Reflective Time Videos

I created two new Reflective Time videos based on the input from the Survey and the chidren in the School Council. They can be seen in The Gallery.

I deliberately made them different in a variety of ways: one had more words on the screen, one had a moving image in the background, one had natural sounds. They both had children's voices saying a variety of things but I kept the opening, "Close your eyes and think" and the closing, "Have a happy day".

One of the videos was premiered in the first Celebration Assembly after the half term. The response was muted, but many of the adults present commented on how they enjoyed it.

The teachers were asked to use both videos throughout the following week and to talk about them with their classes.

I then interviewed two children from classes in Years 1 to 4. I asked them what they thought about the videos - what they liked, disliked and what they would change. The details of their responses can be found in The Project section. I will be interviewing children from Year 5 and 6 on Friday.

In summary there seems to be a split between KS1 and the Lower KS2: Years 1 and 2 preferred the children's voices without the words on the screen, while Years 3 and 4 preferred the words on the screen and wanted the children's voices removed.

All the year groups like the music, with some of them saying they felt calm and peaceful. Overall, they felt the duration was about right - although a couple of Year 4 boys felt the Forest version was too long. I explained that the Space version was actually shorter - we decided that the moving image helped our focus and made the time seem to go quicker.

We also looked at the original Reflective Time video. Many of the children still liked it and stated that they didn't want to lose it, some of the children said this was because it was familiar and comforting.

It was really interesting to here them talk about the videos with such enthusiasm.

Of the children interviewed: 1 child prefered the Forest version with 8 children preferring the Space version, however 11 children stated that they liked the Original version as well.