20 / NEWS & STAR
Monday December 23, 2019
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SCHOOL OF THE WEEK
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Monday December 23, 2019
Twitter: @newsandstar facebook.com/newsandstar
Letting imaginations run wild LEARNING: Children at Armathwaite School love planning time
By school pupils Armathwaite Community School EVERYONE at Armathwaite loves planning time! We think it is an activity exclusive to our school. In a nutshell, every child in school is able to plan their very own project. They set themselves a goal and then work towards achieving it. We all plan, do and review as we go along. Younger children do planning every day and the rest of us do planning every Friday afternoon. We spend time in the morning evaluating what we did last week. This helps us to decide what we need to do next and plan how we can use our time effectively. We think about the resources we will need and who we’ll be working with. Examples of projects that we’ve
Ancient ‘caveman’ paintings discovered
DISCOVERY: Ancient cave paintings were found at Armathwaite School
CREATIVITY: Every child in school is able to plan their very own project “Other people inspire me with what they do and I get ideas from them.” Timmy: “I particularly love that you can make whatever you like. “I like all of the resources you get to use such as drills, saws, glue guns
and wood.” Erin: “I love independent learning! I can do much more by myself and can let my ideas flow.” Planning makes our school very special and helps us to become really confident, creative,
independent learners. Our Learning Curriculum is very important and at the centre of everything we do at Armathwaite. This is because it is about the skills, attitudes and behaviours we are developing, the ‘how’ of
Children love learning through the great outdoors
EXPLORING: Winter wonderland woodland adventure
SCHOOL OF THE WEEK
CRAFT WORK: Pupils with some of their handmade work
completed recently, include a range from dog cushions to wooden forts, Rubik’s cube boxes to clothes. Some people write their own books and plays and have book launches or performances for the whole school community. Other people plan and organise afternoon teas to raise funds for charities of their choice. Projects can last from as little as two weeks to as long as two years. We asked some of our pupils for their views on planning: Freddie: ‘‘I like planning because you can decide what you want to make or do, then you can research and design it and then make it.’’ Sam: “Planning is a time to let our imaginations run wild. “My favourite-ever project was designing and making a bed for my cats Gizmo and Gadget.” Oliver H: “I like planning because we get to decide what we want to make and time to do it.
OUTDOOR learning is important to everyone. As well as outdoor lessons and forest school, we also like going on adventures as a whole school. Each year, the whole school gets to choose where we go on our summer adventure, and this year chose Rydal in the Lake District. Everyone hiked to the mysterious, dark caves and leapt across the stepping stones to find our way to the chamber within. We also climbed on boulders, paddled in the lake and enjoyed our picnic in the sunshine. Faye said: “Going on adventures with all our friends is amazing and something that we will all remember.” As well as being great
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fun, outdoor learning is also beneficial to how everyone feels. Erin added: “Sitting and watching the waves dance, made me feel so relaxed and happy.” Summer isn’t the only time these adventures happen; this term the children have been on a winter-wonderland, woodland adventure. The school spent the day in a forest doing lots of different, exciting activities including den-making, tree-climbing, using natural materials to complete challenges and having lunch around the campfire. Molly said: “I love being outside – it makes me happy!” Timmy added: “I love having dinner by the fire and playing in the woods.”
ANNUAL TRIP: Armathwaite School children chose Rydal this year
Pictures: Armathwaite School learning. If we help children learn how to learn we provide them with the opportunity to become powerful, confident, independent learners. These are skills we can use throughout life.
HAPPY: ‘We think it is an activity exclusive to our school to involve children’
ANCIENT cave paintings have been discovered in the new room at Armathwaite School. They are of stone-age animals from the Neolithic period, including bulls, woolly mammoths, sabre toothed tigers and people throwing spears. Headteacher Mrs Hepworth said: “It was quite astonishing. “When we arrived at school on Wednesday morning the new room was full of cave paintings.” Coincidentally, the year twos and threes are learning about Stone Age to Iron Age in history with Mrs Anderson. They have been researching Skara Brae, which is a Neolithic settlement in the Orkney Islands, and making information leaflets
about it. They are also really enjoying listening to the story Stig of the Dump. In the story Stig and Barney end up helping to build Stonehenge. Jamie, in year three, said: “In school we had loads of fun creating our own Stonehenge using biscuits. “We called it Biscuithenge.” Madeleine, in year two, said: “I love history. “It helps us find out about things that have happened in the past, and how people used to live. “Did you know that Stone Age people wore jewellery? They made it out of stones and rocks and bones. “Why don’t you research too?”
Proud to be a gold philosophy for children school ARMATHWAITE School has recently become a UNICEF Rights Respecting gold school. We have been learning about the Convention for the Rights of the Child. These rights are for all children everywhere and using them means that all children are listened to and their thoughts’ and ideas’ understood and noticed. It also means they can feel safe and respected. This year, everyone has learned the gold vocabulary for rights. There are five key words about these rights which are: universal, inherent, unconditional, inalienable and indivisible. Headteacher Mrs Hepworth said: “We are proud to be a
rights-respecting school. “We all learn about rights of children all around the world, and we share what we know with our families and community.” In May the children organised a community event based around the rights. They planned and gave presentations about the right to play, the right to be free from war, the right to choose your friends, to be protected from harm and the right for adults to do what is best for you. “It is very interesting to hear everyone’s different thoughts,” explained Miss Holmes. You can find out more about this at www. unicef.org. uk/rights-respectingschools/ Armathwaite is also a gold
Philosophy for Children school. We all learn philosophy from reception up to year six, and use the skills we develop in everything we do. Mrs Gill said: “Philosophy helps us to think for ourselves and to consider and develop respect for one another’s opinions.” We have also been awarded FairAchiever status as a school. Using Fairtrade and local produce is important to us and children have worked to raise awareness and money through their own projects in their independent planning time. This has included planning and hosting a number of successful events allowing the children to be active citizens.
PROUD: Recently became UNICEF Rights Respecting gold school