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Chicks and baby partridges

On Monday 3rd June we received a very exciting delivery of chick and partridge eggs. Here you will find regular updates of their progress.

Our primary students will be looking after the baby partridges, which will be housed in Willow Room 2 with Hannah, whilst our secondary students will be looking after the chicks, which will be in the Maths room with Jean.

You can watch the chicks' development outside of school hours on our Chick-cam https://www.youtube.com/@JT-em9mc/streams.

The Chick-cam will be turned off during the school day, following our Safeguarding Policies, and at the weekend, the chicks will be going on holiday where no live feed will be available. 

Did you know?  Male chicks tend to be bright yellow, while female chicks tend to be brown.

 

Updates:

Day 1. Monday 3rd June. There was a technical fault in running the live feed but luckily nothing was missed and the chicks remained safely tucked in their eggs.  Thank you for your patience and understanding. The Chick-Cam should be up and running tomorrow afternoon once the students have all left site.

Day 2. Tuesday 4th June.  The chicks are still growing inside their eggs.  No eggs have hatched yet but lots of chirping can be heard, so hopefully it won't be too long before they make an appearance.

Some of Saturn kept watch over the eggs during break time, so the eggs were kept safe. 

Chick incubator   Chicks and Saturn

Day 3. Wednesday 5th June.  At the start of the day, three eggs showed signs of pipping. This is when the chick is using its egg tooth to break through the shell.

Egg pipped   Chick pipped egg

At lunch time the first chick hatched to much excitement!  Three others are working on getting out of their eggs.

First Chick

Day 4.  Thursday 6th June.  We now have four healthy chicks! 

Students in Neptune and Saturn have been continuing their regular learning, but do have the opportunity each lesson to handle the chicks in a careful way, thinking about the chick's welfare. 

Chick and student

 

Students  in Jupiter and Pluto are studying a unit on "The Data Handling Cycle". They have made some predictions on chick genders based on looking at the eggs.  Currently, they are taking weight and length measurements so they can analyse the data to determine which chicks grew fastest or slowest; comparing gender and species. 

Chick and student

Students in Mars are studying "Measure" at a GCSE level, so are tracking the growth of the chicks, but looking at ways to determine more complex calculations... How does one find the volume of a chick??

In Primary, six baby partridges hatched!

Partridges

Day 5.  Friday 7th June.  Another partridge hatched in Primary this morning!  The students are logging the times each chick makes an appearance.  

All the Secondary students have been working with the chicks, developing skills to care for delicate animals and weighing and measuring.  Next week, the year 7 groups want to create obstacle courses for the chicks, to check on their ability to learn and problem solve. They will also be seeing the chick practice flapping their wings and getting ready to try flying. 

Even some of the staff have been enjoying the chicks!

Jax and chick   Jess Chciks

There are still 3 eggs yet to hatch. They will be given the opportunity to hatch over the weekend. 

Day 6 and 7, Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th June.  At the weekend, the chicks will be going on holiday where no live feed will be available.  The live feed will begin again on Monday (10th) after the students have left site for the day.

Day 8 Monday 10th June.  Students (and staff) continue to enjoy their learning with the chicks.   Here are just a few of the Secondary pictures taken of the Neptune, Saturn, Jupiter and Pluto classes

   Chick Neptune  Chick Pluto  Neptune Chicks

Saturn Chick  Jupiter Chicks

 Saturn Chic  Chick TD

Day 9 Tuesday 11th June.  In Primary, ten of the fourteen partridge eggs have now hatched and survived.  Unfortunately, because of the partridges size and speed, it is not possible for the students handle them.  Instead, they have enjoyed opportunities to look after them, such as feeding and changing their water and straw. 

Partridges hatched

Day 10: Wednesday 12th June. Students from Jupiter collected their last piece of data today and then had some time to enjoy the chicks.

The chicks also came out to visit at break time, where there was a mixed group of students and staff to enjoy the last day with the chicks.

Day 11: Thursday 13th June.  The chicks were collected just past 10am.  We all wish them a happy future on their farm where they will live the rest of their lives in comfort and safety.