COLLINS FACULTY UPDATE - Miss Flynn

The Collins Faculty is made up of PE, Dance, Design and Technology, Textile Design, Food Technology and BTEC qualifications. Our faculty have been hard at work this term with hundreds of students attending after school clubs and working extremely hard in class. Well done to everyone for all their efforts this term. We hope you have a well-deserved rest over the holidays and look forward to seeing you in January. 

Dance

Well done to all dancers for all their hard work this term. Year 9 have been creating a dance using inspiration from a Kandisnsky painting. Students have worked hard to understand the choreographic process when creating a dance.

Year 10 have learnt one of the set phrases this term which forms part of their GCSE coursework. They have been working hard to refine their skills to ensure they perform with accuracy and perfection. Well done for your resilience and dedication to this unit.

Year 11 have started their choreography unit which requires students to create their own solo or group choreography. We look forward to seeing these develop over the next few weeks.

PE

On Wednesday 1st December, the year 11 GCSE PE students had their internal practical mock moderation. The students performed in Netball, Football and Table Tennis demonstrating a variety of skills in isolation and in full context games. All students performed exceptionally well with focus and energy. The Year 11 GCSE PE students will continue to work on their practical sports in their lessons and interventions will be offered by members of the PE department in preparation for the external moderation day in the Spring/Summer term. Congratulations and well done Year 11 - keep up the good work!

Well done to all students who have attended our after school clubs this term. We have had an incredible uptake of sports from many students.

Textile Design

Textile design has had a really busy term, over the last few weeks our students have been working hard on a range of projects.

Year 10 and 11 have been studying a dwelling themed project and they have been experimenting with transfer printing, applique and free motion embroidery. They have looked at artists, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Ruth Allen and Harriet Popham.

Year 9 have been working on a Natural forms project and they have been learning about a range of artists and textile techniques, such as Ana Teresa Barbosa and Ellsworth Kelly. They have been experimenting with embroidery and transfer printing using items from nature such as leaves and flowers.

Year 7 and 8 have been working on a fun abstract theme project where we have been looking at the artist Wassily Kandinsky. The students have made some fantastic door stops in the style of his work. Within this project they have also been learning about designing prints, applique and lots of different embroidery techniques.

Sixth former for a day on Friday was a huge success, students that attended the Textile design session took part in a short activity where they took architecture as inspiration to create garments and structures on a mannequin using newspaper and card.

Food Preparation & Nutrition

Food Preparation and Nutrition students have been working really hard this term to produce some delicious dishes, putting their knowledge and cooking skills to the test. Well done everyone for your hard work!

Year 10 students have been learning about Food Provenance and the origins of our food, including reared and caught foods. We have created a Gammon and egg pie alongside Fish pie and Tuna fish cakes just to name a few. Students who have had an opportunity to practice their pastry making skills with shortcrust pastry and learn about the science behind making mayonnaise.

Walter, our Head Chef at Cucina visited our students and demonstrated how to butcher a chicken, a fantastic experience for our students who asked many interesting questions!

Year 10 students took part in the Tunnocks Tea Cake Challenge, where they had to style and present a dish with the Tunnocks Tea cake as their starting point. We were so impressed with the high standard of dishes created, Miss Flynn was our star judge and had the honour of choosing the winners! Congratulations to Ella N and Lottie S who were our crowned winners!

Design and Technology

One of our Year 9 Design and Technology groups have been working hard on a Wooden Learning Toy project, their brief was to design and make a wooden toy suitable for a toddler or child. The workshop has been buzzing with enthusiasm with students using a range of hand tools and machine tools to produce their toys.

In addition to this, one group have been putting the finishing touches to their LED desk lamps. Students have used CAD to design and laser cut lamp shade panels, and have soldered together a range of electronic components to bring their lamps to life.

Our Year 10 students have been working with pine. They have used a mix of traditional and more contemporary construction techniques to produce a high quality pine storage unit.

Miss Flynn

Faculty Lead - Collins