ENGLISH
This week students have worked very well in English and have responded extremely well to the school's new literacy focus. Year 9 are concluding their study of a play and are planning a debate which they will participate in. As a class, we have looked at strong spoken literacy skills and considered how to speak formally and academically when debating. Year 10 and Year 11 have both been studying discursive essays and how to explore polemic topics in the written format of the essay. Year 12 have been reading 'Death of a Salesman' with great enthusiasm and have just received feedback on their essays exploring how the play criticises the American Dream through the genre of modern tragedy. Finally, year 13 have been working well through their novel 'The Colour Purple' and explored how the writer presents suffering and the loss of innocence.
ICT
This week in ICT year 11 have been working their way through a previous year examination. Year 13 were doing revision on Emerging Technology and created mind maps for revision. Year 7 were continuing with the leaflet in MS Publisher to advertise the theme park which they enjoyed and becoming more familiar with MS Publisher and some pupils have started the short video to promote their theme park. Moreover Year 9 were looking at advanced input devices and types of sensors and discussing the pros and cons for each.
HISTORY
Year 9
Year 9 are continuing an investigation into life in Nazi Germany. This week, they have considered the impact of the so-called ‘economic miracle’ before turning their attention to the devastating impact of war.
Year 11
As Year 11 near the end of their study into Russia 1905-41 our attention is increasingly turning to important examination skills. This week Year 11 have been introduced to Paper 4 and regardless of any potential changes to their IGCSE examination this remains and important skill that will ultimately be assessed either by a formal externally marked examination or an internal teacher assessment.
Year 12
This week Year 12 have studied the events leading up to the abdication of the Tsar in February/March 1917 and the immediate problems that the Provisional Government faced as a consequence. Also, they are continued to be encouraged to express their knowledge and understanding of this tumultuous period through extended argumentative writing.
DRAMA
The students of KS3 have done well in Drama this week. All of the filming projects have been finished filming and they are moving on to editing the films together. They are going to be having a small film festival on the 5th of March. This week students have also begun working on a new short film project called Note Card Confessions. They are going to be telling their own stories though writing on cards alone, without speaking. They have been learning how to tell a story and also what is important to them, hopes, dreams, and even fears. It is proving to be an interesting project.
ART
As part of the process in Art And Design students need to peer review the artwork they are making. Recently Y8 have used photographs of good practise within the class as exemplar. This has helped them find ways to reflect and refine their own work. The students worked really hard and were able to make positive changes to refine their use of line and tone and to feel more confident in mixing different media including charcoal, ink and wash.
RUSSIAN NATIVE
It was a literary week for Year 10 and 11. Students studied the main features of classicism, sentimentalism, romanticism and realism. Also Year 10 continued reading Pushkin's story ‘The Queen of Spades’ and Year 11 - Karamzin’s story 'Poor Lisa'. Enjoy reading!
SCIENCE MUSEUM TRIP
Last Tuesday the Year 9 class went on their first trip to the museum of interactive sciences Experimentanium where they explored various scientific phenomena from optical illusions to hydraulics. They were presented with a guided excursion and were tested their knowledge in some of the physics laws by the tour guide. Students had a great opportunity to explore many different rooms dedicated to various themes on three levels and thoroughly enjoyed their experiences. Here's what they had to say:
"On Tuesday our class went on a trip to Experimentanium museum. It was a lot of fun and I learnt a lot. Big thank you to the school for organising the event. I hope we go on more trips like this in the future". Sophia Barasheva
"Tuesday was very fun! We learnt many things like how the shadows can be of different colours. We went to a mirror maze which was quite tricky to get out from. We also went to a laser room where we had to dodge the laser beams and get to the other side of the room". Aanas Quazi
"Excursion was fun. We had a great time there. There were machines, some about science, some are for fun, for example, there was a room full of darkness and there was a button that when you push it, the laser turns on and you need to pass the room without touching the lasers!" Yigit Emre
" On Tuesday we went to the science museum. There were different rooms, some of which were optical room, sound room and a space room . After exploring the museum with the guide, we got time to explore it ourselves. We found a room where the floor was at a weird angle making it very difficult to walk in there. After that we had some lunch and went to the museum's shop where Maria and I bought glow sticks 🙂. The trip was very fun!" Elizaveta Voronenkova.
SCIENCE
It has been difficult for our students the past few weeks and especially giving the circumstances but they have powered through like real heroes.
The Year 10 biology group is looking at transport across membranes especially looking at how amazing our cell membrane is. They look at how substances (nutrients, salts, waste products, etc.) move across it and distributed through our bodies. What features make the cell membrane such an amazing thing? It selects what it allows to go through and how some of these substances are helped and others not. It is exciting to know how our body uses this ability to be safe.
Year 11 is looking at our transport system looking in depth at our blood, what it is made up off and how it is distributed across our bodies. They look at our circulatory system, functions of the parts of our blood as well as the vaccines and their distribution throughout the body. They have to look at the worldwide situation regarding vaccines etc to understand how a vaccine is made, and how antibodies and antigens play a major part in our protection.
Year 12 is focusing on fully understanding the heart and its function. How it distributes blood across our whole body, the chambers and the valves of the heart and the blood vessels associated with it. We are looking at the cardiac cycle and how it helps us to stay alive. Why we hear the sound Lub-dub when we listen to our heartbeat. How the heartbeat is an indication of our blood pressure. We used a paper model to illustrate the heart and its chambers.
Next week we will have science week where we will display scientific work and do some experiments to get our students even more interested in science and the amazing ways to learn about ourselves and the world around us.
FRENCH
In Secondary, we studied and finished the topic about "La conjugaison". They studied how to conjugate in present time verbs from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd group. It was a serious week and each class of secondary did a good job. They were all serious and interested in this topic.
So, how to conjugate a verb in present time in French? We first learnt how to recognize a verb from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd group : it's all about the ending of the verb: ER / IR / DRE etc. Then we learnt that we need to remove the ending of the infinitive and according to the pronoun, we have to add the good ending: e / es / e / ons / ez / ent.
Even if the students did a good job in class and worked hard, there is no secret, they have to learn by heart the ending of the verbs. However, after their hard work, they deserve to relax. That's why, for the next lesson and to finish the topic, we will listen to a song and they will have to write the verb missing writing the good ending. Bravo Secondary !
MUSIC
In Secondary we have played in music maths and found the value of the beats in each sums. The students composed a piece of STOMP-inspired “junk percussion” uses only rhythms and ostinato patterns.Year 8 have explored Soundtrack from James Bond movies. The students have played on the keyboard the James Bond Leitmotif and the Main James Bond Theme. Year 9 have learned about tonality in music.
