There has been a good deal in the media of late about poor behaviour in our schools; we hear that the government is sitting down with a group of respected headteachers and behavioural experts to look at the problem. Sometimes, it’s all too easy to forget that the majority of students in our schools do care about their learning and do behave well.
During this week (the first week of the summer holiday) I have been delighted to work with two groups of young learners who really care about their education. On Tuesday, a group of Y6/Y7/Y8 students from Deansfield High school and feeder Primaries visited the centre as part of a space-themed G&T week organised by Mrs. Argyle at Deansfield. We spent a day working on a video project in which students had to create a futuristic Holiday TV programme based around interplanetary tourism.
On Wednesday, I dropped in on the same group working with Anu Ojha (from ISSET) as they participated in a fantastic day of rocket-building and learning about the enormous challenges of space exploration. The attitude of the learners was fantastic on both days.
On Thursday, we worked with a group of students from Penn Hall Special School, which supports children with physical disabilities. We edited video footage from their playscheme week into short documentary films using iMovie, then added in music created in GarageBand. The finished films are a testament to their endeavour and creativity. Well done to both groups! (who are, remember, using their summer holidays to participate in these programmes!)
Over 200,000 students from across the nation participated in the Challenge; the best 10 teams at each age group were invited to the final. The boys in the team, Lee and Harman, won book vouchers for themselves and a digital video camera for their school. Congratulations to the Wednesfield High team for your wonderful achievement! More photographs of the event can be found on the