Friday 13 December 2019

Year 7 and 8 assessment prpe homework

After the Christmas holidays we will be doing assessments with our year 7 and 8 classes.

The assessments will be a mix of core knowledge tests and an extended piece of writing where students will get a choice of essays to write about.

All the content on the assessment will be based on information on our knowledge organisers (which we have been using to support homework) or on content covered in lessons.

Students should spend their homework time over the Christmas holidays revising for their assessments using the knowledge organisers they have already been used. If they have been lost of misplaced the documents can be assessed here 

Friday 6 December 2019

AHS goes to Berlin

At the start of November were were lucky enough to go on a trip to Berlin. We were booked onto a three day trip and had such a brilliant time and wanted to share a few pictures of our trip.

Day one

The first day in Berlin was spent visiting sites focused around the history of Weimar and Nazi Germany.

We landed into Berlin around lunchtime and after a short stop to drop our bags at the hostel and to grab some lunch we went into the city centre to tour some of the sites.

Our first stop was the Reichstag where we learned about the history of the building and how the building has been adapted in modern times.


We then had a walk around a variety of sites in and around the Reichstag. These included the following places.

Memorial to the murdered members of the Reichstag
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe murdered by the Nazi Regime
Brandenburg Gate
Georg Elser Memorial
Air Ministry Building





A particular highlight for me was to see the preparations for the celebrations for the 30th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall behind the Brandenburg gate.

We finished our day out with a visit to German Historical Museum where we got to see a variety of exhibits starting from 1918 through to the 1980s. After this we headed back through the city to our accommodation to eat and rest up ready for the day ahead.

Day two

Day two's focus was Nazi Germany and the start of the Cold War. After breakfast we headed out by coach to Sachsenhausen the site of a former concentration camp




The visit to the site was something I know a lot of our students will never forget. We spend a lot of time in school learning about the events of the holocaust but seeing the site and hearing details of the atrocities that carried out in different parts for ourselves was harrowing.

After Sachsenhausen we headed to Cecilienhof Palace. We were there because it was the site of the Potsdam Conference. The site is really beautiful and has such a significant role in the start of The Cold War and we were lucky enough to tour the rooms where the conference was held.


We headed back into Berlin after this via The Glienicke Bridge where we heard about the story of Gary Powers.


We then went onto the Allied Museum to focus particularly on the story of the Berlin Airlift and after this went onto dinner in a restaurant opposite the Reichstag. Whilst there our students took the opportunity to buy some souvenirs including some rather fetching hats (they were jealous of our German bobble hats)


After dinner we finished our day by going back to the Reichstag for a tour of the dome on top of the Reichstag which gave us the opportunity to get brilliant views of the city by night and the chance to sneak a peek into the German Parliament rooms from above.




Day three

The final day of our trip was focused on The Cold War.

We started our day by taking a train out to Treptow Park to visit The Soviet memorial which is one of the most extraordinary memorials I have ever seen featuring huge memorials some of which depict the story of World War Two from a soviet perspective.






After this we went to Bernauer Strasse to see the memorial to The Berlin Wall




We finished our trip with a visit to Checkpoint Charlie



I can honestly say that our trip to Berlin was amazing. We were so well looked after by our our guides Ian and Dave from Anglia Tours. Due to their expertise we all learned so much about Berlin and got to experience so much in our short time.


If you would like to experience Berlin for yourself we are going again in November 2020. In order to secure flights and accommodation we need to make a booking in early January so an initial deposit is due 7th January. A copy of the letter is available here