Milestone Tests

Milestone Tests are coming up in Science over the next few weeks for all year groups. These are written assessments on everything covered so far in their current year of study. The topics are listed below:

Year 7 (w/c 6th Dec)	Year 8 (w/c 22nd Nov and 29th Nov)	Year 9 (w/c 6th Dec)
7A: Cells to Organisms 7G: The Particle Model 7K: Forces	8A: Food and Nutrition 8E: Combustion 8I: Fluids	9A: Genetics and Evolution 9E: Making Materials 9F: Reactivity 9I: Forces and Motion

Students have been set lots of revision activities on SenecaLearning.com and should be accessing the Science Knowledge Organisers to help them to prepare for these assessments. Click here to access this.

New Science Technician

Our new science technician, Sonia Pervez, started with us just after half term and has been busy settling in and finding her way around our fantastic prep room since then. Sonia comes from a biomedical science background, having worked in the pharmaceutical industry before joining KWS, and has always wanted to work at a school to support student learning in Science. She is a fantastic addition to the team, exemplified by the fact that our students have not missed out on any practical investigations in the last few weeks. Students, please do say “Hi” and thank her for all the hard work she does to enable you to do practical work when you see her around school!

NHS Pin Badge Design Competition

It’s not too late to enter the ‘All About STEM’ NHS pin badge competition: the deadline for submissions is Monday 22nd of November. For further information see the last edition of the KWS Newsletter or click this link.

If students decide to enter they should email their science teacher and Mrs Creamer (s.creamer@kwschool.co.uk) with an image of their entry. Good Luck!

Don’t Forget to Look Up

Planets

Currently, if you look South to South West between 5 pm and 6 pm on a clear night, it is possible to see at least Jupiter and Saturn, as well as Venus. Jupiter is the brightest, Saturn is ‘right a bit and down a bit’ from Jupiter and, if you follow the line between those two planets, you might be lucky to catch a glimpse of Venus too.

Two easy ways you can tell if you’re looking at a star or a planet are, Stars twinkle, planets do not or you can use an app like ‘SkyView’ and point your phone at the sky and it will map out all of the celestial objects that you should be able to see on the screen for you.

Attached is a picture I took in Batford a few weeks ago just before 6 pm with all 3 planets visible.

My picture is not the best, so any students who could do better can send me a photo of at least 2 planets in the same shot before Christmas will receive a Recognition! (s.creamer@kwschool.co.uk)

Spot the Station:

There’s also a few good opportunities to see the International Space station coming up too. These are Saturday 26th November (5:38 pm for 5 mins), Sunday 29th November  (4:50 pm for 7 mins), and Monday 30th November  (5:40 pm for 5 mins) – it will pass directly overhead on this day. 

Click here to see upcoming opportunities to see the ISS.

Photos or videos sent to me by email of the ISS will also receive Recognition!

Mrs Creamer

KWS has just marked Climate Change Awareness Week, from 8th – 12th November, with highlights taking place across the school. Well done to Mabel, Ruairi, Rayan and Jacob who performed a professional debate to answer the statement “This house believes that school should encourage students to strike for climate change.” Each pair argued back and forth before it was put to a vote by our Year 8 cohort. We are looking forward to the next debate this week performed by Tabby, Bobby, Sophie and Sofia, where the Year 7 cohort will get a chance to listen to the issues being explored and also vote on their winning pair. The weekly Oracy assembly saw students consider the ethics of carbon credits; should HICs (High-Income Countries) be allowed to pay Low-Income Countries to maintain forests, if it means that HIC’s can continue to emit high amounts of greenhouse gases? Who retains the final responsibility for emissions?

Elsewhere, our weekly form quiz competition was focussed on the current events surrounding COP26 and pledges that have been made, and we will soon be announcing the winner of our Climate Change Awareness house competition; to discover which form group has completed the most planet-saving activities at home. We have also had presentations during Culture Club about Greta Thunberg. We are so proud to be surrounded by students who embrace independent thought and are not afraid to articulate their viewpoint on these matters. Thank you especially to the Eco Committee (Syan, George, Mabel) for leading this successful week!

Mr Inman

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