In addition to the regular timetable of remote lessons a number of our teachers have volunteered to run a variety of co-curricular clubs for our students. These include Dance, Board Games, Arts and Crafts, Fitness, Sewing, Song Writing, Robotics, Choir and Drawing.
We asked some of the teachers and students involved to give us a taste of what they had experienced and here is what they said.
Both Miss Wrights have been running the hugely popular weekly Fitness Club, which includes high-intensity workouts over the 45 minutes, with music. Miss Wright said that the students worked incredibly hard for the entire session!
Lower 4 student: I did the Do It Wright Fitness Club and it was really fun! I haven’t been able to exercise with other students and teachers since lockdown, so it was really nice to get back into old habits and see everyone on Zoom whilst having fun!
Upper 4 student: In the Miss Wrights’ Fitness Club, we had a tabata workout, where we did a few exercises repeatedly with breaks between them. It was so nice to see everyone working out together in the sunshine, while the Miss Wrights were cheering us on very enthusiastically!
Lower 6 student: Last Wednesday I took part in the Fitness Club, run by Miss Wright and Miss Wright, where we ran through a couple of different workouts for about 40 minutes. What I really enjoyed about it was being able to do sport with students in younger years, which we don’t tend to do in school and I really enjoyed the ‘team’ aspect of being able to encourage younger students to push themselves as well. It was also really nice to re-connect with School and do exercise with other people as it’s just me at home!
Meanwhile, also in the PE Department, Miss Nelson has been running Dance Club, in which the aim is to allow students to learn short dance routines in a different style every week. So far the students have performed a contemporary and commercial piece of dance.
Miss Baker has been running a Board Games Club, about which a Middle 5 student commented: I went to Board Games Club for the first time today and really enjoyed it! We played virtual Scattergories and it was really fun to play against each other with some friendly competition whilst thinking on the spot. It was also nice to meet people across different year groups via Zoom.
Mr Turner has organised an Arts and Crafts Club and Miss Shaw the Sewing Club.
Lower 4 student: I have participated in Art Club and Sewing Club. I enjoyed both of these because I got to interact with other students and do something creative. In Sewing Club, we started a project called Curtain Up, where we are making sewn squares. These will be sent to the Lyceum Theatre and if they get enough entries, they are going to sew all the squares together and make new curtains for the stage!
Lower 4 student: I have been attending the Art club, which is run by Mr Turner, every week and I’m really enjoying it. So far we have tried still life drawing, with varied results! It is a really fun and creative and I can catch-up with all my friends that are in different classes.
Meanwhile, Miss Lavelle has been sharing her song-writing expertise with the students in Song-Writing Club. First, the group talked about a poem and how they would cut/use the words and approach matching the harmony to the mood. They also talked about where their interests lie in terms of music or lyrics. One member of the group, who is more keen on lyric-writing, is going to write some words for the others to set to music. To help get them going, Miss Lavelle demonstrated a couple of voicings that they could experiment with on the piano and also how they could play around with harmonic rhythm to make it sound more interesting, even if the harmony is fairly straightforward.
Upper 4 student: Today I took part in Song-Writing Club with Miss Lavelle after school. It was really fun as seven of us came together to share ideas on chord sequences and also putting music to some lyrics inspired by a poem. We are even going to try to write a song as a group! As someone who has always been interested in song-writing but never really known how to start it was a great experience amidst my monotonous routine during this current lockdown and I can’t wait to attend next week!
Our Director of STEM, Miss Percy, has been running the VEX Robotics Club, in which Middle School students have met to discuss building robots, coding and strategies to win the 2021 National Competition! Inspired by the recent success of an Upper 5 student in the first national VEXcode Competition, the younger students have developed their programming skills using tutorials and videos and planned how to move around a virtual playing field. Using the VEX virtual robotics platform students have designed programs to make virtual robots draw and dance. Following a plea from the students Miss Percy will be organising the roll out of boxes of kit so they can build their own robots at home.
Finally, a Lower 4 student sums it all up very nicely: The virtual clubs have been a really great idea and I am sure we all agree that they have been refreshing and enjoyable! It is also a great way to interact with not only our friends, but the teachers too. In this greatly puzzling time, it is a glimpse of our lives at school before the lockdown; I am very grateful to all the Haberdasher’s Girls staff who have taken their time out to do this for us….thank you!
