Year 9 'Body Day'

On Thursday 22 May Year 9 were taken off timetable to take part in a cross-curricular day celebrating the human body. Led by the RE department, this was a hugely successful day for students to learn more about what their body does, and to gain confidence within themselves and their bodies. With speaker Caryn Franklin (of Clothes Show fame) opening the day and discussing negative and misleading images of the body in the media, Caryn went on to suggest that the girls find role models whom they admired for ‘being women, not just looking like women’ and invited them to find their bodies marvellous and wonderful for what they did rather than what they looked like. 

                                     

The workshops across various curriculum areas included:

• (Science & Business Studies) Considering the implication of human genetic engineering and how they would market a ‘perfect body’, with reflection on all the associated ethical implications
• (Maths & ICT) Designing a body-image questionnaire, going out onto the streets and gathering nearly 200 responses, then collating & analysing the data
• (PE & Textiles) Talking to a belly dancer about why she dances and what the clothes/moves express, then learning a routine and designing and making their own decorated belts
• (Art, RE, MFL & Music) Making willow body extensions to express something about the value of the body, reflecting on why they made these choices, then finding words from a variety of languages to describe the qualities of their chosen body part and setting the whole display to music

Check out some of the images from the day above and below...