Introducing An Inspirational School Programme that will help to …..
The Amazing Story ..….
This past summer, Danise Bartlett, Head of Citizenship, was working with a Year 7 English group on William Shakespeare’s much-studied play, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. The day was hot and the students were distracted.
Miss Bartlett invited her students to ‘meet’ William Shakespeare in their classroom through Amazing People audio and video life stories. She nominated a student to step into William’s shoes and the rest of the class interviewed him. The result? Engagement went through the roof. 94% of the students involved said that this exciting way of getting into the play, opened up their understanding of it. 100% said that his life story inspired them.
It is this kind of learning that sits at the core of the Amazing People Schools Programme. And just like the above story, teachers and students tell us over and over again, how the stories of people, make study and learning easier and more engaging. In the above example students gave clear indications that this method helped to improve their understanding of Shakespeare as a person, and thereby, they could relate more closely to his great creations.
Amazing People Worldwide is a global organisation that helps individuals to achieve their full potential. It is home to the world’s largest collection of inspirational stories about amazing people including, Walt Disney, Marie Curie, Thomas Edison, William Shakespeare, Helen Keller, and many others.
Amazing People Worldwide has been working with schools in the UK, US and Australia over the past five years. Our mission is to raise student aspirations across our schools network through amazing people stories and associated cross-curricular learning. The Schools Resource Pack includes:
- A digital ebook and audio library that features hundreds of amazing people stories
- A learning toolkit developed for teachers, by teachers
- A Proactive Thinking Skills Resource, developed by educational psychologist
Dr Charles Margerison
- Educational musical resources
Support for this approach has been overwhelmingly positive. Teachers and students tell us over and over again, how the stories of people make study and learning easier AND more engaging.
Amazing Case Study
A group of Year 9 students at Castle Vale School in the UK were able to see the world through a new pair of eyes, when they came face to face with some of the amazing people who changed our world. Sharing and reliving obstacles that had to be overcome to achieve success, these inspirational stories enabled educators to counteract negative role models for positive ones.
Castle Vale embedded amazing people into the school ethos, with every corridor and display board bursting with inspirational quotes and advice from amazing people throughout history, encouraging students to believe that success is just around the corner.
But, what did the students make of the avatars? They were really keen to give their feedback and to help shape the classroom of the future. Lacey said, ‘the moving face features and accents helped make it more fun and improved my concentration.’ Another student, Kiera, said she had remembered more: ‘I learnt more because you get told by a first person perspective and you saw what Christopher Columbus’ lifestyle was like, I remembered more than reading a book.’ Kayleigh felt, ‘it was intriguing to watch and see images of what Columbus saw.’
Mabon Ruth Jones, who led the class, felt the ‘resources had worked extremely well, students really engaged with the resource, it brought their learning to life more than a standard textbook.’
The programme enables educators to embed amazing people learning resources, stories and content across the school:-
- To raise student aspirations
- To drive engagement in school-taught subjects and topics
- To support programming around inspiration and role models across the whole school
- As a cross-curricular teaching tool
- As a way to raise the school’s profile and an ethos to drive a vision throughout the school around inspiration, motivation and leadership
The Amazing People Schools Programme is supported by a range of printed, digital and teacher developed resources. It can be made bespoke based on objectives or requirements.
If your school is interested in becoming an Amazing People School, please contact firstname.lastname@example.org.