Aspire Day November 2021

ASPIRE DAY on Thursday, 25th November presented an exciting and complex challenge for Year 7. A panel of three school governors formed a “Dragons’ Den” style panel of judges. This was an event for the whole year group, giving every student a chance to contribute ideas, use skills, work with friends and enjoy the day!

Teams were tasked to prepare plans for a live music event. Given guidelines and information, each team had to make decisions, complete specific tasks and prepare a presentation. DECISIONS included which acts, what timings, what food and drink, ticket prices and, most importantly – how to organise the team so that all of the tasks were completed. TASKS included designing tickets, posters and t-shirts, calculating costs, doing market research and preparing a powerpoint slideshow. PRESENTATIONS were done in front of classmates. Each class then chose a best team to go into the “Dragons’ Den.”

The governor judges watched five presentations (one from each class) and asked questions. The five teams were already winners so the standards were high. Some students loved doing the presentations and some were nervous. For many, this was a new experience.

The judges saw all three of the school’s core values in action. There was lots of CREATIVITY in some fantastic designs for posters, tickets and t-shirts as well as in the powerpoint slideshows. In the best teams, it was clear that each student made a personal contribution and supported fellow team members.

Another one of our governors said “What a great event and such a pleasure for us to be able to finally meet and work inside school with groups of committed, well informed and inventive students. It was good to see how confident they became as their presentations progressed and how knowledgeable their use of IT is. Each group managed to find a slightly different theme to make their talk more individual so a big “well done” to all involved in the activity”.

Groups of Year 8 students built robot vehicles and raced each other with around a classroom track during Aspire day. Once the vehicles where operational they had to use computers to input code to direct the robots around the course in the quickest time. Competitive spirit was high as the students constantly tweaked their robots to bring down the course record to try and take the victory. As part of the alien invasion theme, students made polymer clay aliens and then slime. All students loved the session and were fully engaged.

Year 9 took part in variety of workshops, led by external providers, on sport, music, art, photography, journalism and performing arts.

The group of students looked at routes into acting and the theatre as a career, then they played a range of drama games focussed on team building, confidence building and getting into character. They did a read through of a play script, Blood Brothers, and discussed the plot before taking on the role of two of the characters in a scene which they rehearsed and then performed in front of each other. They also explored acting techniques such as vocal warm ups.

The students were highly engaged throughout the day, they really enjoyed the day despite some trepidation at the start. They all performed in front of each other without exception which was excellent. Many of the pupils said they would like to do drama again on future Aspire days when they completed their feedback form.

Music Aspire Day - Students took part in a selection of musical and technical activities ranging from keyboard skills to health and safety in a live sound environment. Engagement was 100% throughout the day. They discussed the impact music can have on society (giving people a voice/equality protests/expression of emotion), took part in singing workshop and vocal control techniques, learnt about lighting and sound desk operations, and the roles of levelling and mastering.

Year 10 students visited Teeside University. They took part in sessions aimed at promoting university as an option for their futures, team building, and a tour of the campus led by current students, who explained why they had chosen university and what life was like.

Year 11 students had a range of careers activities including CVs, apprenticeships, mock interviews and Learn to Learn.