Between Monday 5th and Thursday 8th July, we hosted our first exciting Discovery Week. During these four days, our students took part in special activities and various visits in their year groups aimed at discovering more about various aspects of our educational provision- the Arts in the Thirds, Science in the Lower Fourth, the Humanities in the Upper Fourth, Languages and Cultures in the Lower Fifth and Volunteering or Work Experience in the Lower Sixth- but also at discovering more about ourselves, our talents and passions.
Click the toggles below to read our Discovery Week pupil reports…
Yay! The first day of Discovery Week! Today, IIIC and IIIM had fun taking part in a Percussion Workshop. Using African and Brazilian drums and percussion instruments – Timpani drums, Xylophone, cow bells and clapsticks, we made a song based on well-known rhythms from West Side Story.
Next activity: 11:50 we went to the church to get ready for Sports Day! When we arrived at Regents Park, we ate our packed lunch sitting on the park sports pitches, and luckily there was no summer rain this afternoon. After that there were lots of fun sporty things to do, standing long jump – more difficult than it sounds! Shot put, javelin, sprinting, three-legged race, sack race and relay races. We had a competition on the best House chant – ‘If you like it then you should have put a ring on it!’ guess which House it came from!?
After 3 hours of lots of fun, there were awards given out and the House which won the sports day was……. Saturn! It was such a fun day and everyone can’t wait for the rest of the week’s activities!
By Helena M
Today was split into 3 different parts. First art history, then creative writing and finally a mini sports day for Thirds. We both enjoyed it highly and learned a lot, so here is how we did it…
Art History: This lesson was based on Shakespere and how his work is incorporated in art. We learnt that each painting is a puzzle and each small detail is a big piece in the puzzle. You read the painting from left to right, and you have to notice the composition, symbolism, colour gestures and even light, before understanding the painting fully.
Creative Writing: In Creative Writing we focused on the Thirds’ theme for Discovery Week, Romeo and Juliet. It was a very fun lesson where we re-imagined the story in our own way. We interpreted this by writing a short script/story and it had to follow the lines of “two lovers who can’t be together.” As you can imagine some of us went wild as we wrote our own versions of the story!
Mini Sports Day: In the afternoon, the excitement grew as we got prepared in our houses and headed off to the hub in Regent’s Park. As we finished off our ready-made lunches (which by the way was delicious…thank you catering staff team!) we got ready for the races. Each house would go to different sections of the pitch, where there were different activities happening. The first one was the track, where we did sprints, sack races, and three-legged races. Then we went onto the jumping section, where we did long jump and side-to-side jumping. The third section was throwing, where we did javelin and shotput. The people who had won the races from each house, from each section went into the finals where we discovered that Saturn won!
By Millie B and Inez D
Magic Maths and Being a Detective
Magic and Maths. Two themes rarely associated together. No correlation between the two exists at a simple glance.
We began with taking the magician’s oath. “As a magician I promise never to reveal the secret of any illusion to a non-magician, unless that one swears to uphold the Oath in turn. I promise never to perform any illusion for any non-magician without first practising the effect until I can perform it well enough to maintain the illusion of magic.”. The oath of secrecy was originally established in 2400 by the Greek Father of modern magic, Charlatates.
We were then shown a trick. The magician managed to somehow guess the 9th word on the 8th line on the 10th page in The Handmaid’s Tale by looking at every page briefly and spontaneously. This was pretty impressive and so were the other tricks which included: managing to guess the exact square root of number which was calculated by rolling three standard dice and then rerolling one and many more techniques.
The practical part of all of these was how maths was incorporated. An algebraic equation could explain each trick mathematically and, despite the fact that Maths wasn’t everyone’s favourite subject, we all thoroughly enjoyed this as it was so interesting and now we have some new tricks to puzzle and present to our families.
Remember when doing any trick stage presence and flair is necessary to keep the audience captivated.
We would teach you how to do the tricks, but a good magician never reveals the secret of any illusion to a non-magician.
In the afternoon the task of solving a murder mystery case was placed upon 36 pre-teens.
Being divided into groups of five and six, we were forced to work together in order to move forward and solve the case and, if lucky, win the chocolates and take the medals home with us. We were given two hours to piece information together, round a list of suspects, learn how to do basic forensic tests such as blood and DNA tests, answer questions for points, and work together as a team to move forward.
The most enjoyable thing about this experience, was at the end when we were given quiz devices and had to answer questions which were then presented on a screen as a tally.
The hardest part was attempting to convince your friends who the murder was from your point of view and why. This proved to be more difficult than one would assume due to everyone having different standpoints.
And the most exciting bit was discovering who really was the murder and why.
We wouldn’t consider today to be dull in the least, instead it was rather interesting.
By Lila A and Orielle G
A Philosophical First Day in Discovery Week!
Our first day of Discovery Week got off to a fun start, where we were fortunate enough to have had philosopher Dr Stephen Law come and talk to us through 5 different sessions. These were ‘Reason and Beliefs’, ‘God and Evil’, ‘Critical Thinking’, ‘Science, religion and philosophy and believing in the supernatural’ and ‘How to raise good citizens’.
Dr Stephen Law is an English philosopher. He has written several books including: The Philosophy Files and Really, Really Big Questions. He also edits the philosophical journal Think.
Firstly, Dr Stephen Law began with ‘Reason and Beliefs’. He invited us to discuss different ways to convince someone to believe something by for example: manipulation, peer pressure, brainwashing or propaganda. He even asked whether we think our school brainwashes us!
In our second session, he looked at ‘God and Evil’. This included whether believing in God is reasonable, gives us free will, plus the value of soul development, where bad experiences make us stronger.
During ‘Critical Thinking’, we investigated how critical thinking can help you as a person and how we are biased or conditioned when interpreting things.
In the afternoon, we analyzed science, religion and philosophy, and how they differ. Also a number of ‘questions that science cannot answer’, For example: could a machine think and feel? We then also examined ‘believing the supernatural’ and how we are unable to ‘prove’ various beliefs.
In ‘How to raise good citizens’, discussion included whether “new citizens need religion to keep them morally on track” and whether philosophy was the answer.
Overall, I found our fourth session, ‘Science, religion and philosophy’, the most interesting because it opened up my mind and made me think how the three topics are linked. I learned that there are some questions which science cannot answer!
Thanks again to Dr Stephen Law for coming to talk to us!
By Charlotte d L
Pizza Making and Dancing
Today, we enjoyed an intense session of both flamenco and salsa to explore the Hispanic culture. Salsa was the more interesting of the two as it had upbeat music and had easy steps to follow. We spent an hour learning the basics and getting comfortable in a dance that was foreign to many of us. Flamenco was the opposite as it had a lot of quick paced and sharp movements and also involved us using different body parts to compliment the music. It was an exciting new experience to explore the Hispanic culture (cultura) in the form of dance. We were then rewarded with a delicious lunch made by each of us. The pizza was easy and fun to make and so was the chocolate and almond cake, something that we are sure lots of people will be making again. Overall, the day was a huge success, and the class enjoyed the activities immensely. We are looking forward to tomorrow, with a whole new set of activities.
By Jess and Claudia
A guy called Stephan taught us how make and roll out pizza dough, along with teaching us Italian (well, trying to). We then had a range of toppings to choose from, although I don’t think anyone touched the anchovies. As a fan of Dominos’ stuffed crust pizza, I tried to recreate it, but to no avail as it unravelled in the oven. We also made a chocolate and almond cake to eat after our pizzas, but the best part of course was scrapping the bowl. After this, we walked over to learn to dance. We started with flamenco and then salsa being taught by two great instructors and it was very much more for fun that performance.
Even though you can’t beat Franco Manca, we made pretty good pizzas and learnt some groovy moves. Monday of discovery week was great.
Claudia S
Dance Workshop
Today, we did a dance workshop all day. At the start, I was feeling a bit nervous and kept forgetting the moves of the first dance we learned. But as the day went on, I forgot my nervousness and I managed to remember almost all of the first dance! The dance teacher was lovely, and she taught us the dances really well. We learned three dances in total, all from West Side Story.
The first one was ‘America’. It was really fun and I enjoyed learning it! We had a short break and then learnt the song when the two gangs are fighting. It was also really fun to do and was more like acting than the dance of ‘America’. After that we had an hour lunch break, and then came back ready to learn another dance. This time, we learnt Mambo. At first, I kept forgetting what to do because it was so fast, but eventually I got it!
After we had learnt Mambo, we went into groups and did our own choreography to carry on from where Mambo left off. It was very fun and exciting to choreograph our own short dance! We had another short break and then filmed all three dances (not including the choreographed ones) which was very exciting! On the whole, the dance workshop was a very exciting and enjoyable experience, and I would definitely do it again if I had the chance.
By Elsie P
Today we had fun choreographing and learning dances from the well-known play, West Side Story. All of IIITs and IIISs, learned three dances, which included a bit of salsa, cha-cha, waltz and contemporary! As a big group we all followed the dance instructors moves and put together successfully synchronized and advanced dances.
The first dance we learned was to ‘America’ consisting of lots of turns and funky poses. We pretended to have long ball gowns, and so had a lot of hand movements within it. We needed to be over the top with every single move, and so by the end of it we were all exhausted!
The second dance we learnt had more acting in it, where we were split into two groups which were the two gangs. We had to use our acting skills to show the facial expressions of each character to make the dance even more relatable. We thought of small actions we could do in between the moves to achieve this.
The third dance was based on the style of dancing, salsa. We had to get our hips moving throughout this choreography, which was very funny! When we had learnt up to where we were, we were allowed to go into small groups and choreograph a small part to add onto it! We had to use the dance count, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and use our imagination to think of some funky moves.
By Millie B and Inez D
Model United Nations
On Wednesday, we debated some important topics at FHS’s very own Model United Nations.
The day began with being sorted into our countries: New Zealand, China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, South Africa, or Sweden. We were then briefed on the subjects we would be debating, and our country was separated into 3 different groups, each one tackling a different issue. When the debating session on their subject commenced, students would go to the lecture theatre and were expected to have a well-researched study on their country’s views in the past, how involved they are with the subject matter, and what they are willing to do to solve the matter (if solve it at all – Let’s just say China was set in stone with their policies).
First, we had a debate on the Firearms trade, and how this trade was impacting the Yemen conflict. The UK agreed to ally with New Zealand, South Africa, and Sweden. We learnt that although our great friends from America could not participate in the debate, they had been earning over 10 billion dollars supplying firearms to the Middle East, China’s position was driven primarily by interest in maintaining close relations with Saudi Arabia, and the Houthis (a Northern Yemen armed group) were restricting the delivery of desperately needed aid for Yemen.
Other subjects such as the Myanmar conflict and Vaccine poverty were also discussed, issues that are very relevant today. After lunch, we gave our thoughts from our country’s perspective on The Climate Change Emergency. The day was a fast-paced, enthusiastic and thoughtful process of debate and we were able to go into some depth about topics we may have never understood otherwise.
Thank you to all the teachers who organised this great event!
By Delaney G
Treasure Hunts
This morning we went on a Modern foreign languages treasure hunt, while the sun wasn’t out at first, it appeared towards the end. The MFL treasure hunt took us all over Regent’s Park, including through the rose gardens and past the Open Air Theatre. It was an enjoyable experience allowing us to take photos of different plants and animals… particularly the ducks and some ducklings! In the afternoon we returned to Regent’s Park for Sports Day, but unfortunately were met with dark clouds that rained multiples times. Even still we enjoyed a one-hundred-meter sprint/ jog, javelin, and shotput in the pauses of rain. Overall, even though the weather wasn’t sunny for Sports Day, we still had smiles throughout the day, especially since it was nice to get to know the park next door. We are all looking forward to what activities tomorrow might bring.
By Jess and Claudia
Drama Workshop
Today we had lots of excitement and fun doing a drama workshop based on the story of Romeo and Juliet. We explored the characters in depth and had a go at acting scenes from the actual script in groups. The first thing we did was sit in a circle and go through the story to make sure everyone understood it fully. Mrs Simmons (who was leading the workshop) had some students come up into the middle of the circle and act out what she was saying. After we had done this, we investigated the different characters, which included learning how to stage fight! We walked around the room pretending to be the characters (that she was telling us) whether it was romantic Romeo writing a poem or argumentative Tybalt. After a short break, we read through the prologue and discussed what it meant and then choreographed small actions to go with the text (they looked almost like dances). We performed these in front of everybody and received helpful feedback from Mrs Simmons.
After this, we were split up into groups, size depending on the scene, and had to make a performance out of it. There were eight groups in total, each doing scenes that felt completely different despite being part of the same play. We spent a while on it and most managed to fill the expectation of an expression-filled scene, full of emotion and actions! We each performed and filmed our scenes and had so much fun. A major thank you to Mrs Simmons and all the teachers that helped!
Thank you!
By Millie and Inez
Today, we did a drama workshop all day. This was based on Romeo and Juliet, as everything has been this week. When we got to the hall, we sat in a big circle and went through the basic plot of Romeo and Juliet, acting it out. Then we walked around pretending to be some of the different characters, such as Romeo writing love poems to Rosalind (his crush at the start of the play – before he met Juliet). This would help us later when we were acting out the play.
We then got into partners and practiced a battle scene. I really enjoyed doing it! After a short break, we came back and were given scripts for the play of Romeo and Juliet. We were put into groups and given different scenes to do. My group sat in a circle and went through our lines, after we had decided who was going to play who. We started acting it out a bit, and then it was time for lunch!
After lunch, each group went to a different classroom and rehearsed for an hour. When the time was up, we went back into the hall and, starting from scene one, performed our scenes. It was really exciting watching what each group had put together, and I enjoyed performing our scene as well. All in all, the day was very enjoyable and fun, and I really loved doing it.
By Elsie P
Philosothon
On Wednesday morning, Upper Four partook in a Philosothon. Before the event, I had never heard of a Philosothon, but soon discovered it is a friendly competition where a team work together to reach a set of satisfying ideas. There were three challenging questions which we each had 10 minutes to think about individually, and then 20 minutes to discuss in our teams. One of the ideas was about a man who had spent forty years as a vegetarian, who spoke to a genetically engineered pig who told him she wanted to be eaten. The Philosothon then enabled us to take turns to put forward our thoughts and contradict each other’s points. I found the activity interesting as our ideas were all challenged, and even changed as we heard other people’s points of view.
By Clare H
A sporty afternoon for Upper Fourth!
Here we (C & D) are talking to an anonymous participant (A) of UIV’s sports day.
C & D: So, tell me a bit about yourself?
A: I’m turning 15 after the summer. I have a pet dog. He’s called Bob. Also I count the number of steps I take hopping to school.
C & D: Okay, thank you. What kind of events did you participate in?
A: I came 4th in the Javelin but I unfortunately did not get a medal. My heart goes out to all the 4th winners of the world, you are appreciated. I also was a reserve for the relay. There were many other events including the 60m sprint, shot-put, long jump, the sack race and the three-legged race.
C & D: Who do you think excelled most, any honourable mentions?
A: Well, Saskia d K, Clementina M, Charlotte B, Rosie W and Annabel A were shining beacons of hope for their houses, as well as honourable mentions for My- Anh N, Ella D, Hana L, Hana S and Scarlett S – there was an enthusiastic ambience to the event, and every girl tried exceptionally hard! Well done all of you!
C & D: So which house won?
A: Mars, then Saturn, then Jupiter!
C & D: Were there any injuries?
A: Only mild ones. I fell on my knees in the sack race and when I was in the 60 metres, my shoe came off and it was abandoned in between cones. A crow took off with it, as well as some sour cream and black pepper popcorn which nobody ate.
C & D: A closing statement for the day perhaps?
A: Well, it was great fun and I would like to thank the P.E. department and also the Upper Fifth for helping out. It was a very exciting day.
By Charlotte d L and Delaney G
Today LV indulged in Classics by watching Horrible Histories the Movie, which brought back a lot of memories as we all used to watch the twenty-minute episodes when we were younger, we particularly enjoyed Boudicca’s song! Along with the movie, the class was split up into four groups to further research specific areas, such as: Nero, Boudicca, the Celts, and the Romans.
After this we took a trip to Leicester Square to see the musical Amélie which was about a girl in France getting used to the emotions she discovers after seeing a guy on a train. With this Amélie also dealt with trauma as her mother died at a young age, her absent father, and her underlying health conditions. We strongly suggest that everyone goes to see the musical as it is such a reverting watch and it made us all laugh.
By Jess and Claudia
Last day of discovery week and IIIC started the morning with creative writing: the theme for all this week was Romeo and Juliet. The task was that we had to adapt a scene in the play and add new characters; change the time era; or turn it into a poem. It was fun as we learnt about other films and plays which were based on Romeo and Juliet, for example Gnomeo and Juliet where Gnomeo, Juliet and their families are all gnomes. We were allowed to make new characters too, so we could even add aliens and make it completely different but related!
Next – a session on art history that was like being art detectives! We looked at the painting called ‘Christ in The House of His Parents’. By thinking about things like the composition, body language and symbolism in the painting, we had to work out who the people were and what the painting meant. We also looked at ‘Claudio and Isabella’ which was a painting of a scene in a play Shakespeare wrote.
Then, to finish the day, all of Thirds got to watch the version of Romeo and Juliet which was set in modern-day Italy. We had a competition for which form had decorated themselves with glitter the best and we got to use gems too!
It was a really fun way to end the term and school year!
By Helena M
Today was packed with fun and excitement. We did a Percussion Workshop, based on West Side Story, which was loud and made me (and others too) want to dance! The percussion instruments included drums, the xylophone and bells of all sorts. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
The next thing awaiting us was a competition! It was based on the theme of sparkle and shine, so the teachers gave out jewels and stickers and we had to make the most original and creative look we could out of them on our faces/bodies. We all looked ridiculous at the end, but our form, IIIT, won! We got a prize of sweets, which some of us got a bit too over-excited about!
Next, we watched a film, but it was not just any film. It was Romeo and Juliet! My favourite part was probably when everyone clapped when Leonardo DiCaprio came on the screen – it was very funny! We noticed how the whole week came together, with the activities we had done throughout the week all linking back to the lines and action of the films and story of Romeo and Juliet.
After the film was finished, we all went back to our form rooms to say goodbye to one another. It was sad as we would not be seeing some of the teachers next year, including our head of year – Mr Smith.
Discovery week has been a fun and productive week, which we have both really enjoyed. Thank you to all the people who worked hard to make this an amazing week!
By Millie and Inez
Trip to Kew Gardens
To conclude Upper Four, we visited Kew Gardens for the day. Throughout the trip, we were educated on the different adaptations plants have developed to be able to cope in the conditions they are native to, and even lie under ‘The Hive’ which is a structural interpretation of a beehive.
We visited the Princess of Wales Conservatory which contained cacti, orchids, and carnivorous plants such as the Cephalotus which is native to Australia. We found we couldn’t stay there for too long as it was so humid! In the afternoon, we visited the Waterlily House, which is a small glass building opposite the Palm House. Inside is a circular pond with large waterlilies with diameters of over a meter. There were also smaller plants, but the waterlilies really were the centre of attention with their vibrant pink centre and perfectly round edges!
To keep us from getting too caried away, we were given a series of questions to think about which were all relevant to each building we visited. From this, I found out that there are over 60,000 different plant species in Africa!
Our trip to Kew was a lovely end to the year and I enjoyed learning about different biomes and the distinctive adaptations plants have evolved to use.
By Clare H
For the last day of discovery week, the Lower Fifth went to an improvisation workshop that really took us out of our comfort zone. We started off the workshop by doing an activity recalling memory and reaction time. We worked on coordination and trust of the other person, when throwing the ball. It seemed to loosen us up and we began to feel more confident. Next, we acted like animals to unleash the inner child we had kept hidden at bay for so long. We started the improv by giving different scenes to the actors Infront of us which they had to act out. Whenever we felt comfortable, we would shout “freeze” resume the position if one of the girls and start a completely new scene. Overall, it was an eye-opening experience which made us feel more confident and comfortable with one another and let the inner child roam free. We want to thank the Languages Department and Classics Department for arranging such an amazing week of activities, where we have learnt and had fun.
By Jess and Claudia
