As I am always one to comment on how hard this time of year is for Year 11 students, we decided to redesign one of our rooms as a social area for them. Over the last week or so, I have been stencilling equations on the walls in my spare time to ensure it has the right amount of ‘chill’ and challenge. I certainly can recall all of the 21 Science equations after checking and double checking I was painting them correctly, so hopefully a bit of subliminal learning will take place.
Thursday was not so positive, after waking at 5am to see the 4 inches of snow, I began an hour of pacing and pondering – to close or not to close. This is never an easy call, but as I had contacted many staff- waking quite a few up- it appeared travel was going to be a huge issue, coupled with the fact the site is so large and impossible to clear safely, the safety of students is always a priority and I decided to close. After that decision made, I attempted to drive from Middleham to Leyburn and had to turn back as I couldn’t get up the hill! Eventually made it in and spent the day on admin.
Mentoring for Year 11 has really kicked in this week. I have 7 students who I meet with on a weekly basis and we have covered everything from probability to global warming in our revision. What has stood out, is the commitment of our students to try, even if they get it wrong. The biggest block has been the wording of the new GCSE Maths questions, which require real problem solving skills in order to visualise what the question is actually asking. One method we have used, which seems to be very useful, is to draw the problem out so that you can visualise it. Might seem a bit odd – but it works.
Finally, year 8 were busy making and baking in DT Food on Wednesday. Mr Squires has been great in revitalising the Food curriculum, but there is no doubt he does have some large groups to manage. However, as I walked into the cookery room, it was like a scene from a slightly frenetic episode of ‘Bake Off’ with trays and trays of carrot cupcakes being whipped up- sadly I missed the tasting opportunity this time!
