CLADA Blogs

Date: Wednesday, April 21, 2010

CLADA meeting in Swansea

2010 follows the usual pattern with members of CLADA meeting for several days of development, creative design, strategy, management, drinking, and as this one is in the Welsh Office, walking on beaches of Gower.

The focus for this meeting is the InterAct 2010 conference to be held in July. The structure and key elements of the event are all in place, but fine tuning and co-operative sparkle are needed.

Other items on the agenda include a seminar, the website re-vamp and work in South Africa.

Posted by john on 04/21 at 08:38 PM :: :: :: :: Permalink

NICE trip to Finland

Pete ran workshops at the European Circus Exchange Conference in London. (N.I.C.E.) He was invited to a conference in Finland and accepted anticipating a summer event....

Northern Finland in winter is an incredible experience! Nine groups from Finland and others from Holland and France were present. Running plenaries in Finnish was a new experience and a wide variety of transferable ideas for "Social Circus" were exchanged - from integrating asylum seekers to tackling drug abuse.

Posted by pete on 04/21 at 08:27 PM :: :: :: :: Permalink

The Challenges of Being a Manager

In its fifth year, this Clada designed programme for senior and middle managers is once again over-subscribed.

Supported by the South Yorkshire EBP, the course covers leadership, management, conflict resolution, communication strategies and action planning. It will take place at the Brinsworth Training Centre, Rotherham.

Posted by john on 04/21 at 08:17 PM :: :: :: :: Permalink

Date: Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Working with NEET students

John has recently designed and delivered a short 'Further Support Programme' for NEET students at the CLADA partnership school in Yorkshire.

Over a period of six weeks, the unplaced young people were offered counselling, advice and a proactive response to need. A dramatic drop in the number of NEET students demonstrated the success of this innovative initiative.

Posted by john on 12/15 at 11:13 PM :: :: :: :: Permalink

Date: Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Challenging Course

As part of the "Playshaper" project Pete ran a 2 day Training the Facilitators course.

Mixing experienced and lively facilitators with "built environment" experts to form cross-professional teams was challenging! Together they will now run seminars and conferences on creating more playable spaces across England.

Posted by pete on 09/22 at 05:00 PM :: :: :: :: Permalink

Independent mentoring up and running..

The first session with the new teachers at Titus Salt established protocols and the agenda for upcoming weeks.

It looks set to become a valuable resource for the NQTs.

Posted by john on 09/22 at 04:32 PM :: :: :: :: Permalink

Date: Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Titus Salt School News

The close partnership between Titus Salt School and John continues. 

John has worked in 'Oasis', a student support area which also houses the internal exclusion facility. Mentoring students is a priority but also research is beginning into the medium term effects of exclusion, the resulting 'academic deficit' and its implications.

Students have been invited to be contributing delegates at this year's InterAct co-operative learning conference in July. They will present a case study about the school's involvement in the school linking project which supports community cohesion. They will then have the opportunity to contribute to a plenary session and attend a variety of workshops on identity and cohesion.

After some pioneering work with Titus Salt NEET students which saw a dramatic reduction in unplaced students during September and October, John has agreed to be part of a bid for a larger initiative in 2010.

John is currently involved with three students in the government funded One to One mentoring scheme.

The last 'Coursework Express' cohort all passed GCSE English, giving the school a 100% success rate. Bravo to us all! Year 10 early entries are next.

Posted by john on 05/06 at 06:43 PM :: :: :: :: Permalink

Longest ever train the trainers!

Cardiff based No Fit State Circus - "The circus everyone wants to run away to" - is investing heavliy in its community workshops.

Keen to build a skilled bank of trainers, it commissioned a comprehensive course to build capacity. Working with tutors from Bristol and Master Practicioners from across the UK a 26 day course was spread over five months. Pete was involved in masterclasses, sessions on teaching and learning, skill swaps and creative design.

New trainers can be seen in the touring show TABU, and community events through South Wales.

Posted by pete on 05/06 at 01:11 PM :: :: :: :: Permalink

Date: Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Identity, diversity and community cohesion

If you are exploring these themes then please contact Alan.

Posted by alan on 11/11 at 02:51 PM :: :: :: :: Permalink

Learning Co-operatively

This chapter has been published in 'Personalised learning - taking choice seriously' availible from Educational Heretics Press or CLADA direct email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (£12 p+p included).

The contribution investigates:

• manifest and latent forms of co-operative behaviour in society
• identity, citizenship and community cohesion and
  
• the power of co-operative values.

It then explores:

• co-operative learning as experiential learning
• co-operative group developmental processes
• the interconnections between values, structure and behaviour and
• application to recent developments in citizenship and enterprise education.

It postulates that 'learning co-operatively is a serious and effective choice'.

Posted by alan on 11/11 at 02:50 PM :: :: :: :: Permalink