In English, Key Stage 3 students are diving into captivating novels, fostering creativity, and engaging in thought-provoking writing tasks.

Jupiter and Pluto have embarked on a tense journey through "Once" by Morris Gleitzman, delving into the plight of a Jewish boy, Felix, trying to understand and stay clear of Nazi officers during the holocaust. Meanwhile, Saturn and Neptune are exploring the depths of empathy and resilience through the pages of "Wonder" by R.J. Palacio, a tale that sparks compassion and understanding for August, a 10-year-old boy with a facial difference. The students are not just readers; they are budding writers too! Creative writing has taken centre stage, allowing them to express their thoughts, ideas, and emotions inspired by the compelling narratives they've encountered.

Maths

Neptune and Saturn have been working on formal methods for working with integers and decimals this term using place value grids, base 10 blocks and place value cards.  This has helped to solidify their knowledge and to understand mathematical principles.

Pluto and Jupiter have been studying algebraic techniques with brackets, equations, inequalities, sequences and indices - a tricky topic! 

Mars have completed their unit on cumulative frequency graphs and box plots followed by sequences and special sequences and are now studying geometry in its entirety.  

Revision guides have been issued to students to support their understanding of the topics covered. 

Earth

Earth class have been taking part in completing an activity where they had to come up with safety rules and prepare the meal of their choice. Here are a few pictures of Earth class making sausages, chips, and beans: 

Art

Jupiter have been learning about, and practising their watercolour skills in art. They were asked to choose a picture of their choice and to create a piece of artwork using watercolour. 

 

Computer Science 

One of our year 7 students created a game in Python where three different turtles are racing across the screen.

The student wrote this impressive code where the game is rigged! Can you identify the code for this?

Business Admin

Our year 11 Young Enterprise students have been busy with all things required for setting up a company - they have been opening a bank account, creating social media posts and number crunching to see if their business ideas can make a good profit. 

History 

Our year 7 students had a wonderful day out at Warwick Castle - do have a look at some of the pictures here: 

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Hair and Beauty 

The girls hair and beauty group have had a great time this term designing nail art and coming up with some unique ideas. 

Construction

Mars and Mercury students have been busy in construction. They've all worked really hard to make a frame - next up, they'll be making it into a side table! They've all worked really hard!

Catering

Our catering students have been super busy this term:

Level 2 food production and cookery students have been learning how to prepare whole fish, using a few different cooking methods, including poaching, steaming and baking: 

Another level 2 student made a Swiss roll, using a variety of skills including, rolling, scoring, filling, trimming and icing.

Year 7 catering students went to Pizza express in Sunningdale to learn how to make their own pizzas - they had a wonderful time!

Science

Saturn and Neptune have been learning all about forces and how they influence the world we live in. We have completed several practicals this term, including a spring extension, a force circus where students were given a carousel of activities to explore if forces were balanced or unbalanced, and rolling; an activity where students were able to choose the independent variable they wanted to investigate to see what factors can affect speed. 

PE

The students have started the new year by looking at Tchoukball (a new school favourite). Tchoukball was developed in the 1970's and has become increasingly popular within school over the last few years. The students have shown a real passion for the game and have developed their understanding massively over the last few weeks. We are hoping to showcase our skills in the new future by taking part in some local Tchoukball fixtures. 

They have also been learning about the different types of fitness components and how they are important in a range of sports. We have been conducting a number of tests to determine our levels in areas such as; coordination, reaction time, flexibility, agility and many more. The students have enjoyed the challenge these tests offer as well as having a friendly competition with their classmates. 

Primary and Earth have been developing their understanding in a range of invasion games, working in small groups to encourage teamwork, communication and problem solving. All the classes love the challenge of trying to work out the best method to help their team win. I have been really impressed with all their attitudes and their determination to succeed.  

Drama

Secondary students have been looking at different characters in plays and films. They created their own superhero and their surrounding characters, then performed a piece from each person's story. 

Our Foundation classes have been looking at storytelling.  We created stick puppets of Peter Pan characters, then watched the stage production of Peter Pan. The students then acted along with their characters and told the story with their puppets. 

PSHE

In PSHE this term Elm class have been learning about how we can help to protect the planet, looking at what we can do as individuals and as a community. They then created a presentation about it and presented it to the senior leadership team.

Beech class and Key Stage 3 students have been looking at diversity and discrimination.

Year 10 have been learning about how to have healthy relationships and Year 11 have been looking at their next steps for when they leave Heathermount.

During the last week of term we have also been focusing on mental health as part of Children's Mental Health Week.

Horticulture

Horticulture students have been learning how and why we prune soft fruit trees in winter and have put their knowledge into action in our allotment.

Forest school

This term, Forest school, students have been learning how to whittle.

They each cut their own piece of wood using a bow saw, removed the bark using peelers and then shaped the wood using peelers and files.

Oak

Oak Class had a lovely trip to a Cafe during Mental Health week. The children had a nice walk to the village, chose their own treat at the cafe which they ordered independently and paid with a card.  They had a great time chatting with their classmates and showed respect towards others throughout the trip.  

Elm

Elm class have been looking at plants. We've set up some experiments to help us test some hypotheses. The children were able to make predictions and draw conclusions from the experiments. We looked at which temperature water is transported the fastest in. We also dissected a flower to look at the different parts! 

Willow

The students have been exploring the different signs of winter. The boys conducted an experiment to investigate how and where water would freeze. They made predictions as to which of their cups would freeze. The results are in the table below: 

However, the next afternoon, we left all the cups on the table overnight and, unsurprisingly, due to temperatures of -5 during the night, they all froze. 

Pine

In PSHE this term, Pine class have been looking at a citizenship module that addresses many very serious subjects such as human rights, and the reason that we follow rules in society. The class have taken an extremely mature approach to this subject, and have demonstrated a high level of curiosity in group discussions. Here is Jacob's poem. 

Each student was asked to create an acrostic poem for the term Human Rights, their level of vocabulary was incredibly impressive, each word has a strong link and has been carefully thought about.

Beech

Beech class have been busy this term, in Maths we have been looking at multiplication and division. Our Science lessons have been focussed on learning about classification.

Foundation

Foundation have been lucky this term to study the topic of "Happy Holidays" They have used holiday brochures to explore holiday destinations around the world and choose one they would like to visit.  They have made their own brochures which included a chosen destination, they explored what the weather was like there and what they might need to pack for their holiday.  They have been discussing holiday destinations they have been to and what activities there were to do there.