Secondary News - Sept 20 2021

Block 1 Week 4

This week, the school was abuzz with many different activities in full swing, the EAL provision in place and an extra trip to the House of Illusions for the Year 7 cohort in support of celebrating the Mathematics block. All students are encouraged to get involved with next week’s competition; reciting Pi to as many decimal places as possible. Mr Batson is ready to see if anyone can break the previous record of 64 decimal places! Thank you to Ms Zupanc, Mr Batson and Mr Bradley for this Year 7 trip.

The Year 9 and 10 students were excited to attend their Adventure Trip this week, heading to Velenje Castle, the House of Minerals Tour, 1991 Memorial Centre and the Coal Mining Museum. Students had such an educational and interesting experience and had a fantastic day. Thank you to Ms Burtrand and Mr Hulse for attending and to Ms Fairchild for attending and organising this trip.

The e-safety presentations went ahead this week with Mr Kokalj and Ms Burtrand. This really highlighted the importance of children interacting safely when online. Students, parents and teachers need to actively be aware of certain dangers, ensuring that passwords are protected and kept safe. You will find the link to the presentation here, in case you’d like to review what was covered.

As students settle into the year, the importance of routine must be stressed. All students should have a routine when they get home to organise their afternoon and schoolwork to be able to adhere to deadlines set by teachers. They are encouraged to ensure that they have a study schedule so that it is not left to the last minute prior to an examination. Repeatedly revisiting knowledge taught will increase the chance of it being retained long term and parents are encouraged to help students have these routines in place.

I wish everyone a safe and pleasant weekend.

Stephanie Andronikos

Head of Secondary

YEAR 7 EXCURSION

On Tuesday, the year 7 cohort had a wonderful trip to the House of Illusions. Accompanied by Ms Zupanc, Mr Bradley and Mr Batson, they were taken on a tour by the very informative guide Jaka. Upon meeting the year 7 students, Jaka asked them to think about the difference between a magic trick and an illusion. He explained to us that there are three types of illusions: illusions that play tricks on the mind, illusions that play tricks on our senses and illusions that play tricks on us because of our experiences.The year 7 students were then taken on a tour of all the illusions, with Jaka giving his expert explanations. They spent the morning interacting with the many exhibitions and learning about how our perception of images can be manipulated through light, mirrors and colours. The students were wonderful ambassadors for the school and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.This trip also showed how Mathematics, Physics and Psychology could all interact to provide a wonderful, enjoyable and educational experience for our young learners."

Maths News:

Key Stage 3 students investigated rotation symmetry through interactive simulations and quadrilateral properties through mysteries and online quizzes. In order to successfully prepare for the quiz next week, they chose between a variety of activities to aid their learning and deepen their understanding of expressions, quadrilaterals, triangles and numbers.

Year 7 students went on a trip to the centre of Ljubljana to visit the House of illusions where their brains were tricked by the intricate illusions.

Year 10, 11 and 12 students were involved in numerous activities to help with their test preparations, including creating strategy posters and solving examination style questions.

Math mistake of the week:

Thank you to the students who correctly identified the mistakes, including Peter and Valentin from 8B, Tian and Peter from 8A, Dalen and Milena from 7B. Well done! Do not forget to check out next week's mistakes on Monday, in front of classroom 316.

Ms Zupanc, Mathematics Teacher

PE News:

During PE this week, students developed their fundamental skills within their specific net and barrier game, enabling them to work to the premise of being able to “Serve, Rally & Score”. Conditioned playing scenarios were introduced in sports such as volleyball, tennis and badminton, to enable students to have exposure to playing each game and to understand the tactical implications each game carries and how employing certain tactics can contribute to success when playing net and barrier games.

Mr Hayes, PE Department

English News:

Year 7: Year 7B explored the world of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” and played with some fun examples of Metaphor, Simile, Hyperbole and Personification. Well done Year 7

Year 8: The Year 8 classes finished our “visit to Elsinore” with Prince Hamlet and also worked on arguments on a controversial topic - in this case we looked at The Death Penalty and why it was so controversial.

Year 9: Year 9 looked at some techniques for writing an opening to Gothic horror story and how to grab a reader’s attention through. We then came up with our own stories - they were indeed fantastic. We also researched the strange and short life of the author Edgear Allan Poe.

Year 10: Year 10 worked on preparing for reading paper by writings journals on the block so far, some students pretending they hated it, others loving it to practice tone and voice

Year 13 - We spent the week writing newspaper articles and researching how our mobile phones have changed the English language and how we should embrace it.

Mr. Wilkins, Mr. Staines, Mr Siter and Mr. Eve - English Department

Slovene Beginners News:

Years 8 and 9 have started a Slovene lesson with a memory game this week. Year 8 was revising food vocabulary, Year 9 was revising furniture and rooms. They were pretty successful gamers with great memory and recall. They didn't find just pairs, but they named them correctly as well.

Zelo dobro!

Ms Kosec , MFL Department

Slovene Advanced News:

MFL - Slovene Advanced

Year 7 students at Slovene Advanced lessons have started with their first oral presentations this Block. Each student presented one famous Slovene person. This way we heard a lot of interesting information about Jože Plečnik, France Prešeren, Ivana Kobilca, Janez Vajkard Valvasor, Jakob Gallus Petelin ... Well done, students!

Ms Drofenik , MFL Department

Performing Arts:

Year 7 have been on their projects in MPA. 7B are working on creating music videos. Some students are currently working on their planning while others are learning to play the music. 7A are working on a rewrite of the Grinch.

Ms Kenealy, Head of Performing Arts

Congratulations to Year 8A student Michail who earlier this week ran his first 5km night run. Well done Michail.

Teacher Feature:

For our first Teacher Feature of the academic year, we head into EYFS, for a bouncy interview with our new Head of Early Years, Miss Isla Gillespie.

Read Miss Gillespie’s Teacher Feature here.

Dear Parents,

We finish the week with rain but this has not damped our spirits after a great week at school.

We have our second group of Adventure Days out today (Years 9 and 10), Years 11-13 for next Friday and that ensures all of the secondary students have had at least one trip in the first block. We also have Year 3 out today with Mr Kokalj and Ms Blundell and further trips are planned in the coming weeks.

The trips, activities and extra Saturday mornings provide excellent opportunities for our students to enjoy being with one another, having fun, playing and being active! I am personally very happy with the current provision for this and constantly ask for feedback as we aim to improve. I've included a quick gallery from the House of Illusions in my Update here, our students had a great time - this is an excellent trip to participate in locally as we continue to build strong relationships with centres, museums, galleries, places of interest and other Slovene educational establishments.

Other trips so far this academic year have included Adventure Days to Velenje, visiting the Coal Mining Museum, the House of Minerals and Velenje Castle, as well as the Year 3 trip to Katarina nad Ljubljano and the Ecological Learning Farm.

Last weekend on Saturday, we had our second Enrichment Day of the term and the seventh in the last 12 months with 44 students attending and enjoying a range of activities from a river walk, science activities and then finishing by cooking different burgers outside in the sun. It has been another very enjoyable Saturday morning with the students. Take a look at the Round Up article for an overview and gallery of photos from our Enrichment Days this academic year.

This week, I've spent a lot of time in lessons across the school and have seen a very high level of engagement, interest and fun in classrooms. From Early Years, through to Sixth Form, from PE to Science, it has been a fantastic week to spend with the students and teachers. This is very important to me, to see how our students learn, how they are inspired and the progress they make in class. I am very happy overall with the quality of teaching and learning in the school during this first block and as the relationships strengthen through the year, this fills me with further happiness and belief that our students will have a wonderful academic year.

Please read my full Update from the Principal here.

Wishing you a relaxing weekend.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal

All upcoming events and details are available on our website.