The Barometer Week 3 Summer

BAROMETER THE

WETHERBY SENIOR SCHOOL WEEKLY APRIL 30th 2018 | WEEK 3 01010100 01101000 01100101 01000011 01101111 01101101 01110000 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110010 01010011 01100011 01101001 01100101 01101110 01100011 01100101 01000101 01100100 01101001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110

THE COMPUTER SCIENCE EDITION

FROM THE HEADMASTER

Dear Parents, The end of this week sees us say goodbye, temporarily, to Year 11. For many the GCSEs have already started, with MFL and Art exams, but the written papers begin after the Bank Holiday. The Year 11 have raised their game considerably since the mock examinations in the Spring Term and it is clear many of them have made good use of the Easter break to consolidate knowledge and hone exam technique. It will always feel that there is more that can be done but with a sensible, structured preparation programme in the coming weeks, they are well-placed to do well. I wish them all luck for the GCSE period and look forward to welcoming them back as ‘almost Sixth Formers’ on 2nd July for their Sixth Form induction.

The use of smart phones and IT in education has been in the news again this week following the HMC Spring conference on Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality in Education. Whilst so often we think about the problems of mobile phones and social media apps as things that add pressure to the lives of the young men in our care: the social

pressure of getting ‘likes’, the opportunity for cyber bullying and inappropriate material to be sent to them and the distraction from other activities, Sir Antony Seldon’s comments about the overreliance on apps and the disconnect that comes from the real world when navigation is done by Google maps are interesting ones.

The danger that he sees is that when technology does our thinking for us, and makes life easier, it may not make it as worthwhile or as stimulating.

There is much to be missed in all areas of life if experience is filtered through a phone and it is important that we help the boys find a balance between using what is a powerful tool constructively, without becoming entirely reliant upon it. The IT department goes someway to countering the ease of using apps by giving the boys an insight into the work that goes into creating them. Having observed coding lessons and quickly become hooked on the challenge of solving the logic problems it presents, the crossover between the mathematical and linguistic is fascinating and it is a great cross curricular activity drawing on skills they have learnt in other curriculum areas.

I hope that the boys will be able to tear themselves away from their phones and are able to enjoy the trips tomorrow which will give the Year 10 a chance to connect with history at Kenilworth Castle or the Imperial War Museum. The Art and English Departments are taking the Year 7 boys to the National Gallery, Year 9 are doing work that will contribute to their Geography coursework in Brighton and Year 8 will be at King’s College London for a Languages day. We will also be hosting the Wetherby Prep School Year 6 for a Science Day. A busy end to the week. I hope that you all enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend.

Best wishes,

WEEKLY DIARY MONDAY

07.05.18

BANK HOLIDAY MONDAY - SCHOOL CLOSED

TUESDAY

08.05.18 Written exams begin Spanish Orals GCSE Italian Reading Duke of Edinburgh Award 15:30-16:30 Games Years 8 & 9 14:00-16:00 Cricket Year 9 WSS vs John Lyon School (H) 2.30pm

WEDNESDAY

09.05.18

GCSE English Language 2 - Reading Paper Games Years 7, 10 & 11 14:00-16:00 Tennis U16 A WSS vs Mill Hill (A) 2.30pm Cricket U16 A WSS vs Mill Hill (A) 2.30pm Summer Concert - Live Lounge 18:30-20:00

THURSDAY

10.05.18

FRIDAY

11.05.18

SATURDAY

12.05.17

Games Years 8 & 9 14:00-16:00 Cricket U13 A/B WSS vs The Mall (H) 2:30pm

GCSE English Language 3 - Writing Paper HM Assembly at Hinde Street Methodist Church 15:00-15:30

OPEN DAY - All Year 10 boys required as Tour Guides (volunteers Years 7-9) 10:30-14:00

SUNDAY

13.05.17

IMPORTANT NOTICES

The PTA is holding a second hand uniform sale on Tuesday 22nd May. If you have any donations, please bring them to reception, clearly labelled as second hand uniform.

Open Day, Saturday 12th May All boys in Year 10 are required to attend school on this day, wearing school uniform, to act as tour guides. They will need to arrive by 10.30am and they should be finished by 1.30pm.

Any boy in Year 9 who wishes to help out is most welcome to volunteer.

Please email registrar@wetherbysenior.co.uk should you have any questions.

A date for your diaries: Speech Day Thursday 5th July, 2:00pm St Mary’s Church, W1H 1PQ

MENU

MONDAY

TUESDAY

Soup: Tomato

Soup: Minestrone

WEDNESDAY

Main: Spaghetti and Meatballs Tomato Sauce

Main: Steak pie

Soup: Leak and potato

Meat Free: Vegetable and cheese pizzas

Main: Stir-fry chicken

To Go With: Garlic Bread Baby carrots

To Go With: Mashed potatoes Steamed kale with five mixed beans Sweet potato wedges

Meat Free: Grilled peppers and cheese quesadillas

Dessert: Summer fruit salad

Dessert: Rice Krispie Squares

Meat Free: Ratatouille served with couscous

THURSDAY

Soup: Tomato Main: Prawn or beef with veg and rice noodles Meat Free: Fuselli pasta with three cheese sauce

Dessert: Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

To Go With: Steamed green beans Oven roasted vegetables Dessert: Chocolate Mousse

Freshly Made Bread

Main: Hot Dogs, brioche buns

To Go With: Oven Roasted Chips Caramelised onions Seamed mixed vegetables

Meat Free: Pesto pasta with sun dried tomatoes and rocket

Dessert: Chocolate fudge brownies

Homemade Salads Vegetable CruditĂŠs With Hummus Sandwich & Wrap Selection Meat & Cheese Platters Fresh Fruit Yogurt Pots

EVERY DAY

FRIDAY Soup: Chicken Noodle

To Go With: Egg noodles Steamed rice Black beans Broccoli

COMPUTER SCIENCE This has been a full year for the brand new Computing department.

We tried to set up some good principles for boys to follow and have enjoyed working with other departments to make the use of computers more relevant and worthwhile.

Mascots created for presentations and IT projects.

YEAR 7 Year 7s have been busy preparing to be YouTube stars1 They prepared professional looking logos for their pretend YouTube channels and matched them up with some epic music. Earlier in the year, they learned the main features of spreadsheets, including conditional formatting, various formulas and random number generation.

COMPUTER SCIENCE - YEAR 8 Year 8s have been remixing audio and video files to become the DJs and Video DJs of the future. This country has a strong tradition of media creators in movies and video games and the boys are getting ready to carry that forward and create some world class video projects. We are getting up to speed with project management which is very important for creative industries.

Spending time with PowerPoint, the boys learned how to create their custom themes, so that all slides in a presentation have one consistent look—perfect for corporate literature.

In Excel, boys have created an automatic dare generator. After the explosion of creativity that followed, we decided not to actually test them in real life.

COMPUTER SCIENCE - YEAR 9 Year 9s have been learning how to create promotional materials using IT resources. Through the combination of audio, video and graphics, they have created compelling pitches and adverts, ready to rethink the expectation and making use of stock footage.

We spent a great deal of time planning and organising programmes. We learned how to do flowcharts and became confident with computer logic. There was a lot of coding in Python, the most popular programming language in UK schools.

COMPUTER SCIENCE - YEAR 10 & 11 Year 10s are making great progress when learning their theory, learning about the components inside every computer, as well as good exam technique which will be important for next year.

They have also been improving their programming skills, making use of functions and two dimensional lists, leading to database work. They even made a game that tests a user’s knowledge of Latin words, using a list taken from the Latin exam board’s website.

Year 11s have finished their coursework and are preparing for their GCSEs that are just a couple of weeks away! They have learned and matured a great deal this year and are are approaching their exams with confidence.

SPORTS NEWS Cricket WSS U13 A vs Hall School Wimbledon 122-9 Game abandoned due to weather.

Man of the Match: Akshay B. WSS U13 A vs Hill House WSS: 71 – 9 Hill House: 85 – 6 Hill House win WSS U13 B vs Hill House WSS: 224 – 8 Hill House: 234 – 6 Hill House win Football WSS U13 A vs Bilingo 2-0 Goals: Zach G, Ahmed A Man of the Match: Zach G.

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