| Hey, That's Life! |
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A few weeks ago saw thirty 6th formers from St Benet Biscop Catholic High School, Bedlington enter a ‘That’s Life’ residential experience based on the Big Brother format.
The aim of the four days was to prepare students for their transition into independent living by participating in a series of challenges, some more gruelling than others, to experience and learn new skills for living away from home.
 The project was organised by the Northumberland Extended Services Catholic Partnership (NCESP) who rented a cul-de-sac of five houses in Micklewood Park holiday village situated within the beautiful grounds of Longhirst Hall. Each house of 7 to 8 students and a ‘house matron’ had their own kitchen and lounge. This gave them the opportunity to experience living with others and sharing household tasks including preparing their own food. An experience in itself as this was the first time away from home for many of the participants.During their stay the house teams had several workshop challenges to accomplish such as ‘Interview skills through drama role play’. They were then interviewed by external personnel and 3 students per house were allocated jobs. The successful three were given perks but there was a further catch in their pay slips which showed either over taxed or underpaid minimum wages. This was a real life situation to encourage students to ensure they are receiving their correct pay by checking payslips as we told them at the end of the weekend they could have had more in their budget had they noticed! Other challenges to help manage money were exercises in gaining loans, the meanings of financial acronyms such as APR’s and ‘The Price is Right’. This last one looked at well-known labels and supermarket’s own with a blind tasting competition to see if they could really tell the difference – many did not! One participant stated ‘I know that we all got something out of it, for me it was the budgeting and how cheaper own brands are not actually that bad!’
 On Saturday morning we had a 3 hour ‘That’s Life’ challenge to win a TV for the evening for one house team. This challenge included assembling flat packs, wiring plugs, ironing rather nasty complicated shirts, scraping burnt porridge off the bottom of pans, making pancakes and preparing a routine for the evening’s entertainment, ‘St Benet Biscop has talent!’. The students embraced this last challenge very creatively and we had a wonderful evening of entertaining talent creating an amazing atmosphere that we believe will live on in memories for a very long time.On Sunday the students took part in a Safari dinner party where each successive course is prepared and eaten at the residence of a different host and therefore experiencing at being both host and a guest. It also gave them an opportunity to get dressed up and sit with all of their peers at least once during the course of the evening. The students looked at the whole dining experience by cleaning their houses for their guests (enter Aggie and Kim), choosing their ingredients, ordering on-line within a budget, preparing food and being host. In addition to this they had a workshop to learn how to dress a table using paper including Origami and paper napkin folding – all the tables looked fantastic – even the pepper pots were dressed! Con Todd, Deputy Head and helper on Sunday afternoon said; “To describe it in one word; harmony. The teamwork and the willing to just be there when you needed a hand – there were no cross words. It’s been a pleasure to be here. I think it’s a vital experience and we should be doing this every year.”
 Of course no reality show would be the same if we didn’t have the ‘Diary Room’ and the ‘Tree of Temptation’. Set up by SBB Media (a student/ex-student media enterprise), participants were able to enter a hub that was wired up to the production office next door. Jonny Hall, of SBB Media said “It was great being the ‘voice of Big Brother’. You could tell that everybody who came to talk to you was having the time of their lives.”“What we did was set up a ‘Big Brother’ for them, so that in the Diary Room all they were talking to was a camera. We would be sat next door and would be able to talk to them through speakers and headsets.”
“It gave them the real experience. They really got stuck into every challenge that we threw at them, so much so that we had queues outside the diary room every day!”
Lyn Horton, Extended Services Co-ordinator said ‘It was a superb project! Not only are we thrilled that every one of the students gave 200% in every challenge but also how many staff from St Benet Biscop, including the head, deputy head and Chair of Governors gave up their free time to help this project be the success is was.’
 Nick Bowen, Head of St Benet Biscop said, "For students in the Sixth Form it is only a short time before they find themselves fending for themselves either at university or in the world of work. The 'That's Life' experience gives these young people the opportunity to develop skills they will all need for independent living, whilst at the same time develops the skills needed to co-operate and collaborate with their peers. I was very impressed with the positive manner in which they all took to the tasks. I was particularly impressed with the quality of the cooking and the way in which they were able to deliver a quality meal on a tight budget."We would also like to thank other external agencies and individuals such as Jobcentre Plus, Mel Arbon, Milly’s School of Dance, Lucy Rule, Rock and Roam, Gary Horton, Benet Enterprises, Sophie Coulthard and Jenny Urquart . We would especially like to thank Longhirst Hall and their staff who were extremely helpful and co-operative.  Although we did have many tasks, the most remembered will the ‘Chicken Challenge’ which was a flashmob concept. When the whistle blew the whole team had to don their silly hats, run to the Den and sing ‘Agadoo’. This was hilarious as the whistle blew at all times during the day even at 7.30am in the morning! The prizes? A whole cooked chicken, breakfast cooked for them and a hamper of toilet roll, salt, garlic etc. Some of the students now want to break out into song in the middle of train stations when they hear a whistle!This has been such a success that Facebook was jumping for days after the event with positive remarks from the young people. Glen Lewis said, "This was an absolutely fantastic weekend, I'm so glad I went! Had some seriously good laughs. That’s Life was fantastic - strengthening old bonds, forming new ones, great team spirit and great times! Just don't ever whistle at me again.” John Paul Hofilena said, "I had the best half term ever since I stepped foot in England. I want to do it again and I miss the whistle already!” Allen Patterson, “What a class weekend! Shame it's over, but hey, That's Life!"
 Head Boy, David Mayne summed up the entire project in his email, ‘I just wanted to send an e-mail thanking you again for a FANTASTIC weekend. I have heard nothing but excellent things, you should see the comments on Facebook, everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The entire weekend was perfection personified and I want you to know just how much it is appreciated the amount of hard work that went into the weekend, but I'm sure that you'll agree that it was well worth it. I'm sure that I have never laughed so much in my whole life, and it was great to get to know everyone, I am just so very pleased at just how much everyone got along, I thought that was excellent. Top marks for creativity, all ideas were fabulous, and I can honestly say that I would not change a thing. Here's hoping that you can repeat it next year too, as I know that everyone wants another one! Everyone has already become friends too- one big happy family! Thanks again!”Due to this abundance of fantastic feedback from everyone, not only has St Benet Biscop decided to make it an annual event but NCESP, in partnership with Longhirst Hall are going to package ‘That’s Life’ and offer it to other 6th form schools and colleges. If you are interested and would like more information on this, please contact Lyn Horton on 01670 822795 or email hortonl@ncesp.org.uk
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