Week Three

Day's Activity	Related PLUS Materials
11. Rehearsal Planning 12. Filming 13. Filming 14. Editing / Video Diary 15. Editing / Video Diary	Drama / Story Telling Drama / VA / Digital Music Drama / VA Digital Music / Designing Our World / Literature / Story Telling

Monday: Melton - John Cheetham

After days of confusion, information on the reading levels and basic skills of the Learners was finally made available to the Arts workers.

Daniel and John worked with D and Stig to set-up and act in a pub scene. Noel was still unwilling to participate in any Drama work so did a reading assessment that remained incomplete from the previous week. Natalie brought in a computer and some sound effects CDs to do some editing and Stig and Noel worked with her on this. Later Stig also did a reading assessment. D continued her IRP reading. Crispy had to leave the project to go on a family holiday.

Tuesday: Melton - Mark Frisby

The taxis dropped the Learners off early and they all took-off down to the shops, with the exception of Stig who had arrived and was talking to Mark. When the others returned they lied, pretending the taxi had only just arrived. Despite discussing it, they refused to acknowledge that they can't be allowed to go off unsupervised as the workers are directly responsible for them.

Mark took the group "on location" around town. At the church, most of the Learners took part responsibly although Noel quickly got bored setting-up shots and refused to cooperate, and Fil was very uncooperative and would not participate at all. Karen organised for him to go home on the pretence of being ill. A final jokey scene was filmed in the park with D (while Stig and Noel played football) as it was apparent the Learners were "bored" of filming and acting.

The day was a little tiring as D and Noel disappeared at lunch, mainly to make the point that, "we came back, what's the problem?" Stig climbed out of a first floor window onto an unsafe roof and cited a similar excuse. Ironically, a treat had just been arranged for the Friday for working well.

Wednesday: Melton / Hell - Mark Frisby

Since Noel's arrival, everyone (well nearly everyone) had noted the gradual worsening of his and Stig's behaviour. This was the day this really came to a head. Stig, Noel and Fil disappeared for a while, claiming to have just gone to the sports hall. Everyone was on a final warning on this issue and Noel and Stig in particular had been warned of the consequences. Stig kicked-off in a big way - he refused to be excluded from the group and was upset that Noel would also be in trouble. He refused to cooperate or leave the room and was very abusive. Mark was particularly upset by some racial comments.

Something was salvaged of the day by doing some genera filming and getting everyone to join in by reviewing the project in storyboard fashion. The Learners settled enough to join in with some video editing or drawing whilst taking it in turns to go with Mark and record a Big Brother Diary Room style interview.

Thursday: Melton - Kieran Walsh

After the previous day there was a determination to get the best out of everybody. Daniel worked with D to finish her IRP reading, for which she was awarded a WHSmith voucher. D had decided to continue on to the Animation Project - not surprising since Noel was already signed up. She had been doing much work in her book (see Results: An ILP Success Story) and showed an interest in making a portfolio of work for college applications. She made an ILP (Independent learning Plan) to do during the Animation Project. Meanwhile, Noel and Fil worked with Kieran on editing the Drama footage.

Stig worked alone with Catherine on some drawing. He became distracted after Karen asked to take over his supervision. He then decided to join Kieran, Noel and Fil editing, also disrupting that activity. Everyone helped to edit the "Big Brother" footage and later worked with Daniel to draw. Fil was uncooperative and needed coaxing to rejoin the activities.

Friday: Melton / Twin Lakes - Kieran Walsh

Catherine and Daniel had worked to organise a fun day out for the whole group but only Stig, Fil and D attended. A spanner was thrown in the works as it seemed there wasn't a consent form for Stig which was needed to take his off-site. He was disappointed and worried that this was a covert punishment for his, at times, rubbish behaviour. However, after much mucking about it became apparent the necessary form was in Karen's paperwork and everyone set out for a day at Twin Lakes.

Seeing the "surly kids" from the first day, now running around like loons with no regard for self consciousness, was great. It became very apparent that, despite often being tired from late nights out and often surviving on a diet of crisps, tea and coke, given the freedom to just have fun, the Learners had a lot to get out of their systems.