Raising Attainment; Creative Achievers

Our methodology is simple; we use the ideas and interests of the student, along with the skills and expertise of a Bigfoot facilitator ‘Bigfooter’, to raise the attainment levels of underachieving students; Creative Achievers!

The Boys Will Be Boys programme was developed by Bigfoot’s Facilitator in Residence, Adrian Benn, in collaboration with Jody Hendra of Fairway Primary School.

The main aim of the project is to re-engage disaffected boys and boost self esteem through a programme of engaging and inspiriting workshops using a variety of art forms including Graffiti, Beat Boxing, Rapping and Comic strips.

These art forms were then used to encourage engagement within wider school life, with a focus placed on:

• Decision making
• Behaviour management
• Tactile/kinaesthetic learning
• Peer assessment

Helped by their Bigfoot facilitator, students will discuss social issues, share opinions, and debate about controversial topics using a range of creative games and activities designed to get them thinking and talking.

The aim is that by giving students a forum to voice their thoughts and opinions as journalists and newspaper editors, they will be inspired to become independent learners inside and outside of the classroom.

Students will:

• Identify the purpose of a newspaper
• Explore a variety of stories and themes ordinarily found newspaper
• Discover the different roles needed to produce a diverse and interesting newspaper
• Create a unique joint piece of work to be shared with their teachers and peers.

Operating as weekly after school club, students will explore a chosen book through exercises such as reviews and alternate endings, to re-enactments and staged readings.

The key to the success of the Bigfoot Book Club is drawing the termly book inspiration from the young people themselves; their interests, their passions and their ideas.

• Bigfoot Book Club possible focus suggestions/ideas: “Up for a laugh” – Comedy
• “A (graphic) novel idea” – Comics
• “Puns are bad but poetry is verse” -Poetry
• “I need a hero” – Action genre
• “Keep it classy” – Classical literature