The Science department celebrated British Science week 2023 with a full week of activities that were highly participated. From Year 7 to 6th form, a very high number of students participated in the different activities, that were delivered by our enthusiastic science teachers.
Ms Mpofu-Tavugara (AKA Professor Starlight) delivered a session called Methane bubble where she, literally, set arms (of the volunteers) on fire. Note, no one got injured.
Mr Bradley (AKA Professor Crackalackin) transformed our Science labs in space room controls, and the courts into our own rocket launch base. Loud explosions were heard.
As Science is not only fire, explosions and launching rockets, Ms Gaskin decided to bring some Biology and do some heart dissections. As a bonus, a brain was also provided for the activity.
Using a less conventional fuel, Mr Dingsdale (AKA Payload Commander Sherlock Ohms) used Alka seltzer tablets to power rockets made by students.
Mr Tewari (AKA Professor Subject Catalyst), decided to go big and squishy and invited students to produce elephant toothpaste (we can assure no one used them on their own teeth).
To complete the week in a relaxed way, Mr Araujo (AKA Dr Rock(y) Stardust) invited students to watch a NASA live stream from the ISS (unfortunately due to a signal loss, we were not able to watch it live, Instead we watch a recorded stream).
Another high of the week was the highly disputed Science quiz competition.
11S2 was the winner of the KS4 quiz and 9K1 the winner of the KS3 quiz.
We are already looking forward to celebrate British Science week 2024.
World Book Day was on March 2nd this year and it turned out to be World Book Week for us here as we had a full programme of activities for students.
On the Monday of that week we were lucky enough to secure an author visit from Steve Skidmore, one of The 2 Steves writing team. They have penned over 260 stories together and their books have always been very popular in our School library. Steve ran talks for years 7 and 8 in the morning, and then a writing workshop for selected students in the afternoon. The talks were brilliant, very engaging, and year 7 even got to re-enact one of his books. Congratulations go to Theo and Aston who stole the show with their magnificent leading rolls. The afternoon workshop was to encourage and support our promising writers selected from year 7 and 8. Steve gave great advise on story construction, key elements and the golden rules of writing.
On Tuesday we launched our ‘Adopt a Book’ incentive which was very well received and the ‘Date with a Mystery Book’. For the book adoption we had a selection of books which we were giving away to good homes. After students had made their choice of book they were issued an adoption certificate. By signing their certificate, they promised to take care of their new book and share their opinions with their friends. There was also the option to swap with their peers if they were happy to do so. Mrs Evans in the LRC will be contacting all students who participated to see if they enjoyed their selection and encourage them to provide a book review. Mystery Date with a Book, involved selecting a book that had been wrapped in brown paper. Student didn’t know the title, author or even the genre, but had undertaken to read whatever was inside. This is a great way of introducing new genres to students, enabling them to broaden their future reading choices. The importance of reading cannot be understated. Statistics provide by Engageeducation.org prove that students ‘who engage in reading 20 minutes a day, …are likely to score better than 90% of their peers on standardised tests’. ‘Reading can increase your IQ by up to 50 points if you do it for 30 minutes a day. The effect is even greater if you read 5 books in a month—this could increase your IQ by 30 points. The National Literacy Trust states, ‘Strong reading skills have been shown to improve children’s academic attainment across a range of subjects, including English, maths and science.
Wednesday was a strike day but students were set detective exams in Google Classroom. These were set as a warm-up exercise for the murder mystery event due to take place on Thursday. There were two sets of questions available and they were based on lateral thinking problems. With standard and advanced levels available students could choose to challenge themselves with the more difficult questions.
Thursday was ‘Murder by the Book’. A dramatic crime scene was set up in the LRC and clues were posted all around the room. All students had to do was collect the clues to solve the murder. There were a few red herrings too so it really tested their sleuthing abilities but it was greatly enjoyed. Special thanks go to Emily (year 12) who was our chalk outline model.
Due to popular demand we extended the murder mystery in to Friday and we also ran our ‘Design a Bookmark’ competition. To take part students had to collect a template from the LRC and create their own design that was relevant to World Book Day. We received some incredible entries, both hand-drawn and computer generated. The winning entries will be reproduced and available to students as free bookmarks, available from the LRC.
All in all, we had a very busy but very enjoyable week!
https://st-maryshigh.herts.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/wbd-fe-1.jpg600800stmaryshighhttps://st-maryshigh.herts.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/newlogo.jpgstmaryshigh2023-03-27 09:59:202023-03-27 14:17:38World Book Day
On 2nd March, the year 11 GCSE and year 13 A Level Drama students went to see the latest production of the play Medea at the amazing new theatre, SohoPlace.
Students were able to see how the professionals do it, with the great Sophie Okonedo and Ben Daniels in the main roles. Students were impressed with the staging in the round production as well as how the actors portrayed their characters, experience and inspiration they can use in their own performance work.
On 14th March, it was the year 10 GCSE Drama group to go to the theatre – They went to see the production of Teechers Leavers ’22 based on the play by John Godber at Harlow Playhouse. There were three actors on stage throughout with them multi rolling all the additional student and teacher characters, completely changing their vocal and physical skills to play their different characters to hilarious extents. Also, an interesting look at the role of drama in schools, which is still relevant today.
Year 7 Drama work
Year 7’s have been busy working on their Ancient Greek Theatre projects, including learning about the origins, style, purpose, stories, theatres, learning chorus lines in scripts and devising drama. Having been with us since September they have greatly developed their confidence and ability to work collaboratively and creatively together and are enjoying the challenges and outlet drama offers. They have explored the gruesome ancient story of Medea – please ask them about their work
Year 8 Drama work
‘Do you want to be my Blood Brother Eddie?’ Year 8’s have been busy exploring the text Blood Brothers, staging extracts of the script, learning lines, exploring characters, looking to how they can make choices with their physical and vocal skills to bring their characters alive and what they want the audience to think and feel at key points in the text. It’s been lovely to see such enthusiasm and commitment to their work and to also see some of our year 8’s who might be a little shy about performing, getting up and being proud of their achievements.
Year 9 Drama work
The year 9 Drama students have been exploring the world and style of Bertolt Brecht, an influential theatre practitioner in the 20th century who wanted to use theatre to help highlight societal issues and possibly help to change society. They’ve been using his techniques including using placards, sharing the narration, speaking directly to the audience and multi rolling in their work. They have recently been thinking about whether to take drama further into year 10 as one of their options – whether or not they choose it, they continue to work collaboratively together and create imaginative drama work with confidence.
KS3 Drama production
In the summer term, the Drama department will be working with KS3 & 4 students in extra curricular work on a production of the school version of the play Matilda. Parts will be cast before Easter and work will start after that break. Parents/Carers will be invited in to see this work which is on 6th and 7th July.
The year 11 GCSE Drama students have been busy – over two consecutive evenings on 8th and 9th of March, the visiting examiner came into school to see the students scripted performances – students had to learn two extracts from their script, learning multiple pages of dialogue, all word perfect, along with showcasing their vocal and physical skills, as well as their costumes, so plenty of ‘proper’ acting on show. The standard was very high and students were very proud of their performances – some budding future actors for sure.
https://st-maryshigh.herts.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/viam-fe.jpg600800stmaryshighhttps://st-maryshigh.herts.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/newlogo.jpgstmaryshigh2023-03-20 10:24:452023-03-20 10:26:16Voice in a Million – 15th March 2023
It was good to restart our yearly trip to Paris after a couple of years’ break. Once again our students created some fantastic memories that will stay with them long after they leave St-Mary’s.
