This week C25 have been learning about conduction, convection and radiation. To consolidate our learning further, in pairs students produced beautiful posters to explain what they have learnt.
We then shared our learning with the class and took peer feedback to address any misconceptions. A fantastic end to a week of hard work.
Both 8 Pioneer and 8 Explorer have an extended writing task for which the deadline is next Thursday 18th October. The question is How was XP East sustainably designed around the principle of…? – the students complete the title by including their personal area of interest following the visit from XP East’s architect, Leanne Stamp, last week.
All the resources to support this task, including the assessment rubric, are available on Google Classroom and students have been given time in a number of sessions this week to begin their writing, with peer-critique of their work and class-critique of WAGOLLs to support their development of ideas.
The majority of students will type their final draft, but if they have limited access at home to devices they will be permitted to handwrite their work in their book.
Please do email me if you have any questions.
Mrs Townson
Recently our E24 students have been creating a storyboard to describe their daily routine in Spanish. As well as using reflexive verbs, they have been developing and extending their responses by adding the time and/or room of the house where the actions take place – referring back to their Y7 notes and working both independently and productively. Bravo!
This past week C25 have been tackling some really tricky maths problems, where they have been required to convert worded problems, to pictorial models, to mathematical calculations, to finally find an answer!
We’ve been required to multiply and divide integers (whole numbers) by fractions, and divide/multiply fractions by fractions, which many of us wanted to know how to do after our grapple! However, we have found using bar models has really helped.
The activity set out was a card sort, Where students had to find all 3 matching cards, and work out the answer at the end. Some superstars realised that there was more than one calculation that they could use to complete a problem. eg. 3 ÷ 1/3 would give me the same answer as 3 x 3, so as long as we multiplied/divided (depending on the inverse operation) by the reciprocal, we’d be able to work out our answers.
Once each pair had completed their activity, we then went on a bit of a gallery walk, and peer critiqued our work, making suggestions and corrections when we disagreed with other table’s answers. It was fantastic to hear students use our mathematical keywords, such as reciprocal, inverse operation, denominator and numerator in their answers. The collaboration on this task was really impressive, and I heard some fantastic discussions filled with mathematical reasoning.
I was especially impressed with students who used bar models to represent their solutions. This provided everyone with a really intuitive, visual representation of what 1/2 ÷ 1/4 looked like, and why the answer was 2!
Sit back, take a deep breath and immerse yourself in powerful, emotive and beautiful World War One poetry written by 7 Explorer.
The Nobodies Dreams
Bang! Bang! Bombs and bullets boomed in this brutal battle.
I dreamt of when I had run along these valleys of hell,
ran along a field where once lived some lively cattle
and now lived the rotting dead, who had fallen.
Rotten bodies, bloody bodies, parts of bodies;
They tortured me.
Heroic soldiers, now nobodies.
The dead haunted me.
I was trapped in my dreams,
dreams of watching in disgusted awe;
at rats eating bodies
eating right to the core.
Eating bodies of soldiers;
who were once heroic soldiers, now nobodies.
The immortal bombs, bullets and gas had but made me fall on one knee,
but listening to my comrades agonised screams
had tortured me,
within my deadly dreams.
Because they to were once heroic soldiers, and now nobodies.
I’ll be glad when I’m gone.
The dreams, they won’t torture me.
I’ll be free at last;
when I’m a heroic soldier, who’s turned to a nobody…
By Rosie
Land of the Forgotten Souls
Rising over the trench top,
A bomb detonated before my eyes,
The sound of bullets waving farewell
To millions of innocent souls pierced through me!
Falling to the ground, my body filled with sorrow,
I could smell the blood stained dust beside me,
Looking up, the sight of a million men
Yelling for help deafened me,
I was left, frozen in fear.
Bang! Alerted, I frantically rose above the haunted land,
The devastating sight of dead men
Beside me will never be forgotten,
Rushing back to the torturous trench, my heart was racing,
It was like a colony of ants treasuring their last breath,
The sight of hope started to fade,
It was my time,
My time to take my last breath.
Day after day, year after year, this story will never end,
Thousands of memories are buried under these valleys of hell,
However, millions are yet to come,
Happiness, peace and hope were buried under these forgotten souls
A very long time ago.
By Lilly
What an amazing and moving end to our school day!
7 Explorer shared their pieces of World War One poetry with the class.
To begin with, we practised reading our poems aloud with our partners to make sure our intonation and expression was suitable.
We then invited Mr. Ryder, our very own published poet, to join us. He could not believe the level of craftsmanship and quality he heard as we recited what we had written.
Absolutely stunning!
Read a selection of our poems in our next blog post.
8 Pioneer are well into their reading of ‘Of Mice and Men’ and have now been introduced to the characters of George, Lennie, Slim, Curley and Curley’s Wife.
Today we started to map out our ideas about the different characters, in preparation for a more in-depth character analysis. We did this using a Silent Discussion protocol, where we use the pen rather than our voices to express our ideas. This protocol allows for everyone’s “voices” to be heard within the group discussion.
A big well done to Callie who backed up her comments with quotes from the book. Great stuff!
Firstly, I’d like to state a massive thank you to all members of Crew Turing that helped out with our Y6 Open Evening, you were fantastic! I was so impressed to see Sammi’s, Jess’, Callum’s, Dylan’s and Charlotte’s confidence in talking to parents and year 6s about their expedition. They have grown so much in their maturity and character just 6 weeks into school and I really appreciate them taking time out their evenings to help us out!
This week during crew we’ve had three separate focuses, one being stewardship, another being their WW1 expedition, and the final being a personal focus on their life so far.
Whilst at Outward Bound, we came across the protocols of “de-gunge” and “leave no trace”. We spoke this week about how important it is that we respect our environment and how we can adopt these same protocols in school, especially after our busy open evenings. This is why stewardship has been our first focus, we spent half a session clearing up after we had the year 6s visit. We discussed the value we felt in keeping our school tidy, and how it should not be left to other staff to sort it.
Another highlight from our sessions has been the time we spent dedicating to show and tell. Lewis brought in some real ammunition which we passed round and some members of the crew were able to identify. Callum and Alice showed us pictures from their weekend trips to War Museums, which was insightful and really interesting! Finally, Reece brought in his family’s medals and historical documentation, as well as some pictures, which we really enjoyed looking through. I love to see how engrossed we all are in our expeditions, and how we’re taking time at the weekends and evenings to do additional research!
Finally, this week we’re working on a piece of art work in our crew, where the students will create a ‘river of their life’. We discussed pivotal events in their lives, such as starting school, siblings being born, getting pets etc., which they have all been encouraged to add to their rivers. It’s opened up some really amazing discussions about where our crew members have lived (Oman and South Africa!) and what fantastic achievements they have made, be it sporting, academic, with their friendships or families.
Jess’ piece showed just how incredibly creative she is, she added a beautiful drawing of herself kayaking, which she also competes in during the weekends – I loved this little touch that made her river so personal.
I look forward to updating you with our final products!
Today 7 Pioneer have been set HUMAN extended study, due 16th October. They need to research what life in the trenches was like for soldiers in the First World War. This will complement our fieldwork to Hyde Park Cemetery and will be vital in the students work in lessons next week.
There are resources for students to use on Google Classroom (accessed by students logging into the school website) and I have given them a paper copy of the notecatcher in today’s lesson – it is also available on Google Classroom if students would rather type their homework.
They are welcome to attend extended study to use the school’s devices (I will be there to help on Wednesday). If students are confused about what to do, they need to speak to me and I will offer support.
Today in HUMAN, 7 Explorer have spent time critiquing the first drafts of our World War One poetry.
We used our ‘Be Kind, Be Specific and Be Helpful’ protocol to give each other quality feedback.
Florence really liked how Harvey had used the phrase ‘night and day…’ as it gave the impression that the war was never ending.
This is what Lilly had to say about Kristian’s poem:
‘I like your use of a hyperbole in Stanza 4, ‘I have already grown six feet taller.’
‘I also like your triadic cluster, ‘the hell, the sorrow, the pain…’ because it makes your poem heart-breaking.
Improving punctuation, adding alliteration and powerful similes were just some of the helpful comments that were suggested to help develop our work even further.
Time to crack on with draft 2 tomorrow…
