August 19th, 2010
DAZL has begun a unique partnership with the National Trust. We have set up a new Learning Zone at the beautiful Lanhydrock property near Bodmin. Lanhydrock is the first and only National Trust venue in the country to host a PfS study support learning centre.
The PfS scheme ran at Lanhydrock during the Summer Term. Children from St Petroc’s Primary School and Robartes Junior School, Bodmin, took part in an exciting programme of activities including orienteering, archery, photography and team building. All of these activities are used to develop skills in Numeracy, Literacy and ICT, and to build confidence and develop teamwork.
We are really grateful for the support we received from all the National Trust staff, especially Nick Stokes the Learning Officer, it made it a great experience for both PfS children and staff.
We will be running another programme at Lanhydrock in the Autumn Term.
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August 19th, 2010
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April 21st, 2010
This evening saw 14 very excited youngsters arrive at D.A.Z.L. for the start of an 8 session programme. They were a mixed group of Y5 and Y6 students from two Primary schools. We began with some ‘getting to know you,’ activities using our Raccoon Circle. This was followed by Team Building and Problem Solving activities out in the D.A.Z.L. garden in the early evening sunshine. Snack time took place in our beautiful willow ‘igloo’ which is just bursting into life. The session ended with an introduction to the Mac computers and an Animation session. We have some new Peer Mentors (Y10 students from Callington College) working with us this term and the first two joined us for the session. Jennie and Stephen made a great contribution to the session and will join the group each week. Some very happy children left us at 6:30 and we look forward to seeing them again next week.
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March 25th, 2010
This evening was spent discovering Bodmin Moor in the mist – and by the end of the evening the rain as well! Considering the awful weather, the children were amazing and a pleasure to be with. They soaked up loads of Geography and History about the Moors around the Minions area and also took ownership of the digital cameras. They fed descriptive sentences into the i-Pods, for use back in the Learning Zone for the following week.
Hot Chocolate and biscuits were enjoyed in the relative shelter of the Cheesewring on top of Stowes Hill – unfortunately the views were limited!!! The singing enchanted the local sheep and pony population of the Moor …
Thank you everyone for a lovely evening.
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March 25th, 2010
This evening we had to say final goodbyes to another group of students. We’ve had a great 8 weeks and covered loads of Literacy and Numeracy work as well as enjoying a variety of Outdoor Activities. Computer skills have also really increased with the use of exciting Apple Mac programs like; Comic Life, i-Movie, i Can Animate and Garageband.
The children did a lovely presentation to parents and families and received their certificates plus a bag of “goodies” from the D.A.Z.L. staff.
Well done to everyone for all their hard work and remember – “Attitude is as important as Ability”
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March 25th, 2010
Final sessions are always exciting evenings tinged with a touch of sadness. The children spent some time working on their presentations but also took part in a Speed Stacking challenge outside in the evening sunshine, making good use of our new, waterproof, bean bags.
At 6p.m. we welcomed parents and families into the D.A.Z.L. Learning Zone and showed them an i-Movie all about the time their children had spent with us. The children then did their presentations and were duly rewarded with certificates and a bag of “goodies” from the D.A.Z.L. team.
Well done to everyone, and remember – “You are Valuable. Don’t let anyone make you believe differently.”
Posted in Calstock and Gunnislake | Comments Off
March 23rd, 2010
Poetry and Archery were on the programme for this evening. We used the wonderful outdoor environment to each create a poem, which the children then word processed and everyone also took part in an Archery session which also included a Maths challenge. Archery scores were kept and totals and averages worked out. All the children produced fantastic poems – take a look at the one below, written by Charlie from St Dominic School -
I can see, brownish white leaves and plants,
but inside the trees is a colony of ants.
I can hear, the rustling of leaves and children screaming.
I can feel, the hard trees and the soft grass.
Over there is the river Tamar
and the bright blue sky over Dartmoor.
But here, is the bush and some trees
and underneath me is my shadow.
Well done to everyone for all their hard work this evening.
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March 23rd, 2010
This evening everyone was excited about using the indoor climbing wall at the Outdoor Centre. This was linked to a Maths challenge and some literacy activities. A number of fears were overcome and many of the group reached places on the wall that they never thought they could.
Back in the Learning Zone, after our Hot Chocolate break, the challenge was to produce a Power Point presentation all about climbing – the equipment needed and the emotions felt. The children used the photographs they took during the climbing session to illustrate their work.
Posted in Quethiock | Comments Off
March 9th, 2010
This evening was very much computer based. We were using two programs – i-Can Animate and Garageband. The challenge given to the children is to create a short story using “Bendy Joe” outdoor figures – climbers, kayakers and snow boarders – and animate it using the i-Can Animate software. This was then followed by creating a piece of music, on Garageband, to link with the animated story. I have to say that this is usually one of our “quietest” sessions, as the children are so engrossed in what they are doing and when they are creating the music, they are all wearing headphones…!!! We did however, have a great noisy half an hour outdoors tackling a problem solving challenge … Can’t believe we have our final session with this group coming up on Thursday !
Posted in Calstock and Gunnislake | Comments Off
March 9th, 2010
Tonight was all about the follow-up from our Moorland session. After a Speed Stacking session, we went straight in to writing our Journey poems. These were created from the descriptive sentences fed into the i-Pod when we were on Dartmoor on Monday. Each poem was word processed and decorated. We followed this with a very exciting team game of SMITE out in the fresh air. The second half of the session was spent creating an i-Movie, using the photographs taken out on the Moor. The final stage, is to record the poem onto the i-Movie. The group worked hard this evening and some great pieces of work were achieved – well done.
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