By Mrs Duns, Head of Year 8

Our Year 8 students amazed us last week with the first of their Learning Amazon Project presentations.

The Learning Amazon Project gave students in Year 8 the opportunity to take on a project outside of their usual lessons, in which they develop their research skills and present on a broad open question. Students were free to choose their own questions or answer questions suggested by teachers. The aim was for students to try something challenging that is outside of the curriculum and their academic comfort zone, and so showcase their academic resilience.

We hoped to get all Year 8’s to research a topic that they were really interested in, and to further spark the enthusiasm within them! 

Students came up with their initial ideas in February, then worked towards their final project submission deadline working both independently and with weekly support sessions where necessary. They then presented their projects to an audience of Year 7 and 8 students and staff in the main hall. 

Last week we thoroughly enjoyed listening to the first twenty of the excellent presentations. Well done to everyone – it was fantastic to see your wonderful enthusiasm and curiosity to find out more about your chosen topics, shown in your detailed and thoughtful research, not to mention the confident delivery of your content!

The amazingly varied range of topics presented included:

• Bryony M – Where do collective animal nouns originate?
• Minna W – Gender and Sport
• Roxie Q – What effects do horror movies have on the brain?
• Aditi R – What would happen if the world stopped turning?
• Kesia B – Christian Dior
• Sophie B – How big are our brains?
• Gaia N – Why do we listen to music?
• Liv B – Is there life beyond our planet?
• Adeline G – The Golden Rule – the link between Science, Art and Maths
• Poppy E – The mystery of flight 370
• Juno C – Chinese Hanfu
• Yara A-F – The Forgotten Princess of Egypt
• Isabel H  – The history of monopoly
• Farah N-R – What would happen if there was no gravity for 5 seconds?
• Esme C – Body Image
• Molly C – Who is the greatest influential figure in history?
• Adeife A – Are individual sports better than team sports?
• Meher G – Why chick flicks are the best genre of movie?
• Maribel B – How does music affect people’s moods?
• Katerina G  – Are ghosts real?

Feedback from the students was very positive, and the afternoon was enjoyed by all.

We look forward to hearing more fascinating insights from the remaining 33 projects later this term!