To take advantage of the long days and warmer weather, a number of students are getting involved in a vegetable growing competition as a way of learning about plants. Each of the pupils involved had planted (and in most cases, named) their own radish seed.

Over the next four weeks, as well as nurturing their young seedlings, the girls will learn about the life cycle of plants, the importance of fertiliser for growth, agriculture and the factors that affect photosynthesis. By mid-July, we should have trays full of radishes ready to be harvested.

Once harvested, the girls will have the chance to enter their potentially prize-winning root into the competition. There are a number of categories, including ‘heaviest radish’, ‘longest radish’, ‘most identical pair’ and, at the request of my class, ‘most glamorous radish! Hopefully this project will help the students understand more about the incredible plants that they see everyday and have a greater appreciation of where some of our food comes from.

Mr Coogan

Science Department

Year 8 have been learning about thermal conductivity as part of one of the 10 big ideas that is ‘Energy’. They have recently spent several lessons learning about how thermal energy is transferred by conduction, convection and radiation. They also completed an investigation on what makes a good thermal insulator and why. To take this one step further, students were asked to design a new school uniform to reduce thermal energy transfer and keep them warm in colder weather. With us still practicing good hand hygiene, ventilating classrooms by opening windows and doors and with a recent vote on the possibility of a new school fleece in the next academic year, this was a great opportunity to use the science that students have learned to try and come up with a practical solution to keep warm. Students came up with some interesting designs. I was most impressed with Amelia Y. She did some research into good insulators and materials that are used in outdoor wear and came up with an excellent design at home with superb detail. She has been awarded with a Head’s Commendation for this work. Not only is her design creative and practical, but well researched.

Mrs R Cahill

Science Department