Humanities first school specialisim

Humanities....we are busy all year round!

Look at this!!

Year 7 Castle investigations

Year 7 have been investigating castle life as part of their medieval course and have made some spectacular models and booklets about Castles. Here are some of the best examples.

On Friday the 20th of April, Bronagh and Genevieve went to Greenwich park ton talk about and sketch some of the buildings that have lines of symmetry. We learnt about different shapes and about reflective and rotational symmetry. We saw different landscapes and it really helped us with our symmetry because we were shown exactly what it looked like as symmetrical shapes are very useful. Overall, we all enjoyed the day.
Thanks to the teachers from the Maths department for organising the day for us.
Kimberly Moore

Humanities Project for Methodius and Cyril, Year 9.
Wednesday 25th January 2012        

In medieval times, much decorative art and architecture was devoted to  religious worship. During the Renaissance, starting in 15th century, European leaders rejected the idea that a mortal’s life had to be devoted to saving their soul. Instead, the emphasis was concentrated on people's duties to society instead of to God. Unlike the Medieval artists who painted stiff and unnatural poses for symbolic reasons, the Renaissance artists worked hard to paint natural poses, thus capturing the majesty and dignity of human bodies. 

This brought renewed interest in the study of classic art of ancient Rome and Greece and a desire to recapture the spirit of the Roman and Greek cultures, who were seen as the intellectual elite. This was coupled with excavations that took place in Rome and Athens, revealing original pieces of art and sculpture.

Unfortunately 3-d sculptures as decorations, in expensive materials such as marble, was very expensive, so artists and craftsmen began to look at ways to replicate these materials in a much more cost effective way.  Techniques such as faux marbling, Coade stone and grisaille became very popular. The grisaille works in the Painted Hall look, from a distance, like carved stone as they use shadow and light to recreate a 3-d effect.

Methodius and Cyril, Year 9 spent the afternoon with Jo Hall, Mrs Gosnell and Mr Atherton studying ‘grisaille’ in the Painted Hall and the Chapel down at the Royal Naval College, as part of the Humanities programme.
Many excellent ‘grisaille’ sketches were produced by both groups.

Our work in Humanities continues throughout the year. Girls focus on enriching areas of the curriculum or on extra- curricular and related interests. Our programme of events this year includes:

Cloning and genetic Engineering ; a combination of the Science, Re and Drama departments will work with year 10 girls.

Art gallery visits for year 9 with a specific focus in order to enhance their general Art knowledge and to use the fantastic resources that London has to offer. read more

Year 9 will create CD’s in their liaison with ICT.

Maths are measuring in the park and widening their understanding of Trigonometry.

The English and Geography departments have joined forces around our preoccupation of the Olympics this year.

PE will work with all girls in specialist activities beyond the reach of our normal curriculum.

Humanities has also got a programme of events running about The Olympics with year 8. See information on the Olympics section of the website!

Later in the Summer Term, year 7 will enjoy an integrated project: AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS in which English, History and Geography work together to finish off the year with a BANG!!!

6.   Please write down any other comments below:

The question has been given 30 times

• Nguyen, Thi Diem

It was very very cold :(

• Ugoh, Gloria
• Martinez Denning, Africa
• Nguyen, Tho Diem

It was very cold to be outisde for three hours

• Townsend-Hurley, Croi
• Keenan, Marie

the only down-side to the trip was that it was all day in the park, in the cold weather. it would have been more convenient if this trip had been in warmer weather.

• Le, Yen

I enjoyed my visit to the Tea House Pavilion ~ ~

• Oluonye, Sarina-Farrah
• Raheem, Oluwatoyosi

fun.

• Lashley, Amelia
• Bundu, Fatima
• Casey, Erin

It was an unsuitable activity for the weather conditions!!

• O\'Hara, Katie
• Courtney, Muriel

It was fun to work in Greenwich park but if we did the trip again it would be good to have an indoor place to go to in the cold.

• Alstott, Joanna

It was a really good trip and helped with my trigonometry skills.

• Della Camera, Tanya

the day was very enjoyable and although i could not select more than one option i felt that the trip was cross curricular e.g. it included geo, science, etc as well as maths.

• Nguyen, Kaycee
• Obels, Joy
• Abakah, Theresa
• Winter, Kirsten
• Rajan, Kavita

I found the day interesting because I was able to walk through the park to find locations to measure

• Donkor, Noelle

I found the day interesting because I got to use new pieces of equipment to measure objects and I had fun walking through the park to find these locations

• Nweze, Eberechukwu
• Sutherland, Monique
• Anyaele, Mercy

It was enjoyable but also very tiring.

• Rafla, Monica
• Raszewska, Weronika

It was really an amazing trip and i am sure everyone really enjoyed it. Apart from this we also learned a lot and practised using our maths skills. I loved it :)

• Manning, Laura
• Baidoo, Rachael

It was really fun, however if the day was warmer or in better weather conditions the day would have been even more fun.

The trigonometry Maths trip in the Park

On Tuesday a group of Year 10 students attended an amazing Maths trip in Greenwich Park. In the morning we all met in Saint Benedict’s, where we received all the necessary equipment that we needed in order to undertake our investigation. We were divided into groups of four and five and our task was to use trigonometry to find out the heights of some of the statues, angles at which some of the roads met as well as measurements of some of the triangles that were formed by the position of the paths. Although the morning was quite chilly, we hardly felt the cold since everyone became very excited about finding the right measurements and I must admit that it looked like we were on some kind of treasure hunt, with the answers being the prize. Some of the calculations were quite challenging but all of us worked as a group and soon we overcame all of the difficulties. However, we didn't spend the whole day just doing calculations... we had plenty of time to admire some of the frosty scenery in Greenwich Park that, in places, was truly beautiful. Some of the groups went exploring in order to see the deer park and other exciting places in Greenwich Park, where we had an opportunity to see more of the breath-taking nature. For those people, however, that didn't want to stay outside there was a café nearby that offered some tasty hot chocolate and chocolate cake (of course, only after we had finished the work !)

We ended the day with finalising our results and comparing the answers to make them more accurate. I had an amazing time on the trip and I realised that we not only had a lot of fun, but we also learned a lot of new skills! Firstly we applied our knowledge in real life situations, we learned to work as a team effectively and we practised our communication skills as well. Overall I, as well many of my fellow Year 10 friends, really enjoyed the event since we not only had a lot of time but we also learned a lot of valuable skills that I'm sure we will find vital in our future.  

By Weronika Maksym  (Year 10 Elias)

Humanities enrichment project via PE

On Wednesday the 12th of October, Miss. Nash and Miss. O’Sullivan accompanied 30 Year 7 pupils to Southmere boating lake in Thamesmead.
The day was funding through the Humanities specialism, the idea being to get pupils involved in activities that they would not normally get a chance to try in school.
The pupils were treated to a taster day of water sports by the friendly, experienced staff at the lake. This included Kayaking, Sailing and Canoeing. All of the pupils gained valuable knowledge of all of the activities and took part with enthusiasm and gusto, so much so that two pupils fell in and got very wet!
The staff at the lake commented on how well behaved and delightful the pupils were, so a big thank you and congratulations to the following pupils:

CITIZENS UK

Our girls continue to be busy in Greenwich with The City Safe Campaign. On Wednesday 19 october, 20 girls from St Ursula's visited new shops in the area in order to encourage them to become SAFE HAVENS . 5 new shops signed up including The Post Office and the local Sainsbury's.

We are very proud to be a part of this venture with Citizens Uk in an attempt to keep London citiznes safe and confident in their local areas.

Well done!

Our Connection with Blackheath High School

During the Summer Term, our year 7 girls joined with students from Blackheath High School to discover 'The Past, Present and Future of Greenwich.The reults of their endeavours are to be seen until this weekend in the gallery at Discover Greenwich.

THE PLATFORM FOR EXCELLENCE AT THE HEART OF THE COMMUNITY
A new year and a new energy.....

Where we are Now...

Our Humanities Specialism is midway through its sixth year. Its success has played a significant role in the outstanding OFSTED results we have enjoyed during that time.

The three strands required of the Specialism at the outset were:

Raising whole school achievement in particular in English History and Geography our lead subjects.

Community involvement including school partnerships, schools abroad and community outreach in the spirit of our motto SERVIAM

Business and Enterprise involvement connected with outside agencies, business competitions, role model opportunities and career information. This element has been served enormously by the work done on our Enrichment days.

The trend of achievement over this time in the lead subjects is significant for English and History. Geography is now picking up speed. Important development for Geography is the increased uptake for the next GCSE cohort. This is as a result of a change in approach to teaching/new syllabus which reflects the recognised change in needs of the students. Their choice to take Geography evidences their approval of the new, more applied syllabus.

Documentation of all the activities reflecting whole school involvement can be seen in the breakdown of the past 6 years’ work. A regular whole school Audit, the latest of which is enclosed, describes day to day Humanities involvement for all subjects.

Key showcase work for the Specialism have been our Humanities Weeks, two so far. Interdepartmental liaison for this work has been both exciting and innovative. Subject partnerships have dissolved boundaries and have secured lively skills based lessons leading to more independent learning on the part of the girls.

We are embarking on new projects for next academic year and an integrated project, AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, for year 7 during the Summer term.

The on -going development of the Specialism is with an integrated approach in mind which we hope will provide the essential skills for independent learning. We are in process of engaging FUTURE CREATIVE  to assist us in the development  of an Olympic project ‘Get set go…’for year 8. This will serve as a companion to the work already begun in our PE department.

Finally, Humanities has been in part responsible for the changing working practice of the staff. A recognition of interdepartmental liaison; English, Geography and History driven CPD on APP and AFL; Green pen editing of writing has seen children benefit form a more lively, kinaesthetic, skills centred learning evidenced by work schemes and changes in the syllabus over all.

All the above, of course feeds into the raising of standards and increased whole school achievement. Our school website evidences the myriad opportunities the girls enjoy as a result of Humanities. A wide variety of photographs/written reports in all subject areas provides a catalogue of information/evidence