End of half term assessments

The end of half term assessments for Maths, English and Science will take place next week.

Monday - Maths
Tuesday - English
Thursday - Science

The assessments are designed to test students knowledge of the topics they have covered so far in each subject this year.

As a side note, the Primary section will participate in the cross-country championships on the morning of Friday 17th October.

Kensuke and Cakes

It has been an extremely busy day in 5L. The morning started with students learning how to write a newspaper report using Kensuke’s Kingdom as a stimulus. The novel is proving to be very popular with everyone eager to find out what is going to happen to Kensuke and Michael. Though the novel is a piece of fiction there are many aspects to the story that are based on real events. The class have recently found out that Kensuke sought refuge on the island because of the atom bombings in Japan near the end of WWII. Many students could discuss their prior knowledge of this topic and others carried out research at home and brought it to class to share with their peers. Understanding historical events is imperative if students are to understand the world which we live today. It was excellent to see all students engaged and responsive in their learning of this topic. 

In Maths, we put our measuring skills to the test by making fairy cakes! Mr Evans, though NOT a professional chef, was on hand to help the class with the activity. Both Miss Lee and Mr Evans were extremely impressed with the student’s ability to work cooperatively in their group and how they followed a recipe using the exact amount of ingredients required for the cakes. Understanding how to apply Maths knowledge gained in the classroom to a wider context is something the class are working on this year so there will be more activities like this for the students to look forward to. Below is a photograph of the class and more photographs are available on the photographs page. If students wish to try the recipe at home it is available on the Maths page.

 Miss Lee would like to thank all parents for their generosity to make this activity possible. 

Fairy Cakes

This week in 5L we are concentrating on the topic of Measure for Maths. On Wednesday the class will be putting their knowledge into a real life context. We will be measuring ingredients to successfully make delicious fairy cakes! Each student has been asked to bring in something to help their group complete the activity. The ingredients should be brought in on Wednesday. Thank you to everyone for their participation in the activity. 

Weekly Roundup

It has been a busy week in 5L!

In English, we focused on improving our comprehension strategies so that we are able to understand a piece of text better. This involved the class discussing and selecting the main ideas from ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’ and only noting down the information we thought vital to the novel. We also had the opportunity to create a visualiser (please ask the students what this is as it can be used as a revision strategy for all subjects) and we summarised the ideas into paragraphs. The class would like to thank Miss Corcoran from the secondary English department for coming into the class and teaching us about inference. Inference is a difficult skill to develop but Miss Corcoran was thoroughly impressed with our answers.

Division was the focus in Maths with everyone consolidating their learning in a variety of ways. Miguel’s favourite Maths game this week was division ‘Snakes and Ladders’. He said “I learned more about division and how I could improve and challenge my learning. I also found out the times tables that I could work on at home”.

‘Organs of the Body’ is proving to be a popular topic in Science. The class completed their investigation about the ‘heart’ with everyone participating in various activities. Mariana enjoyed the Science lessons as she “thoroughly enjoys learning about this topic as it is very interesting” and Beatriz thought about “the organs as a puzzle” when her group had to put the science dummy’s organs back together.

Photographs from the week are available to view in the ‘Class Photographs’ page. 

The decision has been made...

The votes have been cast and counted. The class have decided that the name of the Form 5L teddy will be...

1,000 views!

Thank you to everyone who has accessed the Form 5L blog over the past few weeks. The site has had over 1000 views which is fantastic! I hope that the blog is being enjoyed by everyone however if you have any suggestions on how to make it even better please leave a comment below.

Photographs

The class photograph will be taken on Tuesday 23rd September. Due to 5L having their photograph time slot at 3:40pm, I would ask that all students wear PE kit to school. The class will change into their school uniform before the photograph to make sure everyone is looking their best!

Remember to bring full school uniform.

Welcome to the newest member of the class...

Form 5L went on a bear hunt today and found the teddy belonging to our class in Mr McGrath's office! Teddy definitely chose a good day to join 5L as we had delicious cake courtesy of Afonso who celebrated his birthday today. As a class we have to decide on a name for our friend therefore comment on the page titled 'Teddy' if you wish the class to consider your idea. 

'Should Scotland be an independent country?'

Deciding whether Scotland should be an independent country was the focus of the day. The class would like to thank Miss Macleod and Teresa (Form 12) for discussing the topic with Form 5. We held a vote and 12 'No' votes won against 5 'Yes' votes. It was interesting to read and listen to the debates from both campaigns and decide what we thought would be the best option. Well done to everyone for their contribution to the discussion. I await to see whether the decision we arrived at is the same as the people of Scotland...

Parents Information Evening

Thank you to all the parents who came to the information evening. I hope you found it informative and worthwhile.

If you could not make the meeting, a key date for your diary is April 13^th 2015 as the Checkpoint Examinations will begin that week.

Thank you.