A mixed group of year 7 and year 8 students began a drama themed programme at the Steelbacks Study Centre this week. The session focussed on getting to know each other and on communication and cooperation skills. Nikki Taylor led the session and introduced students and staff to a range of games which succeeded in getting everyone involved and working together. At the end of the session the young people used Comic Life on the Macs to record their impressions.

Year 9 students began their animation and film programme at the Cobblers Study Centre this week. After a brief introduction they were set the challenge of creating their own animated film using lego figures and pre-constructed sets. Working in pairs, and one group of three, they worked hard to complete the task in less than an hour and a half – including editing, adding sound effects and uploading to Youtube. A fantastic achievement as this was their first attempt at animation and they all deserve credit for their listening skills, their willingness to have a go, the way they worked together, and worked to a deadline. Their work can be viewed on the Cobblers Study Centre website. http://cobblersstudycentre.org

Kic.in2.study began 2012 with a theatre visit today. Year 7 students were at the Derngate theatre to see -and participate in – the pantomime Aladdin. They clapped and cheered the goodies, booed and hissed the baddies, enjoyed the singing and dancing, and admired the sets, the scenery, the lights and the bubbles!

Year 11 ended their involvement in the kic.in2.study programme  by completing an evaluation questionnaire and then enjoying  a fun session on the X box.  Working in teams they competed against each other in a range of virtual sports.  They tested themselves in  football, discus, javelin, boxing and bowling.  We saw expertise in some unexpected areas and observed good gamesmanship throughout. 

We have worked with some of these students for a number of years, have seen them progress to become  confident young adults whom it has been a pleasure to know.  We wish them all every success in their examinations later in the year and hope they’ll keep in touch with us, and perhaps consider returning as mentors next year.

This week the year 7s revisited some of the challenges they faced last week  – we saw definite improvements in their Cup Stacking, but the Trains game didn’t go as well as last time. They were introduced to Player Maths where we saw some quick mental arithmetic and some very impressive team work from the boys in particular. Everyone joined in and enjoyed the Blow Football Challenge and it was good to see people prepared to work with someone different on this and the Double Double game.

More practical Maths for the year 11 group this week.  Rob Jones led them in a discussion about the properties of two dimensional shapes.  He taught them how to make pentagons and hexagons without using scissors and  then challenged them to use  the shapes to create a three dimensional shape –  twenty hexagons and twelve pentagons later  they had a paper football!

Year 7s faced a series of challenges this week and their  competitive sides were given full rein.  The trains game tested their listening skills,  their ability to follow instructions and to work as a team. The alphabet game  needed some quick thinking whilst the tower building challenge needed cooperation and teamwork.  Cup stacking was an individual  task which required concentration and good coordination as well as the ability to perform under the pressure of being timed. Points were given for each task and after some impressive efforts from everyone prizes were awarded to the two students with the most points at the end of the session. 

Week six for year 11 was led by Rob Jones who introduced the group to Robolab – a control technology package where they designed, built and programmed a mind storm Lego robot, working on direction, speed, timing and turning.   Patience and perseverance were in evidence as they all worked hard to achieve the targets set by Rob

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Week five saw the year 11 group take part in a memory workshop where they worked to improve their ability to recall more than twenty objects. They discovered that grouping items together by colour, function etc was helpful. A video observation task identified that for most of the group it is easier to remember something they have seen than information which they have only heard.

This week’s session emphasised the importance of actively working to improve memory skills rather than seeing them as something fixed.