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Saturday, 13 December 2014

Great Ashcroft Bake Off- Part 2

The time finally came for the second Great Ashcroft Bake Off of my lifetime at Ashcroft Technology Academy. I was feeling great about having an opportunity to redeem myself after the delicious-but-a-bit-less-beautiful cake from the year before so my main priority was to amend the design aspect of the cake. I still wanted to make the cake fun and pretty so I wanted to make a rainbow cake again, only with a twist of a tie dye effect and a pretty disguise. This is useful for CAS because I was able to increase my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth in baking and plan and initiate activities. It also allowed me to show perseverance and commitment and develop the skills I had previously acquired in baking from the past Great Ashcroft Bake Off whilst becoming an inquirer, a thinker, open-minded, caring, a risk-taker, balanced and reflective.

My aims for this activity were to improve upon the cake which I had made last year, but keeping the same kind of idea flowing. I wanted to still do a rainbow cake, however i tried a different recipe so that it would be a different kind; rather than very neat and stacked colours, these would be mixed together, like those in a tie die. Then, in order to make the cake more aesthetically pleasing, I wanted to disguise the colours so that they surprised the judges when they opened it up. My main aim was to gain points for my house and have fun in making a cake and competing with my peers. 

This was a challenge for me as I was trying to improve my last recipe and, of course, I had a lot of pressure of making a cake even better than the one I had made in the previous year which had seemed very difficult before I made it.

This was Creative because I redesigned and remodeled last years recipe in order to create a new and improved cake. It was also Service, again because the cakes which were entered into the competition were sold in order to raise money for charity.

I found this activity very amusing and i was really pleased with the result and met all my aims and goals. I managed to make a very pretty silver melted frosting coating topped off in delicious and sugary pink strawberry candy with a wonderfully colourful inside which made mouth water at its sight (and not only because of my famous baking skills). 



Friday, 3 October 2014

Dodge Ball Tournament

The Dodgeball tournament was another house competition which was held at my school. It was a tournament between both of the Sixth Form years so that we could socialise together and integrate with each other. First there were matches against each team. The winners of these then went into the semi finals, and the winners of these to the finals and throughout the competition each game won would win a certain amount of house points for the team. This was useful for CAS because increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth in the sport of dodgeball. I worked collaboratively with other people from my year and from the year below. I also consider the ethical implications of my actions so as to not hurt anybody and to have friendly games. I developed new skills for playing dodgeball and became a thinker, a communicator, principled, open-minded, caring, a risk-taker, balanced, reflective.

This was a challenge for me because I had not played Dodgeball competitively ever before and it was quite challenging physically. In addition, playing with people who I did not know made it more difficult, however using sport as a form of integrating the new year with ours made it easier to get to know each other.

My aims were to win as many games and house points as possible, however I was also aiming to get to know people from the year below and form new friendships.

This activity is Action because dodgeball is a sport and despite being very fun and enjoyable, it was very strenuous and there was a real sense of competitiveness too.

The result was amazing! I managed to get to the semi-finals with my team and we had so much fun in the process and make a ton of friends! It was very good sport and very hardcore cramp pains that followed to prove it.


Friday, 5 September 2014

Multicultural Munch

This activity was created for the IB students to get together during a lunch break and celebrate coming together after the Summer holidays. The theme was Multicultural Foods so we were each given the task of creating something from our home countries. Of course the first thing I thought to make was a Tortilla de Patata, or as the English may call it: Spanish Omelette. This was useful for CAS because I had increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth whilst cooking the traditional recipe. I also considered the ethical implications of my actions such as considering allergies people may have and made sure to write what it contained on  note beside it to make sure no one that was allergic  to the ingredients and took it by accident and became involved in an international project as this activity opened up a diversity of cultures. By participating in this activity I became an inquirer, knowledgeable, a thinker, principled, open-minded, caring, a risk-taker and balanced.

My aims were to create a delicious dish to represent the typical cuisine of my country to my peers and find out about my peers' cultures as well.

This was a challenge for me because I wanted to make a perfect tortilla to represent my country and had a lot of pressure to do everything perfectly. 

This activity was CREATIVITY because I made the recipe in my own way, not identical to the typical recipe one might find on the internet. This is also SERVICE because I made it for other people to enjoy and to show them about my culture.

Overall this was a very enjoyable activity. My tortilla was very successful and we all exchanged dishes and tried all of the different typical dishes of the large variety of cultures. I managed to meet all of my aims and learning outcomes and have a very delicious buffet whilst also listening to the music of different cultures and finding out about them. 

Sunday, 31 August 2014

Windsurf


During my summer holidays I visited a town in Spain called Cambrils, in Tarragona. This is where I usually go in the summer, however this year I noticed a new business giving all sort of water sports lessons. So I decided to try something new and take a windsurfing course for two days a week throughout the month of August. Here I learned how to set up the boards with the sails and manage them on the water. Of course a the beginning I was only just learning, however by the end of the month I really got the hang of it and was windsurfing like a pro. Windsurfing is useful for CAS because I had increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth in learning how to windsurf and undertaken the new challenge of windsurf. I had also worked collaboratively with others as many of the activities in the first few sessions requires teamwork to set up boards and other tasks. I showed perseverance and commitment as I attended all of the lessons for the course and developed new skills like being able to catch the wind and measuring the tide for safety reasons. Throughout the course I became an inquirer, a communicator, principled, caring, a risk-taker and balanced.

My aims for this activity were to appropriately learn the water sport of windsurf. This required me to learn to set up properly, learn he rules of the water and be aware of my surroundings constantly to make sure that it is safe.

This was a challenging experience for me as it was the first time I had ever tried windsurf and was completely new to me despite doing a lot of surf. What was also challenging was the fact that it is quite different from surf and can occasionally get confusing, and also that it was not just learning how to ride on a board, but all of the other smaller factors so consider and be aware of.

This was Action because windsurf is a water sport which requires quite a lot of strength and ability to manipulate the sail and be aware of the surrounding sea. 


I personally found this activity very fun and useful to me as I have always wanted to learn how to do windsurf. One of the most entertaining things was watching others learn and suffering together learning how to get up on the board and holding a sail and sharing the shame of not being able to get on it alone for the first week. I think this was a really good form of exercise and acquirement of knowledge because it did not just help me to get fit, but also how to be extremely aware of the sea because it can be very traitorous, which I did not know enough of from doing surf and it is necessary to know to be safe at sea.

Monday, 30 June 2014

Fun Run



The Fun Run is an event hosted every two years in my school in order to raise money to a neighbouring neuro-disability hospital for children. Each fun run consists of children and teachers in weird and wacky costumes or sporty wear who run for five miles and a whole group of others who organise it all. This is where I came in. In order for the Fun Run to work, people are needed to supervise the event, the children while they are waiting to go, organize them into groups, and give the timings to the children of how long it took them to do the race, which is the job I shared with a few other peers. this was useful for CAS because I planned and initiated activities and worked collaboratively with others, showing perseverance and commitment whilst becoming an  a thinker, a communicator, principled and caring. The activity also engaged with issues of global importance like neuro-disability and allowed me to another way to consider the ethical implications of my actions.


My aims for this activity were to help to organize the event and participate in raising money for such a great cause. My role was to measure the timings of every child which belonged to my house: Discovery, and I aimed to do this efficiently and effectively. 

This was challenging for me because of the large amount of students which participated. When having to collect the times, a it would usually be a group coming up to he finish line and it was difficult to give each coming student their times. There was also a confusion as many children had taken off their race numbers which let us know which house they belonged to, and hence made it difficult to tell which of the senior students had to tell each of them their time. 

Participating in this was of Service because I was contributing to the Fun Run in order to help the greater cause of providing fundraising for the Children's Neuro-Disability Hospital. 

This helped me to become more aware of the different ways in which I can help and participate in campaigns and events, by knowing that it is not only the main part, like running, which is necessary for them, but also their organisation and setting up in order to actually make them reality. I completed all of my aims in this activity and enjoyed seeing the determination of the students to have fun and participate no matter what. 

Sunday, 29 June 2014

Nike Training Club

During Wednesday and Friday lunch breaks, I attended the Nike Training Club at school.  its a scheme as part of the Nike training club with the National School's Partnership to improve fitness, strength and flexibility for girls only run all over London and my school is one of many where it is held for students. It is an energetic group workout adapted for young girls and each session was completely different from the next with a different focus and different exercises. Also, after every session, a stamp is provided on a sort of loyalty card. For every ten stamps we receive a Nike Training Club gift, whether it be t-shirts, bottles sweatbands, etc. This was useful for CAS because I had increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth throughout each and every session and I was always undertaking new challenges physically because I always tried to push my body in each session. I had also planned and initiate activities for the club like occasionally leading a session or certain exercises. I constantly worked collaboratively with other girls that were taking part in the club and have shown perseverance and commitment in my activities. I developed new skills like learning how to stretch and cool down properly and learning which exercises and became an inquirer, a communicator, principled, caring, a risk-taker, balanced.

This activity was challenging for me, not just because of the large amount of strenuous exercise done during the club sessions. However any form of exercise is always and should always be a challenge for one's body in order for it to have an real effect so it was an enjoyable kind of challenging. Leading sessions was also challenging because of pressure, however the girls made it easy for me to lead. 

My aims for this activity were to get fitter and healthier with this club and get all of the goodies that were on offer (which I did) and also to gain leadership skills by occasionally run a session.

This activity is CREATIVITY because in some sessions it is necessary to be creative for some activities, especially if I was running the session and created the exercises. it was also ACTION because I did a a variety of physical exercise including aerobics, cardio work outs, core workouts, etc. It was also SERVICE because of the sessions that i had run myself for the girls.

The activity will still be ongoing until the end of July 2015, however so far it is a very fun and fulfilling activity. It is a very good form of exercise and a good way to form relationships with the other girls. I have reached all of my aims so far, but I would still like to reach them to a further extent. 



Allotment


From the beginning of September 2013 I began to help a friend of my mother's to manage, design and take care of an allotment plot as she felt that it was too much work for herself alone. Together we did exactly that: first we decided what wanted to plant and planned a design for the plot so that everything was planted according to the type of plant it is and so that it is next to something that encourages its growth. Throughout the year we planted a lot of things, nearly five to ten things each month, which was very time consuming as a lot of the plants had to be initially grown in small containers at home and then put outside, whereas other plants could be planted directly outside and we had to organise which plants were which. When the lay out was set, I also helped to build a shed and a green house for the owner, amongst other structures. The outcome was great and they are still surviving despite the generous amount of rain we get in London. Every weekend until June 2014 I helped to take care of the plot which included a lot of digging, carrying bucket-fulls of water, composting, research about planting, etc. This was useful for CAS because I had increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth in agriculture. From the beginning I have been faced with new challenges and planned and initiated activities like fruit or vegetables for each season. I worked collaboratively with the owner of the allotment and other allotment owners which i would occasionally work with as well. I have shown perseverance and commitment in my activities by working in the allotment for a year and have engaged with issues of global importance like agriculture and being friendly to the environment and considered the ethical implications of my actions like growing the food organically and having this allotment to contribute to stopping transport of certain foods. Having this allotment helped me to develop new skills and to become knowledgeable, a thinker, a communicator, caring, a risk-taker and reflective.

This was a challenge for me because I had never before managed a plot or grown my own food. Every single day was challenging. Even just watering the plot was difficult because there was a manual water pump and I had to fill it up buckets about twenty times before watering everything. Whether I had to do digging or planting or weeding, the large scale of the plot made it very hard and also the weather decided whether it was going to be more or less difficult (which is never reliable in London). 

My aims were to learn how to garden effectively to grow both nutritious and tasty food whilst also helping the woman who runs the allotment. I also wanted to get more involved with nature and have my own piece of land as I do not have a private garden and use this to grow my own organic fruit and vegetables.




This activity was CREATIVITY because I had to set out how the crops were to grow and design a nice layout for the allotment. Also by creating and decorating structures for the plants like small support or the shed and the green house. This was also ACTION because of the large effort it takes to garden and creating these structures (boxes, a shed, a greenhouse, etc.). It was also SERVICE because I helped to run the allotment for the person who owns it as they could not handle the more strenuous activities. 

Throughout months of helping the owner of the allotment I had learnt a lot about gardening and maintaining a plot throughout different seasons, knowing what to plant at the specific months and when to harvest food. It was a very joyful, but difficult activity at times, specially when it was raining, although rain means not having to walk up and down from the manual water pump ten times. This is why everything has a sort of balance and this is the reason why I loved it so much and also because I got very in touch with nature. It was also nice to feel so satisfied that after so much work you get really great crops that taste a lot better than anything from big supermarkets. I feel that I have achieved all of my aims, however I did not want to stop  growing so I decided to grow a small vertical herb garden in my balcony for fresh cooking. I think that everyone would benefit from doing something like this simply because it increases happiness to watch something grow. Overall, I loved the satisfaction of the activity and feel that I have learned a lot from it. 



Wednesday, 11 June 2014

Rock Climbing

Like at the beginning of the first year of IB, our IB coordinator organised a Rock Climbing experience for my IB cohort at White Spider Climbing. this is one of the UK's newest and largest climbing centres with more than 360 routes on 104 lines, up to 20 metres on our stalactite roof, grades from 3 to 8b. It also has over 240 boulder problems, including a massive comp wall, big cave and dedicated training area, along with regular route setting from some of the biggest names in the industry. This was useful for CAS because it allowed me to increase my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth. I was also able to work collaboratively with my other peers and show perseverance and commitment by not letting go and just abseiling down the wall every time I got tired and I became a thinker, a communicator, open-minded, caring, a risk-taker and balanced.

My aims for this activity were to have a great experience at this great indoor rock climbing centre as I had only been indoor rock climbing half a dozen times before. I also was doing it as it is a fun for of exercise and to get fit, and to come together and do something entertaining with my peers after a whole summer without them. 

This was challenging for me because I had not done rock climbing for about a year before that since the Challenge and had to do a practice round to remind myself of the techniques for rock climbing and abseiling down with a partner. 

This was Active because despite it being very fun and entertaining, the harder routes (there are routes with different levels of difficulty) required a lot of strength and ability to complete.  

Overall, this was a great form of physical exercise and was very fun to participate in along with all of my classmates. I feel like I was able to reunite with them after such a long time separated through this fun activity and I would definitely like to do it again as I am a big fan of this sport and really enjoy doing it. 

Friday, 16 May 2014

Guiding French Exchange Students

During a week in May, some students from year nine expected visitors from France as they were participating in an exchange with a French school in Versailles. When the French students finally arrived I, along with a few other senior students, was given the job  givng them a tour around the school while their exchange partners were in lessons. This was useful for CAS because I had increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth in French spoken expression and for presenting to large groups of people and had to work collaboratively with the visitors. I showed perseverance and commitment as I guided them through the whole school and accompanied them whenever their respective students had a lesson. I engaged with issues of global importance and considered the ethical implications of my actions as they are visitors from another country and am meant to give a good impression and joyful experience and became an inquirer, knowledgeable, a communicator, principled, open-minded and caring.

My aims were to give a good presentation of the school and answer any queries which the French visitors had whilst also making them feel very welcome and take advantage of he opportunity and practice my spoken french expression. 

This was a challenge for me because it was difficult to communicate sometimes as the students were often distracted and occasionally I could not express certain things to them as I did not know the words in french and they could not speak english at all. 

This is of SERVICE because I was giving a tour of the whole school to the French exchange students so that they could see how the Academy life was like in England and have a good time. 

Friday, 7 March 2014

Assisting an Italian Workshop

An Italian workshop was being given to the year eights of my school to give them an introduction in to Italian as they would have the option of learning Italian as a language in their next year for GCSEs. Because I am studying A level Italian I was asked to help to set up activities during the workshop and to help the children with the activities which consisted both of learning the language and learning about the Italian culture. This was useful for CAS because I had increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth by helping the children taking part in the activity. Worked collaboratively with other IB or A level Italian students and with the children. We engaged with issues of global importance as we covered the many cultural aspects of Italy, and the origins of the Italian language and their influences on the world. The activity made me knowledgeable, a thinker, a communicator, principled, caring.

This activity was a challenge for me because I had to work with young children and I felt responsible for them. Occasionally a child would not want to cooperate in an activity and I would have to encourage them to do it and have fun, also that all of the children in the group were involved .

My aim for this activity were to help younger students learn some of the Italian language and to help the students to understand the Italian culture, I also wanted help the teachers to organise the students and the activities.

This activity was CREATIVE because a lot of the activities required it and also having to find ways to get the children involved in the activity. It is also SERVICE because i was volunteering to helping the teachers and students.


This activity allowed me to help the teachers running the workshop and to get a bit more involved in learning Italian culture. I completed all of my aims and had fun with the younger students and learnt some things about my culture that I didn't even know whilst doing so.



Friday, 28 February 2014

Guiding Sixth Form Applicants

Once, occasionally twice, in some days during the months of January and February, students in year eleven from other schools who were thinking about applying to the Ashcroft Sixth Form the following year would come to ask questions and have a tour of the Sixth Form block often with their parents. As an IB student also doing A levels I was very often asked to guide the visitors and answer any questions that they had. These questions were usually about my courses, the school and how it is organised, how I cope with the subjects, their difficulty, and other questions similar to these. This was useful for CAS because I had increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth by giving tours of the school. I also considered the ethical implications of my actions like being a good representative of the school and presenting to the children and their parents effectively, it also allowed me to become a thinker, a communicator, principled, caring.

This was a challenge for me because there is quite a bit of pressure when having to guide someone through something that would be responsible for their future education although being honest and clear with my answers the their questions helped me to overcome this.

My aims were to effectively guide applicants and their parents around the Sixth Form area and convince them that it is a good sixth form that the student would want to go to in addition to responding to any questions that they had about the sixth form and any questions that they had about the A level and IB courses that I am doing.

Doing ths activity was SERVICE because I was volunteering to act as a guide for visiting students whenever my Head of Year needed me to.

Overall it was nice to meet future students and see how nice they all were. I have seen many of the children that I guided in the new lower Sixth Form year (so I hope that means I guided them well) and they are all very nice and friendly.



Saturday, 11 January 2014

Bormio and Milan, Italy

During the Winter holidays I went on a trip to Italy where I went to Milan and to a town in the Alps called Bormio. I fell in love with the fashion capital as soon as I saw its centre. It is so full of so much history and yet so modern at the same time. In milan I visited many of the monuments and historical buildings such as Il Duomo, l'Arco della Pace, Il Castello Sforzesco. I also saw The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci in Santa Maria delle Grazie. During the New Year week, I stayed at Bormio. As we all well know, London might get very cold in the winter, but it is no where close to producing any significant amount of snow to do any snow sports, and even if there was its not like we could ski down the Shard since there are no mountains nearby. So whilst I was in the Alps, in Bormio, I took advantage of the scenery and had my first experience of snow boarding, skiing and sledding. This is useful for CAS because I increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth and undertook new challenges whilst being a tourist in Milan and learning snow sports in Bormio. I planned and initiated activities every day to make the most of my trip and worked collaboratively with my hosts and others in order to do so. I engaged with issues of global importance many times whilst I was there for example, whilst I was on my visit to the Last Supper and when visiting Il Duomo. I also considered the ethical implications of my actions during these visits to make sure that I respected whatever I was visiting. Throughout the visit I developed new skills, for example in observation and also in doing the snow sports and became an inquirer, knowledgeable, a thinker, a communicator, principled, open-minded, caring, a risk-taker, balanced and reflective.


My aims for his activity were to visit and explore Milan and all of its incredible culture to develop my understanding of it and to find inspiration for my art course and personal advancement. I also of course wanted to learn these snow sports as I had never tried any of them before and I wanted to experience them (even it it was on the smallest slope of the mountain for kids and despite my friends torment and frustration at the fact that she couldn't snowboard). Overall, I wanted to improve my Italian expression for my studies and be able to develop a good spoken expression as going to the country of the language that one is learning is one of the best ways to develop the skills and learn it properly.

During this trip i faced many challenges as it was a completely new setting for me, although I did have a dedicated tour guide. the most challenging part, I think was the trip to Bormio as it was very tiring and by the end of each day we were drained of energy because of the amount of exercise we had done.

This trip was Creative because of the vast amount of art and historical monuments and buildings we saw. It was also Active because on one hand, we were running around Milan (literally) trying to find all of the features we wanted to see, and on the other hand, we were sliding down a possible total of the radius of the earth on skis, boards and sledges and having to also climb up the same distance to get back to our house.

Overall I completely enjoyed this trip and learned many things and met all of my aims. I feel that through my experiences I have developed as a person and developed a new way of thinking through experiencing different culture, people and activities. I have found my love for the Italian culture and art through this trip, specifically the cathedral of Milan, Il Duomo. I also enjoyed my first ever experience of sporting on the snow and love it, despite its side effects of exhaustion, it was a good excuse to go to a spa and use jacuzzis in the middle of the snow.