Spring 2025

It has been a busy few months at Brick Club and its great to have seen you all

through snow, rain and sun!

The excitement of the New Year continued with additional kits into the building options. Taking on board the suggestions and feedback from the builders there was a keen demand for Minecraft, Technics as well as LEGO ‘Friends’.

These sets have been able to provide a lot of joy as well as challenge the most capable builders with how they exchange instructions and understand each other to get the end result.

Transferring Skills

Brick Club has helped the confidence and different skills amongst our builders! Meta-skills are being highlighted more in schools, addressing the balance of learning alongside life-skills.

Reproduced with the kind permission of Integrated Learning Strategies (ILS)

Through the team work needed in Brick Club, different combinations of these skills are being revisited and practiced at every session. Gaining confidence here helps when transfering these skills into different aspects of school and daily life too!

Siblings in Sync

Its always interesting to see the interaction between siblings at Brick Club. Working in the same team helps them to realise their individual strengths and ability to succeed in various ways. Using specific roles in the team shifts the mindset of their regular relationship. This creates the opportunity to realise each other for their strengths and talents, working together and adds a new level of understanding to their natural dynamic. This is especially noticeable in how they can ask and respond to each other. Its handy to know how your sibling can be useful for you! When they are not working in the same team, they are able to continue developing that sense of understanding which strengthens their communication and empathy building skills.

Piecing it Together

An important skill to practice is keeping a positive outlook when something doesn’t go to plan! A few weeks ago, I took a piece from each of the sets that the builders were in the process of finishing to see how their problem solving skills had developed.

Much like in everyday life situations, there were feelings of frustration, confusion, possible doubt in the accuracy of a team mate. Over the course of the session I could hear “double check its not there?” and a couple of builders scanning the floor. One builder from a group was heard suggesting “we could use one from the loose box, that bit isn’t going to be seen so it, the colour doesn’t matter”.

While there was a sense of confusion and concern - this was being met with realistic and thought out solutions. In their teams, they were collaborating, proposing ideas and agreeing on solutions and fixes together which highlights how resilient, responsible and resourceful they have become!

Say What You See!

Brick Club continues to be a hive of inventive minds deciding on weird and wonderful names for pieces! As well as these creative tricks to get on the same page as each other, taking an extra moment to be clear in what you mean or need from another person goes a long way! Supporting and encouraging nicknames strengthens the chance to feel connected through humour as well as feeling safe in using verbal and non-verbal expressions. It is in this way that children can create rapport and build trust.

"We’ve called this one a washing machine!" - Leo

"It is like a triangular shape but 3D - like a pyramid" - Fraser

"There's more than one blue Alex, so do you mean the Sonic blue or the lighter one?" - Zeus and Alex

Unlocking imagination with LEGO Stellar Storytellers!

Free building at Brick Club is more than a lot of fun, it also opens up imagination and conversation about individual builds. Its a natural way to practise and use social language and behaviours such as asking for bricks, opinions or advice.

Being the expert of your own creation also helps boost confidence when sharing and discussing with others and ‘presenting’ it to the rest of the room. There is always a lot of excitement to put a model on the Creation Station!

Continuing to visit Brick Club with Emma on a regular basis creates familiarity and security with the team which helps children understand that they are amongst friends and safe.

Over the past few months, many models have been completed, many names and expressions have been invented and lots of deeply concentrating faces have been pulled! Enjoy this season’s gallery!