Thanks Ruth, in terms of the Community Project, the work we have done so far has been: helping pupils to consider all of the circles of community they are part of; raising their awareness about problems people in those communities might face; and helping them understand ways in which they might help. They have also been asked to make pledges for action and these will hopefully be followed up through our tutorial program (similar to your form time, I suspect) as the year progresses. As these Year 8s are those who I need to plan ahead for next year, I feel I need to take them away from the comfort zone of school into the wider world – and this is the bit that worries me the most! It will be good to bounce ideas off each other as we move forward.
The ‘Personal Project’ we run at the moment is one that pre-dates the school’s involvement with the MYP, and is one I helped to set up many (many) years ago and have been developing ever since. This is our Year 9 Individual Project, which has its very own thread in the forum, and which may continue to run in very much the same format as now, or may end up being adapted to fit the requirements of the MYP Personal Project should we end up going down that route. We will have to wait and see.