Emmaville Primary School

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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.

A Cover is Not the Book - Reading Enrichment Week
During this week, we all revelled in the joy of reading.  There were paired reading sessions, with different year groups getting together for a good story; Book Bingo challenges that encouraged us to read out of our usual comfort zones in order to tick off rows from a score sheet; '24-hour reading rivers' that showed all the reading material we had been reading in a day; and we also explored books without words, with a range of interesting and intriguing selection of picture books that actually generated many words.  There was also the matter of a class competition to re-create the song 'A Cover is Not the Book' from the Mary Poppins Returns movie.  
Congratulations to South America class who obviously had a lot of fun with their winning version.

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.

'STEMmaville' Week
 
This week was all about developing our skills within the world of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths: Curiosity, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, Communication and Collaboration.  Throughout the week the children took part in a number of different activities linked to STEM, including forest school problem-solving games, spaghetti tower challenges, coding with Micro:bits and an egg-drop challenge.  There were also a number of visitors to the school, who brought exciting experiences with them: a planetarium with Kielder Observatory; Sphero robots with Dr Steve Bunce from the RGS; Story of the Earth with Newcastle University; a Smart 1 and an AMG sports car and technicians with Mercedes Benz; and 3D printing with Thorp Academy.  
 
Not only did the children have a lot of fun, they also spent time investigating the many careers linked to STEM and had an online chat with scientists.  All in all, it was a brilliant and inspiring week.

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.