Enrichment Week: Part One
Saturday 26 June 2021
Pupils from all year groups enjoyed an action-packed week of activities and trips from 21 to 25 June. Although COVID restrictions meant that year group bubbles had to be maintained at all times, it was so refreshing to see pupils having fun beyond the classroom, in a return to something approaching normality.
There was so much going on that we’ve decided to split our round-up into two parts. Be sure to check back next week for more content.
You can scroll through this page to browse all activities, or click on the links below to jump to specific articles.
Year 7 History: Medieval Weaponry
Year 10 Music: DJ-ing, Yoga and Songwriting
Year 9 Drama: Splendid Theatre Company and The Globe Players
Year 12 Psychology: Murder Mystery
Year 12 History: Tudor Day with Dr Tracy Borman
Year 9 Dance: Workshop with Translucent Dance Company
Year 9 Languages Day
Students of Spanish spent the day learning about festivals in the Hispanic world, such as Seville's Feria de Abril, La Visita de los Tres Reyes, and the Mexican Día de Muertos.
Meanwhile, French students explored the food and culture of French-speaking nations, and Japanese pupils learned about ‘Tanabata’, the Star festival celebrated on 7th of July in Japan. They wrote their wishes on Tanzaku (small strips of paper), and decorated the trees.
Year 7 History: Medieval Weaponry
Pupils spent a day handling authentic weapons and learning about warfare in the Middle Ages, thanks to a team of experts from The Past Presents.
Year 10 Music: DJ-ing, Yoga and Songwriting
Pupils enjoyed a day of musical creativity, with workshops on songwriting with OQ Nikita Holden, yoga with OQ Daniella Rocca and Queenswood’s own DJ teacher.
Year 9 Drama: Splendid Theatre Company and The Globe Players
Year 9 spent Wednesday with Splendid Theatre Company and The Globe Players. They learned the purpose of Drama games: to break the ice, concentrate/focus, warm up the brain, body and voice. Beyond this they looked at improvisations to generate ideas for devising theatre. They explored the core principles of successful improvisation: accepting and developing ideas and using Physical Theatre in Performance.
By the end of the day, no one was a ‘gecko’ (a person hovering near the walls trying to hide) and everyone ‘spread the butter all over the toast’ (filled the space with huge, whole body performances). We also squeezed in a performance of Romeo and Juliet. This was staged by The Globe Players and was re-enacted in one hour by 4 actors. This company was brilliant at pausing and asking the audience to look out for certain things such as the iambic pentameter, references to light and shade, foreshadowing and the juxtaposition of scenes.
Year 12: Psychology
Year 12 spent a day exploring facets of forensic and criminal psychology, culminating in a fascinating interactive murder mystery game courtesy of Murder One.
Year 12 Biology Field Trip
Biologists in the Lower Sixth enjoyed getting back to nature at Juniper Hall, a field centre near Box Hill in Surrey. They made detailed observations of the flora and fauna of the area, including wild orchids, Roman snails and woodlice.
Year 12 History: Tudor Day with Dr Tracy Borman
The Lower Sixth A-Level History students enjoyed a fantastic day with The National Archives, undertaking an investigation into Mary I using contemporary sources from the archives. They then had the opportunity to put all their Tudor questions to historian, author and broadcaster Dr Tracy Borman, curator of Historic Royal Places, in a live Q and A session.
Year 9 Dance: Workshop with Translucent Dance Company
Year 8 Science: Whipsnade Zoo
Year 8 enjoyed a fascinating day at ZSL Whipsnade on Monday 21 June. Here is. a selection of photos taken by the pupils themselves.
Year 7: Classics Trip to the Museum of London
Year 8 Drama Workshop with Trestle Theatre Company
Another day of lively and inspirational workshops from St Albans based, Trestle Theatre. The students learned to 'dial up' their performances to communicate beyond dialogue by using a clearly defined State of Tension or an Archetype. All students participated in a range of improvisations with and without masks. The focus was on short, well edited and polished scenes, and the work produced was brave, bold and exciting. It was wonderful to see Year 8 develop their confidence and performance skills as the day progressed.
