W+K creatives Jason and Joris mentored students at School of Communication Arts last week and they lived to tell the tale. Here it is, in Jason's own words:

Last week, Joris and I did some good.

We took advantage of a cancelled de-brief to venture (gasp) south of the river to meet, greet and mentor the students at the School of Communications Arts.

Located in a church in Brixton, the school has gone from strength to strength since it re-opened in 2010 and is now supported by over 500 industry mentors. To put that number into context, it’s more than three Wieden + Kennedy Londons or half the amount of tourists that mistake the agency for a shop each day.

[not a shop]

After walking and eventually crawling up what must be one of the world’s biggest staircases, we emerged into a huge open studio full of students. Like locals in a northern pub when a southerner comes in asking for directions, they all looked over at the same time. We could smell the unmistakable scent of fear. We could hear the knocking of anxious knees. We couldn’t help it. We were terrified.

After steadying our nerves* and meeting Marc Lewis, Dean of the school, we were shown 3 briefs that the students had chosen from. Then we were on our own. Working the room one team at a time, we listened and prompted, probed and pushed wherever we could. Surprisingly for students only 8 weeks into their course the thoughts were fairly developed and strategically sound. Some had big ideas with huge striding campaignable legs. Others opted for simple print executions. A few came up with app ideas. All were impressive.

Interestingly, most of the students had agencies in mind and tailored their response to the briefs accordingly. I gave myself an internal fist bump whenever W+K was mentioned, which turned out to be quite a lot.

[dedication: Joris answering emails whilst the students present]

Then came the most enjoyable part of the afternoon – the presentations. They presented like they’d been doing it for years, marching to and fro, cracking jokes and picking the briefs apart. One young guy made me laugh so much when he read his TV script that I cried. Sadly, I’m not sure Ofcom would share our sense of humor.

[Presentations: No fear here]

At the end of the session everyone was told to go away and write a sentence about something they learnt that week, so here’s mine:

If you’ve got a spare hour or two in your day, going to teach the generation that will eventually put you out of a job is a lot more fun than it sounds.

*With coffee, not booze. That would have been irresponsible.

To follow more of their adventures in education, feel free to stalk @jason_scott on Twitter.