Our first ever college-wide Drop Everything, Speak and Listen

English and maths are an important everyday skill - whether you're measuring out a show jumping arena, or assembling flowers in the fibonacci series, or calculating the height and width of trees, or making sure iron is hot enough to melt in the forge, or measuring the acid and sugar in grapes to make wine.

Speaking and listening helps us express opinions, make relevant, constructive contributions, learn not to interrupt, take turns, and communicate ideas. Additionally, knowing how to communicate effectively and decipher information is essential skill employers look for. We've all grown used to communicating online, texting and sending messages - think back to the last time you had a good discussion about a topic.

With that in mind, we recently launched our first ever DEaSaL (Drop Everything and Speak and Listen) - a college-wide literacy and numeracy event for students and staff to get involved and discuss a topic with their peers, such as 'do we need zoos?' or 'World Cup social issues' or 'Farmers and food prices' with the aim of being encouraged to express their opinions, and listen to and respect others' viewpoints.

Liz Clift, maths lecturer, said;

The DEeSal event was really lovely. Our topic was 'do we need zoos?'. The students all got involved, and some of the quieter ones were making really great contributions, which were well thought through and relevant. They were polite and respectful to each other and used phases such as 'in my opinion' etc when making an argument. We split into two groups for the 'for' and 'against' activity, and they completed this task well and both sides came up with 3 really good points for discussion. A couple of the students commented that they enjoyed it and it was something different.

If you'd like to try DEaSaL - here are the resources our fantastic English & maths department have put together: https://www.thinglink.com/card/1653550029987643394