This week saw the return of TIPS Week in the Junior School. It has been so fantastic to see all the girls engaged in their workshops, thinking innovatively and solving problems through a huge range of activities. From making sculptures to designing breakfast cereal, from a moment of calm to juggling, and from pitching ideas to Dragons to building bridges, the girls have developed skills of creativity, teamwork, resilience, patience, public-speaking and so much more.

Some of the Year 5 girls have reported on the workshops they have taken part in:

Op Art Stocking Sculptures: 

In this workshop, we learned how to make sculptures with stockings, wire and white gesso paint. We focused on being creative by making our own patterns to paint onto the hardened gesso paint. We used so many different colours and really enjoyed the session! – Klara, Sophie, Vivian, Thalia and Clivia

Moment of Calm

Natalie, who also runs our yoga club, led this session. We took part in various activities to help us really focus on our body and minds. For example, in the first activity, we went onto the playground to walk without shoes so we could really feel the ground. We had to focus on how we were walking and not be distracted by anything else. – Cindy and Lily

Dragons’ Den

In the Dragons’ Den workshop, we had to develop an idea, create a prototype and pitch it to the Dragons. We made a party robot called ‘DJ Party Bot’. Every time the robot hears the words ‘party time’, it creates a party. Inside the robot there is a bouncy castle, balloons and party poppers. Finally, the robot can transform itself into a boom box. Other people’s ideas included a futuristic dog house, a fidget toy and a vegan Harrods! We developed lots of skills including creativity, teamwork, courage and statistics (number and price). -Scarlett and Eva

Colourful Kaleidoscopes

After learning about what kaleidoscopes are and looking at futuristic patterns, we painted the outside of our kaleidoscopes. Then we decorated a card circle with patterns and glitter. After that, we inserted a triangular prism made out of mirrored paper to create the optical illusion of a kaleidoscope. We developed our creativity skills by decorating and painting and our engineering skills too! Our favourite part was seeing the results of the final product! – Blanca, Sophia, Leyla and Maya

Crime Scene Science 

This TIPS activity helps you develop your problem-solving skills, teamwork and creativity. We had to follow the clues stashed around the Year 5 classroom and submarine to find the guilty culprit. Their crime? They had stolen our sweets! We had to crack the codes in the 10 clues to decide whether the statements were true or false. This helped us discover who the thief was! – Olivia, Addie, Dalal, Sofia G and Elena

It’s Circus Time 

In this workshop, we learnt how to juggle with balls that we made from rice and balloons. We started with scarves and later progressed to using the balls. The scarves helped us to develop our juggling skills – the steps had been carefully planned to help us succeed! We also watched a range of videos that inspired us to use different styles. – Eleanor, Charlotte, Sofia R, Sibella and Isabella