Today you are reflecting. Strand 2.1 is finished: community, volunteering, enterprise, design thinking and the collaborative task are behind you, and ALT 3 is banked. Before Strand 2.2 opens the workplace door, you will pull the strand into one clear synthesis and name what you are curious about and what makes you uneasy. A synthesis is not a list of lessons. It is what you now know that you did not know at the start of Strand 2.1.

The Strand Synthesis you write today is a Digital Portfolio reflection artefact (not a new ALT). Store it in your Strand 2.1 folder. You can draw on it later for Portfolio in Action and for workplace preparation evidence.

Before you write anything about the strand, stake a position on five claims about how community and collaborative skills meet a real workplace. Mark each one true or false on what you honestly think right now. You will use the same honesty later when you name curiosity and anxiety in your forward look.

After the class has committed, talk through one or two statements where people split. Do not treat this as a quiz. The point is to surface assumptions before Strand 2.2 tests them.

Read Niamh's Strand 2.1 synthesis. Label each marked phrase as one of: a real conclusion, a bare restatement, a transferable skill with evidence, or a forward look into Strand 2.2. When the class is ready, reveal the model and notice where you differed.

Use what you notice to plan your own page in the next step: conclusions with a named moment, skills with evidence, and a specific curiosity plus a specific anxiety for Strand 2.2.

Create or open Strand 2-1_Synthesis in your Strand 2.1 Digital Portfolio folder (plain text or document is fine). Date it at the top. Write one tight page with three parts:

1. Conclusions: what you now know about community, enterprise and collaborative problem-solving that you did not know at the start of Strand 2.1 (use a named moment, not a task list).
2. Two transferable skills: each skill named and evidenced from this strand (collaborative task, enterprise work, design thinking, or volunteering).
3. Forward look: one short paragraph naming what you are most curious about and most anxious about heading into workplace engagement in Strand 2.2. Be specific.

This is a portfolio reflection artefact, not a new ALT. You can draw on it later for Portfolio in Action and when you prepare for placement. Copy any labels or lines from Niamh's model that helped you shape your own piece. Work quietly; the next step will stress-test your forward-look lines against a first-morning placement scenario.

Read Oisín's short first-morning scenario. He has finished the same strand you have and is three hours into day one of a placement. Work the prompts with the person beside you: which of his Strand 2.1 skills is already in play, which is stuck, and what he should do before he leaves today.

Then open Strand 2-1_Synthesis again. Use the talk to stress-test your forward-look paragraph. If your curiosity or anxiety is still generic, tighten one line so it is as concrete as Oisín's morning.