Message from the Head of Secondary - 16 April 2020

Dear Parents

Distance Learning has restarted after the break with remarkable smoothness.

Year 11 and Year 8 had Assemblies this week and we plan to make these a fortnightly feature. Year 8 were particularly keen to know that they would move to Year 9 in due course! It was good to reassure them that the current situation is a different way to deal with normal school business and that their progression will not be affected. Around 90% of the world's students are currently not at school.

Now that Pearson Edexcel and the UK authorities have announced the procedure for Year 11 GCSE awards we can move forward with preparing for those. Our priority is ensuring that the Year 11s are ready for the transition to A-levels and that their learning continues. Year 11 are presently engaged in online Aurals in French, Spanish, and Arabic and will have a series of assessments in the middle of May.

Induction for Year 12 and A-levels will go ahead in June. We are also looking at the potential for setting targets and assessing students in other years later this term. The shape and scale of these depend on how the present situation develops over the medium term.

It is very heartening, and to the credit of our students and parents, that engagement with eLearning remains stubbornly high. Year 10 and 11, in particular, have shown resilience and application with engagement totals frequently reaching 100%. We continue to encourage our students to take breaks from the screen and to help at home, engage in some physical activity and maintain their routine. We are all looking forward to the day when we can be back together again.

Kind regards.

Mr. Ken Haggerty

Head of Secondary

A giant well done to all students and parents who have been trying their best to complete their classwork and also any additional work that has been set. I have received feedback from some parents to say that they are finding it hard to keep up with all of the work. Please don’t feel under pressure to complete all work set – especially with the supplementary work from the SEND and EAL Team – little and often is the best way forward. Also, remember that your child needs to have regular breaks throughout the day and at the weekends. All of the Inclusion Team are contactable through our online portals if you have any questions or concerns. You can also contact me at Michael.peacock@oryxschool.qa.

Below are 5 tips to help you when you are supporting your child at home with their schoolwork:

1. Set up a work-friendly area. Make sure children have a well-lit place to complete their work. If possible, keep supplies — paper, pencils, glue, scissors — within reach.
2. Keep distractions to a minimum. This means no TV, loud music, or phone calls. (Occasionally though, a phone call to a classmate about an assignment can be helpful.)
3. Be a motivator and monitor. Ask about assignments, quizzes, and tests. Give encouragement, check completed work, and make yourself available for questions and concerns.
4. Praise their work and efforts. Celebrate their successes and efforts, and display particular work around the house to show you are proud of their achievements.
5. If there are continuing problems with work, get help. Talk about it with your child's teacher – they’re always here to help.

Please remember, if your child has any worries, concerns or anxieties and would like to talk to someone at school please reiterate to them that they can contact our school counsellor, Miss Bunmi, at oluwabunmi.tobun@oryxschool.qa. She’s always available to listen and provide reassurance.

It was a wonderful week and a great start for our students for the third term in Arabic. They learned new skills in language such as reading Arabic poetry and were acquainted with new fields in Islamic education in the lessons of interpretation and explanation of the Holy Quran.

In Qatari history, the students learned about the history of civilizations within the country.

Year 7: Will continue their research and analysis of Artwork by Elizabeth Murray selecting shapes from her work and enlarging them. These will enable them to develop their own abstract shapes towards the end of April - where we will be working collaboratively to create a piece of work.

Year 8: Will continue to develop their abstract self-portrait adding patterns and colours. Once completed they will begin a realistic self-portrait drawing.

Year 9: Students are working on abstract photograph collages in response to Marshall Brown.

Year 10: Art students will begin developing further paint skills in using acrylic paint as well as develop their abstract painting in response to Georgia O'Keeffe.

Year 11: Students are selecting appropriate work to resolve their components

Year 10: Students will continue studying Production. Students will learn all about Mass and Niche production and when they're used within Business.

Year 11: Students will be revising Topic 3 – finance and practise answering 9-marker questions using past exam papers.

Year 7: Students will learn what Hexadecimals are and how to convert Hexadecimal into Binary.

Year 8: Students will learn how to add binary numbers and then what an overflow is and how this affects the computer system.

Year 9: Students will learn all about Subroutines within programming. They will first learn about their use and how to use subroutines and then move onto calling subroutines.

Year 10: Students will learn about Artificial Intelligence. They will then explore the aspects of AI taking into account characteristics, uses and ethical issues.

Year 11: Students will complete a range of challenges in programming and we will go through different ways a program can be improved.

Year 7: In virtual learning lessons students will be set a new project. They will be asked to design and make their own board games. They will be required to develop what the game will look like, how it will be played and the rules. Instructions for pupils to follow will be shared with them each week. Next week students will begin to research existing products and analyse who their target user/market would be (children, families, teenagers).

Year 8: Students will be following a series of tutorials about 3D printing and Computer-Aided Design. Via online videos and presentations, students will learn how to create 3D products using different computer software (tinkercad, onshape, freecad). Students can use a tablet, phone or laptop for their learning.

Year 9: Students will begin the ‘Product in a Tin’ unit of work. The concept is that students will be challenged to design a product to fit into a tubular tin that is the same size as a 40g Pringles snack tin or a 60g Nescafe Azera coffee tin. Students will be set activities to complete each week from designing to creating prototypes. We will begin by exploring possible solutions and existing products as inspiration for their designs.

Year10: Students will continue to practice and develop their drawing, sketching and presentation skills. Following on from the work this week students will begin to use a range of techniques to produce design concepts for a desktop storage unit. They will use the crating techniques, construction lines and rendering styles learned this week to develop a range of creative ideas.

Year 11: Students will continue to work on the Design and Technology theory content and revision materials in preparation for the assessment week. The last theory section students will be studying will be an in-depth look at timers; including construction techniques, manufacture, tools, and machinery used.

Year 7: Have started a Shakespeare Summer Project. They will be doing a variety of home activities such as interpreting a script for a performance as an actor, director and designer, developing their scriptwriting skills, editing and formatting parts of a script, and recording monologues. All of the activities are based around the play A Midsummer's Night Dream.

Year 8: are working on a Live Theatre Project. They will be using the musical Aladdin as their inspiration. They will work as a performer and/or a set and costume designer to complete a variety of tasks around the production. The students will develop an appreciation of live theatre and gain knowledge on the performance and design elements that make a production successful for an audience.

Year 9: Will complete a theatre evaluation after watching a digital theatre performance to develop their critical writing skills. They will then be researching the theatre practitioner Bertolt Brecht and be exploring some of his theories in Epic Theatre. This will contrast against last term's Naturalism style of performance.

Year 11: Have completed all their practical GCSE work and are now revising for their written paper and practising past papers.

As the philosopher Jagger once said, “you can’t always get what you want”. Whilst we all want to be getting back to school, we are in this strange limbo. Nevertheless, the education does not stop. Our students will get the education they need.

With Term 3, the English department is now concentrating on poetry. Our budding wordsmiths will be looking at a variety of poems from a broad spectrum of cultures. This is Mr. McAuley’s favourite topic to teach. You will often find him regaling other members of the English department with his scintillating prose. He will make full, expansive use of alliteration, imagery, metaphors, and similes. Try and stop him. Please try!

On other news, The Cultural Village Foundation (Katara) has launched, through its social media channels, writing competitions on people’s experience working and studying at home amid global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The theme is “Studying From Home”. This competition is open to students from 10 to 17 years old. The participants must send a piece in English with maximum 1,500 words about their actual study-at-home experiences during the coronavirus pandemic. Participants should send their entries along with their name, age, grade, name of the school, and nationality in addition to parents’ contact details to ec2020@kataraph.comnot later than April 20.

Fantastic cash prizes of:

1^st prize: 10,000QR

2^nd prize: 7000QR

3^rd prize: 5000QR

What are you waiting for kids?

For the remainder of this term:

Year 7: are being introduced to the poetry of Transitions.

Year 8: are beginning to study how poetry reflects their Culture.

Year 9: are starting their study of poetry on the theme of Conflict.

Year 7: Learn about the history of the African continent

Year 8: Learn about the physical features of Russia

Year 9-1: Learn about the history of the Asian continent

9-2/9-3: Learn about the factors that affect biomes

Year 10: Learn about the threats to the Sand dune ecosystem and the formation of salt marshes

Year 11: Continue to address any gaps in their knowledge

Year 7: Explore how and why the British Empire began.

Year 8: Describe what it was like to live in an industrial town. Use your contextual knowledge to analyse the message of a cartoon.

Year 9: Understand the reasons why Germany intervened in North Africa. Understand the impact of German intervention on its relationship with France. Understand the significance if the Moroccan crises for the relations between the two powers.

Year 10: Lesson 1

• Understand the steps taken by the USSR to control Eastern Europe.
• Understand why the USSR took these steps.
• Understand the American point of view of the USSR's actions.

Year 10: Lesson 2

• Understand how the USSR perceived the threat posed by the USA after World War 2.
• Understand how the USA perceived the threat posed by the USSR after World War 2.

Year 11: Continue to address any gaps in their knowledge.

Year 7 Lesson 1: LCM and HCF 11e – pg216

• Recognise and use the highest common factor and lowest common multiple (L5).
• Simplify fractions by cancelling all common factors (L5).
• Addition and subtraction problems 11e – pg200.
• Multiplication and division problems 11f – pg202.
• Calculation methods 11g – pg204
• Kerboodle Online Assessments.

Year 7 Lesson 2: Revision 11a-e (Factors and Multiples).

Year 7 Lesson 3: Kerboodle Online Assessments.

Year 8 Lesson 1:

• Use the order of operations, including brackets, with more complex calculations (L5).
• Order of operations 11d – pg198.

Year 8 Lesson 2: Use efficient written methods to add, subtract, multiply and divide integers and decimals of any size.

Year 8 Lesson 3: Calculate accurately, selecting mental methods or calculating devices as appropriate (L5).

Year 9 Lesson 1: Divide a quantity in a given ratio or ratios.

Year 9 Lesson 2: Simplify ratios in the 1: n and compare ratios.

Year 9 Lesson 3: Find the total amount and other quantities using the given quantity and ratio.

Year 10 Lesson 1: To be able to solve quadratic equations by factorising and complete the square for quadratic expressions.

Year 10 Lesson 2: Solve quadratic equations by completing the square.

Year 10 Lesson 3: Solve quadratic equations by completing the square.

Year 11: Practising Exam questions from Past paper Booklet and revising.

Spanish

Year 7: Will be studying their past-times.

Year 8: Will be writing about their daily routine.

Year 9: Will write their opinions on Fair Trade commerce.

Year 10: Will be writing about Spanish Festivals.

Year 11: Will be doing important speaking work in Spanish.

French

Year 7: Will be studying their past-times and the weather

Year 8: Will be exploring French regions and the region they live in

Year 9: Will imagining what their future job will be

Year 10: Will be describing the house of their dreams

Year 11: Will be doing important speaking work in French

Year 7-9 :

• Students are taking their next steps in developing their Music Personal Projects by researching the focus choices that they have made over the past week.
• Composition work leading toward completion of the assessment

Year 11:

• Composition work leading toward completion of the assessment

This week in secondary PE students have been completing the ladder Fitness challenge where they have been trying to beat Miss Fitzgerald's score of level 15, some great scores and video evidence has been posted back to Mr. Parmar and Miss Fitzgerald.

Our Year 10 and 11 GCSE PE students have been keeping busy by completing home workout challenges and taking part in online Kahoot quizzes testing their Theory knowledge on the different exam components.

We are extremely pleased with how hard everyone has been working and we look forward to seeing more of you in action next week.

Keep it up, athletes!

Year 7:

• Set 1 - Atoms and Elements, we will be looking at the structure of the atom and exploring its subatomic particles.
• Set 2 - Sound and Ecosystems, we will be covering various topics including how sound is propagated, transmitted and it is properties
• Set 3 - Atoms and Elements, we will be looking at the structure of the atom and exploring its subatomic particles.
• Set 4 - Atoms and Elements, we will be looking at the structure of the atom and exploring its subatomic particles.

Year 8 All: Unicellular organisms: we will be exploring various unicellular organisms, including the protoctists and viruses.

Year 9:

• Set 1 - Structure and Function: we will be looking at the first section of IGCSE biology, covering cells and cellular structures
• Set 2 - Structure and Function: we will be looking at the first section of IGCSE biology, covering cells and cellular structures
• Set 3 - Mass and weight: we will be looking at the differences between mass and weight

Year 10:

• Set C & E Biology - Plant transport
• Chemistry - Extraction of metals We will be looking at the reactivity of metals affect how they are found, mined and extracted in nature
• Physics Set C - Energy, power and heat transfer: We will be covering the connections between energy and power and how heat is transfer in nature
• Physics Set E -We will be studying Density and how it is related to pressure in matter.

Year 11: We will be looking at the universe and stars, the final topic in the course.