Thursday 21st September was our annual Year 7 Team Building Day and the whole year group came off timetable to take part in a range of activities that reflected our school values and were designed to help the cohort build new friendships and learn to work as a team. 

The year group was split into two, with each group spending half the day on the field, working together on a range of challenges that required real teamwork and communication to solve. Luckily, the sun came out and the rain stayed away for the first time in days!

During the second half of the day, the students enjoyed working together on a project to design their own version of a festival poncho. They were given a basic brief and lots or raw materials and directed to come up with their own concept and USPs and create their product. At the end of the session, one member of each group modelled the finished design while another team member talked through their creative process, how the poncho worked and what made it special.

The final session - A Piece of the Puzzle - introduced students to our school values: Curiosity, Ambition and Courage and challenged them in their form groups to find other words to describe these attributes. Once they had agreed the words, they added them to jumbo-sized jigsaw pieces and decorated them. This really helped students to consider our values, why they are important to us as a school community and how they can make sure they uphold these values each day.

The day closed with time spent together in their forms, discussing how they day had gone and what they each had gained from the experience.

Our Year 7 students all really enjoyed their Team Building Day and it definitely created strong foundations for a very successful and united cohort.