Reflecting on a year of Life Lab

As our Life Lab closes for the summer we wanted to reflect on the amazing work our students and teachers have done during the school year. We set out with four themes of learning for our students; homework support, sport, art and skills building. Our Life Lab was specifically structured to give our students a well-rounded and impactful programme that would engage them back into learning and develop a range of locomotor and cognitive skills, as well as supporting their general wellbeing.  

Many of our students are involved with our Life Lab because they’ve disengaged with learning, we wanted to change that by creating a space for them to feel a sense of belonging. As part of our artistic offering we took a deep dive into understanding behaviours, emotions and mental wellbeing all through structured art therapy led by experts. Even our teachers took on a unique course to better their understanding and management of student emotions and behavioural issues.  

We had our first cinematography production, “The Killer’s Time”, scripted and filmed by our Life Lab students. The course gave our students an opportunity to try out a new creative field that hadn’t before been done at the school, and as our cinematography teacher put it, leaving them with “skills which will be invaluable in every aspect of our kids’s life”.  

We created a new English language programme for our younger students (6-9 year olds) that infused technology into the classroom and exposed our students to different cultures and locations around the world.  

We’ve done so much this school year and we can’t wait to start back again in September!