A reminder to 7Pioneer that they have Extended Study to complete. This was set on Friday and it is to complete the Learning Target 4 assessment.

It is due Friday 3rd May – session 1. 

Some students have already completed this, here’s a reminder to the students who still have this work outstanding:

Fin

Charlotte

Jacob

Alice

Woody

Torran

Tom

Aaron

Dylan S

Dylan A

Junia

Bob

Jess

If you need any help or have any questions, email me or find me at school – I’m happy to help!

I am also on duty on Wednesday night at extended study and Miss Mitchell will be there on Thursday so we can offer help then too.

We’ve had a fantastic week in Hums, yet again the students worked their socks off! We’ve been focusing on explaining why some countries have lower development levels. We looked at environmental reasons such as climate as well as economic and historical reasons such as colonialism. This was linked to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)  which has been our case study in exploring low development levels and modern day slavery. We’ve being learning about the social, economic, environmental and political factors of the DRC and applied our knowledge of the causes of low development to explain why the DRC has low development levels. The students then spent two lessons planning their answers before writing their Learning Target 4 assessment on Friday. As you can see a superb level of focus and independent work from the students – I was so proud of all the students as they displayed our HOWLs to such a high standard.

There’s only 3 weeks left of our Stand Up expedition – but we can’t start winding down, we’ve got to wind up! There’s so much still ahead of us, our product and the presentation of learning. An exciting couple of weeks are still in store for us.

This week, 7 Pioneer have started the 3rd and final case study in the stand up expedition. This case study moves us away from the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade and into modern day slavery.

The case study has a geographical focus – we started to explore development in the world and how the world, and many countries, have a development gap. We defined development and how it revolves around making progress in the social, economic, environmental and political factors of a country.

So, how do we know how developed a country is? We introduced the concept of development indicators which are used to measure a country’s development, such as literacy rate, death rate and infant mortality rate.

Students then had to evaluate these to find which measures are more useful than others – hidden around the room were explanations for how useful each measure was and the students had to hunt them down and decide which measure the explanation was for. 

Towards the end of the week, we looked at the Demographic Transition Model. This model is based on the UK’s development and is applied to other countries around the world. It explains how birth rate, death rate and total population changes as a country develops. The students had statements which they had to allocate into the right stage with examples of countries which fit that stage.

I was impressed with how the students grappled with this – it’s challenging but they worked hard and supported each other to identify what was happening on the model and understand reasons for these changes.

I’m so excited to carry on with this case study which will use the Democratic Republic of Congo as an example and focus on its social, economic, environmental and political features, linking these to the expedition.

This week in HUMAN, 7 Pioneer started a source analysis of an image relating to the abolition of the slave trade. The students looked deeply into the image focusing on the messages that are created from the body language and facial expressions of the characters in the image.

We then zoomed out to place this image in the wider context of the time  – exploring the purpose of the image, the audience it was intended for and the consequences it had for society.

Next, we began the drafting process – all students worked exceptionally hard at this. Sometimes I forget how young these students are, their conduct reminds me of being back at university with the level of focus, hard work and determination they have to achieve the highest standard possible in their work. It’s a fantastic environment to be in when 7 Pioneer are ‘on fire’ as we say!

The next step is for students to ‘Get Smart’ – one of our Howls which requires students to  ‘welcome feedback and revise their work’. I have responded to each students first draft – acknowledging what they have done well and providing questions and comments to allow them to improve on certain areas. When writing their final answer, by taking this feedback into account they will be well on their way to greatness!