Here are some photos with KS3 on the rooftop planting some vegetables and wholesome greens with Mrs Barden
As always, stay tuned for some more updates next week!
Gardening club on Every Tuesday After School
The Food Classroom Grow Progress
I haven’t been incredible at taking photographs of every step of our grow process as I was last year but here are some of our latest grows which were planted from seed by Mrs Spieler and the Gardening club students over the past month.
We have quite a variation of produce starting here before it is moved to the roof garden for transplanting
Gardening on the NEW roof-garden!
Its such a pleasure to now have a beautiful, soon-to-be-green natural space on the Blandford Street roof, thanks to Deborah Loads and the finance department!
The D&T Department alongside Science and the maintenance staff have been working our magic to get it going before this new growing season kicks in.
here are some brief photos of the D&T Department working our magic on the space last week during our lunch break.
We will continue to keep you updated as we progress!
Exciting ways to transform upcycled containers into planters – add character to your space
Fun activity ideas:
I hope you enjoy!
Some fun craft activity ideas:
Shredded old t-shirt weaving around pot or container-
You will need an old cotton lycra t-shirt (s), a pair of fabric scissors, an old pot or upcycled container and a hot glue gun and glue sticks.
- Cut your T-shirt(s) into long strips lengthways.
- Squeeze a glue dot on the bottom centre of the plant pot or container
- Stick one edge of a t-shirt strip to the glue dot while hot, allow a few seconds to dry, before beginning to wrap the strip around the pot. once you get to the end of your strip, glue it tightly onto the container where it ended and begin in the same position with a new cut strip of T-shirt by adding a glue dot.
- You can also weave the opposite way around the container from top to bottom, weaving in and out of the strips lengthways. This works best visually, when the strips are two different colours.
Painting onto planter or upcycled container-
Find a planter of some kind, this can be a real pot or an old upcycled plastic or glass container big enough to start a plant off in.
- Start by cutting recycled object to transform original shape. if this is a bottle, cut either the bottom or top off- use some of the visuals above for inspiration.
- Then choose a base coat of paint. the paint has to be fairly thick so I would go for a household paint or an acrylic.
- Leave to dry
- Use a smaller brush or even your fingers to paint the decorations on top
- If you’re going to transform this into a hanging basket, drill or poke two holes on either side and string it up with durable string.
Send us some photos of your progress!
Seasonal Foods
When you buy seasonal food you are helping to reduce environmental impact caused by the shipping & transportation from other countries, this means less refrigeration as well as supporting local farming demand for out of season produce…If produce is not being shipped this means there are less artificial hothouses, less fuels and less irradiation of produce which generally helps to produce less GHG emissions, compared to fruit and vegetables that are grown under protection, are imported or stored!
Food picked in season is also usually a lot cheaper than that of its out-of-season counterparts because overheads are lower due to the above mentioned stages required to transport and store goods.
It’s more nutritious. Eating locally is not only tastier, it’s also healthier! Ripe fruits and vegetables contain the most nutrients, as the minute they’re picked, their plant cells begin to shrink and their nutrients diminish
Within our Food & Nutrition GCSE Courses, Year 10 & 11 have been focusing on ingredients which are in season (and some even grown in department using our urban cultivator to start them off which was funded by The Savoy Educational Trust). The current theme being Butternut Squash.
Year 11 students followed a French recipe making ‘Butternut Squash Sage and Gruyère Pithivier’ where they each brushed-up on their pastry making skills by making the rough puff pastry themselves and practiced their outer pastry designs.
The pastry was made from scratch individually by each student using the new blast chiller which was also funded by the Savoy Educational Trust. We get so much use from the blast chiller in this department! its sometimes used in all three double-periods per day! It has been incredibly beneficial to all of our students in showing them industry standard procedures and bringing a higher quality finish to their final dishes. It has also been beneficial to students by speeding up the making time and allowing more theory teaching time.
Below is their process.
A Level ten hour pieces
The Y13’s have spent the last two days making their final coursework outcomes. There was lots of oil paint and medium, the largest carton print (life size figure) that I have ever seen and some spectacular work!
DT students have been busy working on their projects!
After half term Key Stage 3 students will be moving into new areas of Design and Technology(DT). We are taking this opportunity to share some of the wonderful work created so far which they will be bringing home shortly.
To support the creativity and learning of all our students we rely on a voluntary contribution each year towards the materials and ingredients throughout their time in DT.
At the beginning of the year we ask for a single voluntary contribution of £8.00 at KS3 and £12.00 at KS4. This allows us to have resources ready for students to maximise their experience in this practical subject.
Thank you for your support!
here are some great examples of student work
First Lego League Robotics Competition – Robot Design Winners 2022!
Cargo Connect
On Saturday, 22nd January (DT Club students) won the robot design for the First Lego League Competition. Dedicated DT Club students took part in the regional finals at Bechtel’s offices in Park Royal. They showed excellent teamwork and, in the short time that was available, prepared and competed this season’s Cargo Connect Project and Robot Mission!
For the Project, students investigated and designed alternative power sources to transport goods to reduce the impact on the environment. They were also delighted with the 175 points scored by successfully programming and completing their robot missions.
Their teamwork paid off! They won the Robot Design Trophy by showing the judges how effective they were at working together.
Well done to Lea, Megan and Misha in Year 11, Isabella, Mia and Sara in Year 9 and Georgete, Ioanna and Penelope in Year 7 for their hard work Lego building, project making and participation in the competition.
We are hoping to welcome new Lego Roboteers to DT Club on Thursdays after school to continue with our quest for the top prize!
Presenting the Core Values
Robot Missions!
The Trophy and getting a tour by the Chief Engineer !
Presenting the Project and the team Marylebone Transformers!
Department Growing Update!
Our radish are coming along quite blissfully at the moment as we are getting a lot of sunlight coming through the windows on the third floor.
For anyone who saw our last blog post with growing updates, our first crop of radish greens has progressed:
St Marylebone Art & Design 