NEWS: Positively MAD makes a Positive Impact on young people in Barnsley

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Positively MAD makes a Positive Impact on young people in Barnsley

Year 11 students at schools in South Yorkshire were treated to a series of workshops and careers exhibitions at the Barnsley Metrodome as part of the Ambition Barnsley roadshow. The aim of the event was to
• inform students of the learning pathways available to them at 14-19
• raise awareness of careers requiring good GCSE grades in English and Maths
• raise student aspirations.

The event was split into two sessions with up to 300 students attending each session. There were a number of workshops taking place as well as an exhibition made up of colleges and training providers from around South Yorkshire. Each student took part in 4 workshop events throughout the day, which included a compulsory option to look around the exhibitions and engage with the providers.

The following workshops took place: engineering, information technology, creativity and the media, options at 16, higher education, revision techniques, business, hospitality and catering, construction, sport, and motivation.
Students who attended the event were able to explore their career options by using high-tech touch-screen kiosks, attending ‘hands-on’ taster activities and by talking to staff at colleges throughout the day.

Positively MAD was there too, providing a motivational workshop run by Sander de Groot, who also provided the opening speech for each session.  Sander emphasised the importance of accepting change as an inevitable part of growth, and highlighted the necessity of positive thinking regarding goal setting and aspiration. His workshop on goal-setting got students to access their right brains as a means to motivate the subconscious to achieve more than what was originally thought possible.

Alan David Pritchard ran a workshop on critical reading skills, showing students how to use the Number Rhyme Memory System to store and recall over 40 facts as part of a useful mnemonic used to prepare for writing and reading GCSE English papers.
Both Positively MAD workshops were so popular that some students attended them twice, reporting that they were “fun”, “imaginative” and “quite mental!”
“Positively MAD has definitely made an impact,” said Lisa Higgins, one of the event organisers. “You have shown students how to have fun whilst learning and shown them how to set and reach attainable goals.”
Many of the head teachers that were there also had high praise for the Positively MAD workshops, and showed an interest in getting Positively MAD to come into their schools to show other students what they had been doing.
We made such an impression that we have been invited back for another day at the Ambition Barnsley Roadshow, which will take place next month at the same venue, but this time with an audience of Year 10 pupils.