It was a pleasure to be involved leading a small group of Year 12 students develop and enhance their team building skills during Enrichment day last week. All our outstanding Sixth Form students showed great engagement and enthusiasm as they discussed reasons why team building was important and the significance of using these skills when working with others academically and in the workplace. The Sixth Form students showed a mature and thoughtful attitude when reflecting on the wider economic and business benefits gained by an ethos of cooperative team working. A series of fun and challenging activities allowed them to discover more about each other, for example two truths and a lie allowed them to know their teammates better and develop their active listening skills. Teams competed to design and fly a paper aeroplane the furthest – the winner achieved an impressive distance of over six meters.

There was much debate and discussion on what to include in an emergency survival kit, with team members having to reach a consensus over very different perceptions of what an emergency survival item might be – some less bothered by hair straighteners than others! A treasure hunt around school allowed students to problem solve and by working together collect evidence to create the longest word symbolised by different objects. Each group came up with very different creative solutions to overcome being stranded on a desert island, with some excellent and entertaining lateral thinking – some of which was very ‘out of the box’! Over all the Year 12 students involved worked excellently together and had great fun. I was very lucky to be leading them and enjoyed their enthusiasm and listening to their ideas excellent ideas.