Author: Asher

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involver blog Resources

Games to promote teamwork, co-ordination, co-operation and concentration

The game was called 'Finding Nemo'. Basically everyone had to wonder around with their eyes closed calling 'Nemo' until they bumped into someone who wasn't calling out. They then had to stop and be quiet - they have found Nemo. Eventually everyone is still and quiet.

Yesterday I gave you some icebreakers to use with your school council, today I’ve got a group of team-building games for you to try. There are competitive games here: competitive games for team-building.

Remember to get the most out of all of these activities …

Before the activity

  • Explain the rules as simply as possible.
  • Don’t give tips on how to complete the task.
  • Don’t explain what you want them to get out of it.

During the activity

  • Unless a judge is needed, you should take full part in the activity.
  • If everyone is struggling, pause the game and ask people what is going wrong; ask them what they could do to change it.
  • Stop the games while people are still excited, don’t wait for them to start dragging.

After the activity

  • Don’t make a big deal out of winners and losers – a quick cheer or round of applause is enough.
  • Draw out the learning through asking them to reflect on the activity, don’t tell them what you think the learning should be.
    • Ask those who succeeded: What worked well in your team? What did you do that allowed you to succeed?
    • Ask those who struggled: What would you differently next time?
    • Ask those who struggled but managed in the end: What do you change? Why? Did that work?
    • Finally, ask them what they learned through the activity – they may well come up with far more than you intended!

Group juggling

Useful for

Learning names; Concentration; Focus on your task; Let people know what you’re doing; Stick to the agreed format.

Method

  1. Keep all balls hidden until needed.
  2. Throw a green ball round the circle, each person only getting it once.
  3. Remember the order and repeat in that order, adding in extra green balls as confidence grows, until all three are going round
    the circle.
  4. Explain that red balls go along the same route, but in the opposite direction.
  5. Discuss what needs to happen to make this work well.
  6. See if you can get 3 green balls and 3 red balls all going at once. When it’s working reasonably well, throw in some extra balls
    in a random order.
  7. Discuss what happened.

Resources

  • Space for everyone to stand in a circle.
  • In a bag:
    • 3 x Green balls
    • 3 x Red balls
    • Some other coloured balls

Group counting

Useful for

  • We all know where we’re going, but if we’re not careful we can’t get there.
  • Taking it in turns can help.
  • Did everyone get a chance to take part? Did some people dominate?
  • Using body language and non-verbal signals.
  • Having a chair person, especially one who directs rather than speaking.

Method

  1. Explain the rules to everyone:
    • As a group we need to count to 10.
    • No one person can say 2 numbers in a row (e.g. 2 and 3).
    • No one can say anything other than the numbers.
    • If 2 people speak at once we start again.
  2. As people find they can’t do it ask people to suggest rules.
  3. Try these out one by one and see which work.

Resources

  • None

Helium stick / lower the stick

Useful for

Co-ordination; all working at the same pace; talking to one another; lateral thinking.

Method

  1. Split the group into two. Get each group to stand in a line facing the other group.
  2. Get everyone to point out a finger.
  3. Place the stick so that it is resting on everyone’s fingers at about shoulder height.
  4. Explain that they have to lower the stick to the ground without any of them losing contact with it.
  5. Each time someone loses contact get them to start again.
  6. To extend or vary the game you can get them to raise the stick as well.

Resources

  • A long lightweight stick (bamboo cane, garden stick, tent pole or similar)

Turning the sheet

Useful for

Co-ordination; using your strengths; talking to one another; lateral thinking.

Method

  1. The whole group has to stand on the sheet.
  2. The aim is for them to completely flip the sheet over without any of them stepping off it.

Resources

  • A sheet or picnic blanket

Sharing crisps

Useful for

Compromise; the value of talking in small groups; when under pressure we can make decisions easily about unimportant things.

Method

  1. Ask each person to repeat and complete the sentence: my favourite flavour of crisps is …
  2. Put everyone in pairs.
  3. Give them five seconds to decide what crisps they would share.
  4. Go round to each pair and ask them to announce together: Our favourite flavour of crisps is …
  5. Add pairs together to make fours and repeat.
  6. Keep going until it’s one big group deciding all together.

Resources

  • None
Categories
involver blog Resources

Icebreaker games for school councils

The aim of the game was to get people from being in age order to alphabetical order without any of them stepping outside the lines.

On Friday I was in Weymouth training local teaching assistants (TAs) in how to use games to encourage positive relationships between young people. Naturally I did this through a long and detailed PowerPoint presentation that I read out word for word from the slides.

I kid, I kid, of course I did the whole thing through a series of games, which was a lot of fun for me and the TAs seemed to enjoy it too. I looked at three different types of games:

  1. Games to help you get to know one another and start talking (icebreakers)
  2. Games to encourage teamwork, co-operation and collaboration
  3. Games that encourage teamwork through competition

Below are the icebreakers I used. There are collaborative and competitive team building games here: Collaborative – Competitive

Remember to get the most out of all of these activities …

Before the activity

  • Explain the rules as simply as possible.
  • Don’t give tips on how to complete the task.
  • Don’t explain what you want them to get out of it.

During the activity

  • Unless a judge is needed, you should take full part in the activity.
  • If everyone is struggling, pause the game and ask people what is going wrong; ask them what they could do to change it.
  • Stop the games while people are still excited, don’t wait for them to start dragging.

After the activity

  • Don’t make a big deal out of winners and losers – a quick cheer or round of applause is enough.
  • Draw out the learning through asking them to reflect on the activity, don’t tell them what you think the learning should be.
    • Ask those who succeeded: What worked well in your team? What did you do that allowed you to succeed?
    • Ask those who struggled: What would you differently next time?
    • Ask those who struggled but managed in the end: What do you change? Why? Did that work?
    • Finally, ask them what they learned through the activity – they may well come up with far more than you intended!

Human bingo

Useful for

Getting to know one another, seeing one another as more than just a, say Y3 pupil.

Method

  1. Before the game: Create a bingo sheet by having a grid with a statement in each box (e.g. Supports Arsenal; Plays a team sport; Has been to the Houses of Parliament). Each of the statements should encourage them to ask some questions of other participants that will help them get to know them. Print one for each participant.
  2. Give each participant a sheet and a pen.
  3. Explain that they find one person in the room about whom each statement is true and write their name in the box.
  4. They have to fill in all the boxes, so will have to talk to everyone in the room.
  5. It’s good to include yourself in the game.

Resources

  • Human bingo sheet for each participant. Here are some you can just use:
    [download id=”252″ format=”1″]
    [download id=”253″ format=”1″]
    [download id=”254″ format=”1″]
    and some you can edit:
    [download id=”256″ format=”1″]
    [download id=”258″ format=”1″]
    [download id=”257″ format=”1″]
  • Pen for each participant

Talking in circles

Useful for

Listening skills; difference between discussion and listening; getting to know one another.

Method

  1. Get everyone to sit down, make sure all chairs are filled and that everyone is opposite someone.
  2. Ask everyone to introduce themselves to the person opposite.
  3. Pick a topic and ask the people on the inside to talk about it to the people on the outside.
  4. Then pick another topic and ask the people on the outside to tell the people on the inside about it.
  5. Get one circle to stand up and move around a few places; get them to sit down and repeat with different topics as many times as you like.
  6. You can ask them to make a decision together (e.g. if we had to watch one TV programme together all weekend, what would it be?)
  7. Get them to reflect on good listening and what the difference is between when you’re just telling someone something and when you have to make a decision together.

Resources

  • Two circles of chairs, one inside the other. Each chair should be facing another chair.

Envelope game

Useful for

Getting to know one another, speaking out loud; being a bit silly.

Method

  1. Before the session, write a series of questions to put in each of the envelopes. These should be amusing, vaguely revealing and quick to answer. E.g.:
  2. If you were a superhero, what power would you have?
  3. Where’s the best place to eat?
  4. If you had to watch only one TV show for ever, what would it be?
  5. Split people into groups of 4 or 5. Ask them to pull their chairs into small circles, so they can see everyone else in their group.
  6. Hand each group an envelope and get one person to read it out to the rest.
  7. Each group follows the instructions on the envelope, which read:
    • Take a piece of paper out of the envelope.
    • Read it and tell everyone else in the group your answer.
    • Put the paper back and pass the envelope on.
    • Keep going round the circle.

Resources

  • Chairs
  • Envelopes with instructions on: [download id=”259″ format=”1″]
  • Slips of paper with questions on in each envelope: [download id=”260″ format=”1″]

Throwing an alien

Useful for

Concentration; eye contact; using names; being silly.

Method

  1. Everyone stands or sits in a circle.
  2. Explain the scenario: there is an invisible, face-eating alien loose.
  3. Put your hands to the sides of your head and wiggle them about (this is you trying to wrestle the alien off your face).
  4. The person on your right has to put her left hand to her head and wiggle it about.
  5. The person to your left has to put his right hand to his head and wiggle it about.
  6. Make eye contact with someone else across the circle and throw them the alien.
  7. That person has to ‘catch’ the alien by wiggling their hands next to their head and the people on either side each have to wiggle one hand.
  8. Get the alien thrown around quickly.
  9. You can get people to concentrate more by:
    • having more than one alien;
    • getting people to shout names of other people in the circle (does the alien follow the names or the eyes?)

Resources

  • None

Splat/Compliment Splat/Fact Splat

Useful for

Getting to know names; being silly.

Method

  1. Get everyone in a circle and ask them to imagine they have some horrible goo in their hands.
  2. Go round the circle and ask everyone to say their names nice and loud.
  3. When you shout someone’s name they have to duck and the person on either side of them has to pretend to throw the goo over their head and
    shout ‘Splat!’.
  4. The slowest person gets splatted and is out. If the person whose name is called doesn’t duck s/he is out.
  5. Get the person who is out to call the next name.
  6. When just two are left, stand them back to back and get them to have a duel. The last person out counts. The final two have to step apart each time a number is counted. When a number is called out of order they have to spin round and splat each other.

Variations

  • Rather than splatting you have to say a compliment about the person ducking. The quickest one wins.
  • Rather than splatting you have to say a fact about the subject you’ve been studying. Incorrect or repeated facts mean you lose. Otherwise, the quickest wins.

Resources

  • None

Bombs and shields

Useful for

Getting people moving around. Works with any size group (if you have enough room).

Method

  1. Ask everyone to think of one other person in the room. They shouldn’t let that other person know that they have chosen them.
  2. Then get everyone to choose a second person, also without letting them know.
  3. Explain:
  4. The first person they chose is a bomb.
  5. The second person they chose is a shield and is the only thing that will save them from the bomb.
  6. When the bomb explodes their shield is in between them and the bomb.
  7. Start running around. Count down and make a boom.
  8. Afterwards you can get everyone to shake the hands of their bombs and shields.

Resources

  • None
Categories
involver blog

Involving a very large school council

A lot of chairs. How would we get all of these people to work together productively.
Students working and smailing together
The enthusiasm of the students was fantastic.

One of the problems of school councils is that they’re exclusive, they inherently narrow down the number of people who can get involved. For a structure that’s there to give everyone a voice, that seems like the wrong way to go. On the other hand, having 100 people in a room, let alone 1,000, can make it pretty difficult to get anything done.

So when we were asked to work with Northampton Academy who have over 70 students on their school council we were eager to see how we could make it work. After a bit of head scratching as to how we would approach it I remembered a method for collective action that I’d read about: Open Space.

Open Space reflected a lot of what we already suggest to school councils:

  • Break down into small groups.
  • Work on projects you care about.
  • If no one cares enough to work on it, it’s probably not really important, move on to something else.

We discussed this with the senior team at Northampton Academy and we agreed to give it a go. We were all excited but equally nervous about how it would work out; it being such a departure from our normal structured training sessions, and the even more structured school days that students are used to.

After a couple of short icebreakers everyone took their seats in the large circle and we explained how the day would work:

  • We know they are all here because they want to help make the Academy outstanding.
  • It’s up to them to decide what they want to do to work towards that goal.
  • Anyone who wants to can suggest an idea, if they are willing to help run a group to make it happen.
  • Anyone can join or leave any group at any time during the day.
  • In fact, the one rule is: Wherever you are neither contributing or learning, move to somewhere where you are.

I lay the ideas sheets and some pens in the middle of the circle and waited, half expecting no one to come forward. Immediately twenty students ran to the middle and started scribbling down their ideas. Each of them confirmed that they wanted to put in some work to make their ideas happen. Our fears had been completely unwarranted.

A group fo three students practicing their presentation
A group practice their pitch to the headteacher and the rest of the school council.

There were so many ideas, each with an eager proponent that we quickly had to move into the next phase of asking them to find other people to work with them on their idea. At this stage we only let ideas with at least 3 supporters get going. The first 10 groups were each given a space to work, some resources and the support of a Y12 or Y13 student leader that we had trained the day before.

All of the groups worked with fantastic enthusiasm, thoughtfulness and purpose, so by the end of the day we had presentations from 15 different projects. Every member of the 70+ strong school council had a task she or he was going to complete, each of which was part of a larger project plan.

This was achieved by us just throwing the school open to the students and trusting them to improve it in ways that meant something to them. Through the Y12 and Y13 school council we provided them with peer mentoring. This helped them to think through the details of their projects, without adult interference.

Of course the final effectiveness of this will be judged over the coming weeks – do the students stick to their plans – but we were amazed by what they achieved in the day. We are eager to see how we can use this model with other schools to engage a much larger group of students than are normally active in a school council.

The hall was a hive of activity with students working on projects and canvassing support.
The hall was a hive of activity with students working on projects and canvassing support.
Teacher looking at ideas ideas on the wall
The Associate Principal studies the range of projects the students want to work on.
Categories
News

What law would you make?

Parliament’s Education Service wants young people to tell Parliament what new law they would make by producing either a 3 minute short film, a 200-500 word script or a 5–10 frame storyboard.

Anyone between the ages of 7 – 16yrs can enter the competition either individually or as part of a group. Prizes will include a cinema voucher, a video camera for the winner’s school, a behind the scenes tour of Parliament with a chance to meet Members and a special showcasing of the winning entries at the British Film Institute!

Last year’s winners proposed laws that would make it compulsory to wear helmets when cycling and that would lower the voting age to 16. You can see their inspiring films at https://www.makewav.es/story/485967/title/lightscameraparliament2013winners

This year’s website has just launched with lots of new tips and resources for young people – and regularly updated inspiration topics and blogs. Entries can be submitted from now until the 14th of February. Find out more by visiting www.makewav.es/lcp and http://www.parliament.uk/education/in-your-school/lights-camera-parliament/

Get creative and get your voice heard!

To receive competition updates, email lcp@parliament.uk

Categories
involver blog

3 tips to get staff on side with your school council

Last week I got an email from a teacher at a school I’d run training at recently (which shall remain nameless). We’d had a great day, the school council had come up with a real range of projects and great ways to communicate with the rest of the school. Unfortunately the email was not to tell me how well the students were getting on, but about the negative reactions from school staff. When minutes from the meeting were sent our staff comments ranged from sarcastic to deeply concerned. The posters the school council had put up explaining what they were working on were even taken down.

The school council co-ordinator asked me for advice. I’m sure she’s not the only one facing these problems, so I thought I would share what I told her with you. There isn’t a quick fix of course, but here are three things I suggest:

1. Explain the role of the school council

Make it clear to staff that the minutes are not what is going to happen, but what the students are taking on. In many cases they share the concerns of the staff and want to work with them to sort them out, that’s why their first step is often to meet with the relevant staff member. It’s not for staff members to give a straight ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but to ask the students what the students will do to make this happen. For example, if students want more trips they should be told they need to organise them. They will need help with this and they won’t have access to the money, but it’s not for the staff member to do all the running, the whole point is getting students to make happen those things they are keen on. Students need to be clear in their own minds and especially in anything they commit to paper on the difference between what they are DOING and what they are ASKING FOR. What they are DOING will happen (with their effort) what they are ASKING FOR may not.

2. Minutes detail students’ plans of action

Recycling plan notes
Project planning notes made by pupils at a recent primary training day.

Ensure that what goes into the minutes is what actions the students will take. This way staff (and others) can see that these are issues of concern to students and that they are doing something about it. It helps where the minutes say more than ‘Meet with Ms X’, but also record what students are intending on suggesting, i.e. how they will help. The ‘school council ideas form‘ should help with this – the last section asks what the person filling it out will do to help – make sure no ideas come to the meeting without something here. Ensure those actions are clearly recorded in the minutes.

3. Attach prep work to the minutes

Something else to consider is the detail of the minutes. If either of the staff members mentioned above had seen the whole discussion they would know that the issues they raised were discussed. I suggest these very brief minutes as I think in general most people don’t read long minutes and it’s difficult for the secretary to take part if they are trying to record everything. However they don’t cover the detail of the discussion. Maybe if the ideas forms or project plans were attached to the minutes it would help those not at the meeting to see the thought that had gone into it without increasing the burden on the secretary.

Do you think these ideas might help in your school? Have you done anything else that has worked?

Categories
News

Active citizenship needs to be at the heart of education

Yesterday was the final day to respond to the last bit of the Government’s consultation on its controversial and rushed reworking of the National Curriculum. We have been actively involved with the Democratic Life consortium which has been using this opportunity to campaign for the strengthening of the Citizenship curriculum. As well as contributing to Democratic Life’s response to the consultation we wrote a response on behalf of the Smart School Councils Community. We used the response submitted by involver, below, to reinforce what they both said:

We would like to reinforce the points made the coalition we are part of, Democratic Life, and our sister organisation, the Smart School Councils Community.  We are especially concerned about the omission of active citizenship in any meaningful sense. We wholeheartedly support Democratic Life’s suggestions:

1. The skills necessary for pupils to make progress in Citizenship must be made explicit in the revised programmes of study. Pupils should use and apply Citizenship skills whilst developing knowledge and understanding about the subject. Therefore Citizenship must ‘equip pupils with the skills and knowledge to critically explore political and social issues, weigh evidence, debate and make reasoned arguments, and experience and evaluate ways citizens can act together to solve problems’.

2. Active citizenship must be made a requirement at both key stages 3 and 4. The current reference to ‘community volunteering’ at key stage 4 is insufficient and should be expanded to include ‘social action’. At key stage 3, active citizenship is missing entirely. Citizenship without active citizenship is meaningless and key stage 3 should require pupils to be taught about, ‘ways in which citizens can work together to address issues in communities, including opportunities to take part in different forms of responsible and social action in the school and wider community’.

3. Key stage 3 is narrow and bland and does not address the breadth of the subject or provide adequate progression to key stage 4. Teaching about human rights, the international dimension, the exploration of identities and diversity in society and the ways citizens to contribute actively and opportunities for pupils to participate in social action should be included at key stage 3 as well as key stage 4. The proposed requirement to teach about ‘the precious liberties enjoyed by citizens of the UK’ is abstract and likely to be poorly understood and taught. If ‘precious liberties’ means teaching about political, legal and human rights and freedoms then it should say so.

4. If financial education is to be included then it should relate to the subject of citizenship rather than simply adding personal finance which is part of PSHE. Any ‘financial’ element needs to include how economic decisions are made, where public money comes from and how public money is spent. Without this broader context financial education will never move beyond the personal and is likely to be a badly taught ‘bolt on’.

We would also like to see the inclusion of the suggestion made by the Smart School Councils Community to replace the aim related to volunteering with:

“develop a sound knowledge and understanding of how their actions impact on others locally and globally
develop an interest in, and commitment to, playing an active role in community action and decision-making that they will take with them into adulthood”