ConnecTED Learning

At the end of Term 1, Year 7 students wrote reflective paragraphs in all their Key Learning Areas about their learning experiences. The following student reflections on their learning across English, Geography and Religious Education capture the students speaking about their learning in their own voices and communicating TED's purpose:

English

In English Term 1 I have enjoyed how we got to learn about the sentence structure and we found mistakes we were making in our own writing. Another thing I enjoyed was how we got to work at our own pace and how we weren't rushed to do it all. As soon as we had to read as a class or something we were able to then go back and do it as a class.

 I also liked how we got to write our own chapter/story because it was what we wanted to write and we weren't just given something that we had to write about. On the other hand I found it a bit hard when we had to gather and brainstorm things that we would write about because you had to have a nice detailed paragraph and not a little underutilised paragraph.

Charli Jenkins - 7.1

Geography

What I enjoyed in Term 1 Geography ...

I enjoyed learning about the topic of 'Rivers and Landscapes'. The topic was new to me considering I'd never learnt about it before, but throughout the term, I realised how fascinating and interesting it is to see how rivers and waterfalls are born; or how the landscape around contributes to the growth of the river. Something that helped me understand was the workshops we did; having a mix of digital, writing and hands-on activities to really explain the topic and help give us an understanding of rivers and their landscapes. 

Since it was the first term, I enjoyed how the learning we did was different from primary school and how we are really connected to the learning along with the classes around us. My all time favourite thing we did in 'Term 1 Geography', was when we were given mystery bags of items and was challenged to the task to make a river landscape in our groups. It was fun because we all worked collaboratively and had a good time, while also having the difficult element of using the items we received. In the end, I was very proud of the work we did and how the teachers let us vote, giving people the motivation to do their best and try to win!

Nicola Cubis - 7.3

Religious Education

Something that surprised me about Religion this year was that in our first assessment task, we weren't doing something about God or Jesus, we were creating a presentation about cultural traditions from around the world. This surprised me because I was expecting to be learning only about the 'traditional' Catholic school Religion, so I was pleasantly surprised that I could not only learn more about my Religion, but that I could learn about people's religious traditions from around the world. 

Something that I like about Religion is the enthusiasm of our teachers; they make learning fun and interesting. Another thing that I am enjoying about Religion is that we are encouraged to push ourselves out of our comfort zone by using new forms of presentation for displaying our work. The element of surprise that I felt during our first assessment task, as well as the warm environment that we are welcomed into every time a Religion class is held, is in my eyes what makes Religion great. 

Juliet  Pearce - 7.3

Mrs Rebecca Sadler | Leader of Pedagogy and Leader of Connected Learning