A novel way of learning creative skills and how to work in a team culminated in a competition to win two days’ work experience on the shop floor of John Lewis in January.

Teams of Year 8 students took part in the competition last week (10^th December), and were briefed by a team from John Lewis on the ingredients for a successful show. The aim was to create a festive window display as a table-top model and on Wednesday 16^th December, the store’s team is back to judge the results.

The students were taking part in a day of activities bringing together their Technology and creative skills. Teamworking, creativity, time management and presentation were also being tested. The day is one of a series of flexible learning days, which take students off their normal timetable for a few hours to bring together different areas of work in team challenges and learning activities.

Mrs Chapple, Deputy Headteacher, said the students were great: “They worked really well in their teams, had lots of good ideas and worked well within the time to produce some brilliant ideas.”

Textiles technology teacher Mrs Raynor said: “We wanted to show students there are a great variety of careers in retail and this competition was a way of bringing the possibilities to life.”

The John Lewis team was organised by Jacqui Owen, Visual Merchandising Section Manager for John Lewis, and she was so impressed with the students’ work that as well as returning to judge the competition, she has offered to come back to the school next year to work with the students on the exciting careers available in retail.