Aylesford School and Sixth Form College NEWS AND VIEWS DECEMBER 2020 From the Head CONTENTS Art Department MFL Department P.E. Department Science Department Drama Department Christmas Hampers Teaching and Learning Year Group News Sixth Form Primary Phase Library Face mask competition winner! Condolences Annual Christmas card competition winners! Face Masks Christmas Hamper! Safeguarding Notices Dear Parents/Carers and friends of the school, This is the time of year when we traditionally look back to consider the past twelve months in the company of our friends and family. Although it has been a tremendously difficult year for all of us, I do think that we have an opportunity to both celebrate our achievements and look forward to the future with greater optimism. At a time of crisis our school community has worked together to ensure that all the young people in our care have been kept safe and received the education they need. The steadfast support that parents and carers have given the school has been an essential part of this process and I would like to pass on my thanks to everyone who has taken the time to offer help or words of encouragement to our staff over the past nine months. This year our school community has clearly demonstrated that even in the most challenging of circumstances we will not be stopped from doing the things that need to be done for the young people in our care. Of course it is these children who provide the real spark that makes Aylesford School so special. I am in awe of the way in which they have calmly adapted and adjusted to what must have been a very frightening and disorientating few months for all of them. In particular, the way in which they have sought to look after those friends and peers who have struggled during the pandemic should be a source of both pride and admiration for all of us. It is inevitable that COVID-19 will cast some shadow over Christmas this year but as the contents of this newsletter clearly demonstrate that we can still look to the future with some optimism. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a safe and very Happy Christmas. Best Regards Tim Hodgson Headteacher Aylesford School and Sixth Form College http://www.aylesfordschool.org.uk Tapping Way · Warwick · CV34 6XR · 01926 747100 ART DEPARTMENT http://www.aylesfordschool.org.uk ART DEPARTMENT http://www.aylesfordschool.org.uk ART DEPARTMENT A great big thank you to all students who entered this year’s Christmas Card Competition. As always, the standard was very high, making it a difficult choice for Mr Hodgson. However after much deliberation he has chosen Year 10 student Beth Reynolds’ design as the winning entry. Beth’s design will be used as the Aylesford School Christmas card this year and she will also receive a pack of cards with her design on as well as 10 house points. In joint 2nd place are Year 9 student Clemmie Jones and Year 7 student Georgia Ritchie, who each receive 8 house points. Congratulations to our three winners for producing such stunning designs and thanks again to all who entered. House points have been allocated to you all. Merry Christmas everyone! 1st place design by Beth Reynolds Y10 Primary Phase winning design by Evelina Bythell, Eagle Class Joint 2nd place designs by Georgia Ritchie Y7 and Clemmie Jones Y9 http://www.aylesfordschool.org.uk MFL DEPARTMENT The Day of the Dead What is it? The Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de Muertos or Día de los Muertos) is a Mexican holiday celebrated in Mexico and elsewhere associated with the Catholic celebrations of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, and is held on November 1 and 2. The multi-day holiday involves family and friends gathering to pray for and to remember friends and family members who have died. It is commonly portrayed as a day of celebration rather than mourning. This year the MFl department wanted to create some half term fun and celebrate the Day of the Dead. We asked students to get creative. We were not disappointed! We had lovely cakes and biscuits baked. We had face painting and dressing up and we even had some mask making. Have a look at some of the fantastic creations from our students. Mrs Hensel Head of MFL http://www.aylesfordschool.org.uk PE DEPARTMENT Ferran Muhammad Redza in 9NUN (pictured right) won the Men's Adult Championship at Warwick Tennis Club on Saturday 19th September. He can still play in the U14, U16 and U18 Junior Championship but he played in the men's instead and won! Congratulations Ferran. If you have had any similar out of school success in sport, please let a member of the PE Department know and we’ll look to publicise them in future newsletters. PE Department SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Year 10 CGP books All of the Year 10 students here at Aylesford School have been given a CGP guide for help with their learning and consolidation for their GCSE Science course. The books are an excellent resource of need to know information, slim line to easily fit in school bags and even have end of chapter questions to help students assess their own knowledge. Parents and carers are encouraged to make a donation via Parentpay towards the cost of the books. Pictured right: Mrs Goult, Head of Science Year 11 Catch-up in Science A six week intensive after school catch-up programme has been running for Year 11 students to help them catch-up with lost learning from lockdown. Students have been identified and invited to weekly 45 minute sessions where the focus is on retrieval practice. The new GCP knowledge organisers coupled with the workbooks are being used to help students to work smart and boost their science understanding as well as recall of key information ahead of their GCSE assessments. Science website facelift The new section of the Aylesford School website has gone live for the Science department. It is packed full of fabulous websites to support the teaching and learning of science as well as information to plug the gaps which may have happened post lock-down. Please do take a look and encourage students to use this resource at home. http://www.aylesfordschool.org.uk SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Water is a fascinating substance and the subject of an article by our Second in Science, Miss Holyman (pictured below). Miss Holyman has written a four page article aimed at A-level Chemistry students and was published in the latest edition of Chemistry Review. This is a full colour magazine is for post-16 chemistry students and published in partnership between Hodder and the University of York with the aim of making chemistry exciting and understandable. Miss Holyman said: "Water is a substance often studied in science because of its importance in life and its usual property of its solid (ice) being less dense than water. So, when asked to contribute to the magazine, it was a natural choice of subject. " "I hope that articles like mind fire up young minds so that they want to take their chemistry studies further," she added. Aylesford School and Sixth Form College has been part of active research with Lancaster University's Science Hunters programme to look at how Minecraft computer games can be used to model scientific conceptions in outreach programmes. Minecraft is a computer game that allows children to build with a wide range of blocks and can be used to engage children with science. A new topic, on bioluminescence, was designed in collaboration with staff and students at our school. The outcome of the research was published this term as an academic paper in the School Science Review journal from the Association for Science Education. The authors of the paper included our Second in Science, Miss Holyman and two former pupils, M Payne and Yasmin Ricketts. Miss Holyman said: "It was wonderful to work with 6th formers to help them understand how real research happens and is communicated. As well as working with students to test and design Minecraft activities about Bioluminescence. I was particularly excited with the work of Callan Jones, now in Year 11, who designed and wrote clear accessible instructions of how to make a model firefly in Minecraft!" The Bioluminescent session was then tested with a primary school (Woodrow First School) and a secondary school (South Bromsgrove High School) in Worcestershire, UK, with benefits for all involved: practitioners gained direct access to the views of students, while students contributed to the development of a nationwide resource, giving them a sense of ownership and insights into research and professional practice processes. After the lockdown, many GCSE students have some catching up to do and may have a lack of confidence in approaching exams. So, Miss Anstey, Head of KS3 Science, has been working with Hodder authoring the AQA GCSE Chemistry and AQA Trilogy Exam Insights series. The aim of Miss Anstey's first published book, is to improve students grades by focusing on the lessons learnt from previous exams and the examiners reports. The workbook contains targeted revision with short clear summaries, model answers and of course lots of practice questions. Miss Anstey said: "It has been a wonderful project to work on and has made me think about the tricky parts of the GCSE specification while working with other experts in AQA exams. This means that the in-depth knowledge and skills that I have gained can be rolled directly into my targeted catch-up to help to the students here at Aylesford." http://www.aylesfordschool.org.uk SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Socially Distanced Science Practical science is a fun and important part of every child’s secondary education and Aylesford is striving to ensure that every student has access to some level of hands on experience in science.