DEEP LEARNING DAYS AT TCC

‘These innovative and fantastic days play a key role in our commitment to providing inspirational and outstanding learning experiences.  The events organised offer unique experiences that could not be organised on a ‘normal’ day.  Great credit goes to staff, students and visiting speakers for their valued contribution and we continue to work with them to ensure that future days are even more inspiring, productive and dynamic.’

Paul Potter, Assistant Principal and Deep Learning Day Lead

Deep Learning Days are a permanent fixture on the Thurston Community College’s calendar and have matured from the originally termed Flexi-days, trialled in ‘08/’09.  They are two full days per year during the Autumn and Spring Term where structured lessons are collapsed and replaced with stimulating and fun yet focussed and relevant activities.

The activities are planned to give students’ the chance to put context and reality to their classroom learning.

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Another successful Deep Learning Day was held on 10th March, 2010.

Historically, the Year 9 CSI/STEM activities have been a huge hit with the students and this one was no exception.

Anderson & Penrose students rose to the challenges set and the figures speak for themselves – see below for sample evaluation results:

 Also below is a selection of comments from the students, when asked what they found most valuable about the day:
‘The complexity of solving a crime.  It was a fab day.  Thank you.’
‘The CSI part as it is giving you experience in a possible career option and it was really interesting.  The K-Nex was really fun and got us all working very well as a team.’
‘K-nex – fun, creative and very thought-provoking’
‘I found every single thing very good but the most outstanding was the finger printing’

For Gainsborough & Rendell Year 9 students, their Eco Challenge was also a success with a high percentage of students claiming ‘To be inspired by the day’.  Highlights of the day appeared to be learning the importance of looking after the environment and gaining confidence in public speaking:
‘I think I can now speak confidently in front of people’
‘Standing up and speaking and learning how to present properly’
‘Learning how we are killing the earth’
‘That eco is more important than I thought’

Year 10’s got to take part in an Active Citizenship and Politics Day.  Their brief was to create a political party with leader for ‘elections’ with various political speakers from around the UK.  A total of 74% from a sample taken, agreed they had ‘Learned something they would not have learned from a ‘normal’ day’.  Student comments included:
‘It was really fun and showed how well my form can work together as a team’
‘We worked as a team and we learnt things we wouldn’t learn on a normal day’
‘Working with people in my tutor (was valuable) – I love deep learning day!’

The Maths Slam for Year 11’s was the first of its kind and proved a big hit with students. 80% said they ‘enjoyed learning that day’ and a large proportion of students said they ‘now have a better understanding of how to succeed in the exam’.
When asked to describe what they found most valuable about the day, the reply comments were very positive:
‘I learnt how to work out circle theorems’
‘I learnt about cyclic quadrilaterals’
‘Covered a lot more than what we learn in lessons’
‘I found it more of a revision day on the topics I struggle with so it was helpful all round’
‘Helping us to learn more about maths and what to do and what not to do in the exam’

Finally, a Wellbeing Day had been arranged for the Sixth Form, with an objective to assist and address student health and well-being.  The programme, which the students contributed to, included First Aid, financial health, healthy eating and nutrition on a limited budget, personal safety, yoga, meditation and beating exam stress through reflexology and Indian head massage.  There was also relevant subject specific sessions available for revision and examination technique.

Student feedback was positive:
‘I did silent study all day.  It was very useful as I got a lot of work done’
‘Geography – was good to revise over the topics again.  Geography drop in – got to go over work with teachers one-on-one.  English Language – definitely helped with exam’
‘Drama rehearsals – great opportunity to get some needed work done.  LA Fitness – I really enjoyed this’
‘Finances for Uni – The best of the three I attended, I had no idea about this but now better understand it.  Revision techniques –useful because encouraged use of different techniques’
‘English Language revision – very helpful’

Deep Learning Days are quickly gaining a reputation for innovative days of learning where students are given greater responsibility for their learning and have the opportunity to meet with people from outside the college community.

The next Deep Learning Day will be towards the end of the year - watch this space for further details.