Creativity in the Classroom

By Anya Gray –

 

After a long term of teaching Body Systems to my GCSE PE Year 11 class I wanted to engage the students in an Active Learning lesson where they worked independently to understand the flow of Oxygen from our Nasal Cavity to Gaseous Exchange. Friday Period 4 – How could I do this so they were engaged and Learning but at the same time understanding the important of this process? After a discussion with the Head of Department Mr Root and a few Sharpies and White T-Shirts later here was the result

An amazing lesson where students took risks and the results were amazing.

Well Done Year 11

The Westgate School Chorus Wins Maidenhead Music and Dance Festival 2016!

By Katie O’Neill

The Westgate Chorus wowed judges and audience members on Wednesday 12^th October at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts.

The Music Department at Westgate School are delighted to announce that the Westgate Chorus have been awarded first place in the Secondary School category at the Maidenhead festival of Music and Dance. The choir performed two songs to a packed audience of family, friends and professional musicians and performers. The choir have been rehearsing since the beginning of the school year and their hard work and commitment showed when they took centre stage. Westgate Chorus performed two songs, “Wide Awake” and “Stiches” and the energy in the room was electric.

The performance ended with a standing ovation from all audience members and cheers that lifted the roof off. Students received fabulous feedback from the judges, who awarded the choir a Distinction. Students and audience members were wowed at the feedback. “An enthusiastic and neatly sung opening”, “effective and accurate harmonies” and “the choir delivered a stylistic performance that entered into the spirit of the songs” said the judges.

Bethany Odoi in PW63SUG said “It was a fantastic experience and we are all so happy we won. We are delighted with the judge’s feedback and cannot wait for the next competition!”

The music department would like to thank everyone for their support with the event and congratulate all performers involved.

 

 

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs with Paper Cups

By Sam Ashraf

The Humanistic Approach is now on the AQA specification… having taught Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs some years ago (on the old OCR specification) it was nice to see it return.

The only issue is – How do you engage the students and make it relevant? One method I used to approach Maslow, was to ask students to recreate the pyramid (without having seen the original). Students are given the word list that contains all the elements from Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and some paper cups:

1.Food, 2. Sex, 3. Sleep, 4. Breathing, 5. Shelter, 6. Security, 7. Law & Order, 8. Employment, 9. Family, 10.Health, 11. Family, 12. Friends, 13. Sexual Intimacy, 14. Self-esteem, 15. Achievement, 16. Respect for others, 17. Confidence, 18. Creativity, 19. Spontaneity and 20. Morality

Your students should then work in pairs/groups to decide which 15 words they are going to use. Get your students to arrange the cups into a pyramid shape (with 5 levels) and tell them that the most important basic needs are at the bottom. Their job is to decide where to place their 15 words from the basic (survival) needs at the bottom, to those needs which are ‘nice to have’ at the top.

Once the students complete this task, let them compare their pyramid with the other groups and discuss why the placed certain needs at the various different locations. You will find that students start to argue over where certain needs should be placed, which provides an interesting discussion for later evaluation.

Then, show them the final pyramid (see below) to see if they were able to recreate Maslow’s Hierarchy.

It was great to see how the students place the needs within their pyramid and how they justify them. Why not try teaching Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs using paper cups!

 

 

Alice in Wonderland Production Up and Running

By Anya Gray

The Westgate School Music and Drama department have held auditions for Alice in Wonderland.

 

Our first production in over 10 years has started. Students are raring to go and the schedule for rehearsals is up and running. Watch this space for further details….

 

A-peel-ing ways to teach eating behaviours…

By Sam Ashraf

Eating behaviour is full of challenging concepts for A-Level students, from the dual-centre theory, to psychological explanations for eating disorders. As teachers it our role to bring students learning to life.

One topic in eating behaviour that you can make engaging in your classroom is evolutionary explanations for food preferences.

Students cook and bring in an item of food that they would like to share with the class, but they have to be able to explain why this food would have been chosen by our hunter gatherer ancestors.

Students loved this lesson and any opportunity to eat is always a winner!

This year I was amazed by the generosity of the students and also how they were so considerate of each other’s dietary requirements, with many students making multiple variations of their food for all to try (e.g. halal, vegan, no dairy) It’s a great way to engage your students and create a really memorable lesson.

Eating behaviour is full of challenging concepts for A-Level students, from the dual-centre theory, to psychological explanations for eating disorders. As teachers it our role to bring students learning to life.

One topic in eating behaviour that you can make engaging in your classroom is evolutionary explanations for food preferences.

Students cook and bring in an item of food that they would like to share with the class, but they have to be able to explain why this food would have been chosen by our hunter gatherer ancestors.

Students loved this lesson and any opportunity to eat is always a winner!

This year I was amazed by the generosity of the students and also how they were so considerate of each other’s dietary requirements, with many students making multiple variations of their food for all to try (e.g. halal, vegan, no dairy) It’s a great way to engage your students and create a really memorable lesson.

 

 

Students as co-planners and teachers

By Sam Ashraf

 

This is not a new idea…but one I have thoroughly enjoyed. Have you ever asked a student to co-plan and deliver a lesson? And I’m not just talking about group work where students make a presentation and deliver to their peers.

In my department I have many students who study A-Level Biology and I don’t think we use their knowledge as much as we could. Why don’t teachers take advantage of this and encourage their students to take risks and improve their confidence?

So this year, after being asked to help our learning champions co-plan lessons, I decided to ask one of my Year 13 students, who also studied A-Level Biology, to join me in planning and delivering a lesson on neurons and synaptic transmission. At this point I should add that although this student was extremely dedicated and hardworking, she suffered from lack of confidence. Not only did she suffer from a lack of confidence in herself, but also her own abilities too; this was a deliberate attempt to help her. Let’s put it this way…she is one of those students who kept the teachers on their toes!

We spent about two hours together (not to mention how much time she put in at home) planning the lesson, including what we needed to cover and what activities would support learning. We decided on using the build a neuron activity from tutor2u, as part of the lesson.

The day finally arrived for us to co-deliver the lesson…I was amazed by how much this young lady had grown in confidence. She stood in front of a group of Year 12 Psychology students and took on the role of the teacher. She was articulate, in charge and didn’t falter once. I was so proud to see her believing in herself.

For this young lady stepping out of her comfort zone gave her a chance to challenge her confidence issues. As teachers we do more than educate the young people we stand in front of everyday. I hope we help them to grow into wonderful young people who are able to contribute to wider society. I loved working with this student and we both definitely took some risks that day (not to mention that lesson was an observed lesson too – yes I am a little crazy!)

 

We ask our students every day to step out of their comfort zones…shouldn’t we too?

The student mentioned in this article kindly agreed to share this story, although she wanted to remain anonymous. The student in question is now studying Psychology at the University of York.  

Preparing to Play – Understanding Infancy

By Nicola Brown

For the BTEC National Health and Social Care Course students need to understand the development of humans throughout life. We were focusing on infancy and thought a great way to understand this life

stage would be to see some infants in action and to speak to a childminder who interacts with 0-2 year olds on a daily basis. The sixth form students could see the children playing and how they communicate and interact during “play”. There was also time for the students to ask Pat (childminder) some interesting questions about her role and responsibilities as a childminder and what she notices about the development of the children on a day to day basis. An experience that will impact on the understanding of the topic and provide a memorable experience to support with revision.

Students Visit Lille Christmas Markets

By Craig Tranter

 

On Sat 5^th December 2015 the MFL department took 35 students to visit the Lille Christmas Market. We left Westgate really early in the morning by coach and travelled to Dover. Unfortunately there were some delays due to recent events in France, but we managed to board the ferry and explore the boat. On the crossing it was a bit choppy and windy, but we saw the white cliffs of Dover and watched the sunrise. When we arrived in Lille we found a nice restaurant and tried some local cuisine, which was delicious! Students then had the opportunity to practise their French around Lille city centre and went off to explore the market. They all had maps and useful phrases and an activity book to complete. There were lots of Christmas stalls and local shops to do all the shopping and many students enjoyed going on the Ferris wheel. We left on time and travelled back to Calais, but due to weather conditions in Dover we were unable to board the ferry for 5 hours! It was ok though as we played games and watched Back to the Future! We got back to Westgate at 3am, so we were all pretty tired, but it was all worth it as we had a great time! Many students will be going again next year!

 

A Level English Analysis with a twist

By Tom Ripper

Year 12 Literature students were at first confounded by Mr Ripper’s repeated demands to “moore closely analyse your poetry!” Therefore, students returned to base principles, first absorbing Physicist Richard Feynman’s view that a detailed scientific understanding of nature enhances its beauty beyond the aesthetic level. 

Using magnifying glasses, students closely examined and catalogued the individual features of various natural objects: curious rocks; various, similar leaves; dry bark and branches. The discovery was profound. Each student shared an understanding of each object’s individual complexity and collectively decided that what lay beyond the immediate and apparent meaning did in fact enhance the beauty and the significance of the object in question.

 Students then returned to lines of poetry and applied the same method, and found that now the close analysis was all that much easier. They began to isolate individual words, pieces of punctuation and even sounds to explore further the complexity of words. The enjoyment they derived was clear, to the extent that not only did students take poetic snippets home with them to continue examining, but one student saw such beauty in a jagged shard of black flint that she wanted to keep it as well.

 

 

Year 7 – Collaboration Science lesson inspires students

By Vicky Gunner

Pupils spent a Westgate6 Science lesson in the ACE centre working collaboratively to identify and describe the function of different organs in the body using the whiteboard walls. From there pupils cellotaped life sized pictures of the organs to themselves where they thought they were on their bodies