Year 8 pupils at Kingbury Green Academy have been working together to create an ideal world for the future.
The year group at the Calne school was taken out of their normal lessons for a day and teams were challenged to create a utopian community. Teams were given free rein on how they would structure and build their communities, with the only mandatory requirements being that they needed to include housing, employment opportunities and entertainment in order to keep residents happy.
Pupils were also tasked to work out how much it would cost to live in this utopia and create a 3D scale model of their world, including all of the buildings that they had decided to include. They then needed to present their utopia to their fellow classmates. Underpinning the day were the skills that form the basis of all learning at Kingsbury Green Academy, including leadership, teamwork, creativity and speaking and listening
One team that took part was Jai, Madison, Harrison and Jack. Their utopia included a school, a hospital, a police station and a shop.
Jai explained, “Our utopia would be home to 1,000 utopians and we decided to make it cheap to live here so that everyone would be able to survive and keep up with the costs of food and clothes.”
Jack added, “We wanted to design it to be the best it could be and include different aspects like a school and a hospital. The hospital is definitely the best building we designed due to its shape and engineering, we also included a flag and a helipad.
“I really enjoyed the whole day, especially working in my team to be creative and solve the problems. We’re really proud of what we have all done.”
Off-timetable days are an integral part of the approach at Kingsbury Green Academy as they give pupils the chance to apply their skills in different situations and so consolidate their classroom learning. Jason Tudor, Principal, said, “All of our teaching is geared to instil a range of skills to our pupils, which will hold them in good stead for their careers and entire future after they leave Kingsbury Green Academy.
“The skills of listening, speaking, problem solving, creativity, staying positive, aiming high, leadership and teamwork are ones that everyone uses in everyday life and days off-timetable like these give us the opportunity for pupils to learn how to apply these skills in different ways.
“Each year group has days like these scheduled across the year and pupils gain so much out of them, which help to prepare them for success for years to come.”
Kingsbury Green Academy is part of the Ascend Learning Trust. For more information, visit www.kingsburygreenacademy.com.