Written by Dennis Richardson, Cambridgeshire masterclass organiser
How many children does it take to make a masterclass? Unbelievably, the Cambridgeshire Masterclass group welcomed its three thousandth participant this year, a milestone that couldn’t be ignored and an unmissable opportunity for publicity. So, what to do?
We identified Bradley Denison-Shaw as the student to complete 3000 and Holly-Louise Lawman as number 3001 starting the next era. Both pupils at Hinchingbrooke School, together they helped us celebrate the landmark. To begin with we asked them to meet and interview the speaker at each of their five classes and pose for photographs with them. Our speakers willingly joined in, and although we think Bradley and Holly-Louise were initially a little nervous, they quickly warmed to the task. After the series closed we asked them to write a piece about their experience for our website.
Download Bradley's student report.
Download Holly-Louise's student report.
We are using their write-up as the basis for articles which we will present to the many local newspapers around the County for publication. We are taking advantage of our contacts in schools for this, using their local knowledge and we very much hope that participating schools will include it in their newsletters too.
We have visited Hinchingbrooke with a short slide show presented to management at the school with Bradley and Holly-Louise and the other Hinchingbrooke participants, using material and photographs from this year’s classes and you can be sure the school knows who their stars are now.
Later in the year we plan to visit more of our participating schools to publicise the masterclasses with their Year 7, at around the time that the next school invite is sent out.