This is a comment from one of the students at New Forest School who has been feeding back on the comics at our final workshop on November 10th. He was responding to a question about the characters in the comics and how much he liked them. Giving a top liking rating of 5 (out of 5), this student could see how the characters might help him throughout the year. The same student said he wanted to give the comics to his younger brother who is currently in Year 6 because he thought the comics would help as his brother ‘is a bit skerd’ [of starting at a new school].
Two groups of students took part in the workshops with 5-6 in each group. The groups worked on activities that were embedded into their Art and English lessons. The Art group focused on creating ‘brain characters’ who could help with their thinking and feelings; the English group read through the comics and provided feedback; then the groups swapped around.
We had some great feedback from the students which provided strong support for the comics, for example:
It is important to us that the young people for, and with, whom the comics have been developed like what they see and that the characters and content feel relevant for them, and so we gladly welcome these comments, be they positive or negative.
Our next steps for the project are to:
- put together the final comic book, including deciding on a title and cover page
- make this available to our ACoRNS networks to promote its use in practice, along with some teaching materials and guidance
- make a pitch to a publisher to continue the work
We are excited to hopefully share the completed comic book with you very soon!
Thanks so much as always to the students and staff at New Forest School, especially to Tracie for planning and organising the workshops, and Amanda for brilliantly facilitating the English activities.