On Thursday 15 March, Year 8 students took part in a variety of GCSE Options sample lessons, including PE, music, science, health and fitness and child care.

In PE, students learnt about the different joint movements and how they are used in sport.  In music, Year 8's completed a listening task which focused on The Beatles Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds which is a GCSE Music study piece.  They then used the iMacs to create a drum beat and use the chord sequence from Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds to create a composition.

In Triple Science, students were given a dissection demonstration showing the anatomy of the heart of a pig.  They also identifyed different elements from flame tests.

On Wednesday 14 March, students enjoyed designing and making support structures with marshmallow’s and spaghetti as part of a sample GCSE design lesson.  They looked at the strongest shapes using collaborative learning to problem solve.

In drama students worked on Component 1, coming up with ideas for a devised performance for a stimulus.

Further lessons throughout the day included construction, food, sports and health and social care.  Students are thoroughly enjoying the sample lessons, and have benefitted massively in helping them with their final options choices.

On Tuesday 13 March, students enjoyed a variety of lessons including business studies, food, dance, art and IT.

In dance, Year 8 students sampled one of the Set Phrases which is a part of the GCSE Dance specification.   In IT, Year 8 students attempted a GCSE coursework task using Adobe Premiere Pro to develop professional video advertisements, for a water sports company. They have developed and formatted their own titles, captions and imported a wide range of images adding transitions and other various effects to produce a product that is fit for purpose. 

In food, students made Baked Alaska, whilst looking at the functional properties of eggs when making meringues.  In business, students completed the Marketing Mix on Diet Coke then tried to apply this to their own Easter Themed business to be located at The Trafford Centre.

For photographs from the week visit our gallery here.

On Monday 12 March, students in Year 8 started the week off sampling GCSE lessons for subjects including health & social care, art, construction, science and computer science.

In art Year 8 students sampled a current year 9 project, based around the theme 'birds.' Students were asked to work over textured backgrounds similar to the artist Mark Powell's work in a black biro pen. They were creating observational drawings of bird textures, beaks, talons and features.  

In construction students got a feel for the different trades available following the construction qualification. They completed a simple stud frame and found out how to replace an electric socket face plate. Mr Purcell reports “Students enjoyed a full practical activity, full engagement... great day:)  

In the physics sample lesson, students simulated exposure to radiation with distance from a nuclear explosion. In computer science the lesson was on “Computational Thinking”.  The students were given a hypothetical problem and had to develop a computer program to solve it. In health and social care students looked at substance abuse, and the risks and dangers to a person.