January 2022 - Penwortham Girls' High School

Cell-a-bration!

Posted on January 31, 2022January 31, 2022 by Michelle Murray

Year 7 have been learning about how living organisms are organised as one of the ten big ideas of science called Organisms. Part of this unit is about cells. These are the building block of living organisms and an important key concept in Biology. Each year, students are invited to make models of cells to further their understanding of them. This is always a popular homework task, usually resulting in all sorts of wonderful designs and tasty creations.

This year as a department, we decided to launch this as a competition. Students had to design and make a model cell using any material. They also had to label the cell. They had the choice of an animal and plant cell or any of the specialised cells that they have been studying.

The entries were most impressive with some made of balloons, wood, fabric, clay, fruit and cake, just to name a few. Judging the competition was extremely difficult due to the high standard of entries. Winners were chosen out of each science class and three overall winners chosen.

The science department would like to day a big thank you for all the entries. Here are all the class winners and the three overall winners:

1^st place Unaysah P

2^ndplace Sania S

3^rd place Hadia M

Mr McVey’s Mysterious Maths – January 2022

Posted on January 28, 2022January 28, 2022 by Michelle Murray

Happy New Year! Well done to those who completed the ‘Christmaths’ puzzles last month.

Here is another round of mathematical teasers for you to get your teeth into.

As ever, there will be a highly sought-after Head’s Breakfast for students who email or bring me a correct written solution, complete with explanations to justify their answers.

Good luck!

Puzzle 1 – Full Breakfast!

Out of 100 people surveyed, 86 had an egg for breakfast, 75 had bacon, 62 had toast, and 82 had coffee. How many people, at least, must have had all four items?

Puzzle 2 – Triangular torture!

What number should replace the question mark?

Puzzle 3 – Sequence of doom!

What number should replace the question mark?

Puzzle 4 – Property poser!

Erica’s house is 10^th from one end of the street and sixth from the other end. How many houses are there in the street?

Mr McVey, Mathematics Department

Monster Quiz

Posted on January 28, 2022 by Michelle Murray

Students across all years have been getting competitive in the Maths Department by growing and hatching monsters! The staff have been creating fun quizzes for end of topic competitions and students play the quizzes on the iPads or laptops. Students are put into teams and have to answer questions correctly to help feed and hatch their monster, which they see develop on the board. Winning teams are the most accurate, not necessarily the fastest team to create their monsters! It has been well received amongst the KS3 classes:

‘Such a fun way to test our maths and play games.’ Y8 student.

‘I love seeing the monsters hatch on the big screen as I answer questions right.’ Y7 student.

‘It’s fun not knowing which team you will be in and working together with my friends to grow the eggs.’ Y7 student.

Mathematics staff have also been using Blooket and Kahoot in lessons which gets a very competitive atmosphere in class. The year 10s have been so keen to answer the maths questions correctly (so they can ‘steal points’ off each other!)

Mrs Sweeney
Curriculum Leader for Mathematics

Hegarty Heroes

Posted on January 28, 2022 by Michelle Murray

With the addition of Hegarty Maths to the Maths department, we are handing out rewards to those showing maximum effort into furthering their understanding. Below are the top 3 students for each year!

Year 7

Name	Number of questions completed
Amber S	1513
Lucie J	1027
Maisie B	1006

Year 8

Name	Number of questions completed
Chloe W	2700
Eden F	2371
Emerson W	1401

Year 9

Name	Number of questions completed
Victoria K	3129
Lojaina A	2332
Jennifer K	1193

Year 10

Name	Number of questions completed
Amirah P	1221
Olivia S	708
Isla S	692

Year 11

Name	Number of questions completed
Emma A	1099
Lily S	1088
Khadija B	1063

Mr Cafferkey

Maths department

Lancaster University School of Mathematics (LUSOM) Lectures

Posted on January 28, 2022 by Michelle Murray

As part of the Mathematics Department’s continuing links with the Lancaster University School of Mathematics (LUSOM), students from years 7, 8 and 9 have been invited to attend a guest lecture on February 9th 2022 which will be presented by Emeritus Professor from Lancaster University called Richard Eglese.

Professor Richard Eglese will be delivering a lecture on using Mathematics to make better decisions, specifically regarding opportunities in Operational Research. The talk will introduce what is meant by Operational Research and related terms, such as Analytics. Examples will be given of the sorts of problems that are tackled in Operational Research and the types of organisation that can provide careers within this area. Professor Richard Eglese studied Pure Maths, Applied Maths and Physics at A level and went on to read Mathematics at Cambridge University.

The talk is aimed at all KS3 students to help understand the various opportunities that continuing to study Maths can bring.

This is an online talk. To attend, please register your details by following below link:

https://go.cardinalnewman.ac.uk/form/lusomtalkmath

Mr Cheal

Mathematics Department

Year 7 Hereward the Wake Project

Posted on January 28, 2022January 28, 2022 by Michelle Murray

As part of their study of William I’s conquest of England in 1066, year 7 students have been learning about Anglo-Saxon resistance led by legendary rebel Hereward the Wake. In lessons students discovered the causes of Hereward’s rebellion against William in 1070 and the exciting story of how he was eventually betrayed by monks from a local monastery, surrounded by Norman knights and killed in dramatic fashion in the Fens. Students were given the homework task to create models, poems and artwork representing Hereward’s epic resistance against William the Conqueror. Here is a selection of some of the best submissions, including a Hereward the Wake.

Mr Herbert, Curriculum Leader for History

Holocaust Memorial Day, Wednesday 26th January

Posted on January 28, 2022 by Michelle Murray

Holocaust education features significantly in the history curriculum at PGHS. Students in Year 9 are currently studying in depth at how and why the holocaust happened, and as part of their unit on Germany 1919-1991, Year 11 students study the topic as part of their GCSE studies. Each year, the Holocaust Educational Trust host a live webcast with a survivor on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

This year, Eva Clarke gave a fascinating and articulate testimony of her experiences of the holocaust and how her family had been brutally persecuted by the Nazi regime. Eva was born at Mauthausen concentration camp at the end of the war and only survived due to the liberation of the camp by the US army in April 1945. If you would like to hear Eva Clarke speak about her experiences during the Holocaust, follow the link to her full Oxford Union address in 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3HmeidS8Z4

Assemblies this week have been on the theme of Holocaust education and remembrance, with students learning the story of the evacuation of 300 Jewish children from Eastern Europe to Windermere in 1945. The children were survivors of many camps and had been tragically orphaned during the war. They were flown to Britain to start a new life after the war, and spent their first few months in the Lake District. If you would like to know more about this miraculous story, you can watch a fascinating BBC documentary here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000dt7g

Alternatively, there was a dramatisation of the experiences of the Windermere children released in 2020: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10370380/.

Mr Herbert, Curriculum Leader for History

Geography News

Posted on January 25, 2022January 25, 2022 by Michelle Murray

Hi everyone,

A new year and a new term in the Geography Department with all lower school years moving onto new areas of study.

Year 7 will shortly be using their knowledge on the weather to investigate hurricanes, with work on what an extra-tropical storm hitting Preston might be like. This will take the form of a news report, so will bring in creative writing skills.

Year 8 are working on development. This involves categorising countries into developing, emerging and developed using development indicators, before a study of Kenya and a look at aid.

Year 9 are looking at marine environments, which involves work on why the coast is crowded, world trade by sea routes and the destruction of marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs.

The Geography Libraries

A reminder that the Geography Department have both a small physical and a virtual library that students can access to read further around the subject they are studying.

Outside Room 39, students can find books on maps, oceans, travel, mountains and many more. Have a look, find something you fancy and bring the book to Mr Bowles to sign out. New books have been added recently, all related to recent topics of study.

In the SharePoint of their school Office 365 account, students will find the Geography Virtual Library (once in SharePoint, you can search for it).

Here, students will see separate pages for each year group containing suggested reading for those keen and interested Geographers. Clicking on a book cover will give you a sample of the book, usually about 20-30 pages, and if you like it, you can track it down on Amazon, second hand on eBay or at your local bookshop.

Fantasy Treasure Maps

One of the highlights of the year! Students in year 7 combined their range of cartography skills into awesome treasure maps. I picked the map produced by Evie F, which not only demonstrated highly realistic contour patterns, but also had an accompanying 3d model which very closely matched the map – geotastic! Evie’s prize was the Ordnance Survey Tease Hunt book, which you can find listed in the Geography Virtual Library on the SharePoint. Below are some pictures of my favourites and of Evie with her winning map.

Mr Bowles, Curriculum Leader for Geography

Phonics in Year 7

Posted on January 25, 2022 by Michelle Murray

As part of our strategy to support student recovery from school lockdowns, the English department is delivering a phonics programme to every student in Year 7.

Phonics isn’t just for Primary school children – it is something that we all use with a new or unfamiliar word. Phonics is the skill of breaking down (or segmenting) a word into its parts, then blending them together. Everybody uses this in their reading, writing and spelling when faced with new jargon or vocabulary. Many adults do this automatically so don’t realise that they are doing it!

Extensive research has shown that even fluent readers will benefit from phonics refreshers to ensure that their knowledge of the building blocks of vocabulary is secure.

Currently, we are working on providing a series of videos on the English department’s area of the website. Our intention is to provide parents with the help they need to support their daughters at home.

We’ll update you with more news when this is available.

Mrs Woodhouse, English Department

Read for Good

Posted on January 24, 2022January 24, 2022 by Michelle Murray

Last term, our Key Stage 3 students took part in Readathon. This is a national initiative with two fantastic aims: to improve children’s engagement in reading for pleasure and raising money for worthwhile causes. This year, the money goes to funding children’s wards on hospitals to enable them to provide reading books and live storytelling sessions for children in hospital. If you wish to know more about Read for Good, this is their website: https://readforgood.org/

During our Festival of Literature and Language, students spent a week beginning their English lessons with private reading and using their homework time to read for pleasure and collect sponsor money. Some individual students raised over £30 each! We are proud to announce that this initiative raised £895.37 for the Read for Good charity, and we also receive book vouchers for our school library. A big thank you to all students and their parents who supported Readathon in 2021.

Mrs McKeown
English Department