This week we are again sharing news from our school community during the Easter holidays.
The school remains open for children of key workers.
Activities have included a design and build challenge, fitness and problem solving activities, and an English and Business subject related day.
Today we had fun in the sun with an Easter egg hunt and a campcraft session.
Surprise Delivery!
Staff and students also took delivery of a super, surprise box of Easter Eggs from Morrisons, arranged by Radhaa Bevan, our Business Apprentice, and her husband.
Thank you very much Mr & Mrs Bevan and Morrisons!
Mrs Edwards and Mr Coombes asked the students on site for their highlights and this is what they said.
Sports and maths problem solving. Enjoyed using my head to figure things out!
Sports, football, playing with friends on the Astro, something not many boys will have done this week
DT, haven’t done it in a while and it was good to practice cutting and making things.
Excellent Work
Maths
This week Ms Baker has sent me an example of Excellent Work completed by Jack Allerton in 7S.
She says he did really well as the questions were all tough GCSE past questions designed to push knowledge and application of the basic rules of angles in parallel lines.
History
Also from Year 7 is a piece of Excellent Work completed by Leonardo Avanzato in 7E.
This has been shared by Ms Mintoft. She says the work is on the murder of Thomas Becket. Leonardo has embraced the medieval style of presentation and writing.
eSafety Advice
As we move into more weeks of lockdown, missing our family and friends has really started to sink in and certainly in my house the use of video apps replacing actually meeting face to face has been a godsend. It is worth noting though, that the majority of these services have a minimum age of 13 (with some exceptions below) and so I have been using my account, but staying in the room with my children.
There are many different platforms you and your children can use to communicate with people online. They’re all slightly different with different features, and most importantly, different levels of security and privacy. This is a quick guide to some of the most popular:
Zoom
Good for: Can be used for interactive video calling for free for up to 100 participants for up to 40 minutes
Not good for: Should not be used as a file store or for confidential or sensitive meetings
Security: Always ensure your Zoom event is secure (see blog for more info). Recently publicised vulnerabilities have been patched in latest release so always ensure operating systems and applications are updated to the latest version
Minimum age: 16 years old to sign up to host a call
Good for: Closed group text communications on mobile devices. Ability to share photos and video, brilliant for people already in your contact list via phone numbers
Not good for: Group video/voice calls, groups are limited to four people. Should not be used as a file store
Security: Encrypted, as a US company alignment to GDPR is adequate
Minimum age: 16 years old
Microsoft Teams
Good for: Interactive chat, live video calls, screensharing, file sharing
Not good for: Depending on what you are doing, everyone may need to download the programme, which normally comes with a wider set of Microsoft tools. You may need to pay for a license.
Security: Complex passwords required, encrypted, as a US company alignment to GDPR is adequate
Minimum age: 13 years old
Good for: Communicating within a closed group. Ability to share photos and video. Can stream video live.
Not good for: Should not be used as a file store
Security: The password should be set as complex and unique to any other platform account, encrypted, as a US company alignment to GDPR is adequate
Minimum age: 13 years old
Skype
Good for: Up to 25 people can chat together with video or audio, screensharing, chat
Not good for: Should not be used as a file store
Security: The password should be set as complex and unique to any other platform account, encrypted, as a US company alignment to GDPR is adequate
Age: 13+
Houseparty
Good for: Up to 8 friends (and friends of friends) at the same time, via live video, texts and has some games that you can play together
Not good for: there have been some recent reports about lack of security and people can randomly appear online if the chatroom isn’t locked. Houseparty has not been recommended as an appropriate app for younger teens. Read more here
Age: 12+