Spring

Curriculum Newsletter

Reminders/Key dates:

Easter holiday 6 April - 17 April

Summer term 20 April - 17 July Ski Trip 1 Feb - 8 Feb

Class Photos 11 February

Options Evening 27 February

School Production 4 March - 7 March

Parents’ Evening 19 March

MATHS

Pupils are continuing their important Key Stage 3 study of science. The goal of Year 7 and 8 science is to give pupils the chance to have as many hands-on experiences of science as possible, whilst developing their scientific skills and knowledge. Our aim is to have pupils actively engaged in learning science and enjoying the experiences that they are having in the labs.

In this term pupils will study the topics of electricity and magnetism, genetics and health, and acids and alkalis. Pupils’ understanding of the knowledge learned here will be assessed via an examination shortly before the Easter holidays.

In addition to our regular curriculum work we are always keen to enrich pupils understanding of science through visitors and trips. Last term we had a visit from BAE systems and all pupils in Year 8 had the chance to see some cutting-edge technology used by engineers.

At the start of this term we will be continuing with our 5 - year mathematics curriculum, pupils will be studying about decimals and ratios. Within this unit, they will be taught how to round whole numbers and decimals to significant figures and so be able to compare numbers, write large numbers as decimal of millions, as well as ordering positive and negative decimals including the use of inequality symbols in comparison. In addition to this, they will also learn how to multiply and divide by tenths and hundredths as well as solving proportion problems involving decimals.

During the second half of the term, pupils will build on their knowledge of fractions by learning how to add/subtract fractions with any denominator, multiply integers

ENGLISH

What are we doing this term? Pupils will be studying ‘Private Peaceful’ by Michael Morpurgo this half term. The novel is set in rural England just as World War One breaks out and explores themes such as loyalty, discrimination, family, friendship and morality. After half term, Year 8 pupils will begin their poetic genres unit of work. This unit teaches pupils a range of different poetic structures and pupils will be attempting to write their own poetry in order to practise these different forms. The focus here is very much on creative writing, as opposed to the more analytical skills that pupils have developed so far this year.

What can you do to support your child? Discuss the novel with your child - in particular the character of Big Joe. He contracts meningitis as a child which results in severe brain damage and learning difficulties as he grows up. The discrimination faced by the family and reactions to the character's disability at the turn of the century can provide a useful discussion point to help young people to understand the impact of prejudicial views on the victims.

Wider reading: Read up on the author's life and find out more about his other novels here: https://www.michaelmorpurgo.com/

Find out further information on the causes and impact of World War One to discuss with your child here: https://historykids.net/history/world-war-1-facts-and-information/

On the Key Stage 3 bitesize website, you can read up on different poetic forms and structures - follow this link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zmbj382

Test your knowledge of a range of poetic terminology here: https://www.purposegames.com/game/poetry-terms-quiz-quiz

SCIENCE

YEAR 8

Spring

GEOGRAPHY

Our learning this term will focus on human geography with ‘People, People Everywhere’. We will learn about changes in global population in the past and how it might change in the future and why. We will consider population density and factors influencing this followed by a close look at countries’ population structures through the use of population pyramids. Once we have learned about past development of settlements, we will study current trends of urbanisation, how this differs between countries at different levels of development, and what its impact is on people.

Throughout the topic, pupils will have opportunities to learn and practise a variety of skills, building on those learned before. Pupils will learn to think increasingly widely, finding links between learning and applying this in answering questions about our world.

Homework quizzes are set regularly on ‘ShowMyHomework’ and are designed to help pupils to remember information – and for longer. Pupils should have at least two attempts at each quiz – at least one day apart.

HISTORY

Our Year 8s are studying the tumultuous events of the

ART

Year 8 pupils are looking at the theme of ‘Ordinary/ Ex-traordinary.’ They have started this topic by improving their proficiency in tonal drawing, drawing ordinary items such as buttons and belts. As the term progresses, pupils will learn about the Surrealist artists; Rene Magritte and Salvador Dali.

PE

During the winter and spring terms Year 8 boys focus on developing their performance skills in rugby, handball, hockey and basketball. They will also work on improving social skills through Outdoor Adventure Activities and improving their tactical understanding of football. It is beneficial for pupils to watch sport as well as play sport and stay active.

The girls will concentrate on enhancing their performance skills in basketball, netball and lacrosse as well as table tennis. They will also work on improving social skills through Outdoor Adventure Activities and improving their tactical understanding of hockey.

MUSIC

Pupils will be studying Jazz improvisation and the Blues. This topic develops pupils’ understanding of bass lines and chords as a harmonic foundation upon which a melody can be constructed and used as a foundation for improvisation. Pupils begin by learning about the history, origin and development of the Blues and its characteris-tic 12-bar structure exploring, how a walking bass line is developed from a chord progression. Pupils also explore the effect of adding a melodic improvisation using the Blues scale and the effect which ‘swung’ rhythms have as used in Jazz and Blues music. Pupils are introduced to seventh chords and how these are formed and their characteristic sound used in Jazz and Blues music. Pupils examine the lyrics of blues songs before compos-ing their own set of lyrics for a performance of their song using different textural layers.

After half term, pupils will be doing a topic on Film music. They will begin by exploring Leitmotifs and how they have been used to represent certain ‘characters’ or ‘situations’ in films, before exploring how Themes have been used in film soundtracks and performing a number of ‘James Bond’ Themes. Pupils compose their own soundtrack to the new James Bond film trailer ‘Spectre’ learning how film composers use ‘Cuesheets’ to create music to fit with exact timings. Pupils perform a famous Theme from a ‘Western’ exploring how film music composers use instruments ‘associated’ with ‘The Wild West’ to create a sense of Time and Place. Finally, pupils will explore soundtracks to ‘Horror Movies’, learning about Concords and Discords and how composers of ‘Horror Movies’ use Discords, instrumen-tation and extremes of Pitch to create their own ‘Horror Movie’ soundtrack using a Storyboard to help them with their planning.

Further learning/ways to support this learning:

- Attend theatrical productions with live music. - Watching videos of jazz workshops, e.g. Wynton

Marsalis. - Listening to and researching Blues music.

Year 8

and fractions by fractions, write one amount as a fraction of another and find the reciprocal of a number and their application in real life context.

The year group have had their first assessment of the academic year and it has been evident that pupils who have been diligently completing their homework to a good standard and on time have unsurprisingly performed well. So, we would like to use this opportunity to ask for parents / guardians help in ensuring the chil-dren / wards complete their homework diligently. Home-work is issued fortnightly and it is the same for all pupils across the year group – this is set online on ‘mathswatchvle’.

Thank you to parents for their support in this area.

16th and 17

th century that saw England break away from

the Catholic Church and fight a vicious civil war that saw the execution of a king. Our pupils will also investigate how the United Kingdom was formed by the middle of the 18

th century and the struggle and conflicts that led to

this event.

Spring

DRAMA

Pupils this term are continuing to study the play 'Blackout', performing extracts from the text. Pupils will also be developing their understanding of identify-ing social, historical and political references. At the end of the topic we will give pupils the opportunity to stage an extended extract from the play with full production values: costume, lighting and sound.

After February half term, pupils will begin devising from a set stimulus. Pupils will devise theatre from either a poem, piece of music, art work or historical event. This will work towards an assessed performance piece which will be performed before the Easter holidays, alongside a written logbook which records their initial ideas and rehearsal reflections.

Please encourage your child to book a rehearsal space at lunchtime or after school in the lead up to any assessed performances. Watch theatre online at home via the internet, or visit the theatre as a family - The Place Theatre in Bedford offers affordable prices for fantastic high-quality performances on our doorstep!

FOOD TECHNOLOGY

Year 8 will be enjoying a double lessons in smaller groups this term. Pupils will be cooking in every lesson, so please make sure they are checking ‘Show My Homework’ every fortnight to access the list of the ingredients.

Pupils will be thinking about foods from around the world. We will make Chinese stir fry, Indian chicken tikka kebabs, Italian pizza and American mac and cheese.

Please help us by ensuring pupils are organised with their ingredients and as always, please let us know if you require support with this.

PSHCE

Personal, Social, Health, Citizenship and Economic.

January is traditionally our ‘Bright Futures’ month with a focus on careers and aspirations. Year 8 pupils have started to learn about different employability skills e.g. enterprise and workplace skills. This is a good time for Year 8 pupils to start thinking about different career ideas and we would encourage you to talk to your child about this at home. Year 8 will be sent a CV template via email and will be expected to start their own CV which they can then update each year. Their CV should be emailed to your child’s form teacher so that it can be printed for their PSHCE book.

RE

What are we doing this term? Pupils will begin by practising giving opinions in the past tense and will then move on to learning vocabulary for different modes of transport and for describing a journey. The key grammar point this half term continues to be the past tense (perfect tense / passé composé): pupils began to learn about this tense in the second half of last term, and this term they will extend their knowledge to cover the ‘être’ verbs, that is, those verbs that form the past tense using the verb ‘être’ (to be) rather than ‘avoir’ (to have). Leading up to half term, there will be an end of module test which will assess learning on the past tense and describing different aspects of a trip to Paris. After half term, pupils will learn how to talk about different aspects of their identity: they will learn a variety of adjectives for describing personality, verbs for describing how well you get on with other people, and

This half term pupils will be studying the importance of

MFL

DT Unit: - CAD and CAM Pupils in Year 7 and 8 will be using a range of different computer aided design packages to develop their design ideas.

Unit 2: - Designing for clients Pupils will be taught how to understand client needs, producing a design brief and specification for the customer’s needs.

Unit 3: - History of design Investigating designers and companies, design movements, evolution of products, eras and time lines.

Year 8

prophethood and considering whether prophets still influence us today. Pupils will examine this from a Christian and a Muslim perspective as well as considering whether they can learn anything from the lives of the prophets from a non religious perspective. There are many different films about the lives of the prophets and if this is appropriate for you, you could watch these with your children, please speak to the RE department for a list of films. Towards the end of the term pupils will start studying Buddhism, specifically focusing on the life of the Buddha and why this still has meaning for people today. To continue to support your child in their learning it would be helpful if they have an understanding of current affairs (e.g. by watching or reading the news) particularly when there are topics of philosophical or ethical importance. From September 2020 we will be offering RS GCSE which will give pupils the opportunity to understand different religious beliefs and teachings as well as discuss key philosophical and ethical questions from both a religious and non religious perspective.

Spring

vocabulary for discussing different styles of music and clothes.

What can you do to support your child? Helping your child does not mean having to know French. Similarly to the advice in English, encourage them to become 'word detectives'; making links with English and other languages that they know will help them to guess what words mean. Ask your child to teach you something in French; having a skill that their parent does not have is a major boost for pupils and can be very motivating. The most effective way to learn vocabulary is by practising, little and often. Some pupils prefer to use a vocabulary sheet, whilst others prefer to use free language learning websites such as Duolinguo and Memrise. Castle Newnham also subscribes to the Linguascope website which is useful for more general learning and practice; pupils wanting to access this site at home should ask a member of the Modern Languages team for the username and password.

I hope you have enjoyed the spring term newsletter.

Later this term your child will have the opportunity to choose two creative subjects they would like to study in more depth during Year 9. One of these options will include the opportunity to study German, and to consider if they would like to take this to GCSE in addition to French.

This process has been found to be very helpful when pupils have to make their GCSE option choices in year 9.

More information on this will follow.

Message from the Vice Principal

Year 8

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