Parent News: week ending 4th March 20161
Six Thinking Hats
Each of us has a different personality, way of interpreting and processing information and a different style of thinking through information that we encounter. At our recent inset day, Stoke Poges teachers were introduced to (or reminded of) De Bono’s thinking hats, which is an idea explaining how individuals approach an issue in different ways. The challenge of this idea is to learn which thinking hat you naturally implement, then try and use other thinking hats to see other points of view and other perspectives.
What are the six hats?
The White Hat: requires information to be known; one wants facts
The Yellow Hat: symbolises a way of thinking where one explores the positives and benefits of an idea
The Black Hat: When one spots the difficulties and dangers of a situation or idea.
The Red Hat: The gut reaction to a situation; feelings and emotions are expressed and shared.
The Green Hat: a creative response with new possibilities and alternatives suggested.
The Blue Hat:This is used to manage the thinking process and ensure the different thinking hats are observed.
Which thinking at do you naturally use? Application?
We might lean towards one of the ways of thinking but it is obviously possible for someone to learn or train themselves to use other ways of thinking so that they can have a clearer perspective of the topic under discussion, be able to tackle controversial ideas and explain away other points of view through this.
Various teachers will be implementing De Bono’s Thinking Hats into lessons to stretch students’ ways and methods of thinking further…until the Blue Hat is used effectively. Mrs Birks
Term Dates for 2016-17
We have just received confirmation of next year’s term dates for you to put in your diary:
Autumn Term: Monday 5th September –Friday 16th December inclusive
Inset Day: Monday 17th October 2016
Half Term: Monday 24thOctober - 28th October
Christmas Holiday: Monday 19th December – Tuesday 3rdJanuary 2017 inclusive
(Inset Day: Tuesday 3rd January 2017)
Spring Term: Wednesday 4th January 2017 - Friday 7th April 2017 inclusive
Half Term: Monday 20th February 2017 – Friday 24th February 2017
Easter Holiday: Monday 10th April 2017 – Friday 21st April 2017
Summer Term: Monday 24th April – Thursday 20th July 2017 inclusive
Monday 1st May – Bank Holiday
Half Term: Monday 29th May – Friday 2nd June 2017
Photographic Competition
Can we encourage all readers and their families to participate in our photo competition on the theme ‘growth’? Email as many entries as you like to before 22 April. Prizes to be won.
Year 7 Maths – ‘Ideal Bedroom Project’
Rather than setting traditional arithmetic problems to learn how to calculate area, volume, perimeter and manage budgets, Year 7 were set a mini-project to design their ideal bedroom. Students could either redecorate and furnish their own bedroom at home or create a fantasy bedroom. The brief was to produce a scale drawing of the floor plan, a detailed budget and either a mood board or 3D model of their bedroom.
Here are a few samples of the fantastic work they produced. Well done Y7.
Attendance
With the aim of encouraging 100% attendance amongst students, we have designed 3 attendance ladders, one for each Key Stage, showing our students their attendance since the beginning of this academic year.
Well done to our current ‘ ladder leaders’: (Diego Gillmore , Jemima Brown, Lydia Tennent, Romiana Roy, Tiani Gilbert, Willow Taylor (KS3); Charlie Oliver, June Taylor (KS4); and Carlos Brown, Ingrid Tennent and Matthew Gulley (KS5)
****This week’s winners from the 100% attendance draw are Selwyn Lindsell and Ingrid Tennent. Mrs Corio****
Upper School Quiz
The upper school quiz will be held on Thursday 10th March and a letter was emailed to all parents yesterday. We are privileged to have Mrs Gilbert and some of our community members supporting us by preparing lunch for the students and staff. Year 10-13 studentswill need to make a contribution of £5.00 to reimburse for the outlay for food and we would appreciate students bringing their money into school by Monday 14th March. Rochelle Robertson, Aquila Markham and Junior Lyonhave kindly agreed to collect this money and we would ask you to support them by not making this task too onerous. Thank you very much.
Future dates for the diary
- Friday 4th March Year 8 Trip to Europa Centre with Plymouth Campus
- Wednesday 9th March AS Gov & Pol Conference.
- Upper School Quiz - Thursday 10th March
- Friday 18th March Year 9/10 Girls to ‘Sewing for Pleasure’ Trip
- Break for the Easter Holidays Thursday 24th March
- Sports Day Wednesday 4th May
Wishing you a happy weekend with your family and friends, from all the staff at Stoke Poges Campus