Secondary School Updates (16 September 2022)

Key Dates | Secondary Learning Showcase

Weekly update from Head of Secondary

Dear Parents,

The hot topic in Secondary school currently is goal setting, with a great deal of attention from students and teachers going towards reflecting on achievements and areas for development and setting targets for the year ahead.

At BIS, we acknowledge the strong research basis that points to goals making a powerful difference to performance, led first by Edwin Locke, an American psychologist. Locke noted in his research that a 15–25% increase in work performance can solely be attributed to goal setting. But goal setting, according to Locke, needs to involve setting specific and difficult targets (but not too difficult), having full commitment from people to the goal, and requiring honest feedback along the journey.

In the spirit of goal setting, this week we had our inaugural Tutor Connect Sessions, where students sat down with Form Tutors and parents to look at the year ahead and talk about what they wanted to achieve. The feedback from parents and students has been overwhelmingly positive. Let me take this opportunity to thank all those parents who attended to support the process.

While students are working hard to set their goals, teachers are also doing the same. During September, all staff at BIS participate in target setting along with their line managers and peers. At BIS, we have a coaching culture where colleagues challenge and support one another to move their professional practice forwards. This is one of the many ways we work to ensure excellence in our educational environment.

Chris Newman 

Head of Secondary

Key Dates

• Week beginning 19 September: Year 11 + 13 Progress Tests 

• Week beginning 19 September: Language Week 

• Monday 26 September: Co-curricular Activities start 

• Thursday 6 October: Year 9 and 11 Options Evening 

• Saturday 8 October: International Festival

• Week beginning 10 October: International Week 

Secondary Learning Showcase

MFL | Computer Science | Biology

Computer Science 

With PCTs imminent and the final IB exams within sight, Year 13 computer scientists are now focusing their attention on honing their ability to create algorithms for a variety of problems. The group were set an example past question and asked to work as a team to consider various approaches and develop a workable solution. They quickly went through the forming, storming, and norming phases that are common in these situations, using the entire classroom wall to express and discuss their ideas before agreeing on their final solution—which happily worked perfectly when we tested it with a Trace Table. It was wonderful to see how the team shared their ideas and learnt from each other, with every member of the group contributing valuable suggestions; more importantly, for me, was their approach to "thinking aloud", which gave me insight (not to mention a considerable amount of confidence) into how their computational thinking skills have developed over the last 12 months.

Of course, we will continue with these kinds of rehearsals, but the outcome of this episode was really very promising! 

Rob Shepley 

Head of Computer Science 

MFL

Key Stage 3 MFL French 

Our Key Stage 3 French students have had an engaging and purposeful start of the school year, learning and discovering about French traditions and language. Whilst Year 9 have been keen on discovering more about French speaking countries and celebrities, Year 8 French had a swell time living through their holiday again, learning about utilising the past tense and practicing their speaking skills. Year 7 French have started their journey learning about basic greetings, numbers and nationalities. Along with learning languages our Key Stage 3 students are also developing their IT literacy skills through blended learning, quizzes and a variety of creative digital tasks.

Next week, our Key Stage 3 French student will be given the opportunity to demonstrate the extent of their learning so far through a range of reading and speaking games and activities. We wish them all the best of luck and the best of fun! 

We are also looking forward to our French movie night soon. Keep an eye out for the posters to discover more about it! 

Biology 

Year 9 Science students were working collaboratively to create their own DNA sequence. Students have been learning about classification of living organisms and have started to think about how inheriting DNA can cause our characteristics to change over time. Students now understand how we can use DNA to establish evolutionary relationships which have not been understood before and, how scientific advances in technology are broadening our understanding of evolution. It was great to see how their teamwork skills evolved during this activity, sharing the knowledge on how to get the DNA sequence to twist into a double helix shape as they stuck the base pairs to the spine of the DNA structure.