Year 7 and 8 have been participating in TIPS week. TIPS stands for “thinking innovatively and problem solving” (scroll down for photos).
The purpose of this week has been to develop pupils’ vitally important transferable life skills through a number of different activities. Such skills are: effective collaboration, coming up with original ideas, solving problems, persisting even when the activity is challenging and being creative and original in a number of different contexts.
Some students participated in a workshop at the Saatchi gallery, others have worked together to make their own rock song which they then performed, some students made their own clothing, some have made their own boardgame, others participated in a “learning to lead” workshop. Some students constructed a shelter in the architecture workshop that would be suitable for people in a rainforest to live in. By the end of the week, all pupils will have made a short video as part of a team, with the opportunity to win the FHS Oscar.
Student Testimonials and Reflections on Creativity During TIPS Week
“Creativity is having original ideas that allow you to explore different things and connect to others around you. All the activities (Creativity in English, Board Game Making, and the Design Challenge) involved creativity, combined with other things, such as logic and practicality. Some people value creativity because it allows you to be different and it can be entertaining! Creativity is a form of self-expression, and it is viewed in different ways by different people.”
Caley
“Creativity to me, means thinking outside of the box, and having fun and sometimes illogical ideas. Also, as you get older, you may find it harder to be more creative, however it is extremely fun to think of original ideas – usually they will be strange and unrealistic. Finally, it is the use of imagination or original ideas to create something inventive. So far all of my TIPS activities have involved creativeness, as in Market Trading you had to be creative and think about how you could make lots of money with cutting out as many shapes as possible in a couple of minutes. In The Creativity in English workshop, you had to think outside the box as you had to do lots of fun games (e.g. When one one of us told a story and had to suddenly change it to something completely different, even when the other person said ‘I don’t believe you!’ as many times as they liked). This was quite difficult, however it was still fun and creative. My final activity, The Fashion Business, was full of creativity, skill and imagination, as you had to imagine what you wanted your final piece to look like and try and make it, either from scratch or using the instructions given.”
Hannah
