Secondary News - 27. sept 2021

Block 1 Week 5

An exciting end to the block this week, with Mr Batson wrapping up the Mathematics block with the annual Pi Recital competition! It was an incredible effort made by all, but especially Ema, Year 10, who recited pi to a fantastic 101 decimal places, and the overall victor Ewa, Year 12, who recited Pi to a whopping 111 decimal places!! This was by far the biggest and best competition ever with students saying, ‘that was so fun’ and ‘that was so intense’. Well done to all and a thank you to Mr Batson for organising this wonderful event.

The final Adventure Day was held this week with Year 11-13 attending the trip. Students hiked the Cerkno trail, attended the Franja Partisan Hospital Tour, and explored the Anthony’s Shaft Mining Museum. Thank you to Mr Batson and Mr Malden for attending, and once again to Ms Fairchild for not only attending but organising every one of these Adventure Trips. It was a wonderful opportunity to explore this beautiful country and experience some of the incredible history and sights it has to offer.

As the block break approaches, students from Years 11 to 13 have been invited into the school to spend some time studying with resources set by teachers and also with each other. Mr Batson has invited all students in should they need to print resources and to fully focus on revising their studies so far. All Year 11 to 13 students are encouraged to take on this opportunity of study during the break. For all other ages, students have plenty that they can do also, based upon their Block 1 work. Having a routine of revision will positively impact the retention of concepts long term.

It was a busy Block 1 and start to the year with activities and academic courses underway and we are excited for it to continue safely next block. I wish everyone a lovely week and look forward to Block 2.

Stephanie Andronikos

Head of Secondary

Maths News:

In the past week, all Secondary students prepared for the quiz collaboratively through various activities, to support their confidence in our current mathematical concepts. They demonstrated spectacular understanding of number terminology and classification of 2D shapes. We celebrated their eagerness to learn and success, as well as the end of Block 1, with a round of Math Jeopardy or Quiz.

Math mistake of the week:

Thank you to all returning students with a keen eye for detail and understanding of many techniques, for your answers. That includes Peter and Tian from 8A, Peter and Valentin from 8B, and numerous Year 7 students. Some of you have even challenged yourself to get all four mistakes! Remember that each correctly identified mistake gets you 2 House points, so you can win up to 8! Check out new mistakes in front of room 316 on Monday, Block 2.

Ms Zupanc, Mathematics Teacher

PE News:

Throughout PE this week, students continued to develop their understanding of net and barrier games - across a range of different sports and conditioned playing scenarios. Being able to serve and return effectively consistently underpinned the teaching this week, with students also focusing on the importance of effective communication when playing in teams.
Moving into block 2, students will be working on their acquisition of sports knowledge and the theoretical aspects of PE.

Mr Hayes, PE Department

English News:

Year 7: Year 7B worked on a text about a girl who changes into a Werewolf in ancient Rome entitled “The Silver Wolf”.

Year 8: Year 8 presented their speeches on their opinions either for or against the use and the effectiveness of the Death Penalty.

Year 9: Year 9 examined the shameful pracice and horror of the West African slave trade and looked at it from the points of view of different characters and how it impacted their lives.

Year 10: Year 10 moved on to preparations for the IGCSE writing paper as well as creating magazine articles on whether we should be keeping up to date with technology.

Year 12: Year 12 spent the week crafting creative responses to texts and then producing analytical commentaries comparing them to the original text.

Year 13: over the course of the last 6 weeks Year 13 have made it from the birth of the English language in pre Roman times to the present day and are now looking at their first exam question together to get them ready for the exam in summer.

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

MFL News - European Day of Languages

The European Day of Languages is celebrated across Europe on the 26th of September every year. It aims to promote the rich linguistic diversity of Europe and raise awareness of the importance of lifelong language learning for everyone. Our Secondary students were engaged and enthusiastic while participating in diverse activities. They were trying to connect their mother tongues through various topics, They have done presentations of their home countries, they participated in language quizzes and so on.
Let's celebrate European Languages this Sunday!

Ms Drofenik, Ms Tatil, Ms Kosec , MFL Department

MEPI News:

This week in MEPI we walked out to the local Disk Golf course!

After a weekend of rain it was touch and go but the weather thankfully dried up and we walked with a few extra staff down the path to the Sava river, over the bridge and down to the course. The students were keen to come back to the course in the future for a team building afternoon and a round of Disk Golf! We took a celebratory photo to prove our success before walking back to school.

PTA News:

The uniform sale run by parent volunteers last Friday was very successful, thank you to them for the organisation, and thank you to the parents who came along to purchase uniform items.

Thank you to all parents who have already volunteered to support their classes and help with upcoming events.

If you would like to volunteer to support your class or help with decorations for our upcoming Halloween and Christmas celebrations, please fill in this form. All parents are welcome.

The parent class representatives and parent volunteers provide an important role in supporting the school. They help support class events, whole school events and they also play a wonderful role in warmly welcoming new families into the class on where to go or who to ask for information when required.

Dear Parents,

It is very important to me to say thank you to all students, staff and parents for such a great start to the academic year.

Approaching the first day of the term, we all hoped for lessons as normal and that students could see one another back in the building. As the cases increased, the main thing on our minds was to just have everyone in the building and no online learning to start the year. At the end of this week, I briefly sit down for a second and reflect upon having had lessons in the building, seeing the students interact together, after-school activities having a new programme to follow and a succession of trips for our students to enjoy.

The icing on the cake has been to finish the week with students enjoying a dress down day representing House colours, the sun shining outside and the prospect of a week off to recharge and relax before we proceed to Block 2.

I am very grateful for this start and that we have had an excellent 5 weeks of students learning together.

Yesterday, I visited the new building to watch the Story Time event and it was a huge success. Thank you to Miss Gillespie for leading this great story session and also to Ms Kukovica who helped out with all the students in the arts and crafts activity that followed. The feedback was great and I look forward to the next time families can join us for these events.

Thank you to all parents who have signed up to volunteer to help decorate the school during this upcoming block for Halloween, the plan is to start from the week beginning Monday 4th October. We've had about 10 volunteers and this is very much appreciated. After Halloween and the next block break in November, we will start decorating the school for Christmas, again thank you to parents who have already signed up to offer time to help with this. Having a school decorated for these holidays creates a fantastic atmosphere in the building and adds excitement, wonder and magic to these annual celebrations.

We have more building projects to complete over the block break and I will take the parents who attend the Coffee with the Principal (Friday 8th October) around the building to show the updates and developments we have made.

We also look forward to Teacher Appreciation Day on Friday 8th October, a chance to celebrate the efforts, time and dedication by our amazing staff.

I have included the usual updates but please have a look at the student articles in the links in my full Update from the Principal, they are of the highest quality and I am extremely proud to showcase the work by our students.

Have a lovely weekend and a relaxing block break,

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal

All upcoming events and details are available on our website.