
15 minute read
Alternative activities to try during time at home
Make a Mug Make a Difference – Royal Crown Derby Competition
Royal Crown Derby are running a competition to design a mug. There are two categories; under 12s and ages 12-18 (see links below and instructions for entry):
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Why not take the opportunity to submit a design?
Code breaking – Week three Miss Wallhead
Thank you so much to anyone who emailed their maths teacher when they had broken the codes.
Week Three - Substitution ciphers
A substitution cipher is when each letter in the alphabet is represented by a different shape or symbol. To decode the message, you would either need the key that explains what each symbol means or you would use frequency analysis. Frequency analysis is when look at the symbols that appear the most within a code and replace these with the most commonly used letters in the alphabet e.g. e, t and a are the mostly frequently used letters.
There are various different substitution ciphers that have been used. You could even have a go at designing your own. We are going to have a look at the Dancing Men cipher.
The Dancing Men cipher was invented by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and appeared in his story “The adventure of the Dancing Men’’. In this story, Sherlock Holmes discovers that the dancing figures are a secret cipher and cracks the code. The story doesn’t cover all the letters, but the alphabet was completed by Aage Rieck Sorensen, who also added numbers.
Text is written without spaces. Instead, each man at the end of a word holds a flag.
See if you can decode our message, using the key above…
Now try writing your own codes. You could use the Dancing Men cipher or create a new cipher of your own.

Have fun and stay safe.
Film Studies Mr Warrington
Please see the links below to help you with some film choices over the weekend:
Issue 6: http://www.highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk/pdfs/NewsPDFs/TheWatchersIssue6.pdf
Previous issues are also available on our website:
Issue 5: http://www.highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk/pdfs/NewsPDFs/TheWatchersIssue5.pdf Issue 4: http://www.highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk/pdfs/NewsPDFs/TheWatchersIssue4.pdf Issue 3 http://www.highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk/pdfs/NewsPDFs/TheWatchersIssue3.pdf Issue 2: http://www.highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk/pdfs/NewsPDFs/TheWatchersIssue2.pdf Issue 1: http://www.highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk/pdfs/NewsPDFs/TheWatchersIssue1.pdf
Drawing or painting of Mr Marsh
As you may have heard, Emily Garces who is a Highfields parent and a professional artist is doing a portrait painting class on Facebook (search Emily Garces art) on Friday 24 April (today) at 5pm. She has sent the materials below to get you started.
As you know if you are in Y7 or 8 you need parental permission to use Facebook. Enjoy!
Dear students of Highfields
You may be aware that a certain headteacher has been prolifically producing portraits of various staff members - I believe it is only fair that he receives a taste of his own medicine.
I am going to provide you with five different images to help kick-start your creations. These images will make the art of portrait painting accessible to you. Mr Marsh can now be immortalised in the light of your choosing.
1. Line drawing. I’ve done the hard work of drawing Mr Marsh (overleaf). All you have to do is colour him in. Print out and use crayons, acrylics, watercolours, or coloured pens. If you don’t have a printer, colours can be added digitally using an app of your choice. Skilled artists rarely just use one colour when colouring a face - I challenge you to use at least five different colours.
Creating a portrait is your opportunity to portray personality as well as appearance. What do you know about Mr Marsh? How could you add this information to the image? The top of his head has been cropped off the image - could his head be a vase with things coming out of it? Could you draw the rest of his head and add a hinge? What would his brain look like?






2. Freestyle. I’ve given you a coloured image of Mr Marsh with music coming out of his ears. It has no grid to help guide you. How could you recreate this image?
3. Coloured photo with grid. Grids REALLY help when you are drawing. They are a way to draw accurately and to upscale or downscale from your source material. Draw your own grid on paper or canvas. Make sure you start with a square and then divide it into nine smaller squares by dividing the vertical edge and the horizontal edge into thirds. Faces come alive when you add glowing colours to the skin. I’ve told you where to add them so Mr Marsh will look almost real when you’ve painted him. Though beware - that might be a scary thing if you are not up to date with your school work.

4. Photo without colour or grid. Source material is of vital importance when we are creating art. The basic rule is to spend at least twice the time looking at the source material or subject as you spend looking at what you are creating. Without serious observation you will not be able to produce a realistic portrait. Check your work regularly next to this photo.



5. Pale Photo. This method is your best chance of producing a realistic portrait. Print it out (or use an app) to draw and colour over it. All the guidelines are there - you just need to bring the intensity back to the image by using paint, marker pens - or any art materials of your choice. Even collage could be a great way to build up layers over the image.
You don’t just have to draw one portrait. Try them all - or try one method in five different ways. Get your parent/carer to join in. Emily Garces
Speakers for Schools virtual talks
Speakers for Schools are presenting weekly VTalks. Their schedule is updated weekly and talks will be targeted to different age groups (see speakers below for April). To access the talks follow the link below:
https://www.speakersforschools.org/inspiration/vtalks/upcoming-vtalks/
David Morrissey - Actor and Director
DATE: Thursday 23rd April – 2pm AGE GROUP: KS3-5 / S1-6 David will give a short introduction to his career, he will then be interviewed by SFS before answering questions from students!
Baroness Natalie Bennett - Peer & Former Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales
DATE: Friday 24th April – 10am AGE GROUP: KS3 / S1-2 Former Leader of the Green Party, Baroness Natalie Bennett will talk with KS3 and S1-2 students about the environment and what we can do to reduce plastic usage and waste.
Richard Murrell - Lead Director, BBC News
DATE: Monday 27th April – 10am AGE GROUP: KS4-5 / S4-6 Ever wondered what it takes to make news programmes? Richard Murrell will explore with students what a Broadcaster does and what you might expect from the job role.
James Taylor - Keynote Speaker & Creativity Expert
DATE: Monday 27th April – 2pm AGE GROUP: KS3 – S1 – 3 Creativity Expert, James Taylor will introduce to KS3 students the idea that AI will change creativity and how that might look like in the future.
Marco Bertozzi - Vice President for Europe, Spotify
DATE: Tuesday 28th April – 10am AGE GROUP: KS4 – S4-6 Marco will be interviewed by SFS and answer questions submitted by students on topics ranging from creating your CV, getting your foot in the door for work experience or a job, developing your personal brand and practical tips on how to get started with preparing your social channels for career success.
Peter Rosengard - Life Insurance Salesman and Comedy Store Founder
DATE: Wednesday 29th April – 10am AGE GROUP: KS3 / S1 – 3 Peter Rosengard has had an eclectic career. In this Vtalk, Peter will share with students the way he responds to the lockdown; how to deal with your fears, how you can achieve and discover new things whilst staying at home.
Zaki Cooper - Director of Philanthropy and Communications, Dorfman Family Office
DATE: Wednesday 29th April – 2pm AGE GROUP: KS4 / S4 – 6 Zaki Cooper will explore with students how we can build a more cohesive UK by building positive relationships between religions.
Penguin Talks - How to boss your mood
Chloe Brotheridge, Clinical Hypnotherapist, author of The Anxiety Solution and & Sara Milne Rowe, Performance Coach, founder of Coaching Impact and author of The SHED Method DATE: Thursday 30th April – 10am AGE GROUP: KS4 & 5 / S4 – 6 Chloe and Sara will kick-off the Virtual Penguin Talks series by sharing their expertise and practical tips for managing anxiety and taking control of your mood during these uncertain times. Students will have the opportunity to ask questions and receive a free audiobook download of The Anxiety Solution and The SHED Method.
DR NIRA CHAMBERLAIN - President, IMA & Visiting Fellow, Loughborough University Mathematical Sciences Department
DATE: Thursday 30th April – 2pm AGE GROUP: KS4 & A-Level STEM students / S4 – 6
What is the point of mathematics?
In this talk, Dr Nira Chamberlain will show how and why he became a mathematician. This includes his journey from an Inner-city school to winning the title World’s Most Interesting Mathematician 2018 and becoming one of the UK’s Top 100 Scientists. Also in this talk, Dr Chamberlain will demonstrate how he has applied his mathematics to real world crisis’s, from saving Aston Villa to COVID-19!
Jonty Bloom - Freelance Journalist
DATE: Friday 1st May – 10am AGE GROUP: KS4 / S4 – 6 In this session Jonty will share insights into what qualifications and other qualities are needed in the world of work. What can help you stand in good stead for the future and what the future world of work might look like.
See the Speakers for Schools website for the full list of VTalks from May onwards.
Rural Derbyshire School Sports Partnership
Activity Challenges: Week 3
Week day
Monday Physical Activity
Dance like no one is watching! Play your favourite song and practice your dance moves!
Physical Literacy
When practising your spellings, create an active forfeit for each wrong answer.
Tuesday Complete one of the challenges on the link to Youth Sport Trust 60-second-physicalactivity-challenges Write a short story or poem and act it out!
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Complete the following workout: (Repeat 5 times and have 30 seconds rest between each activity) 1. 30 seconds of Star
Jumps 2. 30 seconds of wall sits 3. 30 seconds of planking 30 seconds of running on the spot Using a ball or teddy, see how many times you can pass the ball through your legs in a figure of 8 pattern in 60 seconds. Complete an online boxercise workout. Boxercise When reading a book, choose a common word or piece of punctuation at the start. Every time you see your word/punctuation make a tally. At the end, count how many times it came up and be active for that length of time.
Solve our sports anagrams: 1. Formation ball ace 2. Scams tying 3. Get win if light
Try out one of the cross curricular challenges from the video below: Challenges
Physical Numeracy Creative
Using a racket and a ball Or frying pan and socks, try and hit the ball up as many times as possible without dropping the ball. Complete the times table of your score i.e. if you got 7, do your 7 times table. Create a maths scavenger hunt. Start with a simple question i.e. 3 x 3. The answer is 9 – try and find 9 matching objects (Socks, spoons, teddies) How many steps does it take to get from your bedroom to your kitchen? If there are roughly 2000 steps in a mile, how many times would you need to walk from your bedroom to the kitchen to complete a mile? Make a target in a room in your house. Using a scrunched-up piece of paper, see how many throws it takes you to reach the target. Try starting from different rooms.
Create a challenge to encourage your whole family to stay active.
Draw a picture of yourself playing your favourite sport.
Try out one of the cross curricular challenges from the video below: Challenge Create a game that improves your balance.
Hold your left foot in your hand and balance on your right leg for as long as possible. Repeat on the other leg. Try and find your average balance time. Try and go the whole day without saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’. If you say either word do 10x star jumps, sit ups, push ups etc. (Can your whole family go the whole day?)
Remember, adults need to stay active as well! Challenge your parents/carers to complete the challenges with you!
Sports activity challenges: Week 1 - Golf
The Rural Derbyshire School Sport Partnership have been working with Active Derbyshire on virtual challenges. As well as being great fun to complete, there are prizes to be won for individuals and schools who participate.
Competition entries should be sent directly to Active Derbyshire (not to school or Rural Derbyshire School Sports Partnership).
The first sport specific challenges can be accessed on the link below. It focusses on golf, but before you sigh thinking you haven’t got access to a set of clubs, you really don't need them. All manner of substitutes can be used for the challenges involved!
http://www.highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk/pdfs/NewsPDFs/DerbyshireSchoolGames.pdf
The resource has simple descriptions and images of all the challenges, a brief history of the sport, some research tasks as well as literacy and numeracy; along with links to Governing Body of sport websites for additional information. Over the coming weeks there will be nine further challenges, each focussing on a different sport.


TAKE PART

Are you up for the 2.6 Challenge?
Coronavirus has changed all our lives.
We've missed out on fun events, seeing friends and family and we're spending more time at home than many of us would like. It's also had an especially large impact on the UK's charities, whose work is as vital as ever in this difficult time.
The Covid-19 pandemic has led to the cancellation of thousands of fundraising events and the loss of billions in income. To help them to continue to help people during this period, the 2.6 Challenge will launch this Sunday – the 26th of April.
Sunday should have been the date of the 40th London Marathon, the world's biggest one-day annual fundraising event, which raised £66.4 million for charities in 2019.
The 2.6 Challenge can be anything that works for you. You can run or walk 2.6 miles, 2.6km or for 26 minutes. You can do it in your home, or garden if you have one. For instance, you could go up and down the stairs 26 times, do a 26-minute exercise class or get 26 people on a video call and do a 26-minute workout – anything you like.
We'd love Be Inspired subscribers to get involved and take part in a physical activity based around the numbers 2.6 or 26. You can fundraise via this Virgin Money Giving page.
The challenge will last for a week and is open to anyone of any age – the only requirement is that the activity must follow the government guidelines on exercise and social distancing, so remember to stay local.
GET INVOLVED
British Red Cross Coronavirus Activities We thought that you may be interested in the following alternative learning activities for students to complete regarding resilience and kindness. This is totally voluntary and not part of the work students are expected to complete.

Coronavirus Activities

We know that the coronavirus has put schools under immense pressure and these are uncertain times for us all. To help we’ve created a special coronavirus edition of Newsthink. As schools are now closed (except for vulnerable pupils or children of critical key workers) we’d encourage you to share this resource with parents and students so they can learn online. Or alternatively you can create a safe forum for discussion with those remaining in school. The quick activities included in this new teaching resource will help develop young people’s resilience and explore acts of kindness within the community. Using photos, facts and real-life scenarios 11 to 18-year-olds will consider how they could respond to different situations and the value kindness can play at this difficult time.
Learning objectives
Understand what both the coronavirus and a pandemic are. Gain knowledge and understanding of expert advice on health and safety. Explore the phenomenon of ‘misinformation’: understand why fact checking is so important and encourage critical thinking in difficult situations. Explore the meaning of kindness, and how they can start developing this in their own lives We know the education community is doing amazing things to support each other and we’d like to thank you for using and sharing our resources. We have a wide range of other free resources on our website to help build resilience which you can explore here.