On Monday 23rd June, sixty four Gifted and Talented year six students from four local primary schools took part in a team building morning delivered by staff from Barclaycard. Young people from St James, Spring Lane, Lyncrest and Castle Primary Schools were divided into eight teams of eight and were allocated an order in which they moved around 8 activities designed by staff at Barclaycard. The activities included:

• Balanced Order- Balanced on a bench, the aim is for the team to arrange themselves in order of height, youngest to oldest, by name etc without touching the ground.
• Big Skis- Can the whole team transport themselves quickly from one point to another and back using big skis, without stepping off them along the way?
• Marble Run- Using the guttering pieces arrange a run to transport balls successfully into a bucket but each person must only stand on the markers.
• Stepping Stones- using two hoops as stepping stones the whole team must move from A to B and back.
• Team Re-enactment- Teams must use their imagination to create a freeze frame of a famous historic event.
• World Flags- Teams must match flags to the relevant country on a world map.
• White Label Path- The aim is for the team to find the correct route from point A to B using cones marked with white labels.
• Toxic Waste- A bucket containing plastic balls is to be transported and emptied into another bucket. With the team unable to touch the bottles due to them containing ‘toxic waste’, they must rely on using string.

Each activity had a time limit of approximately eight minutes to complete successfully, with the aim for each group to complete all 8 activities in the circuit in the set time.

The morning came and went very quickly, with all involved enjoying their time at the Saints and learning about how working as team is essential in order to succeed.

There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that juggling and related activities can have a positive impact on a person’s ability to learn in a wider context. Research has confirmed that circus skills can help children with their co-ordination, concentration, balance, posture, creativity, interaction, rhythm and team work.

Consequently, this week the children are taking part in a fantastic Circus Skills session led by County Jester Kevin Burke. Firstly, Kevin demonstrates all the activities including juggling, stilt walking, the diablo, and plate spinning. The children are then given the opportunity to practise all these activities followed by a presentation of their circus skills at the end of the session. There were plates flying, rings spinning and balls falling!

This week the Playing for Success and Thomas Becket R.C. School children have been taking part in a drama workshop delivered by Keiron Jones from Shakespeare Works in London. The session commenced with the children watching a short film about the famous playwrite William Shakespeare, followed by a Shakespeare infused drama workshop. The children acted out various scenes from plays such as Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth. In the following weeks the young people will also be able to test their new knowledge of the famous playwrite with fun interactive quizzes and amazing educational games.

Learning about Shakespeare has never been so much fun!