Saturday Masterclasses

The Chester Schools Together partnership launched with a series of Saturday Masterclasses held at King’s, Blacon High School and Bishops’ Bluecoat High School over three consecutive weekends with mixed groups of students from each school, working across the three sites.

The students from King’s, Bishops’ Blue Coat and Blacon High School worked in mix groups in each school, producing some wonderful individual and group work in projects focusing on are: journalism, chemistry, amd design & technology.

The Masterclasses had an overall theme of ‘creativity’ and projects included a collaborative sculpture, a student newspaper and a virtual reality history learning resource.

Aims

The Saturday Masterclasses project aims to bring together students from three secondary schools for a variety of exciting learning experiences and to encourage collaborative working and to challenge students' misconceptions or concerns about working and learning alongside students from different schools and/or socio-economic backgrounds.

Background

Chester Schools Together is a partnership between The King’s School, Blacon High School and Bishops’ Blue Coat High School.

Resources

Teaching resources: Two teachers in each of the three school for three consecutive Saturdays.

Small financial contribution to cover catering.

Impact

More than 40 Year 7 and 8 children attended the three sessions and feedback was overwhelming positive.

Quotes from pupil feedback questionnaires:

"I am very pleased as I feel I produced something amazing."
"It was something I wouldn’t have usually done, so I am proud."
"It was fun meeting new people and seeing things in a different perspective."
"One of the best bits was learning how to use new technology that hasn’t been available to me."

Pupil Involvement

42 Year 7 and 8 pupils from the three schools (two state maintained, one independent).

Frequency

This is an ongoing project and the next series of masterclasses planed for future years.