Our week in Oban was brilliant. We spent the week taking RE and music lessons across the years. We had an opportunity to spend an afternoon with a group of special needs students. We did a mixture of drama performance, drama workshop and music for the 6 students and had a really good time. The teacher was really encourage how well the pupils engaged and worked together for the hour and a half we were with them. On the Friday we were involved in an S3 conference on Conflict Resolution (organised by H2O and involving many outside speakers) which involved us performing Abi 6 times! We only had half an hour for each session so didn’t get much of an opportunity to expand on the play but I was really encouraged by some of the comments that the students had written in their evaluation. One said ‘It made me realise how one decision can have such a big effect on people’ and another was about focusing on the decisions that they had to make. Its brilliant to hear such positive comments, when I felt that what we did had had very little impact! The gig on Thursday night was great, about 130 kids came and we had at least 17 responses from young people who wanted to find out more. The week was made extra special by visits from SU Workers Martin (worked with him in Port Glasgow in January 09) and Gordon (the clown(!!!!) we worked with at Hamilton College and Stonehaven in November 08).
On the Tuesday evening we hung out with the youth group at The Well – GFG (Games, Food, God). We all shared our stories, chatted with the kids and had an awesome competition – getting the entire team through a loop of material in under 10secs! The team I was in also had Andy and Joy in it…so the other team had no hope!! We won by a good few seconds! On the Wednesday we headed over to a hostel that many of the young people live in, just hanging out with them and then Andy got out the guitar and we had a sing (Wonderwall being my favourite) and then Ewen taught us the three blind jellyfish song…hilarious first time round, after that it just gets stuck in your head and very annoying!
The guys at H2O are incredible, their endless energy and dedication to the young people is truly inspiring. After a ridiculously busy week they were then off on a weekend away with some of the young people!! Take a second to pray for Ewen and Rachel as they give so much of themselves to building relationships with the kids and sharing Jesus’ love with them.
Some feedback from teachers at Oban High School…
Support Department Teacher:
Hi Ewen,
Just a few words regarding the team’s Wed. afternoon work with the students from the Support Dept. I feel that they adapted their programme to suit the needs of that group and gave them an excellent mix of music, drama and team building. I appreciate that they were probably not used to working with such a small group, nor with such wide ranging abilities, but felt they overcame the challenge perfectly. The fact that we agreed to leave the session open ended, but used all the time available is an indication of how well the group were kept active, engaged and interested. From my point of view, much of the benefit came from having the group work with other people that they are not familiar with, so all in all, a great success – and a thanks for devoting an afternoon to such a small group.
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Head of Performing Arts:
Hi Ewen
This was on my things to do list for this week! All of our guys had a really good time last week. It was great how the check-it-out team were able to work across the year groups and adapt their delivery to suit whatever age/ability was with them at that time.
I really enjoyed the junior workshops and they were able to involve so much into the 50 minute workshop from drama to music to literacy to RE whilst delivering a powerful message. As we all embrace curriculum for excellence it was an excellent example of sharing and experiencing the 4 capacities and it certainly hit them all.
Thanks again for a wonderful week
The Performing Arts Gang
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Department of RME and Philosophy:
Hi Ewen
In a word I thought they were excellent in their presentation and professionalism. Before each lesson I spoke to them and told them what we were covering in class and they pitched it well and at the right level – very impressive. I also thought the message was clear and to the point. Interestingly, at the start of the week the pupils seemed to be suspicious of the group but by Wednesday all of my classes wanted to go see them – even the ones that had already done so. One point I would make is that the lyrics were not too clear – I realize this was down to the venue rather than the performance but I think in future it may be worth projecting the lyrics for the kids to follow them – otherwise they may just be singing baa baa black sheep as no-one has any clear idea of what is being sung.
Would have them back in an instant though!
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Tags: All About Abi, Conflict Resolution, GFG, H2O, Oban, Oban High School, Three Blind Jellyfish