PUBLISHED 24 March 2022
Our Year 7 students presented the outcome of their Inquiry Projects at our inaugural Inquiry Learning event which provided an informal forum to share their work with their parents, members of staff and each other.
Faye Marland, Assistant Head of Staff and Student Development worked in partnership with Amanda Culpan, Librarian, to support students as they acquired research skills traditionally associated with much older students based on the FOSIL principle, 'learning by finding out for yourself.'
Mrs Marland explained, "In the very early stages of the project, students were asked to explore a topic that truly fascinates them; from this brief you will be able to see that the topics span across a plethora of different interests as students went on a voyage of discovery, into the unknown.
The key was that each student had to be courageous, taking a leap of faith and working in a way that was different to how they had previously encountered project work before. I am sure, each of them would agree with me that they have been stretched and challenged to produce something that we are all very proud of which has surpassed any of our expectations."
This process has enabled students to:
- understand the importance of finding several sources to back one viewpoint and then finding several others to present an alternative;
- organise their thoughts and ideas and put them into an order that clearly answered the question they were asking;
- conclude by adding their own thoughts;
- complete a fully referenced bibliography of sources and cite in-text references.
David Harrow, Headmaster, was delighted to see the students enthusiastically sharing what they had learnt, noting, "We have been thrilled to see the variety of topics explored... every one represents a passion being pursued and a potential gateway to further academic adventures, which I hope will never end."
As a memento of their work, all students were gifted a bound copy of the collection of projects, entitled, 'ASK, Big questions asked by curious minds'. Copies of the book are available to view in our reception office and school libraries - which we hope will inspire those who will follow in these trailblazers' footsteps.