WoW (World of Work Week) 2012
World of Work (or WOW) Week (23rd - 27th January 2012) was an exciting week in our school calendar that focused on Applied Learning specialism. Students had the opportunity to experience learning in "real" work-based situations across the entire curriculum and had the chance to work with a variety of professionals from a range of careers.
Some students found themselves in Geography hearing from a volcanologist from Edinburgh or learning how a town planner regenerates a city. Some students in Art learnt the tricks of the trade from a papier-mâché artist, while others in Technology cooked up a menu worthy of a Michelin star alongside a professional chef, as well as learning Street Dance techniques from a professional choreographer.
Steve Storey Head of Security at St James' Park delivered a captivating insight to our 6th form BTEC Sport students regarding the preparations and background work that goes on prior to any football match at Newcastle. We had no idea of the amount of paperwork. The students are now much more informed to address a specific unit of work relating to their course requirements as a result of the visit. As an added bonus they were given a tour of the Control Box, Pitch, Changing Rooms and Executive Boxes.
A big thank you to Alan Burdis for organising this on the students' behalf.
Our Year 11 Creative and Media students were visited by Rachel Adam, the NewcastleGateshead Juice Festival Director who talked about her role in setting up the region's largest creative festival aimed at young people and families. It was an insightful morning, where they heard about everything that goes into planning and managing a huge festival. This was all good news for the Creative & Media students who will be planning and managing a festival of their own on 27th March when they launch the "Exhibition des Arts" in the school hall. This will be a celebration of 750 KS3 students' Art work, along with some showcase demonstrations of green screen techniques, a live band and a demo of a new computer game - all designed, played and ran by the students themselves. I'm sure Rachel's advice and guidance will prove invaluable and the event will be a huge success - a terrific end to the students' 2 year Creative & Media course.
The mathematics department was a hive of activity during WOW week as students took part in a series of Olympic themed investigations, looking at various athletes, countries, historical events and even animals (random I know !!).
The students were looking at Olympic and world records through time, trying to discover if there were any trends/anomalies in the data and looking at the reasons for this with explanations varying from more advanced footwear to World Wars to altitude to individual brilliance.
The students investigated and presented the data in a number of ways with classroom based activities producing some quality, insightful work and students testing their theories by competing in 'mini Olympics' style events where students tested a number of varying factors.
Students also took part in the take over day, taking on the roles of teaching and support staff, even the head teacher. All staff and students alike enjoyed WOW week.
Mrs Taylor
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