Above: Students participate in a 'Britishness Box' Workshop using resources from Brighton Museum

Cardinal Newman Catholic School and Sixth Form College, Hove is a large (2,200 on roll) Catholic, co-educational comprehensive on the south coast of England. It is a High Performing Specialist School; a Humanities Specialist College with the lead subjects being English, Geography and History and from September 2009 will be a TDA Training School. Through the specialism, which we have had since 2005, the school has worked with its community partners – Brighton Museum Services, EMAS, and local primary schools on a number of cross-curricular dimensions and national projects. This has included the Global Dimension (International School Awarded 2008), Sustainable and Healthy Schools (Green Flag Awarded 2008), Fair Trade Status (Awarded 2008) and Community Cohesion (the SSAT Cultural Diversity Quality Standard Application 2009-2010).

The Geography Department
The Geography Department, a GA Secondary Quality Mark Centre of Excellence with two Chartered Geographers and an Ordnance Survey Geography Teacher of the Year 2009, has led on a number of whole school initiatives. The most recent was the collaboration with the History and Citizenship/ PSHE departments for the ‘Who Do We Think We Are?’ enrichment days for 700 students in Years 7 and 8 on Thursday 25^th and Friday 26^th June 2009.

Aims
Our overall aim was to deliver an exciting, engaging and relevant set of learning experiences for all Year 7 and 8 students over two days, whilst continuing to address the Community Cohesion work and agenda of the school curriculum. The WDWTWA project seemed an ideal opportunity to get students and teachers to work in a cross-curricular way to think about themselves, their identity and belonging and their place in communities.

In early May a planning meeting took place to shape up the early thoughts from the Humanities Faculty and other departments in the school. From this meeting the idea of rotating students through activities relating to the four WDWTWA themes in half day blocks; placing students into four houses- St. Andrew, St. David, St. George and St. Patrick; and providing lead in assemblies and a Personal Heritage and Learning Journal (follow the link provided at the end of this article) was agreed. It was also agreed that within the two days all students would attend a special Liturgy based around belonging and caring, community and the prayers of John Henry Newman. At the liturgy students would also perform and display their talents.

The next task was to organise activities for the four themes and sessions and where possible arrange LOtC opportunities with outside providers supporting the Christian ethos of the school. When the activities were agreed, the students were asked to prioritise their choice of activities and submit their choices to their form tutors. From these 700 forms staff then allocated the students, as far as possible, to their chosen options for the two days.

Activities included:

School and Community

• A learning trail and guided history of Cardinal Newman School
• Who Am I? - Workshop led by PHSE Department
• BandBazi Circus – Exploring image and identity through ground skills
• Producing ‘Who Am I? Heraldic shields & T-Shirt transfers
• Interactive Library Quiz about School and Community

Faith and Belonging

• ‘Five a Day’ Dance Workshop provided by the Springs Dance Company
• CAFOD Workshop exploring the work of the Catholic Community overseas
• Off the Fence Workshop relating to Homelessness and Loneliness
• Visits to the Jewish Synagogue, the Buddhist Centre, the Brighton Mosque and the Coptic Christian Church to understand similarities and differences between faiths.
• A visit to the Wintershall Estate, near Guildford to participate in the ‘Life of Christ’ drama production.
• A cosmic and contemplatitive walk around the school grounds with local priests

History and Settlement

• A 'dramatic' tour of the historic Lanes in Brighton with Rob Marks (Actor)
• Atlantic Rising Project connecting communities around the world with sea level change
• Senegalese Drumming Workshop to explore the music and culture of Dakar, Senegal where we have a Connecting Classrooms link.
• A day trip to the Natural History Museum to explore the evolution of man and the diversity of species.

Britishness

• Designing and making a Britishness Box in art that reflected the students identity
• An Image and Identity Workshop based on Britishness provided by Brighton Museum
• We are what we eat? Workshop provided by the PHSE and Vocational skills department looking at and cooking food with the canteen
• ‘What’s in the Attic? Is it British?’ an interactive quiz trail provided by the Library/ Learning resources centre
• Are we British or European? provided by the MFL Department - A workshop looking at etymology

Impacts
This was the best Enrichment Day programme that we have organised for the Year 7 and 8 students with a common theme. All departments and students engaged fully with the concept of WDWTWA, which is central to the values and mission of our work as a Catholic school. The activities were engaging and exciting, very much based around experiential learning and ‘hands on experiences’. The days have been highly valued and commented upon by the students and there is much visual and display work that has been derived from the two days.

Written By: Graham Goldup, Assistant Headteacher, Cardinal Newman Catholic School

Further detailed information about the activities described in this article can be obtained by contacting the Project Officer at wdwtwa@rgs.org. Practitioners can also select the attachment below for details of the Personal Learning and Heritage Journal created by each student in the lead upto and during the week.