Year 7's last visit to Forest Schools

At the end of last term, year 7's time at Forest schools school sadly came to an end, but they had a great last visit to finish off.

Putting their new fire building skills to good use the pupils were able to cook some very tasty  burgers.

 

The group worked well as a team to build a great shelter that would fit everyone in.

 

 

We finished off with an energetic game of manhunt. Forest schools has definitely provided us with a range of great skills and prepared us for the wilderness!

 

We would all like to say a big thank you to Tom who has worked with us the past 5 weeks. Year 7 look forward to seeing you again soon!

Allotment News - School Tree Nursery

Allotment News - Spring Term 2016

School Tree Nursery

After signing up to the School Tree Nursery Programme, we were selected this year to be one of the chosen schools to receive a nursery.  With small trees or saplings donated to us by the Earth Restoration Service (http://www.earthrestorationservice.org/) we have started a tree nursery on the allotment.  In all, 50 saplings arrived in March and included; hazel, goat willow, wild cherry, silver birch, oak and hornbeam. Some of the hazel were planted directly into the cleared ground in the park (see below). The rest will either be planted in the park next winter, given to partner schools and projects that are working, like us, on improving our environment.

Rocket Science

Turning half a million pupils into space biologists

Due to Mr Lilywhite's hard work, we been chosen to received seeds that have been to the International Space Station!

The RHS Campaign for School Gardening has partnered with the UK Space Agency to embark on an ‘out of this world’ educational project.

The project, Rocket Science, will give around half a million UK children the chance to learn how science in space contributes to our knowledge of life on earth, using the invaluable expertise of the European Space Agency (ESA) and RHS Science team.
Two kilograms of rocket seeds blasted off from Florida bound for the International Space Station as part of British ESA astronaut Tim Peake’s six-month Principia mission.
After several months on board, the seeds have been sent back and landed in the Pacific Ocean. 

Now they have returned to the UK, they will be packaged up with identical seeds that have stayed on earth. Participating schools will each receive two packets of 100 seeds to grow and compare, and a collection of fun and inspiring curriculum linked teaching resources and posters, tailored to Key Stages 3,4.

Using these resources, we will see what growing plants in space can teach us about life on Earth and whether we can sustain human life in space through the production of our own food. We will input our results into a national online database so that results can be compared across all schools in the UK. 

The project is one of many that the Polygon are involved in to inspire pupils to think scientifically and helping them to see the potential of future careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) and Horticulture.

Keep a look out for more details when are seeds arrive.

Science Week 2016

Was from the 11th to the 20th March this year, and to help celebrate it, we participated in Demo Day on the Thursday.

Demo Day is an annual campaign during British Science Week that aims to inspire secondary school teachers and technicians to explore new concepts, provoke discussions and generate excitement through running science demonstrations. It has run successfully for the last two years in hundreds of schools across the UK.

We have made a short trailer highlighting the fun we had that day and on previous days as well. A big thank you to the everyone that joined in and persevered while trying out the demonstrations.

GCSE Revision sessions

GCSE Revision

Easter Holidays

Thursday 7^th April 2016

Session 1 – Maths with Mr Penfold starts 10.30

Lunch provided

Session 2 – English with Mrs Saralis finishes 1.30

Friday 8^th April 2016

Session 1 – RE with Miss Judge starts 10.30

Lunch provided

Session 2 – Computing with Mr Morley finishes 1.30

It’s never too late to revise! J

 

 

Friday Fishing!

Unfortunately for the pupils the Spring fish still haven't made an appearance but the crabs are still happy to take the bait!

Fingers crossed for after Easter!

Forest Schools - Year 7

Every Tuesday Year 7 all get the chance to learn outside the classroom for the whole morning at Forest Schools.

What is Forest Schools?

Forest School is an inspirational process, that offers ALL learners to achieve and develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning experiences in a woodland or natural environment with trees.

At Forest School all participants are viewed as:

• equal, unique and valuable
• competent to explore & discover
• entitled to experience appropriate risk and challenge
• entitled to choose, and to initiate and drive their own learning and development
• entitled to experience regular success
• entitled to develop positive relationships with themselves and other people
• entitled to develop a strong, positive relationship with their natural world

For more information:
http://www.forestschoolassociation.org/what-is-forest-school/

Here are a few of our favourite moments captured this week!