The children get excited about our Learning College programmes!
Learning College is a chance for the children to make choices in their learning and try new challenges. In both schools, at least twice a year, a series of afternoons is set aside to provide the children with an exciting variety of learning opportunities.
The process always starts with the children being asked to come up with ideas for what they want to learn – they can put down whatever they want. Staff then look at the children’s ideas and create a menu of courses on offer. Courses are run not only by teachers but by support staff, sports coaches and local sports clubs, outside specialists and providers, including parents and members of our community. The children then select their top four choices – our promise to them is that they will get one of these choices. The children are encouraged to try something new, not something they have had lots of experience with already. As we offer so many courses for each Learning College programme, we can keep numbers in each course small – smaller than a normal class size – usually around 15, sometimes fewer. Attempts are made to have a good balance of ages in each course so children have opportunities to work alongside children from different classes and year groups.
Here is the variety of opportunities the children have been offered over the last 3 years:
Art and Artists
Bath bombs, scrubs and balms
‘Bear Grylls’ Survival
3D Canvas Art
Christmas Craft: Cards and Decorations
Christmas Crafts and Sweets
Digital Song Composing
Draw and Paint like the Great Artists
Hair Care and Styling
‘In a galaxy far, far away…’ (Space-themed Animation)
‘Jungle Book’ Fun
It’s ‘Knot’ a Problem!
Lego Challenges and designs
Make an Electronic Bug!
Make a Pop Music Video
Make your own Pop-up Books
Messing about with Science!
Mrs Tiggywinkle Doll Making
|Musicals: Beauty and the Beast
Musicals: The ‘Matilda’ Experience!
Nature Explorers / Detectives
Pottery / Clay
St John Ambulance First Aid course
Soft Toy making
Arty and Crafty
Comic Book Art
How to draw a…
Inventions and Gadgets
‘Mini Beast Madness’ Film-Making
‘Multi skills’ sport
Under the Sea
Feedback from children is overwhelmingly positive – there is always a buzz when Learning College is coming!
“It lets us have a choice of what we do at school.”
“You come home with a smile on your face!”
“You get to do things you haven’t done before.”
“You learn lots of new skills.”
“It gives us a chance to learn something we wouldn’t learn in other lessons.”
“I have learned how singing can be FUN!”
“I learned about owls and now I really like owls!”
“Looking at owl pellets was really interesting.”
“Learning College gives you experiences that you might want to do when you’re older.”
“We have fun with our learning.”
“It helps make you fit.”
“In Y3 Learning College, I tried Street Dance for the first time. It got me interested and now I do it a lot.”
“I want to do more Forest Schools!”