6th Graders transform old ATL skills into new life inspiration

Grade 6 students kicked off their Advisory programme in secondary school this year by researching the people they look up to and how they’ve employed ATL skills to do great things in real life. 

Reporting by Mr Rui

Self-management, thinking, communication, social, and research skills. Lofty targets indeed, but sometimes ones that take a back seat to all the busy subject work students have to do. It’s easy to feel that they are just another thing to add to everyone’s already overflowing plates. So G6 advisors decided to shake things up this year and bring the ATLS to life beyond our everyday academic routines. 

Each student was asked to nominate a role model; someone who inspires them not just with their achievements, but also with their mentality and approach to life. Miss Cindy and Mr Rui gave the example of the iconic boxer, activist and poet Muhammad Ali and students then came up with their own varied list of role models from Cristiano Ronaldo and Galileo to Coco Chanel and Sachin Tendulkar. 
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Over the course of several Advisory sessions, the learners researched how each of their figures used ATL skills in powerful and sometimes not so obvious ways to achieve success in their fields. Elsa considered, for example, how the writer Barbara Dee needed to have effective communication skills to liaise with editors, publishers and the like, whilst singer Olivia Rodrigo (Gabi’s choice of role model) also needed to communicate with bandmates, managers, sound engineers etc. despite being a solo artist. 

The next stage was to turn this research into posters to showcase at a G6 poster gallery, an uplifting event that really got everyone thinking about the common ground among all of these diverse people. 
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“The most rewarding aspect of this mini project for me”, said Mr Rui, “was the way we were able to link people that on the face of it might have seemed completely disconnected in terms of what they do. This worked out for us to consider how these are foundational aptitudes and behaviours that can lead to success and wellbeing in life generally.”

The short video above gives a short glimpse of what the project was about and includes interviews with students commenting on what they learned. 

“Steph Curry was my chosen person,” said Gonçalo. “He got rejected by many schools, but now he’s very successful and he still trains a lot.”
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And the last words go to Ama, who opted for Bethany Hamilton - a surfer who survived a terrible shark attack - and learned that “even though she has great difficulties, she shows us that anything is possible”.

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