The Facts4life primary resource and project has now been launched in Gloucestershire. On 13th November a training day was held for interested schools at Gloucester North Fire Station.
The day kicked off with Hugh van’t Hoff explaining the key concepts behind the project and his vision for how this would impact on children. Teachers were then given the opportunity to explore the resource, creating their own characters and illnesses in the same way that the children will when they use the resource. They also had the chance to play the Facts4Life game which went down really well (in fact, some didn’t want to stop!)
After lunch and a few energising activities there was a session we titled ‘Guts and Gore’ in which Hugh dissected a pig’s heart and lungs to demonstrate some of the medical science behind certain illnesses. He has also made a video which participating schools can use with their children for the same purpose.
The day ended with some discussion about next steps and we were heartened to see how many schools were willing to take part in the pilot in the spring of 2015 and engage in the evaluation by UWE.
Leading Teachers from the Gloucestershire Healthy Living and Learning team who had developed the resource were there to add their own perspectives. Teachers who had tested the materials described how the resource had been received positively by their pupils and how the draft evaluation had shown a real impact on their attitudes and understanding.
Overall, a very successful launch to the primary resource and we are already planning further training for 2015!