We were approached by Waterhead Academy to provide videos for the new Year 7 students entering the academy.
It's an exciting but scary prospect moving from your existing school, where you're at the top of the tree, the oldest year group in school, and familiar with the layout, other classmates, and teachers.
Moving to a higher academic school can be a daunting time for any student, compound that with the disruption that home-school has caused in the shadow of several Covid lockdowns.
Forward-thinking Waterhead Academy, required an ice-breaker video from each of the teachers to welcome the new students who were making the move into Year 7 in September 2021
For the majority of the videos, a simple introduction was required by the teachers.
They were asked to present in a light-hearted and enthusiastic manner, this would go a long way to allay the fears of many of the students.
These videos are to be hosted on the school's intranet. This allows only the students to see who their new form tutor was and allowed them to familiarise themselves with other staff members and the subjects being taught.
Some creative department heads, (who have a flair for drama) captured students' imagination by producing attention-grabbing presentations.
Going beyond a simple introduction to devise games and demonstrations that held the interest of their students and promoted their own subjects. These are fun to watch and require the teachers to perform as they would in class.
Because the students would be accessing this content from home. Direct contact wasn't possible.
Engagement with their virtual audience was playful and was very well received by all student viewers.
For example, the English department inspired creative writing by dressing up and acting out a scene. The Maths department created a murder mystery that could only be solved by using maths deduction. Science devised an experiment that could be tried out at home and the P.E department created some physical challenges using toilet rolls.
These are super fun to watch.
More and more Schools, Colleges, and Universities are having to get creative with the way they attract and engage with new students.
Having to think more about how and where young students consume their information led to creating bite-sized videos that communicate and inspire from the devices they use daily.
If you'd like help creating content that will engage your students why not get in touch.