Blog week ending 30th September

Our Extra-Curricular clubs and Inter-House activities have already seen high levels of student engagement, and enthusiasm!  Mr Palmer’s Music department is a hub of creative endeavour with students taking advantage of the facilities and instruments available.  Additionally, our WG6 Electives programme offers academic, sporting and community enrichment groups which are designed to develop student skills and attributes that will enhance their future plans and successes.  For more information please click here

A range of private music and singing lessons are available (there is a fee for one-to-one tuition, payable to the tutor)  For more details please ask your son or daughter to check the information on the music boards or speak with Mr Palmer.  Pictured below, a Year 7 one-to-one piano lesson.

U12 Football.  Well done to the Year 7 football side for winning their first game as a side in Round 1 of the Kent Cup. The team had an amazing 15-0 victory over Cleeve Park School. Mr Lynch was really impressed with the side’s performance and excellent conduct throughout. Special mention must go to Jaden G (5) and Nonso N (4) who scored 9 goals between them in only 25 minutes of game time. The PE department wish them well going into round 2.

The Inter-House competitions are staged at lunchtime and break with an ever-changing rota of games and competitions – this period sees students take part in virtual reality computer games, Rubix cube races, football, an MFL quiz, mystery readers and basketball!  All students are encouraged to take part with valuable House points up for grabs.  Below, congratulations to Newton House the winners of the heat – all students earning House points along the way.  The cheers from the student supporters were deafening! 

Mr Brown, Head of History who joins us from St Mary Magdalene's CoE School, in North Greenwich, where he was Head of History.  “I am excited to be joining WGSB to contribute to an already dynamic and forward-thinking department.  I have a huge passion for teaching diverse and inclusive histories, and I am excited to help build a curriculum that inspires students to be curious and knowledgeable about the past and aims to help students create an understand of the events that shaped our past and continue to impact world affairs to this day.

In this lesson Mr Brown’s Year 10 GCSE Historians are testing their topic knowledge and exam question techniques with a series of GCSE questions on Elizabethan England.  This is an effective way to practice maximising their knowledge for marks and becoming adept at GCSE question types.

Mr Law’s Year 7 DT students are mastering the different tools and skills required to build a working model of a Roman catapult.  In this lesson students cut and filed their model templates before using the sanding machine to finish their pieces.

Our Year 12 Professional Construction students are working on an architecture project to design and create plans for their ideal WG6 student block.  In this lesson students are using specialist industry software CAD to create 3D scale images of their designs.

Mrs Carwithen’s Year 12 Physics students have been exploring light and sound waves.  In this practical lesson students are exploring and plotting refracted light through a crystal prism.  The Rubens tube is used to demonstrate acoustic standing waves in a tube .. in this instance Mrs Carwithen played a rather fitting song; Firestarter(!) to illustrate the relationship between sound waves and sound pressure. 

Our Year 13 A Level Biologists went on an excursion to Port Lympne Hotel & Reserve.  The ranger talks outlined the park’s conservation work with rare and endangered animals before taking students on a safari tour.  The aim of the outing was to enlighten and develop the interest of animals, their conservation and the wider ecosystem amongst our Year 13 cohort. 

We are very proud of our Life Programme and we have been working hard to not just engage, support and inform our students, but also our other important stakeholders, parents/carers, school staff, governors and the local community. We have therefore created a Twitter page; we aim to use this to continue informing everyone involved in the school what we are doing in the Life Programme and also offer support and advice to parents/guardians/carers so we are all ready when tackling the challenges presented to our young people.  We would love you to follow us and be part of this exciting new chapter in the evolution of the Life Programme. Join us here

Congratulations to Arthur (of Y7) and Peter W (of Y9) who took part in the National Field Archery UK Championships.  It was a full two days of competition in Penrith and both students won gold in their age categories.  Arthur is now the National Champion longbow U12 and Peter is the National Champion longbow U16. What an impressive achievement for the brothers!  Incredible!

Pictured below, with their medals, and in action during the competition.

Students in Year 8/9 received their HPV vaccinations at the start of September.  The School Immunisation Team would like to invite parents to book an appointment at one of their Community Clinics this half term if your child missed their cancer prevention HPV vaccination on their visit.  Parents/carers can book an appointment via their website https://www.kentcht.nhs.uk/imms  This link also provides other useful information regarding vaccinations and the School Aged Immunisation Service.

The office has already accumulated an impressive collection of water bottles, if you do recognise any of the below as belonging to your child, please can you ask them to come and collect them!  If you are able to label your child’s bottle it would help us reunite them with their belongings!

WGSB PTA Blog Update.  Thank you to everyone who attended our PTA AGM meeting on Monday 26^th September. Hopefully it was time well spent and you are thinking of how to support the PTA in various fundraising activities for the year.  I’m sure you will join me in saying massive thank you to two of our committee members who are stepping down from their roles this year Vice Chair - Natalie Cairney and Treasurer - Patricia Clinch.  Through their hard work, dedication and commitment to the PTA, we have been able to accomplish our objectives and improve upon already fantastic achievements - so thank you to you Both!

I am also pleased to introduce to you, the PTA committee members for the new academic year:

Chair - Simbo Lawal

Vice Chair - Sarah Habgood

Secretary - Pooja Salaam

Co Treasurer - Sharan Spall

Co Treasurer - Toyin Babalola

We look forward to working together with the whole school community as we continue with our fundraising goals. If you would like to know more about the kind of things we do, the events we hold, or join the PTA, please contact us via email pta@wgsb.co.uk   or by calling the school office on 01322 223090

The WGSB PTA Lottery - Congratulations to our lottery winners for the months of July and August!

July: No. 59 - Zac P (12G)

Aug: No. 113 - Reuben B (8H)

Don’t forget that you can join our PTA lottery which is now live on ParentPay . Tickets are £12 a year for one number and you can buy as many tickets as you want!  Please select the number of tickets you want to purchase and add your contact details on ParentPay. Each number goes into 12 monthly draws between September and August. Prize money is £30.00 per month and £50.00 at the December Draw. Please note, cut-off date to join the lottery is 1st November 2022 to be included for the year.

Saturday morning sports events: The PTA have been supporting the PE department during the sports morning events for year 7s since Saturday 17 September and we will be doing this again this Saturday 1 Oct, 9 -10.30am. The PTA will serve tea, coffee and other refreshments during these events, to raise funds for the school. Why not come around to watch and cheer on our boys or simply to have a chat with the PTA?  Don’t forget your cash!

Summer Fair Update: I am pleased to inform you that we raised £1714 from the summer fair (held last July) and summer fair raffle sales. Massive thank you to everyone who supported the summer fair in one way or the other and helped raised this amount. This will now be included in the funds towards the outside dining room project.

Upcoming Events - Please save the dates!

Christmas Trees Expression of Interest Deadline - Friday, 14 October

Next PTA Meeting - Monday, 7 November 6.00-7.00pm; Venue - School Hall

Christmas Trees fundraising scheme  - Would you like to purchase a Real Christmas Tree from the PTA? The PTA are asking for you to express an interest here in whether or not you would be willing to purchase a 'real' Christmas Tree from them, and in doing so raise much needed funds for the school. There are five tree options and prices to choose from, ranging from £29.25 (3-4ft) to £53.50 (premium grade 7-8ft tree). You would be required to collect your tree from the school from 4pm on 2nd December.  If enough interest is shown, the PTA will email the school community on Monday 17 October to inform them and an order form will be added to all students' ParentPay accounts for you to purchase the tree of your choice should you wish.

Support Wilmington Grammar School for Boys - Dartford by signing up to support us for FREE on  Smile Amazon and Easyfundraising . You can raise donations whenever you shop online with over 6,000 retailers including John Lewis & Partners, eBay, Argos, ASOS, M&S and more. Plus, we will get a bonus £5 donation when you do! Sign up today - this will make a BIG difference to us this year: Easyfundraising

Best wishes,

Stuart Harrington

Head Teacher