Buzz Does Community: Delivering an interactive session at Coppull Parish Church School
Making a difference in local schools is a core part of our Buzz Does Community strategy, and we’re always looking for ways to inspire young minds.
Last week, Izzy and I had the pleasure of visiting the pupils at Coppull Parish Church School to celebrate National Careers Week.
To prepare for our visit, I worked with the head teacher, the Year 4 teacher and the Year 5 teacher to plan a valuable and engaging session for their learners that tied in our professional expertise with their school curriculum.
To kickstart the day, we were delighted to join the whole school assembly and their interactive ‘Who Am I Game?’ (essentially Guess Who but played with a live audience of 200 energetic children).
From illustrators to authors, therapists to teachers, the children came up with an impressive range of job roles based on our clues.
We introduced our jobs, the skills required to do them, and the subjects you have to work hard at in school to achieve them.
After the assembly, we headed off to our classes – Year 5 for me and Year 4 for Izzy – to deliver an interactive workshop on persuasive writing (an essential skill for marketing and a topic covered in the school curriculum).
To get their brains ticking and literacy cogs turning, we challenged the pupils to a mix of listening, reading and writing activities. These included:
- Listening carefully to a commercial voiceover to spot persuasive writing techniques.
- Analysing real examples of holiday advertisements and identifying rhetorical questions, imperative verbs, alliterations and other techniques.
- Planning the front cover of a Paris holiday brochure using the techniques they’d learned.
The pupils were incredibly enthusiastic and inquisitive throughout the session. They shared their ideas with their peers, listened attentively to our copywriting suggestions, and created some fantastic pieces of persuasive writing.
‘Picturesque Paris’ and ‘Perfect Paris’ were just some of the alliterative headers the children came up with to hook their readers, alongside their persuasively written opening paragraphs.
At the end of the session, the class teacher asked if any of the pupils would consider a career in copywriting, and I was delighted to see lots of hands shoot up. The same enthusiasm was seen in Year 4, with many of the children asking lots of questions about marketing, what Izzy enjoys about her role, and how they could get into similar jobs in the future.
“Both classes were full of praise for the workshops and the tasks they had been set. In my lunchtime club, I chatted with a group of Year 5 girls, who really enjoyed preparing their brochures.”
In the afternoon following our session, Year 5 used the writing techniques we covered to create a persuasive brochure for their class project. They created some brilliant brochures packed with lots of persuasive devices (see photos below).
“It was such a great session which the children and I both enjoyed. To have a professional come into class and show the children how the skills taught in school are used in the real world was great. We always try to link our classroom learning to real-life skills but to hear it from someone else always has a greater impact on the children. Thank you so much for spending the time to plan alongside me too, as this made our learning so much more meaningful.”
Visiting Coppull Parish Church School was a highly rewarding and nostalgic experience for both me and Izzy, allowing us to step back in time to when we first discovered the world of persuasive writing.
“Going into Coppull Parish Church School to deliver an interactive workshop was a fantastic experience! The pupils were all very engaged, receptive, and excited to hear about marketing, and they enjoyed taking part in the activities we put together for them. Plus, it was a fab opportunity to let the children know about careers in marketing and hopefully inspire the next generation of young marketers!”
If you’re a business or organisation wanting to make a difference in schools and give back to your local community, volunteer to run a session in a school. One inspirational session is all it takes to open children up to the endless career options available to them.
We can’t wait to continue inspiring children and young people with interactive workshops!