How we embed the Capture System©

When we work in an educational setting or school we deliver a training day for staff/educational practitioners and a workshop for parents and carers, the aim of these sessions is to get all the adults involved with the project and to train them in the Capture System©. Parent and carer sessions are for the adults only when possible.

We then run three workshops to embed the system in the educational setting or school with the children.

We then work with educational practitioners/staff for a further two sessions to develop their own creative workshops and we support them whilst they test out their ideas with the children.

We look carefully at the role of the adult, how adults interact with children and how what they say and do effects children's' learning

Workshop One
Exploring Materials

2d and 3d materials

We use a selection of 2d and 3d materials. We discuss the properties of the materials first, for example

  • What materials do we have?
  • What can you tell me about this object?
  • What could it be?
  • What could we do with it?
  • What we like about it and why?

Each child is given a piece of paper with the the same materials on it. We allow the children to freely explore the materials in whatever way they want. We start with 2D materials and then repeat the exercise with 3D materials.

Workshop Two
Themed activity

We use a theme that is purely imaginative, make a monster, alien, fairy etc, then there is no right or wrong about the theme!

It is helpful to catergerise materials for chidren so that they are better able to make their choices. During this session we introduce the materials supermarket.



Make a monster


Before the activity we:

  • Discuss what we know about the theme
  • Discuss what we could use the materials for
  • Discuss ideas about what we coud do

Workshop Three
Box worlds

Using a card board box we ask the children to create a world inside it using any materials from the shop, we use a very effective technique called Provocation, or as we call it odd one out . We often give the children 3 animals, two from the jungle and one predator ie a shark from the sea. The shark is the provoaction as it does not belong with the other animals. We ask the children to create a world in the box that all the animals can live in together, so for example what would a shark need if it was living in the jungle?

In doing this you create an exciting environment for divergent and lateral thinking as the object or 'odd one out' means that thinking has to be creative.

Sessions four and five
Practitioner / teacher lead activities


Fixing and attaching workshop

We work closely with staff and practitioners to support them to develop their own ideas for creative thinking sessions with the children; they test two ideas out with the children. The sessions can be based around topics in the national curriculum or activities and themes taking place in the school or setting. These workshops really help to build creative confidence in the teachers/practitioners.