Horticulture: Stems and Stemnet, farms and weather

The Stemnet group, previously just run by Mr Morris and Miss Knapp at Shene School has expanded its remit for next year and has gained some new leaders.


The Technology Department now has a Technology Club run by Mr Tribe. This club will focus on the mechanical & electronic with such projects as model cars using various methods of propulsion and small robotic projects.

The Gifted and Talented, run by Ms Blease, has been designing and creating a School Farm. Over 200 plants have been propagated and planted. Not all survived but those that have are thriving well under the pupils’ ministrations. The pupils have also designed a rabbit hutch and various planters and benches. The rabbit hutch is almost completed (and from that we can assume we will soon have a rabbit), and the designs for the benches and planters have been approved and the wood purchased ready for building before the end of the year.

Further, spin-off projects run by Stemnet include replacing some of the dead or unhealthy plants and trees with fruiting trees and fruit bushes. Planning has been completed and discussions are under way with two nurseries regarding the actual plants.

Additionally a small "meadow" area will be created to encourage insects, bees and butterflies and a bird-box has been built/purchased with a wireless camera to generate a live feed in the spring when (hopefully) the box will be occupied.

The Princes Trust, currently run by Miss Staples, will be involved in the creation of a new pond, incorporating twin levels so that both shallow and deep plants can be accommodated. This is still in the planning stage so time lines and exact details are still vague.

The Geography department has also joined the Stemnet group and is run by Mr Richardson. The original idea was to have a weather club, but some technical issues have meant a rearrangement of priorities and the group has been focused on volcanoes and plate tectonics and has produced several, rather fun, working models of volcanoes. The weather club will now begin next year when at least one person will have learnt how to do some basic programming in XTML, which will be compatible with the with the new online learning platform being introduced to the school next year, and which staff and students have expressed a high level of excitement about as it will allow them to easily showcase their work.

Twickenham Riverside Project

Ms Jacobs, our "always deliriously happy" Head of Art and Creative and Media Diploma Lead, writes about the Twickenham Riverside Project.

The 40 Environment Trust trustees voted at their last meeting on the 5 finalist sculptures.


Today Joseph Pecorelli from the Environment Trust announced the winners of the project that he ran with the Year 10 Creative and Media Diploma pupils.

The task was to create a piece of public art to be installed on the Twickenham riverside.

It was to be inspired by the stretch of the River Thames that runs through the borough of Richmond.

The pupils drew inspiration from areas such as: the river gods and spirituality; industry; history; heritage wildlife; environment; leisure and pleasure.

The pupils had to consider the factors involved if their sculpture won and was then enlarged and made professionally as a public sculpture on the riverside at Twickenham.

After many trips, workshops, proposing of  ideas, and then constructing and finessing these, three winners were chosen:

1st: Skye Reilly


2nd Fernanda Alves De Lima


3rd: Laila Elsidawi


The pupils were all awarded with prizes such as portable solar charges and a device for monitoring how much electricity they use in their home.

Skye’s winning sculpture “River Goddess” was based on the river as she thought it chaotic and powering and therefore her goddess.

Music, Sport, Psychology and ...football

I have just returned from a lovely evening listening to our Y10 Music students singing and playing to parents and a tremendously enthusiastic and supportive audience of fellow students. We were impressed by the solo vocal performances and the courage that it takes to sing to a full house of your peers, your peers' parents, and, worse, teachers. Some of the tunes were innovatively arranged to create lovely, sweet  harmonies; and then there were the rock bands who got everyone tapping away.  Many thanks to Ms Quinn Larkin and Ms Fairbairn for their hard work in organising this, and other staff who came to support and work on the door.

Last week was a sporty one for us. Our Sports Day was held on Friday: St George's Dragons (green colours) won narrowly over Nightingale Foxes (red).  This is a time for lots of students to shine and enjoy themselves. Many also had a great time at Sheen Mount Primary School, where our sports leaders accompanied Ms Calloway to help our local Primary put on a wonderful day. Mr Hutchins, the Head, wrote a lovely letter full of compliments about how the students had helped make the event so successful.

In Psychology, which class I happened to visit today along with a parent governor and Cllr Paul Hodgins, they were conducting some research, looking at Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development. They were looking for evidence to confirm  that they had reached the Formal Operation stage and were therefore capable of hypothetical thinking (could be interesting!). They  produced diaries to monitor the extent to which they think in this way throughout their school day.

Clearly, Fabio used psychchology more successfully than previously on our English team; we had a full hall this afternoon full of England fans cheering on their team. The delight expressed when we scored was a delight to witness!  Red and white faces, a few silly hats and a winner of an England football shirt made this a lovely afternoon. We have to wait now and see whether England will successfully reach the Operation stage in their next game to preempt other players scoring....

I have just read that we raised just over £100 for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and Great Ormond Street Hospital (entry to hall fee going to good use!).

Primary Plaudits for our Art and Tech exhibition

I reproduce below the comments we have just received from the Year 5 teacher at East Sheen Primary School, Ms Rebekah Palmer. She writes to Ms Jacob, our Subject Leader for Art:

"Thank you for inviting us to your school to enjoy your artwork - our children were impressed with huge amounts of it and really enjoyed their visit. I asked the children to give me some feedback to pass on and here is a selection of their comments:

• I thought the drawing was outstanding and the sculptures brilliant, I loved the sketch of London with the London eye and bus
• I liked the wooden bookcase because I loved the way it was carved.
• It was good, there was really good art. My favourite piece of art was the moving model train because it had lots of features including a clock on the front that worked
• I liked the coffee table that had the Chelsea thing on it
• I liked the paintings especially the one of London. I loved the wedding cake and the dolls house with the different colours. I thought the furniture was amazing.
• The photography room was the most interesting because there was so much to see. I liked the Simpson painting
• I liked the graffiti at the top of the staircase because it was creative
• I liked the models of the sitting people and the shoe shelf
• Even though all the rooms were amazing, I liked the room with the dolls house the best. I thought the exhibition was extremely interesting and you should keep it up!
• I liked the goth picture because it had lots of good details
• My favourite piece of artwork was the pencil drawing of the centre of London with Big Ben and the London Eye
• My favourite piece of art was the wire ballet class, i liked it because if you turned it around then you could see a mini show
• It was really interesting as the drawings told stories
• I liked the sketch of the 3 skateboarders walking into somewhere, it was good because they had lots of details and it looked real
• Most of the art was really good but I liked the sculpture and the drawing rooms the best
• I liked the piece with all the faces on it and the picture of Mickey Mouse
• I liked all of it as it was really exciting to see other people's artwork
• The art at Shene school was really amazing. The most exciting room was the room with the chair and the PS3 rack

This is just a selection of the comments - the children overall were amazed at all the work they saw, please could you extend our thanks and appreciation to all the staff and the children."

The work is due to go on exhibition at the Library in Sheen Lane next month, so do try and see it.