Teachers are available during this time to discuss strategies and monitor progress but pupils are expected to develop their solutions and reports with minimum intervention. Pupils work in pairs at their own schools. This takes place at one or other of the schools and lasts for one day. Pupils meet their new team mates and are given their problem for the term. Again, a face to face meeting.
Pairs combine their reports into a single, coherent document.
The above timings can easily be adapted to shorter terms, provided the activities chosen are flexible enough. We find the two face to face meetings to be very important. As you might expect, pupils are initially rather reticent but this quickly disappears after a tour of the school and lunch. We therefore allow for a period of about two hours to 'break the ice' before any mathematics is introduced. By the time pupils meet again to collate their report, they are quite comfortable working with their team mates.