This week, we were able to welcome all of our pupils back into the classroom and despite having to keep to COVID restrictions, all of our pupils had a great time during their first week back at Senior school seeing their friends in person and getting back to practical lessons!
Introduction to 'Bring Your Own Device'
We have now begun the Bring Your Own Device initiative with Year 7 and Year 10. The pupils are using their devices for a wide range of activities in their various lessons. The feedback from the pupils is that they are really enjoying using their devices for their learning, especially the more collaborative activities. Various upgrades to the IT infrastructure are also up and running too, for example a brand new high-capacity broadband line and new high speed WiFi units in the main building and other key areas. This upgrade will continue and will cover more areas in due course. Using Google Workspace has environmental benefits as well, and we are already seeing a reduced use of paper resources this week. This will help reduce our environmental impact, especially considering that Google is 100% powered by renewable energy.
Year 10 students using collaborative editing to collect data on absorption and transmission of different types of electromagnetic waves. They
were using their devices with multi-editor spreadsheets to enter their data. Using multiple datasets like this can increase the reliability
of data and also enhances their team working skills.
Year 7 have also been using the Bring Your Own Device initiative in all of their lessons, including their Religious Studies class with Mrs Willden (pictured). Over the lockdown period this term, they have been learning all about Islam. Since returning to school, they have continued their learning about Islam and have learnt about the Mosque this week in their lessons.
Design Technology
In DT this week, our pupils have got back into the swing of practical lessons and it has been great to see everyone be so keen to get back into the workshop.
Our Year 9 designers have been looking into the manufacturing of smartwatches over the lockdown, and have now designed their own models! This week, we have been able to use the drawings and ideas that we have created at home and create 3D card prototypes and develop the product design skills of our pupils.
As well as our Year 9 pupils, our Year10 GCSE pupils have been working incredibly hard in their vegetable peeler designs and this week, they were able to model their designs in stone and develop their ideas even further to contribute to their final grades.
STEM Club
In this week's return to school, our STEM club have been working on an exciting new project for the Prep school pupils! They have been working on making jitterbugs by using their skills in building electrical circuits and product design. These will be for our Prep school pupils to play with when they arrive at the new Prep school that will be based at our Ford Park site.
Biology
in Biology this week, Year 10 have been looking at genetics, but with greater focus at the structure of DNA. Students were able to relish in getting back into the classroom and complete a practical experiment in class with their fellow biologists, which enabled them to extract DNA from a kiwi.
