A lesson from the After School Program.

Workshop facilitator Brendan Barnett sets up a comic activity for the Primary After School Program.

Our Program Coordinator Colin Craig, joined in on one of our after-school programs recently and shares his thoughts on the experience.

“I learned a lesson last week. I joined in on Brendan Barnett's After-School session to be an extra set of eyes, see for myself what the program is about, and work on a comic. It was delightful, I love how Brendan not only designed and ran the session but also prepped and designed the space so that attendees experienced prompts from the moment they walked through the door.

I was wearing my Bulbasaur facemask, which drew a bit of attention from a few of the students. It's an awesome mask but that wasn't my lesson; I already knew that. The attendees quickly wanted to talk Pokemon and that, somehow, evolved into drawing dinosaurs. I didn't quite have the skills or nouse to point their creative energy towards the awesome comic activity Brendan had set up for them. But there turned out to be a more powerful force than Pokemon. As a few more attendees arrived and started engaging with the comic activity, more and more of the students joined in. Brendan had designed the exercise to be collaborative and once this twigged even more students jumped on board. It was the first time I'd experienced that "turning point" of attendee numbers, that magic number of students where things start to click. I sat there and watched the focus and energy of the room shift. It was a wonderful lesson for me, to see and learn the effect of group size, to catch up a little with the experience and knowledge of our awesome facilitators.”

Our after-school program runs on Tuesdays (Secondary) and Thursdays (Primary) from 4pm - 5.30pm in Term 2 and 3. You can register to attend here.