Ashton Community Science College took part in the piloting of STAR. Paula Sutcliffe, responsible for CEG and Enterprise in the school, agreed with the Windmills Team that the piloting would take place over a 6 week period, usually used for CEG at Year 9. Two classes of Year 9 students were involved in the piloting; one high ability class and one lower ability class. Each class had an hour STAR session each week for the 6 week period.
The Windmills Team delivered the sessions, with the teachers observing, which was an excellent opportunity for the Windmills Team to test out their ideas with the end user.
As well as testing workshop and delivery ideas, the students also got a draft version of the STAR booklet, STAR Skills Cards and the Lottery Balls Cards and were able to provide feedback on what they thought.
The workshops were a mix of interactive activities that gave the students an opportunity to think about their futures and an opportunity to provide feedback on what they thought of STAR and its resources.
The feedback on STAR was extremely positive, with both students and teachers pleased with what they experienced.
Paula said - "STAR is really good, much better than the Real Game as it's easier to implement and much more discrete and compact".
"As the weeks have gone on I've seen a real change in the students. They're much more confident and willing to talk about themselves and their skills and abilities. There's a culture in this school where set 1 students are reluctant to promote themselves, but I've seen a real shift in this through STAR".