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Greg judging SSCA 2014

A great day at the Speaker’s School Council Awards 2014, that Greg was helping to judge. We’re really happy to be working with Parliament’s Education Service on this. Here he is with John Bercow, the Speaker, Valerie Vaz MP, Edge Watchorn and Emma Whiting.

Find out more about the amazing winning schools here: www.speakersschoolcouncil.org/pastwinners.

And if you’re interested in getting involved next year, keep an eye on the website for the 2014/2015 competition!

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Get ready for a Takeover

The Children’s Commissioner’s Takeover Day is a fantastic way of giving the young people you work with a say in your organisation. We’ve been big supporters ever since we first heard about it, so we’re very proud to announce that we’ve been commissioned by the Children’s Commissioner (how appropriate) to organise the scheme this year.

Get the date in your diaries now, it’s the biggest national youth voice event in England and you should be part of it. We’ll be here to help you every step of the way, so feel free to call (020 3411 3294), email (info@involver.org.uk) or Tweet (@TakoverDay) if you want some help organising your Takeover.

If you have taken part in Takeover Day in the past, you’ll know what a great event it is and so we want your help to get more children, young people and organisations involved. Drop us an email if you think you might like to become an ambassador for Takeover Day or have your Takeover Day featured in our publicity material and guides.

Welbourne Primary School pupils taking over involver
Welbourne Primary School pupils taking over involver
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Competitive games to promote collaboration and teamwork

Competition is seen by some people in education, youth work and team building as a dirty word, but it definitely has its uses. With many groups and individuals it is a great motivating factor and can help you break down some people’s reluctance to join in. As long as you don’t dwell on the winners and losers and instead try to pull out the learning it can be very effective.

Many of the games I posted previously can also be used in this way if you just split the group into two or more teams, but these I feel work especially well with a competitive element.

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!

Shark infested water

Useful for

Co-ordination; helping each other out; playing to strengths; talking to one another; lateral thinking.

Method

  1. Split the groups into teams of at least 4.
  2. Give each team fewer pieces of paper than there are people (make it harder by giving fewer pieces of paper).
  3. Explain that this room is actually shark infested water. The paper is little moveable islands.
  4. They have to get their whole team from one side of the room to the other before the other team.
  5. If anyone steps in the water they have to start again.

Resources

  • Pieces of paper just big enough for two people to stand on
  • You can use chairs instead of paper, but be careful

Move the cups

Useful for

Co-ordination; taking things slowly; talking to one another; lateral thinking.

Method

  1. Place the hula hoops on the ground.
  2. Place three cups in the centre of each hula hoop.
  3. Place one elastic band/string contraption with each hula hoop.
  4. Split the groups into teams of three.
  5. Send each team to one of the hula hoops.
  6. Explain the rules:
    • Their hands can’t go into the hula hoop.
    • They can’t touch the cups.
    • They can only hold one piece of string each.
  7. Explain that they have to lift the three cups out of the hoop and stack them in a pyramid (two next to each other and one balancing on top).

Resources

  • Hula hoops
  • Plastic cups
  • Elastic bands with three pieces of 50cm long string tied to them.

See, run, do

Useful for

Communication; seeing things from others’ perspective; importance of everyone playing their role well.

Method

  1. Split the groups into teams of three.
  2. Get the teams to decide on one of them to be a ‘Seer’, one to be a ‘Runner’ and the other a ‘Doer’.
  3. Send all the ‘Doers’ to one end of the room and tell them each to grab a pen and piece of paper. They cannot move from there.
  4. Send all the ‘Seers’ to the other end of the room. They cannot move from there.
  5. The ‘Runners’ can go anywhere, but they can’t touch the pen or paper and they can’t see the picture.
  6. You are going to show a picture to the ‘Seer’.
  7. They have to get a copy of that picture across the room.
  8. After they’ve had a few minutes get them to stop and compare the picture to your original. Choose the one that’s most like a photocopy of your image. Concentrate on details like size, orientation, neatness, what’s coloured in, etc.
  9. Ask them what went well and what they could have done differently or better.
  10. Get them to stay in the same groups, but change roles.
  11. Repeat and then change roles one last time.
  12. Ask them which role was the hardest and which was most important.

Variation (without the ‘Runners’)

  • Try in pairs, with people sitting back to back – the one has to explain the picture to the other, who can’t see it.
  • In the first round show the picture very briefly.
  • In the second, give the ‘Seer’ the picture to study whilst she explains it.
  • In the third round allow the ‘Seer’ to see and comment on what the ‘Doer’ is drawing, but don’t allow the ‘Doer’ to see the original picture.

Resources

  • Blank paper
  • Pens
  • 3 simple pictures
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Games to promote teamwork, co-ordination, co-operation and concentration

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
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Icebreaker games for school councils

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: CollaborativeCompetitive

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
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Involving a very large school council

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.