School Productions, interschool sports competition, School Ball, Interstate or International Learning Experiences, camps or excursions….the list goes on. They may be just some of the experiences that have been cancelled or postponed for your school.
I am sure that it’s disappointing for you, and especially disappointing for your students.
The ‘rites of passage’ to the Senior Ball for our Year 12’s or the final hurrah for our Grade 6’s on their Interstate Camp has been taken away. They feel ‘robbed’ and like we have done so many times before, we want to fix it. This time, it’s not that easy.
Just because you can’t run the usual activities that value-add to the classroom, it doesn’t mean that you can’t get creative. The challenge is to think of a new opportunity to create a similar experience. Your Production could end up being an online showcase of talent or the three day camp is replaced with three single day excursions. Maybe you combine multiple experiences from the previous year’s activities and make it ‘the best of the best’ for 2020. It could end up being a new camp that fits the expectations and restrictions of our new world.
When you sit down with your team to plan for filling the void, don’t get too focussed on what you can’t do. Get creative and think about what you can do.
How do you design an experience that is different to the classroom and requires your students to call on the skills, the values and behaviours that we often talk about, but sometimes never really get to test? It is an opportunity to create learning through new experiences and then reflect on those experiences. It’s a golden opportunity to find a way to further develop and cultivate a great relationship that will help you throughout the last 6 months of the year.
The real benefits of extra-curricular activities are not necessarily where you go or for how long, the benefits are in the experience. Your students will remember the relationships that are formed and the connections that were made. They will remember you and what you did for them.
If you have a creative idea, I’d love to hear from you and maybe share your wisdom with other schools looking to create a unique extra-curricular experience for their kids.
You have already demonstrated your ability to be creative in the first 6 months of the year, don’t let it stop now!
Warm regards,
