We have just had a visit from the Prison Me? No Way! Team.  The team brought a group of Category D prisoners who are determined that others do not make the poor choices they made.  The focus of the day was gangs and County Lines.  The story of the young reformed prisoners explained how the people who recruited them for gangs were very friendly until they tried to refuse to leave the gang.  There were some interesting and thoughtful questions from the learners so that they are able to face the world and be able to negotiate difficult relationships.

Our Coritani leaders visited the Explorer Dome to delve into the curious world of light. We split white light into the rainbow spectrum of colours and experimented with light refracting glasses. The learners played with shadows and created creatures with their hands. Our illuminating experts explained how light reaches our planet from the sun and how eclipses work. The learners enjoyed this immersive experience and recalled facts from their science lessons to ask and answer questions. 

Students took some amazing photographs of different Sea Life, including sharks, octopus, jellyfish and sea anemone. After lunch upstairs students were given the opportunity to look the the specialist collection of exoskeletons held by The Deep of rare and protected under conservation laws.

Students were able to photograph and even hold these items which included turtle shells, dead coral and exoskeletons.

In January, we collapsed the timetable to experience Empathy week at Coritani.

Our senior learners played wheelchair basketball at The Pods with the Steelers Wheelers.

Humber class attended a poetry workshop with an artist, Rose, before exploring the park. Learners respectfully explored some of the sculptures and were encouraged to think of words and phrases to describe each one. They collated their words and created a fabulous piece of collective poetry about the sculptures.  The highlight of the day was when we managed to squeeze all of the learners and their staff inside one of the sculptures before safely exploring hidden pathways through the trees. 

Year 10 learners had the opportunity to visit the 20-21 visual arts centre to visit the ‘Swords into Ploughshares: Knives into Jewels’ exhibition and experience being makers of sculptural art. The artworks exhibited aims to examine the nationwide problem of knife crime and invited jewellery and metal artists to respond to the issue, by repurposing knives obtained mainly through the West Midlands Police knife surrender scheme. Our learners engaged in a workshop and were able to assemble their pieces by riveting, snipping, sawing, filing and soldering together metal pieces to create their own unique art, inspired by the various artists’ work they had seen in the gallery.