Attainment
Great Teaching and Learning at BMS
Recently, I had the privilege of trying to capture some of the wonderful teaching and learning taking place across the whole school. Year 10 G4G: My first stop was to see how the...
Great Teaching and Learning at BMS
Recently, I had the privilege of trying to capture some of the wonderful teaching and learning taking place across the whole school.
Year 10 G4G:
My first stop was to see how the Year 10 Going for Greatness lessons were being delivered to the Year 10 students.
In LRC 1, our Senior Assitant Head, Mr Fisher, was delivering a session where the emphasis was to use SAM Learning to improve learning. Asma Bengharifa explained how she really enjoyed these sessions and that there was always an excellent learning atmosphere.
In LRC2, our Head of Sixth Form, Mr O’Kelly was delivering an exciting session in which students were using podcasting as an alternative way to storing and recalling key information they needed to learn or revise. Every student was fully engaged and enjoying this wonderful opportunity. It was nice to hear the quality of recordings taking place in the new extension to the LRC. Caleb had this message for Mr O’Kelly:
“One of the most enjoyable activities I’ve done in this subject is making a podcast. Thank you sir for teaching us the usefulness of making a podcast.”
In G2, our Lead Practitioner of Maths, Mr Akram, was working with the students on the exciting PiXL Maths App. Again, there was an excellent learning atmosphere and students were fully engaged in their learning. Nicole and Edcel said:
“We love the leaderboards! It’s such a fun way of learning Maths! Thank you sir for setting us up on the Maths App.”
The rest of Year 10 and 11 will very soon be taking part in a full launch of the PiXL Maths App in the main hall – exciting times ahead!
In LRC 4, the Year 10 students were about to embark on a journey in improving their Extended Writing skills. Led by Ms Farook, one of our Lead Practitioners of English, the students were using Chromebooks and computers to complete tasks they had been set.
The G4G lessons are a unique and first time strategy which is really taking shape and having lots of positive impact for the students. Currently, the students remain in the same classroom and the teachers carousel, so the students get an experience of the various tools and systems mentioned above. Both students and teachers spoke highly of the initiative and said there has been much positive growth since its infancy and launch.
Science Lessons:
The remaining part of my learning walk took place in Science.
In L9, with our Head of Physics, Mrs Booth, Year 10 students were conscientiously studying about Moments and Centre of Mass. Jessica said:
“I really love Mrs Booth’s PowerPoints. They make learning structured and fun. Thank you Miss.”
In L4, our Advandced Lead Teacher of Chemistry, Mr Green, was working with Year 12 students focusing forensically on exam style questions and examiners’ mark schemes. Students were using their ‘purple pen of progress’ to self assess the test they had completed in a previous lesson. They were all excited to see how well they had performed. Riya had this message for Mr Green:
“One of the most enjoyable activities I have ever done in Chemistry is an interactive lesson where we moved around the classroom in pairs and Mr Green broke ‘bonds’ between us so we could join someone else. This was enjoyable because it was a demonstration that made a difficult concept more comprehensible and memorable.Thank you Sir for coming up with countless analogies to help us understand Chemistry a bit better and for making sure the whole class is at a level of understanding that allows us to achieve the very best grades.”
In L3, Mr Collins-Pearson was delivering a fill in the gap plenary to round up the learning in which the students were exploring different types of energy and the various units used to measure energy – eg kilowatts and megawatts.
In L5, Ms Atchuthan had the challenge of delivering Biology to Year 11 students after they had just completed 4 hours of Science exams in the hall. The students were tasked with the activity of creating memorable revision cards which focused on areas of weakness identified during the Science exams earlier in the day. Marie Hofer Tillyer showed a great revision app called Quizlet that she regularly uses to upload and download revision cards – Click on the link below, it’s well worth a try!
Jewel Mhizha shared with me the vast array of revision cards she had already produced for Science and said it was well worth the effort and time to create these to help with recall of facts which is a huge component of success in Science.
In L6, Miss Nugara was inspiring her Year 8 students with a very colourful video all about heat loss, captured using a military thermal imaging camera. The students could visually see how the body heat of a man was lost as took off layers of clothing in freezing conditions. Why not check out the video yourself by clicking below.
Jamie passed on this message for Miss Nugara:
“Dear Miss, thank you for giving us special lessons, letting us ask questions and I especially enjoyed your lesson on Diabetes.”
My last stop of the learning walk was in L7, where Mr Gall, was impressing students with some exciting experiments exploring how different metals react with water.
Students then completed a matching cards exercise to consolidate the learning from the live demonstration.
Tyler had this message for Mr Gall:
“One of my most memorable activities in this science unit was when we were reacting metals with water; there were so many unusual reactions, hence I enjoyed learning about them. I really enjoy when Mr Gall always tries to do a practical and theory in one so it is a fun educational lesson. Thank sir for your great lessons.”
Rashmi also wrote:
“One of my most enjoyable activities I have ever done in this subject, is doing an experiment which involved potassium. As I watched the reaction, I couldn’t believe my eyes and we could not have done this experiment with our teacher, Mr Gall. Thank you Sir for allowing our class to not only enjoy science but also visualize it. Without you, we would not be great at science nor actually understand it. The experiments you let us do really help the whole class when have tests and questions about the topic to answer. Thank you Mr Gall for all your help.”
To see see some bigger scale (very explosive) reactions of alkali metals with water, click on the link below (and of course, never try on of these at home!!!)
What a great opportunity and experience this learning walk was. It really demonstrated all of the great work both students and teachers are putting in to help everyone really achieve their very best. I really look forward to my next learning walk and seeing lots more great things in other parts of the school.
Show Comments (0)
