There is nothing insignificant in the world. It all depends on the point of view.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A writer should write with her eyes and a painter paint with her ears.

Gertrude Stein

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

Oscar Wilde

How can you know your Day in the Life of St George’s?

You can observe, understand and describe the same place, person, potato

etc in many different ways. This might depend on your mood, perspective,

methods, age or a host of other factors.

In Italo Calvino’s novel Le città invisibili (‘Invisible Cities’) Marco Polo tells Kublai Kahn incredible tales of the many cities that he has visited within his empire – however it may be that he is just describing Venice in many different ways and from different perspectives.

What do you need to do?

On the 28th of November 2014 we shall all explore, observe and record a school day St George’s

in hundreds of different ways . Student film teams selected from each year group will use video

and photography to capture how the school looked and sounded from many different angles,

viewpoints and perspectives. Mr Ryan will wear a camera to film his perspective during the day.

However, everyone in the school will create their own experiment that will enable them to

measure and record something special about the school on that specific day.

It might be something large and complicated like the weather over the school across the

entire day

It might be something smaller and more focused such as the precise temperature of the

last bowl of pasta to be served at lunch on that day.

You don’t need to use numbers within your experiment. It might be a sound recording,

drawing, movement, poem or many other imaginative responses. BE CREATIVE!

You might also look at all of the things that happen in your school day that don’t take place

in school – your journey to and from school, your breakfast or anything else that is part of

the school day.

Any detail, event, object or happening is valuable in this project. What things are special to

you on that school day that might be forgotten forever if you don’t record them?

All of this data combines to give a record of a single, unique Day in the Life of St George’s

In tutor time during the first week of December you will describe and review your

experiment, including through sharing it with friends in your tutor group. Each completed

review will earn one house point. There will be other house point prizes for the strangest

and most imaginative experiments.

On the following pages are some words and ideas to help you begin to plan your own

unique experiment to observe and record something on the 28/11/14.

Creating your own experiments

You might work individually or in small teams

You might wear the ‘hat’ of a particular subject – borrowing and using the tools, techniques

and ways of looking at the world that are special to that subject

You might combine several subject ‘hats’ within your experiment

Here are some suggestions from different teachers to get you started – you might pick one, or

come up with something entirely new…

Geography

Measuring environmental quality: Record the quality of the St. George's environment. factors ranging from litter to noise pollution, open space to how happy the area makes them feel.

Interview people around school. For example : measuring people's opinions in respect to sustainable living.

Drama

To create real characters it is important as an actor to watch the subtle mannerisms and gestures of people. Try taking on a different way of walking for a moment! Or try creating and mapping a series of composite gestures and mannerisms that are not you!

Always respect those around you - so be careful when mirroring walks etc not to make fun of anyone or make them feel uncomfortable. You could ask their permission first. Anyone want to be Mrs Angeletti for the day?

Another idea is to take a moment to your way from lesson to lesson. you could dancedecide to dance down one particular corridor. Your movements can be as subtle or as big as you wish as long as you are aware of the health and safety of those around you.

Art

Noticing found sculptures, artworks and ‘readymades’ during the day:

Spot the accidental Art in the world around you.

Does the way that your shadow falls across some damp patches and marks on the

ground create a temporary painting?

Have those leaves been piled up by the wind into something beautiful?

If you don’ t capture it then it will be lost for ever!

Create sculptures during the day:

Land Art – soil, leaves, twigs, stones and so on

Tiny sculptures from sweet wrappers, pasta, the stuff at the bottom of your pencil case

Show the familiar from unusual perspectives:

Draw or photograph something that you have seen a hundred times from a crazy new angle that you have never tried before - e.g a bugs eye view:

Seek out the most seemingly ordinary and insignificant object in your day and make it

magnificent through describing it using the most imaginative and outrageous metaphors and similes

Observing the colours of 28/11/14

Choose a colour and find, photograph and name 12 different versions of it during your

day eg ‘Picasso bad mood blue’ ‘ COTRAL muddy bus blue’ ‘Gap in the clouds at

11.18 am blue’ etc etc...

Find and photograph the entire ROYGBIV colour spectrum (rainbow) during your day.

Get all Moody

Create an artwork that expresses your mood on the 28/11/14– either one for the whole

day or one per hour across the day

Get all Monet

Choose an object, space or place around the external spaces of the school and observe how

its appearance changes during the day (lighting, weather etc)

Creative Writing

‘Found poetry’

Grab words from the world around you:

Record snippets of conversation around the school, on the bus etc

Capture phrases and sentences from posters, metro tickets, adverts

Arrange then chronologically (in the order that you found them) to create a poem

There is also the found poetry that comes out of book spines lined on a shelf, and other such

random places. Be observant!

Something to remember:

Collect and carefully describe during the day, at least ONE thing you must never forget

about St George's?

IT

Examine the way in which your data is stored and then made available to you to use in diffferent ways - this can range from simple binary representations of your names in KS3 up to much more complex systems higher up the school. Spell out some words to describe your day in binary (using bodies) on the oasis and take photos from the top of the school Identify all of the ways in which you interact with technology on a daily basis which could then expand to include all of the ways this affects feelings and so on.

History

Create a timeline of the day using your skills of chronology - so essential in History . What were the key events?

Become a detective/archaeologist of St George’s History.: What can you find in and around the building that tells you something about its life before it became part of St George’s?

Your own family history: interview someone in your family about their life. Call up the oldest or most geographically distant relative that you can find and trace the pathway from their place in time and space to where you are right now.

PE/Sport

Use a GoPro camera: get different perspectives of sports

Use a pedometer to work out how many steps a pupil takes in PE on average in one lesson, one month and one year?

Write a match report on any game – in lessons, after school, at break.

Modern Languages

The beauty of Italian

Students to interview their friends at School, asking them what positive words they would use in Italian to describe life at St George's. These could be inspirational words, things they want to remember about the School

Writing visual onomatopeas, the words have to look as the thing they want to describe.

Long compound nouns (German)

How many words can you make in German using the words that surround you in school?

So many languages..

How many different languages can you hear at St George’s from staff and students? Make a survey / chart/ record languages live.

St Georgian

Record "The Georgian language" the hybrid italian/english language that many of our students develop throughout the years, and often continue using it after they have left school.

The main research questions would be:how does it start? what determines the code-switching? which elements of Italian and English prevail? how does it mix and/or is influenced by "linguaggio giovanile" how has it changed over time? 80s - 90s- now

Where do your words originate?

How many words that you have been using today have a Germanic/Arabic/ Greek/ Latin origin?

Mandarin all around you

Looking around you, which Mandarin characters can you spot in everyday objects?

You might need to twist, topple or change the proportions....

Can you see how Ms Bertuzzi spotted the characters for 'man', 'day' and 'to be' in the pictures taken around school?

Try tracing the characters with your finger (film this)

Watch some of these 30 second films to help you think about subtle and original ways in

which you can observe and record the world around you (click on the logo below):