Art teacher Elin Mbeyela considers the power of abstract
art, and discusses how debate and inquiry are central to the Art curriculum at
WHS, allowing students to develop an open-minded and experimental approach in
their own work
I remember how I felt, as I stood in front of Ai Weiwei’s
piece at his unforgettable and ground-breaking exhibition at the Royal Academy
in 2015. His
commemorative installation piece, titled ‘Straight’, consisted of 90 tonnes
of steel-reinforced rods straightened by hand after being mangled in the
Sichuan earthquake. The rods were laid out meticulously and created a dense
carpet that overwhelmed the space, and on the wall overlooking the rods were
the names of over 5,000 children killed due to the poorly constructed
buildings.
Adrian Locke, co-curator at the RA commented, “it is a very
sombre and sobering work when you see it, it has this kind of power and silence
about it…it bears a real sense of loss of life”[1].
I was reduced to tears by this provocative yet poignant piece. I was also
reminded of how art can be used as an expression of our thoughts, emotions and
intuitions, and that it is even more personal than that: it’s about sharing the
way we experience the world. This means it provides a platform for much
discussion and debate.
How do we encourage this discussion and debate?
We embed discussion and debate in our curriculum at WHS,
right from Year 7. During the students’ first autumn term in Senior School, we
explore colour theory and abstract art. We look at a range of artists such as
Frank Bowling, Jade Fadojutimi and Gillian Ayres, encouraging students to see
with their mind what they don’t see physically – in essence, prompting them to
explore how abstract art enables the artist and the viewer to perceive beyond
the tangible. Fadojutimi’s large scale
gestural paintings explore identity and emotion; she uses colour
flamboyantly and applies the oil paint in thin layers, creating depth with
expressive mark-making.
WHS Art department
Through group discussions we ask students the following –
How do you feel when you look at this piece?
How is the work abstract?
Does the artist explore any particular subjects
/ themes / moods / issues / messages?
Comment on the visual elements in the piece –
line, shape, tone, texture and space. How do they help communicate ideas and
reinforce a message?
How could this artist inspire your own work?
What media, techniques, styles and processes
have been used? How do
they affect the mood of the artwork and the communication of ideas?
Jennifer Higgie,
writer and critic, comments on Fadojumiti’s paintings, “Art is not an explanation: it’s a shot of energy, a
flash of colour; a shimmer, a reaction, a line thrown out to see who might pick
it up… Jadé tells me that her aim is for “deep emotion, not deep
description”.”[2]
To many,
the intangible nature of abstract art is uncomfortable, and they desperately
want to seek some understanding and meaning in what they see. This can lead
some to mock such art, and to think it is not worth their attention. In
essence, they want to be able to decipher and understand it.
Meanwhile, our students engage in thoughtful, creative
discussions about Fadojutimi’s work. They are curious and fascinated by the
possible hidden meanings and messages in her paintings. But ultimately what
they are struck by is that there is no universally accepted theme or subject,
and that the work allows them to make individual visual connections, thoughts
and interpretations.
Following our discussion, students enjoy experimenting with
paint techniques such as impasto and sgraffito and explore mixing their own
colours by applying their colour theory knowledge. This marks the initial stage
of planning for their own abstract painting.
Students’ work WHS Art department
To conclude
We value highly students’ ability to be curious; through
encouraging debate and discussion in the classroom, we instil in our learners
that engaging with art contributes to the refinement of emotional meaning and
improves communication and interaction with others. It allows them to think
creatively and expressively, without limits or boundaries. These skills are not
just fundamental to studying Art but, with the school’s innovative approach to
STEAM, they are crucial to our interdisciplinary curriculum.
WHS Head of French and Mandarin, Claire Baty, extols the crucial, intrinsic
importance for linguists of broadening their cultural and imaginative horizons,
and discusses two school initiatives to support this – Linguistica magazine and its associated club, Linguistica and
Friends
My MFL colleagues and I are currently busy proof-reading articles for
the summer edition of the department’s Linguistica magazine. Each term,
as the deadline for submissions comes and goes, I feel a sense of curiosity tinged
with apprehension. I am excited to read the fruits of students’ efforts beyond
the language classroom but I can’t escape the underlying worry that they may
not feel sufficiently impassioned to actually submit articles for publication. Why
is that?
Linguistica was created to be more
than just a magazine – it is a space to explore language learning and the
myriad opportunities this affords. Fortunately, post-covid, our classrooms have
once again become inspiring, collaborative spaces where students can assimilate
new language through role plays, and can put their heads together, literally,
to work out the rules of a new grammatical structure. Whilst rote learning of
vocabulary and grammar rules is important, language learning is and should be
much more than this. An understanding of the music, film, fashion, food,
history, politics, literature, geography of the country is just as significant as
being able to use the words correctly.
It is this cultural understanding, coupled with strong syntactical
awareness, that ultimately creates an expert communicator. In a world that is
increasingly driven by technology, it is our ability as human beings to
empathise and communicate with each other that will become the most important
21st century skill. Linguistica is a platform for our students to engage
with the cultural, social and political world of the country they are studying.
Students learning about the Hanfu
This term our ‘Linguistica and Friends’ club has whole-heartedly
embraced the STEAM+ ethos by inviting other departments to deliver workshops,
seminars and lectures exploring the interplay between their subject and MFL.
Our aim, to enrich our students’ understanding of the world around them. We
have encouraged them to ask big questions which force them to make connections
between their subjects such as:
How does Maths help me with translation in a foreign language?
Does learning Latin mean I am better at French?
If we all spoke the same language would there be less conflict in the world?
What helps me understand people better – learning their language or learning their history?
Science has nothing to do with languages: discuss.
Is computer code a language?
We have enticed them to see things through a different lens. Ultimately
no discipline can exist in isolation and learning a language really does entail
learning a whole other perspective on the world.
Why does this matter?
The WHS Civil Discourse programme has as its core aim
for our students “to be truly flexible, robust and open in their
thinking, and for the world to re-awaken itself to the notion of real
debate and discussion, based on authentic encounters between enquiring hearts
and minds”. Exploring topics we thought we understood from a new perspective
allows for nuanced thinking and offers access to opinions which differ from our
own.
We all start out with a ‘blik’ or worldview, informed by our upbringing, circumstances and personal experiences. Our ‘blik’ tells us how to interpret the world, and we then choose to embrace the facts that support our ‘blik’ whilst selectively ignoring or explaining away those that go against it (R.M Hare in his response to Anthony Flew’s 1971 Symposium). Our job as teachers is to challenge a student’s ‘blik’ by offering them diverse ways to engage with subject material outside of the classroom. To stride out into the world, our students need to be able to see that world and how concepts connect with in it. This was exactly the aim of ‘Linguistica and Friends’ this term when we offered sessions designed to show the connections between subjects that the students in KS3 at least, often see as disparate.
But why do I worry our students won’t engage? Why am I concerned they
won’t be as excited as I am about the opportunity to spend my lunchtime time
considering the flaws of a translation of the New Testament? As teachers we can
see the value of inter-connected thinking, we are excited by this opportunity
to engage with the big picture, and we are frustrated by how exam
specifications can thwart and potentially diminish a student’s desire to
explore. For the students, however, “c’est l’arbre qui cache la
forêt” and the demands of exams can hinder true scholarship, taking away
the passion, the willingness to engage and explore just for the fun of it.
An Introduction to Semitic Languages
And this is precisely why Linguistica matters. It is in this
co-curricular space that we can open our students’ minds to new concepts, encourage
them to challenge their pre-existing ideas without the judgement of an exam.
Here they can discover their passions, find out who they are and what inspires
them.
So look out for this term’s edition of Linguistica, which will be
published in hard copy before the summer holidays. It will showcase the
creative and eloquent writing of our fantastic MFL students, who have had
success in all manner of competitions. You can find out more about how our
students engaged with the inspiring ‘Linguistica and Friends’ workshops,
as well as the big questions considered by Years 8 and 9. Here is a flavour of
what they explored.
The interplay between Maths and language exemplified by the deciphering work done at Bletchley Park during WW2
How textiles and fashion are inextricably linked to culture and history, as demonstrated by traditional Chinese Hanfu
The use of Greek in the New Testament: symbolism and translation. How the meaning of a text is not separate from the language in which it is written.
Furthering our understanding of scientific concepts by exploring the derivation of scientific words and their language of origin.
The role of cognates, body language and demonstration when making sense of a language you don’t speak. (Loom weaving in Italian.)
How Semitic languages fit into the European languages we commonly learn in school.
How the use of language in popular film could be used as a way of raising awareness of languages at risk of dying out. With a focus on Polynesian languages and the Disney film Moana.
The recent presidential elections in France and how language can be used to persuade, convince and influence.
Grace S, Year 13 Student, writes about the recent Biology trip to visit the Francis Crick Institute.
WARNING – This article will include mentions in a biomedical sense to some topics which some readers may find disturbing, including death, cancer and animal testing.
Last Friday some of the Biology A-level students were privileged enough to go on a trip to the Francis Crick Institute. All sorts of biomedical research goes on inside the Institute, but we went with a focus on looking at the studies into cancer. During our day, we visited the ‘Outwitting Cancer’ exhibition to find out more about the research projects and clinical trials that the Crick Institute is running; we had a backstage tour of the Swanton Laboratory to learn about the genetic codes of tumours and find out more about immunotherapy and I attended a discussion on the impact pollution can have on the lungs.
We started our trip by visiting the public exhibition ‘Outwitting Cancer’, with Dr Swanton as our tour guide. We first walked through a film showing how tumours divide and spread using representations from the natural and man-made world. This film also showed that tumours are made up of cancer cells and T-cells (cells involved in the immune response) trying to regulate the growth of the cancer cells. We then moved through to an area where several clips were playing outlining the different projects underway at the Crick Institute in regards to cancer. There were many different projects on display about different clinical trials and research projects looking into understanding and fighting cancer, but the one which fascinated me the most involved growing organoids (otherwise known as mini-organs) from stem cells. The stem cells would be extracted from the patient and used to grow these organoids, which would then be used to see how they respond to different drugs. This would allow each treatment to be highly specified to the patient, and so perhaps lead to higher survival rates among these patients. In this same section of the exhibition there was a rainbow semi-circle of ribbons with stories clipped to these ribbons written by visitors to the exhibit of their experiences with cancer, ranging from those who have a lived experience, to those who are simply curious to learn more. It was a fantastic exhibit and I recommend you give it a visit yourself, it’s free!
As interesting as this exhibit was, for us the highlight was a backstage tour of the Swanton Laboratory followed by talks from members of the team working there. We learnt that they have found that there is homogeneity within tumours, a fact that was not known just a few years ago. What this means is that different sections of tumours have completely different genetic codes. This could significantly change the way which tumours are analysed and treatments are prescribed. Previously, one tumour sample was thought to be representative of the whole tumour, it is now known that this is not the case and multiple samples from different sections of the tumour should be taken to get a comprehensive view of its structure and how best it could be treated. Linked to this, one member of the team, a final year PhD student, showed us graphics which they had been able to take and colour of the different cells present in a tumour. One of the main reasons cancer develops to the point where treatment is needed is because the body’s immune system has failed to neutralise the cancer cells, they were working to find out why this may be. In one of the graphics shown to us, a different type of immune cell had actually formed a wall around the T-cells, preventing them from reaching the cancer cells in order to eliminate them. This would be important knowledge when considering immunotherapy treatments, which encourage the body’s own immune system to fight back against the cancer. In this case there would be little benefit to injecting or strengthening T-cells, as they would not be able to reach the cancer cells. Immunotherapy itself is still a relatively recent invention, and it is still considered only after treatments such as chemotherapy have not been effective. By this stage the cancer is more advanced and much harder to treat with immunotherapy, so it is hoped that in the future immunotherapy will be considered before more generalised treatments such as chemotherapy.
Work is also being done to understand late-stage cancer. We were allowed into one of the stations where practical work is done (wearing red lab coats to indicate that we were visitors) and shown a series of slides showing where biopsies (a biopsy is the removal of a tissue sample) might be taken from a tumour. It was explained to us that TRACERx (the name of the project being undertaken in the Swanton Laboratory) had set up a programme where people living with late-stage cancer can consent to their tumours being used for post-mortem research. Often these individuals had also signed up for earlier programmes, so information on their cancer at earlier stages was available and it was possible to see how the cancer had progressed. It was also explained to us several of the methods used to store samples, including the use of dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) and liquid nitrogen.
The final presentation I attended (we were on a carousel in small groups) discussed the influence of pollution on lung cancer. It had previously been found that as we age, the number of mutations we have grows, so clearly mutations are not the sole cause of cancer as not everyone develops cancer. It has now been theorised that carcinogens, such as particle matter found in air pollution, activate these pre-existing mutations. Currently non-smokers comprise 14% of all lung cancer cases in the UK, as the number of smokers drops as people become more aware of the dangers of smoking, the proportion of people with lung cancer who are non-smokers will increase, making research as to what may cause this lung cancer even more important. Lung cancer in non-smokers is currently the 8th largest cause of death to cancer in the UK. Two on-going experiments are studying the effect of exposure to pollution on mutations in the lungs. One is being run within the Institute, exposing mice to pollution, and another in Canada, where human volunteers are exposed to the level of pollution average in Beijing for two hours. Whilst it is unlikely that this exposure will lead to new mutations, it may cause changes in those already present. All of the research projects presented to us are ongoing, and it really was a privilege to see what sort of work is going on behind the scenes.
All of us were incredibly lucky to be able to go on this trip and meet some of the scientists working on such fascinating projects within the Francis Crick Institute. Most of us were biologically-minded anyway, but were we not, this trip certainly would have swayed us.
Miss Lucinda Gilchrist contests current political orthodoxies that devalue the study of Arts and Humanities subjects, and asserts the profound importance of English at A Level and beyond
The study of
English Literature and Language at A Level and at university in the UK is in
decline – there has been a 23% drop in pupils taking A Level English Literature
since 2017[i].
While numbers of A Level English Literature students at Wimbledon High remains robust,
nonetheless there are powerful currents shaping the national context, which need
to be challenged.
The political
trend of steering of students towards STEM subjects has had a significant
impact on the perception and take-up of English Literature, while reductions in
government funding to the Arts is scuppering the effective running of departments
and courses, devaluing the Arts conceptually and monetarily. This is entirely
at odds with our STEAM+ agenda at WHS, which celebrates the power of
interdisciplinary learning and the equal value of all subjects in our
curriculum.
However, the
National Association of Teachers of English (NATE) argues that the decline can
also partially be attributed to neglect of the ‘big picture’ of English
teaching, due to a model of literary texts as ‘cultural capital’[ii],
which reductively posits literary study as developing declarative knowledge of
canonical texts.
But where
are students going if they aren’t studying English? Geography entries at A
Level in the UK have risen by 16%, something that the Geographical Association
has attributed in part to increased concerns in young people about the
environment[iii].
Subjects like the Sciences and Geography are perceived to equip students with
the skills and qualities they need to make an active and positive change in the
world, while English and other arts subjects have been unflatteringly described
by the former Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson, as ‘dead-end
courses that leave young people with nothing but debt’[iv].
What can
we do to change this?
NATE
recommends thinking about English as than ‘a means of pleasurable reflection on
and participation in life’, through we can examine ourselves and the world
around us. Diversifying the curriculum is one crucial example of how English
can engage in and contribute to work of great cultural and social value. The
English department are working hard to identify ways to decolonise the
curriculum, with a new post-colonial literature unit at A
Level, a new
‘Singing the Self’ Year 9 poetry unit, and the addition of texts by a diverse
range of writers into the Year 8 Fiction Fest. This is not a fast process, and it’s
important to avoid superficial measures, instead interrogating our own
assumptions and contesting dominant narratives.
Furthermore,
as Angus Fletcher argues in Wonderworks, literature is responsible for
some of the greatest philosophical and psychological inventions in the history
of mankind: ‘[it is] a narrative-emotional technology that helped our ancestors
cope with the psychological challenges posed by human biology. It was an
invention for overcoming the doubt and pain of just being us.’[v]
Fletcher gives a compelling account of how writers have maximised neurological
and psychological processes, using the language and structure of texts as ways
into the human mind, enabling humanity to improve itself in the process.
The study of
literature, therefore, is just as important a tool to make the world a better
place as the Sciences and Geography. For example, as Ms Lindon has suggested, eco-poetry ‘can generate the imaginative power
to help us dwell better, if we allow it to act upon us’[vi].
Fletcher comments on the power of poetic diction to help us look at the world
anew: the inverted word order of ‘the flower blue’ rather than ‘the blue
flower’ defamiliarizes us with something we might ignore as ‘boringly ordinary,
and [inspires] us to see fresh details, fresh points of emphasis, fresh
opportunities for discovery’.
What does
this look like in English at WHS?
The texts
explored in English at WHS offer many opportunities to examine or defamiliarize
the world and summon up ‘imaginative power to help us dwell better’. For
example, in studying Shakespeare, we deconstruct 16th century
attitudes to issues such as gender, sexuality, wealth, race and colonialism,
helping us contextualise the discourses and complexities of debates around the
same topics today. At GCSE, you may read Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me
Go and explore the pressures of being ‘normal’ through the perspective of Kathy,
a clone created for organ donations, desperately trying meet social
expectations for human behaviour when that same society views her as less than
human. As Fletcher argues, literary forms themselves are ‘inventions’ which unlock
our empathy, defamiliarize and refamiliarize, and help us understand and interact
with the world and each other better.
Thus, English
lessons are likely to be in equal part inspiring and challenging, especially where
we need to acknowledge our own blind spots and where we have been influenced by
powerful social and cultural narratives. We need to have a flexible ‘growth’
mindset about tackling complex issues and encountering literature’s
transformative power over our minds. The English Department’s new mission
statement articulates our aims in tackling the ‘big picture’ of learning in
English head on.
The study of language and literature
is the study of the human condition: how we behave, think, feel, how we respond
to political and social changes. As such, in English we can expect to come
across issues and themes which are complex, challenging, troubling and
exciting, and which speak to society and culture today as much as they did in a
text’s original context. In exploring these texts we have an opportunity to
interrogate the issues which affect us in society at large, and in English
lessons we agree to sit in the discomfort, pull apart these topics, searching
for ways of understanding and ways to engage with the world, and developing the
language to speak about what affects us. We know that these debates resist easy
answers and that everyone gets things wrong sometimes, so English lessons are a
mutually respectful open space to explore, develop new ways of looking at our
society and culture, and finally to create and enjoy those texts which inspire
us.
English
may often deal in hypotheticals, imaginary worlds, or historical contexts far
removed from our own, making it seem detached from the immediate problems of our
world. But in fact, this very quality is why the study of literature allows us
to develop frameworks and language to engage more deeply in life, and to effect
meaningful change in this world and in ourselves.
Clare Duncan, Deputy Head Academic, looks at the impact sharing passion for your subject can have on learning outcomes and STEAM.
‘Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire’ W.B Yeats
I’m guessing
that most, if not every, teacher came into the profession, not because they had
a love of assessment and report writing, but because they had a passion for
something – whether that be the writing of W.B. Yeats or, in my case,
the beauty of the Fibonacci sequence. I find it fascinating
that such a simple recurrence sequence, where each subsequent number is
the sum of the previous two numbers, is found so often
in the natural world. The sunflower seed formation – from
the centre outwards, of 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13… and so on –
is one such stunning example.
As
educators, we have the envious position of having a captive audience on whom to
unleash our enthusiasms. As teachers we are always reflecting, always
thinking of ways not just to impart knowledge but also to spark pupils’
interest in our subject. By demonstrating passion and curiosity ourselves
we allow pupils to do the same – surely a worthy aim in itself, particularly
if we want them to become lifelong learners.
Even
more than this, students modelling your behaviour can assist them in their next
steps. It’s clear that the university applications that achieve the greatest
success are those in which students demonstrate their deep enthusiasm for the
subject, whether through their personal statement or at interview. In a recent Telegraph
article about the application process, Peter Claus, the new access fellow for
Oxford, discussed this idea:
‘Naturally
we’re crazy about our subjects as tutors – so we look for people of equal
fervour. Demonstrating independent intellectual fervour around your subject is
much more important than any Duke of Edinburgh awards. We need to see that
students have gone above and beyond and are aware of the culture of
their subject.’
Our
own Sixth Form Review reinforces that what teachers say and how they say it is
hugely important, particularly in terms of the expertise and interest
they themselves demonstrate. One student commented:
‘(it’s) impressive when teachers know their stuff‘ and described
taking the time after such a lesson to ‘let things sink in’.
So my
tips for teachers to think about would be to:
Impart your
passion to your students. By showing your excitement you may ignite it in them.
Find resources that
fuel your passion and allow you
to show them what excites you about your subject. (For me one such example is
the BBC’s More or Less1 where
the presenter explains – and sometimes debunks – the numbers and statistics
used in political debate, the news and everyday life.)
Don’t
underestimate the power of interdisciplinary learning. It is at the heart of our STEAM+ agenda. The best way to
help reinforce a student’s passion is to show them that it can be applied to, and enriched
by, multiple subjects.
And
why is instilling passion in students important? Here are words of Sara
Briggs.
‘When students are passionately engaged in their learning – when
they are mesmerized by their learning environment or activities – there are
myriad responses in their brains making connections and building schema that
simply would not occur without that passion or emotion.’ 2
So
what will I be adding to my lesson plans this Autumn? The Year 13 Further Maths
students will be introduced to the beauty of the catenary curve
and how it can be modelled in using hyperbolic functions.
Isabelle,
Lauren, Olivia and Homare (the WHS Social Robots team) describe how they are
working on using the school’s social robots Bit and Byte as reading buddies in
the Junior School, and update us on the progress made so far.
We are the Social Robots team, and we would love to
present our project, which is robot reading buddies, to you. This club started
in 2018 and we work with the 2 robots which we have at school. Since then, we
have taken part in competitions (such as the Institut de Francais’ Night of
Ideas competition[1] – which
we won!) and other projects and challenges within the school. Currently,
we have been working on how we could use these robots in the Junior School to
help encourage reading practise.
What we want to achieve and how
At Wimbledon High
School we are lucky enough to have two Miro-E robots. They are social robots
meaning they can react to touch, noise and other actions due to the sensors and
cameras that they have. We can then code the robots into changing colours,
wagging its tail, pricking up its ears and many other possibilities! The Miro-E
robots are designed to mimic a pet. But we are not the only one’s coding
Miro-E robots for a social cause: they are also used for the elderly to combat loneliness.[2] We
hope they will have a similar calming effect on children.
We
all know how important it is to learn how to read since it broadens knowledge
and vocabulary, as well as opening doors for future learning; therefore, we
want to include the Miro-E robots in the Junior School as reading buddies. In
addition, reading improves presentation skills and develops confidence and
independence. Enjoying reading from an early age will help to support these
skills.
To
encourage this crucial development in the child’s life, we believe that it is
vital to make those learning to read feel comfortable and stimulated. As a
social robotics team, we realised that one way to achieve this was by creating
a robot reading buddy that helps young children at school to practise reading whilst
also being motivated by a cute robot dog (cat, kangaroo, cow, bunny, or
whatever animals you think the robots resemble)! If we can compel children to
read with our social robots, as well as to teachers or parents, this might
change the amount they read or the difficulty of the books they attempt; therefore
increasing the speed of reading development, as it is encouraging in a
non-judgmental environment.
Our research about reading buddies
Research
has shown that it is beneficial for children who are learning to read to have a
companion who just listens, rather than correcting them, as we know that
reading can be a challenging and sometimes daunting experience for some students.
Of course, it is equally important for a teacher to help the child when reading
and correcting them so that they can learn and improve. But we also think it is
crucial for children to enjoy the reading experience, so that they have the
motivation to keep learning.
Therefore,
Miro-E robots are perfect for this job as they can help find the balance
between learning to read, and practising to read. Also, we can code the robot
to adapt to the situation and make the reading experience the best it can be.
As we have 2 of these robots at the school, it will also enable the Junior Staff
to have multiple reading sessions at once. Finally, as we mentioned, the robots
can react with sounds, movement, and lights which we are hoping will engage the
students and keep the experience enjoyable.
While
researching, we did also find many studies and papers regarding the effects of
animals such as dogs on learning. However, we found little about robotics and
coding to achieve the task we set out to complete, making it no mean feat. As
school-aged children ourselves, what we are trying to do is pioneering and
exciting but also has its challenges. We look forward to introducing Bit and
Byte to the Junior pupils and inspiring them to get involved, not only with
reading but also to get them excited about robotics and coding!
Our progress so far
We
have been working on this project since the start of 2021, and we have been
focussing on research, as well as some coding. At first, we had a discussion
with some Junior School pupils, and we sent a survey to parents to see what
their top priorities would be for the reading buddy and what their opinions
were. We find it really important that the users of the robot reading buddy can
contribute their ideas and opinions so that the reading buddies are as
beneficial for them as possible.
An example of these results is that
both the students and the parents wanted the robot to guide the child through
nodding. Because of this, we set up 5 key stages of the reading process, with
different coding programs (and therefore different emotions and actions shown
in the robot) for each. We have coded these 5 key stages separately already.
These stages are:
Starting to
read, so when the students have just started their reading session or
when they continue after a break. We have coded this to have an excited
emotion, through tilting the head up towards the child, for example.
While reading, so while
the robot can detect someone speaking through the microphone. We have
coded this to have a motivational emotion, through slow nods and opening
the angle of the ears.
A pause in
reading, so when the robot is unable to detect
someone reading for a fixed amount of time (for example, 10 seconds). We
have coded this to have a questioning emotion, such as with a tilting head
position.
Session finish, which is when the teacher says that the reading session is over.
This could be a fixed time (for example, after exactly 10 minutes) or a
different action which the robot could sense. We have coded this to have a
celebrating emotion, such as moving in a circle.
Early finish, which is when the student decides to
stop their reading session before the finishing time. We are still
thinking about how the robot could sense this: either if no sound has been
heard for over a minute, for example, or if the student does a specific
action, such as clapping three times. We have coded this to have a sad
emotion, with the robot looking down and the tail not wagging any
more. Here is the example code of this:
Throughout
all these stages, we have also made use of the lights on the robots to portray
what stage the students are on. This will allow the teachers to see the
same.
We
have learnt a lot in the project so far. For example, through the opportunity
to talk with the younger students, we practised gathering data interactively, and
how we can use this information. We also learnt a lot of new skills through our
research, such as how we can receive papers from the writers and how we can use
these effectively. Finally, we have experimented lots through coding by finding
out how we can use the new functions in the miro2 library, as well as how we
could use different libraries to overcome challenges such as not having a
function to sense consistent sound, such as someone reading.
Our next steps
Our
next steps for next year and beyond are to successfully complete the coding of
this project and run a test with students in the Junior School, before
finalising the code to make the robot reading buddy as effective as it can be.
There are still a lot of problems that we need to solve for us to code the
program successfully.
A
key problem that we are facing now is that our robot currently cannot
distinguish between a human voice (which can be constant) and a machine
whirring away in the background. This is because the robot can only “hear” the
difference between fluctuating noises and constant noises. There are many
factors that contribute to this problem that we still need to test. Is it
because the microphone is not good enough? Is it simply that the communication
between the laptop, robot and lights is too slow for the robot to reflect what
it is hearing? And how could we adapt our code to work with this?
It
is problems like these which slow down the coding process. For example, there
were times where the program would not send to the robot, which we struggled to
fix for weeks. Or smaller problems, such as when I thought the program was not
running but it was simply that the movements on the simulator that I had coded were
not big enough for me to notice the impact of my code.
When
all our coding works for each of the 5 stages, we are going to link this all
into one bigger program, which will decide which stage the reader is at. For
example, if no reading has been detected for x seconds, then the robot may go
into the “pause” phase. We will need to experiment to see what timings suit
these decisions best. While we continue to develop the coding, we will also
need to constantly test and receive more feedback to improve. For example, how
could we find the balance between distractions and interactions?
As
you can tell, we have made progress, but we also have lots to do. We will
continue to try to find effective solutions to the problems that we may
encounter.
Reflection
We
have all thoroughly enjoyed this project, and we also think that it has,
and will continue to, help us build up several skills. For example, we have
learnt to collaborate well as a team, being able to work both independently and
with others. However, as previously mentioned we have encountered many
challenges, and in these cases perseverance is key. Finally, we appreciate the
project because it has been really rewarding and lots of fun to work with the
robot and see our progress visually.
However, we cannot
do this project alone. As mentioned, we know it is vital that we receive
feedback and act on it. This is why we would also really appreciate any
feedback or suggestions that you may have for us! Feel free to complete this
form with any comments: https://forms.office.com/r/3yNJZEHBfy. Thank you so
much!
“What do they know
of cricket who only cricket know?” – CLR James
“I
understand cricket – what’s going on, the scoring – but I can’t understand
why.” – Bill Bryson
Mr James Courtenay-Clack, English Teacher and Head of Year 9 at WHS, looks at the possible links between English and PE.
You may have noticed that the
idea of ‘cross-curricular’ education is having a bit of a moment. Making links
between disciplines and across subjects is undoubtedly rewarding and helps
pupils to move beyond a straightjacketed approach that keeps everyone and
everything in their own place. There are some subjects that fit together so
naturally it hardly seems worthy of mention.
As an English teacher, it is rare
to plan a unit of work that doesn’t in some way cross over with both the arts
and humanities subjects. To pick one example, the current Year 13 students have
been writing a coursework essay that compares Cormac McCarthy’s The Road
with the poetry of TS Eliot. In this unit they studied the philosophy of Albert
Camus and Soren Kierkegaard, post-WW1 European history and the climate
emergencies of the 21st Century. They also explored the fragmented
voices of Eliot’s poetry alongside Picasso and jazz. All of this I (and
hopefully they) would argue, helped to enrich their experience of the literary
texts they were studying.
There have also been links made
with other subjects that are not usually seen as having much to do with
literature. We have had a STEAM lesson that explored the science of nerve gas
alongside Wilfred Owen’s poetry and I know that the Maths department produced
some wonderful number-based poetry. What I would like to draw attention to in
this article, however, is the links between English and another part of the
curriculum that have for too long gone unnoticed.
Now, it might be thought that
English and PE are not natural bedfellows. In the staff rooms of our cultural
imagination, you could not ask for two more diametrically opposed tribes. The
stereotype of the PE teacher, head to toe in school stash, whistle at the ready
and exuding the aura of good health that comes only from breathing in the
sweet, sweet fresh air of Nursery Road, does not fit well with that of the
bookish, tweedy English teacher. Of course, all of this, as stereotypes so
often are, is complete rubbish. Mr Daws seems to have run more marathons than
had hot dinners and if I wanted a book recommendation I could do far worse than
turn to Ms Cutteridge.
Now this article is far too short
to be able to tackle the many links between English and all of the sports
played at WHS, so I am going to focus on just one, cricket.
WHS Cricket
You may roll your eyes at this,
but I believe that cricket can tell us as much about the messy business of
being a human being as any other cultural practice. This is something that has
been explored by a surprising number of writers and so I would like to take a
look at just four examples where cricket and literature combine in illuminating
ways.
The Pickwick Papers – Charles Dickens
Whilst Dickens doesn’t actually
appear to understand the laws of the game, the cricket match between
All-Muggleton and Dingley Dell in his wonderful novel does reveal an important
truth about cricket and life: friendship and conviviality are far more
important than material success. Also, that exercise is more fun when followed
by a substantial multi-course feast.
‘Vitai Lampada’ – Henry Newbolt
This almost impossibly Victorian
poem begins in the final moments of a school cricket match – ‘ten to make and
the match to win’ – before moving to a soldier dying on a battlefield in an
unnamed part of the British Empire. Newbolt’s refrain ‘Play up! Play up! And
play the game!’ gives us insight to a worldview that is almost entirely alien
in 2021, but that goes someway in helping us to understand our own history.
The Legend of Pradeep Mathew – Shehan Karunatilaka
I love this novel. Karunatilaka
uses cricket – or a dying sports journalist’s futile attempts to track down the
greatest bowler of all time – to explore the political and social history of
postcolonial Sri Lanka. If that all sounds a bit dry, please don’t be put off.
It is rambunctious, hilarious and well aware of both its own and cricket’s
ridiculousness.
Beyond a Boundary – CLR James
This is widely argued to be the
best book about sport ever written. James, a Marxist intellectual, traces his
own interest in the game alongside Trinidad’s journey towards independence. He
reflects on how both cricket and English literature were introduced to the
Caribbean as ways of enforcing British supremacy and sees in both the potential
for anti-colonial rebellion.
I hope this whistle stop tour
goes some way to showing that the cultural practices of cricket and literature
both help to illuminate what it means to be a human being and that the
symbiotic benefits that arise from studying English and playing cricket
together are just as valid as those that arise from any other subject.
The two epigraphs I have chosen
sum this up beautifully. I deliberately misread Bill Bryon’s puzzlement as to
the point of cricket and imagine that he too wants to know all about its
cultural value. More seriously, CLR James paraphrases Kipling by asking ‘what
do they know of cricket who only cricket know?’ and urges us to look beyond the
boundary at the world around us. This is the best metaphor for cross-curricular
education that I can think of and for that reason I am proposing a mighty union
between the English and PE departments. Perhaps we could even build our own
version of the STEAM Tower…
Olivia and Isabelle (Year 10) have created a video to show some exciting features of one of our new STEAM classrooms. In French and German, they explain how our students benefit from these to build their skills.
In this article, Kinza (Year 12) discusses the different types of architecture in Spain and how it has developed through time.
La arquitectura española refleja una historia grandísima y cuenta la historia de los inmigrantes. Por consecuencia, no es una sorpresa que es el segundo en el mundo en la lista de sitios del Patrimonio de la Humanidad de la Unesco. De los coliseos romanos a mezquitas islámicas España hospeda una mezcla rica de culturas que muestran de paisaje diverso.
Medieval y Mudéjar
Gracias a la presencia de los musulmanes, España es hogar de edificios numeroso que surgieron de una cultura totalmente diferente. Viviendo juntos la por años 800, la arquitectura Mudéjar es un estilo que combina la arquitectura cristiana con el decoración influenciada por el islam y se difundió con la Reconquista de la Península Ibérica. Después de la invasión de 711, la conquista mora trajo un concepto nuevo de arquitectura y arte que está todavía presente en España hoy en día. Los siguientes 800 años vieron incontables mezquitas, castillos e incluso palacios siendo construido. Incluso después de que los musulmanes se fueron, su estilo decorativo y construcción siguieron a aplicándose, demostrando que las dos religiones mayores del mundo de mezcla y vieron el mundo. Estos estilos híbridos no solo enriquecían el paisaje, sino que son algunos de los más famosos edificios del toda España, por ejemplo, La Mezquita de Córdoba, La torre Giralda de Sevilla y La Alhambra Palace.
La Mezquita de Córdoba tiene una iglesia cristiana que se basa en la decoración Mudéjar como carácter de geometría. Por otro lado, la Giralda fue un alminar de una primera mezquita, luego se conviertió en un campanario cuando la mezquita fue dedicada como una iglesia. La Alhambra de Granada encierra del palacio Renacimiento. Estos edificios alardean del más ornamental detalle que solo pueden con lograrse el estilo Mudéjar.
También, es importante notar que estos edificios reflejan las identidades y poder de los dos grupos. Por ejemplo, el trabajo Moro escaso en Galicia porque los musulmanes se establecieron ahí lo, ni en el capital Madrid ni Barcelona. Mudejar ejemplos trabajo se pueden encontrar en Seville y tan lejos como Sahagún.
Gótico
La arquitectura gótica primero apareció en Francia a mediados del siglo XII y poco después llegó a ser prominente en España. No obstante, no fue hasta el siglo XIII que la arquitectura comenzó a reformar el paisaje del país. Por aproximadamente 400 años, dominió la arquitectura de la mayoría de Europa occidental (Italia, Francia, Alemania etc.) y dejó un impacto imperecedero. La arquitectura gótica es encontrada en muchas maneras diferentes: los hospicios, los palacios, los ayuntamientos etc. pero es mejor expresado en las catedrales llamativas. Algunas de las catedrales góticas son las catedrales de Burgos, León y Toledo. Generalmente, más grande que otras, la construcción involucrado todo el pueblo y depende de la comunidad por construcción, no solo se unió las comunidades, pero avanzó un nuevo grupo albañiles e ingenieros.
El estilo pasaba muchan etapas diferentes, pero podría ser caracterizado por su estilo de nicho. Los edificios subieron a nuevo alturas, literalmente y estaba compuesto de pasaje abovedado, techos acanalados, figuras bíblicas y más notable vitrales. El vidrio de colores tenía un significado particular en el periodo Gótico, para sirviendo enseñar además de deleite. Representar escenes bíblicas y ilustraciones intricades de los santos.
En general, el estilo Gótico no se limitaba a arquitectura, sino que transcendió en arte, escultura y obra. Los edificios nos cuentan sobre el período al igual que los albañiles que construyeron hace miles den años.
Renacentista
La arquitectura renacentista se originó en Italia a principios del siglo XV, formando una pequeña parte del movimiento que desafió la Iglesia Católica con el secularismo. Cuando apareció por primera vez a España, el país estaba dominado por la arquitectura gótica. Los estilos coexistieron por un rato as Renacimiento de acostumbró en España, inspirándose en el sur de Italia y también mezclando con el paisaje local. En muchos casos, la transición entre periodos fue muy visible en los edificios. No había incomún por un edifico diseñó en un estilo gótico para posteriormente ser modificado para ser más apropiado con el del periodo Renacimiento. Un ejemplo perfecto de eso es del Gótico Palacio de Infantado.
Los primeros edificios del Renacentista surgieron en España fueron el Colegio de Sta. Cruz y el Palacio de los Duques de Medinaceli. Ambos fueron diseñados por Lorenzo Váquez de Segovia y fueron influenciados por los estilos gótico y plateresco.
No es una coincidencia que ambos edificios fueron encargo de familias con mucho poder. La arquitectura renacentista marcó un cambio en el poder. Mientras que la arquitectura gótica había colocado importancia en las iglesias, los edificios de renacentista era descabezar de por la ricos y realeza en España.
Este articulo solo cubre un poquito de la gran historia La arquitectura de España abarca décadas de historia y seguirá desarrollándose interminablemente. Está llena de cultura, comunidad e historias que hacen de España lo que es hoy.
Sienna (Year 11) looks at the history of immunisation, from variolation to vaccination, exploring some of the topics around this important science.
History of Immunisation:
Variolation:
While vaccination is considered quite a modern medical procedure, it has its roots in more ancient history. In China there are records of a procedure to combat smallpox as early as the year 1000. This was called variolation and was a procedure where pus was taken from a patient with a mild case of smallpox which was then given to another person. This means the person gets a less dangerous version of smallpox than they may have otherwise, promoting an immuno-response to act as a way of preventing the disease. This method became established around the world and was later seen in the work of Edward Jenner, who is considered the ‘father of vaccinations’, after he used this technique in Africa, England and Turkey in the 1700s.
Later in the 1700s, the USA learned of it from slaves who came inoculated from Africa. Even though a remarkable feat for the time, it wasn’t without risk, as the way the immunity was reached was by direct exposure to the virus, so infected patients could still die from the virus – as is what happened with King George III’s son and countless number of slaves. However, the risk of dying from variolation was far smaller than the risk of catching and dying from smallpox, so variolation was popular despite the risks.
Origin of the first widely accepted vaccination:
Vaccination, as we know it in modern terms, was first established in 1796 by Edward Jenner. He was a scientist and fellow of the Royal Society in London. Seeing how much of a problem smallpox was at that time (and for most of history prior to then), Jenner was interested at innovating the process of variolation to tackle smallpox.
He was inspired by something he heard when he was a child from a dairymaid saying “I shall never have smallpox for I have had cowpox. I shall never have an ugly pockmarked face.” This inspired him later in life to carry out an experiment where he inoculated an eight-year-old with cowpox disease. He recorded the boy felt slightly ill for around 10 days after the procedure, but afterwards was completely fine. After being injected with active smallpox material a few months later, the boy did not show any symptoms of the disease; Jenner concluded his experiment had been a success.
After writing up his findings, Jenner decided to name the new procedure vaccination as the Latin for cowpox is ‘vaccinia’. His paper was met with a mixed reaction from the medical community. Despite this, vaccination began gaining popularity due to the activity of other doctors such as Henry Cline, a surgeon whom Jenner had talked closely with.
Due to the success of the procedure, especially compared to variolation, by the turn of the century (just a few short years after Jenner had run his experiment) vaccination could be found in almost all of Europe and was particularly concentrated in England. The success of Jenner’s work is outstanding. By 1840 vaccination had replaced variolation as the main weapon to fight against smallpox so much so that variolation was prohibited by law in British Parliament. The disease that had ripped so mercilessly through the world for centuries was finally declared eradicated in 1977 by the World Health Organisation (WHO) – perhaps more than the deceased Jenner could have ever hoped his discovery would achieve.
Edward Jenner:
Image via Pexels
Despite undeniably being a force for good in terms of the world, Jenner was also a remarkable person on a slightly smaller scale. Despite low supplies at times, Jenner would send his inoculation to anyone who asked for it – medical associates, friends and family, even strangers. Later in his life, he even set up his ‘Temple of Vaccinia’ in his garden where he vaccinated the poor free of charge. Despite the opportunity, Jenner made no attempt to profit off of his work, rather viewing his invention as a contribution to science and to humanity, and this was perhaps vital for the speed at which the vaccine and vaccination process spread.
Modern Vaccinations:
Nowadays vaccinations have changed – not in principle but in the nitty-gritty science of them – as we have begun to know more about how our immune system works. Jenner’s inoculant was adapted and changed to suit different diseases, containing either very mild strains of a virus with similar spike proteins, a dead strain of the virus, or even the isolated spike protein, enabling the body to recognise the pathogen without being exposed to the danger of it.
Introducing the body to the same spike proteins found on the harmful pathogen is in essence how vaccination works. The body responds to these spike proteins are foreign and so send phagocytes (a type of white blood cell) to destroy them, and lymphocytes to create antibodies to activate an immune response. This is why a few days after vaccination there may be a feeling of discomfort or slight fever – this is because the body is fighting against those spike proteins.
While the spike proteins are being destroyed, the body creates memory cells. These are the most important part of the vaccination procedure and mean that if the body is exposed to the actual, more dangerous pathogen in the future, the memory cells will recognise the spike protein and the body will have a secondary immune response, so that antibodies are produced in much greater quantity, sooner and more rapidly. Secondary immune responses to diseases are far more effective and often the person will never show any symptoms they have that disease, with the pathogens being destroyed within a matter of days.
Viral Vector Vaccines:
These are an example of exciting advances in vaccination. The way these type of vaccines work, such as the COVID-19 vaccine developed in the UK by Oxford University, is that the DNA from the actual virus is injected into an adenovirus (a deactivated virus that acts as a carrier for the actual virus DNA to our bodies), causing the antigens for actual virus to develop on the adenovirus. These can then trigger a strong immune response from the body without the actual virus itself being introduced into the body. This is an effective way to ensure memory cells to that virus are created, and this attributes to the Oxford vaccines high efficacy reports.
mRNA Vaccines:
The exciting new vaccination adaption is the mRNA material in the vaccine, and this has been used in some of the COVID-19 vaccines. The mRNA essentially is a set of instructions for the body to make the spike protein of the pathogen meaning the body makes the protein rather than it being cultivated in a laboratory and then put into a vaccination, but after that has exactly the same response. This allows the vaccination to be produced quicker and to be more effective. However, due to the newer and more complicated nature of the vaccine, it is more expensive to produce and needs to be stored at very low temperatures due to the mRNAs unstable nature. This can cause logistical issues with storage and distribution and is why the DNA based vaccine has been hailed as the best option for low income developing countries who do not have the facilities to store the mRNA vaccines. DNA vaccines can be stored at fridge temperature as DNA is far more stable than mRNA due to its double helix structure. This novel type of vaccine was developed by two Turkish immigrants living in Germany, who thought outside the box, like Jenner to improve human health in the race against time to find an effective vaccine. They have been enormously successful with the mRNA vaccine displaying 95% effectiveness against COVID-19 seven or more days after the second shot is administered.
Image via Pexels
Controversies of vaccinations:
During this pandemic, there has been wide-spread appreciation of how vital vaccines will be to control the spread of COVID-19. However, the voices of skeptics, often amplified by social media, seem to have found a more prominent platform to spread their opinions. They do not trust vaccination due to a variety of unfounded concerns. One of these is the argument that that the vaccinations are really ways for the government to implant chips into its citizens. Not only does this theory ignore the historic science of vaccination but logistically the needle would need to be far wider and the subsequent puncture wound would be far more noticeable.
The autism study:
Unfortunately, even though an article by Andrew Wakefield in 1998 was quickly shown to be based upon unfounded evidence, it continues to resurface among skeptics in their argument against vaccines, falsely claiming there is a link between autism and the MMR vaccine. Wakefield not only used only 12 children to test his hypothesis, far too small a group to draw up any kind of reliable conclusion, but he was also struck of the UK medical register for this paper. Wakefield’s study was disproven and redacted, and his hypothesis has been disregarded in the medical community through subsequent research and publication. The amplification of this fraudulent study has been cited as a reason for a decline in the uptake of the MMR vaccination and the subsequent small outbreaks of measles.
Development of COVID-19 vaccines:
For some, when they look at the speed with which the Covid-19 vaccine has been developed – under a year compared to more standard research time which can be as much as a decade – they are skeptical.
However, this is not because of cutting corners in the process; rather it is due to the immense amount of funding and equipment being given to scientists, as well as the sheer number of people working on the vaccine, to prioritise its development. In Phase I, II and III human trials are used and are assessed extensively for how the vaccine works in a diverse range of age groups, races, body types and pre-existing health conditions, as well as to accurately measure the exact immune response of the body – the antibodies and cells that have been produced and the efficacy and safety of the drug. This is then tested again by the approval companies – The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency for the UK, the European Medicines Agency for the EU and the Centre for Disease Control for the USA.
The World Health Organisation listed ‘vaccine hesitancy’ as one of the top ten threats to global health in 2019. This will play a crucial role in how quickly life can return to normal following the COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccinations are humans’ biggest weapon against the pandemic; they are, in the words of Sir David Attenborough, ‘a great triumph of medicine’, and although there has been recent news about mutations of the virus, it is important to remember that this is completely to be expected. The recent talk of the South Africa, UK and Brazil mutations have been due to small changes in the spike protein of the virus which have affected the transmissibility of the virus. There are tests currently being run, but early signs show that the vaccines are still effective against the mutation.
Even in the worst-case scenario, the vaccines can be adapted in a matter of weeks or months, and the government is preparing for a situation in which a COVID-19 vaccine has to be given annually to those at high risk, similar to the current flu vaccine. It comes as a relief that finally, in the wake of such a disruptive and terrible pandemic, there is light at the end of the tunnel and a reason to look forward to better days ahead, knowing that this lockdown will be very much so beneficial as every day more people are getting these game changing vaccinations.
