WGS SHiNE Together
Withington’s SHiNE Together Saturday morning education courses were run for the 17th year during the Spring term. We welcomed 65 boys and girls in Years 5 and 6 from 20 Greater Manchester maintained-primary schools to attend classes free of charge in one of five subject areas.
Background
Sessions were offered in a variety of subjects and delivered by WGS teachers and making use of the specialist facilities in school. The sessions were also supported by enthusiastic volunteers from year 11 and year 12 who came into school on Saturday mornings with welcoming smiles for the visiting primary pupils.
In the carousel of Maker’s Masterclass (Art, Design Technology and Food Technology), pupils made their own pizzas to take home – which were delicious according to much of the feedback! They also learnt about the importance of healthy, nutritional eating. In Design Technology, they worked with circuits to produce "moving monsters". Another huge hit were the keyrings which students designed and made using shrinking plastic. Two relaxing sessions were spent in the art room with pupils painting beautiful floral patterns on to their own silk fans.
Computing has always been a popular subject choice at SHiNE Together and that continued this year with the school computer suite full of the sound of excited pupils tapping away on keyboards. The children created games using Scratch – an educational platform which allows pupils to begin to learn to code in a very visual way creating games, animations and interactive stories. They were proud of what they learnt during the sessions and one pupil explained how they felt their skills using Scratch we now "much more advanced".
Creative writing has always been an important part of SHiNE Together and this year the sessions were expanded to become Creative Minds. As well as crafting their own colour poems using symbolism and onomatopoeia, pupils had 2 sessions of yoga and mindfulness. Working in the mind and body studio, pupils relaxed with breathing exercises and learnt techniques to manage their feelings. One pupil explained how much she enjoyed writing her colour poem and ‘learnt much more about working out the connotations of words’.
New for this year was Take to the Stage – a course combining elements of drama and music. Pupils enjoyed getting to know each other through drama games and using body movement to explore emotions. They even learnt how to stage fight, but no-one came to any harm and a lot of fun was had by all!
Finally, those with an interest in Science put on their lab coats and carried out a variety of experiments including a heart dissection; the extraction of DNA; and ‘bubbles and fizz’, as well as witnessing the wonders of chromatography appearing right before their eyes. The pupils thoroughly enjoyed the practical work and described the experiments as "amazing" one pupil explained how she was fascinated to learn that "strawberries have their own DNA".
Impact
As ever, both pupils and parents were extremely enthusiastic about the SHiNE Together programme and feedback from parents demonstrated this. One parent explained: "My daughter looked forward to Creative Minds every week and couldn’t wait to tell me everything she had learned when she left. Her confidence has grown massively, and she is so much more comfortable talking about her feelings and strategies to deal with them all if she is finding them tricky."
The WGS volunteers explained why they enjoyed helping at SHiNE Together, with one student commenting ‘I enjoyed meeting lots of children and helping them, not only with the activities, but to come out of their shells.’ We are very grateful to our students for giving their time on a Saturday morning and we celebrated their contribution to the programme with a breaktime "tea and biscuits".
Pupil Involvement
As well as being a great opportunity for the primary students who attended the sessions, a record number of students from year 11 and 12 volunteered to help. 48 WGS students volunteered across the five Saturday mornings, and many asked to do additional dates after their first one as they enjoyed it so much.
