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Secondary Archive: 2014-2015

On Thursday 2nd July the whole of the Secondary department had some fun in the sun at our...

Beach Day!!

We enjoyed lots of beach activities (including water fights!) and even had fish and chips for lunch.

In the afternoon we watched Punch and Judy and ate some ice-creams in the sunshine .... perfect!

Beach Day Photographs - we had so much fun!!

On Friday the 3rd of July some of the students from the Secondary department went up to Peterborough to the

East of England Fayre.

We had a great day and saw lots of animals and learnt about different food. We even had a ride on a tractor and made a smoothie using power from a bicycle.

East of England Fayre - Peterborough

This week Purple Class and Orange Class had a visit from Bedford Archives. They brought a load of fun activities all about the History of Bedford and the River Ouse.

Have a look at some of the photos from our afternoon!

Photographs from Bedford Archives visit.

Purple Class have done it again ... And put together a fantastic set of trailers for your delight!

Watch and enjoy!

Purple Films Trailer - TWIN IDENTITIES!

Would you like to be whisked away on an action packed adventure?
Then watch this trailer to find out about 3 new, fantastic super heroes!

Purple Films Trailer - ONCE UPON A TIME

Do you want romance, suspense and for everyone to live 'Happily Ever After'?
Then look no further than this classic fairy tale!

Purple Films Trailer - THE AWESOME SISTER'S SLEEPING BEAUTY

If you thought this was your average 'Princess Film' then think again! Check out the rather amusing work of the 'Awesome Sisters'!

This half term, Purple class have been directors, set designers and animators making their own animations.

Towards the end of the half term they were set a challenge - To make an animation for children in the Primary Classes.

We decided to animate some Nursery Rhymes!

Here are their amazing results!

Baa Baa Pink Sheep

Here is Purple Class's amazing animation of Baa Baa Black Sheep (or as they decided Baa Baa Pink Sheep!!)

Row Row Row Your Boat

Here is another great Nursery Rhyme animation from Purple Class!

Incy Wincy Spider

Here's another fabulous Nursery Rhyme animation! Watch out for the spider!

Humpty Dumpty

There are some really imaginative ideas in this one!

Little Bo Peep

Check out the cute sheep in this animation!

Green class visit the forest

Green Class visited Salcey forest, where they have a Gruffalo hunt. After finding all the characters the children decided to hide in the woods themselves, can you see them?

Science Day

Here are some videos and pictures from the Science Day. The activities included Chemistry: making a bouncing ball from borax; and Engineering: making a secure house for an egg!

Does this ball bounce?

What about this ball?

Making an egg house

Secondary 3 learn Control and Coding with Scratch!

The new National Curriculum, starting in September, has some changes and additions. ICT will be called Computing and there will be greater emphasis on the teaching of Control and Programming.

We have got some great software to develop the children's computing skills, which meets the requirements of the programmes of studies, but is aimed at the level of the children's abilities.

Class S3 are currently working on a Control program called Scratch, which can be downloaded for free from the internet. After two lessons of study the children are already putting together small video clips using sprites (characters), backgrounds, simple algorithms for motion, and control (controlling how the program works).

In this lesson the children were asked to use two sprites or more (one of which they could draw themselves) a background, and some kind of interaction between the two sprites. Below are some of their video clips.

Jaws!

Incy Wincy

The Birds!

Brazil, here we come!

Vampire Bats!

Secondary 1 play a game

Secondary 1 are learning to use switches to play a game. The class are learning many skills such as cause and effect, knowing when to start and stop, working with a partner, taking turns and co-operating. Each pupil uses a switch to play part of the game - in this case building up oil cans and then knocking them down. The first photo shows the new flat-screen computer monitor in S1 on which the class are playing the game, and the second photo shows the interface and two switches which are used by the pupils to access the game. Look at the video below to see two pupils learning how to build up the oil cans and knock them down.

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Going for a Walk

Many of the pupils at Ridgeway work on their mobility skills, and have blocks of physiotherapy with a trained physiotherapist. However, physio also takes place in the classroom on a daily basis and these sessions are monitored by staff. This is a video of one of the pupils in S1 who has recently got a walking frame and is beginning to walk. You can see how enthusiastic she is to walk across the playground.

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Soundsmith with Secondary 2

Each half-term a class takes part in playing music with Soundsmith. Switches are linked to computer software so that children can play different instruments just by pressing their switches. View the two video clips below to see how the class are able to enjoy playing ensemble.

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Functional Maths in S2

Secondary 2 are learning how to count money to help them work out budgets and pay for items in shops, both now and when they are older. One group in the class are learning to count in 2s. Watch the videos to see how hard they are working. The second video shows the children changing 2 x 10p coins into 2p coins.

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Another group are working with paper money and are learning to count amounts up to £50 using different notes: £5.00; £10.00 and £20.00.

The Railway Children

Post 16 and Secondary 3 stayed for a workshop into how to put on a play, including finding out about costumes, props, scenery and lighting and sound systems. Several of the students took part in enactments. Watch the video to see one small scene when Bobbie stopped the train from crashing into a fallen tree.

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World Book Day:

Two Giants and a Fairy

By Secondary 2

The class made up a story about two giants and a fairy. They drew pictures of the giants and the fairy, and typed out parts of the story on PowerPoint with backgrounds. The story was put together and animations were added. We told our story in assembly, and everyone enjoyed the giants (played by Julie and Elaine).

You can see our story below. It will open as a PowerPoint presentation, and it is timed so that you don't need to turn the 'pages'.

Two giants and a fairy story.ppt

Secondary 2 visit Higgins Bedford Museum

S2 visited the museum as part of their curriculum studies, and they looked at objects used in the home long ago, particularly tools and kitchen equipment. The class had to guess what things were used for, such as a candle maker, a candle snuffer, a mincer (some of us may still have those!), and different kinds of lighting. Here are some pictures from the visit.

Secondary 3 makes a stained glass window

The class prepared designs for the window and Kieran's design was chosen. It was drawn out on a base, and pieces of glass measured, scored, cut and positioned (see pictures above). All the pupils took part in the process. Below is a photo of the window so far.

Secondary 3 visit 2 cathedrals

Secondary 3 are studying 'Places of Worship' as part of an Humanities programme of study towards an Entry Pathway certificate.

They have visited two cathedrals over this term: a traditional cathedral at Ely, and a modern cathedral at Coventry.

The pictures above were taken at Ely. The class was shown round the cathedral and they were pleased to hear that the staff at Ely had lit an incense burner especially for them. The class was also included in prayers in the hourly service which was appreciated by all.

After lunch, the pupils took part in a workshop on brass rubbing and everyone had a go at a small rubbing in gold, which was very effective.

Coventry Cathedral

The class's visit to Coventry was also to study the stained glass windows for a module in Art for an Entry Pathway certificate. The class joined in a workshop to learn how to use multi-media in order to express the beauty and colour of the glass windows.

The class thoroughly enjoyed their visits to the cathedrals.