News

At the start of the summer break, the second phase of the building project at Stepping Stones school, commenced. The second phase of the building project comprises of a second mezzanine floor to be constructed in the main section of the church. This will enable us to better utilise the available space by having additional classroom work space on both levels. One of the classroom spaces will be a specialist music room which we hope to extend to a music studio with digital recording equipment for DVD and film production.

Our project manager, Dave, albeit a little camera shy, is already doing a fantastic job.

(click to see larger image)

The main hall before work commences. Sadly the organ at the back had to go.		Six holes were dug beneath the church floor and this is where the steelwork will be anchored.
Dave is about to fill the skip with the another barrow of excavated soil.		The holes were hard to dig, concrete breakers were needed to get through the stoney layer.
The parquet floor was protected with sheets of chipboard. The holes have now been dug and we await the cement mixer .		The cement mixing lorry arrived, together with computer controlled mixer.
Here you can see the suspended support bracket ready to connect to the steelwork. Cement will hold this in place.		The computer on the lorry allowed us to choose exactly what mix we wanted, and created it immediately
Several barrows of cement were mixed and brought into the church.		After 4 days of allowing the cement to harden, the steelwork was erected.
These steel components were enormously heavily, needing three strong men to lift each end.		Each piece of the steelwork is bolted together using BIG bolts.
The steelwork is now set in place and almost complete.		Wooden floor joists have been cut and secured to the steel frame.
A chop saw and bench makes light work of cutting through 9" deep by 2" wide floor joists.		The floor boards are then laid across the joists, with sound proofing material between and screwed down.
Looking down from the Mezzanine floor.		Large spanners and a torque wrench are used to tighten the main bolts that hold the steels. Each piece of steel on the front balcony holds 8 bolts per connection.
Next weeks plan is to complete all the flooring upstairs, start to infill the sides, lay some of the floor blocks and start on the downstairs classroom walls.

From our webcam

Our webcam is proving interesting, see the moment when the concrete mixer arrives.		This was the second skip we had, filled with excavated soil from the holes.
The steelwork is delivered into the garden of Stepping Stones		Come back soon or check the webcam to see more developments as they happen.

Today we returned to the 3 Peaks Outdoor Pursuits centre.

Despite the soaring temperatures, we enjoyed four activities. We completed a mini zip line, much shorter and not as high at the big one, but allowed us all to have a go. We then spent the rest of the day in a large field, shooting paint balls at a target range, with ducks, buckets and targets. This was followed by archery and quad biking.

The photographs from Day 2 pretty much tells the story.

  

For those who might have missed them, photographs from Day 1.

As the the end of term nears, pupils from Stepping Stones, together with friends and other family members will be enjoying two days of activities at the 3 Peaks Outdoor Pursuits centre in Farnham.

Already, the pupils have achieved:

• team building challenges, mental agility challenges
• night line: blind-folded, using only the rope and a buddy to be guided along a set course
• low ropes
• high ropes and trapeze
• zip line

Staff members, Sandy Seagrove and Jonathan Furness together with the 3 Peaks centre staff, Ray and Steve made sure the day was safe and enjoyed by everyone.

The photographs from Day 1 have already been put online.

Tuesday 25th July 2006, Day 1

The pupils now look forward to day 2, where they will be firing some arrows in archery, riding Quad bikes, and paint balling (though not at each other!)

Yesterday evening, I stumbled across a new development using Apple's iChatAV software that allows multi-way video conferencing to take place using a laptop computer, where previously, it required a fast G5 Desktop computer to initiate the conference.

For a year or so, Apple have engineered the iChat software, which comes free with all Apple Mac computers, to allow multi-way dialog between several users in remote sites. iChat facilitates up to 9 people in an audio conference and up to 4 people in a video conference.

I just so happened to be video iChatting Amy last night, when I noticed another pupil, Dan, online. I tried inviting Dan to a video chat at the same time. Interestingly enough, rather than be refused, Dan was brought into the same video conference window as my chat between Amy and me. This enabled me to see both chat participants, and this was true for Amy and Dan too.

There is one caveat, and that is that an Apple MacBook Pro computer is required to initiate multi-way video iChats. The participants of the conference need only to have an Apple computer capable of standard video iChat, such as the iBook computers that the pupils have at Stepping Stones.

We tried the same again in the classroom, this time including another potential iChat user.

So how can this technology be used at Stepping Stones?

There are several possibilities:

• we could engage outside professionals to work with our pupils, who are in a remote context, be it their workplace, home.
• we could afford to engage the very best professionals, wherever they are based in the world.
• the learning opportunities for pupils could be extended to beyond the school day, for example, communication between the pupils and members of staff either planned or adhoc.
• pupils who aren't able to physically attend Stepping Stones school might become remote learners, subscribed to the philosophy and perhaps curriculum that exists.

Please add your suggestions for how we could adopt this technology.

On the 19-20th of July 2006, the friends and students of Stepping Stones School, created animations using programs iStopmotion and I Can Animate to create 2 very original animations.

To view these animations, scroll down the page.

We hope you enjoy them, and it will be greatly appreciated if you leave comments.

	Shark: The Animation by Dan and Dom
	Park Rescue by Amie, Amy and Ellie