Charging students with the responsibility of advertising, organising and running an end of term gala day was a little scary I have to admit. But to embrace this final end product my teaching colleagues and I stepped right away from any responsibility and let the entire Stage 5 team get to work.
I met with the Stage 5 students in small groups a month out from the end of last term to discuss what kind of event they wished to design and undertake. The answer quite predictably was a football World Cup tournament for the primary students in Stage 3.
Our current Stage 5 students are now well practised at Project Based Learning and immediately started using real world skills to assemble their peers into appropriate roles, each with a shared responsibility and common goal of making the World Cup a smooth and enjoyable event for all.
Students were shown this clip:
From Jarrod Robinson, a ‘PE Geek’, who I have closely followed for the past three years.
Quietly observing the class I was extremely proud of each and every student. You usually get a few who do not ‘pull their weight’ or do the bare minimum so it was refreshing to witness the leaders emerge and ensure every group remained motivated, on task and performed their duties to the best of their abilities.
The group split itself into subgroups:
- Advertising
- Event Managers
- Match Officials
- Ball Boys/Girls
- Team Physiotherapists/First Aid
- Commentators
- Points Scorers
- Team Managers and Assistant Coaches.
The effort and enthusiasm put in by the students really did exceed my expectations and it was so refreshing to have a group of teenagers we have helped shape and develop, show the qualities of independence and confidence that we have been developing to a point where the students are now taking charge and working together under pressure.
The whole day was a huge success, enjoyed by all and a testament to the skills learnt and developed by the entire team at IFS/ITS. We are constantly challenging our students during academic sessions to be responsible, independent learners and it’s through the running and success of projects like PDHPE that we really see how valuable a well rounded approach to education can be.
Here is a promotional advertisement from the integrated English project that was used to spread the word that the IFS World Cup was upcoming.
(Click below to watch)
Some pictures from the day:
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