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Week 2021

nities for every Student

Car-building workshop challenges students’ STEM skills
the Wacky Races activity gave students two challenges, starting
with a task to make a car using just four wheels, a motor, a battery,
two axles, two cogs and some card. Students then raced their
cars to see whose was the fastest. the second Wacky races challenged students to
build a car using lego, fix a fuel cell onto it, and detonate it from a distance. the
winning team was the one whose car travelled the furthest.
“It was a wonderful challenge,” said Denise Smith, Director of Science. “Some cars flew
into the air immediately, barrel-rolling away from us as they went. the winning team’s
car travelled about 15 metres along the ground.”
Blackout Poetry helps students get creative
the Blackout Poetry english Workshop saw students reusing the lyrics from various songs to create their own
material. to add to the creativity, the Year 7 and 9 students dressed up to create characters to inspire their
writing. they then presented their work in their own anthologies.
“It was an excellent and inspiring workshop, allowing our students to be creative and explore a range of
ideas,” said tess Watkinson, teacher of english. “A special mention must go to olivia from Year 7 who not
only did all of the main tasks but also created some fantastic Nonsense Poetry of her own.”
Eclectic mix of music styles teach students new techniques 13
In Music, students took part in a variety of music making activities ranging from learning the art of Japanese
taiko drumming, to playing rock and pop music as bands, including writing their own songs.
Katya Padlyevs’Ka, head of Music Department said, “It was a wonderful experience and a
chance to rejoice through music, as our students immersed themselves into learning new
performance techniques. For some, this included learning to play a new instrument, such
as a guitar or the drums. It was phenomenal to see students collaborate and rehearse
music together, thoroughly enjoying themselves.”
one Year 8 student said, “It has been the best day this year and I really want to do gCSe
Music now.” the Music Department is now looking forward to organising even more
performance opportunities in and out of Music lessons.
Debating workshop focus on world challenges
the Year 8 Debating Workshop asked, ‘Which of the world’s challenges should the UN focus
in the coming years?’ With each student taking on the role of a different country, they
engaged in detailed research to consider which issue would benefit them most – reducing
poverty, disarming nuclear weapons or providing education for all. they then merged
together as a team to deliver their final outcome.
Chris Meikle, teacher of history, said, “the students who took part were all exceptional in
their speeches to one another and listened to each other’s
viewpoints very respectfully.”
Learning traditional Indonesian fabric dyeing techniques
Year 9 students were treated to a unique workshop experience, that of
learning the traditional Indonesian technique of Batik, a wax-resist dyeing
technique that is applied to cloth.
Stacey goss, Assistant head of Creative Arts said, “the
students made beautiful ocean-themed pieces. Fabric
dyes were then used to add vibrant colours to their
work. Some stunning outcomes were created from
scratch and the students should be very proud of
their work.”

“CoVID-19 restrictions meant that the
week had to be pulled together in an
extremely short time-frame, so I’m
indebted to a wonderful team of staff
and support staff from across the College
who pulled out all the stops to make this
happen,” added helen.