At Leeming & Londonderry we believe that for children to fully understand the world in which they live and have the ability to explore and discover their talents and interests that they need to be provided with broad and rich experiences.
Residential Experiences
Every year to allow the development of cultural capital, all Year 6 children have the opportunity visit London. Here, they are immersed in the culture and history of our capital city. They visit Wembley Stadium, The Natural History Museum, The Tower of London, have a cruise down the River Themes, experience a West End show, visit Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and they also enjoy a visit to the Warner Brothers’ Studios. This provides an opportunity to experience the hustle and bustle of London which is a huge contrast to rural villages in which our children live.
2
Our Year 5 children enjoy a residential visit to Peat Rigg where they get to challenge themselves with a range of outdoor, adventurous activities including abseiling from a bridge, beck scrambling and attempting to reach the top of Jacob’s Ladder
In Year 4, children enjoy a night of camping at The Year 4 Campout. For many of our children, this is their first stay away from family. Here, they experience a range of different teamwork challenges including an obstacle course, a climbing wall, erecting their own tent and cooking on the campfire. This event is run by two of our Synergy School TA’s who are highly trained Forest School leaders. The event happens locally, in familiar surroundings with staff the children know. It’s a great first residential experience!
Educational Visits and Experiences
To enable children to fully understand a topic, we know that first hand experiences are the best way to learn. We try to provide children with carefully planned school trips and experiences through visitors in to school wherever possible. For example, when KS1 were learning about Castles, Kings and Queens as part of their history topic, the learning was enhanced through a visit to Bolton Castle. KS2 were learning about Modern War. This knowledge was enhanced through an “Evacuee Experience Day” in school where the children dressed as evacuees, we had a visit from an air raid warden and the children moved around a range of teachers who taught the children key knowledge facts. The children then had a visit to Eden Camp to further enhance and “bring to life” their learning. In our Context Plan, opportunities for educational visits and experiences have been thoughtfully planned to enhance learning and cultural capital.
As part of our RE curriculum, we ensure that experiences, trips and visitors to school are planned in to enable children to understand a range of cultures and religions. For example, KS1 recently visited the synagogue in Harrogate and we also have a link with a school in China were children share videos and letters with their parallel class.
School Sport
For many children, sport is a chance for them to shine and really excel. It’s also an opportunity for children to work as a team, build a healthy lifestyle and have some fun! In addition to the PE curriculum, children take part in a variety of intra and inter- school competitions.
In the summer term, there is a traditional school sports day including the famous dress-up race and the egg and spoon race – the whole school community takes part and it’s a day of fun. We also take part in The Synergy Schools Sports Day which is held at Catterick Athletics Stadium. The children compete against other children from Synergy Schools in a range of track and field events – this gives all children an opportunity to take part but also provides others the opportunity to excel!
We are also part of the Bedale Cluster where children get the opportunity to compete in a range of sports against other schools in our area. Recently some of our children have made it through to The North Yorkshire Finals for cross country and we are also through to the 2nd round of the football tournament.
All children, from EYFS to Year 6, go swimming for a full term every academic year. We think that swimming is a life skill and the consequence of regular swimming lessons means that all children leave our school being able to swim at least 25m.
Wider opportunities
Pupils are offered a broad range of opportunities to develop their talents and interests both within lessons and during extra-curricular activities or clubs. These include opportunities to:
- Learn to play a musical instrument. All children learn to play the Ocarina/ brass/woodwind instrument.
- Sing as part of a choir/perform on stage every year
- Take part in dance from a variety of cultures as part of PE
- Develop their sporting talents and take part in Games competitions
- Residentials - from camping out to jam packed trip to London
Our extra-curricular activities and clubs have a strong take up and we particularly encourage pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds to take part in these.