Outdoor Learning
Outdoor learning is very important to us and we feel very lucky to have the space and excellent grounds to enable this to happen. Our Forest Schools Sites and outdoor space have been used extensively by all children in a wide range of subject areas to enhance the their learning experiences. We are currently redeveloping these, to enable them to be used for outdoor learning, for example, pond dipping, mini-beast hunts, studying habitats and environments.
We make excellent use of outside visitors to enrich the children’s learning. In the past few years, all children in the school have worked with professional actors, authors, artists, dancers and musicians and have worked on projects which have really enthused and inspired them. These experiences are very important to us and offer children wonderful experiences which stay with them for a very long time.
In order to enhance the curriculum, children take part in various educational visits, for example, visiting Cardingmill Valley to look at the geography of the area, or Cadburys World in Birmingham to learn about how chocolate is made.
Children also have the chance to attend visits to events run by other groups or agencies, such as Crucial Crew, run by the local police force, Open Door at Shrewsbury Abbey, run by the church and Open the Book. We also invite visitors into school to run workshops linked to Stone Age man, World War II experience and Scrapies recycled art project.
Children in Years 5 and 6 have the chance to attend a residential trip annually. The trip to The Pioneer Centre is of a more ‘outdoor activity’ nature, with children having the chance to take part in activities such as caving, abseiling rock climbing, etc. . Every other year, we also visit Fairbourne where the focus is more on the geography of the area and a comparison is carried out.
We take our children to join in various activities with other schools, to give them chance to experience working with new children in new contexts, for example, many children have taken part in singing festivals with other local schools and have taken part in writing projects with local schools recently. Our children take part in out of school sports activities against other local schools, including swimming galas, tag rugby, cross country and rounders as part of the School Games.