Hello everyone! It’s been a great week of settling into routines, welcoming more new students, and our class are really giving it their all!
Next week, after school activities are beginning. We’re excited for our students to gain skills beyond the classroom!
English
In English, students have been introduced to Aristotle’s Art of Rhetoric and considered how Orwell used its teachings of Logos, Pathos, and Ethos in Old Major’s speech. They also considered the use of persuasive language methods and how these impact the reader and audience.
Diving further into the speech, students investigated key quotations from Old Major and zoomed in on the word and language choices, considering the connotations surrounding their usage and how these impact the reading of the novel. Students also explored the essay question: How does Old Major use rhetoric to turn the animals of Manor Farm against man? They produced an analytical paragraph in response.
For their Friday English Workshop, students discussed the books they have been reading over the last two weeks. They also looked into the differences between a novel and a graphic novel, investigating how images are used to tell stories.
Maths
Year 7
This week we finished our unit on sequences and had our first end-of-unit assessment. All students scored well. We have now started a new unit on algebraic notation and substitution. The next end-of-unit assessment is scheduled for Wednesday 16 September.
Year 8
Ratio
We completed Aut.1.8 – Solve problems with ratio.
Students did a great job in the assessment—well done! Keep up the good work!
Proportion & Scale
We covered:
- Aut.2.1 – Direct proportion
- Aut.2.2 – Conversion graphs
- Aut.2.4 – Direct proportion graphs
- Aut.2.5 – Similar shapes
- Aut.2.3 – Converting between currencies
- Aut.2.6 – Converting metric units
Assessment: Students will have an assessment on Wednesday 9th September. Please encourage them to revise proportion and scale.
Year 9
Properties of Numbers
We continued exploring Properties of Numbers, including:
- Venn diagrams
- Using Venn diagrams to find HCF and LCM
- Integers, real numbers and rational numbers
- Introduction to surds (E)
Assessment: The assessment was completed on Friday.
Assessment papers have been sent home for students to review their work and reflect on their learning.
Well done to everyone for their hard work this week!
IMYC
This week, students continued exploring our IMYC unit through the science of light. They investigated how light behaves, including how prisms can change the path of light, and explored the key concepts of reflection, refraction, and light waves. Through practical activities, students were able to see these ideas in action and develop a deeper understanding of how we experience and interact with light.
Students also put their baking skills to the test once again! Following their vote on the best recipe from our previous experiment, they repeated the challenge alongside Mr Browning’s class, this time using their baking to teach the five senses to the younger students. Students considered how sight, smell, taste, touch, and even sound can influence our experience of food, while developing their practical skills and working collaboratively with another class.
In Humanities, students explored why certain moments in history become important enough for societies to remember and celebrate. They considered a range of key historical events, including wars ending, countries gaining independence, revolutions, scientific discoveries and changes to laws, and discussed what makes an event historically significant. Students examined significance through impact, change, memory, relevance and duration, considering not only what happened at the time but also why an event may continue to matter many years later. They also worked with primary sources and contemporary accounts to investigate how an event was understood by people at the time, before considering how its significance and the way it is remembered may have changed over time.
PE
In PE, students were introduced to the concept of dance as a collaborative skill. After a warm-up dancing to songs students were already familiar with, they ventured into the world of American line dancing.