We’re sorry for the jargon but it’s not our fault – we regularly get asked to lead Break-Out Groups at conferences. We are given an hour or so to get people thinking, shake up notions of creativity and re-imagine the worlds they live in. As with all our training and education work the emphasis is on making these sessions practical, engaging, energised and provocative.
The sessions are set in a single room, chairs are pushed aside and the comfortable rules of physics and logical cause and effect start to shift.
As with all our training activities these sessions are tailor-made for the needs of our clients. There’s always a good bit of elaborate preparation involved but we know that’s part of what makes the days such a success. The bonus of these days is that we often get to hear keynote speakers and other fragments of the conferences – it all feeds into future thoughts and projects
Quotes from Creativity training day at Montgomery Primary School, 1/6/09.
Really enjoyed the fruit and veg cities and the animation and could see how they could used in absolutely any subject – thanks
Fab time – especially the animating!
I enjoyed ALL of the things today – especially the fruit and veg cities. It was VERY creative!
I enjoyed the opportunities to develop group co-operation
It’s too difficult to only pick one! There were aspects of each session that were incredibly useful: teamwork for fruit and veg cities, podcasting for pupil voice.
I liked the new and different ways to put across old ideas
I want to go and use podcasting tomorrow! I can see the benefit in nearly all I’ve planned for this week!
Really useful, practical ideas to use with children
I liked having the list of nine creative aspects and all day it made me think about what I was learning and then how I teach – really interesting – a new burst of inspiration and motivation – thank you
I really feel that I have gained the confidence to ‘have a go’ at animation
I’m now thinking about ways to be more creative with the children – allow them to experiment much more
A fantastic introduction to some great technologies and some very thought provoking rice!
I’ve learnt how simple, easy and effective it is to animate and the creative projects that could incorporate it
Lots of ‘hands on’ practical activities where we can actually learn how to use it properly by having time and opportunity to try it ourselves
I feel lucky to have been invited and really value the experience of taking part. A really enjoyable day
Animation! Super session – thank you
I enjoyed the rice experience and really made me think about the world and visualise the quantities of data etc very useful
Participating in activities from the perspective of the child broadened my knowledge and scope to tackle barriers as well as opportunities for the future
I enjoyed the activities which we carried out and learned which will be very useful to use with our children
I found today very informative and interesting. It was a lot of fun building cities from fruit and veg to making animations. I really enjoyed today, I’m sure children will enjoy it just as much
I liked the ideas to use with class that were original engaging and practical
I found everything that I did today really interesting and I really strongly believe that the activities can be implemented into our creative curriculum. I really had a fab time doing it!!
I enjoyed everything! Even the one I didn’t do – just hearing about it. It makes you think more and the links are really clear – ICT and the cross curricular links
The stop motion was a real highlight. Children will relish producing their own animation.
I have really, really enjoyed today. Really loved the ‘hands on’ aspect
Fruit and veg cities – fun, creative, informative, team work, communication – I loved it!
It will be great if we can get that animation technology available to us
Making our wider world experiences more accessible to children through letting them take more control
I loved taking risks and trying something new in a ‘safe’ group culture where we can all do something different and feel a sense of achievement
I will definitely allow my class to be more curious and explore for themselves – thank you, it’s been an amazing day, really inspiring!
Enjoyment! – Lots of ideas of how curriculum can be more exciting, challenging and REAL for the children
Working alongside friends in a very different and inspiring way. It was very enjoyable
I had such a fab time podcasting!
Really enjoyed today, have got some good ideas that I can use in the classroom with the kids
I can’t pick one – I’ve enjoyed podcasting, fruit and veg cities and the visual aspect of the rice
Maths (statistics) should be fun and thought provoking!
Rice to visualise number and start discussion!
Really inspiring. Ideas for future lessons i.e. rice for Victorians – statistics (census) A genius idea! I’ve gained the confidence to have a go! A great chance to reflect on the past year and change some areas for next – a revamp!
Thoroughly enjoyed all activities due to the fun, creative and hands on aspects. It will be fab to transfer such ideas and skills into the classroom
Extremely enjoyed creative and imaginative aspects of all tasks, would love to transfer skills to practical classroom activities
I enjoyed vegetable cities. Good useful activity to carry out with Nursery children i.e. retelling stories, nursery rhymes etc
I really enjoyed the activity we did with the rice. It was a ot of fun and informative, it encouraged everyone to discuss”
Lots of ideas to bring to the classroom
Lots of hands on experience (esp. with the animation)
I really enjoyed learning about podcasting as this can be used in the classroom with the children that tend to remain quiet and support them to be more vocal
Learning can be fun and creative bringing our individual skills into the workplace
I enjoyed the fruit and veg cities and could see how it would link well with our geography topic on houses and homesI really enjoyed the rice activity because it can be use din many different contexts. Ratio can be a very difficult concept and scales so it makes it more concrete
It’s reminded me that learning can be fun!
I enjoyed all of the activities especially the podcasting and editing. Nursery children would enjoy listening to their own voices, editing would require a little bit of support
It’s been really memorable for all of the right reasons – I loved it and feel really inspired
Credits
Usually delivered by James Yarker sometimes with assistance.
- Since 2002
Various