Triple E School is one of the curriculum innovations that set East Barnet apart from most other schools. On two afternoons each week Year 7 and 8 undertake two strands of learning activities that are purely focused on learning through inspiration.
This focus on inspiration nurtures the “I want to learn” philosophy making learning a joy.
The students follow a programme of study in modules of four weeks. Topics include:
- Students produced entries for the Book Bench Competition. A London wide competition to create designs to go on to the benches shaped like books to be displayed around the city. Click on the images to see them larger.
- Students learnt the CAD program to produce architectural drawing and city scape.
- Students experiment graphically and with 3D modelling to produce bags and carriers.
- Students use STEM materials in a variety of creative ways to make Kaleidoscopes and Periscopes, Enigma coding machines, Tangrams and ukuleles.
- Students learnt how to build and program simple crumble robots to complete ever increasingly difficult programming challenges.
- Students use GoAnimate software to create cartoon characters which they use to make a cartoon story.
- Students explore the qualities an effective leader needs with specific focus on communication, motivation and organization. In the last session students demonstrate their leadership skills by running an activity for the rest of the class. In Year 8 Leadership is developed further and students look in more detail at the organisation of people, equipment and space. The work completed in these areas build up to organising a tournament, with students considering the most appropriate type.
- In Geography, the students use the concept of top trumps cards to look at how different countries can be compared. Using an online resource and a template, they then create the top trumps cards. These are then printed and in the final lesson, students locate all the countries they have made cards for on a world map and play top trumps with the deck of cards they have created. This unit helps develop their skills as well as their knowledge and understanding of the differences between places around the world.
- Art EEE School provides students with an entry point into stop motion animation. Building on the school’s Learning Powers programme our students work in pairs covering the ‘Teamwork’ aspect of the initiative. They use iPod Touch devices and the app iMotion HD which students can download for free from the Apple app store to use on their personal devices at home.
- Whiteboard and marker pen stop motion film.
- Creating a post-it note animation film.
- Students build models for a future Claymation film. In groups of two they create characters, storyboards, sets, backdrops and props.
- Filming a Claymation short. Sound effects and music can be included via other apps.
View a selection of student animations by scrolling through the playlist:
- Psychology: During this EEE School, students will embark upon a journey of the brain. They will take part in experiments and investigations to understand the complex nature of the biggest organ in the body. Students will find out the functions of different parts of the brain, their gendered nature and the role of emotion recognition in human behaviour.
- Students discuss the importance of a healthy breakfast and the wide variety of options that are available. The group make a variety of breakfast items such as fresh fruit smoothies, porridge, scrambled eggs on toast and apple and cinnamon pancakes before sitting down and eating them together as a class.
- Digital printing project: Students learn and use Photoshop to create designs that they then print onto coasters using the sublimation printer.
- Party/snack foods: Students design and make a range of party/snack food for a special event.
- Auto desk training: Students learn the CAD package working through demonstrations and tutorials to create design ideas.
- Stem materials experimentation and lighting.
- Lego Mindstorms Robotics: Students are divided into teams in order to learning to program autonomous Lego EV3 robots. They then go on to use the skills they have learnt in order to enter a three round competition over the course of the cycle in which they work together to find solutions to a variety of problems that involves them writing, testing and refining programs in their teams.
- Students are taught cutting-edge skills on Photoshop such as double exposures, artistic filters, joiners, cloning, as well as other endless possibilities. Beginners are given the freedom to create their own street Art images inspired by famous artists such as Andy Warhol, Banksy and many more while using iconic photographs to express and communicate their thoughts and ideas.
As students’ skills develop to a more advanced level in Year 8, they are given the task of using their own imagery to transform a short story into an image that depicts the moral, emotions or sentiments of that story.
- Business: During this EEE School, students become young entrepreneurs, creating their own product idea. Based on the Junior Apprentice, students are required to design and present their own snack product around a given concept and target market.
- LED lamp project: student carry out brain storm, design ideas, and final design, there after students are given different source of input workshop safety, use equipment 2D tech soft, electrical circuit, different adhesives and materials to develop their own ideas.
- Music technology using apps and iPods: An introduction to music making using a variety of apps, creating rhythms and loops on iPods.
- Adventures in Philosophy: Philosophy is a terrific way for young people to develop their thinking and communication skills and tackle big questions of their own choosing. In EEE school we take it a bit further and we do Philosophy in Outer Space! Students use all their powers of thinking, inventing, and working together to succeed in this epic adventure. They tackle alien problems and try to work out solutions, all the while considering life’s big questions.