Year 10 and 11 were breathing a sigh of relief this afternoon following the completion of their final progress exam. The feedback that they receive over the next few weeks will form an important part of their preparation for the Summer exams.
In Forest School this week, Mr. Woodward reports, ‘Spring has sprung in the Boroughbridge High Forest School Woodland! Daffodils carpet areas of the floor, there’s frog spawn in the pond, the faint sound of croaking can be heard as our resident amphibians try to impress potential mates and we’ve moved activities away from the pond to ensure ducks and moorhens aren’t disturbed. In the spirit of new beginnings, a new group of students have begun their forest school adventure, with den building, team building and communication skills activities, slackline construction, knot tying, safe siting, lighting and extinguishing of campfires as well as developing the ability to light (without matches) and maintain a fire for long enough to boil water – a fundamental survival skill.
With Red Nose Day on the horizon (Friday 20th March) this has been the focus of assemblies led by Miss Robson and the School Council this week. You’ll have seen in the letter sent out this week that we have a number of Red Nose Day events which students can get involved in to raise money to support people in need in both the UK and across the world. These include a non-uniform day (£1 donation on Parent Pay) or students may wish to create their own Red Nose Day nose with the chance of winning a competition for the best design. We’ll also be having a bake sale along with a competition for the best Red Nose Day themes bake. (A reminder that all bakes need to be nut free.)
In Art, Year 9 have been demonstrating their skills with the completion of their dogs. They’re great, aren’t they?
In sporting news, Miss Robson reports, ‘On Tuesday our Year 9 girls football team got to play in brand new kit when they went King James’ for a friendly. The girls were very excited and grateful to have fresh t-shirts, goalie gloves and shin guards. Mili was the player of the match. She was formidable, saving goal after goal and also sending the ball up the pitch to strikers. Now we may not have scored during the match but we certainly had a good fitness workout playing on a full sized 3G pitch.’
We had our Professional Development Day on Thursday where the key session was around adaptive teaching which is about removing barriers whilst maintaining ambition, not lowering expectations. This, of course, mirrors our school values and is one of the factors which helped us to secure our significantly improved exam results last year. A key part of this is questioning to check knowledge so that the lesson and learning can be adapted in response to student answers. It’s as important when students don’t get the correct answer as when they do. And, around school this week questioning has been at the fore. In GCSE lessons, questioning has been used to support revision. In English the question, ‘Why does Shakespeare use imperative commands as Macbeth addresses the witches?’ was posed whilst in Business, students were asked to explain how an increase in interest rates would impact on a car manufacturer and to describe the link between economies of scale and production costs. In Geography, students were asked to discuss the factors affecting, ‘Does everyone have equal access to food, energy and water?’. In MFL the ‘mistake of the week’ display was used to form a weather phrase, correcting an earlier mistake. In Maths, questioning was used to ask students to describe the next steps in solving linear equations, whilst others were asked, in the context of bank statements, about credits, debits and balances. In Music having retrieved prior knowledge by sharing key features of rhythm, timbre, metre and ‘The Blues’, students were asked questions to get them to compare their responses with those on the board. In Art students were asked to consider what they needed to make a drawing look ‘finished’ to the highest level, considering tone, texture, contrast and accuracy of line. In Food Tech students were asked what they would do to check whether chicken was cooked correctly and safe to eat. In Physics, students were asked how to rearrange the hardest equation in GCSE Physics; making v, a and s the subject.
In RS, students were considering the question ‘Does the ‘set’ nature of the Lord’s prayer encourage worshippers to tune out from its true meaning?’.
Coming up next Wednesday (18th March) is our Year 9 Parent/ Options evening from 6-8.30p.m. and then our Silver Duke of Edinburgh students will be starting their practice expedition on Friday evening returning on Sunday.
Have a lovely weekend!