The Gadget Show took place in 2009/10 at Kings Oak Primary Learning Centre as part of the Creative Partnerships Change programme.
Enquiry Question
What is the impact of risk taking on the staff’s confidence in delivering a creative curriculum and on personal, learning and thinking skills in children?
Programme Theme
The school wanted to investigate risk-taking and its effects via the delivery of a creative curriculum, whilst including literacy and numeracy in the project.
Digital media company ‘Fowler and Sumner’ worked in partnership with the year 3 and 4 team. Creative activities were designed encouraging the children to think differently and devise different topic ideas. These were scored according to level of interest/risk and from this ‘The Gadget Show’ theme emerged.
Children formed their own companies and were made responsible for their own success. They had to work as a team to allocate roles, devise a name, logo and catchphrase for the company and design their gadgets. Products also had to be marketed, with podcasts, TV adverts, t-shirts, business cards and one-minute lift pitches.
‘Thunks’ (questions with no right or wrong answer – Ian Gilbert) were introduced in class to get the children thinking more creatively and seeing things in a different light, these were even used at the beginning of staff meetings to stimulate discussion.
The project culminated in a Gadget Show at the school; each company had their own stand to pitch to parents, members of the community and governors. The guests were given a fictional currency to invest in the company they thought had the best product and pitch.
In 2010/11 the school will be working with all staff to develop the approach across the whole teaching staff.
Focus Group
Years 3 and 4
Key Outcomes
• A more creative approach to lesson planning and delivery.
• Increased pupil confidence and motivation.
Teacher Comments
• It was good to be out of our comfort zones altogether; by that I mean the teachers, teaching assistants, creative practitioners and the children. It was a learning curve that we all went through together and we all learnt a lot from each other. I learnt that that sometimes the children have a better idea than you and that you don’t always have the answers.
• I have taken risks my delivering sessions in ways I would usually be unsure about.
• I am now aware of techniques I can use to encourage pupil thinking
• Facilitating a lesson can be as powerful as teaching a lesson.
• Children are approaching tasks with increasing confidence even when they don’t know what the answer or outcome is.
• Children are more confident in sharing their ideas with the class.
• The children learnt to value each other’s comments and realise that is wasn’t just the teacher that they were learning from.
• The children’s attitude to learning has changed dramatically, particularly that of our less engaged children.
• The less academically able children discovered that they could participate more easily.
