Withington’s Winning Ways

December 9, 2016 Mums&Dads 0 Comments schools, STEM, Withington, Withington Girls’ School

THE TOP SCHOOL IN THE NORTH

Withington Girls’ School has been celebrating a series of wins in a wide range of pursuits – and the Manchester-based School has also just been ranked as the top school in the North in the latest Sunday Times Parent Power league tables.

Withington’s new headmistress Mrs Sarah Haslam says she is delighted with achievements across the whole age range of the school community, from Junior pupils through to Sixth Form and is proud of the breadth of the successes the School is currently enjoying.

Withington Girls’ School 2016 sucsesses — Withington Girls’ School celebrates a raft of successes as the Autumn term draws to a close.
Top: Juniors’ winning Year 6 Pop Lacrosse team; Bottom Left: Year 8 Faraday Challenge Engineering Award winners; Bottom Right: Top prize in the Sir Rhys Davies Mock Trial competition for WGS Sixth Formers.

During a one-day event held at WGS, six of the school’s Year 8 girls demonstrated their talents in engineering and problem-solving when they won the local round of the Faraday Challenge, a national competition run by the Institute of Engineering. Teams from six schools in Greater Manchester and Cheshire were tasked with solving an engineering problem – and although competition was fierce and all teams achieved a high standard, the Withington team secured the top prize.

In the Sixth Form, a team of Year 12 students were also celebrating victory as they beat off competition from eleven other schools to win the annual Sir Rhys Davies Mock Trial competition, which was held at Manchester Crown Court. Playing the roles of defence and prosecution lawyers, defendants, witnesses, clerks and ushers, they won in the final after being pitted against Bury Grammar Boys. In addition, their ‘court reporters’ won the Manchester Evening News Law Reporting Award.

At Junior level, a team of Year 6 Withington girls have been selected to represent Manchester in the North West Pop Lacrosse in March after winning all five matches in the recent Manchester Schools Pop Lacrosse tournament. Pop Lacrosse is a mixed game of five-a-side, with up to three boys allowed in a team and WGS was the only all-girls team in the field of twelve teams. The Withington girls were thrilled to have won all five of their matches, scoring a total of 40 goals in the process.

Headmistress Mrs Haslam comments, “Our aim at Withington is to provide our girls with an education in its broadest sense. These successes are only a snapshot of the achievements our girls celebrate on a very regular basis at WGS but I think demonstrates just how talented our pupils are. It is wonderful that we have once again emerged in national league tables as the top school academically in the North of England but this is also set against the wealth of extra-curricular on offer here. From the youngest of our Juniors through to our Sixth form students, our girls thrive on combining their studies with their other non-academic interests.”

Withington is a selective independent school for academically-able girls and is renowned as one of the country’s leading schools. Entry to both Junior and Senior departments is selective, with entrance exams for 11+ being held on 9th January, and assessments for younger pupils being held on 14th January. Fee assistance is available, subject to means-testing, with one in six pupils benefiting from bursary support. Pupils travel from a wide catchment area which is served by good transport links including a Shuttle-bus service to and from Manchester City Centre. Private tours are available by prior arrangement.