Stretch and Challenge Day in the Higher Phase this year took place on Wednesday 19 February and was once again a great success. We saw students from Years 9 - 13 participating in the following activities: Paper Engineering Challenged with constructing a cantilever off the edge of a school desk using only 10 sheets of paper 20cm of tape and a pair of scissors. Their cantilever was tested for length using a ruler and for strength by adding a number of 5 fil coins at the end. The winning team of paper engineers was led by Farbod Farrokhi Derahkshandeh and they achieved a length of 61cm and could carry 31 coins. Just a Minute Students stretched themselves by participating in this classic BBC radio quiz where contestants are given a random topic and must speak for one minute. Whilst speaking they must follow the three ‘Golden Rules’: No hesitation (you can’t stop talking while you think of what to say next) No repetition (you can’t repeat yourself to fill the time if you can’t think of anything else to say) No deviation (you must talk about the topic you given and cannot just go ‘off topic’ to fill the time) Quiz In small teams, students participated in a trivia competition with the rounds on general knowledge and two picture rounds: Name That Cereal and Name That Country. SWIPED Students expanded their knowledge through watching a Channel 4 documentary that was televised in December 2024 in the UK. This documentary followed a class of Year 8 students at a British secondary school who agreed to surrender their smartphones for 21 days to measure the impact on their health and wellbeing. This was in preparation for the following activity: SWIPED - The Debate Based on the documentary they had watched in the previous session, students competed in two debates. The first topic was: This house believes that there is evidence that smartphone use can have a negative impact on people of all ages. The second topic was: This house believes there should exist a total ban on smartphones for those under the age of 14. Students were aware that there are negatives to constant smartphone usage and agreed that there probably should be restrictions in place. They differed in opinions on at what age this should take place and to whether a total ban should exist. The Stretch and Challenge activities made for a popular day this year. Students agreed that they had participated in activities that they would not normally get to do and were grateful for the opportunities.
