Walton High School Newsletter July 2020
Summer Edition!
Contact Us The Rise Walton on the Hill Stafford ST17 0LJ 01785 334917 or [email protected]
www.waltonstaffs.com
Brightening up the school
entrance is this wonderful
design by Will Tomkinson
Y10. Will was supported by
the key worker children
and they created the
colourful rainbow to
celebrate all the key
workers who have worked
so hard during the
lockdown.
NHS & KEY WORKER
R A I N B O W GLORIOUS SUMMER FLOWERS
The beautiful flowers in our school gardens are in bloom. This is thanks
to our students’ hard work and we are all looking forward to welcoming
them back in the new term.
In the early days of the COVID-19 Lockdown, our Design
& Technology department became aware of the
national response to the hospital PPE shortage
promoted on television and radio as an initiative called
‘For the Love of Scrubs’. Looking a little further on our
local hospital websites Mrs Green came across
Scrubs4Stoke, initially asking volunteers to make scrubs
comprising of tops and trousers for the University
Hospital North Midlands covering Stafford and Stoke.
This grew into a massive county effort with volunteers
with all levels of sewing experience initially using any
fabrics to hand such as duvet covers and recyclable
sheets.
Scrubs4Stoke raised money for fabric
donations and many local stores also donated
fabric. Tasks ranged from volunteers cutting
out and distributing hundreds of sets of pre-cut
scrubs to be made up. Mrs Green contributed
to the County effort from home, making 25 full
sets by the end of May, Mrs White and Mrs
McCann helped at the Peace Memorial Hall in
Penkridge making hospital gowns, which you
may have seen on the Midlands News Bulletin
on June 12th in Nick Owen's Heroes section.
SCRUBS4STOKE
In Penkridge, Mrs White had the honour of completing the 5,000th gown completed by the volunteers. The project
initially aimed to make 2,000 sets of scrubs. With the huge community effort, the group exceeded this to an incredible
5,000 sets. Apparently, the laundry section at the Royal Stoke routinely use 4,000 sets of scrubs in a week!
After our STEM groups reached the final of the Big Bang Fair, one group continued their success by winning a
special award - ‘The Energy Institute Climate Change Award’. The four members were Harry Lunt, Harvey Turner,
Eden Jones and James Hurst and their project consisted of producing a turbine which harnessed the energy
produced by running water from a drainpipe. The device can produce above 8V of electricity, which is fantastic!
Hopefully we might see ‘Blu Pipe’ on new build houses in the future.
The Energy Institute Climate Change Award celebrates a project designed to help bring about a lasting reduction
in greenhouse gas emissions, as a contribution to the UK’s goal of reaching net zero by 2050. This may be either
a novel technological idea or an innovative way of encouraging people to change their behaviour or lifestyle.
The winning student(s) will receive £500 and a framed certificate. They will also star in an episode of the Energy
Institute podcast, 'Energy In Conversation', write special posts for the Energy Institute blog, Twitter and Instagram
feeds, spend a day with the Energy Institute in London to learn about their work and careers in energy and attend
one of the EI’s introductory training courses or conferences (subject to covid-19).
THE ENERGY INSTITUTE CLIMATE CHANGE AWARD
In early March, three of our students were celebrated for
their entries to the Stafford Green Arts Festival poetry
competition. Their task was to communicate the message
that there is no planet B, so we must look after the one that
we have!
We did extremely well and formed four of the 'top 5' young
people's poems in the 11-15 category: Imogen Davies won
1st prize with her poem 'No Planet B', Hannah Boyce won
2nd place with 'Earth' and Alfie Daws won 3rd place with
'Planet A'. These three poems plus Jed Gilroy's 'Save the
Earth' were displayed over half term at the festival at St
Chad's Church, Stafford and the Staffordshire Poet
Laureate, Mel Woodend was delighted with the quality of
these four poems in particular.
THERE IS NO PLANET B
We had over 50 entries for this competition, and
shortlisting was extremely difficult when all of the poems
submitted were incredibly passionate! A huge well done to
all!
POETRY BY HEART
Since November, several students in Year 7-9 took on the immense task of selecting, rehearsing and
learning off-by-heart, two poems for the national competition held in London called Poetry by Heart.
This was a huge undertaking, especially considering several of the candidates were also partaking in
numerous other extra-curricular events, including the Pyramid Concert. Alyssa Harman and Hayli
White (Year 9) stunned with their individual entries, each showing great courage and passion for their
chosen poems.
It was no easy feat performing alone in front of a judging panel and the other competitors but they
both blew the panel away. We also had three group entries in Year 7: Enya Al-Khaldi, Emily Pearson,
Iris Chadwick and Rosie George formed one group, Ella Beeson and Rosie Prince another, and Milly
Heywood, Natalie Hawkins and Lily Hayward the final group. All three rehearsed several times a week
for months and performed fantastically well. It was a very tough decision, as all were tremendous,
but Ella Beeson and Rosie Prince won the group category and Alyysa Harman the individual.
Well done to all involved! We hope you partake in more competitions like this!
We have also run over ten other writing competitions this year and several of our students have
been published by Young Writers - too many to list here, but we have been impressed by the quality
and imagination of all students who have entered these competitions this year. We have many
talented young writers in this school. Well done to all who have submitted an entry to an English
Competition this year!
This year the Art Department relocated their annual Art Show online.
The week-long event took place from Monday 22nd June until Friday
26th June and featured a showcase of Year 11 GCSE and Year 13 A Level
Art and Photography work. Viewers of the show also had the
opportunity to vote for their favourite artwork for the ‘People’s Choice
Award’, with the winners announced on the last day of the show.
We had over 6000 views in the week of the show, a fantastic response
for the voting of the ‘People’s Choice’ award and a practicing
photographer who inspired one of our student’s work, got in touch with
words of support for our students!
ART SHOW 2020
Congratulations to this year’s winners:
GCSE
Artist of the Year: Eden Jones
Headteacher’s Award: Isabelle Salsbury
People’s Choice: Alicia Walton Runners up:
Kierut Bajwa, Taiah Hay
A Level Art
Artist of the Year: Hannah Parton
Headteacher’s Award: Maisie Bairstow
People’s Choice: Hannah Parton Runners up:
Rebecca Ashcroft, Caitlin Baker
A Level Photography
Photographer of the Year: Scarlett Richards
Headteacher’s Award: Solomon Todd
People’s Choice: Molly Higham Runners up:
Maisie Bairstow, Solomon Todd
The online Art Show has been a great success and
this was a fantastic opportunity for us to
celebrate the hard work and dedication of our
Year 11 and Year 13 Art and Photography
students, despite their time at Walton being cut
short.
The Art Department would like to say a huge
thank you to these students for all their hard work
and for everyone who visited, engaged with and
shared the Online show to enable us to celebrate
our students work in the way that they deserve.
The Art Show is still available to view at
waltonartdept.wordpress.com.
To celebrate World Book Day during March this year
students were again able to attend school in fancy dress
as a book character for the day.
There was a best dressed student competition held in the
Library. Here are a selection of pictures from the day.
WORLD BOOK DAY 2020
.
Thanks to the Sixth Form helpers on the day.
During the lockdown and as the school has
been closed to many students, the Art
Department have been celebrating the
successes of their students on their blog,
waltonartdept.wordpress.com.
Every Monday and Friday we have been
celebrating some of the work that our KS3,
GCSE and A level students have been
completing at home. We are so incredibly
proud of the effort and hard work that our
students are still putting into their work
despite the circumstances and wanted to
provide a platform to celebrate this as widely
as possible.
Class teachers have been selecting incredible
work that they wish to showcase each week
and students have also been undertaking
other creative activities alongside their
classwork. Our very talented Year 11 GCSE
student, Isabelle Salsbury, was featured on
our blog for her fantastic portrait of Captain
Tom Moore and has since appeared in the
Staffordshire Newsletter.
CELEBRATING STUDENT SUCCESS
IN THE ART DEPARTMENT
We are continuing to showcase our
students’ outstanding work online at
waltonartdept.wordpress.com so be
sure to head over there and help us to
celebrate their achievements!
ROYAL NAVY VISIT
Pictures from the memorable careers visit by the Royal Navy on 28th February as part
of our PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic) education programme.
CLASS OF 2014 AND 2016 LEAVING DAY - 20.3.20
Year 13 Leavers' Day
This was a much earlier day than anticipated! Without our usual
lead up, I could have been forgiven for worrying that this wouldn't
be the quality send-off that Year 13 deserved and were entitled to
after all their hard work. However, as it was there was no need to
worry, thanks largely to Hannah Humble and Uchwash Golder.
These students worked tirelessly in a very small space of time to
produce films, presentations and speeches that helped make the
celebration of the end of secondary education be the occasion
that it should be! I cannot thank them enough and I know the rest
of the year group felt the same. Their contributions helped make
this a really special event. It is always a bittersweet time but felt
even more so given that the school leaving date was brought so
far forward. We are looking forward to seeing students on results
day and also to such time when we can celebrate their successes
in the form of an Awards Evening as we have always been able to
do in the past. We wish them all every success with their future
endeavours and are proud of them all.
Mrs Cooper and the Sixth Form Team
Year 11 Leavers' Day
Our Year 11 leavers’ day also arrived earlier than
we were expecting. However, despite the change
of plans that needed to be put into place at speed,
the day was a huge success with a nice jovial
atmosphere, especially in the Maths department,
where like elsewhere, photographs were taken and
shirts were signed. There was also great fun in the
assembly with the naming of the various tutor
group characters!
Information regarding the new term in
September will be posted on the School website.
NEW TERM
Help raise funds for Walton High
School while you shop! It’s simple –
just follow the link
https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk
and search for Walton High School,
Stafford.
Easyfundraising
CHALLENGING STEREOTYPES
This year, students from Year 7 were challenged to identify the jobs of the
guests who were invited to and visited school. The event explored the skills
and qualities that the employers needed to undertake their jobs – with
some interesting discussions and surprising guesses from everybody.
After the whole year group session, students were able to take part in
break-out Q&A sessions with the visitors to find out more about how they
got to do their jobs.
Congratulations to the students who rose to the challenge of
researching and producing an essay on the organisations from which
our visitors came, and in particular the winners of the £20 Love to Shop
Vouchers, presented to them by Mr Finlay, Mr Stokes and Nikki
Lambert (Careers Adviser).
The vouchers were donated by Entrust Skills and Employability.
3D Prints
Arran Terry
Year 9
In his free time during
lockdown Arran has been
testing out and getting to
grips with his 3D printer.
He has produced these
two great 3D prints. A
great achievement during
lockdown.