Seventeen boys from Penistone Grammar School have been on an outward bound week. Nothing remarkable about that, anyone could be forgiven for saying, but the boys are involved in the Re-Engagement to Learning scheme. Their trip has changed how they see themselves and how others see them.

“None of them had ever done anything like it before,” says Colleen Brooks-Ashton, their learning mentor. “They learned so much about themselves, their self-esteem grew. But if we had not taken our digital cameras, and planned a presentation evening, no one back home would have known much about it. The week would have been quickly forgotten - but now we have something that people can see.”

Penistone is a Pennine town not far from Barnsley. Its grammar school is a large comprehensive on a wind-swept hill. The school is part of the South Yorkshire e-Learning Pilot Project and its business partner is Apple Computer.

Brooks-Ashton’s boys have had difficulty in adapting to school. Indeed, they would rather not be at school at all. The TES gained an insight into the spirit of some pupils (obviously other ones!) when a search for the school on google.com took them to “The Penistone Grammar School Community”, complete with pornographic line drawings and ribald comments.

The visit to the Outward Bound School, at Aberdovey, North Wales, was the third strand of the government-funded Re-Engagement to Learning scheme. The first two strands were work experience and taster sessions for vocational training at Barnsley College. The boys had to show up for the first two strands and show some enthusiasm, or the trip to Wales would have been a non-starter.

“They were reluctant to try things to begin with,” Brooks-Ashton explains. “For one activity they had to climb a ladder, get up a telegraph pole and then jump for a trapeze. Some managed it, but for some just climbing the ladder was an achievement. In fact, staying for the whole week and not being sent home was an achievement for some.”

Brooks-Ashton used a digital camera. Then one boy asked if he could try, then two or three wanted to join in. Back at school five boys volunteered to spend time editing four hours of film down to 20 minutes. The other boys prepared still pictures and spoken narratives. The film editors used iBooks and the iMovie editing package and the short time scale they were given kept them busy. They picked up the skills as they went along.

“They tried things. If they didn’t work they tried something else and without any stress,” explains Brooks-Ashton. “The boys decided the running order, chose the transitions, added some humour. I just helped tidying it. The only technical hitch was having to use two laptops because of their small memory.”

The week away and the buzz of getting everything ready for a presentation evening has changed manner and attitude to astonishing degrees. Brooks-Ashton has noticed that the boys are more respectful to adults. One boy’s school attendance pattern has changed from near zero to 80 per cent. Unfortunately he wasn’t there when I called. He was elsewhere, but it was school business.

Scott Hudson, 14, talks eloquently about the effect the experience had on him. “Teachers have said we’re a credit to the school,” he says. “It’s the first time anyone’s said that to me ever in my life. It’s brilliant having the film. We get to see everything that we did, again and again. I enjoyed the editing. It got a bit confusing when we were cutting the talking and adding music, but I simply turned the machine off and then we started again!”

Scott points out that going away to somewhere new and having a complete change made all the difference. Somewhere closer to home would not have been so successful.

The boys have been publicly praised by head Glynis Gower, whom they previously saw as only in charge of school discipline. The trip’s success has sent ripples of interest throughout the school.

“The school library was full for the presentation evening,” beams Brooks-Ashton. “Teachers were saying that there were parents they had never seen in the school before. And the parents talked to the teachers for the first time. Every boy who had been to Wales had at least one guest.”

Nick Blackburn, head of ICT at Penistone, had the boys’ film burned on to CD-Roms, using a Mac G4, and the boys were each given a CD. They were delighted. They have had a life-enhancing experience and their film is lasting proof.

The scheme

The South Yorkshire e-Learning Pilot Project has 24 schools and institutions linked to one of four business partners. The partners provide computer equipment and they finance the training of ICT trainers. At the end of the pilot period, one company will get a contract to serve more than 140 schools and training institutions.

Visit www.e-sy.info for more details

Positives

* The firewire link between camera and computer, with any system, can speed things up and make editing film just as easy as editing text

* A deadline will encourage speedy assimilation of new skills and self-discipline.

Lively disagreements are all part of the fun

* The lasting value of a CD copy cannot be over- emphasised. It is lasting proof of “what we did”

Negatives

* Editing requires a lot of computer memory

* Insisting on everyone joining in with filming or editing can be counter-productive. Rely on natural curiosity

* Not everyone can take part in editing. It isn’t an activity for 20 children each having 10 minutes. Five was the ideal number at Penistone

* Success needs to be built into the activity. Giving “difficult” youngsters something that’s clearly beyond them will lead to frustration