This week, the Junior School has been a hive of activity with the girls taking part in a range of workshops for TIPS (Thinking Innovatively and Problem Solving) Week. Throughout the afternoon sessions, the girls have worked in mixed class groups to ponder perplexing puzzles, complete creative challenges, respond to ridiculous riddles and inject imagination into ideas!

Below is a snapshot of just some of the amazing workshops that the girls have taken part in.

Mrs Amin, Year 5 Class Teacher

Dragons’ Den

In Dragons’ Den, we learnt the importance of teamwork while we designed and created eco-friendly products. My group made a prototype for rebuildable toys, Perplexing Poppets. When we first designed it, all we had in our minds was the impact on the environment and usefulness of the product.  We wanted to make something that would give everlasting fun, while also helping to protect our planet.

Lyra, Year 6

Desert Island Escape

On arrival at our TIPS workshop, we were split into teams with a mix of girls from different year groups. When we sat down, we saw a blow-up pool filled with water surrounded by some cacti. We were to imagine that the pool was the vast ocean. Then we were given our first set of clues – it was a riddle. Our task was to solve the riddles to find the shapes of three keys and the mystery word. Once we completed that we could collect resources to build a new boat that had to:

1. Float in the ocean (pool)
2. Survive the ‘storm’ (a hairdryer to represent the wind)

At the end we tested our boats in the water and the ‘storm’. We all had so much fun and enjoyed it, using creativity and wit!

Constancia, Year 5

The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch

In The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch workshop, we followed a set of instructions to create Mr Grinling’s perfect sandwich. We went on a mission to the top floor to find Francis Holland’s very own lighthouse where we put our sandwiches in a bucket and had a go at hauling them up on a rope with pulley attached. The girls learnt that they needed to pull down for the bucket to go up. Finally, the girls enjoyed their delicious sandwiches back in the classroom; much deserved after all their hard work.

Mrs Greig, Year 1 Class Teacher

Outfoxed

Our workshop was called Outfoxed. In this workshop we worked in two groups to build a model chicken coop for the chicks that have recently hatched in Reception. The coop had to be fox-proof and also had to be suitable for baby chicks to live in. Some of the characteristics needed for our coops were: it needed to be raised off the ground, it needed to be entertaining and it needed to have all the essentials. Our group made a raised chicken coop with individual sleeping spaces, a tunnel for the entrance, two floors, a dining area, a very shallow pool, a tree, an outdoor playing area, toys; and it was 99% fox-proof. For building our coops, we had a wide range of materials including sticks, pom-poms, beads, string, chicken wire, cardboard boxes, felt, model chicks and much more. In the end, we showed the other group our hard work and they showed us theirs. Overall, I think it was a wonderful workshop and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Alice, Year 6