Year 8

In Year 8, girls are expected to take on more responsibility, both for themselves and within the Middle School community. They become Big Sisters to Year 7, which involves spending time with them to help them settle into their new school.
            
All girls in Year 8 spend a week in France, improving their language skills and enjoying a range of educational visits and activities. 

Year 8 enjoying the sunshine and outdoor activities at Burgundy


Year 8 girls continue to follow a wide and stimulating academic curriculum. Girls choose either Spanish or German after studying each language for six months in Year 7. They also have the opportunity of pursuing the Junior Extended Project Qualification. 

This is a qualification run by the examination board, AQA, that enables girls to extend and develop their knowledge about a subject that interests them and helps them to become more independent and reflective learners. The girls plan and research the project, submit evidence of the various stages of their project (this can take many forms such as a DVD or an artefact) and produce a written report. They also deliver a presentation and review their work at the end. In PSHE, they are educated on key issues such as citizenship, government and politics, personal safety, achieving economic wellbeing, relationships and making healthy choices.

The Year 8 Charity Week raised money for the school's charity, Noah's Ark Children's Hospice

Year 8 visit London Zoo

On Tuesday 21 September, Year 8 piled on to the tube and headed towards London Zoo to find out about rainforest ecosystems. The first thing we saw when we arrived at the Zoo was the aquarium. There were so many fish of different colours – there was no way to find two the same. The reptile house was equally brilliant. My favourite bit was trying to find the snakes in between the branches. They were so well camouflaged that sometimes it was impossible!
Seeing a male and female lion sleeping in the sun was really beautiful – but seeing all the scratch marks on the inside of the enclosure did scare me a bit! The meerkats and the otters were really sweet, although some of the otters got into a fight, and the way the meerkats acted so similarly to the way they act in the wild was really interesting. After lunch some people went to the gift shop where you could buy a life-sized giraffe! But it was £7,000! Then we went to see the real giraffes, zebras and the hyenas. 
In the rainforest area it was hot, humid and it smelt just like a real rainforest. An education officer talked to us about the way a bat sees in the dark with its own special sonar and how other animals are adapted to their environments. We also saw lots of rainforest animals in the canopy around us, such as monkeys, birds and a sloth. 
After a bit more looking around, that was the end of our Year 8 Zoo trip and we were all sad to go!


Connie Lewis, Year 8

Year 8 visit London Zoo