Nov 09 - Assembly – but not as we know it
The Royal Alexandra and Albert School was the setting for an extraordinary assembly project this week. As part of the ‘Gifted and Talented’ programme, Year 8 pupils from local schools, gathered in the School Chapel to work on an engineering task to assemble a structure. The day-long task was devised to develop the pupil’s problem-solving, team working and communication skills.The teams were made up of representatives of the various participating schools and they quickly set about planning what they were going to build. By the afternoon, the youngsters had assembled an array of curious looking structures made from basic materials like paper, nuts and bolts. 12 year old Natasha Patel, whose group had built a ‘Tower of Food’ said “It’s nice working with children from other schools”.
The Royal Alexandra and Albert School was awarded “Lead School” status for Gifted and Talented in September this year. This means it has been recognised as a hub for excellence for pupils that have been identified as having particular talents in certain curriculum areas. Results in the last year have been impressive with 19.5% of GCSE grades in 2009 being A or A*. This was a marked increase on the previous year’s figure of 11.2%.
Gifted and Talented Coordinator at the Royal Alexandra and Albert School, Ciara Williams said “Exercises like this are an excellent way of challenging the more able pupils at this and other schools. They have settled well into teams despite not knowing the other team members at the start of the day and the structures they created showed imagination and initiative.”
The schools that attended this event were;
- Royal Alexandra and Albert School
- St Bede’s School
- Reigate School
- The Warwick School
- The Beacon School
- The Priory C of E School
- Rosebury School
- Oakwood School
- Howard of Effingham School
