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Latest News From the School Blog
We had a fantastic time in 6th form yesterday delivering an ocean themed cafe to parents and carers. All the students involved worked really hard over the past few weeks making props to decorate the room and also a selection of scrumptious food which was served in a very professional manner.
The guests all really enjoyed the event.
Well done to Group 2 for pulling off an incredible afternoon!
The remaining Year 11 pupils have enjoyed a trip to the Botanic Gardens in Durham today.
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Continuing our work on hobbies, this week, the year 10 options group focussed on Astronomy as a hobby. We were lucky enough to have Sara Courtley join us, who takes part in star gazing and astronomical society activities. Sara did a very informative presentation which portrayed the vast size of the universe.
We then looked more closely at the stars and Sara showed us varying constellation patterns and how they got their names.
We explored the surface of the planets and the moon and investigated how craters were made with a practical task.
We were lucky enough to handle a part of a meteorite.
and we explored what life was like up in the international space station…
We finished our session with a fun game of ‘guess which one is the frying pan and not a planet’. Can you work out which one it is?
We would like to thank Sara for sharing her passion and giving us her time. We think you may have inspired some budding astronomers!
Today in Science 10s carried out some scientific enquiry work focussed around fingerprints. We first looked at what finger prints are and why we have them. We looked at the history of how fingerprints were used for identification purposes. We then investigated our own fingerprints by making prints of each fingertip using ink pads.
We used magnifying glasses to explore the prints in more detail and tried to identify the patterns we could see. We highlighted that our finger tips can have differing patterns but the patterns we each had were entirely unique to us!
We looked at how this fact can help the police when trying to identify people and inspired some of us to go away and find out more are this role in the police force further.
From September, The Oaks is going as paperless as we possibly can! If you do not already receive emails/text messages from school please could you email us at e7033.admin@durhamlearning.net so we can add you to the system? Please also see the school website and Facebook for information as these are regularly updated!
Our topic, Junk Monsters, is based around recycling. This week all students in 7T created their own elephant from recycled milk cartons. They look great and everyone is very proud of their elephant models!
Continuing our unit on scientific enquiry, this week we focussed our attention on the topic of sound. We explored how sounds are made through vibrations and how they travel so we can hear them. We then created some paper cup and string telephone to test this out. We looked at how altering materials used, affected the sounds and whether this could travel around corners. We were all able to make excellent predictions and justify our choices using correct terminology and scientific explanations. Great work by all!
This term, in History, we are learning about The Normans.
We all learnt that the Battle of Hastings began at 9am on the 14th of October 1066. We all had turns drawing 9am on a clock, finding 14 on a number line and identifying the month of October on a calendar.
After the short video, all students were able to recall important facts about the event. Identifying Normandy and England on maps and identifying that William the Conqueror won the battle.
We then watched a short video showing us the History around the Battle of Hastings.
Pupils from 11D had an incredible time at their prom last night. There was eating, singing, dancing and some awards.
You all looked stunning, and we are so proud of the amazing young adults you have become during your time at The Oaks!
