By utilising Pupil Equity Fund (PEF) money, Ardeer Primary School, North Ayrshire, were able to employ a teacher to work with an identified group of children one afternoon a week. JASS provided accreditation, structure, as well as a formal way of acknowledging their wider achievements.
For their award the children participated in the following activities:
Adventure
Team building games in the school playground.
Den building exercises with the Ranger Service at the local Country Park.
Me and My World
Beech clean up and then the group took the plastic to the local recycling plant and had a tour of the plant.
Interviewed the school’s Minister, they then made a pot of soup and took it to the Church community lunch.
Get Active, Stay Active
The daily mile or fit 15.
My Interests
This was done in school, because with the exception of only one child, the group do not attend out of school clubs or activities. They wanted to learn to cook and bake. So after menu planning they cooked a delicious three course lunch and all of their families were invited into the school. The children took great pleasure in serving the food that they had made. (The family members were extremely surprised with how well the children had cooked.)
To support and evidence the activities the children produced the following evidence, which they logged in their folders.
“My interests – the children designed a menu and invitation for the lunch. They took photographs of themselves with their guests. They have recipes in their folders too.
Me and My World – we have notes of the interview with the Reverend. Photographs of the beach clean-up and tour of the recycling plant. We intend to present our findings to the whole school assembly and the children will have a copy of the PowerPoint slides in their folders.
Get active stay active – they have a record of their distance run with timings also” Class Teacher.
I asked the Class Teacher, “By participating in JASS, did you notice an increase in enjoyment and confidence?” She replied “There was A HUGE increase in the children’s self-confidence. The children were chosen for JASS because we felt they were needing to develop their self-confidence. Having the support of family members at their lunch and receiving a round of applause from their guests was priceless. For one child who is experiencing disruption in their family life it has given me the opportunity to develop a closer relationship with them in a fun and relaxed atmosphere. The other children are engaging really well and are genuinely excited to be part of the group. Working towards the certificate and the badge is a great incentive and we will be awarding these at the end of term prize giving which parents are invited too, again to encourage parental support and to add to the importance of the event.”
“Was there anything else that you liked about JASS?” “The children really liked the certificates and badges to work toward. The well set out folder impressed and encouraged the children, because they felt it looked “important. We also liked how we could download resources from the website and having the flexibility to choose activities that we thought would work best for the children in our setting.”
“This has been a very worthwhile project. The children have been very engaged and I’ve seen an improvement in their self-esteem as they see themselves achieve things they initially thought they couldn’t do. Having the folders with all the documentation that goes along with it and their certificates and lapel badges adds prestige to the programme. This is the first time we have participated in the programme but we are already thinking about how we could repeat it next session and roll it out across the whole school.”
I had the pleasure of visiting the school and talking to the children. All of the children were buzzing with excitement and were clearly very proud of their achievements. One child commented that he was “really proud of himself. The way I helped other people!” It was an absolute delight to share in their pleasure (and the lovely cake that they baked for me).
