Northants Study Centres are no longer supporting the Diamonds Study Centre.

For further information please contact Val Sudlow, Study Centres Manager on 01604 367150

The third day of the Olympics Holiday Programme took place at Steelbacks, where we worked on more Arts and Crafts, take a look at their post below…

Today the children had an Olympic themed arts day!

We started off with a game of drainpipes before getting them to make some flags/pennants out of coloured foam, foam shapes, feathers and other craft items. They also made Olympic themed key rings!

We had some more games before lunch and even watched some of the cricket being played by the 2nd x11. After lunch we watched some videos of the London 2012 Olympic Park before getting the group to design their very own Olympic Island for the 2020 Olympic bid.

Finally to mark the 1 year countdown we took a picture of them in front of our Olympic 2012 display board.

Feedback from today:

‘I learnt to listen and not rush’

I learnt how to work as a team’

‘That Olympic parks are big’

Best bits were – everything, games, seeing everyone, making things.

Our Summer School Secondment continued at Cobblers Study Centre, working on an Olympic Art and Craft Day, check out their post below….

Today we have been creating Olympic Themed arts and crafts. The youngsters made Olympic Keyrings, Flags and photo frames. In the afternoon the group designed and created their own Olympic Island. They planned to use this island to bid for the Olympic 2020 games.

This week we’ve been working out and about at our other Northants Study Centres.

Day 1 of the Summer Challenge was at Steelbacks Study Centre, take a look at their post below…

Today our children from Daventry arrived to take part in a summer challenge to prepare them for secondary school at Danetre.

We started by getting to make name badges on the Apple macs before taking them on a fact finding tour of the stadium itself!

After lunch they got to do a bit of orienteering around the stadium and even got to see some of the players train for tonight’s game. They had to solve clues to find where the pictures were that they had to collect. Once back at the centre they then matched the Olympic pictures to statements and had to decide which referred to the modern and which referred to the ancient Olympics before sticking them on a poster.

They then had to match names of sports to pictures to see what they knew about the Olympics.Finally, using the information they had gathered during the stadium tour, they made a poster about the stadium on Comic Life.

It certainly was an action packed day!

Some of the best bits of the day according to the children were:

• Seeing George Best’s shirt
• Going round the stadium
• Seeing the players
• Using the laptops
• Orienteering

This week was the final session of our 10 week Computer Club.

Over the weeks the group has worked together on projects such as Comic Life, Interviewing and Stop Motion Animations.  Not only have new skills been learned but new friendships formed, and confidence boosted.

As it was our final week we held a presentation evening, inviting parents and siblings to help celebrate the achievements and commitment of all of our members.  It was a huge turnout with so many family members arriving to show their support that we barely had room left in our centre.

Following the certificate presentations, Callum, Amy and George, three of our members spoke about their time at the club, the new friends that they had made, and the new skills that they had developed (George didn’t even have a script prepared!). A few technical difficulties later (and fixed by Jake and Josh K) a film of photographs, video and animations was shown to round off the evening, appropriately played to “A little help from my friends”.  The group took home their work, with photographs, print outs and a CD containing their animations and interviews.

A great, if somewhat emotional night, was had by all.

Last Friday was the last day of the very successful project with the boys from Abbeyfield School.In the morning they solved Kaleidoscope puzzles and went on the “I am Learning” educational website for the first part of the session before going on the woodland course on their Quad bikes.In the afternoon they returned to the Grendon Study Centre and individually prepared Powerpoint Presentations which they will present to staff back at school this week.These presentations included photographs of their educational and practical activities over the course of the six week project but included text to outline the impact of the course on each of them and the benefits that they will take back into normal school life.
Rob Jones who led the project said “the boys have worked really well,have been a credit to their school and families and have been helped enormously by the assistance of Mr Sandy from the school,who accompanied them.”

This week we did something a little different in Computer Club.

The session started as normal, with some work on invitations to the presentation next week. Using publisher the group designed their own unique invites to send home to parents, and, begrudgingly, to brothers and sisters.

Then it was onto the main event, Wii Brain Training Tournament, Red vs Blues. The teams, headed by Josh A and Josh K were taking part in the brain training relay games, with each member working on their questions and passing over to the next. The blue team dominated to begin with but the reds pulled it back just in time to leave on a pretty even score.

A great, and very competitive time was had by all!

We had another great day with our Abbeyfield students.During the morning session in the Study Centre Rob, with a great deal of assistance from Helena,asked the students to interview one another in order to record their experiences over the past three weeks. They were asked to reflect on the impact of both the educational input at the Study Centre and that of the practical sessions. Helena showed them how to use the MP3 players and how to edit the interviews.We then played them back to the whole group.
In the afternoon they showed a lot of maturity and teamwork by allowing another younger student,who was working with Dorcas, to join them for the practical activiies.They proved themselves to be accomplished archers and they skillfully negotiated the crossing points over the swamp.Rob had been taking groups to Grendon for years and he was staggered that due to their teamwork not one student got wet.

Below is Jake’s film, a tour of the stadium. Shot a few weeks ago as part of the Computer Club Jake has been editing the film at home, and finally, we have the finished result! Take a look at his hard work and computer wizardry….

This week was Robolab week at Grendon!

The session started with some photos of last week, with those who were there discussing what they had done.  Once the laughter and “mickey taking”was done Rob showed them this week’s task, Robolab.

Working on their communication, logic and teamwork skills, they were given 3 challenges, the Conference, Championship and Premiership.  The first challenge targets the buggy’s precision movement, completing one perfect 360 degree turn.  The following challenge asks them to “park”their buggy into the parking space, looking at distance and direction.  The final challenge, the garage park requires all three skills.  Both groups managed to complete all three challenges with some perfect parking!

Click on the pictures below to see their buggies and find out from the makers themselves just why they chose those designs and what they thought of the challenge.

The afternoon sessions this week were Climbing and Abseiling, with all of the boys (and Mr Sandy) pushing themselves further than they thought they could.  A few height phobias were even pushed aside as the competitive edege started to creep in.