Always remember:
BE Kind, BE Fair, BE Honest, BE True
and all these things will come back to you
Anon
OUR SCHOOLS INITIATIVE
The founders of CONNECT have a passion for many things in life - and among them, sitting high on the list - is assisting the progression and development of young people.
So it is then, that under the umbrella of the CONNECT franchise - launched in Tetbury as our flagship platform, we are excited to bring together the passions we hold most dear to us.
We bring together communication at different levels and forms, to share interesting stories and insights into areas of common interest - spotlighting news, both local and from around the world - and providing a platform to encourage the development and contribution of Young Writers.
We are delighted to launch this Schools Initiative which we believe will deliver positive and lasting benefits to all those students who participate.
We are pleased to summarise below what the Schools Initiative is about and how it can help encourage the development of Young Writers.
And for Young Writers, we set a low age bar.
We are eager for seniors in primary schools to be involved as well as students in senior schools.
A brief outline...
It's an opportunity for students to be:
Writers and Journalists
Readers and Researchers
Presenters and Broadcasters
on a real-world community platform
This Project is:
Student led
Skills focused
Confidence building
Real-world experience giving
What will students do?:
Write fiction - short stories - and poetry
Or as citizen journalists...
Investigate and research news stories
Write news stories from their own perspective
Write editorial features on subjects of interest Conduct interviews with their peers and others
either face-2-face or remotely
Benefits for students include:
Confidence building through communication
Development of complementary skills
investigative and analytical
communicating and interviewing
literacy and planning - and much more!
Giving evidence of skills and competencies
Team working leading to professional outputs
Experience of real-world publication of work
A strong PR story for students - and schools
The role of CONNECT in the Project:
CONNECT will provide support:
By assisting the student group
in organising and selecting content
By connecting students with
spokespeople and other commentators
By coaching the student group
in creating high quality published content
CONNECT is proud to support
Music - Drama and Dance in schools
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
ENGLISH
Descriptive writing, narrative writing, and writing to express a clear, reasoned and engaging viewpoint.
HISTORY
Real-world connection with local history, providing opportunities to research and interview historians, older citizens and commentators.
SCIENCE
Taking a subject of interest and explaining it to the layman through the translation of scientific terminology and principles into everyday common language.
MEDIA STUDIES
Application of all learned skills in a real-world setting. It brings together a mix of learned abilities - in design, layout, the written word and communication generally - through the analysis of potential content and how best to deliver that content to the wider world.
CITIZENSHIP
Research and interrogation of evidence, the debate and evaluation of viewpoints, and the presentation of reasoned arguments.
These elements we feel will have increasing value over the coming years helping us to navigate a successful path to a sustainable future.
ADDITIONALLY
We have highlighted the main and obvious curriculum subjects to place a tick against. We are though very aware that the positive effects of the Schools Initiative may go much wider than we can imagine right now. The mid-term results - in the form of feedback from students and teachers alike - we are certain - will be interesting.
