A . E . E . We e k - M a r c h 2 0 1 3
Aspire Experience Explore
Aspire, Experience, Explore Week 2013 Harris Academy Morden strives to create the most wonderful educational experience for our students. To broaden the students’ experiences we ran a week of ‘Outstanding’ educational opportunities which our students individually selected. From Friday 22nd March 2013 until Wednesday 27th March 2013 students were removed from their timetabled lessons to participate in the Aspire, Experience and Explore Week. The programme provided students with opportunities to visit places of interest and take part in wonderful activities to experience new learning opportunities. Throughout the week students spent time off site and some on site, working with external providers and our amazing teachers. Students had a fabulous week, experiencing ‘Deep learning’ events and activities.
The Programme of Events Art and Technology Day The day was led by our Art and Technology departments and focused on exploring the technological and artistic world.
Students explore the London Science Museum
On route to the maze! Leeds Castle
UK History / Geography Day Students had the opportunity to visit places of national history or to explore geographical sites of interest. The focus of the day was led by our Humanities department. Challenge Yourself The day was led by our PE department and focused on challenging students in a physical sense. We wanted all of our students to explore how they can push themselves and achieve where they may not have been able to do so previously. Love London Day This day was led by our Maths department and was based around exploring London and demonstrating to our students how vast and interesting this could be.
Life Drawing - Art Culture Day
Aspire Experience Explore
Poetry Day Each day one faculty participated in a Poetry Day focussing on literacy and their exploration of the spoken word. This was led by our English department and a guest speaker. Year 11 students stayed on site and spent one day in each of their Option subjects which provided extra time to complete all coursework and examination practice.
English Enrichment The highlight of Enrichment Week in the English Department was the performances and workshops of published poet Ash Dickinson. Students were treated to performed extracts from Ash’s recently published anthology “Slinky Espadrilles” and encouraged to try their hand at poems on topics ranging from Britain and the seaside to Usain Bolt and Jackie Chan. The results were impressive and the best poems from each faculty will be announced soon.
Seaside by Nicole The sea side, it always ends with buying rock candy, the freedom of spending your change at the arcades and the bright red lights inside. The seagulls that swoop from behind, stealing your food and the sun cream smothered on your face but there’s always time to stop and feel the warmth of the sun.
Another successful session included students launching a new product by creating advert ideas that are intended to “go viral” like LED sheep or percussionist chimps. Armed with flip cameras, stationery and heads full of ideas the students set about filming clips that would cause an online stir. The students results were incredibly creative and the video judged to be most successful will be developed for release. Watch this space… Other sessions included students communication via semaphore, whereby they designed and created their own flags and then sent messages to other students by waving them and lucky dip poetry! Mr Cooper
V&A Museum
Art Culture
I am not sure what was more exciting for the students, the fact that they were out of lessons or the impending visit to the V&A museum. Harris Academy Students marvelled at the impressive exterior of the V&A, unenlightened of the treasures that lie within.
Our students started the day off with some warm up exercises. This involved looking at composition and proportion which allows the work to look realistic. The students used a variety of materials for this exercise to create different effects.
As we entered the vast cavernous hall which draws one in to reveal the splender of the V&A, mouths open and eyes wide, a year 7 student’s whisper of ‘wow’ said it all.
Now that the students had developed their drawing skills they were ready to do some life drawing. We introduced them to the Artist’s model Sandro all the way from Pisa, Italy. This challenged the students to work from observation using the techniques they had developed beforehand.
There were endless rooms packed with fabulous icons, priceless art, pieces of historical relevance and some very shiny, expensive looking jewellery. The V&A is a walk through the ages, a trek across continents and an opportunity to dress like a Victorian lady, which the year 7 boys loved.
The next stage for the students was to design a 3D sculpture in clay. The students incorporated all that they had practised so far to ensure that the designs were of a high quality.
This is a place of fascination. Not just the exhibitions but the building itself. Not many museums can keep thirty students fully engaged for hours. A great day had by all, especially me.
Once the designs were complete the group went about transforming their 2D designs into 3D clay sculptures. The students produced work that was very skilful and well considered. As you can see from the photographs, everybody worked very hard and had a great time. Mr Dynes
Mr Barnett
HILLINGDON
OUTDOOR CENTRE On Tuesday and Wednesday nearly a hundred students experienced a wonderful, exciting teambuilding adventure. The adventure started off at roll call in the morning as students had to be at school earlier than usual and dressed in tracksuits and old clothing knowing that they were going to get wet and very muddy. The coach trip was over before you knew it and on arrival students were divided into teams as the activities for the day started. Yes it was cold, yes everyone got wet, yes everyone was muddy but, more importantly, the students didn’t care as they had lots of fun completing all the activities.
Street Dance Students took part in an intensive, all day Street Dance Workshop. They learnt the basic street moves, points, rolls, and six step. They then created some of their own choreography based on the movements learnt as a class and from the many clips viewed. Particular favourites of the group were Diversity and Rough Diamond. We then worked together to create a whole group dance which was performed at the end of the session. Every single student, regardless of their ability, gave an excellent performance. Every child was sent an SMSC postcard home for their contribution on the day. I was extremely proud of them and their commitment and enthusiasm. A particular mention must go to Ayman, Matthew and Tracy for their creativity. Ms Gingell
Activities included: Spider’s Web: Students had to pass safely through a spider’s web without waking the big spider Trollies: 6 students race against each other sharing one pair of skis Swamp: Planning a route over an infested crocodile swamp with 5 islands and only 3 planks
HMS Belfast Approximately 60 students visited HMS Belfast, on three separate days during AEE Week. We travelled up to the South Bank on public transport and admired many famous London landmarks as we walked to the ship, including the Shard at London Bridge. On deck, students climbed ladders and sat in the ‘Admiral’s Bridge’. Although the weather remained bitterly cold, we simply took refuge in the warmer parts of the ship
Nightline: Blindfolded, crawling through a forest with lots of obstacles The activity that everyone enjoyed most of all was the raft building! Everyone had a wet suit and floating jacket on and they had to build a raft which they raced to a point in the lake. It truly was so much fun even though the water was freezing! Mr Liversage
when we needed to ‘thaw out’. Below deck, students explored the inner workings of the ship, as well as viewing the living areas, so small for over 950 sailors! The idea of sailors having to ‘bed hop’ did not appeal to them at all. Our students gained an insight into what life might have been like on HMS Belfast all those years ago. Mrs Laventure
Flamenco Festival
Science Museum The wondrous world of science was brought to life for a group of 30 HAMD students on a visit to the cavernous halls of London’s Science Museum. Harris students enjoyed a hands-on day out marvelling at some of the most iconic exhibits from the history of science, such as Stephenson’s 1829 steam engine called the ‘Rocket’ and the Apollo 10 Command Module. With huge halls stuffed to the rafters with fascinating objects, interactive zones enabling all manner of discoveries to be made and colourful displays revealing amazing facts and figures at every turn, there was never a dull moment during our great day out.
Going to the Flamenco Festival on a wet and cold night definitely set my mood before we had even arrived. However, as soon as the curtains rose, my mood certainly lifted. The energy of the talented dancers got me wanting to go up on stage myself and I soon forgot about the dreary weather. Every movement seemed perfect to me whether in unison or not which was unbelievable. I could tell everyone around me was amazed as I was, since after every two minutes we wanted to clap and cheer. The live music on stage made the night extra special because we could see what each musician was doing; incredibly impressive! It was honestly a performance worth watching!
Of course, the gift shop was another highlight and many students were able to buy perplexing scientific artefacts with which to ‘wow’ their friends and family upon their return. Mr Gardner
by Maita - Year 11
Natural History Museum
Leeds Castle
“We’ll meet back at the bottom of the steps, opposite the diplodocus.” Only at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington could you hear such a thing without wondering if you had been transported back in time to the late Jurassic period!
Leeds Castle is a stunning Norman Castle situated within 500 acres of lovely parkland and we had a great day exploring this beautiful historic site. A great woodland walk from the coaches to the castle began the trip. There was wonderful wildlife to see and the grounds had great activities for the students to enjoy. The maze was a highlight for the students, they loved taking on the challenge even if it did prove a little difficult for some! The tour of the Castle was fantastic. It provided our students with an opportunity to experience history for themselves and see rooms that have housed many of our monarchs, including Henry VIII. This was a thoroughly enjoyable day for both students and teachers alike. Mrs Mathieson
Each day during AEE week, 50 students and their teachers joined the crowds to see for themselves the wealth of ancient relics from prehistory. During their time in the museum they had the chance to explore over 30 galleries; as well as seeing the dinosaurs they were able to find out about many other extinct and rare species from land and sea, as well as finding out how our planet was formed and why it looks the way it does. Students are also encouraged to reflect on how humankind has damaged the Earth and what we can do to preserve it. Of course, as with any museum trip, most of the students also found the time to visit the shop and stock up on fossil keyrings and dinosaur eggs! Each day, staff were extremely impressed by the smartly turned-out and well-behaved groups who approached the trip with fascination and did a fantastic job of representing Harris Academy Morden! Mr Humber
Bewl Water A group of enthusiastic and excited students boarded the coach to Bewl Water and set off from school not quite sure what was in store for them. Students arrived to a cold morning but warm smiles from the staff at Bewl. Groups were set and off they went. Some groups were set team challenges designed to develop their co-operation and communication skills, as well as problem solving skills. Here, students were set tasks in the woodland with a variety of scenarios and equipment, and not surprisingly each group accepted Bewl’s challenges and was nothing short of fantastic! Students’ leadership skills gradually shone through during each task. Students (and staff) also had the pleasure of some team canoeing and not even the brisk wind could get Mr. Adou’s canoe any quicker to the shore. We played fruit salad which required different fruits to travel from one canoe to the other and thanks to the great team work, all fruit survived the journey! Last, but not least, the greatest challenge of the day, orienteering! Students had a master class in map reading and off they went to find all of the clues and signs laid out by the Bewl staff. Although pupils finished the day cold, wet and muddy, they had an amazing experience. All staff involved, from those at Bewl to the coach driver commended the students on their exemplary behaviour and politeness and they cannot wait to have us back! Ms Byrne
Technology Day Friday 22nd March saw our inaugural Technology Day as part of our AEE Week. Twentyeight students participated in this wonderful event and enjoyed a thoroughly successful day. The main focus was on structural engineering. The day started with a presentation of the biggest and best engineering projects in and around London and then looked at some of the tallest towers, standing and/or in development, around the world. The students were then arranged into groups of four to become design teams. There were students from Years 7, 8, 9 and 10 and the groups were mixed accordingly. It is a credit to the students that they worked with such focus and determination. They were challenged to design and build the tallest tower that they possibly could using only paper and masking tape, with the aim of touching the ceiling in the main assembly hall with the top of their structure. Congratulations to Philip Wren, Luke Dell, Devidas Vaitekjanis and Malik Mukoro, all from the Yellow faculty, who won the competition with a fantastic effort and each received 50 Harris Points. Mr Giles