From Monday 20th to Thursday 23rd June 2022 Downside’s First Form have been exploring Bread as part of a cross-curricular academic enrichment week.
The idea from Hannah Alcantara, Teacher of Biology and Chris Stowell, Teacher of Religious Studies to bring both Science and Religious Studies together, with the help of Amanda Ball’s wonderful baking skills ignited the pupils interest this week.
The week has involved learning beyond the traditional confines of subject areas and even classrooms with lessons taking place in the kitchen, the Abbey and even out in a field of wheat. Broadly the First Form have learnt about Bread with their Heads (Science), their Hearts (Religious Studies) and their Hands (Baking). The ideas explored have ranged far and wide, from links between Benedictine Values and bread to the shift from hunter-gatherer societies to early agriculture and beyond.
To finish the week the students put together an Exhibition of their work, talking with great passion and enthusiasm to their teachers and peers about everything they had learnt. The students thoroughly enjoyed learning in a different way, and several have already made use of their new baking skills at home to feed their families.