A few weeks ago I met Ty Goddard. Director for the British Council for School Environments (BCSE). We had a brief conversation and I asked him if we could help create some media for the BCSE. I appreciate how busy he is, so to answer our students emails and to personally accept our phone calls made a big impact on the students.
Our brief: Why School Environments Matter.
That was it. No statistics, no school environment information, no further details, zip, nada.
Two Digital Leaders meetings later, a poem co-authored on a wiki, a video camera and a youtube account, this is what our students created.
One of our poem co-authors contributed a little more than most, so well done Victoria attributed in name in the next BCSE document and one student stayed a few hours after college to ensure the editing was finished on time, good work Ashwin.
One thought that tweeked the teacher in me was, with so little BCSE input, such an open brief and such a very short time frame really challenged the students. Their mutual success relied on a creative sparkle and ability to work together. One students sparkled on ideas, another on her writing ability, one of their acting skills, another on editing skills. Talents were uncovered and others reinforced. Could this be recreated in a regular Hamble College classroom?
I have to take my hat off to Kristian and his students for this project and he’s actually being a little generous in his comments about the brief… there really was very little to go on. But the results are a poem that could stand the test of time in any literature festival and a YouTube video that gets to the heart of what we are saying – why do school environments matter. Simply a stellar job and the report that we are about to publish which has the poem at its heart is about to go out to 10,000 people across the UK – so Hamble College and students – prepare to be famous! A great job done by a great teacher
Grand praise indeed.
We went with what we had, in the time we had and just added a little creative collaboration. Our Digital Leaders are a fantastic bunch – and I am very proud of them.
This is fantastic – well done to the Hamble College students and to Kristian for making it happen. Everyone involved in funding, designing, building and using school environments should see it. A passionate manifesto for why school environments matter to young people. I’ve heard a lot of people talk on this subject and no one has put it better!
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