BLOG WEEK ENDING 12TH JULY
A programme of enrichment activities and experiences are embedded into our curriculum and via clubs, social events and societies together with educational trips throughout the academic year. Our Enrichment Week provides an additional programme of special opportunities and experiences that provide unforgettable moments of learning, fun and camaraderie! The activities include a plethora of sessions that offer life-skills, cultural experiences and social interaction whether indoors or outdoors, close to home or far away.
Bewl Water Outdoor Centre is an amazing place, and virtually on our doorstep, if you haven’t already been I, and our students would thoroughly recommend a visit! Our Year 9 spent time on (and in!) the water, taking part in adventurous activities .. as well as land-based challenges and team building exercises.
During enrichment week Year 7 travelled to Folkestone to carry out some fieldwork activities reflecting on topics studied this year: Change in function of settlement; coastal management and processes and factors affecting quality of life in an area. All groups experienced the regenerated harbour arm; the beach playing an ‘eye spy’ activity for coastal management and features and evaluated the usefulness of two main streets in the town centre. Lunchtime was spent in the Lower Leas coastal park, although it was rudely interrupted by some ‘pesky’ seagulls, the students learnt why it was a bad idea to feed the gulls! We hope that all the students felt enriched from seeing some of the geography taught in the classroom in the outdoors. We wouldn’t be surprised if many are planning summer trips back to enjoy Folkestone seafront further during the holidays!
Our Year 8 students really enjoyed exploring Chatham Dockyard. They went underground in an air raid shelter learning what it was like for the dockyard workers during the blitz, when this site of national military importance was being attacked by Hitler’s Luftwaffe. They also made rope in the Ropery and survived the intense ropey aromas of the longest building in the UK. They loved swinging through the hatches of the cold war submarine HMS Ocelot, and later pretending to lift it up from underneath! Their highlight was singing loudly (in fine voice and in tune) to ‘Diamonds’ by Rhianna from the open-air bridge of HMS Cavalier and also ringing the bell!
Year 9 enjoyed a fascinating trip to Bletchley Park, home of the code-breakers! Students were taken on a tour of genuine WW2 equipment, including the Enigma machine and a rebuild of the Bombe, the machine that Alan Turing created to help the code breakers crack the Enigma cipher! Students were able to use the Enigma machine to write and decode messages in a similar way to how they would have been sent and received during WW2.
The MFL Department led an exciting enrichment programme with a truly international flavour! Students embarked on trips to China, France and Spain with opportunities for language skills practice together with cultural exploration!
Whilst in school, MFL students made their own (Instagram favourite!) bubble tea as well as delicious stir fries. Elsewhere, students got a taste for Chinese opera and created their own dramatic theatrical masks as well as taking part in Taichi, a shuttlecock competition and Chinese porcelain plate design.
Year 9 students travelled to Cuckmere Haven in Sussex. As you can see it was a beautiful day to be out of the classroom! Students explored the Cuckmere river and valley before making their on river landscape field sketch. A great activity, bringing lessons to life in the best possible way!
Year 9 travelled into central London for a special guided tour … Jack the Ripper! Before heading over to the museum of London. Students enjoyed an immersive day of London social history.
Year 10 Further Mathematics Visit to Greenwich University for “Greenwich Maths Time” Thank you to Eleanor G for the below report.
“On Thursday 27th June 2024 the year 10 further maths students went to Greenwich university for the day and attended many different workshops and lectures. After arriving at Greenwich University, we spent some time completing various challenges such as trying to put together a cube in the least amount of time and looking at a robot that was able to solve a Rubik’s cube, we went to our first lecture titled “Stats in Style”. In this lecture we were shown how maths can be implemented in fashion. While completing our task we were shown something called the shoelace algorithm, this can be used to find the area of any non-regular Polygon. Our task was to create a t-shit design that incorporated our choice of 1 of 3 statistics shown in the design.
Our second lecture (my personal favourite) was titled “Can Mathematics Catch a Serial Killer?” The answer being yes. This lecture was fascinating as it introduced us to many different concepts each of which were applied to real life cases. The first concept we looked at was Cryptography which is the collection of secure information and communication techniques which are disguised by mathematical concepts and algorithms. This complicated way of concealing messages was used by the Zodiac killer back in the 1960s, it took over 50 years to crack the code he sent to the San Francisco police using this method. The second concept we looked at was called geospatial profiling which is used by the police to narrow down the location of which the suspect lives. It uses the idea of probability and buffer zones; the idea is that the suspect wouldn’t live too close to where the crime was committed however, he also wouldn’t live too far from the crime which helps the police narrow down the search area. We applied these methods to both Jack the Ripper and Banksy. The final concept used to identify serial killers we were introduced to is the Dewey decimal system which systematically identified patters in data given certain specific attributes such as the victims age.
From this incredibly interesting lecture we went to a more light-hearted atmosphere which included many maths related puzzles and challenges, some of which required more thought than others. After a short lunch break, we headed to our last lecture which was about why you should study maths after GCSEs. This lecture was extremely informative and explained many different pathways you could take if you study maths post-16 including A-levels, degree-apprenticeships, degrees and many more which will certainly help when in the future.”
Engineering and Physics were deployed in the planning and construction of elaborate (and enormous!) buildings!
Budding Forensic Scientists were challenged to analyse samples taken from the ‘scene’ of a crime to correctly identify the culprit!
Our Head of WG6, Mr Atkins led a whole-school WGSG Election Poll in conjunction with the general election during form times. The ambition was to prompt engagement and understanding in the political process. Our students cast their votes based on the leaders and manifesto for each party, but discussed whether they would have voted the same way in a real election, as you vote for a person that will represent your constituency. Students also debated the ‘first past the post’ system versus proportional representation. Interestingly, our student election exactly reflected the election with Labour achieving 63% of seats!
Textiles and product design … along with creative flair were on show in the Sewing Bee challenge which culminated in a catwalk fashion show to display the final pieces!
We have received some wonderful news and a delightful photograph! Please join us in congratulating Mr and Mrs Dent on the birth of their second daughter, Aurelia, Yara, Dent who arrived in this world safely on the 1st July. We are very much looking forward to meeting you Aurelia.
Looking for a new career opportunity? It is our firm belief that a motivated, supported and empowered staff are at the heart of our students’ achievements. Endeavour MAT’s staff development programme offers our staff opportunities for career progression across our Trust schools for the next generation of exceptional teachers, support staff and leaders. All our schools take pride in being warm, friendly and supportive workplaces. You can be assured, regardless of your role, you will be working with people who enjoy their work, are proud to be here and who will want to welcome you to the team. To view our current vacancies, please click here. Current Vacancies – Endeavour MAT (endeavour-mat.co.uk)
Forthcoming Dates;
*** Stop Press*** Please note that Monday and Tuesday form time next week is the final opportunity for students to collect any lost property. Any unclaimed items will then be donated to charity. Please do encourage your child to come and have a look!
Sports Day – 17th July
Year 10 Work Shadowing Day – 15th July
Written Reports home, Years 7, 8 & 9 – 16th July
End of Term 6 – 19th July 12 noon
Best wishes,
Michelle Lawson
Head Teacher
