On Thursday 7th September, Life Sciences UTC welcome back Year 11 students for a brand new school year. With excitement in the air, the students headed to the sports hall for what was no ordinary first day agenda. Limp and lifeless induction sessions were cast aside, as the Year 11’s were instead treated to a dynamic and engaging day-long session from visitors Human Utopia.
Human Utopia are a social enterprise company who create and run inspirational and life-changing courses in schools for students and staff across the UK. Today the focus was on personal development, and what better way to kick start the year for our students?
Steve, Brad and Dale jumped into the session by putting some questions to the room and getting the students to gather their thoughts on how others may influence our behaviour, often without us realising. The session entitled “Who am i?” focused on self-reflection and was based around 5 main outcomes: Hope, Confidence, Happiness, Relationships and Employability.
Throughout the day, the Year 11 cohort broke off into unconventional teams (each student was asked to join a group of peers unfamiliar to them) and were assigned small team building tasks which challenged personal and social barriers. Comfort zones were explored and students learned about the Theory of Change. The final session honed in on the theme of dreams and aspirations and to round off, the room was asked one final question: “What sort of person would you like to be?”
Hosted across three interactive sessions, the Human Utopia team allowed the students to recognise how the choices we make can affect our future. Creating a safe space to engage with their peers allowed the students to be reflective on their personal journeys so far and provided them with some much needed motivation going forward.
Thank you Human Utopia for invigorating our Year 11’s for the year ahead and inspiring them to become and embrace who they are! We can’t wait to see what the future holds for our young people.