We were at St Giles School in South Croydon for one week, and I do feel it will be a week none of us will forget. When we arrived there I think maybe a few of us were quite anxious and didn’t really know what to expect, I didn’t hold any expectations and was really looking forward to this new experience which we were about to endeavor on. The first day proved quite hard work for all of us and I think we all underestimated the amount of preparation we would need for each lesson, so by the end of the first day we were all completely knackered but overjoyed because the day had been a success and all the students had enjoyed themselves immensely, and so had we. As the week progressed we found ourselves becoming more confident and comfortable with each lesson, and more confident and comfortable with the students too, as were seeing them every day and getting to know them also.

Looking back on the week, I feel I learned a lot about myself and a lot about life in general. The students helped me in being more patient and holding a greater understanding for different situations and circumstances, I feel I have learned some very valuable social and people skills that I didn’t have before, that I have grown greatly as an individual and I that I am able to work within a team really well and I have also learned that I am a lot more able than I thought I am, in the teaching department. I thought I would be more of a friendly face than a teacher but that was proved wrong when we did have to be a bit stricter at times. I had an amazing time at St Gils School and enjoyed every bit of it, it has definitely made me more aware as a person and I wouldn’t change a thing about the week.

My overall experience of St. Giles was extremely positive. Initially it was scary, I didn’t know what to expect. All I knew was that I was teaching children with a variety of disabilities. However as my nerves died my enthusiasm grew. It was rewarding to see such happy and engaged kids. Straight off we outlined that we weren’t teachers and we were there to have fun, and in this we succeeded! Some of them were incredibly creative, sociable and out and out hilarious. The time I spent with the children was good for me as well as them; it really put things into perspective. The attitudes of these children majorly influenced me and I found myself happier and a lot less stressed throughout the week.

Lord of the Flies

So far we have delivered Four workshops, everyone seemed to enjoy them, joking about and being friendly. for the first workshop, we weren't sure what to expect because we didn't have any idea of numbers or abilities, but we stuck it out and got on with making the bunting. Miles did a great job of introducing everyone and getting their names, but i couldn't remember any of them, i ended of reading their names off of their name tags. The lesson went well because everyone enjoyed playing with the fire-themed stencils and the bright paint, making a mess and managing to get the paint on the table even though we laid down news paper. By the end of the lesson we were agitated cause one of the sinks was supposed to be out of order (but it had no sign and one of the supporters used it) and the drain over-flowed with sewage water and the room stank, so we only had half a room for the next class (which had lots of wheelchairs in) while the cleaner moped up the water. In the second lesson i got nervous (Alex was watching us and taking notes), and the children were more difficult to work with, they were all energetic because they had just come in from their break, but they did more work than our first class.
By the third class i think that we were all tired. we decided to scrap our collage plan for the lesson and repeat the printing with stencils workshop because the previous students really seemed to enjoy it. For the fourth workshop, we ran out of fabric so we cut the triangles out of paper instead; then we decided to use our collaging idea, we got the pupils to draw a simple image of a pig, gave them glitter, tissue paper, coloured pencils, sequins and glue to have some fun, but doing the work at the same time. By the end of the lesson the room was a mess, their was glitter and sequins all over the floor and we had to clear the room fast cause the media students needed the room straight after us.

Bringing Lord of the Flies to St. Giles

This year we return to St. Giles with a new working title and some new friends in the form of the BDC and Dance departments. As with previous projects and workshop weeks that we have run with the students here we are working towards a final performance/sharing on the friday of the residential week where all of the performance, video and artwork is created by the St. Giles students under the careful tutelage of the Brit School students who will devise and run all of the workshops.
This year we are bringing a darker feel to the week by exploring the story 'Lord of the Flies' by William Golding. This story has a strong moral and social message which we hope to impart to our audience through the final performance.
Over the last 2 weeks our students have been exploring the history of the school they will be working in, examining and preparing for the range of needs that the students at St. Giles will have and developing engaging, exciting and visually stimulating workshops to teach.
All of this has been developed in close partnership with the other 2 strand groups involved and yesterday the students were able to use each other as guinea pigs to run through their proposed workshops.
Our final showing is on friday the 26th of June at 11am at St. Giles Special School in south croydon.