Gem Awards Launched
The new school year heralds the official launch of the new Gem Awards scheme in GoldStarCafe. The Gem Awards are informal online “courses” covering important curriculum and life skills. They offer sets of challenges which students can follow in their own order, whenever and however they wish, at school and at home.

The Gem Awards were trailed over the past year with over 3000 students across the UK and proved to be very popular with both students and teachers.

The students’ motivation is very high. It takes about eight hours work to win each award, but that’s not the only investment students make. To complete the awards they need to create dedicated Gems home pages, which they “buy” with Cafe Credits and they earn their Credits by contributing to the community - by helping other members, writing articles for online magazines or making useful forum entries.

Paige a twelve year old student from Northern Ireland has created a World Music home page about Irish harpist Aine Minogue, to win her Topaz Gem. The Topaz One World Gem is dedicated to world issues like Tackling Poverty, Fairtrade and Carbon Footprints.
Paige's World Music page
Paige's World Music page
Paige had to research her musician and write about her biography, her instruments and her genre of music. You can see Paige has earned her Topaz (yellow) Gem along with four others by the display of colourful badges at the top of her home page.

The Gem Awards cover Citizenship, Global Issues, PSHE, Internet Safety, Literacy and Learning Skills. You’ll find full details of the learning outcomes and curriculum links in the GoldStarCafe Teachers Area. Here’s a short summary:
  • Life Style - Emerald Gem: Resisting Pressures, Health, Leisure, Managing Money, Getting Help, Career Choices
  • Citizenship - Sapphire Gem: Media in Society, Environment, Democracy, Human Rights, Cultural Issues, Conflict Resolution
  • One World - Topaz Gem: Tackling Poverty, World Music, Carbon Footprint, Fairtrade, Campaigning
  • Contributor - Zircon Gem: GolsStarCafe Skills, Helping Others, Behaviour, Active Community Participation, Community Management
  • Learning Skills Amethyst Gem: Independent Enquirer, Creative Thinker, Reflective Learner, Team Worker, Effective participator
  • Editing - Ruby Gem: Writing, Design, Photography, Research
A new ESafety - Diamond Gem is currently being designed in association with CEOP.

In GoldStarCafe the students can learn what, when and how they want, but that doesn’t mean their learning is intangible or un-trackable. The new Gems Awards stimulate and celebrate students’ informal learning - and they love it!
“GSC is fantastic! I really like doing gems, check out my sapphire environment page!” - SeanG

“I love the gems best on GSC. When I first joined in March, I found them really hard but now they are fun!” - RebeccaD

“Hey!! I know this sounds really strange, but I really want my sunflower to grow faster because I'm doing for Ruby 4! Sign my charter to help me with my gems - it's all about how much we love GSC! Thanks.” - MariE
So do the teachers:
“I am nearing the end of the Gems, I have really enjoyed the challenge.” - Gail Frost
GoldStarCafe is the safe social learning network provided by Intuitive Media for students 11-16 and their teachers, across the UK and around the world.