Our second team of roving reporters at RGS Prep developed their skills as journalists as part of Inspire Day. Here they report on some of the many activities and experiences enjoyed by pupils at RGS Prep.
Anonymous AI by Cameron, Year 4
For Inspire Day at RGS Prep, pupils enjoyed an engaging experience about AI. In this activity, everyone played a game where they looked at a photo and tried to write a description of the image. AI would draw an image based on these descriptions, and the closest match to the original images would ‘win’.
This game was highly interesting, and inspired the boys to consider AI as a job. “A hard but fun game!” said one pupil when asked about their experience.
This was one of many games, activities and talks during the immersive activity. The enthusiasm, enjoyment and energy were humongous!
Another cool task was where an AI programme would learn to recognise a person from lots of different photos, it was hilarious watching the algorithm incorrectly identifying the person! According to another boy, it was “intriguing learning about AI” from what I saw and the snippets I heard from the pupils, I wanted to stay longer!
Animation Antics by Petre, Year 6
On 11 June, RGS Prep stepped aside from the usual curriculum to experience Inspire Day: a day filled with activities based on what we might aspire to be some day! One of these activities was a stop-motion session about how to create a mini-movie made of tons of individual pictures! I visited this activity when the boys had already been hard at work creating their own movie. Chocolate Films came in and helped the boys with their movies and now they are making brilliant creations of all different genres. Malek A. said, ‘It’s really fun to work with other people and see how a movie is built.’ They were taught that the average stop-motion film is about 400 single pics!
This activity was included in the Inspire line-up as it helps a pupil to consider if they might want to become a director or work for an animation business; anything down the route of movie-making. Perhaps they might want to work for Chocolate Films themselves!
This activity also helped with our current focus on collaboration: one of our school values as the 20 boys were split into 5 groups and worked together to create their movies.
Powerful Paralympic Powerlifter by Tom, Year 6
On the 11 June, the pupils at RGS Prep enjoyed a day away from their normal timetable to take part in Inspire Day, a day the boys get involved in different activities that could inspire the boys for their futures. One of these activities included doing exercises and games in the Mezzanine with an inspirational Paralympic Powerlifter: Liam McGarry.
This man has faced over 15 surgeries in his leg, and a spinal injury that put him in a hospital bed for over five months.
During this session boys took part in quizzes and games and got to see some of the awe-inspiring training and recovery activities that Liam has done to be the outstanding man he is now: coming second and third in two Commonwealth Games, fourth in the Paralympic Games in Paris and second in one World Championship, not to mention his British record bench press: 232kg!
Hector L. said “I found Liam really fun and inspirational because he has a very heart-warming story and has tried incredibly hard and I also enjoyed all of the activities.” This shows that all of the boys were inspired to be like Liam one day: a nearly impossible challenge.
For a man that had lost all of his leg strength to becoming a record-breaking Paralympian through dedication and hard work, that is a miracle.
Creepy Crawlies and Amazing Animals! By Daniel, Harry and Keiron, Year 4
Today, as part of Inspire Day, Year 2 learnt about Creepy Crawlies and Amazing Animals as the title suggests! The aim of the activity was to hold animals and learn interesting facts about them. The first animal the instructor brought out was the hissing cockroach with a length of 6 centimetres. Some of the boys said that ‘the animal was scary and slimy’.
The next animal he brought out was an eight-centimetre-long stick insect that the boys put on their arms. They said ‘it was itchy and squishy’.
The pupils where buzzing with excitement as the instructor brought out a tarantula which scuttled across the floor and towards us! Did you know: Tarantulas have no teeth but two fangs!
After that, the instructor brought out a toad called Terry who looks like a water balloon because he gets water through his behind and stores it for later. He does this because he lives in South Africa and it almost never rains there!
I think year 2 had a wonderful experience!
Speedy Sprinting by Tanush, Year 5
I watched a session where 20 boys were involved in an activity about sprinting. During this session boys tried to improve their running technique and speed. Joseph, Year 5 said “It was inspiring to be taught by the knowledge and experience of Aidan Syers”. Aiden is a top athlete and sports coach. He is very social and was getting to know everyone giving them a lot of encouragement. There was special advice for each individual based on what saw about their running style and he really said what he meant, in a positive way, which really helped the boys improve their sprinting technique.