Cardfields Year 11 Study Skills Residential 2nd - 3rd March 2012

The trip turned out to be a great success

A carefully selected group of 41students on the C/D borderline in either English, Maths or both were taken on a weekend to do targeted revision and revisit some of those crucial study skills needed in preparation for the upcoming exams.

However, this was not the only reason for the residential. It was an opportunity for staff and students to have some of those essential informal conversations that can often make the difference in class and exams. We were also expecting them to have some fun.

The 4 sessions organised by the Maths and English departments were exceptional. Students were focused, engaged and produced some stunning work.  Teachers were impressed by students approach to the weekend and felt that all students left Cardfields in a really positive frame of mind. The message from staff was to link all the work done at Cardfields to what we do in school.

As I said, we expected people to have some fun and they did. The Friday evening started with dinner followed by a camp fire where everyone sat around relaxing, talking, eating popcorn and telling some ghost stories. Once the fire had died down it was time to do battle. The group retired to the games room where staff took students on at table tennis and snooker.

Justyna and George had an absolute nightmare in the table tennis as did the maths department in both events. The English department decided it would be better for them to be spectators (a wise decision Ms Wilkinson and Ms Davies!) The most successful pairing of the evening proved to be Mr Stein & Mr Lye who dominated the snooker table. As far as we know they are still unbeaten. The following morning some team building activities were put on by the Cardfields staff. These included Tug of war, five a side football, the crash test and the memory challenge.

It is important to note that over the weekend we had 11 members of staff who gave up their weekend to join these students at Cardfields Centre.

Massive thanks to Mrs Smith, Mr Lye, Mr O’Shea, Ms Wilkinson, Ms C.Davies, Mr Hall, Mr Sanderson , Ms Basi,             Ms Woods, Ms Sagan for their support and hard work.

Mr B. Stein

Year 11 Learning Manager