History & Politics

Form 1 have worked hard this week on their introduction to the Tudors. They completed a number of tasks to a high standard and showed fantastic independence. In particular their work writing a letter in the voice of Henry VII was enjoyable to read – particularly Neo, Luke and Tibbie who produced three very different but excellent pieces of work. Keep it up!

Form 3 has been studying the Holocaust and practicing using evidence from primary and secondary sources to reach a conclusion which is supported by evidence.

Form 4 has been studying the American West focusing on the Battle of Little Big Horn and how General Custer’s defeat hardened the American government’s attitude towards the Native American tribes.

The L6th A Level class has been looking at how Margaret Thatcher’s supply-side economic policies transformed Britain in the 1980s and analysing whether or not they were effective.

The IB History class has been doing a case study on Italian Fascism and Mussolini’s rise to power in the 1920s as an example of a right-wing authoritarian state.

Politics

The L6th Politics class is looking at how money influences elections in the United States and why campaign finance reforms have been ineffective.

English

Form 1

Tibbie has been fantastic and has contributed so much to the lessons both online and for homework.  Other who have worked very well include Sonny, Berat, Neo George, Arthur and Luke. Overall an excellent week for Form 1 who have all made a real effort.

Form 2 English

This week Form 2 read an extract from Hard Times by Charles Dickens and completed a number of activities to explore Dickens’ viewpoint of the Industrial Revolution and the impact on life in England. I am impressed with the effort of a number of students to use evidence to support detailed statements and the confidence with which they approached the tasks.

Form 3

Some excellent contributions during the class this week especially from Alex, Daisy, Isabella and Thomasina and both Tabithas. Tabitha S has used George as her examples for similes and metaphors!

Form 4

Some excellent contributions during the class this week especially from Scarlett, Charlie, Indigo and Stephen. A good discussion on advertising and persuasive language.

Shout outs for hard work from a very busy Mr Claughton

Form 4 PE

The students have been presenting revision powerpoints to the class along with producing a handout – well done to Max, JJ and Oscar for their presentations this week.

ESOL (KC)

F3 have been learning about prepositions and producing some PET practice written work; a special mention to Rui, who has been motivated and completed work to a very good standard.

L6 are practicing their IELTS speaking, by recording two minute presentations about various topics and sending them to me – special mentions to Aoi, Mehdi and Reinis for their efforts this week.

Finally, a special mention to Charlotte for her excellent work and contribution in the PENtastic lessons.

Spanish – thank you from Mr Cayuela

“Hello everyone – ¡Hola!

I hope everyone has enjoyed this week.

For me it has been very special because after all this time (since Easter!) I have been missing you all.

As a teacher I want to encourage and help young people to learn and now I am able to do it again.

It is different this way of teaching and learning, although I am missing the face to face contact with my students, I realise that Distant learning, and especially the way we are doing it in Buckswood, is a very effective way to continue on our journey to acquiring knowledge.

I want to thank the teachers (and students!!) who have made my return so easy and I hope the following  two weeks are going to be as enjoyable as this one.

Students in Form 1 and Form 3 have excel themselves in Spanish this week. Well done”

Innovation

The last three weeks of term students are working together in small groups to work on one of three projects. The first a real life challenge, of how the school can operate with social distancing measures in place, the second developing an invention from scratch and the third a newsletter or VLOG giving a student’s lockdown perspective. So far we’ve had some great input and some fabulous team names: The Social Distancing Squad (Tibbie, Bara, Brunas and Sonny) and the Pandemic Post (Olivia and Tabitha B-D).

Science

Junior school have had a busy week;

Form 1 – Looking at sound and making instruments,  excellent work and contribution  from Tibby, Luke, Bharat, Neo and George

Form 2 – Are all working very hard and

have enjoyed making volcanoes as part of their rock cycle topic with some excellent examples from Charlotte, BB, Ed, Oliva and Dylan

Form 3 are working hard on a topic of scientific method.  There has been great work from Izzy F, Olivia and Alex W, Tommy, Ellie H, Thomasina, Connor B, Ella M, Tabitha S and Tabby BD and Kalel.  They will get the chance to carry out some practical work at home next week using their new skills

Metacognition in Science:
In Form 4 Science this week, we’ve focused not only on our topic of waves and wavelength but also on metacognition and the science of learning. Understanding how our minds think, process and retain information. We’ve looked at different study techniques such as producing flashcards to learn new keywords and then applying knowledge through practice questions. We have been growing our scientific Christmas Trees (schema) in our minds and adding ‘baubles’ of new information to those trees!

Maths

 In Form 4 the following students did particularly well with their MyMaths set tasks:

Zak

Blanca

Oliver

Indigo S – scored 100% in all 4 tasks

L6IB HL

Nicco has been participating verbally extremely well.

L6AS

Both Bruce and Mehdi have been contributing well in the lessons.