The Imagineers travelled to Hazlehead Park to meet with NHS Grampian’s Public Health Board and present their ideas for a healthy, happy and safe Aberdeen.
‘All the adults listened. We rolled the dice and asked questions like ‘do you give children what they need?’ The adults had good answers.’
Imagineer Sean-Paul
As this was our last week with P5b we finished on a high by reading out our praise poems to each other and revisiting Myself as a Learner (MALs).
Tyler discovered he ‘was happy the class knew what he was kind of like’ and Charlotte went from being nervous to happy and thought that the poem was true about her.
Finally, we redid the MALs to see if we felt any different about ourselves as learners than we did before we started the project.
‘I really, really, really liked it because it was fun and we got to do art and learn what does help us learn and what doesn’t. I learnt that sometimes other things don’t help other people. Sometimes I distract other people.’
Eli, Riverbank P5b
‘Yes. I helped someone today because she was upset and let her play with us.’
Elisha, Riverbank P5b
In our final week at Bramble Brae we presented the children with the Praise Poems which they helped to create and revisited Myself as a Learner (MALs).
The Praise Poems were extremely popular amongst the kids with one pupil saying:
‘It was really good because it said everything about me as a learner and some things I have to improve in my learning.’
Adam, Bramble Brae P6
Some of the kids felt a bit nervous before their poem was read out but felt encouraged afterwards.
Because we have reached the end of our project, we redid the MALs to see if any of the children felt that their learning had changed since the start of the project.
‘I have learned you can be a very good imagining learner.’
Katie, Bramble Brae P6
‘I am more helpful now I know about Children’s Parliament so I can help people with their learning. Learning Selfies were good because you know what you achieved and what you are trying to do.’
Marcin, Bramble Brae P6
As we are nearing the end of the project we created Praise Poems for each of the children as a huge THANK YOU for all their effort and hard work and also to serve as a reminder of what they have learnt about themselves not only as a person, but as a learner too.
The poems were presented to each child and read out in front of the class before the children decorated their own poem. Here is Teu’s poem, beautifully decorated:
This was a great opportunity to celebrate everyone’s achievements and reflect back on how far we had come as individuals and as a class.
‘My friend came up with the ideas for my poem and I loved it as it was so positive. It described me as funny and that I am good at making people laugh.’
Jamie
The girls from the Imagineers group talked about what women in their communities need to be healthy, happy and safe. Why? Well, if children are healthy, happy and safe, the adults need to be too. Then Imagineers met the Community, Housing and Infrastructure Committee. The girls played the fortune-teller game with the councillors, designing their own questions.
Miriam asked the councillors ‘how do you make sure all children have enough to eat?’ Demi-Leigh inquired ‘how do you help to make the parks poo-free?’ and Tijana asked ‘how can you make sure children have a say at home and school?’
The boys form the Imagineers group talked about what men in their communities need to be healthy, happy and safe. Why? Well, if children are healthy, happy and safe, the adults need to be too. Then Imagineers met the Education and Children’s Services Committee – quite an occasion. The Imagineers did a grand job representing their vision for the city.
‘We went to an office in Marischal College. We talked to a grown-up from Education Scotland about what we’ve done for the past year. We showed her the Imagining Aberdeen film and she asked us questions. It was a little bit scary but fun and good. Afterwards I had a smoothie!
I am now a vice captain for Balnagask house in my school, which I don’t think would have happened if I wasn’t part of the Children’s Parliament.’
Imagineer Katie
Today at Riverbank we were gathering important information about each member of the class so that at the end of the project we can present each child with their very own Praise Poem! Praise Poems were used by ancient cultures to celebrate great and important people. The idea behind these is to say a big ‘THANK YOU’ to all the children for all their input, ideas and hard work over the last few months and to act as a reminder to them of what they have learnt about themselves, especially as a learner.
We had to think about how nature can reflect our personality. Leon felt he was like a rainbow of jelly beans, happy, colourful and sweet! Sean decided that he was like a monkey because he liked climbing and could be a bit mischievous at times. Quite a few of us felt like we were like the sea but Bartek added more description by saying he was like the waves.
We also had to think back to when we did our treasure maps and remind ourselves of some of the learning treasures we felt we were good at. Encouragingly, many of the class said that they would keep going even if it was hard, therefore showing that they were more resilient than they may have been at the start. Imagination was another key one, as was listening to and understanding others showing that as a class they are sensitive to others and good at showing empathy.
Now that I have collected all the information I will make them into poems which we can read out to each other as a class.
As we are nearing the end of the project we, as facilitators, wanted to give something back to the children for all their input and hard work over the last few months. So we are using the concept of ‘Praise Poems’ which are used in many different cultures to express each learners positive characteristics and learning attributes.
Phase 1 of creating our Praise Poems meant we had to do a bit of investigating to find out what our strengths were and what we were like as a learner.
This was a lot of fun as we had to think of different ways to describe ourselves. Kate felt she was ‘as positive as Miss Mitchell’ and Kyleena discovered she was ‘very good at the Treasure maps we did and felt she was particularly good at keeping going and getting on well with others’.
Cameron found out that he is really good at giving advice and people often come to him for help, and Broghan likened herself to snowflakes as they danced around making pretty patterns and colours!
For Phase 2 we will create poems out of the information gathered as a group and create individual Praise Poems for each child which will then be gifted to them at the end of the project.
This week at Children’s Parliament we have been looking at how our environment effects our learning. We focused on four main areas which were: what makes a healthy school, what makes a happy school, what makes a safe school, and how we can do our best.
Together, in small groups we made mind maps of all the different factors we could could think of and the discussed it as part of a wider group. Here are some of our findings:
One thing we thought of for healthy was the importance of exercise. We had an opportunity to participate in the mile run challenge today and some of us even managed to score some house points! We also thought that having a healthy breakfast and snack could help by giving us energy and get our brains working.
Some things which made us happy included: Fridays, using the computers, play time, spending time with friends and helping each other.
Thinking of things which kept us safe was a bit harder but we decided that the school was secure with the self locking doors, the receptionists who didn’t allow strangers in and having PSAs in the playgroup during break. We also thought about the importance of safety outside of school such as looking both ways before crossing the road.
Finally, we looked at how we could do our best in school. Things such as working hard, listening to the teacher and helping each other were all key points. Other important ideas included: respecting others, not being violent towards anyone and following the rules.
Why don’t you have a think and see if you can come up with some more as we would love to have your input!
