Start of the year in Science

Year 7

Our Year 7s have hit the ground running with their first topic, Getting into Gear! They’ve been exploring all the exciting possibilities of Science and discovering how a Science lab is different from their other classrooms. Of course, many were disappointed to learn that—no—they can’t blow up the classroom… Safety first!

Year 8 Science

The Year 8 classes have been learning about the water cycle. They could choose from different activities such as making videos, board games, chalk art, making a water cycle in a bag and writing short stories.

Story By Ashton S 8Mb

It starts when I float around in a body of water called a sea, and then I get blasted by heat from the fireball in the sky called the Sun. Its so hot that I evaporate into water vapor! Then I float up, and up, and up, and up until I meet more bits of water vapor, and we huddle together until we cool down and condense into clouds!
Sometimes when too many of us get crammed into one cloud and it gets very dark, we form into water droplets again! But if we’re high up above the mountains, we freeze into snow crystals! We all fall down onto the mountain in a process called precipitation, and we settle on the top of the mountain. But then the sun comes along again and blasts us with heat, which makes us melt and turn back into water droplets.
We flow allllll the way back down the mountain into a river, where we go straight back out to the sea.

And the Cycle repeats!

Year 9

The Year 9 classes started the year with some group team building activities, pipeline. A ping pong ball has to be transported from one box to another without touching it! We had some amazingly creative solutions made out of newspaper, and string. 

Year 1O

The Year 10 classes started the year with some group team building! Each group created a newspaper wedding or ball dress and then strutted their stuff on the catwalk.  They have since been learning about how to identify if websites are reliable or not. These skills should allow them to caste a critical eye over things they read online at any time.

Level 1 Science

This group is learning about different types of scientific investigations - all linked to the human body. We have looked at how we perceive colour, heart rate when under stress, muscle groups and their endurance, enzymes, and does fatiguing muscles affect fine motor skills..

Level 2 Bio 

The Biologists have started 2025 strong. They have already explored and observed how the catalase enzyme in potato interacts with hydrogen peroxide. Already we have had great discussions on what this all means!

Level 2 Chem

The students have begun the year revisiting some chemistry concepts from previous years; atomic structure, periodic table, ions and how atoms bond. This will give the students a good foundation as we head into our first topic ‘Identifying ions in solution’.

Level 3 Chem

We have started the year learning about redox (oxidation-reduction) reactions. The students were excited to get the lab coats and safety glasses out this week as we had our first practical lesson for the year.

Agriculture

The big focus in the first few weeks of term has been tidying the Ag gardens up.  After such a damp summer, the weeds had created a jungle! All classes have spent time enjoying the sunshine and tidying the garden beds ready for another year of production.