Year 7

It has been a very busy start to the new term and the students in Year 7 have enjoyed exploring their new environment. Tree-climbing has quickly become a favourite activity at break times!

All students have been assigned to their house and are working diligently to get as many points as possible! In particular, I have been amazed at their willingness to work as a team and they are so kind and helpful to each other; giving out and tidying away books and resources is always a team effort.

With such a high level of English in the group, the students are very happy to have discussions and debates on many topics. Our current topic in Science is “Cells and Organisation”, which has brought a wealth of new vocabulary and concepts. We are looking at organ systems in the body and the structure of a variety of cells – this is a completely new area for the students and they are handling the work extremely well.After this unit, we will be moving on to looking at Forces.

Another new area is our study of the Early Islamic Civilisation, its origins and influence on modern life. This has also brought many, many questions! We will then switch to a Geography topic and look at Maps and Mapping Skills. Maths is bringing the biggest challenge, as we are looking currently at algebra, which can feel a bit scary for Year 7 students who have had little contact with it previously. At the moment we are taking it slowly and everyone is keeping up! We have already looked at number sequences and we will move on to solving simple equations, then place value and how to use powers.

All in all, we are pretty busy with all this new learning! But having a small class means I am able to keep on top of all the individual students’ learning, and help as much as I can when necessary!