Welcome back Upper School! We could not be happier to see our senior pupils return to School, refreshed and ready for the term ahead. Some of you are so tall now! I would like to say a special hello to our new starters in Year 7 - it is wonderful to welcome you into the Edge Grove community, and we hope you’ve enjoyed your first week with us.
The children have adjusted to our ‘new normal’ in school, and are now enjoying lessons in their set ‘bases’. With fewer pupil transitions taking place, it's now the staff who have to make sure their arrival to lessons is punctual and they have all the right equipment with them!
Our Year 8 pupil leaders met with Miss McDonald this week, and have received their badges and pins. One of their first tasks was to record a Podcast, aired on the Edge Grove sound system. Including some reminders of how we can all stay safe on site, as well as details of the Flourish focus this half term, a copy of the recording can be found on The Source.
Year 7 and 8 pupils enjoyed their first Creative Arts elective subject this week. I enjoyed wandering around the classrooms on Thursday to see what was happening in art, music & drama, photography, textiles and art scholarship. The departmental staff are delighted to be able to resume proper hands-on, dedicated teaching in the creative arts - the virtual version definitely has its challenges!
In the classroom, Year 8 have tackled some interesting discussion in their Geography lessons this week surrounding the idea of population and population ‘checks’ that, as predicted by Thomas Malthus, would reduce the global population to a stable level. This naturally links in to the current COVID situation and will work towards a debate on nature Vs technology with regards to how the world will cope with the growing numbers.
Year 7 are now studying the Common Entrance syllabus and the first topic is earthquakes and volcanoes. In our first lessons we are looking at the structure of the earth and how it has many layers. It is important we understand the properties of these layers as they form the foundations for this topic. There are some excellent series on BBC iPlayer and other platforms that explore the inside of planet earth should you have a chance to watch any of these with your children.
In Maths, Year 8 have hit the ground running and are straight into number and place value review. Targets for the week have included ordering, comparing and sorting numbers of any size and comparing fraction, decimal and percentage equivalents; a skill to learn off by heart. Year 7 have been looking at the place value system and how we describe the value of each number in words and digits. Pupils have looked at how questions appear on exam/school entrance papers and have realised the importance of reading the question carefully!
Creative Arts Don't forget to check out the Creative Arts section to see all the fantastic things Upper School have been up to in Music, Art and Drama.