MATH
Year 9 class has started on a new topic "Geometry" and have learnt how to prove sum of exterior angles of a polygon theorem as well as how to calculate interior angles of regular polygons. Year 11 students continued working with functions and graphs and learnt new methods of solving simultaneous equations graphically.Year 12 students learn binomial expansion theorem and discovered that coefficients in the expansion can be found not only from Pascal's triangle diagram but can be calculated using factorials. Year 13 students have been busy studying how parametric equations allow you to make a graph that represents the position of a point on a Ferris wheel.
DRAMA
In KS3 Drama this week, the students have put all of the finishing touches on their Film Project. Each year group has completed their filming and are moving on to editing and finalising their projects. All of the students have learned much about how to work together, the importance of planning, and the delegation of duties. While there have been some stumbles along the way, the students worked hard to overcome them, which has been great to see. We have been proud of all the students throughout this project.
ICT
This week in ICT year 11 have been continuing using various advanced functions when creating complex spreadsheets including count and lookup formulas. Year 7 were creating there leaflet in MS Publisher to advertise the theme park which they enjoyed and becoming more familiar with MS Publisher and thinking of what to include in the video to advertise it. Moreover Year 9 are still doing databases, importing data into a database and creating and using forms to enter new data this had been done using MS Access. They have also been creating a database of there own choice by doing research on real life issues.
ART
In the Art Department this week KS3 have been working hard to prepare for Valentine's Day. We hope we will all be ready for an early school Valentine celebration in Friday 12th February. Get ready by thinking of the person you would like to send a special message to. We will have cards ready for you write in and post in our Valentine post box which will be waiting in the library from Thursday 11th February.
In Year 7 students continued to learn about still life composition. Still life is an arrangement of several objects. The composition is an arrangement of elements of the artwork that unites the elements into one whole. Children were drawing a still life scene with a bucket, bottle of water and fruits.
HISTORY
Year 7 History
Year 7 History are continuing their investigation into the Crusades. This week they compared and contrasted the leadership styles of Richard I of England and Saladin and are currently contemplating the daunting task of attacking a crusader fort.
Year 9 History
Year 9 continue to look at different aspect of Nazi rule with a particular focus on its impact on German society in the 30s. Through their study they are being introduced to important historical skills of handling sources/evidence and how to negotiate bias and propaganda.
Year 11 History
Year 11 History are nearing the end of their Depth Study on Russia, 1905-41 and have been looking at the effects of Stalin’s economic policies on the daily lives of the people in the USSR. Particular focus has been given to culture and the role of woman during this time.
Year 12 History
After looking at the turmoil of the 1905 Revolution, Year 12 has been studying the relative calm under the repressive guidance of the Stolypin era. Now our focus is turning to the outbreak of the First World War and its devastating consequences on Tsarist rule. Year 12 are continued to be encouraged to express their knowledge and understand through extended argumentative writing, an essential skill at AS Level
SCIENCE
Year 8 started Chemistry and we talked about atoms, elements, molecules and compounds. The students practised making models of elements and compounds using moly mods. They enjoyed the activity and everyone managed very well. Also, the students were introduced the Periodic Table and they were curious about some elements whose names would not relate at all to their chemical symbol – such as Tin and Sn, or Mercury and Hg - so, we had an interesting discussion on that. Great start, Year 8!
ENGLISH
Year 7 are finishing their unit on poetry, where they have been introducing to wide variety of different types of poems. Over the past few weeks, we have been studying limericks, kennings and haikus and they are currently in the process of writing a comparative essay on Walt Disney’s interpretation of Robert Browning’s classic, the Pied Piper.
This week year 9 students have been reading the final parts of the play 'Blood Brothers' and have focused on structural techniques used by the playright. Year 10 and Year 11 have been honing their literacy skills as part of the school's new literacy drive. Skills which the classes have practised include: spelling, punctuation and sentence structures. Year 12 have continued their study of 'Death of a Salesman' and have written extensively about the protagonist in light of psychoanalytic literary criticism. Finally, Year 13 have begun the seminal novel 'The Colour Purple': the coming-of-age text charting the life of a young woman growing up in a rural, black community in Georgia, America.
RUSSIAN
Y7 managed really well when it came to completing and submitting their end of unit assessment, everybody managed to complete it in time, so well done to them!
Y8 have been learning about the Past Tense in Russian and have shown that they really have put in a lot of effort to ensure that they understand this.
Y9 have been preparing for the end of unit assessment by focusing on the listening, reading and writing aspects of the topic Daily Routine.
Y10 and Y11 Russian as a second language classes have been working upon improving and perfecting a range of skills in Russian. We have been focusing on gaining confidence in expressing ideas and thoughts verbally in Russian. One way we have been doing this is by presentations. This is where students in small groups talk about something that is important to them. This has included topics such as their home country, family, hobbies, future aspirations and study. This has allowed everybody to feel more comfortable in a small group situation and facilitated learning about them as individuals. Students have used technology to research information and create a power point to use a range of multimedia concepts for their presentation. Students have also been hard at work perfecting their writing and listening skills for their practice Russian exams.
MUSIC
In Secondary we have been learning the durations of the notes with Year 7.
Year 8 have explored Soundtrack from Western movies. Students have composed their own soundtrack with different instruments. Year 9 have explored Expressionism in music.
FRENCH
What a serious week in Secondary French class !
This week, the Secondary (year 7/8/9) section had a test during French class. Students had to learn the topics about : ordinals numbers, the calendar, the daily routine and animals. They had to translate words and sentences but also to answer the questions about the calendar of the year. Moreover, they needed to write sentences about their daily routine. We also used the next lesson to do the correction and explain again the points which were not clear and not known by the students. Students are always afraid of doing a test, to fail, to receive a bad mark…but a test is not just to trick the students, it's also a good way to see if everything was clear during the lesson.
In year 10, we were still working to be ready for the IGCSE, They had to match pictures of houses around the world with the good description. We worked on an audio document. They had to listen to a presentation and had to answer the questions. Then they had to complete sentences with the indefinite pronouns. After that, each of them wrote a presentation about the house in which they live.
