Year 7 have had an extremely exciting start to their English lessons at Etone College. After completing a two-week introduction to the dystopian genre, we have started to study the novel “Thief!” by Malorie Blackman. This book tells the story of Lydia, a girl who moves to a new school and is accused of stealing the Sports Cup. As a result, Lydia’s whole world is turned upside-down. Students have particularly enjoyed the range of expressions and emotions within the text. They have also found the idea of a child starting at a new school to be relatable, which helps to engage them with the text.

The students have been using ideas from “Thief!” to craft their own pieces of writing, ranging from diary entries to re-writing parts of the story.

The students are also taking their first steps towards becoming literary detectives, analysing Blackman’s use of language and how this creates certain ideas and feelings for the reader. Everyone is showing fantastic commitment and creating some superb pieces of independent work.

Away from “Thief!”, students have also been having weekly “library” lessons. While it is not always possible for these to take place in the school library, we still have an hour each week where students complete spelling tests and share the reading of the class book (Holes or The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas). Students have told their teachers that they really appreciate the opportunity to read “for fun”.

Tuesday 14 July from 10am to 4pm

Big Bang Digital 2020 – science, engineering and Covid-19 is a free online event for young people 11+ to attend short, inspiring sessions looking at all aspects of STEM in a pandemic.

It's the perfect opportunity for students to see STEM careers in action, hear inspiring stories from incredible people (including a Nobel Prize winner), ask questions in live Q&A sessions, add their voice to online polls and complete activities throughout the day. 

Big Bang Digital can be included as part of home learning or streamed in school and is a secure environment with safeguarding measures in place. 

Line-up at a glance:

• TV & Radio Science Presenter, Podcaster & YouTuber Greg Foot will be hosting live
• Meet NHS frontline staff, join the race to find a vaccine and ask the experts your coronavirus questions.
• Hear from people designing PPE, ventilators and a social distancing lanyard
• Find out how the NHS Nightingale hospitals were built so quickly
• Meet the teams keeping things moving, water in the taps and food in the shops
• Explore lockdown cyber security and staying safe online
• Pay tribute to key workers with a rainbow science show with Gastronaut Stefan Gates

To check out the full programme visit: www.digitalbigbang.co.uk

This term house sport took on a new form when it went virtual! Pupils were asked to support their house by posting photos of their workouts on Twitter and adding the hashtag for their house. Lots of pupils and staff got involved with house sport and showed great support for their houses. Well done to everyone.

The winning house was DRAGON!

A huge well done to everybody who got involved!

Staff have been massively impressed with the amazing creations students have been making at home during recent weeks! It has been lovely to see both baking being done and meals being created too! Lockdown has provided an ideal chance for many of us, both students and adults too, to develop our range of culinary skills and repertoire of dishes. Students have used this time really positively and effectively responding enthusiastically to the challenges set, especially the practical ones. Valuable life skills have been gained and employability skills have been practiced. One of our school employability skills is resilience and we have been blown away by the resilience of our students who have adapted to a new way of working and have produced home learning with such creativity. Many students are now regularly cooking meals for their families independently or assisting parents within the family kitchen. They are thinking about reducing food waste, planning meals to use up available ingredients, time management whilst also working hygienically and safely. 

A weekly food challenge has been set at the start of each week detailing a themed practical activity. This is in addition to a range of theory and research activities researching chefs, methods of cooking, designing dishes for sports people, finding out about different dietary needs and the functions of ingredients too. There has also been time to watch Food related TV shows and write a review, to gain ideas and inspiration for new recipes to try. It is worth remembering too that by developing practical skills and creating delicious food, students are also incorporating some important skills such as numeracy and literacy into their daily schedule. Reading a set of instructions or a recipe is great literacy too especially as this involves reading for meaning and understanding. Numeracy is developed through weighing out ingredients and measuring liquids, and demonstrating accuracy to ensure consistency within recipes. This time has also allowed staff to (distantly) co-plan lots of joint challenges and House competitions, reinforcing cross-curricular links between subjects. 

Projects have included the MFL and Food Cultural cuisine House competition which saw students create a range of dishes from different countries. This is a venture that we plan to continue when we are back in school. In Food we also worked together with Humanities when we celebrated VE Day, where students were invited to research and experiment with wartime recipes, which saw some fantastic results! Great examples of how teamwork and collaboration is happening across the school too! 

To catch up with what is going on in Food, and to celebrate student success, check out Food on Twitter at Food@Etone.

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been encouraging our French pupils to take part in the Eiffel Tower’s Twitter challenge, to recreate the tower at home as sadly we can’t go and visit it at the moment. We have been astounded and so impressed by our students’ imagination and creativity, and we’ve even had a few retweeted by the Eiffel Tower’s Twitter page for the whole world to see!

Year 7s had great fun over the Easter break creating their own original musical instruments! See for yourself their amazing creations! They had so much fun using their creativity, well done Year 7!