Shining success stories... SHINE SHINE is a WGSF Outreach project, working with selected Year 5 children from local primary schools, focussing on supporting students to develop a flair for learning, through expanding on their classroom learning. On Saturday mornings between November and February, around ten Sixth Form volunteers from across the Foundation would come in on alternate weeks, to help lead and encourage the childrens’ learning. Selected students from; St Mary's C of E Primary School, St Michael's CE Academy, Greenhill Primary School, Park Hill Primary and Flanshaw J&I School would join us for a number of three hour, fun learning activity sessions. We did such a range of really entertaining, interactive and insightful lessons. Covering almost every subject, the SHINE programme included sustainable clock making in D&T, Christmas cards in Art, pirate-themed English, energetic dance sessions, slime in Chemistry, volcano explosions, magic Maths, plasticine heart modelling and a range of more. Personally as a leader, I had to assist the teaching staff by transferring the students across the site, being encouraging and enthusiastic, setting up refreshments, preparing materials, travelling in the minibus to collect the pupils, and also by supporting staff or students who sought help. The experience was really rewarding, especially seeing the joy in the students as they engaged with the sessions, and how they grew in confidence throughout the weeks. Our school puts a great deal of
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effort into the logistics and planning of the lessons, as they recognise the benefits for the students and its positive influence on their enthusiasm for education. It introduces the students to what we, as a school have to offer and also the fun in further learning. It also is another platform for us as a school to have a positive contribution within our local community and build links with local primary schools. Through the volunteering I'm involved in outside of school, I had heard from some students who had previously taken part in SHINE about their experience and saw how much they’d enjoyed the sessions and benefitted from the lessons. I felt really encouraged to be involved with the project. I am very passionate about learning and so being provided with the opportunity to promote and contribute to this within the local community was an opportunity that I really wanted to take. I knew it would be a fun and rewarding way of developing my leadership skills and experience working with new people, and developing my confidence too. Taking up opportunities to stretch your leadership skills is vital for the world of work and as well as being applicable to a range of other situations, and so value was gained for both students and us Sixth Form leaders. Throughout the programme, every week brought something new and the sessions were really fun for everyone involved. Personally, I think the pirate-themed
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English was a highlight. The students really got involved and enjoyed the challenge set for them, as well as generating some really creative and intelligent stories which were great fun to hear. It was also funny seeing the pirate outfits created from newspapers and then the students having to ‘walk the plank’ in their homemade newspaper costumes. When fellow leaders were asked what their highlights were, many enjoyed the PE sessions, covering football, rounders, dance and playing rugby whilst sat on the floor (I wasn't there for that - it sounds interesting but I'll take their word for it!). Eloise highlighted that it was enjoyable to be pushed out of our comfort zone sometimes too; for instance, we had to demonstrate a Latin play of the three little pigs (with a number of us not having studied Latin for 3 years), fully dressed up as pigs or wolves. However, I agree with Eloise that it was rewarding and even better watching the children have the confidence to perform on the back of it. All the sessions brought the students and leaders together but especially the PE sessions and the Latin lesson, and I think that is what made them such highlight moments. The PE sessions often involved lots of teamwork and brought us all together. The Latin session was relatively nerve wracking, so that was really nice seeing students and leaders really encouraging one another. Anna Chew - Year 12
GIRLS HAVE COMPASSION
