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:

JUNIORS
Archery   Art and Artists Athletics Autumn Crafts Ballet Bath bombs, scrubs and balms Batik ‘Bear Grylls’ Survival Board Games Bushcraft Calligraphy 3D Canvas Art Catapults Chess Chocolate Workshop Christmas Craft: Cards and       Decorations Christmas Crafts and Sweets Coding Computer Gaming Construction Kits Cooking Cricket Cross-Stitch/Sewing Digital Song Composing Draw and Paint like the Great      Artists	Easter Crafts   Felt making Football Forest School Friendship Bracelets Frisbee! Gardening Glass Painting Goju Karate Gymnastics Hair Care and Styling Handball Hockey  ‘In a galaxy far, far away…’  (Space-themed Animation) Jewellery making ‘Jungle Book’ Fun It’s ‘Knot’ a Problem! Lego Challenges and designs Mask Making Make an Electronic Bug! Make a Pop Music Video Make your own Pop-up Books Messing about with Science! Mosaic Making Mrs Tiggywinkle Doll Making	Musicals: Beauty and the Beast   Musicals: The ‘Matilda’ Experience! Nail Art Nature Explorers / Detectives Netball Orienteering Origami Photography Pom Poms Pottery / Clay Recorders Rounders Rugby St John Ambulance First Aid course Sketching ‘Skillosaurus’ making Soft Toy making Street Dance Tennis Ukulele Wildlife Gardening Woodwork Yoga Zumba

 

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!”