As we seek to further improve and develop our provision for remote learning, we are planning to introduce some elements of ‘live’ teaching into classes in Year 7 and Year 8 slightly earlier than we had previously communicated. This has been successful in Years 9-13 and we are keen to continue supporting parents and students to learn as productively as possible.
To this end, the following subjects will be ‘trialling’ some live teaching for Year 7 and Year 8, during week 5 (next week) and week 6 (the final week of the half term), with a roll-out to further subjects after half term. Subject teachers will make clear to their classes which lessons will be live and parents will sent some documentation tomorrow to make clear how to access this.
Year 7 will access some live teaching in the following subjects:
- Maths (starting week 5 – w/c 1st February)
- History (starting week 5 – w/c 1st February)
- Design Technology (starting week 5 – w/c 1st February)
- RE (starting week 5 – w/c 1st February)
Year 8 will access some live teaching in the following subjects:
- History (starting week 5 – w/c 1st February)
- Geography (starting week 5 – w/c 1st February)
- RE (starting week 6 – w/c 1st February)
For these younger year groups there remains a great deal of value in the narrated lessons we have worked hard to produce and these will also continue after half term supplemented by live lessons each week. With the potential of a more prolonged period out of school this blended approach should help continue to keep students motivated and engaged.
KS4 Online Student Survey
As part of our process of reflection and continuous improvement we would like some feedback on the online learning experience of Year 10 and 11. We did this last week with Post 16 and the feedback was extremely helpful. The link can be accessed below and is also available in Google Classrooms.
Student Wellbeing – Thankful Thursday
Art challenge of the week from Miss Dugdale…
Eco Club
Eco Club are sharing a top tip once a week on how families can do one small thing once a week to become more environmentally friendly with a fun quiz on Geography Google Classrooms. This week is an introduction with a carbon calculator and a quiz…..
Head of Year update – It’s Miss Turvey and Y10….
Many of you will have joined in last night with Holocaust Memorial Day and lit a candle at 8pm in order to “be a light in the darkness”. Your young people, as their Act of Collective Worship yesterday, watched the following 15 minute presentation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQQLnpchn9c&feature=emb_logo ; if you have the time, it is worth the watching. The message of the video is one of hope. Hope for change, hope for a more tolerant society, hope for your future and your children’s future, hope for there being a light in any dark situation we are in. It is times of adversity that a person’s strength, resilience and fortitude shines through. Please thank your children for being shining beacons of hope in a chaotic world.
There are twelve school days between writing this and half term, which is 58 lessons (I have taken off the core PE lessons!) and we can all make it ~ some of us will skip merrily towards half term while others of us will be crawling slowly with every step being painful ~ but we will all make it, as resilience is a key aptitude of any Y10 student. There are ample opportunities to engage with well-being activities, PE zoom sessions and chats with tutors as self-care is important.
Also important is celebration of how well your sons and daughters are working; my colleagues would like to give the following messages:
- Miss Dixon says: Scarlett P and Katie H are an utter delight to teach languages to online.
- Dr Osman says: Isabel C, Leah G, Gemma G and Taylor G-R all working hard and really getting to grips with “The Mole” in Chemistry.
- Mr Bryan says: Connor E engagement and enthusiasm for learning in RE has been excellent over the last three weeks.
- Dr Paul says: Ananya V is absolutely delightful in online Geography lessons, hardworking and so conscientious and James T always reassures me that my mic is working and unmutes to give me a response (ensuring that I don’t feel like I am talking to an empty room – even though I am)
- Mrs Kitney says: Massive shout outs in Travel and Tourism to Fin, Grace, Imogen, Ellie, Summer, Jack and Faith who are really trying so hard and producing some great work.
- Mr Williams says: Ben M has been absolutely superb in Triple Science Chemistry lessons since the start of remote learning and Jess T and Ellie F have both been superb. Especially at being prepared to ask the questions that other students were too apprehensive to ask. Continued fantastic work from 10c1 and 10d1. However, special mention to Laura W. for her tenacity at grappling with ionic bonding and balancing equations.
- Mrs Edmondson says: I have been really impressed with Toby D, Fatmanur H and Imogen M. All really hardworking and mature in their attitude to remote learning in English.
- Miss Harper says: My group (10d4) were absolutely brilliant today – all who attended the RE lesson engaged throughout! But Special praise today to:
Callum H – attempting Bright Sparks tasks and asking excellent questions
Tyler B – great engagement with all tasks and attempting Bright Sparks
Bradley G – responding to teacher feedback and adding extra detail to his work
Tom F – thoughtful and detailed work
- Mrs Robertson says: thank you to Keigan C for rounding up the troops and getting the form group to attend the google meet.
- Miss Cooper says: Just wanted to let you know my Y10 maths class have been great with the online lessons, but Brad G really stands out as being excellent. He writes everything down, attempts every question and emails me after every lesson with photo evidence of all the work he has done.
Mrs Freeman says: Grace M, Jack F, Imogen B, Summer D, Faith B in y10 Science – all of you have been making excellent contributions during live lessons. I’m really pleased that you are confidently offering to read parts of the lesson, completing work to a high standard and always engaging well for the lessons. Very impressive work and you should be very proud. - Mrs Freeman also says: Finley S (10d3) and Noah H (10d3) working really well in Biology lessons this week. All tasks completed including extension work, well done!
- Mr Gibson says: Dillon S is amazingly superb and has competed 500 Duolingo German lesson in a week!
- Mr Knox says: well done to his History class on the effort they put into the 16-mark question. Great resilience.
- Miss Lawrenson says: excellent engineering work and solid effort from Fenn W-B, Frankie T, Dillon S, Josh S, Oli L, Jamie H, Oli G, Will G, Ethan D, Rob D, Keigan C, Callum C, Ethan C, Tyler B, Isaac A.
As ever please do continue to communicate with us especially if your child is ill or has a meeting during their school time ~ it will save us chasing you by email or on the phone. And thank you for your encouraging emails, phone calls and messages.
Let us all be a light in the darkness. Virtual hugs, Miss T.
The bears are back..
You may remember from the last lockdown that one of my colleagues Dr Bailey from the Teaching School had set up displays in her window each week during this period showing the bears getting up to different things. This has now been updated to reflect the vaccination programme…
From Mr Young, Head of Social Sciences and ITT Lead
Bring your parent to school day! Did anybody ever do this when they were at school? No. Me either… Not until the other day anyway. I always thought it would be nice to introduce this rather American tradition into my classroom. On Monday my year 12 Sociology class had the privilege of being with not just one Mr Young, but two!
Professor John Young bravely agreed for me to interview him on a Zoom call with my year 12 Sociology class. Recently we have been studying the Sociology of health. This means we have been learning about health inequalities in Britain, the role of the medical profession and the social construction of health and illness. It was therefore right that my father entered at least one of our lessons to share some of his wisdom with us.
Professor Young – Emeritus Professor of Elderly Care Medicine, University of Leeds – has a career spanning over 40 years in geriatric care. He was appointed as a consultant geriatrician in Bradford in 1986 and has devoted his life’s work to care of the elderly ever since. He has published a range of research on topics linked to frailty, dementia and stroke. In 2009 he was awarded the Lady Illingham prize for “outstanding contributions” to services for older people. John was seconded to NHS England as National Clinical Director for Integration and Frail Elderly for 2 years before retiring. He now helps me out with the DIY in my home, and is an excellent grandfather to my children.
The students were brilliant. They listened with intent, made lots of notes and asked excellent questions at the end such as “what was the hardest thing you ever had to do?”. I think our admiration for those in the health care profession went up even more after this session and the students were able to see their theory come to life. Well done to all of my wonderful year 12 Sociology students. And thank you Dad for joining us!
Collective Worship
This week our Form Tutor Collective Worship is on the theme of Holocaust Memorial Day which falls on Wednesday 27th. Our collective worship has been created by students at Alsop High School in Liverpool. It explains what Holocaust Memorial Day is and explains some of the events of the Holocaust. It contains a moving speech by Holocaust survivor Ziggy Shipper. Our daily quotes are on the theme of Living Together.
Thursday – “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” – Mother Teresa of Calcutta, 20th century Christian missionary in India