Priory School

On Wednesday, Steve Beswick, the person responsible for every PC in every school in the UK, visited Priory Geography.  This high profile visit was in recognition of the creative use of technology that the department has been developing over the past five years.

During the visit he watched geography lessons; met with DiGITAL LEADERS; spoke to students from Years 9-11 about careers in technology and spoke to senior leaders.  Mandeep from Microsoft’s Partners in Learning also visited the school and worked with Newly Qualified teachers on Professional Learning activities.

Priory’s students were stunning as always and attracted positive comments from the Microsoft team.  They commented on the excellent behaviour and appearance of our students and were blown away with the brilliance of the DiGITAL LEADERS team of Robbie, Scott and Jonathan.

Steve was impressed with the quality of geography lessons saying that they are developing the 21^st Century skills of collaboration, independence and problem

solving that employers are looking for.  He also stated the importance of gaining qualifications: you couldn’t work for his team without a degree qualification.

A journalist also accompanied the party and will be writing up the experiences so watch this space.

Mr Rogers, Curriculum Leader for Geography and Microsoft Innovative Educator, said ‘I’m so proud of the Priory Geography Team who have consistently maintained a high quality of teaching and learning.  We know that we are improving the outcomes for our young people while furnishing them with the skills needed for life in work.’

Thanks to Ms Debens and Mr Atkins for organising the programme and delivering an Outstanding lesson during the day.  Special mention goes to Mr Parrott, our PGCE student whose lesson was watched by Steve, our Chair of governors, an Assistant Headteacher, Mr Rogers and Gerald Haigh.

Looking to the future, Mr Rogers said that he was looking forward to continuing the partnership with Microsoft and students from Priory will be contributing to a new Student blog for the company.

The University of Southampton held their Mathematics challenge in April.  This is the first time that a pupil from Priory has entered.  279 pupils from schools around the South of England, including the Isle of Wight, Dorset, Wiltshire Surrey and Hampshire.

Terrianne Carter – Year 10 was awarded a certificate of merit at a Prize Giving ceremony.

The awards were presented by Professor Adam Wheeler, who is a Mathematician as well as being the Provost and Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Southampton.  There was also an entertaining talk by Professor Ian Leary, who is the Director of Research for Mathematical Sciences at Southampton.

Priory pupils went on a Business and Communication Systems (BaCS) and Leisure and Tourism (L&T) trip to Thorpe Park to investigate marketing. Students looked at marketing objectives, market research, 4Ps, SWOT analysis, targets, markets and promotional methods carried out by Thorpe Park.

Here are some comments made by pupils who went on the trip:

It was the best school trip I’ve been on so far at Priory School.

The trip to Thorpe Park was a very fun day. The presentation we were given was helpful in regards to our homework and class work. The rides were also enjoyable.

It was a great day out because everyone was so friendly towards each other. All classes got along well. The workshop was fun but also jam packed with useful information towards our course. It was totally an enjoyable and educational day.

It was a good marketing workshop, lovely weather, and we learnt a lot about the park.

It was fun, I learnt a lot and I really enjoyed myself.

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In April the top set Mathematics sets in Year 7 and 8 entered the UKMT Maths challenge.  The challenge involves answering 25 multiple choice questions in one hour and is sat in school under normal exam conditions.  The questions are challenging and require problem solving and thinking skills.

The awards were as follows:

Best in School:  Beatrice Kellam

Best in Year 8:  Beatrice Kellam

Best in Year 7:  Oren Banham

Gold Award:   Beatrice Kellam

Silver Awards:  Grace McCormick, Aiden Edgar, Andrew Collins, Robert Sainsbury, Tom Bobik, Jack Banfield, James Unwin, Alice Hopkinson, Tobias Phillips, Brendan O’Brien, Alice Jackson, Oren Banham and Ethan Campbell

Bronze Awards:  Connor Robertson, Stefani Tsoneva, Harry Brown, Timothy Wong, Ali Raza, Dylan Fletcher, George Green, David Loughlin, Theodore Bremer, Tassia Murray, Verity Burton

Well done to all who took part.

After a highly competitive process, Will and Walaa have been selected as next year’s Head Boy and Head Girl.

They will be supported by Jakob and Jimmy as Deputy Head Boys and Anna and Millie as Deputy Head Girls.

The standard this year was exceptionally high from the whole field of candidates and we anticipate them building on the successes of this year’s senior team.