Project Successes So Far.... (2)

On Monday Project Leaders were asked to provide a few lines about the successes in the project so far.... Here's a sample of what teachers feel is going well in the projects which was read out to the whole campus....

PROJECT: Dogs with Jobs with Laura Couch and Amy McVay

We met the deadline for the calendar to be prepared ready for exhibition Saturday. All the photos were taken by the students after learning about how to take action photos of dogs from a professional photographer. A special thank you must go to Katherine Sayer for her hard work editing and uploading the photos in her own time.
Also a massive thank you to Owen George who is doing work experience with us, he's mature, thoughtful and incredibly hard working!

PROJECT: Childs Play - You're Hired with Charlotte Hodgson, Sarah Shepherd, Lisa Keenlyside

We are very proud of our year 9 group, they have been committed to the project from day one. We have been out and about last week to soft play, Team Valley and interviewing shoppers at manor walks and a local baby group. Their enthusiasm and behaviour has been fantastic throughout these trips and they have worked hard to create an original product for the baby/toddler market. This week, they are pitching their idea to JoJo Mamma Bebe and Mothercare and we wish them all the best of luck in doing so. Keep up the good work!

PROJECT: Bewitch the Mind and Ensnare the Senses with Helen Black and Claire Mark

The girls doing the Bewitch the Mind and ensnare the Senses project have worked incredibly well last week and are ahead of schedule with their children's books! They visited Newcastle Central Mosque and Newcastle City library and were a real credit to our school, listening well and asking questions. Well done! W can't wait to perform for Hadrian school.

PROJECT: World Challenge Ghana with Miss Williams and Miss Shiell

Building, Plastering and painting two classroom blocks with educational murals for the Perfect Peace primary school in Essaman. Running the entire expedition themselves including managing the budget so well we have money left to give an extra donation to the school. We've all landed safely back at Heathrow this morning and can't wait to share our experiences with the 'It's Ghana be alreet pet' project on Wednesday.

PROJECT: Media For Surfers with Mr Bing, Mr Martin, Ms McGee.

After an amazing first week of surfing and research, the group are now totally in control of the project and are using their expertise as a basis to campaign on real life issues they care about. They are going to be using to media to make our oceans cleaner and safer places. There will be an opportunity for all to get involved in a couple of weeks time. Watch this space.

PROJECT: Clued Up with Miss Smith and Miss Wilkinson

The whole group have been fantastic. The highlights have been;
· the way they planned and produced a healthy, balanced and nutritious meal on a budget. They were all different and all absolutely delicious, prepared and cooked from scratch.
· the Boot Camp we did on the beach which was really challenging but huge fun

PROJECT: Was ist das? (Northumberlandia Project) with Mrs Clark Miss Crawley

We have been overwhelmed by the group’s enthusiasm as a whole, they are beginning to show a real eye for detail and an awareness of what makes great quality work. Also impressed with their dedication, organising a sponsored walk or run to raise money for the charity which runs Northumberlandia and also to fund extra resources which the students will make and print.

PROJECT: CakeWorld with Miss Dyer, Mrs Patrick and Mrs Hodson

Cakeworld is off to a self-raising start with students using maths, creativity and teamwork skills to design and structurally plan their cake creations. This week the Pyramids, Sphinx, Petra and macho Piccu will start to take shape and we will literally be up to our elbows in cake mix and icing! Join us at the National EAT festival, Sunday in Newcastle, to see our cakes on the Cake Planet!

PROJECT: From Archaeology to Artist with Miss Carmichael and Miss Elsy

A super group of students who are working really hard. They have created a clay sculpture, tile and fossil all in one week inspired by their Archaeology field trip last Monday. The students are sensible and have been really resilient in using a new material. Well done and keep up the great work this week!

PROJECT: Military Music Project with Miss Watson and Mr Rigby

· Fantastic camaraderie within the band, everyone is pulling together and persevering incredibly well. We have seen some amazing resilience from students as they teach themselves their instrument. Biggest success is that we can already play 3 pieces very well and have one more to learn this week! The band now have 6 gigs lined up for this week!

PROJECT: Get Active On A Shoestring with Miss Joyce-Gibbons, Mr Pooley, Mr Horner and Mr Best

A great start to the project. The group approached all activities enthusiastically and with a ‘can-do’ attitude. On Friday, we asked the students to reflect on the highlights of week 1. They were: the 6 mile walk at Ingram Valley, Pitch and Putt at Whitley Bay, the team building challenges, Mr Horner’s shoestring bootcamp and obviously the fish and chips at South Beach.

PROJECT: Trash to Cash Mr Morris & Mr Wright

Well done guys for working great together, you are starting to become better organised and planning ahead which is really improving the quality of your outcomes.

Independence in project work

The huge highlight of today in the Transport for Media project was that the students initiated the critique process. This was round 5 of critique, students requested their work receive some feedback and they led the process amongst their peers with no input from supporting staff.

What have you done to maintain the classroom culture?

These quotes from the teachers running projects highlight three very important parts of maintaining classroom culture
1. We all need to see what the purpose of the "team" is, so that we can worrk together.
2 Community an dculture need regular attention.
3. Critique is a great way to build supportive learning communities. 






Regular critique & a culture of optimism - a 'we can do' & 'nothing is out of our reach' approach. 



Took the Crammy Wipeout students out on a trip to meet Britain's strongest man today who owns a strongman gym in Consett. Students treat him like a celebrity; taking pictures of him at the end of the workout he had designed them. This was an opportunity to show a range of fitness strategies. The activities encouraged critiquing technique and team spirit by supporting other students. I asked students to write a paragraph about the experience. Most wrote 3- 4 paragraphs. 

We have had an exciting day today! We started by reading each other's 1st drafts, offering valuable critiquing to each group. Groups were then able to make necessary changes to their work. We were then visited for a professional storyteller who explained how to read to children. Finally we visited Newcastle Central mosque, exploring the Muslim culture!

This constant team work and collaboration helps to promote a collective classroom culture of confidence and happiness, working with our new friends.

Past Present Future vintage

Briefings, regular review stops, critique. Setting up room and resources in a way that the students will engage with and respect(high quality resources).

We have encouraged students to take more of a lead in training and activities.

·         5 students have put themselves forwards as potential captains (4 slots available)

o   Students started to co-lead warm ups and help with equipment

·         Focus on a team culture – can’t win as individuals need constant critique and coaching of each other

·         Students watching video footage of their own plays to critique, soft on player hard on content

·         Skype call with coach from another flag football team from Darlington taking his team to USA.

o   Students see how he went from our stage to his over past 5-8 years ( Seeing the big picture)



 We did a gallery style show and tell and used post its to give feedback, groups then had 10 minutes to read their feedback and respond, including a to do list for the next session. We also did a literacy exercise on how to summarise information (not cut and paste!) using the funnel thinking map.

Photos of Project Fortnight

Project Fortnight - Week 1 Look Back from matthewtechno

A lovely student journal

Building Classroom community

This list is taken from the Education By Design programme, lots of these are clearly visible around project fortnight.

The EBD program also has identified the different stages of development of a learning community. I wonder where we are?

Here some thoughts from the Transport Media project

I'd say our group have shown an abundance of the first four over the last two days, but if I had to pick one: collaboration. How do I know? Individuals are now starting recognise who has stronger skillsets in certain areas and where two or more people can get together to combine the key skills needed to accomplish one thing. More importantly, they're doing this without any guidance from adults. Next steps: to make sure that everyone's skills are utilised in the right way with increasing guidance from the students. 

What have you done to build a sense of community or team ethos?

Here's a selection of ideas from around project fortnight :

1.       Names with stickers on, reflection diary with a focus on shared responsibility and being a team player.

We have begun to build a team atmosphere by playing ‘get to know you’ games including: two truths one lie and name rhymes. Pupils have now been put into their groups and have presented their research to each other. We have discussed empathy and what we need to be as learners, teachers and friends.

Overall, a fabulous start J

They’re assigned into World Cup Teams and points are awarded for each activity. Good sportsmanship and organisation is also rewarded whilst poor behaviour/concentration can also see teams lose points.

A strong feature from our Group Agreement was the adoption of regular critique. We had our first round today, with some good feedback from the group. It was made very clear that the presenting group needed to take accurate notes during the process so that they then could use them as action points. The other important routine established was  drafting , with the acceptance that work completed today would be radically improved by June 27^th. Not earth shattering I know, but important nonetheless.

Stiudents giving critique P3 as to what makes a great team (look, feel, sound). Groups allowed to fail, review as to what went wrong and next steps forward. Result? Damian and Kieran self-regulating their behaviour by leaving their respective groups temporarily, designing and modelling an awesome clock, whilst still maintaining responsibility within their original group.

Students  mentioned in today's review that they like that it is a "real audience and product"


We just did a getting to know you game (find the lie) and came up with a class agreement, will be more SoP and feedback agreement on Wednesday after trip tomorrow.

To build up team we have a rewards board. We award stamps for team work, problem solving, new knowledge, developing a skill, and giving specific and helpful feedback. The team the with the most points everyday wins a prize. 

    The students have just ‘got on with it’

·         No fuss or issues – students very cooperative with each other

·         We’ve used Quality Audience, counting back from 5, played a team game on Monday morning

Group Agreement to build classroom community