Schools take part in a Taskmaster challenge
UWTSD was delighted to take part in “School Tasking” which aims to bring the joy of the popular Channel 4 TV show, Taskmaster, to children in schools.
This exciting outreach project enables young people to learn about interesting aspects of the law through fun and interactive tasks set in the style of Taskmaster. School Tasking is the brainchild of Warwick’s Dr Ali Struthers, a Law Associate Professor and rolled out in 2023-2024 to 30 universities across the UK and fully embraced by the UWTSD widening access team and academics from the Blue Light Academy.
Sam Bowen, UWTSD’s Widening Access Manager said:
“The project aims to help young people develop teamwork and creative thinking skills and it is hoped it will also encourage them to think about future possibilities of attending higher education and aligned perfectly with the Reaching Wider aims and ambitions that the widening access team deliver.
Activities are presented to the children as ‘Tasks’ in short video clips recorded by TV show presenter Alex Horne. The academic delivery team were Laura Knight, Sadie France and third year student Caitlin Harries who were supported by student ambassadors and the widening access team”.
Team challenges saw pupils from Grange Primary, Awel y Môr, Blaen y Maes, Portmead and Rhydyfro primary schools complete set prize tasks which were independently and anonymously marked by a group of pupils at Blaen y Maes who had not competed. They announced the overall winning team as ‘The Sandfield Seagulls’ from Awel y Môr to be the UWTSD champions. This team went to the regional final hosted by Bristol University at the end of April to compete in the West Regional Final for a position to go forward and represent the region at the Final in Warwick. ‘The Sandfields Seagulls’ pupils Rocco, Lucas, Thomas, Noah and Lilly-Mae did themselves proud winning rounds linked to creativity and design placing third overall. Pupils from the team said:
“We enjoyed Taskmaster because we could work as a team. Some of the tasks were quite easy which gave us confidence to attempt some of the other more challenging ones. We were glad to have some support if we needed it. The adults gave us hints and tips so we could try and improve what we had done. We would love to do it again.”
Kyle Winter Deputy Head at Awel Y Môr Primary offered a huge thank you to the Widening Access team at UWTSD and all involved saying:
“The Taskmaster experience was a fantastic event for our pupils. Through the varied, exciting tasks they could really focus on skills such as collaborating, critical thinking, creativity and organisation. It was wonderfully prepared and planned out ensuring every child had input and could showcase their abilities as well as having fun. The children got to experience working with university staff and students who were supportive and enhanced the experience for the children.”
Laura Knight, lecturer within UWTSD’s Blue Light Academy, offered her reflections on collaborating on the project:
“Working with the children to promote legal education was inspiring in so many ways. Their creativity and ability to apply lateral thinking to legal concepts was truly remarkable at times and they often took ‘thinking outside of the box’ to a whole new level. The children demonstrated an infectious enthusiasm to learn which made the experience extremely rewarding. In addition, the project allowed for new relationships to be built with our local community, something I hope will continue to be nurtured through future engagement.”
Sam Bowen concluded:
“UWTSD would like to thank and congratulate University of Bristol, we were very grateful for their hospitality at the West Regional Final and are rooting for their winning team going forward to represent our region at the finals in June”.
Further Information
Eleri Beynon
Head of Corporate Communications and PR
Corporate Communications and PR
Email: e.beynon@uwtsd.ac.uk
Phone: 07968 249335