Our school is committed to providing enriching experiences for our students. Here are some of the examples of experiences we have provided for our children recently.

Cambridge University Visit

Our Year 5 POW ambassadors visited Cambridge University for a day trip. We visited King’s college and experienced life on campus. We also met Carole Haswell, a British astrophysicist and Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge. She showed us around the astrophysics department and we even were able to view some of telescopes on site. The staff onsite were blown away by the children’s eagerness and amazing questions.

Nissan

We have close links to the Nissan plant in Sunderland. Over the last few years, we have entered competitions to create our own locomotives and competed with other schools across the city. We also take part in the VEX initiative and currently our year 1 are using the coding technology to support with their learning in computing. Finally, our Year 6 children have visited Nissan’s SAMSII workshops to learn more about sustainability and how we are working to become more eco-friendly.

Engineering

As engineering is a significant career in our area, we ensure that our children are introduced to a range of different engineering experiences, through clubs, zoom calls and in school workshops. Our KS2 pupils have recently worked with the Locomotive Museum to complete and enter a Meccano engineering competition and our KS1 pupils are currently creating their own vehicles in Engineering club.

Careers in EYFS

Our Reception children were visited by the fire brigade in school. They taught the children what they do as part of their job as a fire fighter and allowed the children to explore their fire engine.  Here are some photos of the children enjoying their visit. 

University Visits

We are supported by local universities, they come into school to support teaching and enhance the children’s understanding of topics e.g. Newcastle University Dental team can into school to support with Year 4 science, and the history department visited to share more about the Stone Age with our Year 3 pupils.

We also use links with Sunderland University to promote aspirations for our children in school. In March, they visited year 5 to discuss University and give then a University guide. In Year 3/4 , they provided a workshop around developing skills and how we can utilise these in our future lives.

Our Year 5 children also took part in an engineering careers day at Sunderland University. On this day the children were able to experience lectures with University tutors, learn more about different careers in engineering and complete their own engineering challenge. 

Dance

We noticed that some of our pupils have a flair for dancing and therefore provided the opportunity for dance lessons in school with a dance instructor. After their 10 week course the children were entered to complete their NCDTA Dance exams. Our KS1 pupils completed Pre-primary modern and our KS2 pupil completed Primary modern. I am happy to announce that all of these children passed their exams before Christmas! Well done!

Cultural Diversity

Our children are taught about different cultures and the religions and faiths of others. We are also taught to respect others that have a different view point to our own.

We visit the local church at Christmas and at Easter to celebrate Christian celebrations. We also invite visitors from different faiths to come into school and talk about their own religion and their festivals. Here are some photos from our recent visit to the church and from Year 5s visit with Zaf who taught them more about Islam.

Heritage

Our curriculum has been purposely designed to teach the children about the heritage of their community and how that is evolving. Here are some photos from our visit to the Stadium of Light (the location of the old Monkwearmouth Colliery). The children completed a heritage trail around the stadium and completed workshops to find out more about the mining history of the area.

Sports Coaching

We regularly have visitors into school to deliver sporting workshops with our children. Recently, we have had a street dance workshop with other schools in our trust and golf lessons.

First Aid Training

Our Year 6 pupils were visited by the British Red Cross and completed their own First Aid course. Our school councillors across the academy have also been trained in basic first aid. 

Now Press Play

As a school we use Now Press Play to bring learning to life for the children. This could mean that the children use drama and expression to understand more about concepts such as what life was like in the Stone Age. It also helps the children to image visiting further afield locations such as rainforests or the site of a volcano. We also use the headsets to support children with mindfulness and their own mental wellbeing.

Rights Respecting Schools

We are a Rights Respecting School. Every fortnight we read and discuss an article as part of our assembly rota. Here are Year 6 sharing their understanding of the rights of the child with the rest of the school.

British Parliament week

We took part in British parliament week. The children learnt more about what parliament is and why we have it. We then looked further into the petitions that parliament receives and designed our own posters to support some of the issues that we agreed with that had been raised.

The children also learn about democracy and the process of voting in September when we elect our pupil school leaders. Our candidates learn about canvasing and developing their campaign before the whole school votes for their Head Boy and Head girl. A similar process is used in classes to elect school councillors and other leads in school such as the Rights Respecting Warriors. 

Careers Week

During Careers week this year, each phases took on different challenges to learn more about prospective careers and to inspire the children to investigate different job opportunities around them. 

EYFS read What will I be? and A superhero like you. The children talked about their future and what they want to be when they grow up. Children also shared pictures of family members and talked about their careers. 

In Key Stage One, children investigated the different careers that are involved in the publication of a book. In Lower KS2, children have been taking part in a ductu project where we learn more about the British Red Cross, roles within the charity and how we can be responsible in our community. In Upper Key Stage 2 children investigated the local labour market and researched careers in our area. 

Nissan Eco Workshop

Children in Year 6 were able to visit the Nissan plant and take part in a Eco workshop. The children had an amazing day completing different experiments and working on challenges that were set by the engineers.  

Nissan has also visited Year 3 in school to teach them more about Nissan and Japan. We have been left a project box to complete tasks from over the upcoming weeks. Watch this space!