Emmaville Primary School

Enrichment Weeks

As part of our Creative Curriculum, we spend a week every term, linking all our lessons and activities to a specific area of the curriculum around an unusual or exciting topic. This enables the children to benefit from deep learning, and to develop their understanding, knowledge and enjoyment of the world around them. The range of themes has been varied and has represented the full curriculum. Take a look at the videos for a flavour of what we do.

Business and Enterprise Week

In Business and Enterprise week, we explored the world of work and business, not only learning about what it takes to do lots of different jobs and careers in the adult world, but also practising some of the skills needed to work effectively with others. We found out about the lives and work of NASA pioneers and forensic scientists, and there were a variety of visitors to the classes, from the likes of a patisserie chef, a plumber and the local community police team (complete with police car), to workshops provided by As Creatives and Primary Enterprise World. Children designed and made all sorts of products, including baked treats, bridges to support the weight of a dragon, Lego products and bead bracelets that had to be sold to the highest bidder. There were even Dragons’ Den-style competitions, with wonderfully creative business ideas, professional pitches and great teamwork.

STEM Week

During this week, we experienced a range of activities from the realms of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. The whole school faced a series of different challenges based on well-known fairly tales, and in doing so developing not only their practical and problem-solving skills, but also strengthened their 'growth mindset'. Being able to persevere and learn from our mistakes goes hand in hand with STEM, which allows the children to innovate, collaborate and grow in confidence. The children were challenged to build boats for the Gingerbread Man, catapults for Red Riding Hood's picnic basket and build bridges for the Billy Goats Gruff, amongst others. They also experienced a range of programming and coding activities, from BeeBots and Busy Bundle in Key Stage 1 to Micro:bits and Sonic Pi in Key Stage 2.

Let's Get Physical!

During this week, everyone worked on their determination and resilience, furthering their 'growth mindset'. The aims of the week included enjoyment of physical exercise, increasing awareness of the importance of a balanced diet and discovery of new sports - this was certainly achieved and we all finished the week fitter, happier and ready for a good night's sleep! There were a range of activities and workshops to challenge us, including Zumba dance in the courtyard with Miss Rochester, Cooking 4 Life sessions with Nick the chef, Super Skipping with 'Mr Skippy', Taekwondo with Anthony and John, Speed Stacking, Irish Dancing and superhero-themed writing workshops with Adam Bushnell.

The History of the North East

Once again, our friend and inspiration - author, raconteur and owner of funny voices - Adam Bushnell came to Emmaville for three days of workshops with the children. His theme this time was chronology (or The History of the North East), ranging from the Stone Age Celts, right through to the modern day. Each class had a different time period to explore, and through the power of story, they learnt about how people and cultures from the past have shaped the North East of today. Adam's visit culminated in an assembly in which children shared the fantastic writing that had been generated as a result of his interaction with the classes. As always, the children loved working with Adam, and the teachers were left with more fantastic ideas.

Arts Enrichment Week

Beginning with performances from the wonderful Lempen Puppet Theatre, Arts Week was all about the animals, themed around the music of The carnival of the Animals, by Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns. Each year group focused on one of the animals featured in the music and the children were challenged to use a range of artistic techniques and skills, including collage, painting, sculpture, printing and puppetry to produce their artwork. Inspiration was drawn from artists around the world, but we also studied the sculptor Antony Gormley who has often created vast art installations that reflect the diversity of people on our planet; some of us created self-sculptures based on his 'Field' exhibition of thousands of terracotta figures, which celebrated the fact that, although we are all pupils at Emmaville Primary School, we each bring our differences which are to be celebrated.

Money Matters

This week was all about the money, as we learnt all about the history and significance of money, how to manage it and what good we can do with it. The week culminated in a whole-school fundraising event, in which each class paired up with another from a different key stage to learn about and raise money for some charities. These were:

RSPCA
CLIC Sargent
Gateshead Foodbank
St Oswald’s Hospice
Fairtrade
NSPCC

The children worked in mixed age pairs to set up and run their stalls, collect the money and ensure everything ran smoothly. We were completely overwhelmed by the children’s initiative and creativity, coming up with the ideas for fundraising, as well as their awareness of the needs of others and drive to ensure that they raised as much money as possible for them. We raised over £2000 for the charities.

Road to Rio

This week had an Olympic feel about it, with zumba workouts (choreographed and lead by our own dance specialist, Emily Rochester), hula-hooping fitness and fun with Hoopstarz, fast-paced Aceball sessions with two Olympic volleyball athletes (Nathan French and Peter Bakare), cricket coaching with former pupil Matthew Willis, mile runs, lots of outdoor activities, flag-making and, of course, the Emmaville School Sports Day. Determination, Honesty, Respect, Passion, Teamwork and Effort? We had it all...

Is it Fair?

We celebrated our differences this week, learning about cultural, religious and physical diversity. Through activities, discussions, games and external visitors like Barnabus in Schools, the children developed their understanding of respect, freedom and equality. They explored religions and cultures from around the world, considered the importance standing up to discrimination, whether it be on the grounds of race, religion, ability or gender, and learnt that they are all important individuals who have the right to be valued and treated with respect. Education certainly is the key.