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Year 7 Enrichment Day

On the 16^th and 17^th December our Year 7’s participated in their first ‘House Day’. The theme of the day was community. 

Our House Champions started the day with a video about our House names that they produced from locations around Milton Keynes, from the Marshall Headquarters in Bletchley to the Liz Leyh designed Concrete Cows on Monks Way. Students then spent time producing thankyou cards for the people in the Watling Community who had helped them this year. 

For the rest of the day students experience five activities: 

1. Panto– Miss Darling gave everyone the opportunity to get in to the festive spirit with an opportunity to learn more about pantomime. The students watched ‘Jack and The Beanstalk’ which was locally produced by Dreams’n’Wishes productions and performed at The Venue. Out students loved getting involved in the Pantomime in traditional audience participation- cheering the goodies and boo-ing the baddies! Students got to sit in the main hall raked seating so really got the whole theatre experience!   
2. Christmas decorations– Mrs Hardie led a fantastic session where students learned about the production and history of Christmas decorations, as well as the art of flame working and glass blowing. The students then had the opportunity to design and produce their own decoration- we hope that some of these have found their way on to trees at home. The decorations looked absolutely amazing, and the hard work from the students truly paid off.         

  

3. Santas sleighs– Miss Mistry focussed on our Watling Curriculum Theme of STEM when she challenged our students to produce a self-propelled sleigh. Students were given a limited resources that included card, wheels, tape, and a balloon. Not only was it a race to create the best structure but also the best design. Students got creative and some of the designs included a F1 McLaren, Santa’s Sleigh and Lightening McQueen.  
4. Charity / Quiz– This year our target is for every house to raise £1000 for their House Charity. Miss Egleton set our students the challenge of designing house based fundraising activities, the best plans will be used in the new year to raise money. Students took this challenge very seriously and produced some brilliant ideas including a book sale, movie evening and Watling’s Got Talent. This was followed by a quiz that the students excelled in and created a sense of competition amongst students in different houses.   
5. Team building– Mr Hale got our students working together as a team. In their first challenge they had to navigate a course on giant team skis, although progress was slow at first our students were flying around the course once they found their rhythm. Students finished the session by using drainpipes to transfer tennis balls from one area into their target area. With restrictions on movement, the student had to find an efficient way to transfer as many balls as they could through their guttering, without the balls getting out. It was great to see our students working collaboratively, communicating, problem solving, in order to be successful in this challenge.   

  

Feedback from students was fantastic and they are already looking forward to next year’s event where the theme is careers.  

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