As more of a casual and light hearted look at some of our work, I have decided to have a quick recap at the city of Sheffield and the organisations within it and look back at some of what we have done there.
Sheffield, along with Huddersfield, was one of the first areas that brought Imagination Gaming in to work with them, helping with engagement and providing challenging activities, in and out of school hours.
For the first twelve months I did a great deal of promoting to get the word out there and a number of people from these areas got back to me, really understanding what I envisioned for their area and worked closely with me to make the events a big success and really helped get Imagination gaming off the ground so to speak.
To date we have worked with several organisations within Sheffield and with some incredibly enthusiastic and energetic people. These include:
The Children's University - Penny Rea, Extended Schools
Sheffield Childrens Libraries - Paul Walker, Project Manager
The Learning Year - Joseph Leech, Extended Schools
City Events - Richard Johnson, Project Manager
We have also worked in several school there which included initially: -
Abbey Lane, Athelston Primary, Bents Green, Dobcroft, Emmaus, Fir Vale
Firth Park, Foxhill, King Ecgberts, Limpsfield, Loxley Primary, Malin Bridge
Meadowhead, Rivelin Primary, Spring Lane, St Catherines, St Josephs, St Theresas
Wharncliffe Side & Yewlands.
These events have held many different goals and we have worked with children as young as five to many elderly people at some of the city events, who were just as interested in their younger colleagues in the games we had available to try.
Whenever we were approached we looked at each one as a unique opportunity to do something different with either the school, the children or the organisation. We tried to make the events as stress free as possible for the organisers and to ensure their workload was kept to a minimum. We were lucky that those people commisioning the work were as open minded to the possibilities as we were and this resulted in some fantastic days learning across the city. Here are a couple of examples of what we did: -
The Learning Year - Maths focused days aimed at improving both a perception of maths and attainment within it.
This project looked at 13 schools, 2 High schools and 11 Primaries. In each of these we spent a full day at the school, from breakfast club until after school clubs where possible, running a series of exciting maths lessons where games became the method of delivery. Each of the schools would be left a pack of games that we had used throughout the day, so that they could be continued to be used after we had gone and giving the school a sustainable resource. Each child taking part also had to provide information that we could use to measure the success of the project. After the project had finished the data was compiled and the results sent to the Learning Year to assess. The games made the teraching of basic maths skills an exciting and highly enjoyable experience that the kids loved. The results were fantastic and we will be putting more information on this up on the blog and the website soon.
Children's Libraries - Literacy based work in a school with library event.
Our Zombie diary scheme is about encouraging ceative writing using a series of activities that draw out the creative ideas within everyone. Over the course of the sessions we play zombie themed games in which the children become the heroes. During the game they document what happens on their adventures and will later use this as a source of inspriation for their stories. We also spend time redesigning the game with the children designing their own boards and cards. From here we go on to the most important aspect; writing their own story. We work with the children and the teachers to examine what a story is all about and how they are going to make theirs something special. We look at the characters they might use, where it is set, what problems might be faced and where it all ends up. Is it a comedy, a romantic story and just a scary horror yarn? Finally, the last exercise has the children designing a comic based upon their own short story. They look at the important points and work out the frames they need for their comic. The children loved it. For a big finish we have their local library display the work where the children and their parents can all come down and see the work they have done. It was so popular that the library left it up for a month!
The Children's University - A challenging, social activity.
The Childrens University work involved bringing together a cluster of schools for an out of school hours activity in which we ran a games tournament over a six week period. Each of the games used were challenging in a different way and invovled a variety of skills. Each school brought several team members who spent the afternoon playing games with others from different schools. Over the course of the events they accumulated points which at the end led to a winning school for whom we bought trophies and medals, which everyone went home with. The focus here was having the children mixings and working together with what were initially strangers but who were, at the end of the work, friends they could stay in touch with. We had parents join in the session towards the end of the day and both these and the teachers that helped out really enjoyed the sessions and could see instantly what they children were getting from the days.
Although initially we were concerned in the numbers we might get coming back this was never a problem and we often had more turning up than we expected.
This is a glimpse of just some of the work we have done in Sheffield in the first few years of the companies life. We have accumulated a huge amount of feedback from everyone invovled, at every level, and it is all extremely generous and gushing in its praise for the days we ran. We met lots of brilliant kids, teachers and parents and hope to meet lots more in the very near future.
I cant wait to see what comes up next!
Love to hear any thoughts people have on the work or if you have any interest in them.
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