Welcome to Secondary - Week 13

As December approaches there has been no slowing down in Secondary.

Year 11, 12 and 13 students have been busy preparing for their first series of mock examinations which will take place in the week beginning 9th December. Lesson resources, past papers and answer schemes have been made available to all students and are also on Canvas.

Last weekend saw some of our Business students attend a two-day business simulation event organised by ASDAN. Mr O’Brien has written separately below; please do enjoy reading about our student’s success.

Our Art, Design, ICT and Computer Science students also had the opportunity of attending a FutureLab exhibition this week at the West Bund. Students were presented with an eclectic mix of art researchers, theorists and instructors from 30 of the first-rate art schools and universities from China and beyond. All are big names in the field: Royal College of Art (London), China Academy of Art, Berlin University of Art, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and more. The expo contained pieces by students and teachers from 17 institutions, plus 10 educational forums and nearly 70 on-site workshops focusing on current art theory, research methods and practices.

This enrichment trip is another positive step towards successfully integrating different subject areas, curricula and links with the opening of our new STEM centre, which is scheduled for January 2020.

Paul Farrell
Head of Secondary and Vice Principal

Last weekend I had the pleasure of entering a team of 8 Business students to compete in the regional ASDAN Business Simulation Challenge, a two-day weekend event. The simulation was set in a virtual market that allowed students to be entrepreneurs for the weekend. Teams competed in 5 thrilling rounds to grow their business with the overall winning team being determined based on total profits.

14 teams representing 9 international schools entered this year’s competition. The teams had to decide how many workers and engineers they should hire, how much should be invested in marketing and had to calculate their break-even point. In addition to the number-crunching side of things, students competed with 2 rounds of public speaking.

The first presentation involved branding and the second represented a job fair where the student companies had to promote their companies to hire the best talent. Our team, named 'ET', Elementary Tech, can hold their heads high after the event by being given the award for 'Best Branding'. Students learnt a lot during the event, namely the importance of teamwork, communication, delegation, planning and reflection. The theme of the weekend was 'Wearable Technology' which thoroughly engaged our students as we aim to thrive in this ever-increasing digital world.

Martyn L. O’Brien
Teacher of Business and Economics