There will be another information session to follow on from Induction Day on Monday 7th July. You will receive further details about this event in due course.

In the meantime, please see our Transition Checklist which we have put together to help families plan for the months ahead.

Spring Term at WES

There have been a lot of interesting trips, events and projects happening in school over the last few months, and below are a selection of the stories from this term:

Camden Youth Dance Festival

In February, William Ellis students took part in this annual event at The Place in Kings Cross, a professional performance venue. The William Ellis dance company, with 20 boys from years 7, 8 and 9, gave a first-class representation of how powerful male dance ensembles can be. The excellent preparation paid off in a polished and complex performance that raised cheers from the crowd and left the boys elated by their experience. It gave a powerful message about how important it is for boys to talk and express their feelings, and treat each other with kindness. Thank you to all the parents and families who came to support.

STEM Formula 1 Trip

Students visited the Williams Formua 1 Racing centre in Wantage as part of a STEM careers initiative in February. They had the chance to see world-class, precise engineering and the advanced, digitally intelligent way that cars are designed and manufactured when every tiny adjustment in both matters. We hope that this will inspire the boys to think about where they will apply for their work experience placements, which are coming up in the summer term. Thank you to William in Year 10 for these great photos.

     

Chinese New Year Cookery Competition

Ms Shi, Mandarin Teacher, writes:

On the 12th February, 5 Mandarin study students from Years 7, 8 and 12 had a Chinese New Year of the Snake celebration cooking competition in the school food department.

They had less than one hour to prepare and cook during lunch time, and they did an amazing job and cooked fried noodles, rice and delicious Chinese food. The Head of MFL, Ms Rodgers, Food teacher Ms Sinnott, and myself were the judges who tasted the food and gave the students good feedback.

Year 7 English Autobiographical Writing

Mr Rahman, English Teacher, writes:

Year 7 English students participated in a guided walk through Hampstead Heath this half-term as part of their 'Autobiographical Writing' studies. They were encouraged celebrate ordinary events and the local area by taking note of sensory details which could later enhance their writing, adding vivid and engaging descriptions to everyday events and places.

Year 8 Drama Trip - 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'

Ms Hughes, Head of Drama, writes:

On the 4th February, students from Year 8 had the opportunity to see 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' at the Palace Theatre - it was brilliant!

Luca was impressed by the swimming scenes and how synchronised they were, and Joachim said the acting was 'impeccable'. Levi loved how they brought time travel to life on stage, Otis loved the dementors, Jazz thought Voldemort was the best character and Tom said it was the most fabulous play he'd ever seen!

Two members of the audience commended our boys on their excellent behaviour throughout the performance - well done, boys!

Year 9 Drama Climate Change Project

Ms Hughes writes:

Twenty Year 9 students have been involved recently  in a project with the Donmar Warehouse. They created an original play about climate change, working with two professional theatre makers.

After weeks of creating and rehearsing, students performed at the prestigious Donmar Warehouse last Friday in front of an audience - it was BRILLIANT

Students created a comedic, thought-provoking play about what could happen if a megalomaniac billionaire was in charge of the climate crisis... to devastating (and strange) effect. The boys did themselves, and our school proud.

Year 9 'Creative Youth' Art Project Ms Ozkaya, Student Engagement Officer, writes: On February 10th a group of Year 9 Art students made their second trip to The October Gallery where they have been working on a project inspired by the work on show.

The students looked at a piece by the Artist Therese Weber, and used various techniques to build texture into their images. Here's what two students had to say about their experiences: " I had a very fun time at the October Gallery. The art was nice and it was cool. There were lots of activities for creativity and lots of opportunities for drawing the things we liked. An activity that I really enjoyed was when we drew things that we felt when listening to different music. We also learned about the art in the gallery and some of the stories behind it, as well as the different patterns we saw and really looking at some of the details in the art works. This trip has really made me want to pick art for my GCSE's as you learn that even the little details in the work are very important." Lije 9K "I had a really good time at the October Gallery. It was a really fun and creative experience that helped me to decide to definitely pick art for one of my GCSE's. We walked around the gallery looking at the pictures and sculptures and choosing which was our favourite and least favourite. For one of the activities we listened to a song of our choice and draw whatever came into our mind when listening to the song. This was our second visit to the gallery and this time we explored one of the artist's life through her painting and we made our own one just like it!" Alexander 9B

Year 11 Art & Graphics Trip to the National Gallery

Ms Kendall, Art Teacher, writes:

On Friday 14th March, Year 11 Art & Graphics students went on a trip to National Gallery for part of their GCSE coursework.

We had a wonderfully creative and informative day, where students chose a painting to focus on which fitted with the theme of Gathering. The students were thoroughly engaged throughout and created their own studies.

Mr Gunter and myself were very proud of all the boys who were shining examples of polite young gentlemen and were a credit to WES!

French Drama Workshop

Ms Rodgers, Head of MFL, writes:

On Monday 17^th March, a group of 30 Year 10 students took part in a French theatre workshop. They were really engaged in the workshop, did some fabulous French improvisation in groups, worked well on translating a scene from French to English and then, after some preparation time, presented their interpretation of the play. One group even presented their scene in 4 languages; Arabic, French, Spanish & English!

A huge thanks to WESPA for funding this amazing opportunity for students to use their language skills in a more unique context!

This is what some of the students had to say about the workshop:

“I liked learning new French words & using them in a play” (Leon, Year 10)

On Tuesday, about thirty Year 10 students with interests in French took part in a French translation workshop that WESPA coordinated. There were a variety of activities, the main being translating a French scene into English. The scene was about a 12 year old girl refugee fleeing to France from unsafe conditions. We had to put ourselves in her shoes to figure out what sort of language she would use, trying to find the most colloquial translation. At the end we performed our own takes on this scene, my group performed this scene in four languages. It was fun to have a different experience of translation. (Humphrey Year 10)

While one of the facilitators said: “It was a brilliant workshop to be part of. We were blown away by the kids' French, it was excellent. Their pronunciation was particularly amazing. There are clearly fantastic teachers at the school!”

Year 12 Science trip to London Zoo

Mr Scott, Science Teacher, writes:

Year 12 Biology students had a study day at London Zoo on Thursday 7th March. There were talks about the conservation work being done by the ZSL with an opportunity to investigate in greater detail their EDGE programme - looking at species on the edge of extinction that are the most evolutionarily distinct. https://www.edgeofexistence.org/

There were discussions around the place London Zoo has in the conservation world, including with world wide animal breeding programmes. A good time was had by all.

      

Year 8 Bowling Trip

Mr Szymanski, Head of Year 8, writes:

I invited twelve Year 8 to go on a trip to Rowans Bowling Centre in Finsbury Park in March. The trip was organised to reward those boys who have consistently displayed the WES attributes (the 5 R's) and made positive contributions to the school so far, finishing in the top three of their form for 100% attendance and on the achievement points system.

The boys thoroughly enjoyed their time and the activities at the Bowling Centre playing ten pin bowling and different games in the arcades afterwards.       

    

Volcanic Activity in NW5!

Mr Pomeyie writes:

Earlier this week the annual William Ellis School volcano model competition went off with a bang! There were some great entries, with one including pieces of bark that gave it a unique, rustic look.

Fantastic work by all the year 7s who produced models – all received certificates and extra-curricular praise points. The winners also received a geographic magazine.