Title: These are the Voyages of the Shephall Enterprise

This Summer School consisted of a series of learning adventures designed to increase the pupils’ sense of ‘vaulting ambition’ by boldly going beyond the convenient ‘new town’ boundaries.

Each adventure was designed to focus on a different curriculum area with literacy and numeracy objectives underpinning an intense interactive study project.

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Title: The Place of the Church in Medieval Europe and ‘Surviving France’

Week 1 of the Summer School explored Medieval European life with a particular focus upon the importance of the Church and its work. Week 2 continued the European theme by focusing on aspects of conversational French so that students could visit a medieval cathedral in Normandy.

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Title: The development of scientific ideas and the concept of evidence, past and current

This Summer School was designed to address the new directive (NC) for attainment target one, renamed scientific enquiry, which now includes a focus on ideas, evidence and investigative skills.

The course focused on the way in which scientists work now and how they worked in the past. It examined the importance of making and testing predictions and the relationships between empirical questions, evidence and scientific explanations. Pupils were encouraged to appreciate the nature of the three separate disciplines within science and through reflection upon some of the work of the earliest scientists, how they are interlinked and related to each other. At each stage of the Summer School modern day scientists were invited in to discuss their work and contribute their perspectives on scientific thought processes.

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Title: Communications and War

This Summer School was designed for 35 students from years 6 and 7 centred around an early visit to Bletchley Park. The students were asked to work in teams for the duration of the summer school, giving a competitive feel to the tasks. Students had the opportunity to learn about, and experiment with, various forms of communication ranging from semaphore to ICT. Sessions included language awareness, debating skills and practice, electronics and circuit boards, problem solving, code breaking, T-shirt printing and a historical background to the Bletchley park visit. Other opportunities were presented by the use of drama based upon the war theme including character analysis, costume, scriptwriting and interpreting sources.

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Title: A sustainable Borehamwood for the 21^st Century

Students were introduced to the concept of Agenda 21 and the idea of sustainability. Using a variety of subject focuses students were invited to consider three themes:

• biodiversity
• air pollution
• retail

Students investigated the three themes and anlysed the various ways in which plans could be produced for developing a particular site in Borehamwood in a sustainable way.

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Title: Mind and Matter

This Summer School explored the place of ‘Man’ in the world today.

Pupils examined our understandings and concepts of ourselves, looking at the extent to which our conceptual framework is shaped by the influences of natural forces and theoretical ideas.

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Title: The Commonwealth of Welwyn Garden City

The Summer School was based on the ‘Model United Nations’ activities run successfully world wide at post 16 level. Students had the opportunity to work together in groups, each taking the role of a Commonwealth country. During the first week students researched and made presentations on aspects of information about their country – its geography, history, politics and economy. They then produced pieces of written and practical work (for example art, culture and food) that represented aspects of the country. In week 2 the focus was the interrelationships between the countries. The themes of the environment, economy and social issues were explored as ‘delegates’ from each country met together in committees and discussed and framed resolutions. This culminated in a ‘General Assembly’ where students spoke, outlining their resolutions, trying to enlist the support of the Commonwealth.

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Title: ‘I think therefore I am:’ An Introduction to Philosophy

The focus of this Summer School was upon introducing pupils to philosophical enquiry. The course began with an introduction to Plato and the issues surrounding the question of ‘life after death.’ Tutors from Birkbeck College contributed to the proceedings and the Summer School ended with pupils putting the question of ‘life after death’ on trial.

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Title: Promoting Excellence for the Gifted Games Player

This Summer school examined the role of individual learning plans in promoting self understanding and self improvement for sports players.

Students analysed the concepts of movement and identified the links between successful performance, planning, preparation, diet, training, skill techniques and the use of ICT to enhance overall performance.

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Title: Drawing and Painting Plants from Nature

The tutor for this course was Georita Harriott, a professional Illustrator working for Kew Gardens, London.

The course outline was as follows:

Day 1 Looking at Plants Closely
A good botanical drawing is a blending of art and science in which drawings are clear, beautiful images. In order to appreciate this we examined slides of cross section drawings of plants including the work of the celebrated nineteenth century artist Arthur Harry Church. We then examined how to cut open flowers in the most appropriate way, looking at the parts of the flowers and making cross section drawings of them which showed the bracts, sepals, petals, stigma, style, stamens and ovary in the correct order and arrangement

In the afternoon we focused on shading techniques and the different properties of pencils such as H, F, HB and 2B

Day 2 ‘Drawing A Whole Plant’

We began by examining slides of pencil and chalk drawings of plants from Nicholas Roberts’ sixteenth century pictures and from Keith West’s twentieth century work. We studied sketches by contemporary illustrators analysing how they are used as preparations for paintings, then we focused on how to observe the plants botanical structure with reference to the flowers, buds, leaf types and shape in order to plan and draw it as accurately as possible.

In the afternoon we studied drawings of bees on flowers looking at how they extract nectar and gather pollen. We then tried drawing our own bees on flowers.

Day 3 Preparing the drawing for Painting in Watercolours
The day began with a demonstration of how to transfer a drawing onto watercolour paper ready for painting, and how to use colour theory in order to obtain the accurate mixes of paints which will deliver clear washes. Students had the opportunity to transfer their own drawings and begin painting them with guidance on brush control and the use of even washes in order to build up layers and colour effects.

Day 4 Patterns and Textures
The focus for the last day was upon the use of small brushes and dry brush techniques in order to enhance the recording of surface detail, patterns and textures; particularly the tiny veins, hairs and individual characteristics which many plants contain.

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