Aston Rowant Church of England Primary School
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Home PageEnrichment Weeks 2021/22
We regularly hold special Enrichment Weeks in different topics to bring the school together in a shared learning experience. During the week we will have external visitors who are specialists in their fields to stimulate an even deeper understanding of the topic for all the children across all the year groups.
Here is a taster of what we have been up to this year, with more information at the bottom of the page:
Reading Enrichment Week (February 2022):
What a wonderful day we had on Wednesday when we celebrated World Book Day! The children looked amazing in their costumes. It was great to hear why they had chosen their characters and many children said they were inspired to try new books after seeing their friends’ costumes. We were really impressed with the children’s creative wooden spoon book characters! Thank you for all you help and support with these and with the costumes. The children have been given book vouchers which they can exchange for a special book in any bookshop or can put towards buying a book of their choice.
After spending a little time in their classes, the children then moved into their house teams. Thank you to the House Captains who helped to collect the younger children and take them to the right teachers. Each member of staff had planned an exciting activity for the children based around a book of their choice. You can read about each activity below. The children really enjoyed working in their house teams and much learning took place, not just about the books, but also about co-operation and encouraging others.
Mrs Harriman: We used ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’, by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers, as our starting point. The children enjoyed listening to this amusing tale, told through a series of letters to Duncan written by each crayon. Some crayons are happy with their lot, but most were complaining about being under or over used! Inspired by the text, the children worked in mixed pairs or groups. They then had to work together to write their own letter from the point of view of a crayon. I was amazed at how the letters maintained each crayon’s voice all the way through and how creative and amusing they were. We shared the children’s letters at the end of each session, and I have made them into a book.
Mrs Hall and Mrs Olsen: In our session we read "Matisse's magical trail" by Tim Hopgood and Sam Boughton. Matisse is a young snail who loves to create beautiful drawings with his trail. The trouble is most of the time people are far too busy to even notice them. It's only when a child notices Matisse's beautiful trails that his art is finally celebrated - and they inspire a whole class of children to get creative too! We decided to get creative by painting a trail of beautiful pebbles. We designed several ideas first and then used acrylics to paint our final designs onto the stones. Look out for these amazing creations around our school!
Mrs McCleary: We read 'The Dot' by Peter Reynolds. Vashti thinks she can’t draw. But her teacher is sure that she can: 'Just make a mark and see where it takes you'. She knows that there’s creative spirit in everyone, and encourages Vashti to sign the angry dot she makes in frustration on a piece of paper... This act makes Vashti look at herself a little differently and helps her discover that where there’s a dot there’s a way… Inspired by the message in the story, the children created their own dots by experimenting with a variety of media. It delightful to hear the children really take the message of the story to heart and freely explore, saying things like 'I just went with it'.
Mr Manning: We read the wonderful ‘Beegu’, by Alexis Deacon. Beegu is not supposed to be on Earth. She is lost. She is a friendly little creature, but the Earth people don’t seem very welcoming at all. However, so far, she has only met the BIG ones. The little ones are a different matter… After reading this story, the children played word-sorting games and found out that even if there are more sad words, the happier words are more powerful. Then they got creative and told what happened next in a micro comic book format. It was an absolute joy to spend my first World Book Day with the children at Aston Rowant!
At the end of the day, the children told us how much they had enjoyed and what they had learned:
Chloe: I liked working with my sister to write the letter.
Rose: My favourite session was with Mr Manning because we wrote the next book.
Alex: I liked working with Edmund and Ezra.
Flynn: I liked describing my own comic book.
Lily: I liked creating my own letter with my sister.
Max: I liked working with the younger children.
Millie: I liked painting the stones with Mrs Hall.
Rory: I liked the watercolour painting.
Thank you to everyone in our school family who helped to make this one of the most memorable days of the year so far.
English Enrichment Week (November 2021):
What an amazing week we’ve had! The children have been immersing themselves in poetry this week. The highlight of our week was when James Carter and Kate Wakeling, two very well-respected poets, came into our school on Tuesday, as part of the ‘Pop Up Festival’. James led two assemblies with both of the key stages and then ran fantastic workshops with Fox Class and then with Squirrel and Hedgehog classes. He really inspired the Hedgehog and Squirrel children to write and perform our own ‘Crazy Creatures’ poem. In Fox class, the children worked with James to write kennings. Owl Class were inspired by Kate who was also really amusing. All of the classes have gone on to write their own poems in a similar style. Please see our wonderful photos below. James Carter was so impressed with our school. Here is what he wrote afterward to Mrs Harriman:
“A huge thank you to you all for all being so brilliantly responsive and creative today and for making me feel so very welcome! What a really lovely school you are! Please send me happy poems as and when – I look forward to reading them!
Very best wishes – James”
Maths Enrichment Week (November 2021):
Our theme for Maths Enrichment this week has been ‘Maths is all around us’. Part of our vision when teaching Maths at Aston Rowant is that children realise that Maths really is all around us, and most importantly, that they recognise the role it plays in so many jobs and everyday activities. Each day, across the school, we have looked at maths in a different way.
On Monday, each class looked at a different story book with links to Maths. KS2 also took part in an online ‘Magic Maths’ workshop. Tuesday saw us explore how artist use maths within their artwork. Later in the week we all then looked at the careers of some famous faces and how they use need to be able to use maths for their job. We also took part in a Maths Roadshow where each class had the opportunity to carry out a range of problem-solving activities. Miss Williams then concluded the week by investigating Maths through Forest Friday.
Science Enrichment Week (March 2022):
What a week it has been! Children throughout the school have loved all the hands on opportunities for Science and exploration around the British Science Week theme of ‘Growth’. The buzz for Science around the school among teachers and pupils has been really special to see.
We would like to express a huge thank you to Dr David Jones for coming to talk to all of our children on Monday morning and launching our Science week. The children were wowed by the travels and experiences his fascinating job as a research scientist for the Natural History Museum in London has allowed. He brought in some astonishing things for the children to look at (I’m sure lots of you have heard about the elephant bird egg!) and we lost count of how many weird and wonderful questions the children asked which he was more than happy to answer.
A huge thank you also to Mrs Atkins and Mrs Funnel for leading a fascinating session with our KS2 children around exploring plant and animal cells with microscopes. Thank you also to Mr and Mrs Simpson for organising the loan of the microscopes through Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School. Warmest thanks to these parents for generously giving up their time and sharing their knowledge and resources to help us to raise the Science capital of our children, and allow them to see ‘real life’ scientists in our very own school community.
RE Enrichment Week (April 2022):
We have enjoyed holding our RE Enrichment Week this week and hope that you enjoyed looking at some of the RE work that we produced as a result. Each element was linked to the programme of study that the children have been doing in their RE lessons throughout the term.
Hedgehog - Palm Sunday
Linked to this term’s topic of Location, Location, Location Hedgehogs journey to Jerusalem waving psalms and welcoming Jesus
Squirrel - Good Friday
This term’s RE unit was ‘How Should the Church Celebrate Easter?’
Children in Squirrel class made crosses and reflected on why Christians celebrate Jesus dying on the cross
Fox - Maundy Thursday
This term’s RE unit has been ‘Does Easter Make Sense without the Passover?’
The children made bread and held their own last supper, they even washed their feet
Owl - Easter Sunday
This term’s RE unit ‘Is the Resurrection Important to Christians?’
Year 5 and 6 recreated the Garden of Gethsemane and Golgotha and looked at the impact of Jesus’ resurrection
ICT Enrichment Week (February 2022):
This week has been our ICT Enrichment Week, and on Tuesday we joined in with the UK, Safer Internet Day. Each year this day explores a new issue or theme which is impacting the lives of young people in the UK. In 2022 the day celebrates young people’s role in creating a safer internet and the ways they are shaping the interactive entertainment spaces they are a part of. The platforms young people use are spaces for connection, community and collaboration, which is why we have focused on fostering supportive relationships and respectful communities, whilst equipping them with the skills they need to keep themselves and others safe in these spaces.
We have given the children the guidance that they need to learn to make their own smart choices online and in life. We looked at how they can use tech to have a positive impact in the lives of others. The concept of #beKind online is about how children can use technology to be a positive influence in their community. In particular we have been teaching daily activities from Common Sense Education to help the children after this week and in the future to:
Reflect on how they find media balance.
Make responsible decisions.
Treat themselves and others with kindness.
Our children are the next generation of digital citizens, and they are exploring the digital world at a time when online safety and positive digital habits are more important than ever. But the learning never stops, and neither do our digital lives, and so we will continue to focus on this throughout the year.
Anti Bullying Week (November 2021):
The theme Anti-bullying Week this year has been 'One Kind Word'. Kindness is more important today than it has ever been. The isolation of the last year has underlined how little acts of consideration can break down barriers and brighten the lives of the people around us. Linked to this we looked at the NSPCC and Childline campaigns: Nobody is Normal (about being different); and Tough to Talk (boys' mental health).
Nobody is Normal campaign headed by the NSPCC Lots of things can make you feel different, you might:
look different to the people around you, or be deaf or disabled
struggle with your mental health
worry about how people will react to your sexuality or gender identity
have experienced something difficult
feel self-conscious about the way you look
be scared to share what’s happening at home.
Or lots of other things.
Whatever’s making you feel different, it doesn’t mean you have to cope alone.
Children's Mental Health Enrichment Week (February 2022):
As a school we aim to create a healthy environment where it is understood that everyone needs to look after their mental health and wellbeing in the same way that we look after our physical health. As part of this we have been marking the National Children’s Mental Health Week this week.
The theme of the week has been ‘Growing Together’ which is also the school motto! We have explored how we grow emotionally and have looked at finding ways to help each other grow. We know that challenges and setbacks can help us to grow and adapt and trying new things can help us to move beyond our comfort zone into a new realm of possibility and potential. However, emotional growth is often a gradual process that happens over time, and sometimes we might feel a bit ‘stuck’. This week we have been encouraging children to consider how they have already grown and to consider how they can help others to grow in the future.
