This January, students in Year 7 participated in a Focus Day to explore the impact of the terrible disease known as the Black Death, which struck Europe in the middle of the fourteenth century. The day was hosted by both the Drama & History departments and provided an excellent opportunity for students to use role play and empathy to get into the hearts and minds of medieval people. To enhance their experience, students and teachers came in medieval costume and the Textiles Department judged the best outfits.

Throughout the day students worked at a role play exploring the impact of the plague on the village of Merton. Information was fed to the girls, allowing them to develop their characters and role plays accordingly. The best role plays were chosen by each class to go forward to an 'Oscars' performance in the afternoon, with a prize for the one which was the most historically accurate and dramatic. The day was rounded off by a Mummers' Play (a sort of medieval panto), which a group of Year 7s had produced and rehearsed in just one day!

The day was most enjoyable, and everyone came away with a deeper understanding of the social and religious impact of the infamous Black Death. Even Sister Perfect (played by Miss Taylor) below!

On the 27th of January it is the Holocaust Memorial Day, which is celebrated every year; this is to remember the millions of people who died during one of the darkest periods of the twentieth century. On the 6 th January, Year 9 had a focus day in remembrance of this important time; it opened out eyes to what it was really like during the holocaust. Mr Jackson (a specialist on the Holocaust) came in to give us all a talk about this and brought a very significant guest, who was an actual survivor of the holocaust. Mr Oppenheimer told us all about the awful conditions he had been put through, concentration camps that he had survived, and how he only survived due to his younger sister having a British passport.In the afternoon of this interesting focus day 9i were privileged to be able to speak to Mr Oppenheimer personally for a whole hour. One of the many interesting points he made was that he played in the same area as Anne Frank (a very famous girl who wrote about her experiences during the war) and lived very near to her

Mr Oppenheimer is a very brave man to be able to talk to us about such a dreadful thing. He has a brother doing talks around England and a younger sister who lives in London, but has not yet brought her self to talk about it. A lot of year 9’s found this day different but extremely interesting. We would just like to thank our guests for coming in, but especially Mr Oppenheimer for talking to us about such a difficult time in his life.

By R.G.& K.C., 9i

As the world gets smaller and globalisation takes effect, migration is set to become a much more common feature of our lives. What are the advantages and disadvantages to host countries as well as to the country of origin of the migrants?

Voting apathy is on the increase amongst the British public, but in particular amongst young people. More young people took part in voting for the winner for Big Brother 2006 than did in the last general election. Year 12 students will shortly be of an age when they can participate in elections, and this Focus Day is intended to show them how they go about doing so. As part of the day, students were introduced to some of the key issues in British politics, at a local, national and international level. They learned new technical vocabulary to help them understand and conduct a more sophisticated level of debate. Finally, they had the chance to find out about how the voting process works, by holding their own mock hustings and elections following systems used in actual elections as faithfully as possible.

In addition, students used and enhanced a variety of enterprise and work related skills, including risk -taking, team work, decision-making, presentation and communication. To achieve these aims students needed to be dynamic, positive, confident, supportive, imaginative, determined and committed.