Bridge21 Primary School Programme
Conor, Marcela, Irah, Katie, Paulina and students.
During the last five weeks, over 400 students from 15 schools have taken part in the Bridge21 Primary School Programme. It was a one day programme for each group which included an introduction to the Bridge21 model of teamwork and the chance to pick up some new technical skills. The day began for each group with some games that involved important team-working ideas such as communication and supporting your team-mates. Next, the students were arranged into teams and each team had to choose a team name, (all references to Actimel and Justin Bieber were eventually banned due to over-use!) elect a team leader and agree a set of team rules for themselves.
With the teams established, we moved onto the main project for the day. The projects varied from day to day but some of the highlights included making short movies (lots of horror, very little romance!), dreaming up inventions and ideas for the year 2050 and making tv ads to sell those ideas and researching and presenting “live” news reports from various dates in history.
Paulina, Katie, Irah, Conor, Anthony and Marcela.
The young students were supported by a team of volunteer mentors who were able to provide guidance in terms of planning the project and any technical support that was needed. 16 second-level students, who had all previously taken part in various Bridge21 activities, filled these roles over the five weeks of the programme. A huge amount of credit goes to these students whose enthusiasm and patience made the programme so enjoyable for the primary school teams.
The primary school programme has been running for five years now and is always one on the most enjoyable Bridge21 activities to be involved with. For us, the combination of the energy and creativity brought by the young students along with seeing some of the second level students step up to the role of mentor or leader makes for a brilliant few weeks, and it’s been no different this time around!
Glenn, Shannon, Shauna, Jay and the lads.
