Parliament Hill Drama were proud to present their Summer production of ‘Alice’, their own take on Lewis’ Carroll’s classic nonsense story ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’.  This year the drama department tried something a little different and created the production ‘In Promenade’ inviting the audience to follow Alice on her curious journey all around the school.  Scenes took place all over the school, from the dance studio where the audience watched the scene ‘Through the Looking Glass’ to the roof outside the Art department where the audience were also able to see the current ‘Playground’ exhibition as they wandered through. 

‘We are really pleased with the positive reaction from the audience.  We wanted to surprise them and make them think as well as making them laugh-just like Lewis Carrol did with his wonderful story! The students have worked really hard and had a lot of fun along the way and we are very proud of them.’

Mrs Solidum, Head of Drama

The school orchestra performed ‘Jupiter’ by Holst and ‘America’ from West Side Story. The String group performed a piece by Mozart, the Brass Trio performed two pieces by their tutor Richard Martyn. The Parli Performance Choir collaborated with the Jazz Band to perform a re-mix of ‘Summertime’ by Gershwin and ‘Summertime’ by Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince. This included a beat box and a rap interlude by Isabella Stevens Prior and Omnya Wish.

Sixth Former Ella Gilbert performed a jazz solo on saxophone. The newly formed senior choir performed ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ by Bill Withers in three part harmony arranged by vocal tutor Jasmine Nelson. The Year 8 choir performed the South African working song ‘Shosholoza’ that they have been learning in lessons in conjunction with an African Storytelling scheme of work. The Jazz Band also brought the evening to a close with ‘I Feel Good’ by James Brown.

Charlotte Payne, Team Leader for Music at PHS said, “It was brilliant to include a range of students performing a varied programme in an open air setting. The students worked consistently hard to create this wonderful evening.”

Monday 1st February 2010 was an off-timetable curriculum day on the theme of “Raising Aspirations, Raisng Achievement”

Year 7 Students worked in different groups to their usual tutor groups and did a carousel of activities including “Building Learning Power” and “Learning to Learn” where they explored different learning styles and how to overcome barriers to learning.  This involved memory games, building a “Learning Tree” from drinking straws and solving puzzles. Year 8 students spent the day visiting the Science Museum.

Year 9 had an Aimhigher Day. The Aimhigher programme encourages pupils to think about going to university, especially those whose parents did not go.  Laura Martin-Clark is the Aimhigher Co-ordinator at PHS and Vivien Barr is the Aimhigher Co-ordinator for Camden and together they organised a progression day for pupils to get them thinking about their futures.

The day began for year 9 pupils with a play about progression from Year 9 to key stage 4, to sixth form and to university.  Then Year 9 heard from current university students about their courses, their universities and whether they live in halls, at home or in rented accommodation.  Later each year 9 pupil took part in a selection of the following workshops: Law, Business, Engineering, Fashion, University admissions, Police, Diplomas, Science.  The main idea is to get pupils thinking about future careers early so that they can make thoughtful and appropriate subject and course choices as part of a longer term plan.

Year 10’s day was organised around two events – a talk by BAM Construction about applying for Work Experience placements and the vital skill of filling in good job application forms and CVs, and a Study skills seminar delivered by “Maximise”. Feedback from students has been highly positive as they have learned about self-motivation and focus as essential ingredients of their future success.

Year 11 spent half of the day on intensive Maths revision, organised by Ms El-Damanawi, and the other half of the day working on their Technology subject.  Teachers reported high levels of engagement as Year 11 are now fast approaching final coursework deadlines and revision schedules for their GCSEs in only a couple of months time.

Team Leader for Music Charlotte Payne, said “It was a wonderful festive evening, showcasing our talented and aspiring young musicians.”

To enhance their understanding of particle physics 41 of our LaSwap AS/A2 physics students travelled to Geneva in Switzerland  to visit CERN, the European organisation for Nuclear Research. This was days before the Large Hadron Collider was switched on and the world’s largest experiment started. Unfortunately the huge security  prevented us from seeing the 27km diameter accelerator which is deep underground but we did see research areas where sections of the accelerator and the detectors were being checked. We also had time to visit the beautiful city of Geneva. Some of us even had the energy to climb to the top of the cathedral to appreciate the great views of the lake and the snow capped Alps.

We were all greatly relieved to hear on our return that the switch on was successful and the protons are now colliding and producing data which will be analysed by labs across the world.

Tomas Rook, an A2 physics student, said “the trip was excellent, I wished it was longer.”

Ms Pountney said, “This was a fantastic opportunity to see Physics in action, we will definitely do it again.”

 

---

 Curriculum Enrichment Day took place on Monday 5 October 2009 at PHS.  All year groups were involved in additional activities, trips or initiatives to enhance their learning and progression through the school.

Year 7 visited the Natural History Museum where they took part in Maths based activities.  Year 8 celebrated Black History & Cultural Awareness Month through Arts activities which included capoeira dance, film making and photography, self-portraiture, making people laugh, playwriting and music workshops. These workshops were staffed by professionals Arts practitioners.

(Above: Award winning TV director Michael Buffong works with Y8 students on a short video). 

Year 9 listened to options talks with pathway advice and induction activities for progression into KS4.

Year 10 attended a Youth Philanthropy Initiative conference at PHS in which students learned about charitable organisations.  Year 10 were given the challenge to begin preparation in teams for a research and presentation based project which will continue over several months. This project will culminate in teams competing by presentation for a £3000 prize to give to a local charity of their choice.

Year 11 took a Maths GCSE assessment and extended sessions for option A subjects.  They also took part in LaSwap preliminary interviews.  Overall students responses to Curriculum Enrichment Day activities were very positive, demonstrations from the day will take place in forthcoming assemblies.