Hands on Learning

Year 7 Anatomy

7CN, 7CT and 7WN have enjoyed and produced great pieces of work in their Sciences lessons this half term. They have recently covered human anatomy and its links to fitness. Areas included the skeleton, breathing, muscles, blood and how drugs affect the body. Students have been fully engaged, especially with the chance to watch dissections of the lung, heart and pigs trotter. Most also took up the opportunity to get hands on! A collection of questions from each class have ignited some good debates and students have demonstrated their application of knowledge to real life situations. They have been terrific to teach this topic to!

Winston Welcomed Sita Brahmachari

'Most of the basic materials a writer uses are gathered before the age of fifteen' Willa Cartha (Writer)
 
Wednesday was an exciting day this week as Winston welcomed acclaimed YA author Sita Brahmachari! She delivered a presentation to the whole of year 7, telling them her journey to writing and the inspiration behind many of her books. Sita stressed the significance of our past experiences and our relationships as forming our written identity as well as the stories we have to tell. Her stories come from those told to her by her mother and father and grandparents.
 
'Sita made it very entertaining and engaging and she made it so that everyone wanted to listen more. She shared her life story, how she became an author, using drama (becoming different members of her family) and audience participation (getting students on stage to act out a scene from her youth to demonstrate the moment she overcame her shyness and realised her voice was important.'
Aria Gholkar - ACH
 
'It was inspiring! I am quite similar to Sita in that I'm not the type of person that likes to share, but I felt connected with her and like I should share my ideas more.'
Ethan Whitford - NAS
 
'Sita used the metaphor of the Artichoke Heart (like her first book) which is vulnerable inside with tough outer layers to protect it. This is akin to people in that we put up barriers to shield ourselves from other people. It's also like a story in that there is often meaning to be uncovered beneath the text, if you only peel the layers away.'
Logan Dunn - DMA

'Days are like scrolls, write on them what you want to remember'

 
Two groups of year 9 students were involved in creative writing workshops with Sita. You can see, below, students interacting with Sita's 'story quilt' which contains lots of objects that inspired or influenced her stories. Students were asked to choose an object, ranging from a child sized pair of leather gloves to a game of jacks and a tailors' measure or a wedding sari, and imagine the story behind that object, writing in a stream of consciousness and allowing their imaginations to flow. Sita was very impressed with the very detailed stories that students created, discovering elements of the objects that she herself hadn't noticed before.

 

 

 

 

Sita was joined at lunchtime by Waterstones Woking, giving students the opportunity to buy some of her books and get them signed, or simply ask questions , even share some of their story ideas. 

If students have been inspired by Sita's presentation they are encouraged to enter the BBC Radio 2 500 words short story competition:

Year 10 Dance

Mrs Smith's Year 10 sports leadership dance group have been working really hard on their leadership skills. They have choreographed their own dances and today Yas and Holly taught their Micheal Jackson Dance to the group demonstrating, outstanding leadership skills.