Our wonderful Year 8 students recently had an opportunity in their Pastoral Care lesson to challenge themselves to design and construct a structure that would span a designated gap and support a predetermined weight. Sounds easy, right? As the small groups found, maybe not.

Working collaboratively to build a bridge that meets the requirement stipulated requires good communication skills, patience, acceptance, tolerance, and persistence.

Showing determination and a commitment to work through a series of trials and errors was certainly frustrating for some, but with guidance most groups were able to create a structure that at least spanned the gap.

The process was extremely difficult. However, students demonstrated great examples of empathy and support for each other.

Although most of the ‘bridges’ were not able to support the weight, student comments on how they would go about it if they attempted the task again clearly demonstrated a high degree of learning that had occurred.

This semester, the Pastoral Care subject has included various practical activities such as the Water Challenge and Learning and Teaching a New Skill.