Blog Author: S Hinkley

Part of our literacy sessions at SKS involve learning and revising subject-specific spellings.  This week the focus was DT and year 9 worked in teams to compete for the most correct spellings.  Well done year 9.

Year 8 have been busy translating a scene from Romeo and Juliet between Capulet (Juliet's father) and Juliet.  Translating Shakespearean language is a challenging skill, but the students were able to give it a good go and they hopefully now understand the relationship between these characters…

Year 7 have been learning to identify instruments of the orchestra. They used images of instruments around the music room to help them, and they came up with this way of working in the process! Well done year 7!

Year 7 have blown me away today with their composition skills. We have been learning about different musical forms including binary, ternary and rondo.  Today's final task of the unit involved learning the Pentatonic Rondo (using 5 notes of the scale) and composing a section B in response to it. …

Year 9 have been working on their free music compositions and many students have chosen to use Band Lab to produce their music.  There has been everything from video game music, to science fiction film music.  Keep up the creative work year 9.

Wow! What a creative week we have had in the English department! As part of National Storytelling Week, our Key Stage 3 students have been writing their own lyrics and songs about issues that are important to them.  The work they have produced has been phenomenal and Miss Sutterby and I are very…

Year 10 have blown me away with their GCSE poetry analysis this week.  They have been comparing Percy Shelley's 'Ozymandias' with William Blake's 'London'; both Romantic poets, and both giving strong messages about the abuse of power.  Keep up the great work year…

We have been exploring solos and harmonies in choir this week.  Danika has been sharing her expertise from her GCSE singing lessons with Mr Waldock.  The choir are enjoying learning some new songs in preparation for our next performance.  

Manga and Graphic Novel club is up and running in the library on a Friday lunchtime.  Our local Alston Librarian Chloe Hartley is running the club.  In the coming weeks, members of the club will be reading a variety of graphic novels including manga and comics.  They will be reading, discussing…

Year 9 have begun their song writing unit.  They have been writing their own song lyrics to music.  Some students are composing Science-fiction film music and others are composing pop songs.  They are using Garageband, BandLab and MuseScore to make their creations.  We look forward to hearing…

Year 7 have been working in pairs to compose their own question and answer phrases on the glockenspiels. They are learning to notate music which is a brilliant skill! Well done year 7.

This morning, some of our budding song writers in year 9 and 10 took part in an online composition workshop with a professional musician. They are writing a song about equality which will be performed next year. Watch this space!