In schools children come from all different backgrounds and circumstances and in this became very real to me during the task. Every group being given different resources wasn’t immediately noticeable to me but after presenting our ideas, for something to make for a first year student, I realised that my group had a lot less to work with. The other groups had different coloured paper and the group I was in only had one white sheet of paper. There was one other group who had similar resources to us and they came up with a similar idea to us. Whereas the groups with more equipment had very creative and ambitious ideas.

I felt a bit disheartened after hearing everyone’s ideas but the group I was in still completed the task and presented our final product. Our mark out of 10 was the lowest in the class and the group that had the most got the highest. I felt like that wasn’t fair as we didn’t’ have the same opportunities.

It became clear to me how some children might feel in a situation where, for example, they are given projects to complete at home but don’t have the same equipment as other children or their parents can’t/won’t help them. This is something that teachers need to be mindful of because if the children come into school and get less praise than someone who has a lot of colour and has had a lot of help on their project, it will be demotivating. It needs to be recognised if they have done the best they can with what they’ve got.