What is a Puzzle Challenge Day?
Welcome to one of the most extraordinary educational experiences your students will ever have!
A Puzzle Challenge Day consists of between three and five programme with up to 60 students in each session. In most cases, the structure of your Puzzle Challenge Day will enable between 180 - 300 of your students to take part. Each student takes part in one of the programmes.
Your students will encounter a variety of challenges, most of which can be solved within a few minutes, but which require collaborative learning skills with a careful strategic planning in order to find a solution. If the temptation to give up starts to appear, the programme teaches students how to persevere, put their own skills to better use as part of a team and overcome difficulties by approaching problems from a different perspective.
The programme lengths are flexible to enable us to fit into your school's timetable. Generally though, each session lasts for between 60 - 90 minutes, spread across the day.
All of the challenges are age and ability appropriate and the programmes are also suitbale, and especially beneficial to students with specific learning difficulties and for Gifted and Talented programmes.
Taking part in a Puzzle Challenge Day Programme will help to develop students'..
- Thinking Skills
- Logical Reasoning Skills
- Team Skills
- Communication Skills
- Abilities to overcome difficulties with school work
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Many schools host a Puzzle Challenge Day...
- As an activity to help develop thinking skills.
- As part of an activity week, maths week or enrichment week
- As a team-building activity that will benefit students of all abilities, including those with specifc learning difficulties
- As a beginning/end of year activity for a class or year group, or for students visiting from other schools
- As an INSET programme for staff
By solving problems and conquering challenges which initially seem too difficult, each student starts to see that they can achieve goals which previously may have seemed too difficult to reach. Therefore, every programme focuses on achievement rather than competition. Each puzzle is age and ability appropriate. Students are genuinely challenged, but they will discover that every puzzle can be solved by using the right strategies and effective teamwork.
At the end of Puzzle Challenge Day programmes, students are asked what they feel they have learned that will help them in the future. Almost always, we hear the same three answers...
"Never give up!"
"That nothing needs to be impossible."
"The importance of working as a team."
These are powerful messages that cover the entire curriculum as well as life outside the classroom.
Suddenly, students realise that it's ok to make the mistakes and that in many respects there is no such thing as a 'wrong' answer. If an answer is not quite right, we can use that to drive us in the right direction towards reaching our goal.
It's learning without a pen and paper and it gives teachers a rare opportunity to take a step back an watch their students in action. Often, it's the students that you least expect to excel, who turn out to be incredible leaders and the inspiration that leads to the groups success.
