Newsletters

Autumn Term - 19th Deecmber 2025

Welcome to our end of term newsletter, including highlights from our community Christmas giving projects, winter trips to The Mill and highlights of work from English and Art. There is also a link at the bottom of the newsletter to our reading e-platform, for all our eager holiday readers. There are thousands of books available for parents as well as our students.

A particular thank you for all those parents who supported our Winter Entertainment event last night. It was brilliant to see the performance of some classic Christmas pieces and singing, as well as our bands and DJ groups. We look forward to similar events in 2026!

Finally, just a reminder that all students return to school on Tuesday 6th January, for a normal teaching day. It is a Week A on the timetable when we return.

Year 7 Indoor Athletics Success

Congratulations to the Year 7 Indoor Athletics Team of Teo, Ethan, Theo, Keshawn, Joshua, Charlie, Robert and Cyrus, who won their regional qualifying competition last week and will now represent Camden in the London Youth Games in February. Well done boys!

Community Christmas Hamper Project

Last Monday students with the highest number of praise points in each year groups were selected to decorate boxes to create the festive hampers for the Shaw Care Home on Wellesley Road.

The following day the donated gift items were collected in to fill the hampers. It was a remarkable collection.

Even Year 11 students, who have been busy concentrating on their mock exam revision recently, made a fantastic effort to put together a collection for this project.

On Friday a small number of Key Stage 3 students delivered the hampers to the care home residents. Thank you to Finance Manager Ms Sarkar, wo was instrumental in making this project happen, and to Ms Ozkaya, who assisted with the drop-off.

Camden Foodbank Collection

We also received a huge number of donations for the Camden Foodbank’s winter appeal.

Thank you to everybody in the school community who made a donation to either or both of these projects to help vulnerable members of our local community at this time of year.

Festivities continued in school with Year 10 students making and decorating Christmas cakes in their Food Technology lessons.

Our seasonal celebrations culminated in last night’s Winter Entertainment Evening, our annual gathering to mark the end of Autumn Term with music and dramatic performance. Well done to all the students involved in performances.

Key Stage 3 Art Work 

Ms Sinnott writes: 

Year 7 students have been exploring Expressionism in their art lessons, presenting the world purely from a subjective perspective. 

Onomatopoeia as presented by the Year 8 students: 

BFI Spanish Film Study Trips 

Ms Rodgers writes: 

On 21st November and 3rd December, the Year 13 Spanish class attended Study Days at the British Film Institute (BFI) by the Southbank to get a deeper understanding of the movie and play they are studying and writing about in their writing exam.  

 The first half was an interactive lecture in Spanish by Dr Miguel García López, a Senior Lecturer of Hispanic studies at the University of Bristol, and the afternoon was a screening of the Spanish movie ‘El Laberinto del Fauno’ by Guillermo del Toro (21st Nov) and Federico García Lorca’s play ‘La Casa de Bernanda Alba’, (3rd Dec)  which was adapted into a movie by Mario Camus. 

Student comment:  

“We went to the BFI for two study days based on the film “El Laberinto del Fauno” & the play ‘La Casa de Bernanda Alba’, to help us understand more about the film & play for our A-Level. It was a really good and helpful experience as we learnt in more depth about the directors / authors and the background of the movie and play all in Spanish throughout the first half of the day, then had lunch and came back to watch the film & play fully”. 

Nurture Group Mill Trip 

 Mr Hallam writes: 

Last week the SEN and Outdoor Education departments took a small group of Year 7 students to The Mill overnight for a mini Winter camp, ahead of the wider Year 7 Camp in June. Alongside getting used to the site and the routines in place there, we went for a walk up local Leith Hill, had lots of art workshops and games, watched a Christmas movie and had a campfire. 

Memorial Garden 

Sixth form students have made a start on our memorial garden, planting spring bulbs in memory of Raymi, Sommya, Leia and Charlie, as a symbol not only of our ongoing remembrance of them but also of the hope that the Spring will bring.  

There are still plenty of bulbs to plant, and other ideas about how to ensure this space is a haven for wildlife, and students needing some time out. If you would like to donate plants, benches, or time to dig, please do get in touch! 

“Northern Lights” Reading for Key Stage 3 Students 

Ms Seifert writes: 

Author John Simmons visited last week to read Philip Pullman’s "Northern Lights" to Year 7, Year 8 and Year9 students. He clarified the role of an author and working with words and spoke about what had inspired him to become an author. The spoken word, together with an explanation about the role of the demons in "Northern Lights", sparked the question ‘what could be one's demon?’. John Simmons knew Philip Pullman's demon to be a magpie. 

John Simmons, who attended the School Trust event in October, said: 

“Soon I was invited in to meet Veronika Seifert, the school librarian. We had a good conversation after which I scaled back my self-indulgent list of classics and agreed that our aim was to encourage more reading by students of every level. The books to be bought from my donation would be decided by the students and teachers, and I was very happy with that. 

Veronika then surprised me by saying it would be valuable if I were to come into the school and read to a group of students. There was great benefit in the students meeting and listening to a writer read from a book that might inspire further reading. We narrowed our choice to Philip Pullman whose books I loved and knew resonated with those in the school’s age range.  

So it was that on a dark, dreary day of December I walked into the school again to read from Northern Lights, the first book in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. I’d been lucky enough to have met Philip a few times and to have been inspired by his concept of the daemons, these external manifestations of inner selves in the form of animals. I read extracts from Chapter 1 to a group of 25, delighted that at least half a dozen of the students knew the book already. I hope that the remaining students will have been intrigued enough by what they heard to now borrow and read the book from the school library. 

I had answered Alastair Campbell’s question “What can I do?” It became personal for me. I talked to the students about writing being what I most enjoy doing – and to give the pleasure of reading to others.”  

E-Platform Online Library Access For All!! 

Our 4000-free-book-strong Eplatform is available to all students and is a great resource for potentially having time on your hand in the holidays with a huge selection of  great audio and e-books. 

 Type in "Eplatform" on google or download app onto mobile phone 

Go to "log in" 

Go to "school" (make sure its the UK site) 

Type "William Ellis" 

Scroll down and select "William Ellis" a little further down, then a page opens, but here now you will have to go to "log in". 

If you are on your phone it is on the left upper corner, (the 3 horizontal bars) 

If you are on a laptop, the right top corner. 

Username:     First name then last name ( e.g. James Richmond )  

(In-between first name and last name is a SPACE) 

Password :     WESLibrary1 

Yours faithfully,

Izzy Jones

Headteacher