What is InspirUs?

InspirUS is a new Gifted and Talented programme run by LRGS for able boys and girls in Years 3 and 4 in primary schools.  It aims to raise aspirations and to encourage able pupils, including those who may not have fully appreciated their academic potential, to explore avenues well beyond the confines of the National Curriculum.  InspirUS intends to stimulate interest and curiosity, in such a way as to inspire the children to recognise how they might achieve the most.

InspirUs - Staff Overview

Mrs Kathryn Page Head of Department and InspirUs Teacher
BA (Hons) Geography, University of Portsmouth , PGCE Southampton University, Advanced Certificate In Education St Martin's College.  Kathryn has taught in primary schools for 8 years and is also a trained and experienced secondary school teacher. She currently also teaches in the Geography Department. She has written GCSE revision guides for the BBC and previously worked in bookshop management.  Her interests are cooking and travel.

Mr Jim Calvert InspirUs Teacher
BSc Environmental Biology, University of Manchester, PGCE St Martin's College.  Jim has taught in primary schools for 2 years and also works as a Technician for the Biology Department.  He is a trained and experienced forester and a qualified tree surgeon.

Lauren Kelsall InspirUs Assistant
Previously a pupil at Lancaster Girls' Grammar School, Lauren plans to do a teacher training qualification

InspirUs - Aims

Our aim is to inspire the children that we teach, to stretch them academically and stimulate them, to give them the skills and confidence that they need to make positive changes to their lives.   We hope that, through the InspirUS programme, more children will be made aware of the opportunities available to them and that they will become better informed about their prospects. 

Inspirus - background

Thanks to the generosity of some former pupils of the school, enough funding was raised to launch the InspirUS initiative, the first of its kind in the country.  Kathryn Page was recruited and in autumn 2009 began visiting primary schools, working with the primary heads and teachers, talking through the benefits of the programme and helping to identify the children best suited for inclusion. 

The first tranche of youngsters was welcomed to the InspirUS classroom in January 2010. Over the following four terms all 53 primary schools in the Lancaster area will be included. The selected children spend one afternoon a week at LRGS coming together for a total of 10 weeks. They experience an exciting, varied and challenging programme of study which is called ‘To infinity and beyond …’ The inclusion of InspirUS 2 means that there are two teaching sessions a day – one from 1pm to 2.30 pm and the other from 4 pm to 5pm.   This allows over 300 primary school children every year to have the opportunity to be involved in this innovative scheme.

In addition to the sessions in school, it is planned that Inspirus will go on the road, with sessions being offered to schools for children from the Foundation Stage, as well as Key Stage 1 & 2.  To maintain contact, children who have had involvement in the programme will eventually be able to access continued learning through the school’s VLE as well as return back to LRGS for one off sessions.

The InspirUS team is led by Kathryn and includes Jim Calvert who teaches the after school InspirUS 2 session, and an assistant who support the learning as well as helping with the transport to and from the primary schools.  They are also helped by an enthusiastic group of Sixth Form volunteers from LRGS.

Inspirus - examples of sessions

One session was called “Water, Water, Everywhere.’’ The children considered different properties of water, played with a model of water molecules and realised that man’s management of the global water supply has resulted in the shortening of our day. A study of the water cycle and a realisation that they themselves are part of it caused an interesting reaction! After finding out about David Hockney, the youngsters produced their own artwork on watery themes in the artist's style whilst listening to Louis Armstrong singing 'What a Wonderful World’. They then did some quick-fire sums, with percentages and fractions, all based on how much water we use in the home, and learned the meaning of a wonderful new word - ubiquitous.

Another week the theme was "Is there anybody out there?!”  To the soundtrack of David Bowie’s Space Oddity, the children had fun imagining how they would communicate with alien species – by code.  They cracked number codes, learned about Braille, discovered the strange language of Pig Latin and found out how to use binary code to reveal hidden messages.  A cheer went up when it was revealed to them that the next session would be “May the Force be With You”, complete with a visit from Darth Vader.

InspirUS aims to really excite the children on the programme and make them enthusiastic about their learning.   The sessions are lively, pacey and great fun.   The children enjoy them and look forward to the next week’s lessons. There is always scope for further investigation and discovery and teaching sessions are designed to leave the children thinking about the topics and hungry to find out more. Extension work is provided after each session which can be completed back in their primary schools or at home. Our hope is that their experiences will, at least, ease their transition from primary school to secondary school and, even better, unlock their potential to make life changing choices.

Initial feedback from pupils, teachers, head teachers and parents has all been extremely positive with increasing demand for the available places.

Primary Links

InspirUs is one part of a wide-ranging programme of links that LRGS has with primary schools in Lancaster.  More details in Community Links.