Scarisbrick Hall School Winter Newsletter 2014 | Page 22

Faculty Reports
Science Faculty
Reported by: Miss Brown
The new school year has been a very busy and exciting time in the science faculty.
As well as learning new and interesting things in the classroom from years 5
to 11 we have started a brand new science club E3 for middle school pupils.
This has been a huge success with a very large take up amongst the middle
school pupils. In science club the pupils have had great fun designing,
building and testing rockets, making lava lamps and also performed a magic
trick with a boiled egg! Alex Winstanley and Alice Corder received certificates
for the best rocket design – well done girls!
For the college students we have started an Astronomy GCSE E3 club. This has
been successful and should see a number of pupils not only stretch their
knowledge and interest in the vast topic of Astronomy but also gain an extra GCSE
qualification on top! We have been learning about the origins of our Solar System so
far paying particular interest in Earth, the Moon and the Sun. We plan to take a trip to
Jodrell Bank early next year to see some Astronomy in action.
Moving our thoughts forward, we are very excited to see
how well the new labs are developing and can’t wait to move into our fantastic
state of the art labs next year! Along with this we will be hosting an exciting
science competition and looking forward to National Science week!

ICT
Reported by: Mr Clark
Students in the middle school have started this year looking at the history of ICT and Computing. They have
been encouraged to carry out independent research using the Internet into key milestones in the history of
computers and the people that have helped to deliver these groundbreaking technologies. Most of the
students were gob smacked to learn that the Internet is only 30 years old and could not comprehend how
people survived without iPhones and laptop computers!
They have been challenged to question what they read on the Internet, not to always believe what is posted
and to identify reliable sources of information…
Contrary to popular belief between some of the students, a Haggis is not a furry creature that roams the
Highlands of Scotland and it is not possible to buy Diesel or Petrol from the Internet. Students have collated
their research into very impressive looking timelines, further developing their presentation skills using the
computers.
Middle school have also had the opportunity to design and
create their own computer games using Scratch. They are
building on the skills they learned last year to create some
fantastic results. They have been writing the code to make their
games work including timers, scores and lots of other
interesting features. We will be posting them to the Scratch
website once they are completed so that anyone in the world
can have a go and try and beat the high scores!
College students are busy completing their controlled assessments. Year 11 students are currently devising a
solution to organise a school prom and Year 10 students are creating a database to help organise a school
gardening club and an interactive presentation to advertise it.