Year 10 & Year 11: Bodies, Bones and Blood
Tuesday 18th July to Saturday 22nd July
The Bodies, Bones & Blood Summer Schoool was for year 10 and 11 students from across the region. It took place over 5 days and was a residential Summer School.
Tuesday 18th July
Students started arriving from 3pm, meeting us at the Students Union to register and drop off their bags! Some of them had had a long coach journey from Leicester and Lincolnshire so were pretty glad of the sandwiches we had on offer on arrival! After we had welcomed everyone and introduced ourselves, students were put into their flat teams and had the opportunity to see their new homes and have a campus tour. Dinner was at the Students Union where we had a yummy BBQ. After dinner we had 'Team Challenges'! Everyone had to take part in all sorts of games, such as getting themselves into order of height and alphabetical order of names! We also had games of Splat outside with Guru Natasha; making faces using edible ingredients downstairs in the union with Guru Fran and sports games with Guru Phil upstairs! After we'd all met some new people and made new friends, everyone went back to the flats to start work on their flat team posters!
Wednesday 19th July
The first activity of the day was a presentation on 'Why are you here' which gave students an overview of what university is and time to test their knowledge on an HE quiz! After this, the University School of Health introduced themselves and what they did in their department. Once the introductions were over, the students were put into groups and had a chance to try all the different subjects on offer during the week. At the end of the day, students had to choose which subject they wanted to do as project work so it was important that they paid attention in the subject taster sessions! The choice was Children's Nursing & Midwifery, Sports & Life Sciences, Occupational Therapy & Adults Nursing and Genetic Testing/Ethics.
After a day of tasters, students came back together in the large lecture hall to find out about the different ways they could progress into healthcare courses. Once this session was finished, the students were ready for some chill out time! They had the chance to play pool in the union, play some basketball with Guru Dave or just chill out on the grass in the beautiful sunshine! Dinner was in the union (ribs, jacket potato or chips - yummy!) followed by an excellent evening workshop! The group had to split into two. One group spent the evening drumming (on many African drums such as djembe, sabar and tama drums) whilst the second group spent the evening working on 'street dance' and performance. It was fantastic! At the end of the evening, the drummers drummed their rhythms whilst the performing group danced at the same time - it was amazing! Everyone gave it 100% and it was a really great sight to see everyone working together as a team.
Thursday 20th July
Thursday was a chance for everyone to get stuck into their project work. The Childrens Nursing group watched a child birth video - a very educational experience! Students then had to discuss what they had seen and work as a group to start developing a presentation. The Sports group learnt about how the body works and the respiration system - combined with practical testing of heart rates and breathing. The Occupational Therapy group were given the chance to experience being in a wheelchair for the day, and had to travel around the campus keeping a record of what was easy/not so easy when in a wheelchair. Some students also had the chance to cook and try to navigate around a kitchen with one hand behind their back, or a blindfold on, to try and get a taste of what it was like to be physically or visually impaired. The Genetic Testing group spent their time looking at the ethics and moral dilemma's of diseases and terminally ill patients - who was right/wrong in the euthanasia issue? After project work, students had the chance to 'Feed the Brain'! They all had some time to learn about healthy eating and to try lots of different fruits and vegetables!
The evening was spent in Laser Zone! A chance for us all to let off a bit of steam! Running around in the dark trying to find your base whilst shooting people with lasers on the way - what fun! After Laser Zone, we had all built up our appetites and had a take-away pizza for our dinner! After an evening spent running around, it didn't take long for us to get everyone to bed and stick to the 11pm lights out rule!
Friday 21st July
This was the last full day of Summer School 9 The morning was spent finishing off the project work and preparing for the next days group presentations. The afternoon was the chance to chill out and work as a team! There were three activities on offer that everyone had to try - team building, basketball coaching and street-dancing! Basketball was exhausting and the students were very tired after their hour of running around playing competitive sports! The street-dancing was a bit more challenging for some of the students - but there were some great attempts at the dance moves and putting rhythm to music! Finally, everyone enjoyed the fun teambuilding activities - putting tents up, doing activities blindfolded and 'walking the plank'! After all that fun, everyone was grateful for some chill out time to prepare for the evening party - a Beach Party!
The Beach Party was great fun. We had a surf simulator machine (which got a lot of use!) and Guru's Adam and Sarah had their very own 'Mocktail Bar'! Students also had to have prepared a Beach Party themed prop for the evening! We had a surf board from Guru Janes flat, a beach scene from Guru Dave and Guru Claire's flats, a shark from Guru Phil's flat, an excellent prop from Guru Stu's flat - a typical sea-side picture with the faces cut out - life size! And a great puppet show from Guru Adam's flat - 'Lost - a Gurus tale'! The party went on until 11pm - until the union kicked us out! A terrific, fun night!
Saturday 22nd July
The first thing we all had to do this morning was to empty the flats and put our bags into the Students Union ready to be collected later that day. The morning was spent doing last minute rehearsals and preparation for the afternoons presentations! After lunch, parents and tutors came into the large lecture hall to see the results of the hard work students had put into their presentations. We had rhymes, drama, music, PowerPoint, acting. all of the final presentations were excellent! A mixture of technology, posters and good old fashioned hard work! Everyone did an excellent job and the tutors thought some of the presentations were of a better standard than the university students presentations!! We ended the week with a Summer School Graduation Ceremony, with certificates presented by Sue Allen - Dean of the School of Arts at the University. All the students also were given a t-shirt and mug as a memento of their time on Summer School!
Sarah and I had a great week on the BBB Summer Schools and the students worked hard and were great fun! Well done to everyone who took part in this very rewarding Summer School.
