Dear Parents and Caregivers,
What an active week! The assessment week is over, and teachers are finalizing report cards, while students are having their final rehearsal before the Winter Concert. I am impressed and humbled with our students’ resilience, flexibility and readiness to participate in the school’s events. It has been a great end to the year. Thank you.
See you at the Winter Concert this coming Wednesday, December 14.
Уважаемые Родители и Опекуны,
Какая активная неделя! Экзаменационная неделя закончилась, и преподаватели дорабатывают табели успеваемости, а студенты проходят заключительную репетицию перед зимним концертом. Я впечатлен стойкостью, гибкостью и готовностью наших учеников участвовать в мероприятиях школы. Это был отличный конец года. Спасибо.
До встречи на Зимнем концерте в ближайшую среду, 14 декабря.
Juan Cárdenas
Head of Secondary
From the Classroom / Новости из класса
Mr. Keegan Watkins (English, Geography, GP)
Year 9 Geography class has been exploring the ‘Scramble for Africa’ in more detail. This included a class project and an assessment. The class also visited the Kunstkamera museum recently. Year 10 Global Perspectives commenced their individual presentation preparations (based on a self-chosen research topic). The class also considered past exam papers related to digital technology. Year 13 IELTS class have been preparing for the official IELTS exam by focussing on all main language skills. Official practice exams were held on two separate occasions. The year 10 and 11 IGCSE English classes wrapped up their reading and writing sections of the IGCSE syllabus and completed their assessments. These were based on comprehension tasks, summaries, and extended writing. Year 12 wrapped up the necessary components of the AS-level syllabus in order to write their assessments. These were based on directed response and persuasive/discursive writing.
Mr. Kori Sickles (Science, Biology)
In Year 13 Biology, our focus has been one control and coordination throughout the body. The main areas we have covered are neurons and neuromuscular junction. In Year 12 Biology, we are exploring the movement of substances in and out of cells and what influences the rate at which this movement occurs. For Year 11, we have focused on the transport of materials throughout the body using the cardiovascular system, culminating with our dissection of a heart. Our Year 10 team has been looking at various methods used to separate mixtures, including a distillation to separate water and the ethanol produced by yeast cells.
Ms. Liuba Kaporskaya (Russian)
This week we have been fully preparing for the upcoming exams. We revised previously studied topics, lexical and grammatical. In Year 8, we got acquainted with the famous Russian cartoon "Vovka v Tridevyatom tsarstve" as well as practiced writing a new letter in cursive. This term, Yakov B had the pleasure to recite a famous poem by S.Esenin “Belaya Neryoza” that he learned by heart in front of Mr Carlos, Mr Kennedy and some Year 7 students. More poems to come next term!
Ms. Marina Vorobeva (Physical Education)
With secondary students we have had in-class badminton tournaments. More than 50 games were played in every year group. The winners of every class have got three house points, 2nd place – 2 house points and 3rd place – 1 house point. Almost every student participated very well and to the best of his\her ability.
This week we have moved into the next sport of the curriculum – volleyball and it is going to be learned and played for the next few weeks.
Mr. Matthew Lyons (Mathematics, Science, Physics)
In year 7 we have been exploring angles and shapes as we master our geometry skills – very much a love or hate topic, it’s fair to say the class was split on opinion, but the end product has been promising. In science we finally experienced our first ‘kaboom’ as we tested the gas being released when magnesium reacted with hydrochloric acid – all part of our current topic – materials and matter.
Year 8 and 9 have both been exploring data collection and recording techniques, unknowingly working together to discover the relationship between age and hand/foot size before analysing the data and making conclusions and predictions from the results. Year 8 have since moved on to study fractions in more detail, whilst year 9 have begun looking into area, perimeter and volume of 2d and 3d complex shapes.
In year 12, we have been putting our theory to the test with practical experiments to study trajectories, applying equations of motion and energy to discover the efficiency of a system. Approaching the end of the term, we are wrapping up our kinetics, momentum, energy and matter topics, ready to delve into electronics in January.
Mr. Wolfaardt Claassen (Science)
To finish the term off the Year 8s wrote their Biology exam to start getting used to the pressure of writing exams on all the work they did to date. We’re slightly ahead of schedule and have started the Chemistry section for the year. For Chemistry they have started to learn how to use the particle theory to explain changes of state, gas pressure and diffusion. We have also been introduced to the Periodic Table that plays such a big role in chemistry. After learning about the first 20 elements of the Periodic Table we started to explore the relationships between elements, compounds, and mixtures.
The Year 9s finished their last Biology chapter this week. They learned how to use and construct keys to identify plants and animals, how organisms inherit characteristics and how we look at specific characteristics for selective breeding. We have also started to look at Darwin’s impact with regards to the theory of evolution.
Year 12 had an in-depth look at chemical bonding. They explored the types of chemical bonds, how ions are formed, constructing dot-and-cross diagrams and what exactly covalent bonds are. After that they learned about dative covalent bonds, bond length and energy and the how to use the Valence shell electron pair repulsion theory to predict the shapes of a molecule. Finally, they explored the concept of electronegativity and dipole-dipole forces.
The Year 13s looked at the concept of reaction kinetics. First, they looked at the factors affecting reaction rates. Once they identified these factors, they learned how to determine the rate of a reaction by using rate equations. From these equations they discovered how to identify the order of a reaction as well as calculations involving rate constants of a reaction and a catalyst’s role in reactions.
Ms. Irina Tuzakova (Mathematics - Russian Program)
Неделя выдалась сложной, различные проверочные работы не обошли стороной и математику. Студенты yr12 выполнили практическую работу по геометрии, построив на оценку сечения для тетраэдра и куба. А к субботе подготовились и сдали зачет по теме "Параллельность прямых и плоскостей". К сожалению, контрольная по алгебре отодвинулась по срокам и пройдет позже. Также немного повезло (или не повезло) студентам yr9. Из-за болезни учителя и их контрольная по алгебре пройдет на последней учебной неделе, так что у ребят еще есть возможность подготовиться. Девушки из yr13 заканчивают изучение курса геометрии (стереометрии). Они научились находить объемы таких фигур, как конус и цилиндр. Эти студенты выходят на прямую по подготовке к единому государственному экзамену за курс средней школы. Пожелаем им удачи!
Ms. Kristina Seravnina (Mathematics and Physics - Russian Program)
На этой недели ребята из y11 писали пробный вариант ОГЭ для отслеживания прогресса обучения и выявлении тем для повторения и разбора. Математика у учеников из y8 состояла из большого количества математических игры, которые позволяют не только учить детей работать в группах, но и заинтересовать их в изучении новой темы несмотря на приближающиеся каникулы. Для y10 была проведена лабораторная работа по физике, где ребятам было нужно измерить силу тяжести разных предметов и разобраться чем отличается масса от веса.
Pre-Assessment
