Added sparkle
At Riverside, we believe that learning should go further than just the National Curriculum. Yes, we have a statutory duty to teach the content prescribed by the government in 2014, but we also know that what makes school special, particularly at primary, is the added extras…the memorable trips and experiences…the cherries on the cake if you like, that send the children home buzzing ready to bend families ears off with how much they enjoyed their day!
With that in mind, when planning the content of our teaching, we challenged our teachers to come up with added ‘Sparkle’ to help enrich and deepen the children’s experiences in their learning. See below for some of the ideas they came up with (and if you want to know what’s coming up for your child, speak to their teacher or check out the termly planners here).
Roman Day!
A whole school experience, our children got a taste of life in Roman times! Encouraged to dress up and look the part, the morning started with a screening of Horrible Histories: the Rotten Romans at the Hebden Bridge Picture House, then they returned famished after all of that (PG rated) bloodshed to feast on a specially prepared Roman banquet by Cheryl for lunch.
In the afternoon, teachers laid on workshops creating mosaics, shields and learning how to move as a military unit.
WW2 Evacuee Experience!
To help our Year 6 children gain a true understanding of the experience of evacuee children, we ask them to pack a suitcase full of treasured belongings and clothes, and have our families bring them to Hebden Bridge railway station.
Here, their foster parents (okay, teachers dressed up!) collect them and bring them back to school to spend a night sleeping in the school on mats with sleeping bags. They’ll experience an air raid in the night, hear stories of bravery and courage, and perhaps enjoy a ration of hot chocolate or two.
University visit!
It might sound too young to be talking about university, but we’re keenly aware that our Year 6 children are approaching the middle point of their education. We feel it’s vitally important that they visit a university campus in order to consider why it is their secondary schooling is important in achieving that next step - if that’s what they eventually end up choosing to do - and going to uni!
Not all families have members who have gone to university, which can often stigmatise such choices. Therefore we feel it’s a privilege to expose our amazing learners to horizons they might not otherwise have considered.