Further Improvements

New Entrance

The site team have created a new entrance for students.  More details will follow next half term.

Pipe Work Replaced

The work continues to have all the hot and cold water pipes repalced across the school.  This has included the installation of additional boilers to ensure that the temperature of the water can be maintained.

Classroom Space Released

A classroom space has been reassigned in the main block and will now accomodate the Foundation Group.  The IT Support Staff base has been moved, ensuring more effective use of the space available.

New Fencing 

There has been additional fencing installed to secure the field and the wooded area has been cleared, providing access to space, that could be developed in the future as a social space for students.

Learning Languages

A Day At Wellington College

On Wednesday 21st October, 10 Year 10 students went to Wellington College to take part in a 'Languages at Work' day.  The 5 workshops, which all students attended, were presented by professionals who use languages in their place of work  The sessions were run by the following companies/individuals; Semantec (Norton), GCHQ, Mr Suzuki - an Introduction to Japanese, Mr Dennis - Freelance Sports Broadcaster and Conversis.  The students were credit to the school and had the following to say on the minibus on the way home

"Amazing day out - I thought we were at Hogwarts!" - Juhi

"It gave us a valuable insight into the world of future opportunities in languages." - Fiona

"Fun to mingle with new people!" - Mae

"The day was really good, I met new people and learnt all about languages." - Ella

"It opened my eyes to how far languages can get you."- Rory

"I never knew there were so many job opportunities with languages." - Thomas

"The GCHQ workshop was very interesting - we learnt some Arabic and had a brief introduction to what they do." -Evan

"It changed my opinion on where languages can get you in the future and how helpful they are." - Kai

"The workshops were interesting and I especially enjoyed learning Japanese and how it can help me in future jobs." - Philip

"It taught me a lot about how much of a difference languages can make." - Muminah

Online Resources

Tom Walgrove, who along with other Yr 10s  is a ‘junior prefect’ supporting the Yr 11 MFL Prefect Team, has been researching and developing the use of some Language Apps and having demonstrated their use to Mrs Finney last week, was asked to deliver a presentation to the MFL staff at their meeting. The aim was to introduce how Apps can be used to improve passive vocabulary recognition and provide opportunities for self-directed learning.

Tom prepared crib sheets for staff and students for two separate apps and demonstrated their use in a very articulate and confident way. It was very impressive to see a student at the start of Yr 10 having the skills and confidence to research and deliver a presentation to eight teachers! It is also lovely to see students being a part of driving things forward.

Others who have also shown particular commitment so far this term are: Yasmin Howbrook and Samuel Thorpe.

They are a credit to the school.

 

An Inspiring Half Term

9W1 in History

Mrs Markham decided to share some of the work  9W1 produced this week...

They have spent two lessons and a homework researching the WW1 trenches.  Students had to find out about the following:

-          How a trench was laid out

-          What it was like to live in a trench

-          How British and German trenches were different

-          What weapons were used in trench warfare

-          The advantages and disadvantages of trench warfare

The students worked either on their own or in groups of 2 or 3.  We had some spectacular results and below are some photographs of the models that came into school...

Year 8 Assembly

Year 8 had an interesting and interactive assembly on Thursday which focussed on raising achievement.  Students looked at the issue of homework and the type of excuses given when it was not completed.  They all agreed that it was better to plan to get the work done, as all the excuses had been heard before and homework was intended to support learning.  This was followed up by a presentation by the Army Cadet Force.

Story in a Box

Year 8 students were asked to create a story in a box during their Art lessons.  Mrs Ballam was keen to show me one of the boxes made by a member of her tutor group, depicting Alice in Wonderland.