DIXIT
30th July 2021
The weekly newsletter for the Holyport College family
Year 7 Transition Summer Camp This week saw our first ever full transition week for the incoming Year 7s. The purpose of this week was for students to make friends and get acquainted with the school and for us to give them a few foundations of what to expect in September - watching the children over the past five days I am confident we have achieved what we set out to. Huge thanks to parents for bringing their children every day - especially those parents of our incoming boarders who have travelled several hundred miles this week. Even bigger thanks to the staff who volunteered to run a mix of fun academic and team building sessions. The children have enjoyed acting out Shakespeare scenes, solving crimes with Maths puzzles, building catapults, making towers to withstand an earthquake, art and pond dipping to name a few activities. They have travelled offsite for Liquid Leisure and bowling and have even made their own lunches! A short survey will be coming out later and your feedback would be hugely appreciated. Mrs Stokes (Editor’s note: this week would not have happened without the huge amount of work that Mrs Stokes put in to organising it so the biggest thanks go to her!).
@holyportcollege
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MONDAY
DIXIT 30th July 2021
The English and Drama department organised a short performance-based workshop in one of the three sessions offered as part of the Year 7 transition camp. All three sessions provided the children with a taster of what the English curriculum has to offer and encouraged students to get to know one another before they begin their journey at Holyport College. Pictured below are students acting out the famous sword fight scene in Act 3 Scene 1 between Romeo, Mercutio and Tybalt from William Shakespeare's tragedy play, Romeo and Juliet. This was a great opportunity for children to build their confidence and creativity and work collaboratively to use their imaginations in bringing a challenging script to life!
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DIXIT
MONDAY
30th July 2021
In Geography this week, students were learning about earthquakes. In groups, they were all given the challenge of making a building that would survive an earthquake. These buildings had to be at least two storeys and withstand Miss Tatton shaking the desk for 20 seconds. The only equipment each table had to build their structures was ten spaghetti pieces, seven marshmallows, and 30cm of Sellotape. The different designs were fantastic, and most groups managed to create a two-storey building. Roughly half managed to survive the earthquake.
In the first Maths lesson a murder had been committed and the students had to solve a series of tasks using number skills, telling the time, measuring angles and algebra to find out Who, Where, When and Why the murder took place.
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DIXIT
MONDAY
30th July 2021
Monday afternoon’s activities were a rotation of PE, Art and Outdoor Learning. In PE there were some awesome bouts of tug of war and Outdoor Learning involved pond dipping (with the first time we have found juvenile great crested newts in the pond!) butterfly spotting and identification, and a look around the greenhouse and vegetable/ herb gardens with students testing their knowledge on herb identification using smell and taste.
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TUESDAY
DIXIT 30th July 2021
In Tuesday’s Maths lesson we asked “Are Crop Circles made by aliens or is it just a hoax?” The students needed to use a pair of compasses to construct their own crop circle designs. Focus was being able to hold them correctly and draw a smooth circle. In Science this week, we focused on some chemistry and physics tasks. Our first lesson together was called 'Rainbow Fizz' - students used acids, alkalis and indicators to create a rainbow in a test tube, with some surprise foam and fizzing at the very end! ➔
On Tuesday afternoon, after a morning of English, Maths and Science lessons, the students were transported by coach to Liquid Leisure Windsor. They ate their packed lunch before donning the wetsuits we’d hired for them and enjoying a funpacked hour in the water!
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WEDNESDAY
DIXIT 30th July 2021
On Wednesday the students had a whole day of non-academic activities! In the morning they took turns at slip ‘n’ slide, Bubble Football and making pizzas which they then ate for their lunch ☺
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DIXIT 30th July 2021
WEDNESDAY
More slip ‘n’ slide fun!
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DIXIT 30th July 2021
WEDNESDAY
One of the activities on Wednesday afternoon was the “egg drop challenge”. Working in small groups, students were asked to design and then make a structure for their raw egg to go inside, with the aim that when dropped from a height the egg would remain intact. They mainly had newspaper, balloons and string to work with and there were some very impressive structures built!
The winner was this very impressive pencil shaped egg protector! 8
DIXIT 30th July 2021
WEDNESDAY
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THURSDAY
DIXIT 30th July 2021
How old are they? In our last Maths lesson groups had to work together to figure out the ages of 13 people and then calculate the Mean, Median and Mode of the people. It became highly competitive as groups raced to solve it first.
In English the students worked on sensory language - the use of words to create a connection to any of the five senses. In literature, sensory writing is used to provide the reader with a vivid image or description of something.
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THURSDAY
DIXIT 30th July 2021
In our final Science lesson, students created mini-catapults using craft sticks, spoons and elastic bands. The aim was to create catapults that launched a variety of projectiles the furthest. Students displayed excellent problem-solving skills, adjusting their catapults and their projectiles so that they launched as far as possible.
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THURSDAY
DIXIT 30th July 2021
Thursday afternoon’s activities were again a rotation of PE, Art and Outdoor Learning. In PE students played some great games of “Capture the Flag” while in Art they made origami animals.
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THURSDAY
DIXIT 30th July 2021
In Outdoor Learning on Thursday the students made compostable plant pots from newspaper and planted them up with mustard and cress seeds to make “cressheads” for the students to take home. They also worked together to make two scarecrows with re-cycled materials to put up in the vegetable area!
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FRIDAY
DIXIT 30th July 2021
Friday’s activities were all inside which worked perfectly for the wet weather! In the morning, students sat their CATs tests in the Refectory. Any Year 7 students who did not attend the transition camp or were not present today will sit theirs in September. After break they joined their last English, Maths or Science lessons of the week, then after lunch jumped on a coach to go bowling for the afternoon!
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DIXIT
FROM THE CALENDAR
28th June 2019
Some Dates for Your Diaries Wednesday 1st September Thursday 2nd September
Inset day Year 12 and Year 13 Leadership Team boarders arrive 5pm Sixth Form only (Year 12) Year 7, 9 and remainder of Year 13 boarders arrive 5pm
Friday 3rd September
Year 7, Year 9 & Sixth Form only
Sunday 5th September
Year 8, 10 & 11 boarders arrive 5pm
Monday 6th September
All students in school
Thursday 30th September School photos
At the end of the first day one of the students said to Mrs Stokes “Well I’ve had more fun than I thought I would!” We hope that’s been the case for all our new Year 7s who attended. What an absolutely fabulous week it’s been! ☺
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