Escape Room: Cracking the code at Calderdale College
This week, students at Calderdale College have been solving clues and unlocking the padlocks against the clock with a new Maths and English escape room initiative. Students have been absorbed with puzzles and games, designed to keep our Level 2 and 3 students, who recently re-sat GCSE English and Maths, motivated to continue with their studies, raise aspirations and encourage progression.
The challenge: to work together during a series of puzzles to unlock padlocks inside the giant puzzle boxes, which can take up to an hour long to do. The immersive challenges are designed to encourage team building, time management and communication skills and help highlight the importance of Maths and English skills.
Go Higher West Yorkshire invited community group Project Challenge, students studying functional Math and English, to come and join the skills activities. All teams involved had the chance of winning individual VR headsets, a great incentive to work collaboratively and engage with this real game live experience.
Kirsty Sanderson, GHWY Higher Education Outreach Officer at Calderdale College, said ‘It was great to see such a well-attended project with Maths and English as the core focus for these escape boxes. It was great to bring in Project Challenge and to see these students thrive in an active and challenging task’.
Lorna Butterick from Project Challenge said, “This was a fantastic opportunity to break down barriers and preconceived ideas that our learners think and feel about college.”
University Centre Calderdale College Business students also joined in with the sessions with the aim of hopefully launching their own escape room project in the New Year that will be an extended Go Higher West Yorkshire project. The links to Higher Education responds well to raising aspirations of the level 2/3 students as well as giving our Business students an active project in a relaxed and fun environment.
The company that delivered the Escape Room is http://www.theproblemsolvingcompany.co.uk
Kirsty Sanderson, Calderdale College
