Configur Academy - Autumn Term, Weeks 3 and 4

Dear Parents,

Hello, this is Orgesa from Configur Academy, and before I get to the clubs I have some news to share with you.

Our Academy started out of a need of my own, which was to teach my daughter Eliza the skills I strongly believe are needed in life more than anything else that is taught at school. Since then, our clubs have grown a lot faster and a lot bigger than I ever imagined, and for that reason I am on the hunt for the best possible people to work alongside me, so that we can expand into more schools, more areas of London, and online.

I think the best recommendations come from people we know, so I thought I would share it here too. If you know of a great person, somebody you would be happy to have teaching your own child, please do pass my details to them: email: [email protected] and mobile: 07414 962803. Thank you very much.

And now, on to the news from the clubs. 😊

These have been such great sessions. The children have learned 2 very important things. The first is the Sandwich, which is how to build a presentation that has all its layers: the opening, the middle and the closing, and they practised building their own that way through games and challenges, with that shape in their heads. The second is the Hook, the line you use right at the opening to get people hooked, curious to know what is coming next before you have even carried on with the rest.

Next, we will start talking to the children about the end-of-term presentations, where all parents are invited, and I will share the dates with you nearer the time. I will get to know what each of them is interested in and offer a few topics they might like to build theirs on. Now that they know how to write a good presentation, we will be looking at how to deliver an amazing one. 😇

A big announcement first. I am considering changing the date of our December market at Patch, from Sunday 13 December to Saturday 12 December. We have just been approached by Discover Twickenham, who are holding their Christmas events all over Twickenham on Saturday 12 December. They loved the children's market we put on in September as part of A Taste of Twickenham, and they would like our children's Christmas market to be one of their Twickmas events.

The September market was a huge success, and the collaboration had a great deal to do with that, so I think the Christmas market would do just as well with Twickmas around it. I would love to hear what you think before I decide, and I am very happy to talk through any concerns you might have, so please do let me know by Friday 9 October if you can. If all is well, we will go ahead with Saturday 12 December. I am thinking of 12:00 to 3:00 pm, as before, but there is room to move it, because the Twickmas events run from 12:00 to 5:00 pm.

Back in the club, we have been talking about Spending, and through games the children learned the difference between a want and a need when they spend their money. Then this week it was Saving. They were tempted to buy all sorts of things in our Monopoly game, and the ones who resisted found out that their money earns interest when they leave it alone, and that they can spend it on bigger things later on.

This coming week is one I am very excited about. The children will be learning about Giving, as part of our community fund, and a very special guest is visiting our Thursday class to talk about his charity and the difference the money the children give makes to the people it helps. More on this in next week's newsletter. 😊

What a great first session we had on Wednesday at our new club at St Stephen's, with some new friends and some not so new ones. It was lovely to get to know everyone. We started by putting together our teams and choosing a team colour, and then we played some memory and detective spotting games.

At our regular Monday club the children had a great case too, the mystery of the 4-number PIN. They worked it out one number at a time, finding different pieces of evidence and clues along the way, and then used the 4 numbers to open the locked box and find the answer inside. It was so good to see them working well in their teams, and having so much fun, while solving some very challenging maths questions. Somehow maths becomes a lot more fun, and a lot easier, when there is a locked box waiting at the end of it. 😊

I loved our last sessions at The Insiders Club. The children have been putting together all the skills they have learned so far, how to talk to a machine and how to give it instructions, and in our last session we trained one.

They made some drawings and we started training a machine from scratch. On purpose, we fed it some wrong information as well, and the wrong information is exactly what it gave us back. So the children saw for themselves that machines are not humans and they do not think, they only reproduce the information we have given them, which means an answer from a machine is only ever as good as what went into it. They had so much fun finding that out. 😊

Half term and INSET day

Young Founders Market

Check our new website here: https://configuracademy.com/

Thank you so much again for your support. I do not take it lightly. I would love it if you could give me some feedback on the form below. I read every one, and it helps me make these programmes better for our children. I certainly do not take anything personally, so please do complete it. 🙂 It helps me more than you can imagine, and if you could leave a testimonial too I would be extremely grateful: feedback.configuracademy.com

Have a lovely week.That is everything from this week. As always, if you have a question about either programme or if there is anything you would like to talk through, you can reply to this email or message me directly on 07414 962803.

If you have missed any of our previous newsletters, you can catch up on them all here:
https://newsletter.configuracademy.com/

Have a lovely week.

Orgesa
Founder,
Configur Academy
Wesbite: www.configuracademy.com
Instagram @configuracademy
Facebook @configuracademy