WIDER OPPORTUNITIES AND TRIPS
‘The bits I most remember about my school days are those that took place outside the classroom.’ – Alan Bennett
At Kew Woods Primary School we are always striving to provide a rounded curriculum full of memorable experiences for all of our children. As part of this, our teachers spend a huge amount of time planning how to bring the curriculum alive by organising visitors, workshops and trips that not only support academic learning but also that allow opportunities to develop key values, virtues and personal qualities. Over the year, we provide many opportunities for our children to participate in outdoor learning by using our school grounds, our local area or planning trips. We are always looking at different destinations to allow our children to experience a range of different activities.
We also now have an immersive room onsite so we can visit different countries such as the rainforest in Brazil or special places such as a mosque in Mecca.
Where do we go and what do we do?
Below is a summary of the different trips, visitors and workshops that each year group takes part in. These are always subject to change depending upon new discoveries or recommendations that we may receive.
Nursery – Local school ground walks and visits – Our nursery children experience visiting our very own apple orchard during our autumn term to harvest and bake using our own grown apples and pears. We then take our fruit back to the nursery where we bake crumble to have for snack. During our spring term our nursery children will visit our whole school environments including our library, immersive room and hall to participate with whole school assemblies, find books to loan and take back to nursery to read and learn about different topics using our immersive technology. In our summer term, we begin to use our large school grounds to take part in sports events such as race for life, sports day and our daily mile running track.
Reception – Autumn & Summer term – Local Post Office – During our autumn term we read the story ‘Stickman’. As Stickman was desperate to get home he wishes and wished, finally being given this opportunity by Father Christmas who took him back to his family tree. Our children begin to look at their wishes and during this time we write a special letter to Father Christmas listing what we would like. We then walk to our local post office to experience purchasing a stamp and posting a letter. Our local postmaster/mistress shares his/her role in how this is then put into sacks and taken to the sorting office.
During our summer term – Holidays and Journeys we extend our knowledge we have previously learnt, when posting our letter to Father Christmas, by exploring what journey our post card will have. We look at the journey from the post box, to the sorting office, and then through to going out for delivery. We try to get a local post person to come and share this journey with us or alternatively explore this through our interactive white boards.
Summer term – Pets at Home school visitor – During our summer term we look at how we can look after animals. We invite our local Pets at Home Education link teacher in to share how to care for our pets.
Summer term – RSPCA school visit – We use our local links to the RSCA to explore how we can help animals in our wildlife and our pets. Experienced workers have come in to school to share this knowledge with our children and provide them with information and leaflets about this charity.
Y1 – Knowsley Safari Park – the children get the opportunity to enhance their science topic of animals and humans when visiting the Safari Park.
Y2 – Martin Mere – the children visit Martin Mere and further embed and revisit their science understanding of habitats and plants.
Y2 – Christ the King – Y2 visited a local high school and took part in lots of different sporting activities and games led by the GCSE pupils.
KS1 – Theatre Trip – KS1 go to a local theatre ‘The Atkinson’ to watch, The Tiger Who Came to Tea. This trip is an introduction to theatres and supports our driver ‘performing arts’.
KS1 – Poet Visit – we invited a poet Matt Goodfellow into school to work with KS1 on creating interesting and funny poems. All classes attended a workshop with the author.
KS1 – Mental Health – ‘Sophie’s Circus play and workshops’ help children in Key Stage 1 to consider their mental health and wellbeing in a creative and age appropriate way. The play offers practical solutions to dealing with negative feelings, how to manage fear and anxiety, build resilience and confidence and navigate change.
Y3 – Stone Age Day (History) – this fantastic workshop compliments the Year 3 teaching of The Stone Age and their English work on ‘Stig of the Dump’ by Clive King brilliantly. The children (and adults) have a wonderful day dressed up in their Stone Age costumes and they take part in activities such as hunting, scavenging and learn to use spears and bows and arrows.
Y3 – Romans / Vikings / Anglo Saxons Workshop (History) – as part of their history work the children have a fantastic day visiting the museum in Chester getting dressed up and learning all about Roman Britain. They often learn about how these civilisations lived, about the food that they hunted, cooked and ate and about weapons and warfare.
Y3 – Cobble Hey Farm Trip – this is an exciting opportunity to visit a working farm. During the day children will look at the parts of a plant and what they need to survive. Whilst there children will also pet animals and discuss their habitat. The children will learn about baby animals as there are always new arrivals to see. They will take a guided tour of the farm and surrounding landscape.
Y3 – Heritage project – had an exciting opportunity to work with students from Edge Hill on a project at Hesketh Bank. They attended Edge Hill University for the day, where they took part in forest school, nature experience and an afternoon of art. The art will then be framed and put up as a permanent exhibition in the Heritage centre when it opens.
Y3 – Sign language – Year 3 take part in a ten week programme coordinated by Deaf Active to promote acceptance and understanding of people with hearing loss. They learn how people can communicate differently and learn a range of vocabulary sets from sports to foods to transport, colours, feelings and many more. They also learn to sign a number of songs. The programme culminates in a performance which they share with parents and family at school to show off their new skills.
Y4 – Liverpool – to enhance their local history study, Y4 went to visit the Liverpool museum and Maritime museum, looking at how local events and people have helped shape Liverpool.
Y4 – Martin Mere – the children visit Martin Mere and further embed and revisit their science and geography understanding of the water cycle.
Y5 – Theatre visit – Year 5 have a visit to the Liverpool Empire to watch a theatre production in preparation for the visit to the West End.
Y5- London – School fully funds a two-day residential for pupils to visit their pen pals in their school in Wokingham and then go to a musical production in the West End as well as have a trip on the London Eye and see the main sights of London.
Y5 – Keeping Safe Online – Altru Drama production and workshop focusing on online safety.
Y5 – Equality Workshop – Equality Officer in the local area educates and explores language and protected characteristics with Year 5 pupils as an additional workshop.
Y5 – Crucial Crew Trip – Crucial Crew is an interactive way of delivering health and well-being messages to Year 5 children in preparation for their migration to secondary school. The event encourages model behaviour and good citizenship through active participation in a range of health and safety activities. Professionals from the combined Emergency Services and local agencies will be on hand to instruct children on matters that will teach community values and could save lives
Y5 – Martin Mere – the children visit Martin Mere and are introduced to how animals adapt to their environment ahead of their environment, moving on from all living things and preparing children to progress on the evolution and inheritance in Y6
Y6 – Chef on the Farm Trip (Science & DT) – The children have a guided tour of a working farm and get to meet and handle some of the animals.. They also have an exciting opportunity to cook with chef James Holden and make their lunch. They cook using fresh ingredients from local farms to gain an appreciation of how food is reared and grown. This links with science and DT for healthy food and healthy diet. They are taught basic cookery skills, including an awareness of health and safety. It also helps the children to see that food production takes place alongside care for the farmed environment. It also enables children to work with a variety of professionals to inspire and foster aspirations.
Y6 – Keeping Safe Online – Local Police Officers teach the children about how to keep themselves online and make them aware of the dangers of the internet.
Y6 – Anti-Bully Workshop – Altru Drama production and workshop focusing on bullying and mental health.
Y6 – Gangs workshop – Pupils participate in 5 workshops educating them on how to keep themselves safe outside in the community and how to make the right choices and the consequences of making the wrong choices when looking at ‘gangs’ in the community.
Y6 – Eyes Wide Open production – Altru Drama presents a performance called ‘Eyes Wide Open’ to Year 6 pupils making them aware of the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse. Year 6 pupils participate in a workshop after
Y6 – Robinwood – children build on cooperating with others and teamwork skills to complete a variety of challenges and problems. They have the opportunity to adapt their skills and understanding as they move from familiar to unfamiliar situations. They also listen and communicate clearly and accurately in groups.
KS2 – Author Visit – KS2 children had an author and illustrator visiter in school, Jenn Carney, where they took part in a draw along with her. She shared her books and how she gets ideas for her story writing. She then visited classes and signed books.
KS2 – Quidditch – KS2 children had the day learning how to play quidditch. A physical and highly active sport, which is growing in popularity with young people everywhere.
KS2 – Stanley High – Children in Key Stage 2 visit Stanley High school as part of our link programme. They get to experience activities and lessons in a high school environment, to further enhance our primary provision. They see more specialised subject and teaching areas and often work in the drama studio, design technology rooms, science labs and work with a range of other artefacts for example in History or RE. So far this year year 4 and 6 have visited.
We encourage our children to take part in extracurricular activities throughout the school year. This helps the children to make the most of their time with us and encourages them to develop many different skills. We currently have a range of extra-curricular activities running in school. We have tried to offer a variety of activities across Key Stages One and Two to meet the needs of all children. The clubs take place during and after school.
As well as the clubs we have a very busy timetable of sporting events spread across the year which will involve different year groups.
The extra-curricular clubs we offer over the year are
Reception – Busy Things, Funky Fingers.
Year 1 – Reading Bugs, Multiskills, Fun phonics, Football.
Year 2 – Construction Club, Football, Multiskills, History Club
Year 3 -Hockey, Netball, Film Club, Performing Arts, Yoga Club, Lunch time club, Art Club, Benchall, Drawing club, Gymnastics, Empathy Lab book talk,
Year 4 -Hockey, Netball, Football, Film Club, Performing Arts, Yoga Club, Benchball, Gymnastics, Handball, Chess club,
Year 5 – Tag Rugby, Netball, Basketball, Football, Performing Arts, Volleyball, Film Club, Art Club, Games club.
Year 6 – Tag Rugby, Netball, Basketball, Football, Book Talk, Performing Arts, Volleyball, Film Club, Art club, Maths club.
