Class 4 win top prize in the Op Bang challenge
When we heard about the Competition we discussed how it suited our School Values of Kindess and Community. We have always had a strong link with our neighbours who live in the bungalows close to school, so we decided to try and develop something that would help them through the Halloween period. We discussed how some elderly residents would be anxious about Halloween as they may have unwanted visitors knocking on their door ‘Trick or Treating’. We showed lots of empathy and understood that unwanted trick or treaters could indeed be dangerous, as the elderly residents could be unsteady on their feet so lots of journeys back and forth to the front door could be troublesome.
We decided we would create double sided posters - that could indicate if Trick or Treaters were welcome or not. We discussed how they needed to be clear - so they could be read from a distance and also how they needed to be polite so no one took offence. Every pupil designed their own posters using a combination of hand drawn pictures and ones downloaded from the internet. We then enlarged them to A3 to make them nice and big and laminated them back to back. We then realised that just posting these through the doors of the residents might be a little confusing so we decided to draft a letter explaining why they were receiving the posters.
Once the letters and the posters were all ready we headed off around the estate and posted them through the doors. We were then thrilled to see a couple of days later, the posters up on display in the bungalows. After half term a number of the class went for a walk around the estate to glean some feedback from the residents. The feedback was brilliant and made us feel so proud of ourselves. The residents were full of praise for the idea and said that they had kept the posters so they could use them ‘every year’!
We sent off our logbook of what we had done to the Op Bang Challenge and patiently waited for the results.
After a few days Mr Griffith received an email and read it out to us… WE HAD WON A CASH PRIZE! So that meant we were in the top 3 of all the schools. We couldn’t believe it! Mr Griffith explained that the Op Bang Challenge organisers would be visiting school with our cheque later in the term.
On Monday 19th December the Op Bang Challenge organisers along with members of the local Fire Station visited school to present us with our cheque and to our amazement WE HAD WON 1ST PRIZE! £750! Amazing. We were amazed and thrilled!
We plan to use some of the money to repeat the project next year - but on a bigger scale… maybe even Wales wide! We will also put some of the money towards improving our allotment area and also to subsidise our trip to Bardsey island this year.