Year 7 Enquiry Week: Preparing for the Challenges of 2050

This year’s Year 7 Enquiry Week challenged students to look into the future and explore the most pressing global challenges that may shape the world by 2050. Through hands-on projects, debates, and creative problem-solving, students focused on four major issues: the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), dwindling resources, an aging population, and the possibility of inhabiting other worlds. The week-long event encouraged students to think critically and work collaboratively to propose innovative solutions to these potential crises.

From Monday through until Wednesday, our Year 7s followed their usual timetables but with each subject focusing on one of the issues at stake. For example, during their Maths lessons over the course of these 3 days, students worked in groups of four to design and build a parachute that could safely land an egg on another planet. Each group was given a set budget to ‘purchase’ materials like fabric, string and cushioning for their parachute. They had to calculate costs carefully, manage their resources, and apply mathematical concepts such as measurement, area, and budgeting. The goal was to create a parachute that would slow the egg’s descent enough to prevent it from breaking, simulating a safe landing on an alien planet. Yasmin (Year 7) said “we’ve been doing this in groups which is really great for my teamwork, and I’m really enjoying it and meeting new people”.

Meanwhile in Drama, students developed scenarios where an AI robot could be integrated into everyday family/work/school life and assessing its impact. Whereas in Science considered the possibility of inhabiting other worlds. With space exploration advancing rapidly, students imagined what life could look like if humans established colonies in space and discussed the technical, ethical, and environmental considerations of colonizing Mars. And in Art, the Year 7s looked at how they would make their Zines.

For the final two days of Enquiry Week, every student was partnered with two others, each from different classes, which encouraged interaction across the full Year 7 cohort as they worked on their chosen area of to focus on. Oliver Staines (Head of Geography and Enquiry Week Co-coordinator along with David Hammond) explains “they had to work as a three and produce a response to one of the key themes, whilst working on three individual slightly different aspects each”.

Oliver summed up the importance of Enquiry Week for the Year 7s so early into their time at Leighton Park, “It’s really important to break free of subject boundaries, to see how one theme can run across all the different areas of curriculum they see as separate. The thing I’m most excited about is their own reflection on the process… and them thinking about where have I come from and where have I got to by the end of this week.”

Click here to see more photographs from Enquiry Week 2024