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Background

The summer of 2002 saw the second year of the University of the First Age (UFA) nation-wide Summer School programme sponsored by the New Opportunities Fund. UFA Summer Schools ran in 14 LEAs and EAZs across the country from Norfolk to Cornwall and Cornwall to Newcastle. 3,647 students took part in 85 programmes. An enormous variety of activities took place including:

• Healthy Living issues
• Citizenship issues
• Performing arts
• Environmental issues
• Murder mysteries
• "Ready Steady Cook"
• Overcoming a ship wreck
• Creating art exhibitions for display in local art galleries and museums,

All of the activities were based on the UFA Summer Challenge model which aims to set students a realistic challenge to be completed by the end of the week, by using a range of skills and intellectual attributes, strongly emphasising team work, creativity and problem solving. It also aims to raise student's self-esteem and increase their understanding of their own learning power. Managing their own learning and developing learning to learn skills are integral parts of all UFA learning programmes – whether they be Summer Schools, Easter revision or term-time Out of Hours Learning.

Norfolk Summer Schools Programme

What was planned?

Norfolk had the largest Summer School Programme where 27 programmes were offered, at 22 school and 3 community venues, for 564 students. Four of these programmes were based at one site - Notre Dame School. These reflected the variety of UFA summer schools available.

What was done?

The "Spooky Challenge" was run in conjunction with the Theatre Royal in Norwich. In the old chapel of the school students had to create an exhibition exploring their own ideas of art. This included creating a series of film clips which reflected emotions. They turned a toilet into a giant pinhole camera, and created a fluorescent lighting system which inspired the appearance of the ghost of a nun who it is claimed haunts the school. They also worked on different performances and filming opportunities.

At the same time another group of students were sketching and scribbling furiously as they were trying to meet their Challenge of producing their own comic against a publication deadline.

The third Summer School created an Oasis Tree Trail by tackling environmental issues in the school grounds. They renovated an area for a butterfly garden, learning about soil types and requirements for plants, which would attract the butterflies. They cleared the weeds and planted their chosen plants. During the week they had drawn plans of the grounds, researched different types of butterflies, collected and identified bugs, undertaken some bird watching to identify birds in the garden, and created a nature trail around the area including a quiz to complete on the way. By the end of the week the garden was beautifully laid out and from then on would be maintained by the school grounds man.

The final Summer School at Notre Dame was the Norfolk News Team. This Challenge ran for two weeks with two different groups of students and their Challenge was to write for the local newspaper - the Eastern Daily Press - about all the Challenges talking place in Norfolk. They used their minibus to get around the county to interview tutors and students and take photographs, and then scrambled back to base to meet their daily deadlines.

Since the area covered by Norfolk is so large the teams were not able to visit each area so, in some cases, they used the specifically created internet connection "Norfolk Challenge on Line" (provided by one of their commercial partners – the L J Group). The News Teams were not only able to pass comments on their own Challenge but also on the overall activity in Norfolk. They also produced an eight-page supplement for the Eastern Daily Press.

What has been learnt?

One of the students involved in the "Spooky Challenge" said:

"This has been an informative week. I have enjoyed myself a lot".

Comments from students on the Norfolk News Team Summer School were:

"It's a great Challenge, because I would be stuck at home if I weren't here. It's a really cool thing to do."

"The week has been great fun, and it has also been quite challenging. It has been a good experience and I will not forget it."

"The best bit was getting to meet new people and being able to do something I want to do later in life."

"I've had great fun. I've had a great chance to take and edit pictures. I've got some damn good pictures"

The following student’s comment was about the overall Summer School activity in Norfolk:

"I feel that the week has gone extremely well and all the challenges have been organised brilliantly so that everyone could enjoy the week."

What has been the impact?

At the end of the week tutors were saying:

"productive"

"enjoyable"

"students became more aware of their own strengths"

"children devised their own tasks to meet their product specification"

"students became more confident".

Tutors had valued the opportunity to devise learning experiences relevant to their students. Students, who were deliberately targeted from those most in danger of disaffection, with low self-esteem and those receiving free school meals, were overwhelmingly positive saying: they had enjoyed the learning process; they had fun, and enjoyed working in teams; the challenges were educational; they felt more confident about moving into secondary education; that Summer Schools were "a good place to learn"; and that they could only have been improved by "being two weeks long instead of one".