A dose of Laughology for Year 10

“Lead Happiness Consultant” is a title most people have never heard of before. However, that is the role of Dave Keeling from Laughology, who came to deliver an inspiring – and very funny – talk to our Year 10 pupils on Friday 30^th September as part of their Learning Pathways programme.

Laughology is a training and consulting organisation focused on the psychology of humour, laughter and happiness. Dave’s talk – titled “The Amazing Brain” – was focused on giving the pupils an understanding of how their brains work and how to learn effectively. Dave spoke about how memory functions, the importance of sleep, and the role that emotions play in how and when we learn.

Dave then focused on the fact that learning is something that pupils will need to keep doing beyond their school years; we keep learning throughout our lives and beyond the focus of the classroom. Dave’s very amusing and quick-witted delivery meant that this message was delivered in a way that was engaging and memorable for the pupils involved.

This message dovetailed excellently with the Year 10 Learning Pathways programme, now in its second year. Learning Pathways aims to build pupils’ critical thinking skills, communication, teamwork and creativity – vital tools that they will need in the world beyond the classroom.

Over the course of Year 10, Learning Pathways pupils complete an online course, independently research a variety of sources in an area that interests them, deliver a talk to their class on their research, and produce a final “Showcase Piece” – a mini project that could be anything from an essay or a short story to a piece of music or a series of photographs.

As Dave highlighted in his talk, most jobs in the future will fall into two categories: “social context” (put simply, being good with people) and “creative application” (being creative). The variety of tasks and experiences that Learning Pathways exposes pupils to is a useful tool in helping to prepare pupils for these jobs and to help them thrive in the future.

Dave’s talk served as an excellent way to kick off the Learning Pathways programme and to get them thinking about the skills they will be developing over the course of the next year, and beyond that too. It was clear that the pupils enjoyed the humorous approach to the talk, and that they gained a clearer understanding of how their brain learns and what they can do to take care of it.

Thank you to Dave and Laughology, and to Mr Godman and Miss Dickson for organising.