Year 10 Accelerate Enrichment Programme – Exam Week 2018
During the Junior Examination period, Accelerate students from 10DC and 10MS, who do not sit regular Year 10 examinations, took part in the Accelerate Enrichment Programme. This involved 4 days of extra time devoted to deepening their understanding of the Year 11 subjects they study as well as taking part in team building activities and critical thinking exercises.
Mr Toomer and Mr Lobb put the boys through their paces with classic team building exercises, such as “Toxic Waste”, “Push-Pull” and the always exciting “Trust Fall”. Some lads were not used to using their bodies and their brains at the same time, so this really extended them and helped develop their leadership skills.
In the English sessions they were exposed to excellence-level writing, where the focus was on quality writing rather than sheer quantity, a necessity for external examinations. The session was designed to help students writing become more persuasive and efficient in their writing as well as developing a means to ‘hook’ the audience.
For Science the lads were taken by Mr Mills, who treated them with practical demonstrations introducing them to the exciting world of Simple Harmonic Motion. Wave reflections, Phase changes, Standing waves and Harmonics were all created and analysed. Needless to say, this struck a chord with the boys interested in Performance Music.
The final session was a Mathematics and Critical Thinking challenge, where the boys were asked to solve various problems on a range of topics from Trigonometry, Geometric Reasoning and Logic Puzzles. The boys were used tasked with using their creative thinking in two challenges, where they were asked to build a bridge with “unconventional” materials (Spaghetti and Marshmallows).
Overall, it was an interesting experience for the students who were well-involved and respectful of the opportunity presented to them. A big thank you to Mrs Nixon, Mr Mills, Mr Toomer and Mr Lobb for their involvement in this programme.
