September 2024 - Penwortham Girls' High School

Careers Aspirations Evening

Posted on September 30, 2024 by Michelle Murray

We are excited to announce our upcoming Careers Aspirations Evening on 9th October, from 4:00pm to 7:00pm. The event will feature a diverse range of professions, industries, and colleges, offering our students valuable insights into various career paths. This evening is designed to inspire and support students in making informed decisions about their future careers.

Schedule:

Year 9 students: 4:00 – 5:00 pm
Year 10 students: 5:10 – 6:00 pm
Year 11 students: 6:00 – 7:00 pm

Parents and carers are welcome to attend. While we recommend these time slots as a guide for our exhibitors, we understand that schedules may vary. If you are unable to attend during your allocated time, feel free to join us at any time throughout the evening.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Shaheen Gul

Careers Consultant

Annual Sports, Clubs and Societies Fair

Posted on September 30, 2024September 30, 2024 by Michelle Murray

Last week, we hosted our annual Sports, Clubs, and Societies Fair to showcase the wide range of opportunities available for your daughters during lunch and after school. With over 20 clubs on offer, there’s something for everyone! Whether your child enjoys sports, arts, science or something in between, we hope they found something exciting to join. Have your daughters signed up yet? Don’t forget, early lunch passes are available for those in clubs that require extra time—simply have them speak to the club leader during break. Additionally, last week’s assembly focused on ‘Participation and Curiosity’, where I highlighted the importance of getting involved in school activities. The Student Leadership Team also explained how students can earn rewards for their commitment and engagement. We look forward to seeing students dive into their chosen clubs!

Mrs Honeyman

Associate Assistant Headteacher

History Haiku Competition

Posted on September 30, 2024 by Michelle Murray

The History Department are running the annual History Haiku competition during the Languages and Literature Festival in October. Last year, there were some fantastic entries on a diverse range of topics, including the events of 1066, the reign of the Tudors, the sinking of the Titanic and the First and Second World Wars. Here are some examples of previous entries:

They are changing us

Normans forcing us to build

Their castles of wood

Waiting in the lines

Trapped by the German forces

But then came the boats

Mr Herbert

Curriculum Leader for History

Black History Month

Posted on September 30, 2024 by Michelle Murray

Black History Month takes place during the month of October each year. This year’s theme is ‘Reclaiming Narratives’. Cherron Inko-Tariah MBE from Black History Month UK describes the theme: “In today’s world, stories are powerful tools that shape how we understand our past, present, and future. For too long, the history of Black communities has been told through lenses that often misrepresent, oversimplify, or entirely overlook the rich and diverse experiences of those who lived it but 2024 is set to be a transformative year.”

If you would like to know more about Black History Month, visit: www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk.

Other resources can be found in our History Department Library. An excellent book is ‘Diver’s Daughter’ by Patrice Lawrence.

BBC iPlayer:

Black and British a Forgotten History: Black and British: A Forgotten History – BBC iPlayer

Our Black History Heroes: Our Black History Heroes – BBC iPlayer

Horrible Histories – Series 9: Black British History Horrible Histories – Series 9: 1. British Black History – BBC iPlayer

Lots more can be found on the BBC Teach Website – Black History Month 2024 resources – BBC Teach

Mr Herbert

Curriculum Leader for History

History Department Library

Posted on September 30, 2024September 30, 2024 by Michelle Murray

The History Department Library has lots of historic fiction and non-fiction for you to borrow. Titles include winners and nominees from the Historical Association’s ‘Young Quills’ awards, such as ‘Race to the Frozen North’ by Catherine Johnson; a story of African American explorer, Matthew Henson and ‘Sky Chasers’ by Emma Carroll which is a story about the flight of the first hot air balloon in Paris. Feel free to browse the titles in the library and if you spot one that you would like to borrow, please see Mr Herbert or Mr Bretherton.

Mr Herbert

Curriculum Leader for History

Year 8 and 9 Ancient Rome Club

Posted on September 30, 2024September 30, 2024 by Michelle Murray

Ancient Rome Club begins this term for Year 8 and 9 students. This is in anticipation of the incredible history trip to Rome and Naples that 40 students are participating in during February. We currently have three museum loan boxes to enjoy, which includes replica Roman artefacts and clothing. If you are interested in finding out what it is like to wear a Roman toga, come to Ancient Rome Club on Tuesday lunchtimes in room 37.

Mr Herbert

Curriculum Leader for History

Year 7 Maths

Posted on September 30, 2024September 30, 2024 by Michelle Murray

Two students in Year 7 were asked to share their experience of how their Maths lessons have been since they have started at Penwortham Girls’ High School:

In every Maths lesson, the first thing we complete is a silent starter from our starter booklet. Sometimes we have a basic skills starter and sometimes they are problem solving questions (conditional knowledge). One of the first topics we covered in Maths was rounding to 10, 100s and 1000s, rounding to a given number of decimal places and we recently learnt how to round to significant figures.

We have recently started learning how to add and subtract positive and negative numbers and will soon be learning how to multiply and divide negative numbers as well.

Our Maths homework is set every Thursday and for that, it is set on a website called Sparx Maths. We have been given orange exercise books to show our working out in our homework as it is really important to do so. We can also use our exercise books to help us if we are given bookwork checks, otherwise they will come more often if we get them wrong.

Our Maths lessons have been really interesting so far, and we both feel like we are becoming more confident. We’re looking forward to all the different units that we will be covering.

By Crystal I and Dhemica P (Year 7)

New Starter Booklets to Support our Ambitious Curriculum

Posted on September 30, 2024September 30, 2024 by Michelle Murray

The new starter booklets have been designed to ensure that lesson time is utilised effectively by promoting a prompt start. Additionally, the questions are crafted to be ambitious, ensuring alignment with the aims and objectives of the National Curriculum in Mathematics.

The national curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all students:

· become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics through the varied and frequent practise of increasingly complex problems over time, so that students develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.

· reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language.

· can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.

Below are examples of students work in KS3 and KS4:

Mrs Bennett

Mathematics Department

Thinking Mathematically

Posted on September 30, 2024 by Michelle Murray

This year we are taking part in a research project aimed at increasing the mathematical thinking skills of our Year 7 students.

Thinking Mathematically is a 20-week programme that explicitly teaches students how to tackle mathematical problems. This aims to improve students’ confidence, resilience and ability in mathematical problem-solving through the use of evidence-informed teaching approaches.

Once a week, the Year 7 students will engage in a 20 minute problem solving session, with specifically designed questions, resources and prompts to guide their thinking and a specific ‘debrief’ focused on how and why they tackled the problem the way they did.

The programme was developed by Blackpool Research School, a member of the Research Schools Network, supported by the Education Endowment Foundation.

Below is an example of the questions the students will be given: