Physical Education

Year 7 students have been continuing their rotations within PE, exploring a range of familiar and less familiar activities to gain understanding and exposure to sports that they will be continuing throughout their time at Heathfield. These activities include; Hockey, Football, Badminton, Dance, Gymnastics, Netball, Basketball and Rugby. Through being exposed to these, it is hoped that they will continue to pursue these as extra-curricular activities on offer or play outside of school.

Students in Year 8 are continuing their carousel of activities, with a view to building on the basics from Year 7 and developing skill understanding and refining techniques with a view to implementing them in competitive gameplay and environments. For example, many of our Year 8 boys have been refining their Capoeira dance routines, whilst our girls have been learning the skills and rules of hockey, enabling them to play on full-sided pitches with the confidence to selfofficiate and have success in a variety of different positions.

Drama

Year 7 students have begun exploring extracts from Roald Dahl scripts leading on from their trip to see ‘Matilda’. We will be looking at how to physically and vocally develop larger than life characters and also the importance of stage positioning. The plays explored include: ‘James and the Giant Peach’, ‘The Twits’, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, ‘The Witches’ and ‘Matilda’. This unit will help to build essential skills of using memory, interpreting text, teamwork and self-confidence.

Year 8 are completing a written assessment evaluating how tension and suspense is built through the design elements of lighting and sound in an extract from ‘Woman in Black’. This leads into their practical exploration of creating atmosphere using these design elements to create their own ghost stories.

Year 8s are now in the final stages of their Pop Art composition. This year we have some really stunning compositions that really show Pop Art style. Students were able to talk fluently about the artists involved in the Pop Art movement articulate the characteristics of this movement. It was really impressive to see these features of Pop Art within students compositions.

Music

Year 7 have been working hard after their assessments in December. In Term 3 they have been working on understanding notes on the keyboard and playing different pieces from a booklet. They have primarily been focusing on using the right hand and ensuring their hand position is correct, as well as playing the correct notes. In the coming weeks we will begin to look at some left hand work and how it is used to play chords.

Art

Year 7 students are now approaching the end of their mark making and colour scheme work. They have most recently completed the colour wheel in pencil using only the 3 primary colours of red, yellow and blue. The colour wheel includes the primary, secondary and tertiary colours so students had to develop the ability to mix these three colours to show the subtle differences between each of these sets of colour. They have also completed colour strips through a range of art materials that explored hues, created using colour pencil; tints, created using chalk pastel; shades, created using oil pastels and tones, created using watercolours. Practicing colour in this way through a range of materials and processes really helps students understand how to use colour to create depth and how to mix a varied range of colours which is useful in a wide range of artistic disciplines.

Year 8 had their assessment in the first 2 weeks of Term 3 and we were really impressed with the focus and dedication of all students. We then moved onto looking at how music can tell a story. This has given Year 8 an opportunity to explore music from 16001900’s. They have shown a great understanding of how music can be used to change mood and this will be very useful for moving forward into Film Music. They have also been practising Rossini’s ‘William Tell Overture’ which is a piece that represents the Swiss Folk Hero.

PSHEe

This term, Year 7 students are learning about the drug alcohol. Students will be increasing the learning begun at primary school to ensure they have the knowledge of alcohol’s effects and its status within UK Law as well as developing skills to navigate its use and effects on their lives in their adult futures.

Year 8 students will be focussing on Career Education this term. This will include reflection about their own strengths and areas to improve. There will also be a lesson where a member of the College’s Leadership Team will present to them about this year’s options process and answer any questions they may have. These sessions will be in the run up to the Options Fair on 23rd February. Subsequent lessons will explore the links between subjects and potential career pathways.

Philosophy and Religion

This term in PRE Year 7 have been studying Buddhism. Their focus has been teachings of the Buddha, specifically the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. Students have been exploring the concept of suffering, questioning what ultimately causes humans to suffer and considering whether acceptance is the only true way to end suffering.

Year 8 students have begun looking at the conflict between Israel and Palestine surrounding control of Jerusalem. We began by looking at the history of Jerusalem, before exploring why this place steeped in history is so important to three major religions.