Year 7
Here are some quotes from 7MW after their trip to a Chocolate Museum:
“We learnt the low and high value of chocolate and where it came from. The cookies were to die for!” – Bella
“I loved tasting all the high and low quality chocolates“. – Samantha
“When we went to the chocolate museum we watched a documentary on how to make chocolate. Then we tried it for ourselves“. – Olive
“My favourite thing about the chocolate museum was learning the process of chocolate making“. – Maya
“I learned how chocolate was made because I never knew about it. I also liked when we made chocolate, it was fun. I liked when we had to guess low quality or high quality chocolate“. – Masilya
“I loved trying the chocolate and learning where chocolate comes from and learning how it travels“. – Isabela
“The chocolate was very fun. We tasted different types of chocolate, tried high and low quality chocolate and even some with spice“. – Claudia
“My favourite part of it was taste testing each chocolate because we tried both low and high quality chocolate“. – Minka
“I really like making my own chocolate and learning about low value and high value chocolate. I learnt about the history and process of making chocolate“. – Lily
“I really liked making the chocolate and the history of it. It was super fun and I can’t wait to go on the next trip“. – Thea
“I liked the chocolate museum because we made chocolate and we learnt where it came from and how the industry developed“. – Lina
“I really enjoyed learning about the history and how chocolate was made. We tried loads of chocolate too! The best one I think was the lime and ginger one!” – Lilia
Year 8
Year 8 visited the British Museum. Whilst there, pupils studied different cultural masks. They drew and researched masks from indigenous Canada, Africa and Mexican day of the dead masks. Later on Year 8 translated artefact descriptions into Spanish with Ms Ormesher.
“The Art trip was an amazing experience as we got to see some inspiring styles of art. Personally my favourite section was the Benin bronzes and the Queen Mother’s ivory mask, which is a self portrait of her, that she used to wear on her hip. My favourite mask to draw was the British Columbian mask as it has a unique kind of beauty“. – Ivy (8RS)
“I really liked drawing a range of different masks as it helped me to keep the memory of what I saw. I found the Sri Lankan masks very wild looking as they had wonky teeth! I enjoyed seeing The Mexican day of the Dead display and the Chinese dragons as they looked very royal“. – Zahra (8RS)
Year 9
On Wednesday Year 9 visited the Tate Britain to research the painting in the current display ‘A Walk Through British Art‘. They also visited Hew Locke’s ‘The Procession‘. After lunch they went to the Temple of the Mithraes, the ruins of an ancient Roman temple in the City of London. Pupils got to explore the ruins and participate in an immersive light show.
Year 10 & 11
Year 10 and 11 visited the Victoria and Albert Museum to gain inspiration for the in-school doll-making workshop that afternoon. Pupils explored how texture, length, colour, and materials are used to create a range of costumes and designs throughout the years. Each pupil illustrated and annotated their creative ideas and brought them to life in the workshop with Ms Hunt.
“The trip was great!! My classmates and I had tremendous fun being able to do something creative and different. Our primary interest was to visit the V&A and look at different exhibitions, which took our interest in making dolls. We were then lucky enough to have Mrs Hunt show us how to make these dolls from scratch; with only newspaper! My friends and I were able to explore all the exhibitions and take notes based on what we had seen to make these dolls. It was truly something I know my classmates and I would love to do again!” – Sophia (10SB)
After their visit to the V&A Year 10 and 11 returned to make their own totem from recycled materials.
Their thinking around making required considering what the doll represented and why and how they would make it look how they wanted, given the materials available and in relation to their learnings from the V&A models.
Here are some of the pupils’ thoughts and comments during the workshop:
‘Trying to make a doll is tough – they are not co-operative – they are people already before they have even been created.’
‘It was great using some of the design ideas from the V&A’
‘It feels odd making a doll – it feels new and therapeutic…you can put your thoughts into it – it does not have to be pretty. It is freeing.’
‘Mine represents how being trapped by society leads to inner turmoil (but not in an emo way)’
‘My doll is inspired by the Asian rooms – the chinese dolls are amazing, so dignified’
‘It does not have to be perfect – I got stuck as it was hard, but now, I realise, it does not matter. That makes me feel fine!’
‘….My doll is callled Me – it is chaotic, how I felt – it shows a different point of view – and it feels good. I love feeling that I can know what I am looking at. It shows me where the boundary is. It is helpful. ‘
‘My doll is not co-operating…I am making it about me…!’
‘The dolls in the museum reflected aspects of different cultures and societies. Making my doll reflects my experience, today.’
‘My doll has long legs. It has been an emotional journey, working on something that just evolved and now I am happy that I made her. It was good to not know what was going to emerge. It is surprising and good enough as there was no expectation to live up to.’
The aim of the workshop was two-fold – an exploration of creative play in a group, that was not taught or requiring a specification, but inspired by the work of others from across time and place. Dolls have been part of our diverse global cultures from time immemorial and figure as representations and symbols both public and private.
The freedom to explore in 3D is often left out in adolescence, especially in a social media, tech-orientated, screen-biased world. Additionally, the focused space and task provided a framework for reflecting on self and other. Given the cultural and fashion dimension from the V&A visit, the dolls were already emerging before the workshop started. What was really interesting was how the pupils took this research and then explored, delighting in the unknown, the lack of expectation being freeing, supporting a sense of okayness, of acceptance and playfulness.
The pupils were hugely respectful of the space and of each others’ creativity. Once completed, everyone had the opportunity of setting their doll in an environment and sharing their experience:
They found the workshop to be:
‘fun; funny; stressful at times; a good experience; a journey; interesting; character developing; hard work; mentally exhausting; physically challenging... but at the end were unanimously ‘proud’ of their achievement and would like to do it again, ‘but making something different next time’. The learning was not about perfection or striving, but about exploring and reflecting.
