Mrs Underwood in Kick Start have replaced the old pond and replacing the liner and created a decking area and wildlife borders surrounding it. They are all enjoying working outside in the lovely Autumn sunshine. Keep up the Hard Work!

13th September

New Prefects

Our students who applied to become prefects have been welcomed to their new roles and received their smart grey blazers and blue ties.They will now take up their positions of responsibility within the school. It’s a fantastic opportunity for the students who were elected and demonstrates their aspiration for excellence.

9th September

Building a world of opportunity…

Year 8 and 9 girls took part in Go Construct which explores all sorts of exciting employment opportunities in the construction industry. The session was designed to encourage girls to consider roles in this rapidly expanding employment sector and was run by women who have risen to top positions in the industry. The morning included a hands-on challenge which encouraged team work, communication and problem solving skills. The girls worked in teams to construct a giant tetrahedron, it was a lot of fun and they worked really well together demonstrating our ‘SHINE’ values. Thanks to Jo Ling, EST Coordinator, Blaby District Council, Sue Southam, SHEQ Manager, Danaher & Walsh Group Ltd and Lauren Tyrell, Development Manager, Leicester City Council.

30th August

Feel Good Friday!
We’re at the end of our first week back at Winstanley. It’s been an exciting time for our new Year 7s who have settled in well already and for our older students the hard work started straight away as they approach their GCSEs. Lunchtime offered some light relief as Mr Bennett introduced our first ‘Feel Good Friday’ with some juggling on the field.

 

 

22nd August

Hard Work Shines Through…..
Our students proved that hard work pays off in the end when they opened their GCSE results today. It’s been a challenging two years for them and during this time they have really embraced our values – worked hard, supported each other, never given up and grown into independent young people who we hope will achieve excellence in every step of their future education, training and chosen career paths.
Dave Bennett, Head of School said:- ‘We are very proud of the achievements of our students and the amazing young people they have become in their time here with us. They have taken the opportunities and support offered to them to achieve their personal goals. We wish them every success and hope they continue to shine brightly in whatever they choose to do in the future.’

Some individual outstanding results were Urvi, one of our Head Girls, who got 9s in Science, Business, Maths, Geography and English Literature, 8s in PE Statistics, English Language an A^ for Further Maths and a Distinction in Hospitality and Catering.
Yogan got 9s in Chemistry and Computer Science, A* in Further Maths, *2 in Information Technologies.
Moyo got a 9 in PE and as a keen sportsperson and a member of many of our sports team was thrilled with his grade, and thanked staff for the support over his time here.
Olivia was ‘over the moon with her results, and especially her Grade 9 in art, she is looking forward to starting her A Levels at WQE.
Zoe Dalby, our Head Girl got a 9 for History and an A for Further maths as well as 8’s and 7s in other subjects.  She is hoping to progress on to undertake a Paramedic Science Degree after completing her A Levels.
Haris got 8s in Maths, Biology, Physics, English Language and History and a B in Further Maths and was literally ‘jumping for joy’ when he opening his envelope.
A special mention should also go to Elza and Giovanni who both speak English as a second language.  Elza took her native language Russian at GCSE got a grade 9 but also got some amazing results in other subjects too, including an 8 in History, which shows how hard she has worked to overcome language barriers.  Giovanni’s first language is Italian and he received a grade 8 for Italian GCSE and really good pass grades in his other subjects including a 7 for History where a lot of written work is required.

Leicestershire Live