KS4 ICT

Since September KS4 boys have all been taking part in IDEA, The Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award, an international award winning program that helps in developing digital, enterprise and employability skills. Through completing a series of online badges they will gain an industry recognised award after gaining a certain amount of points. 

Some pupils have already achieved their IDEA Bronze award certificate and are now working towards Silver and Gold. 

          

Longleat 2023

This half term 3JG and 3HI had the opportunity to visit Longleat Safari Park.

Pupils were lucky enough to have a range of hands on interactive experiences as they learnt about different animals from around the world. We started off with the drive-thru safari before then exploring Longleat grounds. 

In the African village the boys were given the opportunity to get up up close to the giraffe. They each were given a branch to feed to them. They needed to hang on tight as the giraffes long tongue snatched it out of their hands.

Driving around the safari the boys had lots of fun especially when we went through the monkey enclosure. These cheeky animals had great fun pulling off windscreen wipers and aerials from the cars. There were also lots of infants who were all being carried around by their parents.  

We then entered the deer park and found out that these animals which in the wild would normally run form us were bold as brass as they stuck their heads in the windows of the cars after food. 

Once out of the drive-thru and in the main park we headed straight for the Jungle Safari. The sea lions were already surrounding us as we headed out in search of the hippopotamus. It was here that we learnt how Longleat got its name. A 'leat' is a artificial water channel that provides a watermill. This leat is half a mile long so they called the park Longleat. Once we went to see the gorillas the boys then had the opportunity to feed the sea lions. They were very noisy!

We also visited the animal encounter talk. Here the boys got to touch a range of animals from creepy crawlies to holding a snake! This was super exciting, however I think everyone's favourite experience of the day was hand feeding the lorikeets.  

  

These were just a few of the experiences from the day. All boys were fantastically well behaved and we even managed to squeeze in a ride on the 'Rockin Rhinos' and problem solve our way out the the maze. 

KS3 English

KS3 English 2023

Since September the KS3 pupils have got stuck into their learning, as we dive into multiple stories, create our own stories and continue to develop confidence. 

Year 7

As we welcome the new year 7s into KS3 English, we have started the year by looking at Autobiographies and who we are, as well as writing our own autobiographies. We have then progressed into looking at the story of Alice in Wonderland  and writing character descriptions and practicing writing our own imaginative stories. 

Year 8

The year 8's this half term have completed their first entry level paper. We have been studying the book Kensuke's Kingdom, looking at sailing around the world and learning how to write postcards. They have also learnt about addresses - why we have them, the order they go in and what a postcode is.  

Year 9 

Starting their final year of KS3 the year 9's have been exploring the story Of Mice and Men. We have explored the context behind the story, looking at events such as 'The Great Depression' and 'The Dust Bowl'.  They have shown maturity around topics such as race, classism and disabilities. They have produced some lovely pieces of work this half-term. 

Powerboating on the Solent

The year 7's have started the term with a trip out with Wetwheels on Solent water. They climbed aboard the catamaran and departed out of Mercury Marina, Hamble. We had a gentle ride down the river Hamble as this is restricted to 6 knots before turning up the speed when we got out into the River Itchen. On route the boys observed the beautiful boats moored up along the river and enjoyed spotting a range of different wildlife. Some boys even practiced tying knots!

The boys enjoyed speeds of up to 40 knots! 

Some of the older boys enjoyed a reward trip out and acted as excellent role models to the younger boys. Behaviour was excellent form everyone that came aboard.

Halloween Biscuits

 This week all classes, KS3 and KS4, have enjoyed making Halloween biscuits. Its lovely to see everyone's creativity and all of the different designs-good work boys and have a lovely half-term.

Amazing spooky cats with added gore!

Some of the amazing designs

PSHE - Communication Skills

During Autumn 1 we have been working on our communication skills and teamwork. It was fantastic to see pupils not only develop these skills but resilience while working with very fragile pasta during the playdough/pasta tower challenge! 

We had some fantastic creations across the school!

 

Swimming

At the Polygon School we believe everyone should have the opportunity to learn to swim and take part in water safety awareness lessons.  

We have a fantastic relationship with a small family run pool in Shirley and run weekly hour long sessions for pupils every Thursday. Each class has at least one half term block of swimming to develop their; water confidence, swimming technique and work towards ASA swimming awards.

 

As we are very passionate about all our pupils having access to this important life skill, swimming is fully funded by the school as part of the curriculum.

 

Each year our pupils get to showcase their progress at our annual whole school gala.

 

KS4 pupils have just completed their first block of swimming with some outstanding results and process! Well done to Ollie and Toby who achieved their 800m today we were all blown away by your resilience and determination. We have been learning to set ourselves goals as part of our PSHE curriculum so it was fantastic to see pupils use their knowledge of setting SMART targets to achieve ASA swimming awards! The hard work has paid off well done! 

As part of citizenship lessons we have also been working on increasing the pupils independence through independent travel arrangements and now have 3 pupils who organise their bus routes and use their timekeeping skills to get themselves to the pool by themselves, I have been really impressed with how the pupils have adapted to this and their punctuality. 

ASA curriculum awards and distance badges will be ordered over half term and presented to pupils next term. 

Well done!  

Year 8 CDT

 Year 8 CDT

In CDT this half term pupils have begun work on making Sweet Machines. This involves using cutting, sanding and drilling skills. Pupils need to measure, cut and assemble pieces of wood so that the sweets will drop from a jar, run along a smooth groove and come out to be eaten.

As you can see, these are well under way in construction and we look forward to seeing, and trying, the finished product.

ASDAN Life Skills

 ASDAN Life Skills

This year pupils in KS3 are participating in ASDAN lessons. They are working towards their Life Skills Award and need to complete a series of activities to gain enough credits to pass.

One of the challenges they are doing is to build famous landmarks in Minecraft. Using their cross curricular skills from ICT they have researched various famous buildings and selected one to build in the programme. Current projects include The Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Egyptian Pyramids. We look forward to seeing the results of the pupils ASDAN challenges in the coming months.

Animal Hunting Debate

This half term 4NA having been studying the text 'The Explorer's Daughter'. This is about the hunt for narwhals in Greenland. This led us on nicely to work on our debating skills. The class were split in half and they had to prepare a speech either for or against animal hunting. This was then followed by a very exciting debate. 

Well done boys you showed great confidence in your delivery. 

Morning Visitors to The Polygon School

 This morning we had the pleasure of watching two young cubs dance around the school playground. For an inner city school we feel lucky that we are such a wildlife oasis. 

Tonight we will put our school wildlife camera out on our school playground in hope that we will get some good up close footage of these foxes.