Ms. Reynolds explains the importance of working with others - learning one of the Junior Certificate Key Skills - by doing a "Murder Hunt" with the 1st Year SPHE class in early September.
To ensure your child is reaping the benefits of the Junior Certificate Key Skill: Working with Others, ground rules need to be established. A really great method of demonstrating the need for establishing rules for group work is 'Murder Hunt'. It's so much more effective than just imposing a set of rules in the class; as when they get to create them, they take ownership of them, as the rules are based on their own experiences.
Through the process of discovering the murderer, they must communicate with each other in their ascribed roles as facilitator, note taker, researcher etc. Any problems that arose in the group are identified and resolved through establishing agreed behaviours for group work. This is then converted into an Action Plan to use for the next session of group work.
Also, students must identify what they did that either hindered or helped the group and award themselves a grade for their % of the total group effort. This form of self assessment is also another key aspect of the New Junior Cycle and it's a fabulous way of teaching your child personal responsibility.
'Being allocated different roles made it easier to listen to each other'. Charlie Ward-Pratt
Our SPHE students will get another opportunity to develop good relationships and resolve conflict during our Friendship Week (21st - 25th October, when they'll attend a workshop on conflict resolution. (Click on blog title to see more photos.)
Ms. Reynolds
The 1st years completed a zombie lab today where they used their scientific methods and thinking to identify patient zero from the zombie suspects. Using measuring skills, pH, observation skills and much more they successfully identified the source of the outbreak!
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The TY Horticulture class were out in the Autumn sunshine planting Spring bulbs using the chaos planting method. This is when a multitude of different spring bulbs (Hyacinths, Daffodils, Tulips, Crocuses, Narcissi) are mixed together and randomly planted so that we have a mixture of flowers and patterns emerging in the spring. It mimics nature and so is more enticing to pollinators and native insects that need the food in Spring.
Stratford is celebrating Maths Week 2026 (12th - 18th October) with daily activities around the school, at breaktimes and in Maths classes! The tutor-time daily quiz is proving to be extremely competitive as each form group tries to solve it and then run to find Ms Matthews in order to win the box of chocolates!
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